Copyright - Meta-Wiki Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Wikimedia News Translations Recent changes Special pages Random page Help Babel Community Wikimedia Forum Mailing lists Requests Babylon Reports Research Planet Wikimedia Beyond the Web Meet Wikimedians Events Movement affiliates Search Search English Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide Beginning 1 Basics 2 Fair use Toggle Fair use subsection 2.1 Copyright Paranoia 3 Moral rights Toggle Moral rights subsection 3.1 Non-acceptance of the Rule of the shorter term 4 See also Toggle the table of contents Copyright Add languages Add links Content page Discussion English Read Edit View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read Edit View history General What links here Related changes Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Print/export Create a book Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Appearance move to sidebar hide From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki Translate this page Other languages: Bahasa Indonesia Bahasa Melayu Cymraeg Deutsch English Esperanto Igbo Nederlands Tiếng Việt Türkçe azərbaycanca català dansk español français galego italiano kurdî magyar polski română svenska čeština Ελληνικά български монгол русский српски / srpski עברית العربية سنڌي فارسی मराठी हिन्दी বাংলা ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ગુજરાતી မြန်မာဘာသာ 中文 日本語 閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gí 한국어 For Meta's policy, see Meta:Copyrights The actual legal issues regarding copyright in Wikipedia should be discussed in depth, before starting any major project like a copyright bot. This file is for the basic questions of copyright itself, under global laws and other national laws likely to apply to wikipedia, e.g. those of the USA. Basics [edit] The Wikimedia Foundation outlines several principles which every project must follow: Only free content, all text is licensed under a dual-license between the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license and the GNU Free Documentation License (with few exceptions such as Wikinews which uses a Creative Commons Attribution license and Wikidata which use CC0 for data). All images must be either free (public domain, GFDL, CC and so on) or, if local policy allows it, uploaded under a fair use claim, see below. All media files must be accompanied with a license information and a source, to allow verification. All unfree content must have a detailed rationale for its use. Providing external links to material in violation of its copyright is discouraged per Intellectual Reserve v. Utah Lighthouse Ministry Fair use [edit] Fair use Do fair use images violate the GFDL? Copyright Paranoia [edit] The concept of copyright paranoia, users overreacting to sometimes "non-issues" involving copyright and copyright infringement, is an issue in some cases. Moral rights [edit] Moral rights are a part of CC 4.0 licenses, allowed on Commons. Non-acceptance of the Rule of the shorter term [edit] Because United States law does not recognize the "Rule of the shorter term", meaning content that should be in the public domain in the United States (but is the case in its source country), has to be judged alongside the United States' complicated rules for the public domain, and can potentially not be usable on Wikimedia projects. See also [edit] Copyright problems, noticeboard on the English Wikipedia for dealing with potential copyright problems Wikipedia and copyright issues Wikipedia Designated Agent Non-free content Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Copyright&oldid=30699613" Category: Copyright This page was last edited on 17 June 2026, at 07:38. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Privacy policy About Meta-Wiki Disclaimers Legal & safety contacts Code of Conduct Developers Statistics Cookie statement Mobile view Search Search Toggle the table of contents Copyright Add languages Add topic