Difference between revisions of "Oldunreal Wiki:Copyrights"

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m (eliminating some of these red links polluting the request articles pages.)
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:'''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 [http://www.fsf.org/ Free Software Foundation]; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.'''
:'''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 [http://www.fsf.org/ 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 "[http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GNU Free Documentation License]".'''
:'''A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "[http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GNU Free Documentation License]".'''
:'''Content on OldunrealWiki is covered by [[Oldunreal-Wiki:General disclaimer|disclaimers]].'''
:'''Content on OldunrealWiki is covered by [[Oldunreal_Wiki:General_disclaimer|disclaimers]].'''


The English text of the GFDL is the only legally binding document between authors and users of Oldunreal Wiki content. What follows is our interpretation of the GFDL, as it pertains to the rights and obligations of users and contributors.
The English text of the GFDL is the only legally binding document between authors and users of Oldunreal Wiki content. What follows is our interpretation of the GFDL, as it pertains to the rights and obligations of users and contributors.
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=== Using copyrighted work from others ===
=== Using copyrighted work from others ===
All works are copyrighted unless either they fall into the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Domain public domain] or their copyright is explicitly disclaimed.  If you use part of a copyrighted work under "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use fair use]", or if you obtain special permission to use a copyrighted work from the copyright holder under the terms of our license, you must make a note of that fact (along with names and dates). It is our goal to be able to freely redistribute as much of OldunrealWiki's material as possible, so original images and sound files licensed under the GFDL or in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Domain public domain] are greatly preferred to copyrighted media files used under fair use. See [[OldunrealWiki:Boilerplate request for permission]] for a form letter asking a copyright holder to grant us a license to use their work under terms of the GFDL.  
All works are copyrighted unless either they fall into the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Domain public domain] or their copyright is explicitly disclaimed.  If you use part of a copyrighted work under "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use fair use]", or if you obtain special permission to use a copyrighted work from the copyright holder under the terms of our license, you must make a note of that fact (along with names and dates). It is our goal to be able to freely redistribute as much of OldunrealWiki's material as possible, so original images and sound files licensed under the GFDL or in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Domain public domain] are greatly preferred to copyrighted media files used under fair use. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Example_requests_for_permission|Wikipedia's permission requests] for exemples of letters asking a copyright holder to grant us a license to use their work under terms of the GFDL.  


Never use materials that infringe the copyrights of others. This could create legal liabilities and seriously hurt the project. If in doubt, write it yourself.
Never use materials that infringe the copyrights of others. This could create legal liabilities and seriously hurt the project. If in doubt, write it yourself.
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==== Russia: copyright exemptions ====
==== Russia: copyright exemptions ====
According to the [[Russian copyright law]] of 1993 ([http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%BE%D1%82_9.07.1993_%E2%84%96_5351-1 Федеральный закон от 9.07.1993 № 5351-1]), the following items are not subject to copyrights:
According to the Russian copyright law of 1993 ([http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%BE%D1%82_9.07.1993_%E2%84%96_5351-1 Федеральный закон от 9.07.1993 № 5351-1]), the following items are not subject to copyrights:
*Official documents (laws, court decisions, other texts of legislative, administrative or judicial character);
*Official documents (laws, court decisions, other texts of legislative, administrative or judicial character);
*State symbols and tokens (flags, coats of arms, [[order (decoration)|order]]s, banknotes and other state symbols and tokens);
*State symbols and tokens (flags, coats of arms, oorders, banknotes and other state symbols and tokens);
*Folk creative works;
*Folk creative works;
*Reports about events and facts, of informative character.
*Reports about events and facts, of informative character.
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Under OldunrealWiki's current copyright conditions, and with the current facilities of the MediaWiki software, it is only possible to include in OldunrealWiki external GFDL materials that contain invariant sections or cover texts, if all of the following apply,
Under OldunrealWiki's current copyright conditions, and with the current facilities of the MediaWiki software, it is only possible to include in OldunrealWiki external GFDL materials that contain invariant sections or cover texts, if all of the following apply,
# You are the copyright holder of these external GFDL materials (or: you have the explicit, i.e. written, permission of the copyright holder to do what follows);
# You are the copyright holder of these external GFDL materials (or: you have the explicit, i.e. written, permission of the copyright holder to do what follows);
# The length and nature of these invariant sections and cover texts does not exceed what can be placed in an [[OldunrealWiki:edit summary|edit summary]];
# The length and nature of these invariant sections and cover texts does not exceed what can be placed in an edit summary;
# You are satisfied that these invariant sections and cover texts are not listed elsewhere than in the "page history" of the page where these external materials are placed;
# You are satisfied that these invariant sections and cover texts are not listed elsewhere than in the "page history" of the page where these external materials are placed;
# You are satisfied that further copies of OldunrealWiki content are distributed under the standard GFDL application of "with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts" (in other words, for the copies derived from OldunrealWiki, you agree that these parts of the text contributed by you will no longer be considered as "invariant sections" or "cover texts" in the GFDL sense);
# You are satisfied that further copies of OldunrealWiki content are distributed under the standard GFDL application of "with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts" (in other words, for the copies derived from OldunrealWiki, you agree that these parts of the text contributed by you will no longer be considered as "invariant sections" or "cover texts" in the GFDL sense);
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==If you are the owner of OldunrealWiki-hosted content being used without your permission==
==If you are the owner of OldunrealWiki-hosted content being used without your permission==
If you are the owner of content that is being used on OldunrealWiki without your permission, then you may request the page be immediately removed from OldunrealWiki; see [[OldunrealWiki:Request for immediate removal of copyright violation|Request for immediate removal of copyright violation]]. You can also contact our [[designated agent]] to have it permanently removed (but it may take up to a week for the page to be deleted that way). You may also blank the page and replace it with the words <nowiki>{{copyvio|</nowiki>''URL or place you published the text''<nowiki>}}</nowiki> but the text will still be in the page history. Either way, we will, of course, need some evidence to support your claim of ownership.
If you are the owner of content that is being used on OldunrealWiki without your permission, then you may request the page be immediately removed from OldunrealWiki; see [[OldunrealWiki:Request for immediate removal of copyright violation|Request for immediate removal of copyright violation]]. You can also contact our [[User:Smirftsch|designated agent]] to have it permanently removed (but it may take up to a week for the page to be deleted that way). You may also blank the page and replace it with the words <nowiki>{{copyvio|</nowiki>''URL or place you published the text''<nowiki>}}</nowiki> but the text will still be in the page history. Either way, we will, of course, need some evidence to support your claim of ownership.

