User:Oceanflynn/Selected resources on copyright issues

Selected resources related to Wikipedia's copyright guidelines


 * This provides up-to-date information on Wikipedia:Copyrights issues.

""All creative works are copyrighted, by international agreement, unless either they fall into the public domain or their copyright is explicitly disclaimed. Generally, Wikipedia must have permission to use copyrighted works. There are some circumstances under which copyrighted works may be legally utilized without permission; see Non-free content for specific details on when and how to utilize such material. However, it is our goal to be able to freely redistribute as much of Wikipedia's material as possible, so original images and sound files licensed under CC BY-SA and GFDL (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts) or in the public domain are greatly preferred to copyrighted media files used under fair use or otherwise.""

- Wikipedia:Copyrights issues

""Note that copyright law governs the creative expression of ideas, not the ideas or information themselves. Therefore, it is legal to read an encyclopedia article or other work, reformulate the concepts in your own words, and submit it to Wikipedia, so long as you do not follow the source too closely. (See our Copyright FAQ for more on how much reformulation may be necessary as well as the distinction between summary and abridgment.) However, it would still be unethical (but not illegal) to do so without citing the original as a reference (see the plagiarism guideline).""

- Wikipedia:Copyrights issues

This is a useful article on Licensing_policy and a useful essay on essay based on the the March 23, 2007 Wikimedia Foundation Licensing policy resolution regarding the use of non-free content in Wikipedia articles.


 * "Non-free content—including all copyrighted content—can only be used in specific cases, and must be employed judiciously. Its usage must be considered fair use under U.S. copyright law, and comply with the non-free content criteria policy."
 * Do not include the full text of lengthy primary sources: Quotes of any original texts being discussed should be relevant to the discussion (or illustrative of style), and should be kept to an appropriate length."
 * "Respect the rules of non-free content and only use non-free content as a last resort."
 * "Articles and other Wikipedia pages may, in accordance with the guideline, use brief verbatim textual excerpts from copyrighted media, properly attributed or cited to its original source or author (as described by the citation guideline), and specifically indicated as direct quotations via quotation marks, blockquote, Quote, or a similar method. Other non-free content ...may be used on the English Wikipedia only where all 10 of the following criteria are met."
 * "No free equivalent. Non-free content is used only where no free equivalent is available, or could be created, that would serve the same encyclopedic purpose."
 * "Respect for commercial opportunities. Non-free content is not used in a manner that is likely to replace the original market role of the original copyrighted material."
 * Minimal usage:
 * "Minimal number of items. Multiple items of non-free content are not used if one item can convey equivalent significant information."
 * "Minimal extent of use. An entire work is not used if a portion will suffice. Low- rather than high-resolution/fidelity/bit rate is used (especially where the original could be used for deliberate copyright infringement). This rule also applies to the copy in the File: namespace."
 * "Previous publication. Non-free content must be a work which has been published or publicly displayed outside Wikipedia by (or with permission from) the copyright holder, or a derivative of such a work created by a Wikipedia editor."
 * "Content. Non-free content meets general Wikipedia content standards and is encyclopedic."
 * "One-article minimum. Non-free content is used in at least one article."
 * "Contextual significance. Non-free content is used only if its presence would significantly increase readers' understanding of the article topic, and its omission would be detrimental to that understanding."