Wikipedia talk:Public domain resources

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[edit] Check a site.

Could someone read [1]] and make sure that it is a public domain site before adding it to the list. Thank you. CG 11:36, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Just saw your note, The site itself is PD, see http://www.xist.org/contact.aspx. The data is derived from the statistical services of the various countries. In current US law data is not protected, but that is not necessarily the case elsewhere. I'd suggest at least a link to the orig. source, not just Geohive,. though it seems a carefuly constructed compilation. DGG 23:03, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Appropriate Use

I have noticed on pages in several areas that the entire article is copied from easily acccessible public domain sources (typically, US government documents). Sometimes the first half of an article is copied, and then a few additions are made at the bottom, instead of at the appropriate places. Depending on where the document comes from, the material may be the sort of govertmental language used to fill paper with text, rather than actually say anything.

Not that these articles are wrong. Rather, much better articles could be witten, and probably could be best written by starting from scratch than by trying to turn the low-grade government product into a concise and helpful article.

(I also note that the source is often omitted; it's usually been in the "talk" or the "history," not in the article itself. This is plagiarism. When the article becomes complemented by some original material, there is usually no attempt to indicate what parts have been copied. Perhaps when WP was beginning, it was important to have content, but perhaps it is now time to have information.

DGG 02:06, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] anyone interested about ethical use?

this is basically a rewording of my last post here. I have been observing several very common practices: Putting a notice that part of the article has has been copied from XXX, and not indicating what part Putting a notice that part of the article has has been copied from XXX, and copying the whole thing intact, without saying so. Not putting a notice , but doing likewise this is being done from Public domain sources, and is indeed legal, but it borderline in terms of ethics, non-encyclopedist in nature, and is taken outside WP as an indication of our lack of seriousness.
When was there last a discussion of this?DGG 04:25, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] dates?

It would be useful to add the dates of publication or revision for some of the US government and other public domain sources. (this doesn't mean I voluteer to do them all)DGG 23:33, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] US Patent Site

Are images in expired patent drawings at the USPTO in the public domain? -- KelleyCook 15:11, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

I would like to know this too! Maury 21:47, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] US NIH's Entrez Gene web-site

Is material on NIH's Entrez Gene web-site to be regarded as in public domain? The present introduction in the article Serotonin transporter copies verbatim from this web-site [2]. — fnielsen (talk) 16:08, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Exploiting wikipedia?

"General resources" contains a link to http://www.web-site-templates-free.com/, which seems to be some website templates inside a mass of google ads. An interesting business idea for the website owner, but is really desirable for Wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.227.163.7 (talk) 08:33, 12 January 2008 (UTC)