Revision as of 21:48, 30 July 2012

The license Oldunreal Wiki uses grants free access to our content in the same sense that free software is licensed freely. This principle is known as copyleft. Oldunreal Wiki content can be copied, modified, and redistributed so long as the new version grants the same freedoms to others and acknowledges the authors of the Oldunreal Wiki article used (a direct link back to the article is generally thought to satisfy the attribution requirement). Oldunreal Wiki articles therefore will remain free under the GFDL and can be used by anybody subject to certain restrictions, most of which aim to ensure that freedom.

To this end, the text contained in Oldunreal Wiki is copyrighted (automatically, under the Berne Convention) by Oldunreal Wiki contributors and licensed to the public under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). The full text of this license is at 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 OldunrealWiki is covered by disclaimers.

The English text of the GFDL is the only legally binding document between authors and users of Oldunreal Wiki content. What follows is our interpretation of the GFDL, as it pertains to the rights and obligations of users and contributors.

IMPORTANT: If you wish to reuse content from OldunrealWiki, first read the Reusers' rights and obligations section. You should then read the GNU Free Documentation License.

Contributors' rights and obligations

If you contribute material to OldunrealWiki, you thereby license it to the public under the GFDL (with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts). In order to contribute, you must be in a position to grant this license, which means that either

  • you hold the copyright to the material, for instance because you produced it yourself, or
  • you acquired the material from a source that allows the licensing under GFDL, for instance because the material is in the public domain or is itself published under GFDL.

In the first case, you retain copyright to your materials. You can later republish and relicense them in any way you like. However, you can never retract the GFDL license for the copies of materials that you place here; these copies will remain under GFDL until they enter the public domain.

In the second case, if you incorporate external GFDL materials, as a requirement of the GFDL, you need to acknowledge the authorship and provide a link back to the network location of the original copy.

Using copyrighted work from others

All works are copyrighted unless either they fall into the public domain or their copyright is explicitly disclaimed. If you use part of a copyrighted work under "fair use", or if you obtain special permission to use a copyrighted work from the copyright holder under the terms of our license, you must make a note of that fact (along with names and dates). It is our goal to be able to freely redistribute as much of OldunrealWiki's material as possible, so original images and sound files licensed under the GFDL or in the public domain are greatly preferred to copyrighted media files used under fair use. See permission requests for exemples of letters asking a copyright holder to grant us a license to use their work under terms of the GFDL.

Never use materials that infringe the copyrights of others. This could create legal liabilities and seriously hurt the project. If in doubt, write it yourself.

Note that copyright law governs the creative expression of ideas, not the ideas or information themselves. Therefore, it is legal to read an encyclopedia article or other work, reformulate the concepts in your own words, and submit it to OldunrealWiki. However, it would still be unethical (but not illegal) to do so without citing the original as a reference. See plagiarism and fair use for discussions of how much reformulation is necessary in a general context.

