Commons:Non-copyright restrictions
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Commons:Trademarks redirects here. For a inactive proposal that would have made trademarked material be considered non-free, see Commons:Trademarks proposal
While all material on Commons is free to use under its respective license, some materials may be subject to additional legal restrictions when they are used in particular circumstances or in particular ways. These limitations may arise from laws related to trademarks, patents, personality rights, political censorship, or any of many other legal causes which are entirely independent from the copyright status of the work.
Wikimedia Commons policies forbid content which is not sufficiently unrestricted for reuse. However, non-copyright related restrictions are not considered relevant to the freeness requirements of Commons or by Wikimedia,[1] and the licensing policies are accordingly limited to regulating copyright related obligations.
An extreme example: It would generally be illegal to use any Commons illustration to commit fraud, but this fact does not mean that the material from commons isn't free content. Likewise, the legal prohibitions on using a registered mark or an image of a well known personality to mislead consumers are not considered to impact the freeness of the work. In Germany, usage of the Swastika and other Nazi symbology is restricted outside of scholarly contexts yet this too is not considered a material limitation for our purposes. While Commons' licensing is intended to respect the public's freedom, our ability to do so is generally limited to ensuring works on the Commons are free of copyright-related restrictions. It is neither possible, nor desirable, for Commons to release people from all laws which they may find inconvenient.
As a free media repository used by many educational and journalistic projects, Wikimedia's projects and many reusers of their content enjoy a strong position under law with respect to most of these non-copyright restrictions.
Reusers who are in other jurisdictions, or who are using material in a considerably different manner than Wikimedia's projects, may find themselves in a less favorable position, but in almost all cases replacing an image with another substantially similar image would not change the situation, which is entirely unlike concerns arising from copyright considerations.
Although we do not consider these restrictions relevant to our policies we do occasionally add disclaimers such as {{trademark}} and {{personality rights}} as a general public service. The omission of these disclaimers should not be taken to indicate an absence of possible legal obligations. As always, we can not provide legal advice specific to your circumstances.
