Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Instructions

This page contains instructions for administrators and clerks addressing requests at Contributor copyright investigations. Clerks and administrators are responsible for evaluating new requests at WP:CCI and either opening a case, or declining it. Any uninvolved administrator may evaluate and process a request. Other members of the community may be designated clerks by consensus at the CCI talk page.

For general instructions on filing a case, see How should a case be filed? on the main CCI page.

Clerks
Any uninvolved administrator is allowed to evaluate and process a request. Non-admins who are in good standing within the community, are experienced with Wikipedia's copyright policies and who have no history of copyright problems of their own may become CCI Clerks. Users interested in becoming clerks should notify the project at the talk page of CCI or the talk page of CP for consensus. A history of addressing copyright problems on Wikipedia in forums such as as Copypatrol, WP:CP, and WP:CCI is good evidence of experience. Clerks who persistently make problematic comments on requests or otherwise violate decorum may be asked to cease contributing here. This position is rather dull and carries no particular prestige.

Clerks are asked to put this page and its talk page on their Watchlist in order to be kept informed of procedural changes.

Evaluating requests
A request should identify both the contributor of concern and the filing party. It should also contain sufficient evidence, including diffs, to verify a history of problems. Unless blocked for copyright violations already, the contributor should have been notified of the request. If the case is improperly filed, clerks and administrators addressing requests should assist with housekeeping tasks as needed.

The CCI clerk need not wait for a response from the contributor of concern, or any other form of editor consensus, before evaluating if concerns are substantial. Non-admin clerks may request admin review of deleted contributions where necessary if this is present in the evidence, but a deletion log citing copyright concerns is verifiable evidence. If an evaluation of evidence supports copyright concerns, the clerk or admin addressing the request should, through a cursory check of the other contributions, determine if the problem goes past the evidence presented, warranting wider review. One contribution clearly exhibiting evidence of a copyright violation (two or more for less obvious violations), from among the contributions identified by the contribution survey tool, beyond the contributions cited in the original CCI request, constitutes a problem warranting opening a full CCI investigation. If problems can be easily addressed without a full investigation, they should be, to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.

Once the clerk or admin has reviewed the request, they will take one of three actions:
 * Dismiss the case if inconclusive (and take (or request) appropriate action if the case was filed frivolously)
 * Close the case if no significant evidence of further wide scale problems are found
 * Open the investigation

In the first two situations, the closing clerk or admin should succinctly explain the resolution on the request, which should be manually archived to Contributor copyright investigations/Archive. Short requests accepted for processing on the main CCI page (as opposed to full investigations processed on a dedicated page) should also be archived at Contributor copyright investigations/Archive when completed.

Opening full investigations
To launch a new investigation page, you may paste the username into the USERNAME slot below for a preloaded page. Note that if the username corresponds to a real-life personal name, you should substitute a different identifier, preferably the date in YYYMMDD form (e.g., 20151120).

If not using the preloaded version above, a full investigation is opened in a new investigation page, Contributor copyright investigations/USERNAME. At the head of each investigation page should be placed the following:

Notice and instructions will be automatically included. Substituting the subpage header allows them to be easily altered to accommodate special circumstances. It will not always be appropriate to delete all major contributions without evaluation.

Below this, the content of the original request should be copied over, and the request should be removed from that section on the main CCI page.

These should be followed by a brief description of the background (may not be necessary if the original request's evidence covers everything) and the contents of the contribution surveyor (see below). If the clerk or admin addressing the request wishes assistance with the contribution surveyor program, it can be requested at Wikipedia talk:CCI. For image copyright violators, add a copy of the user's upload log both here and on Commons. Don't forget to search Commons for transferred images.

If the contents overwhelm a single page, additional numbered subpages may be opened, with links to the primary investigation page. Each subpage should be headed with.

Next, place at the bottom of Template:CCIlist.

If opening a full investigation, the clerk or administrator addressing the request may, at their discretion, place a brief notice at the administrators' noticeboard and consider whether the pattern of contributions suggests that it would be appropriate to also notify a relevant Wikiproject.

Contribution surveyor
The contribution surveyor is a tool authored by Dcoetzee that lists all of the edits by a user, organized so they can be easily investigated and evaluated. It might be accessible via this link. Toggle boxes can be marked to eliminate reversions and minor edits from the final results. Additionally, a date range can be specified to limit the output of the report (month/day/year). End date is not inclusive; set the date one day later than the report should run. The surveyor works on a maximum of 10,000 non-minor mainspace edits.

The image contribution surveyor is a rudimentary tool authored by MER-C that lists all images by a user on English Wikipedia and Commons. It can be accessed via this link. In cases where the tool does not work, please ask MER-C for assistance.

Closing full investigations
Clerks or admins opening investigation pages are requested to keep an eye on them to ensure that they are handled in good time, to seek additional assistance if they are not, and to close them when they are complete. Completed investigations are archived at Contributor copyright investigations/Archive.