Linking to copyrighted works

Since most recently-created works are copyrighted, almost any OldunrealWiki article which cites its sources will link to copyrighted material. It is not necessary to obtain the permission of a copyright holder before linking to copyrighted material, just as an author of a book does not need permission to cite someone else's work in their bibliography. Likewise, OldunrealWiki is not restricted to linking only to GFDL-free or open-source content.

However, if you know that an external Web site is carrying a work in violation of the creator's copyright, do not link to that copy of the work. Knowingly and intentionally directing others to a site that violates copyright has been considered a form of contributory infringement in the United States (Intellectual Reserve v. Utah Lighthouse Ministry). Linking to a page that illegally distributes someone else's work sheds a bad light on OldunrealWiki and its editors. The copyright status of Internet archives in the United States is unclear, however. It is currently acceptable to link to Internet archives such as the Wayback Machine. In articles about a website, it is acceptable to include a link to that website even if there are possible copyright violations somewhere on the site.

Copyright violations

Contributors who repeatedly post copyrighted material despite appropriate warnings may be blocked from editing by any administrator to prevent further problems.

If you suspect a copyright violation, you should at least bring up the issue on that page's discussion page. Others can then examine the situation and take action if needed. Some cases will be false alarms. For example, text that can be found elsewhere on the Web that was in fact copied from OldunrealWiki in the first place is not a copyright violation on OldunrealWiki's part.

If a page contains material which infringes copyright, that material – and the whole page, if there is no other material present – should be removed. See OldunrealWiki:Copyright violations for more information, and OldunrealWiki:Copyright problems for detailed instructions.

Image guidelines

Images and photographs, like written works, are subject to copyright. Someone holds the copyright unless they have been explicitly placed in the public domain. Images on the internet need to be licensed directly from the copyright holder or someone able to license on their behalf. In some cases, fair use guidelines may allow an image to be used irrespective of any copyright claims.

U.S. government photographs

Works produced by civilian and military employees of the United States federal government in the scope of their employment are public domain by statute in the United States (though they may be protected by copyright outside of the U.S.).

However, not every work republished by the U.S. government falls into this category. The U.S. government can own copyrights that are assigned to it by others -- for example, works created by contractors.

Moreover, images and other media found on .mil and .gov websites may be using commercial stock photography owned by others. It may be useful to check the privacy and security notice of the website, but only with an email to the webmaster can you be confident that an image is in the public domain.

It should also be noted that governments outside the U.S. often do claim copyright over works produced by their employees (for example, Crown copyright in the United Kingdom). Also, most state and local governments in the United States do not place their work into the public domain and do in fact own the copyright to their work. Please be careful to check copyright information before copying.

Source

United States Code; Title 17; Chapter 1; § 105 Subject matter of copyright; United States Government works.

Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.

US Code

UK Copyright

The Writers Copyright Association as well as the UK Copyright service has a good summary. The legal basis is the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, and subsequent modifications and revisions, details at Jenkins IP In particular for literary, artistic works, copyright ends 70 years after the last surviving author dies or if unknown, 70 years after creation or publication.

The UK Office of Public Sector Information, formerly HMSO, has told us:

Crown copyright protection in published material lasts for fifty years from the end of the year in which the material was first published. Therefore material published [fifty-one years ago], and any Crown copyright material published before that date, would now be out of copyright, and may be freely reproduced throughout the world.[1]

Comments on copyright laws by country

Russia: copyright exemptions

According to the Russian copyright law of 1993 (Федеральный закон от 9.07.1993 № 5351-1), the following items are not subject to copyrights:

  • Official documents (laws, court decisions, other texts of legislative, administrative or judicial character);
  • State symbols and tokens (flags, coats of arms, oorders, banknotes and other state symbols and tokens);
  • Folk creative works;
  • Reports about events and facts, of informative character.

Russian copyrights generally expire 70 years after the death of the author. Items by authors who died prior to 1953 are in the public domain – before 2004, the expiration term was 50 years. The copyright extension in 2004 was not retroactive (see Law 72-FZ, 2004 (in Russian), article 2, part 3).

If an item was not published during its author's life, its copyright expires 70 years after its first lawful publication (if the item did not fall into the public domain before). This gives maximum term for unpublished or posthumously published works of 140 (if the author died after 1953) or 120 years (if the author died before 1953, AND their work was published before 2003).

If an item was published anonymously or pseudonymously, and its author remains unknown, its copyright expires 70 years after its first lawful publication. If the author is discovered, the usual rule applies.

Public domain status of a work in Russia can differ from that in the US, where OldunrealWiki servers are located.

