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Wikisage:Author rights

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Conditions for adding material to Wikisage

Everything on Wikisage can be viewed by everyone. Therefore, you are only allowed to add material to Wikisage that fulfills one of the following criteria:

  1. You created it (or you hold the copyright on other grounds, for instance as publisher).
  2. The material is in the public domain, i.e. free of copyright.
  3. The material has been published under the same license as used by Wikisage, or under a wider license.

In the second case, you are asked to provide a source; in the third case this is obligatory. This holds also, if you do not literally copy the material but are still using it in a recognizable fashion. Mention the source as a reference or link on the article page, or put a link in the edit summary if a text is taken from another encyclopedia; in the case of an image, add the source to the information page.

Public domain

There are two ways for material to enter the public domain:

  1. The author has expressly mentioned that they have put their work into the public domain.
  2. The author died 70 years or longer ago, which automatically puts their work into the public domain. If the author is a legal person (e.g. an organization) or the copyright holder is unknown, the material enters the public domain 70 years after publication.

Note: the term of 70 years holds in the following countries: United States, Canada, and all member states of the European Union. The following countries use a longer term: Mexico (100 years), Côte d'Ivoire (99 years), Colombia (80 years), Guatemala, Honduras and Samoa (75 years). Please take this into account. If you are unsure about copyright in a certain country, make inquiries.

Consequences of adding material to Wikisage

If you add material to Wikisage, and it satisfies the criteria mentioned above, it is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (abbreviated as GFDL or GNU FDL). This means, that every reader is free to use the material as they choose and distribute it further, provided that this also occurs under the GFDL and that they mention the source. Therefore, do not add material to Wikisage that you don't want to be used in this manner. Once released, material cannot be withdrawn from the GFDL.

Gaining new rights

Wikisage is a collaborative effort. Users do not gain any individual author rights by editing Wikisage, except in the case of an essay. Wikisage does, however, grant you the right to use your individual input elsewhere without the need to refer to Wikisage.

Retention of old rights

By adding existing material to Wikisage, you do not lose any rights that you already possess. You can still use and distribute the material at other venues as you see fit, and if you had the attribution rights others who use or distribute the material must still mention you as the original source.