Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content

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This page is an official policy on the English Wikipedia. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

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 people who would like to use Wikipedia content in their own work. For editors who would like permission to use other people's work in Wikipedia, please see Requesting copyright permission.

There are many reusers of Wikipedia's content, and more reusers are welcomed. If you want to use Wikipedia materials in your own books/articles/web sites or other publications, you can do so, but you have to follow the GFDL.

Contents 1 GFDL 2 Verbatim duplication 3 Modified Versions 3.1 Example notice 3.2 Fair use materials and special requirements

[edit] GFDL

The text contained in Wikipedia is licensed to the public under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). The full text of this license is at Wikipedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.

A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Content on Wikipedia is covered by disclaimers.

The English text of the GFDL is the only legally binding document; what follows is our interpretation of the GFDL: the rights and obligations of users and contributors.

[edit] Verbatim duplication

If you are simply duplicating the Wikipedia article, you must follow section two of the GFDL on verbatim copying, as discussed at Wikipedia:Verbatim copying.

[edit] Modified Versions

If you create a derivative version by changing or adding content, this entails the following:

• your materials in turn have to be licensed under GFDL,
• you must acknowledge the authorship of the article (section 4B), and
• you must provide access to the "transparent copy" of the material (section 4J). (The "transparent copy" of a Wikipedia article is any of a number of formats available from us, including the wiki text, the html web pages, xml feed, etc.)

You may be able to partially fulfill the latter two obligations by providing a conspicuous direct link back to the Wikipedia article hosted on this website. You also need to provide access to a transparent copy of the new text. However, please note that the Wikimedia Foundation makes no guarantee to retain authorship information and a transparent copy of articles. Therefore, you are encouraged to provide this authorship information and a transparent copy with your derived works.

[edit] Example notice

An example notice, for an article that uses the Wikipedia article Metasyntactic variable, might read as follows:

This article is licensed under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html">GNU Free Documentation License</a>. It uses material from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasyntactic_variable">Wikipedia article "Metasyntactic variable"</a>.

("Metasyntactic variable" and the Wikipedia URL must of course be substituted accordingly, and you should replace the link http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html to point to a local copy of the GFDL text on your server.)

Alternatively you can distribute your copy of "Metasyntactic variable" along with a copy of the GFDL (as explained in the text) and list at least five (or all if fewer than five) principal authors on the title page (or top of the document). The external Page History Stats tool can help you identify the principal authors.

Another "example notice" can be based on a more informative and only slightly longer notice used (very easily used, because it is in a very short template) on Wikia. See example in use at http://fisherymanagement.wikia.com/wiki/Template_talk:Taxobox_begin
Robin Patterson 08:36, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use materials and special requirements

All original Wikipedia text is distributed under the GFDL. Occasionally, Wikipedia articles may include images, sounds, or text quotes used under the U.S. Copyright law "fair use" doctrine. It is preferred that these be obtained under the most free (libre) license (such as the GFDL or public domain) practical. In cases where no such images/sounds are currently available, then fair use images are acceptable (until such time as free images become available).

In such a case, the material should be identified as from an external source (on the image description page, or history page, as appropriate). As "fair use" is specific to the use that you contemplate it is best if your describe the fair use rationale for such specific use either in hidden text in the article or on the image description page. Remember what is fair use for Wikipedia may not be considered a fair use for your intended use of the content in another context.

For example, if we include an image under fair use, you must ensure that your use of the article also qualifies for fair use (this might not be the case, for example, if you were using a Wikipedia article for a commercial use that would otherwise be allowed by the GFDL and the fair use would not be allowed under that commercial use). Re-users of Wikipedia images outside of the United States should also be aware that it may well be that fair use as it is known in the U.S. just may not exist at all in their jurisdiction. Most other countries have only well-defined exceptions for using copyrighted works without having been granted an explicit license. In the Commonwealth nations, there is fair dealing. Countries that follow the Berne Convention have similar exceptions for narrowly defined cases. Short quotations from copyrighted works are allowed, provided the source is properly attributed. What other exceptions may exist depends entirely of the laws of the country you're in.

Wikipedia does use some text under licenses that are compatible with the GFDL but may require additional terms that we do not require for original Wikipedia text (such as including Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts, or Back-Cover Texts). When using these materials, you have to include those invariant sections verbatim.

We try hard to identify the sources and licenses of all media such as images or sounds used in our encyclopedia articles. Still, we cannot guarantee that all media are marked correctly: if an image description page states that an image was in the public domain, you should still check yourself whether that claim appears correct and decide for yourself whether your use of the image would be fine under the laws applicable to you. Wikipedia is primarily subject to U.S. law; re-users outside the U.S. should be aware that they are subject to the laws of their country, which almost certainly are different. Images published under the GFDL or one of the Creative Commons Licenses are unlikely to pose problems, as these are specific licenses with precise terms world-wide. Public domain images may need to be re-evaluated by a re-user because it depends on each country's copyright laws what is in the public domain there. There is no guarantee that something in the public domain in the U.S. was also in the public domain in your country.