'''Important note:''' ''The Netherlands Water Partnership Akvo Foundation (Akvopedia soon to be controlled by the Akvo Foundation) does not own copyright on Akvopedia article texts and illustrations. It is therefore useless to email our contact addresses asking for permission to reproduce content. Permission to reproduce content under the license and technical conditions applicable to Akvopeida (see below) has already been granted to everyone without request; for permission to use it outside these terms, one must contact all the volunteer authors of the text or illustration in question.''
'''Note that much of this document refers to the [[http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]] for guidance on issues on copyright. See also [[Akvopedia:Policies_and_guidelines]] on how we use Wikipedia policies as guidelines at Akvopedia.'''
The license [[Main Page|Akvopedia]] uses grants free access to our content in the same sense that [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/free_software] is licensed freely. This principle is known as '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/copyleft]'''. Akvopedia content can be copied, modified, and redistributed ''so long as'' the new version grants the same freedoms to others and acknowledges the authors of the Akvopedia article used (a direct link back to the article is generally thought to satisfy the attribution requirement). Akvopedia articles therefore will remain free under the GFDL and can be used by anybody subject to certain restrictions, most of which aim to ensure that freedom.
To this end, the text contained in Akvopedia is copyrighted (automatically, under the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works Berne Convention]) by Akvopedia contributors and licensed to the public under the '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFDL GNU Free Documentation License]''' (GFDL). The full text of this license is at [[Akvopedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation License]].
== Contributors' rights and obligations ==
If you contribute material to WikipediaAkvopedia, you thereby license it to the public
under the GFDL (with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover
texts).
license, which means that either
* you hold the copyright to the material, for instance because you produced it yourself, or
* you acquired the material from a source that allows the licensing under GFDL, for instance because the material is in the [[public domain]] or is itself published under GFDL.
In the first case, you retain copyright to your materials. You can later republish and relicense them in any way you like. However, you can never retract the GFDL license for the copies of materials that you place here; these copies will remain under GFDL until they enter the [[public domain]].
In the second case, if you incorporate external GFDL materials, as a requirement of the GFDL, you need to acknowledge the authorship and provide a link back to the network location of the original copy.
Never use materials that infringe the copyrights of others. This could create legal liabilities and seriously hurt the project. If in doubt, write it yourself.
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 WikipediaAkvopedia. However, it would still be unethical (but not illegal) to do so without citing the original as a reference. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism plagiarism] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use fair use] for discussions of how much reformulation is necessary in a general context.
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=== Linking to copyrighted works ===
Image description pages must be tagged with a special tag to indicate the legal status of the images, as described at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Image_copyright_tags Wikipedia:Image copyright tags]. Untagged or incorrectly-tagged images will be deleted.
==== U.S. government photographs ====
Works produced by civilian and military employees of the [[United States]] federal government in the scope of their employment are public domain by statute in the United States (though they may be protected by copyright outside of the U.S.).
However, not every work republished by the U.S. government falls into this category. The U.S. government can own copyrights that are assigned to it by others -- for example, works created by contractors.
Moreover, images and other media found on .mil and .gov websites may be using commercial [[stock photography]] owned by others. It may be useful to check the privacy and security notice of the website, but only with an email to the webmaster can you be confident that an image is in the public domain.
It should also be noted that governments outside the U.S. often do claim copyright over works produced by their employees (for example, [[Crown copyright]] in the [[United Kingdom]]). Also, most state and local governments in the United States do not place their work into the public domain and do in fact own the copyright to their work. Please be careful to check copyright information before copying.
===== Source =====
'''United States Code; ''Title 17; Chapter 1; § 105''''' Subject matter of copyright; United States Government works.
Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.
[http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000105----000-.html US Code]
==== UK Copyright ====
In particular for literary, artistic works, copyright ends 70 years after the last surviving author dies or if unknown, 70 years after creation or publication.
