Simple question: Can I copy articles and images from wikipedia if I write in my website that source is wikipedia or I need extra permition? It writes: Copyleft means that every single author, editor, illustrator, mapmaker, factchecker and photographer who puts their work into Wikipedia gives you the right to read, copy, print, save, download, read aloud, project, modify, email, distribute, sell, photocopy and correct their work however you want to. The only restrictions are that if you distribute it, you must give attribution to the creators, and if you derive new work from it, you must give the same rights to users of that work. So actually I can copy any work and use it in my business if I write under article a source, without any permittion?
I think wikipedia articles you can copy (correct me if I'm wrong), but images and such will list their license if you click on it. You shouldn't really ever copy an article as a whole, you're much better off just rewriting or linking to it.
Read the Wikipedia license. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License Here is a relevant bit: Anyone who writes for Wikipedia is agreeing to this license, so as long as you follow the terms listed above, you can copy the text away. Note that the copyright on some of the images included in Wikipedia is sometimes a bit fuzzy. I would be sure to click on the image itself and see what the source is before copying it.
It is ok to use the article on the net as a source, but I do not recommend actually taking the article and re-writing it. The best thing to do is to get a reference that will be considered useful and unique and try to construct a unique article. Most people want to learn something new about the item that is not described on Wikipedia anyways.
I believe its ok to use both images and text (text is 100% usable), image rights holders it says when posted (if the photographer/rights owner submits the photo to wiki) gives up their rights over the image, and the image 'allegedly' enters public domain. But I've seen album covers posted on there so take it with a grain of salt.
Yeah, I've definitely seen images on Wikipedia that probably shouldn't be there copyright wise. People are only supposed to use public domain images, but some don't. It's a risk if you use them on your own site.
If you click the images the page you will show you their copyright status. Some are PD some are under a free license and some are fair use.