Commons:Volunteer Response Team/proposed changes

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A screenshot of the VRTS: how VRT volunteers see requests.

VRTS stands for "Volunteer Response Team System". On Wikimedia projects, it generally refers to the ticket system where volunteers respond to emails that are sent to Wikimedia, including general information (in several languages), press queries and permission emails. On Commons, "VRTS" generally refers only to this latter type. Therefore to "put something on VRTS" means to send an email to permissions-commons@wikimedia.org and have it dealt with by a VRT volunteer.

Licensing images: when do I contact VRTS?

An image that received its permission for use via VRTS

I have received permission to upload the image to Commons.

Please forward us the permission to the address listed above. We require that the owner makes a clear statement that they release the image under a free license. To help prevent confusion or misunderstandings we really prefer one of the email templates be used. Permission grants must specifically contain a free license grant and may not merely give permissions for Commons or Wikipedia.

I am the copyright owner but my picture has been previously published.

Please send us a clear statement that you wish to release your image (with a link) under a specific free license. See Commons:Email templates for the preferred forms.

I am the copyright owner and my image is being used without permission.

Send us an e-mail with as much information as possible, such as who you are and where the document was published previously.

When contacting VRTS is unnecessary

I took the image myself and it hasn't been previously published.

Just follow the instructions found on the Commons:Upload page.

I do not have permission for the image and it has not been released under a free license

Commons can only accept images that are under a free license or in the public domain.

I found the image on Flickr and it was released under a free license there.

Commons has a procedure in place for reviewing those images. Please have a look on Commons:Flickr images.

E-mailing VRTS

When you email VRTS, it is best to state that the image/s are or will be hosted on Commons, and give exact URLs or file names if possible. Please forward all email headers (or get your copyright-holder to email directly) – VRTS is a totally private system.

If you have sent a permission to VRTS but haven't received confirmation yet, you can use {{subst:OP}}, which automatically expands to {{OTRS pending|date}} to tell others that it's in progress.

A VRT volunteer will either confirm the permission is OK (he can use {{PermissionTicket}} when the permission has been accepted and archived in the Wikimedia VRTS system) or explain what the problem is (for example, person giving permission is not actually copyright holder, unrelated copyright problem such as derivative works).

VRT volunteers who are administrators on Commons are listed at m:Volunteer Response Team/Personnel with a "y" under the "Commons" column. There is also a partial list at Template talk:PermissionTicket. If your email/request is taking a long time to get a response, try contacting one of these people and asking them to follow it up.

VRT volunteers also handle reports of copyright violations. Help is always needed to process permissions emails. If you are interested in volunteering for commons-related VRTS work, please visit m:Volunteer Response Team/volunteering or contact guillom.

Questions about VRTS

If you have questions about an image marked with a {{PermissionTicket}} tag then your best bet is to contact the volunteer who marked the image. If you wish to verify that the tag is being used correctly then any of the VRT agents listed listed at m:Volunteer Response Team/personnel or Category:Commons Volunteer Response Team volunteers can verify for you.

If you have a general question about the VRTS process feel free to leave a message on this talk page.

See also

• commons:Email templates – use these when requesting permission by email
• VRTS on Meta
• Wikimedia's VRTS (login required)