Wikipedia talk:Copyrights

See also:

• Wikipedia:Media copyright questions - ask all questions about whether you can use an image here
• Wikipedia talk:Copyrights/Credit repair - case study relating to external links and attribution
• Wikipedia talk:Copyrights/Can I use... - old queries - please don't post new questions here
• Wikipedia talk:Copyright violations on history pages

Update reference to Copyright Volation Letter

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Could an admin please update the link to Wikipedia:Standard GFDL violation letter in the If you are the owner of Wikipedia-hosted content being used without your permission section of the page to Wikipedia:Standard license violation letter?

The current link is outdated, and could lead readers to assume that Wikipedia is still solely under the GFDL.

Thanks twilsonb (talk) 01:23, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

 Done. Thryduulf (talk) 01:59, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

General Services Administration building descriptions.

I came across the U.S. General Services Administration Historic Building Posters & Brochures series, so I wrote the administrator of that program to ask if the text and images on those pages was in the public domain, or otherwise available to be used by Wikipedia. She replied, by email:

The text on the building overview pages is the property of the federal government, and we have no problem with it being used for Wikipedia articles, provided credit is given to the U.S. General Services Administration. We are delighted to be able to contribute.

I have since copied all of the text of those pages to my userspace, indexed at User:BD2412/courthouses, with an attribution note at the bottom (which is clearly permissible under the express license granted by the GSA). The text will need a lot of work in terms of wikification, layout, and tone, and may end up much altered before it is moved to article space. My question is, does the permission provided by the GSA suffice to permit our use of the material, modified or not, in article space? As a matter of copyright law it certainly does, but does this also meet our internal policy requirements? bd2412 T 14:42, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm confused — in what way would our policies not permit such usage? Nyttend (talk) 15:33, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

That's what I'm asking, really. bd2412 T 22:02, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

We can use the text, but not because we received permission to use on Wikipedia only, which we normally wouldn't accept. However, since the General Services Administration is a federal government body, anything it creates, or its employees create in the course of their duties, is in the public domain. See also {{PD-USGov}}. Stifle (talk) 10:51, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

That's assuming that these are works of the U.S. government, which is probably the case, but not certain. If they were authored by non-U.S. government entities, and the copyrights licensed or transferred to the gov't, then section 105 does not apply. I think it's safe to say, however, that the person at the GSA is probably confused about their copyright status. TJRC (talk) 15:20, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

GFDL-only image and media uploads

I am proposing that images and media files uploaded after a cutoff date and licensed only under the GFDL be prohibited and subject to speedy deletion. Please see the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Image use policy (not here). Stifle (talk) 10:48, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Question

Is it copyright violation if one copies one page of wikipedia to another other page within wikipedia without mentioning which article the stuff was copied from? I suppose not. But what about directly translating from Wikipedia in one language to Wikipedia in another language without attributing it to contributors of the original wikipedia? Would that constitute a copyright violation? Would you please quote the policy that applies here. Thanks --DoostdarWiki (talk) 06:43, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes, in fact, it is a violation of copyright to copy material from one article to another without attribution or to translate without acknowledging the original. Wikipedia's licenses require that the copyright holders of material be acknowledged at minimum through a hyperlink or a URL. Wikipedians are bound by the same reuse conditions as outsiders. It is the section of this policy that begins, "To re-distribute text on Wikipedia in any form, provide credit to the authors...." Acknowledgment is held to be satisfied by providing a link in the edit summary of an article. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 10:38, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. --DoostdarWiki (talk) 06:37, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Logos of defunct companies

Not sure about this one. I have a logo of a defunct company that was published in 1918. The company probably stopped using the logo around 1923 but I think the company itself survived until the 1970s. My question is, should I upload this under {{PD-1923}} because it's an image published prior to 1923, or should I still use the "fair use" tag for logos? Thanks. Gatoclass (talk) 13:58, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

The logo is old enough that any copyright on it has expired (at least in the US), so the {{PD-1923}} tag is appropriate. It may or may not still be protected by trademark: if it is, then add the {{trademark}} tag as well. --Carnildo (talk) 23:04, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Carnildo! And my apologies for leaving it so late to respond. I've been very busy lately and I'm afraid I momentarily forgot about starting this thread. Gatoclass (talk) 04:58, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

