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Wikipedia:Copyright problems/Advice for admins
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This is a guide for administrators and editors working through Wikipedia:Copyright problems and Category:Possible copyright violations.
The main WP:CP page has a link to each day's daily log page. Each daily log page contains transclusions of two other pages, an article page and an image page. The daily log page cannot be edited directly; the article and image pages must be edited separately, but the 'edit' links can be reached from the main WP:CP page.
Investigation process
It is important to thoroughly investigate each article or image individually before deciding to keep, alter, or delete it.
The basic examination process is the same for images and articles alike. Address each of the following points before a decision is made.
- Compare the article or image, before the page was blanked, with the text or image at the given URL.
- Check the copyright status of the given URL to see if the content is already licensed under the GFDL or a compatible Creative Commons license.
- Statements like 'all rights reserved', 'Copyright 2000-2008', 'non-commercial use only', 'educational use only' or 'permission granted to Wikipedia' are not compliant with our licensing requirements.
- If the copyright status is unclear from the URL itself, check the 'About this site' or 'Terms of use' sections of the site, if available.
- Make sure that the website did not copy the material in question from Wikipedia.
- There are many Wikipedia mirrors and forks, and Wikipedia articles may also be copied to personal or commercial websites (in accordance with GFDL requirements).
- If it is unclear which came first, the Wikipedia article or the outside URL, compare the date of the webpage with the Wikipedia article's history.
- Large chunks of unwikified text added in one revision are usually copied from another website, a book, or other material.
- The Internet Archive can help determine the age of a particular page or text.
- If you confirm that the other source is duplicating Wikipedia without credit, consider tagging the article's talk page with {{Backwardscopyvio}}
- A translation from a foreign language can also be a copyright violation, if it is an unauthorized derivative work.
- Is there a claim of permission or ownership?
- Check the article's talk page, edit summaries, and the user talk page of the article's creator/editor who added the text.
- Sometimes new editors are unsure where to claim permission, and could state their claim in unlikely places.
- It does not matter where the first assertion of ownership/permission is found, but it must be verified according to policy (see below).
- Check the page history to see if there is a clean version, without the infringing text.
- Check the /Temp link provided in {{copyvio}} to see if the article has been rewritten.
- For images, make sure the image is hosted at Wikipedia and not at Commons. Wikipedia administrators cannot delete images from Commons unless they are also Commons administrators.
Once your examination is complete, use the findings to decide what to do.
Articles
If the page is copied from a website with an obvious copyright notice that is not compatible with Wikipedia, there are no clean versions in the article's history, and there is no assertion of permission or ownership:
- Delete the article under Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#G12.
- Give a suitable deletion rationale, such as "blatant copyright infringement of <place URL here> with no assertion of ownership or permission".
- Do not include any non-free or copyrighted text in the rationale.
- For copyright violations, it does not matter if the article is one day old or three years old - 'speedy' means 'without discussion' and is not a reference to the length of time the article has been on Wikipedia.
If there is a claim of ownership or permission:
- Ask the claimant, on either the article talk page, their user talk page, or both, to alter the external website to indicate that use is permitted under the GFDL, or, alternatively, to contact the Wikimedia Foundation from an associated e-mail or postal address to release it. For further information, see the introduction to Wikipedia:Copyright problems and Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission. This begins the seven-day time frame for verification.
- Make a note on that day's log, under the page's entry, that there is a claim of permission and the date of notification.
- If someone else has already informed the claimant how to release permission, do not delete the article until at least 7 days after that information was provided to the claimant.
If there is a claim of permission/ownership but the claimant did not follow up or verify in 7 days:
- Check the page history, the article talk page, and the claimant's user talk page to ensure 7 days have passed since the notice was given.
- If 7 days have passed with no action, delete the article.
- Give a good rationale for deletion, such as "copyright infringement of <place URL here>, permission asserted but not verified after <number of days after notice>". Do not include any non-free or copyrighted text in the rationale.
If the article was rewritten or there is any indication of a rewrite on the talk page or in edit summaries:
- Check the temporary subpage /Temp as linked on the copyvio notice (or wherever the new version has been created).
- Make sure that contributors to the new article have not violated the GFDL attribution rights of earlier creators.
- Move it from there to the main article you just deleted; use an appropriate, descriptive rationale.
- Delete the useless redirect that results from this under WP:CSD#G6 (non-controversial housekeeping).
If there is a copyright violation and there are clean revisions in the page history or if the text in question is a minor part of the article, there are a couple of options:
- Revert back to the last clean revision or remove the infringing text from the article, using an appropriate edit summary.
- This is the best choice in most situations. The infringing text is removed from the public face of the article, but it will not be removed/deleted permanently unless the copyright holder complains via OTRS.
- A second choice is to delete the article, then use the undelete function to restore the untainted versions.
- This is not a good alternative if the article has a lengthy page history, because it will be time-consuming to delete then undelete thousands of versions of the article. However, it can be useful if the copyrighted text was added over a few edits, recently, and/or if the text is clearly inappropriate to keep in the article's history.
- In either case, a short explanation on the article's talk page is helpful so other editors will neither revert nor add the text back to the article.
If there was no copyright violation:
- Remove the {{copyvio}} notice from the article by reverting to the last version prior to insertion of the template. A short explanation on the article talk page will help prevent future reports for copyright problems.
Images
Wikipedia:Non-free_content is the policy governing non-free images. Images that are blatant copyright infringement should be tagged for speedy deletion with {{db-i9}}. Images that are less clear should be listed for investigation at possibly unfree images.
Images tagged with {{db-i9}} should be blatant image copyright infringements, images for which the source is known and which cannot be used under a free license or fair use doctrine. Examples include derivative works of copyrighted images and images for which free alternatives exist.
If the image is identical to the image found at the given URL and it cannot be used on Wikipedia under fair use or a free license:
- Delete the image with an edit summary such as "copyright infringement of <place URL here> without permission".
If the image has been tagged by the uploader with a free license when that is obviously not the case:
If the image seems like a copyright infringement but there is no URL given in the report for the source, or you're uncertain about its copyright status:
If the image is a logo or cover art, or an image that can be used under WP:NFC but lacks a rationale or a license:
- Remove {{db-i9}} from the image.
- Add the appropriate template(s) instead:
As a courtesy, tag the captions in the article(s) in which the image is used and notify the uploader per instructions.
If there was no copyright violation:
- Remove the {{db-i9}} notice from the article by reverting to the last version prior to insertion of the template.
Completion
If you deleted the article or image, it's not necessary to do anything else. The red link on that day's log page will indicate the page was deleted as the resolution of the issue.
If the page was not deleted (no violation, deleted and clean revisions were restored, listed at WP:PUI, rewritten, etc.), strikethrough (<s>...</s> around the entry) the listing on that day's log page and leave a brief explanation of your actions.
When all entries on a day's log have been considered and every article and image listed that day have been resolved, remove the day's daily log page from Wikipedia:Copyright problems but do not delete it.
Old daily log pages can be found at [[Wikipedia:Copyright problems/year month day/Articles]] or [[Wikipedia:Copyright problems/year month day/Images]].
See also
