Copyright
From Wikiexpert
The use of other people's content and allowing others to use your content from your wiki is a very important issue. If you need to come up to speed on this fast, read this primer on content and copyright!
Contents |
Common Sense
For me, I think that common sense rules. First, let people know what your requirements are for your own content. Second, educate yourself on where you can get content, if it is free or will cost you money, and what the requirements are from the owner to post that material. Third, have a policy in place that monitors the content on your website. It might be a self moderating wiki, or maybe you have a policy of approving content. There are many processes and tools you can employ to track and control what content goes onto your wiki, and what users and visitors can actually see. Finally, have a simple take-down policy and contact form for people to request material to be removed.
Some Tips
Set a good example for your users.
- Have your own Copyright notice (or Copyleft) that explains what license your content follows. Your website should also have the following:
- a Terms of Service (Good post here)
- a Contact form so people can easily request changes
- Training your users on how to add content, what content is appropriate, and how to cite sources.
Letting Others use Your Content
When you set up your wiki, one of the first questions I will ask you is who your audience is, and who your users are. Who will be using your content? If someone reads or hears about your content from a different source, how do you want your material to be cited? If you answer these clearly for yourself, you will be well on your way to understanding how others expect be treated when you use their content.
The license for content on the world's largest encyclopedia, Wikiepdia, is the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. This is appropriate for most wikis.
Using Other People's Content
With the advent of the Internet and tools such as RSS and YouTube and Twitter, the copying or re-posting of information is encouraged, and the source is by cited by default by the computer code that creates the content.
I get asked all the time "What material is allowed or not allowed on my wiki?" This depends on a lot of factors.
Fair Use
Wikipedia has a good article on Fair use. In general, short experts are permissible, provided you indicate the source of your content. For more details, please see this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Fair_use_and_fair_dealing
Linking to Unauthorized Copyrighted Material
Wikipedia policy on copyrights, says, in part: "... if you know that an external Web site is carrying a work in violation of the creator's copyright, do not link to that copy of the work." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_copyright)
A popular example about copyright issues is the case of the Church of Scientology
There are two schools of thought on content. The first errs on the side of caution. To paraphrase a phrase from my paragliding: "when in doubt, throw it out" meaning, if you are not sure, don't include it.
The second school of thought thinks that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Go ahead and post it, and if you get "caught", post the letters from the owner and lawyers on your website and make a big stink about it and the fact that you are "taking it down".
Where to get Content, Images and Media
Your Users
Of course, the top place to get content is from your users. But remember the 90-9-1 rule. Only 9% of your users will contribute.
Aggregation
You can repackage content from RSS feeds, Twitter, and other sources. Click on one of these links for an example.
Databases
You can get data from spreadsheets, dictionaries, and 3rd party data suppliers. See this example of how I have loaded massive amounts of content into people's wiki websites.
Free Images and Media
You can obtain free images from many sources, including MediaWiki commons, which now has over five million files! Of course, you can always create and post your own content and media. Just be aware that the content you supply to the wiki will follow the copyright rules set forth by the wiki. Just follow the rules set forth by the owner.
Paid Images and Media
The best is to use your own images, and use yourself or your customers or employees as models. For a great treatment of this, visit http://www.webinknow.com/2009/10/who-the-hell-are-these-people.html
You can buy and use images and media (video and audio) from third party sources such as istockphoto.com.
If you use images or media such as video or audio, use your own material first, material you bought, (from stock photo websites, for example), or include it in a published photo stream from Flickr or some other service.
Be careful using images. One of the first websites I designed, I used an image from another source, with no malicious intent or understanding of copyright rules. I was hit with a bill from the image copyright holder in excess of $3,000.00.
Databases
You can get good data from your website from public or private databases. See my article on Structured_and_unstructured_data for more information.
Related Links
Many sites create content "on demand". An example of this is
For a full treatment of this concept, check out this article from the November 2009 Wired Magazine
Liability
Since I am not a Lawyer, please see my General Disclaimer which applies to all content of this website. If you are wondering if you are liable for the UGC (user generated content} that is on your website, again that depends. From my understanding of the Communications Decency Act, you are not liable for the content user provide on your website. Exceptions could of course make you liable. You can always find an insurance policy (and an insurance agent willing to sell you the policy!) that covers your website (and you) from defamation and liability. It seems to me this would be more applicable to a wiki that reviews people or businesses, as opposed to a website that provides information about a sport, hobby, or business activity.
