User talk:Alan thistle

Your submission at Articles for creation

Thank you for your recent submission to Articles for Creation. Your article submission has been reviewed. The submission has not been accepted because it included copyrighted information, which is not permitted on Wikipedia. You are welcome to write an article on the subject, but please do not use copyrighted work.

If you would like to continue working on the submission, you can find it at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Melvyn A. Goodale.
To edit the submission, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window.
If you need any assistance, you can ask for help at the help desk, via real time chat with helpers, or on the reviewer's talk page

Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia! Excirial^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 18:27, 12 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Alan thistle. You have new messages at Selket's talk page.
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Copyright violation

I recently created an article which was not accepted because it contained copyrighted information. I am not sure what the violation was. Could you explain? I am new at this. The article was to be entitled 'Melvyn Goodale' or Melvyn A. Goodale'

This is the message I received:

Thank you for your recent submission to Articles for Creation. Your article submission has been reviewed. The submission has not been accepted because it included copyrighted information, which is not permitted on Wikipedia. You are welcome to write an article on the subject, but please do not use copyrighted work.

If you would like to continue working on the submission, you can find it at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Melvyn A. Goodale. To edit the submission, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window.If you need any assistance, you can ask for help at the help desk, via real time chat with helpers, or on the reviewer's talk page. Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia!
— Excirial^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 18:27, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Alan thistle (talk) 17:36, 13 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hello there Alan,

The problem with the article was that it was a copyright violation, as the text of the article was directly copied from other sources (Among, but not limited to http://psychology.uwo.ca/faculty/goodale/biography/index.htm). Under US law copyright (Which Wikipedia is governed by) is automatically granted on all written texts, and is therefor present unless the writer specifically decides to waives these rights. Copyright restricts what one can do with a text - for example, it may not be freely altered or reproduced, which is necessarily for Wikipedia. Due to this Wikipedia only accepts texts that are either licensed under GDFL or CC-BY-SA (or a more lenient license).

In short you can write an article based on external pages and you can paraphrase them, but you cannot directly copy outside content. This is mostly a bad idea regardless, since most external texts are not written in a tone and style that an encyclopedia such as Wikipedia requires. The best way forward is rewriting the submission in your own wording, while making sure that you don't paraphrase the original source to closely (Changing a word or two in a text and then posting it, for example)

With kind regards, Excirial^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 18:30, 13 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to Wikipedia: check out the Teahouse!

Hello! Alan thistle, you are invited to the Teahouse, a forum on Wikipedia for new editors to ask questions about editing Wikipedia, and get support from peers and experienced editors. Please join us!

I, and the rest of the hosts, would be more than happy to answer any questions you have! SarahStierch (talk) 05:45, 17 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]