Wikipedia:Confirmation of permission
From Free net encyclopedia
It sometimes happens that users post text from other websites claiming to have permission to do so. Sometimes, images from other websites are uploaded and claimed to be under a free license (GFDL, public domain, Template:Tl, or others.) If the external website does not have any indication that such claims are well-founded, it sometimes is a good idea to try to verify such claims by contacting a representative of that website directly. You should, however, basically assume good faith and judge for yourself whether a claim made appears credible or indeed does warrant following up with an attempt to have it confirmed.
If the poster or uploader claims to be the copyright holder and website owner him- or herself, leave them a message on-Wiki telling them to include a license statement on their website that says that the text or image in question is indeed published under the claimed license. That's the easiest way to confirm such a claim. If they don't do that, or claim to have permission from some third party (usually the original author or photographer), contact them or the third party via e-mail.
If you yourself have found an image and want to contact the photographer or copyright holder up-front to secure permission before uploading the image, you should also follow these guidelines.
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How to ask for permission
Search the external website and try to find a contact address. Most websites give an e-mail address of the webmaster; if the author of the text or the photographer of an image is known, try to contact the author or photographer directly. In general, do not send an inquiry to an e-mail posted on Wikipedia: if you have reason to question a license claim made on Wikipedia, you also have reason to wonder whether contact data given on Wikipedia is correct. Try to find a contact address off the Wiki. Send them an e-mail explaining the situation and asking for their permission. If authorship is unclear, ask them to confirm that the text or image is indeed theirs.
For text
Text in Wikipedia articles must be licensed under the terms of the Gnu Free Documentation License. When asking for permission, you should explain that this means that
- The text or image may be freely redistributed and used.
- It may be freely modified, and modified versions may also be freely redistributed and used.
- Any redistribution must include the full text of the GFDL itself.
- In all cases, the GFDL requires proper attribution of the author(s).
- The GFDL allows commercial re-uses.
You may also choose to explain that the author does not give up any of his or her rights: he or she is still free to publish the text elsewhere or to license the same text to other parties under any other license. You may also want to mention that the requirement to include the full text of the GFDL with any redistribution makes stand-alone commercial reuse of the item unlikely in practice.
For images
For images, you are not limited to the GFDL: any free license will do. If the photographer's identity is unclear (for instance, if an image was uploaded stating the photographer's name and claiming a free license, but the image cannot be found on the web), ask them to confirm that the image is theirs. In any case, ask them to confirm the claimed license. For the GFDL, point out the points mentioned above. Any free license must allow modification, redistribution, and use for any purpose, including commercial purposes and also of modified versions. The only restrictions allowable are proper attribution of the creator and the requirement that derivative works are similarly licensed.
When permission is confirmed
Once you have received a confirmation that permission has been given, you should forward it to the Wikimedia PR department at the e-mail address "permissions at wikimedia dot org", where it will be securely archived. Forward both your request and the answer received to that e-mail address, preferrably together as one message (e.g., as attachments to one message of yours that would say that you received such-and-such release of which article or image).
You should add a note to the effect that permission has been confirmed on the article's talk page (not in the article itself) or on the image description page, but avoid disclosing unnecessary personal details such as email addresses or telephone numbers. You may wish to use the Template:Tl template for this purpose.
See also: Wikipedia:copyrights, Wikipedia:Possible copyright infringements, new editors claiming copyright thread on Wikilegal-l
Boilerplate request for confirmation
Dear [NAME]
I am writing to confirm whether permission is granted to use a page from your website under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFDL ). A user with the [IP xxx/ username xxx] has pasted in text from your website [WEBSITE ADDRESS] to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The text concerns [TOPIC OF PAGE] and the original submission can be viewed at [Address of Pre-copyvio boilerplate version].
This user claims on the talk page [TALK PAGE ADDRESS] to *[have permission to use this material/ be the original author of the material], but for the page to remain on our site, we need further evidence that this is the case.
The article will be deleted in seven days time if permission is not confirmed, though it can be undeleted at a later date if you choose to respond later to state that such use is allowed.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.
Yours faithfully,
[NAME]
*delete as appropriate