User:LX/Commons:Licensing policy
This is not official Commons policy (yet). This page is part of a draft for a proposed restructured version of Commons:Licensing.
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. Copyrighted works are only allowed on Commons if they have been published under a free license by their copyright holders.
Free licenses
[edit]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
- Because copyright restricts distribution and modification of copyrighted works (particularly for commercial puposes), these rights must be explicitly granted.
- Most free licenses require attribution of the author or authors of the licensed work in a manner reasonable to the medium. The license must not impose requirements on the exact placement of the attribution.
- Some free licenses require modified versions of the work to be covered by the same license to ensure that future versions remain free. Such licenses are called copyleft licenses. Free licenses include both copyleft licenses (such as Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike
) and non-copyleft licenses (such as Creative Commons Attribution ).
- Some free licenses prohibit or discourage the use of digital restrictions management (DRM) or other forms of copy obstruction when distributing the licensed work. Such rules are intended to ensure that the freedoms granted by the license can actually be exercised. An example of an anti-DRM clause can be found in Section 2 of the GNU Free Documentation License.
- Content with permissions which are limited to Wikimedia or Wikipedia, which prohibit modification, or which are limited to non-commercial purposes are not free. Such files may be tagged with {{Wikipediaonly}}, {{Noderivatives}} or {{Noncommercial}} and deleted.
- Notification of the author or copyright holder may be requested, but must not be required by the license. Files with permissions requiring notification may be tagged with {{Notify}} and deleted.
- The license must be perpetual, which means that the copyright holder must waive the right to to revoke the license. Once a copyright holder has published a work under a free license, they cannot stop Commons or others from continuing to distribute it.
Wikimedia Commons accepts copyrighted works if they are covered by a free license.
Examples of free licenses
[edit]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.
To be expanded.
Selecting licenses for your own works
[edit]You may upload works that you have created entirely yourself (without basing them on photographs, drawings, sculptures, cover art, videos, or other works created by other people) if you are willing to allow your works to be used freely by others. You must allow anyone to use and redistribute the work in modified or unmodified form for any commercial or non-commercial purpose. These freedoms are granted by all licenses accepted by Wikimedia Commons.
If you want to require those who use your work to attribute you, use a license such as Creative Commons Attribution, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike or the GNU Free Documentation License. Most licenses accepted by Wikimedia Commons require attribution. Attribution is also required by the copyright laws of most countries.
If you want to require those who publish modified versions of your work to release their changes under the same free license, use a copyleft license such as Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike or the GNU Free Documentation License. Imposing such a requirement guarantees that modified versions remain free, but restricts the ways in which the work may be used. For example, combining works with different copyleft licenses may not be possible.
If you do not wish to impose any requirements, you can release your work into the public domain. In some countries, the copyright laws do not provide a well-defined method for releasing one's own work into the public domain, but you can still declare that you waive your rights to the fullest possible extent. You can use the Creative Commons Zero Waiver to formally release your work into the public domain or waive your rights to it.
The license or waiver should be selected during the upload process. To add a license or waiver later, edit the file description page and add a template such as {{Cc-by-3.0}}, {{Cc-by-sa-3.0}}, {{GFDL}} or {{Cc-zero}}.
If you want, you can give those who use your works a choice of licenses. This is called multi-licensing. If you place {{self|cc-by-sa-3.0|GFDL}} on the file description page, someone who uses your work can choose to use it under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike or the GFDL (or both). Multi-licensing is most commonly used with copyleft licenses to allow the work to be combined with a wider range of other works. It can also be used to offer non-free licensing options in addition to at least one free licensing option.
You can add licensing options to your own works at any time. You can also place your works into the public domain or change licenses to more permissive versions of the same license at any time. For example, if you have published a work under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike, you can replace {{Cc-by-sa-3.0}} with {{Cc-zero}} or {{Cc-by-3.0}} at a later date. However, you cannot revoke a license or change the licensing requirements to be more restrictive, and you cannot recall a public domain donation.
Further reading:
Requesting licensing permission for someone else's work
[edit]You may upload works that other people have created if they are willing to allow their works to be used freely by others. You must obtain permission before uploading someone else's work.
Wikimedia Commons cannot accept content under permissions limited to Wikipedia, Commons, or Wikimedia. Therefore, when requesting licensing permission for someone else's work, you should make it clear that the request is for a license allowing anyone to use and redistribute the work in modified or unmodified form for any commercial or non-commercial purpose.
The copyright holder should preferably agree to a specific free license. Statements such as "feel free to use it" or "may be used freely by anyone" are not sufficient.
It is strongly recommended that you use our standard permission declaration for obtaining permission. The permission should be sent to Commons' permissions archive before uploading the file.
Uploading someone else's work
[edit]You may upload copyrighted works created by others if you can show that they have explicitly agreed to publish the work under a free license.
To be expanded.
Reusing or modifying someone else's work
[edit]To be expanded.
Combining multiple free works
[edit]To be expanded.