User talk:Katieanddanielle

Hi - thanks for contributing to the commons. I saw you contributed some nice diagrams, like Image:Erect Reflection.PNG. Please plage a copyright tag in the image, so it's easy to see what license applies. You said on the description page "The image is self-made and thus not copyrighted" - what exactly does that mean? Per default, you hold the copyright to anything you create, so the image is copyrighted. You can (and should) however place it under a free license lice GFDL or CC-by-sa (note that free license are based on the assuption that the work indeed is and stays copyrighted). If you are from the US, you can also disclaim the copyright and put your work into the public domain (use the PD-self tag in this case), but this is not possible in other places, most notably the EU (EU-copyright is non-transferable: it stays with the author). Alternatively, you can use CopyrightedFreeUse, meaning you maintain the copyright but allow anyone to do anything with your work (in effect, that is similar to public domain; the legal status is different, however).

Sorry for complicating this - copyright laws are a mess, and maintaining a collection of free works is a real headache. Licensing is important, correct licensing is what keeps wikimedia running. Thank you! -- Duesentrieb 01:38, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your quick response. Contacting me on me german talk page is quite OK, but you can use to one at the commons too - i'm here quite often. Also, english is just fine with me;)

As to your questions: "...under the license GFDL." is quite OK, but it would be better if you would add {{GFDL}} to it, which would place the GFDL template on the description page - that way, it's easier to automatically find unlicensed images and such.

BUT: you said "Also, what does this mean now? That my image maintains its copyright and no one can use it? I hope so, because right now that's what I intend (I worked hard on those babies!)." well, no! A free license like the GFDL or CC-by-sa means that anyone can use your work for any purpose, including commercial, as long as you are named as the author. Legally, this works this way: you claim and maintain a copyright to this work, and then grant those rights to anyone, provided they adher to the terms of the license, namely to name you as the author and to license any derivative work under the same terms. This concept is often called copyleft.

Note that all works on the commons must be under a free license! If you do not want others to use your work, do not upload them to the commons! In that case, tell me which images you don't want others to use, then I will delete them. Note that all the MediaWiki projects work on this principle, it's one of the golden rules: all content must be free and usable by onyone in any way. Everything you see contributed to the wikipedias, to the commons and other projects is basically a donation to the world, for nothing but the credit you get by being named as the author. This concept is called open content, and it's the very basis of this projects; it's similar to the concept of open source, which led to things like the linux operating system.

I hope you will keep contributing anyway - have a look around, a lot of people are doing great work here, and it's a lot of fun to be part of it! -- Duesentrieb 13:16, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ah, that's better, thanks! And also thank you for the nice images! Oh, another hint: in talks/discussions, please subscribe with -- ~~~~ - the four "tilde" characters will generate a link to your user page and the date and time, the two "minuses" are just a convention. It will look like this: -- Duesentrieb 00:21, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)