PD dates

I've got a policy application question based on a recent copyright problem, pertaining to Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Non-U.S. copyrights. The latter says, without disclaimer, "Any work published before 1923 is in the public domain in the United States, regardless of its source country...." The former says, with footnote, "In the U.S., any work published before January 1, 1923 anywhere in the world is in the public domain." That footnote further adds:

Strictly speaking, only U.S. works published before January 1 1923 and foreign works published in compliance with U.S. formalities (registration, © notice) before that date are in the public domain in the U.S. For non-U.S. works published without compliance with U.S. formalities (i.e., without © notice), the situation is a bit more complicated:

• If published before 1909, such works are in the public domain in the U.S.
• If published between 1909 and 1922 (inclusive) in a language other than English, the Ninth Circuit has considered them as "unpublished works" according to Peter Hirtle and following the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case Twin Books v. Disney in 1996. The case was about the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods; the decision is heavily criticized in Nimmer on Copyright (ISBN 0-820-51465-9), the standard commentary on U.S. copyright law.
• If published between 1909 and 1922 (inclusive) in English, they are highly likely to be PD, given that the aforementioned controversial case was only about a work published in a foreign language.
• Additionally, any work first published outside of the United States without copyright notice prior to 1989, when the U.S. joined the Berne Convention, is in the public domain in the U.S. if it was in the public domain in its country of origin on the URAA date (in most cases January 1, 1996). See the section on country-specific rules for more information.

Also, the 1923 cut-off date applies only to the U.S. This means foreign works first published before 1923 are in the public domain in the U.S., but may still be copyrighted outside the U.S.

Given the footnote at the former, the statement at the latter seems misleading. My work never really dealt with the early stuff, but it seems we need to clarify a bit gray area. My copyright work off Wikipedia has never involved material of this age, so I am not as familiar with it as with some other aspects. But, based on the footnote, it seems we should alter those guidelines to read "Any work published before 1909 is in the public domain in the United States, regardless of its source country...." and add a further statement that "Works published between 1909 and January 1, 1923 may also be public domain in the United States, depending on the details of original publication" (including footnote of explanation). Is it possible to include some practical advice on how to verify the pd status of works published between 1909 and 1923?

Since this is mentioned in both those guidelines and is a standard often applied in determining whether content is PD, I thought to bring it up here, where it may attract more notice. I'll request input at the talk pages of both of those guidelines. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 11:50, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Seems sensible to clarify the guidelines (assuming people actually read them in a meaningful way). I would, however, be keen on keeping the 1923 headline figure, and in this respect, I think the footnote works nicely. To be fair, the 1923 date is everywhere and is about the simplest rule that exists in copyright law (having spent many happy hours using genealogy software to track down the dates of remote late nineteenth-century photographers here in the UK for use on Commons). I hope that makes sense! Also, the 1909 to 1922 period does seem ill-covered, but I am unfamiliar with how actively the Supreme Court decision is applied in reality. - Jarry1250 ^{[ In the UK? Sign the petition! ]} 16:17, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

It was not a Supreme Court decision; it was a circuit court level and is only binding in one judicial district. In general, the U.S. always uses its own copyright terms (even for URAA restored works), and under those terms anything published before 1923 is public domain. That one court case is sorta twisted; it decided that a work published in Germany in another language was still technically "unpublished" in the United States and retained copyright that way. I'm pretty sure that was in contradiction to many earlier cases, and I have not heard of it being cited in other cases (which would be needed to indicate courts in other districts approve of the reasoning). I've never heard of another case determining if something was "published" or not depending on the language it was written in. It personally feels like the decision contorted itself to get to a decision they felt was "right" (upholding copyright for a German author who *almost* got all the old registration requirements right). I'm pretty sure Commons pretty much ignores that decision, especially now that the URAA has rectified all those situations anyways, and just goes with the 1923 dividing line. The Hirtle chart pretty much says it only applies to part of the United States. Carl Lindberg (talk) 01:46, 29 September 2009 (UTC)