Wikipedia:Successful requests for permission/The Vepachedu Educational Foundation

The president and CEO of the Vepachedu Educational Foundation is named Sreenivasarao Vepachedu, PhD, JD, LLM. I (user:Quadell) e-mailed him, asking for permission to use text from the foundation on Wikipedia. He authorized us to use all text under the GFDL.

My request
Dear Sreenivasarao Vepachedu, chairman of the Vepachedu Educational Foundation,

I wanted to let you know that I am very impressed with the depth of information found in Mana Sanskriti and the many webpages included there. I came across it while doing research for the free online encyclopedia "Wikipedia", and thought that much of this information would be a valuable inclusion in our living and growing document. Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) is an encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is to create a comprehensive knowledge base that is not only available at no charge, but is also freely distributed. It is one of many projects of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.

I am seeking your permission to use some of the text in Mana Sanskriti. I'd like to include your materials in articles such as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qutb_Shahi_dynasty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervez_Musharraf And others. (To get a sense of the freedom of Wikipedia, you yourself can edit any of these pages without registration, if you like.)

We can only use your material if you are willing to grant permission for it to be used under terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. This means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to use, copy, and share your materials freely -- and even potentially use them commercially -- so long as they do not try to claim the copyright themselves, or try to prevent others from using or copying them freely. You can read this license in full at: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GFDL (To keep things simple, we do not use Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts, or Back-Cover Texts.)

Note that your contributions may not remain intact as submitted; this license, as well as the collaborative nature of our project, also entitles others to edit, alter, and update them at will, i.e., to keep up with new information, or suit the text to a different purpose. However, the license also expressly protects authors "from being considered responsible for modifications made by others" while ensuring that those authors get credit for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

We choose the GNU FDL license because it is the best available tool for ensuring that our encyclopedia is and can remain free for all to use, and for providing credit to everyone who donates text and images. It may or may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on your website -- that's for you to choose. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your original materials will *not* be used at Wikipedia -- we have a very strict policy against copyright violations.

If you do agree to grant permission for use, we will credit you for your work in the resulting article's references section by stating it was based on your work and is used with your permission, and by providing a link back to your website.

You are obviously an expert in your field, and we invite your active collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject and any others that might be attractive to you. If you are interested, please see: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome%2C_newcomers for more information!

Thank you for your time.

Sreenivasarao Vepachedu's response
Thanks for your request. The purpose of my foundation is to impart education to the world free. Our goals are same. Please feel free to use the materials by acknowledging and referring to the original articles.

Best Regards,

Sreenivasarao Vepachedu