Editing Encyclopedia:Copyrights (section)

=== Using copyrighted work from others ===
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All creative works are copyrighted, by international agreement, unless either they fall into the [[Wikipedia:Public domain|public domain]] or their copyright is explicitly disclaimed. Generally, Wikipedia must have permission to use copyrighted works. There are some circumstances under which copyrighted works may be legally utilized without permission; see [[Wikipedia:Non-free content]] for specific details on when and how to utilize such material. However, it is our goal to be able to freely redistribute as much of Wikipedia's material as possible, so original images and sound files licensed under CC BY-SA and GFDL (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts) or in the [[public domain]] are greatly preferred to copyrighted media files used under [[fair use]] or otherwise. 

If you want to import media (including text) that you have found elsewhere, and it does not meet the [[Wikipedia:Non-free content|non-free content policy and guideline]], you can only do so if it is public domain or available under terms that are compatible with the CC BY-SA license. If you import media under a compatible license which requires attribution, you must, in a reasonable fashion, credit the author(s). You must also in most cases ''verify'' that the material is compatibly licensed or public domain. If the original source of publication contains a copyright disclaimer or other indication that the material is free for use, a link to it on the media description page or the article's talk page may satisfy this requirement. If you obtain special permission to use a copyrighted work from the copyright holder under compatible terms, you must make a note of that fact (along with the relevant names and dates) and verify this through one of several processes. See [[Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission]] for the procedure for asking a copyright holder to grant a usable license for their work and for the processes for verifying that license has been granted. 

'''Never''' use materials that infringe the copyrights of others. This could create legal liabilities and seriously hurt Wikipedia. If in doubt, write the content yourself, thereby creating a new copyrighted work which can be included in Wikipedia without trouble.

Note that copyright law governs the creative expression of ideas, ''not'' the ideas or information themselves. Therefore, it is legal to read an encyclopedia article or other work, reformulate the concepts in your own words, and submit it to Wikipedia, so long as you do not follow the source too closely. (See our Copyright FAQ for more on [[Wikipedia:FAQ/Copyright#Can I add something to Wikipedia that I got from somewhere else?|how much reformulation may be necessary]] as well as [[Wikipedia:FAQ/Copyright#Derivative works|the distinction between summary and abridgment]].) However, it would still be unethical (but not illegal) to do so without citing the original as a reference (see the [[wikipedia:plagiarism|plagiarism guideline]]).
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