The UK [[Office of Public Sector Information]], formerly [[HMSO]], has told us:: ''[[Crown copyright]] protection in published material lasts for fifty years from the end of the year in which the material was first published. Therefore material published [fifty-one years ago], and any Crown copyright material published before that date, would now be out of copyright, and may be freely reproduced throughout the world.''[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-May/022055.html] === Comments on copyright laws by country === ==== Russia: copyright exemptions ====According to the [[Russian copyright law]] of 1993 ([http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%BE%D1%82_9.07.1993_%E2%84%96_5351-1 Федеральный закон от 9.07.1993 № 5351-1]), the following items are not subject to copyrights:*Official documents (laws, court decisions, other texts of legislative, administrative or judicial character);*State symbols and tokens (flags, coats of arms, [[order (decoration)|order]]s, banknotes and other state symbols and tokens);*Folk creative works;*Reports about events and facts, of informative character. Russian copyrights generally expire 70 years after the death of the author. Items by authors who died prior to 1953 are in the public domain – before 2004, the expiration term was 50 years. The copyright extension in 2004 was not retroactive (see [http://www.copyrighter.ru/full/index.html?apispnew.htm Law 72-FZ, 2004 (in Russian)], article 2, part 3). If an item was not published during its author's life, its copyright expires 70 years after its first lawful publication (if the item did not fall into the [[WP:PD|public domain]] before). This gives maximum term for unpublished or posthumously published works of 140 (if the author died after 1953) or 120 years (if the author died before 1953, AND their work was published before 2003). If an item was published anonymously or pseudonymously, and its author remains unknown, its copyright expires 70 years after its first lawful publication. If the author is discovered, the usual rule applies. Public domain status of a work in Russia can differ from that in the US, where Wikipedia servers are located. ====Algeria==== Article 9 of Algeria's [http://lexinter.net/DZ/ordonnance_relative_aux_droits_d%27auteur_et_aux_droits_voisins.htm Ordonnance N°97-10 du 27 Chaoual 1417 correspondant au 6 mars 1997 relative aux droits d'auteur et aux droits voisins.] states that: "Works of the State made licitly accessible to the public may be freely used for non-profit purposes, subject to respect for the integrity of the work and indication of its source. By "works of the State", in this article, are meant works produced and published by the various organs of the State, local communities, or public establishments of an administrative character." (original is in French.) In short, they are available for non-commercial use - which is considered unfree on Wikipedia. ====Afghanistan, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Nepal, San Marino, Yemen====According to [http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.html Circular 38a] of the U.S. Copyright Office, [[Afghanistan]], [[Bhutan]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Iran]], [[Iraq]], [[Nepal]], [[San Marino]], and possibly [[Yemen]] have no copyright relations whatsoever with the U.S. ([[Eritrea]] isn't mentioned at all.) Works originating in one of these countries thus are not copyrighted in the United States, regardless of the local copyright laws of these countries (see 17 USC § 104, quoted in the circular).
Regardless, according to [[Jimbo Wales]], the founder Public domain status of Wikipedia, Wikipedia contributors should respect the copyright law of these nations as best they can, the same as they do for a work in other countries around can differ from that in the world.[http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2005-August/027373UK, where Akvopedia servers are located.html]
===Introducing invariant sections or cover texts in WikipediaAkvopedia===Under WikipediaAkvopedia's current copyright conditions, and with the current facilities of the MediaWiki software, it is only possible to include in Wikipedia Akvopedia external GFDL materials that contain invariant sections or cover texts, if all of the following apply,
# You are the copyright holder of these external GFDL materials (or: you have the explicit, i.e. written, permission of the copyright holder to do what follows);
# The length and nature of these invariant sections and cover texts does not exceed what can be placed in an [[wikipedia:edit summary|edit summary]];
# You are satisfied that these invariant sections and cover texts are not listed elsewhere than in the "page history" of the page where these external materials are placed;
# You are satisfied that further copies of Wikipedia Akvopedia content are distributed under the standard GFDL application of "with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts" (in other words, for the copies derived from wikipediaAkvopedia, you agree that these parts of the text contributed by you will no longer be considered as "invariant sections" or "cover texts" in the GFDL sense);# The original invariant sections and/or cover texts are contained in the edit summary of the edit with which you introduce the thus GFDLed materials in wikipedia Akvopedia (so, that if "permanent deletion" would be applied to that edit, both the thus GFDLed material and its invariant sections and cover texts are jointly deleted).
Seen the stringent conditions above, it is very desirable to replace GFDL texts with invariant sections (or with cover texts) by original content without invariant sections (or cover texts) whenever possible.
== Reusers' rights and obligations ==
If you want to use Wikipedia Akvopedia materials in your own books/articles/websites or other publications, you can do so -- but only in compliance with the GFDL. If you are simply duplicating the Wikipedia Akvopedia article, you must follow [[WikipediaAkvopedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation License#2. VERBATIM COPYING|section two]] of the GFDL on ''verbatim copying'', as discussed at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verbatim_copying Wikipedia:Verbatim copying]].
If you create a derivative version by changing or adding content, this entails the following:
* your materials in turn have to be licensed under GFDL,
* you must acknowledge the authorship of the article (section 4B), and
* you must provide access to the "transparent copy" of the material (section 4J). (The "transparent copy" of a Wikipedia Akvopedia article is any of a number of formats available from us, including the wiki text, the html web pages, xml feed, etc.)
You may be able to partially fulfill the latter two obligations by providing a conspicuous direct link back to the Wikipedia Akvopedia article hosted on this website. You also need to provide access to a transparent copy of the new text. However, please note that the Wikimedia Akvopedia Foundation makes no guarantee to retain authorship information and a transparent copy of articles. Therefore, you are encouraged to provide this authorship information and a transparent copy with your derived works.
