TechInfoDepot:Copyright problems/Header

This page is for listing and discussing possible copyright problems involving text on TechInfoDepot, including pages which are suspected to be copyright violations. Listings typically remain for at least five days before review and closure by a copyright problems clerk or administrator. During this time, interested contributors are invited to offer feedback about the problem at the relevant talk page, to propose revisions to the material, or to request copyright permission. After the listing period, a copyright problems board clerk or administrator will review the listing and take what further action may be necessary.

Pages listed for copyright review appear in the bottom section of the page. The top includes information for people who have copyright concerns about pages or images, for those whose pages have been tagged for concerns, for community volunteers who'd like to help resolve concerns and for the clerks and administrators who volunteer here.


 * If you believe a TechInfoDepot page has infringed on your copyright, please see special note below.
 * If a page you created has been marked as a copyright problem and you own copyright in the original publication (or have permission from the owner), please see this section.

Handling previously published text on TechInfoDepot
Under the United States law that governs TechInfoDepot, copyright is automatically assumed as soon as any content (text or other media) is created in a physical form. An author does not need to apply for or even claim copyright, for a copyright to exist.

Only one of the following allows works to be reused in Wikimedia projects:

A) Explicit Statement. An explicit statement (by the author, or by the holder of the rights to the work) that the material is either:
 * in the public domain,
 * licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA), or
 * otherwise compatible with CC-BY-SA.

B) Public Domain. If the work is inherently in the public domain, due to its age or source; or

C) Fair Use.  United States law allows for fair use of copyrighted content, and (within limits) TechInfoDepot does as well. Under guidelines for non-free content, brief selections of copyrighted text may be used, but only if clearly marked and with full attribution.

Even if a source is public domain or compatibly licensed, material should be properly attributed in accordance with TechInfoDepot:Plagiarism. This is not only a matter of respecting local custom. When content is under a license that is compatible with TechInfoDepot's license, proper attribution may be required. If the terms of the compatible license are not met, use of the content can constitute a violation of copyright even if the license is compatible.

Repeated copyright violations
Contributors who repeatedly post copyrighted material (text or images) may be subject to contributor copyright investigations, to help ensure the removal from the project of all copyrighted material posted in contravention of policy. Contributors who repeatedly post copyrighted material after appropriate warnings will be blocked from editing, to protect the project; see 17 United States Code § 512.

Backwards copying: when TechInfoDepot had (or may have had) it first
In some instances, it is clear that two pieces of text (one on TechInfoDepot, and one elsewhere) are copies of each other, but not clear which piece is the original and which is the copy. "Compliant" sites that copy TechInfoDepot text note that they have done so, but not all of our re-users are compliant.

If you've found such a case, you might first check the discussion page to see if a note has been added to the top of the talk page allay people's concerns. If not, you can look for clues. Do other pages in the other website copy other TechInfoDepot articles? Did the content show up on TechInfoDepot all in once piece, placed by a single editor? If you don't see good evidence that TechInfoDepot had it first, it's a good idea to bring it up for investigation. You might follow the Instructions for listing below or tag the article so that others can evaluate. If you confirm definitely that the content was on TechInfoDepot first, please consider adding backwardscopy to the article's talk page with an explanation of how you know.

If you see an article somewhere else which was copied from TechInfoDepot without attribution, you might visit the CC-BY-SA compliance page or TechInfoDepot:Mirrors and forks.

Instructions for listing text-based copyright concerns
Copyright owners: If you believe TechInfoDepot is infringing your copyright, you may request immediate removal of the copyright violation. Alternatively, you may contact TechInfoDepot's designated agent under the terms of the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act. You are also welcome to follow the procedures here. See the copyright policy for more information.

Blatant infringement
Pages exhibiting blatant copyright infringements may be speedily deleted if:

To nominate an article for speedy deletion for copyright concerns, add one of these to the page:
 * Content was copied from a source which does not have a license compatible with TechInfoDepot, and the content was copied from that source to TechInfoDepot and not the other way around (TechInfoDepot has numerous mirrors);
 * The page can neither be restored to a previous revision without infringing content, nor would the page be viable if the infringing content were removed.
 * There is no credible assertion of public domain, fair use, or a free license.