Algeria

Article 9 of Algeria's Ordonnance N°97-10 du 27 Chaoual 1417 correspondant au 6 mars 1997 relative aux droits d'auteur et aux droits voisins. states that: "Works of the State made licitly accessible to the public may be freely used for non-profit purposes, subject to respect for the integrity of the work and indication of its source. By "works of the State", in this article, are meant works produced and published by the various organs of the State, local communities, or public establishments of an administrative character." (original is in French.) In short, they are available for non-commercial use - which is considered unfree on OldunrealWiki.

Afghanistan, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Nepal, San Marino, Yemen

According to Circular 38a of the U.S. Copyright Office, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Nepal, San Marino, and possibly Yemen have no copyright relations whatsoever with the U.S. (Eritrea isn't mentioned at all.) Works originating in one of these countries thus are not copyrighted in the United States, regardless of the local copyright laws of these countries (see 17 USC § 104, quoted in the circular).

Regardless, according to Smirftsch, the founder of OldunrealWiki, OldunrealWiki contributors should respect the copyright law of these nations as best they can, the same as they do for other countries around the world.[2]

Introducing invariant sections or cover texts in OldunrealWiki

Under OldunrealWiki's current copyright conditions, and with the current facilities of the MediaWiki software, it is only possible to include in OldunrealWiki external GFDL materials that contain invariant sections or cover texts, if all of the following apply,

  1. You are the copyright holder of these external GFDL materials (or: you have the explicit, i.e. written, permission of the copyright holder to do what follows);
  2. The length and nature of these invariant sections and cover texts does not exceed what can be placed in an edit summary;
  3. You are satisfied that these invariant sections and cover texts are not listed elsewhere than in the "page history" of the page where these external materials are placed;
  4. You are satisfied that further copies of OldunrealWiki content are distributed under the standard GFDL application of "with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts" (in other words, for the copies derived from OldunrealWiki, you agree that these parts of the text contributed by you will no longer be considered as "invariant sections" or "cover texts" in the GFDL sense);
  5. The original invariant sections and/or cover texts are contained in the edit summary of the edit with which you introduce the thus GFDLed materials in OldunrealWiki (so, that if "permanent deletion" would be applied to that edit, both the thus GFDLed material and its invariant sections and cover texts are jointly deleted).

Seen the stringent conditions above, it is very desirable to replace GFDL texts with invariant sections (or with cover texts) by original content without invariant sections (or cover texts) whenever possible.

Reusers' rights and obligations

If you want to use OldunrealWiki materials in your own books/articles/websites or other publications, you can do so -- but only in compliance with the GFDL. If you are simply duplicating the OldunrealWiki article, you must follow section two of the GFDL on verbatim copying, as discussed at OldunrealWiki:Verbatim copying.

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 OldunrealWiki 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 OldunrealWiki 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.

Example notice

An example notice, for an article that uses the OldunrealWiki article Particle Force might read as follows:

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the OldunrealWiki article "Particle Force".

("Metasyntactic variable" and the URLs enclosed in the above must of course be substituted as necessary.)

Alternatively you can distribute your copy of "Particle Force" and list at least five (or all if fewer than five) principal authors on the title page (or top of the document), as explained in the text of the GFDL license. All (re-)distributed documents need to include a copy of the GFDL license text.

Fair use materials and special requirements

All original OldunrealWiki text is distributed under the GFDL. OldunrealWiki articles may also include quotations, images, or other media under the U.S. Copyright law "fair use" doctrine in accordance with our guidelines for non-free content. It is preferred that these be obtained under the most free content license practical (such as the GFDL or public domain). In cases where no such images/sounds are currently available, then fair use may be used in certain circumstances as described in the criteria for using non-free media.

In OldunrealWiki, such "fair use" material should be identified as from an external source (on the image description page, or history page, as appropriate). This also leads to possible restrictions on the use, outside of OldunrealWiki, of such "fair use" content retrieved from OldunrealWiki: this "fair use" content does not fall under the GFDL license as such, but under the "fair use" (or similar/different) regulations in the country where the media are retrieved.

OldunrealWiki does use some text under licenses that are compatible with the GFDL but may require additional terms that we do not require for original OldunrealWiki text (such as including Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts, or Back-Cover Texts). When wanting to contribute such texts that include Invariant Sections or Cover Texts to OldunrealWiki, see Introducing invariant sections or cover texts in OldunrealWiki above.

If you are the owner of OldunrealWiki-hosted content being used without your permission

If you are the owner of content that is being used on OldunrealWiki without your permission, then you may request the page be immediately removed from OldunrealWiki; see Request for immediate removal of copyright violation. You can also contact our designated agent to have it permanently removed (but it may take up to a week for the page to be deleted that way). You may also blank the page and replace it with the words {{copyvio|URL or place you published the text}} but the text will still be in the page history. Either way, we will, of course, need some evidence to support your claim of ownership.