Bhamwiki:Copyrights

Copyrights are the privileges granted to creators of works to protect those works from unauthorized reproduction and use. Copyrights are protected by Copyright Law under national jurisdiction and international agreement. Contributors to BhamWiki relinquish most copyright privileges and must refrain from infringing on the copyrights of others.

Bhamwiki's copyright

Unless otherwise noted, all text content on Bhamwiki is published under the project's main license, the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License version 3.0. This license allows content from Bhamwiki to be copied and used for any purpose provided that Bhamwiki is given credit as the source (by providing a link back to the article) and any copies or derivative works are given the same or a compatible license with no further restrictions.

Bhamwiki content may be used on Wikipedia or other GFDL-licensed publications under the terms of the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. In order to add Bhamwiki content to Wikipedia, it is helpful if the contribution is made under a "dual license". At minimum, credit should be given by full citation. A direct link to a specific version of the Bhamwiki article (choose "Permanent link" on the sidebar toolbox) provides for proper attribution.

Many of the photographs and illustrations used on Bhamwiki are public domain or published under Creative Commons licenses, but there are also many illustrations under copyright that are either published by permission or under the doctrine of "Fair Use". You can verify the terms for specific images by clicking on them to view the image page.

Contributing to Bhamwiki

All new content created for the Bhamwiki should be licensed by the author under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License version 3.0. Text or content from sources that use different but generically-compatible licenses should be dual licensed (and properly cited). Text or content from sources under copyright (or with incompatible licenses, such as Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses) must not be used on BhamWiki. Content from the public domain, of course, remains in the public domain.

GFDL Content (Wikipedia)

Content copied from Wikipedia (or any source using the GFDL 1.3 license) can be republished here under Bhamwiki's standard Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License. All re-used work, even if heavily adapted for Bhamwiki, should be clearly referenced to its source. This can be done by using Wikipedia's citation tool to create a citation with a link back to Wikipedia.

Public Domain content

The use of public domain content carries with it no legal obligation. As a courtesy to our users, however, it is suggested that extensive quotations, and especially images and other media copied from a public domain source be clearly labeled as such to facilitate downstream re-use. A citation of the original source is, of course, still required by our citation policy.

• For works published in the United States prior to 1924, use "{{PD}}".
• For works created by the United States Government, use "{{PD-Gov}}".

Fair Use

In United States copyright and trade mark law, the courts have allowed protected works to be used without permission under certain conditions, outlined in the legal doctrine of "Fair Use". (See Wikipedia:Fair use). Bhamwiki is a non-commercial, educational enterprise intended to report factual information. That purpose is enhanced by the judicious use of protected media under Fair Use doctrine.

In general, Bhamwiki claims Fair Use for the following (when no free alternative is available):

• For trademarked logos on articles about companies or products identified by that logo.
• For screen shots of copyrighted motion pictures, tv shows, web sites or video games to illustrate articles about those works.
• For copyrighted books, magazines, album covers or event programs used to illustrate articles about those publications, events or their creators
• For copyrighted images such as postcards, photographs, paintings, etchings or drawings used to illustrate articles about what is depicted in the image or articles about the creator or publisher.
• For photos that illustrate historical events, demolished landmarks, historical personages, etc.

Fair use images should be uploaded at screen display resolution to discourage unauthorized uses by others. They should be labeled with the "{{Fair Use}}" template, which links back to this page. In cases where the use of a protected work could negatively affect the creator's rights, we should seek permission or forego its use here. If the owner of a work requests that it not be used, we should err on the side of caution.

By permission

Where freely licensed works are unavailable and the owners agree to allow it, Bhamwiki can publish copyrighted works. All such work reproduced by permission should be tagged with the {{Permission}} template and accompanied by a full description of the circumstances surrounding the grant of use. The name of the copyright holder, the year the work was created, and a statement from the owner that Bhamwiki can publish the work should always be included. If specific terms apply, those should also be stated.

Some specific templates have been created for sources of media who have granted us blanket permissions:

• Use {{BPL permission}} for work found in the Birmingham Public Library Archives Digital Collections
• Use {{Dave911}} for work found at Dave's Place (dave911.com). See Bhamwiki:References for more information.

Materials under copyright that are published by permission remain the property of their copyright holders and should not be distributed or reproduced elsewhere.

Copyright violations

Known copyright violations on Bhamwiki will be deleted at once and without further notice. All users are encouraged to assist with this policing. If you are aware of a copyright violation you can either remove it yourself using the "edit" tab, request removal at Bhamwiki:Copyright violations or send an email to admin at bhamwiki.com (replace the "at" with @). Repeat violators of Bhamwiki's copyright policy will be blocked from editing.