User:LX/Commons:Copyright policy

This is not official Commons policy (yet). This page is part of a draft for a proposed restructured version of Commons:Licensing.

Copyright protection means that the copyright holder of a work has the right to decide who may use the work and how they may use it. The copyright holder is usually the work's author, which means the person who created the work, such as a photographer or painter. Normally, recently created works such as photographs, drawings and videos are protected by copyright. A copyright notice is not needed for a work to be protected by copyright.

Accepted content

It is one of the founding principles of Wikimedia that its content should be freely usable by anyone. Therefore, Wikimedia Commons accepts two kinds of content with respect to copyright:

1. Content that has been published under a free license
2. Content that is in the public domain

Fair use content is not accepted

Main policy: Commons:Fair use

Fair use is a copyright law principle that enables the use of copyrighted content in a limited set of contexts without needing permission from the copyright holder. Fair use content falls into neither of the two categories of accepted content and is therefore not accepted at Wikimedia Commons.

Some Wikimedia projects, such as the English Wikipedia, rely on fair use to locally host and include album covers and other non-free content in the specific context of certain articles. Because fair use only applies in a limited set of contexts, it does not extend to collection of content in a general media repository such as Wikimedia Commons. Therefore, Wikimedia Commons cannot legally accept fair use content.

Content published under a free license

Main policy: Commons:Licensing policy

The copyright holder can use a copyright license to specify who may use their work and how they may use it. Only the copyright holder can grant a license.

In order for Wikimedia Commons to accept works covered by a particular copyright license, that license must have certain properties. There are certain freedoms that the license must grant, there are certain requirements that the license may grant, and there are certain restrictions that the license must not impose. A license that has the required properties is called a free license.

A free license

• must allow anyone to use and redistribute the work in modified or unmodified form for any commercial or non-commercial purpose
• may require attribution of the author(s), may require modified versions of the work to be covered by the same license and may require the use of open file formats free of digital restrictions management (DRM)
• must not impose restrictions prohibiting modifications or commercial use, must not require the copyright holder to be notified of any uses and must not be revocable.

Wikimedia Commons accepts copyrighted works if they are covered by a free license. Commonly used free licenses include Creative Commons Attribution and Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike without Non-Commercial or No-Derivatives restrictions. As an alternative to granting a copyright license, the copyright holder may choose to waive all their rights to the work and release it into the public domain.

You may upload works that you have created entirely yourself if you are willing to allow them to be used freely. You may also upload copyrighted works created by others if you can show that they have explicitly agreed to publish the work under a free license. Please see the full policy on licensing for details.

Content in the public domain

Main policy: Commons:Public domain policy

Content that is not protected by copyright is said to be in the public domain.

Content may be in the public domain if

it is too simple to be protected by copyright

Only works that meet the minimum threshold of originality can be copyrighted. Alphabetic letters, numbers and simple geometric shapes such as squares and circles do not contain original authorship and are therefore not protected by copyright. Simple combinations of such elements are not protected either, but it is possible to combine simple elements into original works. Different countries have different thresholds of originality, and there is no universal, objective test of originality. In ambiguous cases, Wikimedia Commons usually errs on the side of caution.

its copyright protection has expired

Copyright protection expires after a certain time. The time that must pass depends on factors such as when and where it was first created or published. In many countries, copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author. In other countries, copyright expires a certain number of years after the work was created or a certain number of years after it was first published. When uploading works for which the copyright has expired, the uploader must determine which rules apply and provide the information necessary to verify that the copyright has indeed expired.

it was created by an entity exempt from copyright, such as the United States Federal Goverment

The copyright laws of some countries explicitly exclude works created by the government or other entities from copyright protection. For example, works created by officers or employees of the United States Federal Government as part of their official duties are in the public domain.

it was explicitly released into the public domain by the author

As an alternative to granting a copyright license, the copyright holder may choose to waive all their rights to the work and release it into the public domain. As with licensing, this requires an explicit release statement from the copyright holder. Making a work accessible to the public does not place it into the public domain. In fact, enabling copyright holders to publish their works and still retain control of them is the very purpose of copyright.

You may upload works that you have created entirely yourself and that you wish to release into the public domain. You may also upload public domain works created by others by explaining why the work is in the public domain and providing enough information to enable others to verify your claims. Works must generally be in the public domain both in the United States and in the country where it was first published. Please see the full policy on public domain works for details.

Required information

To ensure that every file hosted by Wikimedia Commons is free, uploaders must provide information about every file that they upload. The information must be sufficient for others to verify that the file is free. In many cases, this information is also required by copyright licenses and copyright laws involved. False or insufficient information is grounds for deletion.

When uploading files to Commons, you must provide

the source of the content

You must explain where the content comes from. Do not use phrases such as "personal archive" or "my computer," as this does not explain where it came from before it ended up there.

• If you created it entirely yourself (without basing it on a photograph, drawing, sculpture, cover art, video, or other work created by someone else), use the {{Own}} template to label it as your own work.
• If you found it on a web site, provide the address. The address should lead to a page that includes the content and confirms the other information you provide about the file. If the page does not confirm the authorship and license or public domain status, you must establish this by other means, such as submitting written permission from the author.
• If you found it somewhere else, explain where it comes from and provide the information needed for others to verify the other information you provide about the file.

the author of the content

The author is the person who created the content. For example, if you photograph a scene in nature, you alone are the author of the photograph. If you make creative changes or adaptations to an existing photo, sculpture or other work to create a derivative work, you and the person who created the original work are both authors. If you simply copy someone else's work, for example by taking a screenshot, scanning a photograph or a taking a photo of a painting, the person who created the original work is the only author. In countries that recognize corporate authorship, the author may be an organization rather than a person.

• If you created the content entirely yourself, provide your name or pseudonym as the author. If your name or pseudonym is different from your Wikimedia Commons username, it is recommended that you demonstrate the connection, for example by writing your name or pseudonym on your userpage.
• If you created the content based on someone else's work, list the names or pseudonyms of all other authors as well as your own.
• If someone else created the work, provide the name or pseudonym of the author. If the work is in the public domain because of when the author died, provide information about which years they lived.
• If the author is unknown, use the template {{unknown|author}}. This is sometimes the case with works that are in the public domain because the copyright has expired. You must provide verifiable information to show that the author is genuinely unknown – not just that you do not know who the author is.

the license or public domain rationale that applies

You must state which license applies to the work or explain why it is in the public domain. This is done using templates called copyright tags.

• If you created the content entirely yourself, you may choose to release it under any free license you like. For example, you can release it under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 license using the {{Cc-by-sa-3.0}} template. You may also give those who wish to use your file a choice of several licenses. At least one license must be a free license. Alternatively, you may release your work into the public domain using the {{PD-self}} template. Remember that a free license or public domain release is perpetual and cannot be revoked if you change your mind later on.
• If you created the content based on someone else's work, you may have to use the same license that the original author used. Read the licensing terms to find out. As a rule, if the original work is not in the public domain, derivative works may only be uploaded if the original work was published under a free license by the original author. In some countries, however, buildings, sculptures or other works in public places may be freely depicted. This is called freedom of panorama, and different countries have different rules.
• If someone else created the work, state the license that they selected, or explain why the work is in the public domain. A range of copyright tags exist for different types of public domain works.

You should also provide a description of the content, the date of creation or publication, and categories. In cases where the work is in the public domain because the copyright has expired, the date of creation or publication is often required information.

The best way to provide the required information is to use the {{Information}} template. This will be added automatically by most upload methods available at Wikimedia Commons using the information you provide.