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#: Users are cautioned to avoid uploading images which they have "found on some website", because it is extremely likely those images are both copyrighted and do not meet our [[Wikipedia:Non-free content|Non-free content]] policy, which states that a non-free image may be used ''only'' when it cannot be replaced. For example, there's no way whatsoever that a logo of a political party or a screenshot of a video game can be replaced by a free image, but a photo of a certain living person or location can ''almost always'' be replaced, even if doing so may be very difficult. To help Wikipedia, search for free images, especially for living persons, existing buildings and places—but don't upload an image just because the article doesn't have one right now; we can (and will) wait for a free image to be created or released. |
#: Users are cautioned to avoid uploading images which they have "found on some website", because it is extremely likely those images are both copyrighted and do not meet our [[Wikipedia:Non-free content|Non-free content]] policy, which states that a non-free image may be used ''only'' when it cannot be replaced. For example, there's no way whatsoever that a logo of a political party or a screenshot of a video game can be replaced by a free image, but a photo of a certain living person or location can ''almost always'' be replaced, even if doing so may be very difficult. To help Wikipedia, search for free images, especially for living persons, existing buildings and places—but don't upload an image just because the article doesn't have one right now; we can (and will) wait for a free image to be created or released. |
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#: Also, non-commercial, educational use only, and no-derivatives images do not meet the definition of free content. All of these restrictions, and other restrictions on the type of use, limit how other people may use the image outside of Wikipedia. Therefore, if such images cannot be justified as "fair use" within their articles, they will be deleted. |
#: Also, non-commercial, educational use only, and no-derivatives images do not meet the definition of free content. All of these restrictions, and other restrictions on the type of use, limit how other people may use the image outside of Wikipedia. Therefore, if such images cannot be justified as "fair use" within their articles, they will be deleted. |
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#:: ''More information:'' |
#:: ''More information:'' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Non-free_content_criteria |
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# '''Copyright law is complicated, even for lawyers, and applying it to Wikipedia even more so.''' |
# '''Copyright law is complicated, even for lawyers, and applying it to Wikipedia even more so.''' |
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#: Even if you are licensed attorney who practices in this area, US copyright law (which applies to Wikipedia) is complex, and while an understanding of how it applies to Wikipedia may be achievable, there are considerable gray areas. Deciding the status of one image in a complex situation can be very difficult at times, if not impossible. |
#: Even if you are licensed attorney who practices in this area, US copyright law (which applies to Wikipedia) is complex, and while an understanding of how it applies to Wikipedia may be achievable, there are considerable gray areas. Deciding the status of one image in a complex situation can be very difficult at times, if not impossible. |
Revision as of 00:29, 4 September 2007
If you're new here, these are probably 10 things you didn't know about images on Wikipedia. We hope this gives you a better idea of the whats and whys of illustrating the world's most popular encyclopedia. If you're more experienced with images on Wikipedia, you probably know most of these—but maybe you've never seen them written down, or you don't know where to point other people who want a quick and easy explanation of a sometimes-complicated subject.
- There is more to our images than you can see at first look...
- If you click on any image on Wikipedia, you will go to a page about the image itself.
- This "image page" will have information on the image's source, authorship, and copyright licensing, along with a more detailed description of the image.
- Unless the image is very small, you'll see a larger version of the image here. Clicking on this image will take you to the full-size original version. If you want to save images from Wikipedia, be sure to save the original version of the image, which is higher-quality than the thumbnail sizes on the article and image pages, and usually contains Exif data: information about the photographer, settings, and the equipment used to take the picture. If you reuse images from Wikipedia, please be sure to respect the provided license and provide credit where credit is due—usually to the photographer, not Wikipedia!
- We have over two and a half million images.
- We reached 1 million images on all Wikipedia projects in July of 2006. There are now over 1.75 million images on Commons, our repository of free images. On the English Wikipedia we have over 750,000 images.
- You can see some of our best work at our featured pictures page, the featured pictures page on Commons, or in the results of the annual "Picture of the Year" contest.
- With this many files, we are a useful source of images for many purposes, and you can search our collection using a tool called Mayflower.
- More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics, http://commons.wikimedia.org/Special:Statistics.
- We want more images...
- However, we primarily want freely-licensed images (GFDL, CC-BY-SA, CC-BY, public domain, or another free content license, not just any picture on the web) which are compatible with our policies and our goal of creating a free resource for everyone. If a picture is worth a thousand words, contributing a free picture is giving a thousand words to everyone who wants to use it and will ever see it; a non-free one only gives them to visitors to a single website.
- We depend on people like you to create and contribute images for Wikipedia, and the rest of the world, to use, as long as you are willing to release the images under a free content license. You can read about some of the people who are already contributing their work here.
- When we say "free content", we're talking about the freedom the public has to use the images for any purpose, not the price.
- More information: pictures requested by Wikipedia readers, of a free content license
- ...but we want usable images.
- Please do not upload images that shouldn't or can't be used in an article. While we allow users to upload a few freely-licensed images to use on their user pages, we don't need a 19th image of your Jack Russell Terrier on that article. (Even if he's really cute.) The Wikimedia Foundation is not a free web host for your images. Please use a website designed for this if you just want a place to share your personal photos.
