Indo-European Languages:Copyrights

This page is an official policy on Europaio. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. Please feel free to update this page as needed, but make sure that changes you make to this policy really do reflect Europaio's perspective before you make them.

All material on Europaio is by default released under a dual GDFL-Creative Commons license. For other licenses (especially for images), see Help:Image licenses.

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Revised Default Copyright

As of January, 2007, we are tweaking our licensing structure a little bit. Previously, the default copyright for all Europaio materials was a Creative Commons (CC) License (Attribution 2.5).

There are a couple of problems with this arrangement, not least that it in incompatible with (and thus violates the terms of) the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) used by Wikipedia. This causes complications because a number of our articles began as Wikipedia imports.

Because of other concerns, we didn’t want to simply adopt the GFDL.

So, we moved to a dual license. Every edit made is by default licensed under both the GFDL as well as a revised Creative Commons license (Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5). This applies to material that was previously released under a different license, as there has been no anonymous contributions, and it is our intention to relicense the content of Dnghu's publications. This will not apply to any material that is submitted under other copyright terms, such as most of our images.

The main change as far as the Creative Commons license is concerned, is that the new license allows restricted commercial use of the material. The GFDL already allows this, and we see no reason to make the CC license more restrictive. Furthermore, we do not anticipate anybody making big money off of Europaio content. If someone can earn something by publishing it commercially according to the terms of one of these licenses, we will simply be happy that the content is being used and that Europaio is being publicized. Furthermore, we are still requiring authors of derivative works to "Share-Alike", which means they cannot restrict similar copying of the edits they make from Europaio articles.

We would also like to make sure that the barriers to reprinting material here are not too high. Right now, to be safe, reprinting material requires contacting all of the individual contributors and obtaining their permission to use their materials and crediting them individually. We'd like to change it so that consent is implied and the requirement for attribution can be fullfilled more simply.

Here's an imagined scenario: A number of people dedicate their time and know-how to create a splendid series of articles on Armenian language. An Armenian then wants to reprint these articles for a book on Indo-European languages. Now, instead of getting permission from or citing every single contributor, this writer can simply cite collective authorship at Europaio.org, and refer to the CC by-sa license. Also, he doesn't have to be shy about trying to recoup his printing costs, or even earning a small profit to help reward him for him time and effort. If he wants to polish up the articles, and add some local flavor, he is free to do so, but his revision must likewise by published under the same license. This way, others can benefit from his work just as he benefitted from those before him.

This is lawyer-speak for our protection. No one can claim any author’s work as their own and authors remain free to re-issue their own work under any other license they choose.

We are trying to be as conscientious as possible about copyright concerns. It is our policy to be proactive about copyright infringement. However, if you think you have seen any type of copyright infringement, please give us the benefit of the doubt and contact us so that we can clear up any issues. Please also let us know if you have any other comments or concerns. And, if it is simply about an image or an article not citing proper sources, just remember this is a wiki and you can add what you see fit, instead of loosing your time and make us loose ours writing and reading formal mails, just to add a simple link.

Further Stipulations - Imported Content

Note: Dual licensing applies does not apply to any material imported from Wikipedia or any other content explicitly released under another licensing arrangement. All material imported from Wikipedia should provide a link back to the original article (preferably a version permalink) on Wikipedia. ("Wikipedia considers a direct link-back to a particular Wikipedia article as being in full compliance with the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), provided your derivative work is also licensed under the auspices of the GFDL" [1] - see also Wikipedia:copyright.)

Material contributed to Europaio must either be original work by the contributor, who releases it by default under dual license arrangement noted above, or it must be released to Europaio by explicit permission of the copyright holder, in which case it can be included under a license determined by the owner. (You can browse Europaio's selection of Copyright Templates or create your own.)

Generally speaking, copyrighted material may be quoted if it is part of a larger work which cites the material and makes use of it for the purposes of comment on it.

Violations of copyright law on Europaio are not tolerated. All material is the responsibility of the contributors to the site, so while the administration does the best it can to prevent violation of copyright law, some material may have slipped their notice. (See: Project:General disclaimer.) If you own a copyright that is being violated on Europaio, contact the administration immediately so that the problem may be resolved.

Revoking Permissions

In some cases, a person who had previously posted or allowed content to be posted on Europaiomay wish to revoke permission for use. We will consider removing an article or image if it was clearly marked from the beginning as retaining full copyright and locked from further editing (of content, not necessarily of formatting). (We allow material to be released under more restrictive licenses on this site in various cases.)

However, once material is released to Europaio under our default GFDL/CC license, we can't accept revocation of permissions, since already other people would've invested their time and effort into formatting and revising the article. In a sense, the content becomes the property of the community, sprung from the donation of an individual seed.

See also

Other pages related to our copyright policies on Europaio include:

• Project:Templates
• Help:Image licenses
• Project:Style_Manual#Copyrighted_Material
• Project:Style Manual (Importing)

External links

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 - our new CC license
• Baseline rights and restrictions in all licenses- A nice overview pertaining to CC licenses
• http://wikitravel.org/en/Wikitravel:Why_Wikitravel_isn't_GFDL - Read about why WikiTravel has chosen a similar licensing scheme
• GNU Free Documentation License - about the GFDL
• The GNU Free Documentation License - Full text
• Why You Shouldn't Use the GNU FDL- Highlights some problems with the GFDL
• Wikipedia:Multilicensing - How Wikipedia is dealing with this
• Meta:Guide to CC dual-license
• The Case for Free Use: Reasons Not to Use a Creative Commons -NC License - Includes many salient points about why not to use the CC non-commercial license
• Wikipedia:Copyright - Important information for users of Wikipedia content
• Wikipedia:Publicity_photos and [2] - RE: Publicity photos

This copyright text was taken and modified from OrthodoxWiki