User talk:Mfpatton

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Life Raft Debate
Hello ,

It seems to me that an article you worked on, Life Raft Debate, may be copied from http://www.citizensformontevallo.com/liferaft/. It's entirely possible that I made a mistake, but I wanted to let you know because Wikipedia is strict about copying from other sites.

It's important that you edit the article and rewrite it in your own words, unless you're absolutely certain nothing in it is copied. If you're not sure how to fix the problem or have any questions, there are people at the help desk who are happy to assist you.

Thank you for helping build a free encyclopedia! CorenSearchBot (talk) 16:56, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Copyright problems with James Wylie Shepherd Observatory
Hello. Concerning your contribution, James Wylie Shepherd Observatory, please note that Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images obtained from other web sites or printed material, without the permission of the author(s). This article or image appears to be a direct copy from http://www.shepherdobservatory.org. As a copyright violation, James Wylie Shepherd Observatory appears to qualify for deletion under the speedy deletion criteria. James Wylie Shepherd Observatory has been tagged for deletion, and may have been deleted by the time you see this message. If you believe that the article or image is not a copyright violation, or if you have permission from the copyright holder to release the content freely under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License (CC-BY-SA) then you should do one of the following:


 * If you have permission from the author, leave a message explaining the details at Talk:James Wylie Shepherd Observatory and send an email with the message to . See Requesting copyright permission for instructions.
 * If a note on the original website states that it is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license, leave a note at Talk:James Wylie Shepherd Observatory with a link to where we can find that note.
 * If you hold the copyright to the material: send an e-mail from an address associated with the original publication to or a postal message to the Wikimedia Foundation permitting re-use under the CC-BY-SA and GFDL, and note that you have done so on Talk:James Wylie Shepherd Observatory.

However, for textual content, you may simply consider rewriting the content in your own words. While contributions are appreciated, Wikipedia must require all contributors to understand and comply with its copyright policy. Wikipedia takes copyright concerns very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. Thank you. Unfortunately, I don't think the university is very notable yet. If it was notable, other people would be talking about it -- newspapers, and local TV stations, etc., would be mentioning it. Local non-university astronomy groups would have something to say about it. I've looked around with Google, but I don't really see any non-university affiliated sites that talk about the observatory, so I don't think the page can be recreated. I think it would be best, until more sources are found that talk about the university, to just put a section about the observatory on the university's main page. Banaticus (talk) 08:19, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Verification needed
Hello, Dr. Patton. I'm afraid that as Wikipedia has no means of verifying your identity when you create your account and as content in the United States is automatically copyrighted by U.S. law unless there is a specific legal release or content is ineligible, we must follow one of the processes above if we are to publish content from on our website. This is a site-wide policy that applies to everyone. It ensures that we and our reusers are compliant with the law.

As you indicate that you are the creator and the owner of the JWSO webpage, the simplest method would be for you to put a message on http://www.shepherdobservatory.org/ either licensing the material with the statement recommended in the message Banaticus left you on January 24th. If you publish that message on that page, you are then free to incorporate material from it into the University of Montevallo article. If for some reason you don't want to put the message on the page, you can mail a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation. The form can be found at Declaration of consent for all enquiries. All you'd need to do is, using your university account, copy that form into an email and send it to the address there, making sure that you provide the url of the article and the url of the page you want to license.

I'm sorry for the red tape, but these practices are in place to protect copyright holders as much as they are us. If you need assistance in following any of these processes, please let me know. I'll be happy to help you with it. You can reach me by following the word "talk" after my username. Thank you. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:52, 5 February 2012 (UTC)


 * The content has been restored to the article where it was last displayed, which is actually as part of the larger article at University of Montevallo. Just to be sure you are aware, Wikipedia's articles are open to editing by everyone, and content may be modified by others. It's one of the realities of working on a collaborative website. :) I have also put a note at Talk:James Wylie Shepherd Observatory so that other editors know that there are no copyright issues why the Observatory cannot be given its own article. However, it's not uncommon for such entities to be described within the larger context of the University to which they are attached until the content gets too long for the University page. Thank you very much for taking the time to license the content and for donating information to Wikipedia. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 11:58, 7 February 2012 (UTC)