Both of these templates will generate a notice that you should give the contributor of the content. This is important to help ensure that they do not continue to add copyrighted content to TechInfoDepot. An administrator will examine the article and decide whether to delete it or not. You should not blank the page in this instance.

Suspected or complicated infringement
If infringement is not blatant or the speedy deletion criteria do not apply:
 * Remove the infringing text or revert the page to a non-copyrighted version if you can.
 * The infringing text will remain in the page history for archival reasons unless the copyright holder asks the Wikimedia Foundation to remove it (unless it is tagged for copyvio-revdel. Please note the reason for removal in the edit summary and at the article's talk page (you may wish to use {{subst:cclean}}). When possible, please identify and alert the contributor of the material to the problem. The template Uw-copyright may be used for this purpose.
 * However, if all revisions have copyright problems, the removal of the copyright problem is contested, or reversion/removal is otherwise complicated:
 * Replace the text with one of the following:""
 * Go to [ today's section] and add "" to the bottom of the list. Put the page's name in place of "PageName". If you do not have a URL, enter a description of the source. (This text can be copied from the top of the template after substituting it and the page name and url will be filled for you)
 * Advise the contributor of the material at their talk page. The template on the now blanked page supplies a notice you may use for that purpose.

Instructions for special cases

 * Probable copyvios without a known source: If you suspect that a page contains a copyright violation, but you cannot find a source for the violation (so you can't be sure that it's a violation), do not list it here. Instead, place on the page's talk page, but replace FULL_URL with the full URL of the page version that you believe contains a violation. (To determine the URL, click on "Permanent link" in the toolbox area, and copy the URL.)
 * Instances where one contributor has verifiably introduced copyright problems into multiple pages or files and assistance is needed in further review: See TechInfoDepot:Contributor copyright investigations.

Instructions for handling image copyright concerns
Image copyright concerns are not handled on this board. For images that are clear copyright violations, follow the procedure for speedy deletion; list images that are suspected to be copyright violations at possibly unfree images and images with disputed fair use rationales at Non-free content review. To request assistance with contributors who have infringed copyright in multiple articles or files, see TechInfoDepot:Contributor copyright investigations.

Responding to articles listed for copyright investigation
 Copyright owners and people editing on their behalf or with their permission, please see below.

Any contributor is welcome to help investigate articles listed for copyright concerns, although only administrators, copyright problems board clerks, and OTRS team members should remove copyvio tags and mark listings resolved.

Assistance might include supplying evidence of non-infringement (or, conversely, of infringement) or obtaining and verifying permission of license. You might also help by rewriting problematic articles.

Supplying evidence of non-infringement
Articles are listed for copyright investigation because contributors have reason to suspect they constitute a copyright concern, but not every article listed here is actually a copyright problem. Sometimes, the content was on TechInfoDepot first. Sometimes, the article is public domain or compatibly licensed. Sometimes, the person who placed it here is the copyright owner and this simply needs to be verified.

If you can provide information to prove license or public domain status of the article, please do. It doesn't matter if you do it under the listing for the article on the copyright problems board or on the talk page of the article; a link or a clear explanation can be very helpful when a clerk or administrator evaluates the matter. (As listings are not immediately addressed on the board, it may take a few days after you make your note before response is provided.)

If the article is tagged for copyvio, you should allow an administrator or copyright problems clerk to remove the tag. If the article is tagged for copy-paste or close paraphrasing, you may remove the tag from the article when the problem is addressed (or disproven), but please do not close the listing on the copyright problems board itself.

Obtaining/verifying permission
Sometimes material was placed on TechInfoDepot with the permission of the copyright owner. Sometimes copyright owners are willing to give permission (and proper license!) even if it was not.

Any contributor can write to the owner of copyright and check whether they gave or will give permission (or maybe they in fact posted it here!). See TechInfoDepot:Example requests for permission. In either case, unless a statement authorizing the material under compatible license is placed online at the point of original publication, permission will need to be confirmed through e-mail to the Wikimedia Foundation. See TechInfoDepot:Confirmation of permission. If a compatible license is placed online at the point of original publication, please provide a link to that under the listing for the article on the copyright problems board or on the talk page of the article.