- We take copyright seriously.
- Blatant and unjustifiable violations of copyright law and our image policies can be (and usually are) deleted almost immediately. We have a long-term mission to create and promote content which is free of the typical encumbrances of copyright law. This mission requires us to take copyright very seriously. Unlike most other websites that allow users to submit content, we aggressively remove all copyright infringements as soon as we can find them, and we block people who willfully ignore this after being warned.
- Because free content is a fundamental part of our mission, our policy on image licensing is more restrictive than required by law. We try to use non-free images only when nothing else is possible.
- Users are cautioned to avoid uploading images which they have "found on some website", because it is extremely likely those images are both copyrighted and do not meet our Non-free content policy, which states that a non-free image may be used only when it cannot be replaced. For example, there's no way whatsoever that a logo of a political party or a screenshot of a video game can be replaced by a free image, but a photo of a certain living person or location can almost always be replaced, even if doing so may be very difficult. To help Wikipedia, search for free images, especially for living persons, existing buildings and places—but don't upload an image just because the article doesn't have one right now; we can (and will) wait for a free image to be created or released.
- Also, non-commercial, educational use only, and no-derivatives images do not meet the definition of free content. All of these restrictions, and other restrictions on the type of use, limit how other people may use the image outside of Wikipedia. Therefore, if such images cannot be justified as "fair use" within their articles, they will be deleted.
- More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Non-free_content_criteria
- Copyright law is complicated, even for lawyers, and applying it to Wikipedia even more so.
- Even if you are licensed attorney who practices in this area, US copyright law (which applies to Wikipedia) is complex, and while an understanding of how it applies to Wikipedia may be achievable, there are considerable gray areas. Deciding the status of one image in a complex situation can be very difficult at times, if not impossible.
- We have more than photographs
- Our collection also includes hundreds of thousands of vector images, audio recordings, and videos.
- We have an image use policy.
- Once an image is uploaded, and the source and licensing information are correctly given, it may be used in articles. Our Image Use Policy describes the accepted ways of displaying, formatting, and otherwise using images in Wikipedia. If you jump in to using images in articles, you should be familiar with it. For example, did you know that no image will display more than 550 pixels wide inside an article?
- Ideally, all images used on Wikipedia would be on Wikimedia Commons.
- Because we want free content, ideally all images uploaded would be free for everyone, and therefore would be acceptable on our sister project, Wikimedia Commons. Images submitted to Commons are used the same way as images uploaded locally to Wikipedia and are automatically available on Wikipedia—as well as on hundreds of other Wikis run by the Wikimedia Foundation.
- More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Free_image_resources
- Because we want free content, ideally all images uploaded would be free for everyone, and therefore would be acceptable on our sister project, Wikimedia Commons. Images submitted to Commons are used the same way as images uploaded locally to Wikipedia and are automatically available on Wikipedia—as well as on hundreds of other Wikis run by the Wikimedia Foundation.
- Uploading the same image multiple times is not needed.
- You can edit the image description page. Just like every other page on Wikipedia, the image description page can be edited by anyone. Just click "edit this page" while looking at the image page. Forgot to license or give the source for the image when you uploaded it? Do not re-upload the image: edit the image description page and add the license!
- Also, the wiki software can control the size of the images, so you do not need to re-upload a smaller version of the same image. See Wikipedia:Extended image syntax. There, you can learn how to use frames, control the position in the article and about captions! For more on captions, see Wikipedia:Captions.
- You can use (free) images on Wikipedia yourself, anywhere you like...
- You can use images that are on Commons and free images on Wikipedia provided you comply with the individual image license terms, not (necessarily) the GFDL. While all articles text are licensed under the GFDL, free images have several licenses to choose from. See Wikipedia:Image copyright tags/Free licenses for the many possibilities. You can use them on any page on Wikipedia. You can even use them OFF Wikipedia, such as on a website, printed material, anywhere! All "Free" image licenses allow these uses.
- ...but you cannot use non-free images anywhere except in relevant encyclopedia articles.
- Non-free images can only be used in the article namespace where they have a rationale for existing. You cannot use them anywhere else, such as on policy pages, discussion pages, templates, or user communication pages. If you need to discuss them, link to them by putting a colon (:) between the "[[" and "Image:" like this: [[:Image:Imagenamegoeshere.ext]]
- More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Non-free_content_criteria
- Non-free images can only be used in the article namespace where they have a rationale for existing. You cannot use them anywhere else, such as on policy pages, discussion pages, templates, or user communication pages. If you need to discuss them, link to them by putting a colon (:) between the "[[" and "Image:" like this: [[:Image:Imagenamegoeshere.ext]]
Other media
All the above applies to audio and video too.
- We allow other forms of media, such as audio and even video. The same rules apply for these media as they do for images.
Help!
If you have questions: ask! See:
- General: Wikipedia:Media copyright questions
- For help with using images: Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance)
See also
The power of free!
All these images are free, so using them here (or anywhere) is acceptable so long as the individual licences are obeyed!
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Image by MECU
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Good example image to use for testing in the Sandbox
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Commons Picture of the Year for 2006
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Free for all languages!
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This image is a vector image; it can be magnified endlessly without pixelating.