=== Example notice ===
An example notice, for an article that uses the Wikipedia Akvopedia article [[Metasyntactic variableRope pump]] might read as follows:
: This article is licensed under the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GNU Free Documentation License]. It uses material from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasyntactic_variable Wikipedia article "Metasyntactic variable"[Rope_pump|Rope pump]].
("Metasyntactic variableRope pump" and the URLs enclosed in the above must of course be substituted as necessary.)
Alternatively you can distribute your copy of "Metasyntactic variableRope pump" and list at least five (or all if fewer than five) principal authors on the title page (or top of the document), as explained in the text of the GFDL license. The external [http://vs.aka-online.de/wppagehiststat/ Page History Stats] tool can help you identify the principal authors. All (re-)distributed documents need to include a copy of the GFDL license text.
=== Fair use materials and special requirements ===
All original Wikipedia Akvopedia text is distributed under the [[GNU Free Documentation License|GFDL]]. Wikipedia Akvopedia articles may also include quotations, images, or other media under the U.S. Copyright law "fair use" doctrine in accordance with our [[Wikipedia:Non-free content|guidelines for non-free content]]. It is preferred that these be obtained under the most [[free content]] license practical (such as the GFDL or public domain). In cases where no such images/sounds are currently available, then fair use may be used in certain circumstances as described in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Non-free contentfree_content#Policy|criteria for using non-free media]]. ''In Wikipedia'', such "fair use" material should be identified as from an external source (on the image description page, or history page, as appropriate). This also leads to possible restrictions on the use, outside of Wikipedia, of such "fair use" content retrieved from Wikipedia: this "fair use" content does not fall under the GFDL license as such, but under the "fair use" (or similar/different) regulations in the country where the media are retrieved.
Wikipedia does ''In Akvopedia'', such "fair use some text under licenses that are compatible with " material should be identified as from an external source (on the GFDL but may require additional terms that we do not require for original Wikipedia text (such as including Invariant Sectionsimage description page, Front-Cover Textsor history page, or Back-Cover Textsas appropriate). When wanting This also leads to contribute possible restrictions on the use, outside of Akvopedia, of such "fair use" content retrieved from Akvopedia: this "fair use" content does not fall under the GFDL license as such texts that include Invariant Sections or Cover Texts to Wikipedia, see ''[[#Introducing invariant sections but under the "fair use" (or cover texts similar/different) regulations in Wikipedia|Introducing invariant sections or cover texts in Wikipedia]]'' abovethe country where the media are retrieved.
==If you Akvopedia does use some text under licenses that are compatible with the owner of WikipediaGFDL but may require additional terms that we do not require for original Akvopedia text (such as including Invariant Sections, Front-hosted content being used without your permission==If you are the owner of content that is being used on Wikipedia without your permissionCover Texts, then you may request the page be immediately removed from Wikipedia; see [[Wikipedia:Request for immediate removal of copyright violation|Request for immediate removal of copyright violation]]or Back-Cover Texts). You can also contact our [[wikimedia:designated agent|designated agent]] When wanting to have it permanently removed (but it may take up to a week for the page to be deleted contribute such texts that way). You may also blank the page and replace it with the words <nowiki>{{copyvio|</nowiki>''URL include Invariant Sections or place you published the text''<nowiki>}}</nowiki> but the text will still be in the page history. Either way, we will, of course, need some evidence Cover Texts to support your claim of ownershipAkvopedia.
== Aknowledgements If you are the owner of Akvopedia-hosted content being used without your permission ==If you are the owner of content that is being used on Akvopedia without your permission, then you may request the page be immediately removed from Akvopedia, please contact [[Akvo Foundation]] (but it may take up to a week for the page to be deleted that way). You may also blank the page and replace it with the words <nowiki>{{copyvio|</nowiki>''URL or place you published the text''<nowiki>}}</nowiki> but the text will still be in the page history. Either way, we will, of course, need some evidence to support your claim of ownership.
== Acknowledgements ==
This material is derived from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights Wikipedia Copyrights] article in [http://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia].
== See also ==* [[WikipediaCategory:Copyright FAQ]]* [[Wikipedia:Non-U.S. copyrights]]* The [[Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ]] for questions on copyright.* Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:designated agent|designated agent]] under [[OCILLA]]* [[Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks]]* [[Wikipedia:Standard GFDL violation letter]]* [[Wikipedia:Possible copyright infringements]]* [[Wikipedia:Spotting possible copyright violations]]* [[Wikipedia:Fair use]]* [[Wikipedia:Image copyright tags]]* [[Wikipedia:Boilerplate request for permissionAkvopedia]]