Please note that it may take a few days for letters to clear once they are sent. Do not worry if the content is deleted prematurely; it can be restored at any point usable permission is logged.

Rewriting content
Any contributor may rewrite articles that are or seem to be copyight problems to exclude duplicated or closely paraphrased text. When articles or sections of articles are blanked as copyright problems, this is done on a temporary page at Talk:PAGENAME/Temp so that the new material can be copied over the old. (The template blanking the article will link to the specific temporary page.)

Please do not copy over the version of the article that is a copyright problem as your base. All copied content, or material derived from it, should be removed first. Other content from the article can be used, if there is no reason to believe that it may be a copyright issue as well. It is often a good idea - and essential when the content is copied from an inaccessible source such as a book - to locate the point where the material entered the article and eliminate all text added by that contributor. This will help avoid inadvertently continuing the copyright issues in your rewrite. If you use any text at all from the earlier version of the article, please leave a note at the talk page of the article to alert the administrator or clerk who addresses the listing. The history of the old article will then have to be retained. (If the original turns out to be non-infringing, the two versions of the article can be merged.)

Rewrites can be done directly in articles that have been tagged for close paraphrasing and copy-paste, with those tags removed after the rewrite is complete.

Please review TechInfoDepot:Copy-paste and the linked guidelines and policies within it if necessary to review TechInfoDepot's practices for handling non-free text. Reviewing TechInfoDepot:Plagiarism is also helpful, particularly where content is compatibly licensed or public domain. Repairing these issues can sometimes be as simple as supplying proper attribution.

Copyright owners who submitted their own work to TechInfoDepot (or people editing on their behalf)
If you submitted work to TechInfoDepot which you had previously published and your submission was marked as a potential infringement of copyright, then stating on the article's talk page that you are the copyright holder of the work (or acting as his or her agent), while not likely to prevent deletion, helps. To completely resolve copyright concerns, it is sufficient to either:
 * Link to a note permitting reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA) and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts) at the site of the original publication; or
 * Send an email from an address associated with the original publication to [mailto:permissions-commons@wikimedia.org permissions-commons@wikimedia.org] or a postal message to the Wikimedia Foundation, ideally using the email template at WP:CONSENT.

See also TechInfoDepot:Donating copyrighted materials.

Please note that it may take a bit of time for letters and e-mails to clear once they are sent. Do not worry if the content is deleted prematurely; it can be restored at any point usable permission is logged. Your e-mail will receive a response whether the permission is usable or not. If you have not received a response to your letter within two weeks, it is a good idea to follow up.

One other factor you should consider, however, is that content that has been previously published elsewhere may not meet TechInfoDepot's specific guidelines and policies. If you are not familiar with these policies and guidelines, please review especially the core policies that govern the project. This may help prepare you to deal with any other issues with the text that may arise.

Should you choose to rewrite the content rather than release it under the requisite license, please see above.

Copyright problems board clerks
For a more complete description of clerks and their duties, as well as a list of active clerks, please see TechInfoDepot:Copyright problems/Clerks.

Copyright problems board clerks are experienced editors on TechInfoDepot who have demonstrated familiarity with TechInfoDepot's approach to non-free text and its processes for dealing with them. They are trusted to evaluate and close listings, although their closures may sometimes require completion by administrators, when use of administrative tools is required. Clerks are periodically reviewed by the administrators who work in copyright areas on TechInfoDepot.

Copyright problems board administrators
For a more complete description of administrators on TechInfoDepot, please see TechInfoDepot:Administrators.

Any administrator may work the copyright problems board. Working the copyright problems board may involve evaluating listings personally or using tools as necessary to complete closures by clerks. Clerks have been evaluated in their work, and their recommendations may be implemented without double-checking, although any administrator is welcome to review recommendations and discuss them with the clerks in question.

Closing listings
Pages should stay listed for a minimum of 5 days before they are checked and processed by copyright problems board clerks, 7 days before they are checked or processed by administrators, who close the daily listings. OTRS agents who verify images may close listings at any time.

For advice for resolving listings, see:
 * TechInfoDepot:Copyright problems/Advice for admins (OTRS agents, see section there)
 * TechInfoDepot:Copyright problems/Clerks

The templates collected at Template:CPC may be useful for administrators, clerks and OTRS agents noting resolution.