Wikipedia:Can I use this work?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How much creativity does the work in question involve?

• The work is a simple two-dimensional collection of geometric shapes, or is a reflection of ideas or facts in a simple and standard way (such as a crude line graph). While there may be some creativity in placement or coloring, any such decisions could be easily changed by dint of simply cutting and pasting the relevant figures or flooding the colors in an image editor. There are no more complex effects such as shadowing or three-dimensional arrangement, and there are no shapes other than those of common typefaces and basic geometric figures such as lines, circles, and polygons.
• The work involves more creativity than the description given in the previous option.

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The work is not eligible for copyright. Add {{pd-ineligible}} to the work's description page.

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Did you create the work?

• I created the work entirely from my imagination, with no reference to other sources.
• I created the work, but based it partially on others' ideas or works.
• I didn't create the work, although I may have scanned it, cropped it, or otherwise made minor simplistic modifications to it.

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To upload your work to Wikipedia, you must agree to license it freely. Please pick one of the following licenses.

• I license the work under the GNU Free Documentation License. See here for the full and binding legal text. A non-binding summary is that you forfeit all rights to the work, except that anyone who uses it in some way has to both attribute it to you, and release their modifications under the same license. Such copyleft licenses are encouraged.
• I license the work under the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 2.5 license. See here for a summary of the license, and the full and binding legal text. A non-binding summary is that you forfeit all rights to the work, except that anyone who uses it in some way has to both attribute it to you, and release their modifications under the same license. Such copyleft licenses are encouraged.
• I license the work under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. See here for a summary of the license, and the full and binding legal text. A non-binding summary is that you forfeit all rights to the work, except that anyone who uses it in some way has to attribute it to you.
• I irrevocably release all rights to the work. Anyone can use it, copy it, or modify it, for anything whatsoever.
• I won't permit others to use my work for commercial gain.
• I won't permit institutions other than Wikipedia to use my work.

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Thank you for choosing to upload your work freely. Add the text {{gfdl-self}} to your image page, and you're set.

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Thank you for choosing to upload your work freely. Add the text {{cc-by-sa-2.5}} to your image page, note that you're the creator of the image, and you're set.

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Thank you for choosing to upload your work freely. Add the text {{cc-by-2.5}} to your image page, note that you're the creator of the image, and you're set.

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Thank you for choosing to upload your work freely. Add the text {{pd-self}} to your image page, note that you're the creator of the image, and you're set.

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Please reconsider. Prohibiting commercial gain from your work limits the ability of others to freely redistribute Wikipedia content; websites that mirror our content to make it more widely available, for instance, often need to post advertisements to pay for server costs. If some subset of Wikipedia is ever printed, money will need to be charged to cover cost. Profit isn't sinister: it's often necessary to get things done. And remember that you'll always be credited for your work if you choose a license that requires that. For these reasons, even though the Wikimedia Foundation is nonprofit, images that are permitted for noncommercial use only may not be uploaded to Wikipedia as free images.

• Very well, I'll pick a license that permits commercial reuse.
• Sorry, I refuse to license my work for commercial use.

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Wikipedia is an open content encyclopedia. As such, it may be redistributed freely. This gives more people access to our content and thereby is necessary to serve our mission. Thus, we cannot accept works that are only permitted for use on Wikipedia; reuse must be permitted as well.

• Very well, I'll pick a license that permits redistribution.
• Sorry, I refuse to license my work for redistribution.

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Since you have refused to license your work freely, the only way Wikipedia can use it is under fair use. Please ensure that your work meets Wikipedia's (quite strict) criteria for fair use by continuing here.

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What were the nature of your modifications?

• I was merely inspired by the base work, and did not draw significantly on its distinguishing creative elements.
• I made simple changes such as cropping, cutting and pasting, or making basic changes to color.
• I made more complex changes than those listed in the previous option.

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Your modifications are not sufficient to merit copyright by themselves. Continue here, focusing on the base work.

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Your modifications are likely eligible for copyright, in addition to the copyright on the base work. You will have to pick a license to release your modifications under, then determine the license of the base work. Determine what license to release your modifications under by going here, then determine the copyright status of the base work by going here. Add all applicable tags to the work's page.

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Do you have evidence that the author released it under a free license, such as the GFDL or a Creative Commons license?

• Yes
• No

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To be acceptable on Wikipedia, a license may not include any restrictions other than a) requiring attribution and/or b) requiring derivations of the work to be released under the same license. If the license in question includes any other requirements, such as requiring that the work not be used commercially or not be reproduced without permission, or if the license is not declared to be irrevocable, please continue here. Otherwise, add the appropriate template from this list to the work's description page (click the link to see the license), along with evidence that the author explicitly released the work under the license in question: {{GFDL}} {{GFDL 1.2}} {{cc-by-sa-2.5}} {{cc-by-sa-2.0}} {{cc-by-sa}} {{cc-by-2.5}} {{cc-by-2.0}} {{cc-by}} {{no rights reserved}} {{PD-release}} {{attribution}} {{BSD}} {{FAL}} {{GPL}} {{LGPL}}

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Was the work ever published (that is, deliberately made publicly available by its owner)?

• Yes
• No

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Is the author a known individual?

• Yes
• No, the work was authored by multiple people or its author is unknown
• Not sure

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Is the death date of the author known?

• Yes
• No
• Not sure

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Did the author die before 1938?

• Yes
• No

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The work is in the public domain. Please add the text {{PD-old|type=death|pub=no|year=date}} to the work's description page, where date is the year of the author's death.

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Did the author die before 1958?

• Yes
• No

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The work is in the public domain in some jurisdictions, excluding the United States and European Union. Please add the text {{PD-old|type=death|pub=no|year=date}} to the work's description page. Then try to get the author of the work (if known) to release it under a free license. (Try looking at Wikipedia:Boilerplate requests for permission.) If that is not possible, the work must be used under Wikipedia's fair use policy; please continue here.

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Was the work completed before 1888?

• Yes
• No

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Was the work completed before 1888?

• Yes
• No

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Was the work first published before 1923?

• Yes
• No

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Was the work ever published in the United States?

• Yes
• No

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Was the work created by an employee of the United States federal government working in his or her official capacity?

• Yes
• No

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Please contact the United States Copyright Office and obtain "a certified report that the records provided by subsection [17 USC § 302](d) disclose nothing to indicate that the author of the work is living, or died less than 70 years before". If such a report is provided, the work is in the public domain. Until then, if you wish to use the image on Wikipedia, you must justify it under fair use; continue here.

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The work is in the public domain. Please provide evidence of the work's first publication date.

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The work is in the public domain in the United States. Please provide evidence of the work's first publication date and location and add {{PD-US}} to the work's description page. Ideally, find other tags to ensure that the work is in the public domain elsewhere as well;

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The work is in the public domain. Please supply evidence that the work was of anonymous, pseudonymous, or corporate authorship, as well as evidence for when it was completed, and add the tag {{PD-old|type=creation|pub=no|year=date}} to the page, where date is the year of publication.

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The work is in the public domain. Please supply evidence of who the author of the work is and when he or she died.

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The work is in the public domain. Please supply evidence that the work was made by a U.S. federal government employee working in his or her official capacity.

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The work is copyrighted. Please try to get the author of the work (if known) to release it under a free license. (Try looking at Wikipedia:Boilerplate requests for permission.) If that is not possible, the work must be used under Wikipedia's fair use policy; please continue here.