Hello! I am the sole author and owner ChaosTrivia.com, writing both code and content. For the questions in my database, with each answer I add a small paragraph and an image. The paragraph is usually a very very short summary of the a wikipedia article, which relates to the answer. The image is either from the same article or something i find on google images which has there already multiple copies. (this is a new addition. small part of the existing database questions have this extra info at the moment. The way you are highly likely to see what I mean, is to answer the "random question" in the homepage. (refresh the homepage couple of times until you get extra text after the answer). In the single-player quizzes, at the moment you need some luck to get one of the questions in the database which I added the extra text and image. There, ofcourse, the image will appear after the user has answered. . Due to my ignorance in law, I was reading the relevant wikipedia pages and couldn't understand if I am allowed to do this or not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipe...reuse_Wikipedia.27s_content_somewhere_else.3F Could somebody please tell me if what I am doing is illegal? is there a way to make it legally? Anything you could tell me to enlighten me would be highly appereciated! I have a database of very raw 21,000 questions. 4,000+ of them is already categorized (available on the site), from which approx. 600 contain extra text and image. I would really like to make sure that I am not doing anything illegal before I invest hundreds of hours with the rest of my raw database. Many many thanks in advance.
If I use info from another site, I always include a link back to the original site. Could this also apply to what you are doing?
For almost everything on Wikipedia this rule applies: You can use the text. You cannot use the images. They are obviously a lot of exceptions to the images, but I would run with that. A lot of times the Fair Use that applies to Wikipedia's usage of the image, will not apply to your usage. Dan.
That's a good idea. I could automatically add at the end of each extra paragraph (source: <a>wikipedia</a>). But I prefer not to, if not necessary (will make some users surf out of my website). Anybody else? A short black on white response from a professional and not just an opinion would be GREAT and very appereciated!
Dalntn Thanks. So, from your answer I understand that use of the text in the way I use it (without reference) is OK, but the use of the image is not OK. That's actually surprising for me: I was sure that using the images is OK, since all those images are free - In wikipedia articles that do not contain images, they write: "No image at the moment, anybody knows a free image?". I was actually afraid that summarizing the wiki articles into a paragraph, or sometimes copying some paragraphs as a whole, That would be illegal.
You can modify content from Wiki, but you still need to reference the original source. From Wiki re: Modified Copies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content Images from Google Image Search are also not just free to use, even if there are multiple copies. Multiple copies means one of four things. One, the other uses are infringing and when (if) they get caught, the website owners could be in big trouble. This is the most likely to be true. Two, the sites where there are duplicates are all owned by the same media company, so they are free to use the images where ever they want. Three, the other sites have paid a licensing fee to the copyright holder (or have otherwise obtained permission from the original copyright owner). Four, the image is in the public domain. However, the chances of this are very slim, especially for photos.
Ok, here is how copyright law works. You may not copy any content, picture, word, song, music, code, ANYTHING. WITHOUT the EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION of the owner. Now, that being said, wikipedia allows you to use the words so long as you provide a conspicuous link back to their content. There is your express written permission. The images, you are committing copyright infringement with them, and could be liable for damages in a civil suite. dfourss, you are violating copyright by just providing a link. That may not get you sued by everyone, but you copy any of my content, and more than likely I'm going to have your site shut down, if I don't sue you. Depending on the page. I have done it before for a blog I used to have. I've won suits where people have tried using the "but I gave them a link back" EXCUSE (its not a legal defense) and the judge laughed at them. You are only opening yourself up to liability, and I'd advise you start doing things the right way, because as your site becomes more popular, people will start seeing their work on there, and one of those people is going to care about their intellectual property and they are going to wipe the floor with your "but I gave them a link" excuse. Now, that being said. Something I recommend if you are running a blog and don't care if people use your content so long as they provide you a link back, put that on your site. This way people will not just copy and paste, but will also give you the link back (as it is little effort). I have a couple blogs that are like that, I have a page on there that says its ok to use my articles so long as they provide me a link. Edit: That being said, you can use things that are facts. Such as if someone has a review site, they say something is 3 1/2" x 5", that is a fact and you can use that. Same as quotes people have said, such as from a news article.
hostlonestar..thank you for your thorough response Now I have a question: Suppose I want to put your forum post (copy and paste with link back), with its excellent and thorough advice, on a blog/site? Is that copyright infringement?
It would be, against the owners of the forum, I believe. I can't remember 100% what the User Agreement said. I would recommend PM'ing one of the Mods (or reporting this thread with your question in it) and try to get an answer that way. I know most forums it is set up where the forum owners are the owners of the content and may do with it as they wish. I would personally not have a problem with it if you used one of my posts, at least the not the ones that I actually make sense and didn't just ramble on and on like I do sometimes. If you would like to see what I mean about the notice, a blog that my company sponsors is also set up to allow people to use the content of the blog, they are in my sig.
Thanks hostlonestar. I decided that it would be best to contact wikipedia directly and ask them for permission for the pics. For the text, I will ask them to allow me to add a link to them just once, in a new "legal notice" page.
A little off topic here, but cool website. If I were to stumble upon it I would not assume an individual runs it.
Thanks a lot. Nice to read this first thing in the morning Ö) I invested a lot in this website, and the work is far from over... Moshe