Wikipedia:Adding a GFDL license to your webpage

If you have material on the web which you want to make publicly available for inclusion in projects such as Wikipedia you can add a GFDL license footer to the bottom of the webpage.

For example, the following HTML added to the end of a webpage (feel free to modify it):

<table><tr><td valign="center"><img src="http://www.wikia.com/skins/common/images/gnu-fdl.png" width="88px" height="31px"></a></td><td valign="center"><b>GFDLcontent</b> <small>The work on this page is licensed under the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License">GNU Free Documentation License</a>. The author states that the text and images can be used within the restrictions of this license (for example, they can be incorporated into certain free encyclopedias such as <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>). Please add a footer like this to your own webpages to promote free access to knowledge (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Adding_a_GFDL_license_to_your_webpage">see Wikipedia's instructions</a>).</small></td></tr></table>

Produces the following footer on the webpage:

GFDLcontent The work on this page is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. The author states that the text and images can be used within the restrictions of this license (for example, they can be incorporated into certain free encyclopedias such as Wikipedia). Please add a footer like this to your own webpages to promote free access to knowledge (see Wikipedia's instructions).

The non-word GFDLcontent is included in order to make the pages easy to find in web searches.

If possible also add the URL of your webpage to the list held at Wikipedia:List of GFDL content on the internet.

Important Notes

• Carefully read GNU_Free_Documentation_License#Criticism_of_the_GFDL
• Do not add the GFDL footer to a page which contains material which is copyrighted by someone else (e.g. a scientific journal) or was written by someone else
• Remember that the material may be copied by anyone for any purpose within the framework of the GFDL license.
• You can exclude certain items (e.g. images) by listing them specifically within the text on the GFDL footer
• You can include other pages or particular files on the same webserver if you clearly describe which ones you are referring to - e.g. "all pages in the outreach section of this website" or "this URL is also included: http://www.geocities.com/robert_tubbs/page1.html"

Please help by indicating which material on your websites is not copyrighted!

But the material is on the web - why does it need a GFDL license?

There are a number of benefits in applying a GFDL license:

• It means the material can be included in Wikipedia, and thus reach a larger audience
• It means that people who cannot afford copyrighted material can have access to it. For example a third world country could legally include some of your work in lesson plans for its schools and thus avoid having to pay for copyrighted material.
• It means some of the material could be incorporated into review webpages summarizing the field

Remember, you are not so much giving away your copyright as simply allowing your work to be used by others (indeed, you retain the copyright, and one of the requirements of the GFDL is that all authors are credited).

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This is part of the Inquiry WikiProject.