Wikipedia...

[ojobson]

Is the contents of wikipedia copyrighted?

I wasn't sure since the content can be changed by anyone and is created by no one in particular... the reason I ask:

We want to create a glossary of terms and sometimes it would be much easier to just to copy snippets from wikipedia but I wasn't sure about the legality of this due to the unique nature of wikipedia.

Anyone know for sure or where I could find out?

[burgi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

[ojobson]

missed that...

still don't quite understand the agreement. does it mean you are free to use it if you publish any further work that comes from it and you must reference it as copyright of wikipedia too?

[burgi]

It wasn't completely clear to me either - at least after a quick scan of the page.

I'll have a proper read later on and let you know what I think.

[Euphoria]

I don't you can just copy and paste without giving full reference but I've taken masses of stuff from there in the past (although it is VERY obvious where it came from as not all of it is true).

[Slamdog]

before copying and pasting it might actually be better to check its accuracy...

there are some things on there which are just so wrong...

[ojobson]

LOl, yeah I know - its stuff that we all ready know about we just haven't got the time to write about it! dam legal rubbish - so confusing!

[bob_monkhouse]

We do this at work all the time - copyright's a really tricky area!

Basically, copyright in a written article arises automatically as soon as you write something. I own the copyright in this post for example!

However, you can let other people reproduce your work, often by giving them a licence to use it. What most websites do is have something in their standard website terms to say that any posts put on the website either (i) belong to the website, or (ii) are free for everyone to use.

Wickipedia is like (ii) above. You can copy information, so long as you let people copy it from you. If you don't do this you will technically be in breach of copyright!

[Davos]

Wikipedia 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 Wikipedia article used (a direct link back to the article satisfies our author credit requirement).

so i think you can copy and paste all you like as long as you state that the information came from that particular Wikipedia page

[shifty.ricky]

Reusers' rights and obligations

If you want to use Wikipedia materials in your own books/articles/web sites or other publications, you can do so, but you have to follow the GFDL. If you are simply duplicating the Wikipedia article, you must follow section two of the GFDL on verbatim copying, as discussed at 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 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 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 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.

You have to link to the Wikipedia page if you copy text from it.

If its for an essay/dissertation then you will have to do this if its for a other piece of work then its generally also good manners.

Check the miages though as they are copyrighted seperatly.