Wikipedia:Non-free content

This page provides general guidance on what is or isn't likely to be fair use and how you can best assist reusers when using fair use works. It is not official policy. You, as the uploader, are legally responsible for determining whether your contributions are legal.

The United States copyright doctrine of fair use gives some allowance for the copying of copyrighted material in a specific, narrow set of commercial and non-commercial circumstances. Our primary goal on Wikipedia is to create a free content ("free" as in "free speech") encyclopedia which can be used by downstream users. See meta:Do fair use images violate the GFDL? and meta:Permission grant extent for extensive discussion of the compatibility of fair use and the GFDL. Fair use/fair dealing laws are different in different jurisdictions and fair use works are seldom going to be usable outside the U.S.—even the most restrictive license possible is often more free than fair use outside the U.S.

Policy

Copyrighted images, audio clips, and text may be used in Wikipedia when there is:

• No Free equivalent availble,
• The usage is permitted by U.S. case law,
• There is proper attribution to the source, and
• Certain Wikipedia policy requirements are met.

Text

Brief, attributed quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point or establish context.

In general, quotations of copyrighted news materials (such as newspapers and wire services) is not fair use and is prohibited by Wikipedia policy.

Audio clips

Brief song clips may be used for identification of a musical style, group, or iconic piece of music when accompanied by critical or historical commentary and when attributed to the copyright holder.

Spoken word audio clips of historical events, such as speeches by public figures, may be used when accompanied by critical or historical commentary and when attributed to the speaker.

Spoken word audio clips of Wikipedia articles that incorporate copyrighted text pose legal problems (since the resulting audio file cannot be GFDL'ed) and should be avoided.

Images

In very limited circumstances, copyrighted images may be used in articles on Wikipedia.

• Cover art. Cover art from various items, for identification and critical commentary.
• Team and corporate logos. For identification.
• Stamps and currency. For identification.
• Other promotional material. Posters, programs, billboards, ads. For critical commentary.
• Movie stills. For critical commentary and discussion of cinematic history.
• Screen shots from software products. For critical commentary.
• Paintings and other works of visual art. For critical commentary, including images illustrative of a particular technique or school.
• Publicity photos are permitted but are not fair use, see Wikipedia:Publicity photos.

Most other circumstances are not fair use and are not permitted by Wikipedia policy:

• News and wire service photos published in 1923 or later. Not permitted. These are copyrighted and there is no fair use exemption for them.
• Photographs of plants, wildlife, and other natural history subjects. Not permitted. Fair use doesn't provide a general "educational" exemption for such material.

In general, copyrighted images may not be used in non-article pages, such as user pages, talk pages, templates, and Wikipedia pages.

Justification for fair use

The image description page, as described on wikipedia:image description page, must provide:

• A copyright statement listing the name of the copyright holder,
• The name of the article for which fair use is claimed, and
• An appropriate fair use tag indicating which Wikipedia policy provision permitting the use is claimed.

A list of image tags can be found on the Wikipedia:Image_copyright_tags#Fair_use page.

Rationale

The Copyright Act of 1976, defines four factors to consider when deciding if the copying of a copyrighted work is fair and allowable without the consent of the copyright holder (17 U.S.C. § 107)

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.[1]

There is also a substantial body of case law.

General guidance

Always use a more free alternative if one is available. Such images can often be used more readily outside the U.S. If you see a fair use image and know of an alternative more free equivalent, please replace it, so the Wikipedia can become as free as possible. Eventually we may have a way to identify images as more restricted than GFDL on the article pages, to make the desire for a more free image more obvious.

For reusers, particularly commercial reusers, the most important part of a fair use description is good information on the original source of the image. That is essential to allow them to make their own determination of whether their own use is fair use. They can't rely on our judgement because they have legal liability regardless of what we say.

Often an image will be both fair use and licensed use. The license protects the uploader and the Wikipedia, while others can use the image as fair use. This is particularly likely when the uploader is not in the US and may not be able to legally use fair use without infringing under their own local copyright law. It's always good to have the legal protection of even a very restrictive license for a work being used under fair use. To assist reusers, do give both the license details and the fair use rationale. In these cases, the license will govern use outside the US, while those in the US can use fair use.

If you want help in assessing whether a use is fair use, please ask at Wikipedia:Requested copyright examinations. Wikipedia talk:Copyrights and Wikipedia talk:Copyright problems may also be useful. These are places where those who understand copyright law are likely to be watching.

Tagging files (under revision)

The system of fair use tags is presently under revision. The old tags may still be used while the new tags are being developed

For a while there was a proposed discussion system for fair use images. While it was little used, the tags described here may be encountered on one of the images which used the system.

If it has been determined that there is no alternative to fair use for a specific file, you may include the file in the relevant article(s) if it is tagged with the message at Template:verifieduse, which can be included by adding the tag {{verifieduse}}, which expands to:

The use of this file was reviewed and deemed likely to meet Wikipedia's policy on non-freely licensed content, because it is thought to meet all criteria as described in Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria. This file's use on other pages or in different contexts may require additional review at Wikipedia:Files for discussion.

If you have found a file that you believe to be fair use, but have not verified that it is fair use, you can use the {{Fairuse}} tag which expands to:

Please also add the source from which the image has been reproduced. Remember there is no "general rule" about fair use, each "fair use" must be explained and a rationale must be established for that specific use (in other words every page that uses the image will have a distinct rationale for using the image on that page even though fair use is claimed on the image page).

Counterexamples

Some people find it easier to get the concept of fair use from what is not fair use. Here are a few examples of uses that would almost certainly not be acceptable as fair use:

• An image of a rose, captured off of a record album jacket, used to illustrate an article on roses.
• A detailed map, photocopied from a copyrighted atlas, used in an article about the region depicted. The only context in which this might be fair use is if the map itself was a topic of a passage in the article: for example, a controversial map of a disputed territory might be fair use.
• A work of art, not so famous as to be iconic, whose theme happens to be the Spanish Civil War, used without permission to illustrate an article on the war. (However, because of its iconic status, it is presumably fair use where we have a small image of Picasso's Guernica in the article Bombing of Guernica.)

See also

• Wikipedia:Fair use checklist