Wikipedia:Copyright problems/Header

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WP:CP redirects here. For the Community Portal, see Wikipedia:Community Portal.

ATTENTION: For blatant copyright infringements:

If there is a clean revision in the page history, revert to it.
If not, request speedy deletion with {{db-copyvio|url=http://www.WhereItCameFrom.tld/}}
If you are not sure who originally authored the material, list it here instead for investigation.

The request for copyright assistance page co-ordinates the various issues and requests related to copyright queries about content on Wikipedia.

Preinclusion Help

Can I use... | Could we get... | Can I donate...

Postinclusion Problem Solving
Missing copyright information | Violation check | Suspected copyright violations

General Copyright Advice and Discussion
General help/discussion | Policy discussion | Copyright holder assistance | Asking permission | History pages

Shortcut: WP:CP WP:CV

This page is part of a series about Copyright on Wikipedia. v • d • e
Policy and information Wikipedia copyright information Reusing Wikipedia content Public domain · Fair use GFDL license text Copyright information index Processes Copyright assistance overview Copyright violations Copyright problems General help Copyright examinations Requesting permission from 3rd parties Example request letters Items with copy-issues Images missing information Suspected copyright violations

This page is for listing and discussing possible copyright problems on Wikipedia, including pages and images which are suspected to be infringements. To request copyright examination before including questionable content on an article, see Wikipedia:Requested copyright examinations. Remember to avoid copyright paranoia.

Copyright owners: If you believe Wikipedia is infringing your copyright, you may request immediate removal of the copyright violation. Alternatively, you may contact Wikipedia's designated agent under the terms of the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act.

Copyright owners who submitted their own work to Wikipedia: If you submitted work to Wikipedia which you had previously published (especially online), and your submission was marked as a potential infringement of copyright, stating that you are the copyright holder of the work on the article's talk page helps, but will not likely prevent deletion. It is sufficient to either:

Make a note permitting reuse under the GFDL at the site of the original publication; or
Send an email from an address associated with the original publication to permissions-en at wikimedia dot org or a postal message to the Wikimedia Foundation.

What's copyrighted? Copyright exists automatically upon creation in a tangible form. An author does not need to apply for or even claim copyright for a copyright to exist. Only an explicit statement that the material is in the public domain, licensed with the GFDL, or is otherwise compatible with the GFDL, makes material reusable under current policy, unless it is inherently in the public domain due to age or source.

What about fair use? Under fair use guideline, brief selections of copyrighted text may be used, but only with full attribution and only when the purpose is to comment on or criticize the text quoted.

If you see an article somewhere else which was copied from Wikipedia without attribution, visit the GFDL compliance page or meta:Non-compliant site coordination.

Purge server cache if recent edits are not visible.

1 Instructions
2 See also

[edit] Instructions

Material whose presence on Wikipedia infringes copyright (ie. the material is not Public Domain, licensed under the GFDL or specifically licensed to Wikipedia on suitable terms) should, as a general rule, be removed.

Blatant copyright infringements may be speedily deleted if:

Material was copied from another website which does not have a license compatible with Wikipedia;
There is no non-infringing content in the page history worth saving.
The infringement was introduced at once by a single person rather than created organically on wiki and then copied by another website such as one of the many Wikipedia mirrors.
Uploader does not assert permission (for images: no assertion aside from tags) or fair use, or the assertion is questionable

After notifying the uploading editor, add

{{db-copyvio|url=url of source}}

An administrator will examine the article and decide whether to delete it or not. You should not blank the page in this instance.

Article?	Image?
Revert the page to a non-copyrighted version if you can The infringing text will remain in the page history for archival reasons unless the copyright holder asks the Wikimedia Foundation to remove it. However, *if all* revisions have copyright problems: Blank the page and replace the text with {{copyvio \| url=insert URL here}} Go to today's section** and add * {{subst:article-cv \| PageName}} from [insert URL here] ~~~~ to the bottom of the list. Put the page's name in place of "PageName". If you do not have a URL, enter a description of the source. Add the text following Maintenance use only at the bottom of the now-blanked article to the talk page of the contributor of the copyrighted material. You're done!	Add the following to the image description page: *{{imagevio \| url=insert URL here}}~~~~* Go to today's section and add: * {{subst:image-cv \| Image:ImageName}} from [insert URL here] ~~~~ to the bottom of the list. Put the image's name in place of "ImageName". If you do not have a URL, enter a description of the source. Add the following to the image uploader's talk page: *{{subst:idw-cp \| Image:ImageName}}* You're done!

Pages should stay listed for a minimum of 7 days before a decision is made. All pages tagged with {{copyvio}} are placed in Category:Possible copyright violations.

[edit] Alternatives to deletion

In addition to nominating potential copyright infringements for deletion, you may:

Rewrite the article, excluding copyrighted text. This is done on a temporary page at Talk:PAGENAME/Temp so that the original, copyright-infringing version can be deleted by an administrator and the rewrite copied over. If the original turns out to be non-infringing, these two can be merged.
Write to the owner and Ask for permission. Check whether they gave or will give permission (or maybe they in fact posted it here!). Also see Wikipedia:Example requests for permission, Wikipedia:Confirmation of permission.

[edit] Instructions for special cases

Pokémon images: The discussion on Pokémon images has been moved to Template talk:Pokeimage.

Category:Unfree images: These may be listed, if they indeed are not available under a free license or a reasonable fair use rationale. Note that some of these may not actually be unfree images, but rather images which are released under multiple licenses.

Category:Images with missing copyright information: These should be replaced and many should be listed for deletion. Those that are currently orphaned can be listed on images for deletion.

Non-free licenses
- Category:Images used with permission
- Category:Non-commercial use only images
- And any image under a non-commercial or no-derivatives license.
These images are available for use on Wikipedia, but are not released under the GFDL. According to Jimbo Wales, we cannot use images that are not GFDL and are not usable under a fair use rationale [1]. Images from these categories may be listed here, but be sure that the image is not also available under a free license, and that a fair use claim cannot be made.

Probable copyvios without a known source: If you suspect that an article contains a copyright violation, but you cannot find a source for the violation (so you aren't sure that it's a violation), do not list it here. Instead, place {{cv-unsure|~~~|FULL_URL}} on the article's talk page, but replace FULL_URL with the full URL of the article version that you believe contains a violation. (To determine the URL, click on "Permanent link" in the toolbox area, and copy the URL)