Help:Licensing compatibility

See also the Copyright policy.

Alphabetical index

• Apache 2.0 (compatible)
• Creative Commons attribution (compatible) (the license used by Wikisource)
• Creative Commons non-commercial (prohibited)
• Creative Commons non-derivative (prohibited)
• Creative Commons share-alike (compatible) (the license used by Wikisource)
• Fair use (prohibited)
• GNU free documentation license (prohibited with some complications)
• Non-commercial (prohibited)
• Non-derivative (prohibited)
• Open Government License (compatible)
• Orphaned (prohibited)
• Presumed (prohibited)
• Unenforceable copyright (prohibited)

Conditions

Prohibited

Fair use

description	Fair use or fair dealing is the concept that unlicenced copyrighted work can be legally used without paying licencing fees or recieving permission of the copyright holder (see Wikipedia's article on fair use).
status	Fair use is explicitly prohibited on Wikisource, since Wikisource's license allows use or distribution in circumstances where fair use is invalid (such as commercial exploitation). Furthermore, as described by the Amount and substantiality clause, reproducing whole works is not fair use. See the legal precedent set in Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985); as stated by Wikipedia's article on the subject, the US Supreme Court "determined that fair use is not a defense to the appropriation of work by a famous political figure simply because of the public interest in learning of that political figure's account of an historic event." Further, "the use of less than 400 words from President Ford's memoir by a political opinion magazine was interpreted as infringement because those few words represented "the heart of the book" and were, as such, substantial."
discussions	On Wikisource "Massive Copyvio Problem" (Scriptorium, December 2005) "Categories CC-by, Explicit Copyright Licenses, Fair use, GPL, Public domain" (Proposed deletions, January 2006) "Fair use" (copyright policy discussion, February 2006) "Copyright debate at mailing list" (Scriptorium, March 2006) "Fair use & speeches" (Scriptorium, March 2006) "Debate over fair use on Wikisource" (Wikisource news, March 2006) "Labyrinth of Solitude" (Possible copyright violations, April 2006) "Fair use and speeches" (Scriptorium, May 2006) "Public domain materials with limited fair use items" (Scriptorium, March 2007) "Template:Fair Use" (Proposed deletions, August 2023) Elsewhere "Do fair use images violate the GFDL?" (Meta) "Permission grant extent" (Meta) "Fair use (Meta)

Non-commercial

description	Non-commercial criteria limit or disallow the use or distribution of a work for commercial purposes or contexts. These criteria usually make no distinction between profit-making and non-profit fundraising.
status	Although Wikisource itself does not make commercial use of works, its license does allow redistributors to make such commercial use. For example, this makes it possible to distribute Wikisource content as part of a free operating system mailed on low-cost DVDs. Therefore, works with non-commercial licenses are prohibited on Wikisource. Such licenses are prohibited by decision of the Chairman Emeritus and former President of the Wikimedia Foundation, as indicated by the 2004 message by Jimbo Wales entitled "[WikiEN-l] Use of noncommercial-only images". In 2006, Jimbo Wales explicitly confirmed in #wikimedia that this decision applied to Wikisource, declaring that "Noncomercial-only licenses are basically the same thing as torturing kittens." Angela, board member, has also explicitly stated noncommercial licenses to be unacceptable; see "[Foundation-l] Re: [Juriwiki-l] Re: Copyright complaints".
discussions	Wikisource "CC-NC license?" (Scriptorium, March 2006) "Noncommercial licenses prohibited" (Scriptorium, March 2006) Foundation "Use of noncommercial-only images" (WikiEN-l, April 2004) "Copyright complaints" (Foundation-l, February 2006)

Non-derivative

description	Non-derivative criteria limit or disallow modifications, translations, or derived works such as musical arrangements, dramatizations, fictionalizations, motion picture versions, sound recordings, art reproductions, abridgments, condensations, or annotations.
status	Non-derivative works are prohibited on Wikisource, whose license allows end-users and redistributors to make derivative works from all Wikisource content.
discussions	on Wikisource "Copyright debate at mailing list" (Scriptorium, March 2006) "British Statutes After 1955" (Possible copyright violations, April 2006) "UK Acts of Parliament" (Scriptorium, July 2006) "British and Canadian laws (Scriptorium, December 2006) "British Crown Copyright" (Possible copyright violations, January 2007) "UK legislation" (Scriptorium, February 2007) "UK/Canadian Legislation" (Copyright policy discussion, February 2007) Foundation 2004-05: [Foundation-l] Copyright issues of wikimedia projects 2006-02: [Foundation-l] Re: [Juriwiki-l] Re: Copyright complaints 2006-05: [Foundation-l] RfC: A Free Content and Expression Definition 2006-05: [Foundation-l] A Wikisource Definition (was: RfC: A Free Content and Expression Definition) 2006-08: [Foundation-l] Foundation's position on non-free images 2007-02: [Foundation-l] Clearing up Wikimedia's media licensing policies Wikimedia Commons project scope

Orphaned

description	An orphaned work is one whose copyright exists or may exist, but whose copyright holder is difficult or impossible to contact.
status	Orphaned works are prohibited on Wikisource, which seeks to build a free content library. Although the copyrighted works may be freely exploited for the time being or in limited situations, the rights have nonetheless not granted and the works are not free.
discussions	Wikisource "Works in Category :Orphan works" (Possible copyright violations, November 2006) "Unenforceable copyright/Presumed PD Without Release" (Copyright policy discussion, November 2006) "Orphan works" (Copyright policy discussion, November 2006) "Controversy over copyright restrictions" (Wikisource news, November 2006) "Orphan works" (Scriptorium, December 2006) Elsewhere "American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term" (Meta)

Presumed licensing

description	Presumed licensing refers to works whose licenses are unknown but are likely to be a compatible license or criteria.
status	These are generally prohibited. However, some very limited conditions have been permitted by the community, most notably regarding public speeches. No works should be added to Wikisource under a presumed license or condition except for scenarios explicitly permitted by the Wikisource community, start a discussion at Wikisource:Possible copyright violations before posting works: An unscheduled or impromptu speech would by its nature not allow for a written foundation, so would not be covered by US copyright laws, hence would be PD and could be hosted on WS. Manifestos or open letters that are not explicitly or implicitly copyrighted and are intended for widespread distribution. Template:PD-manifesto was deleted.
discussions	"Speeches" (Possible copyright violations, August 2006) "Pages from Category:Suicide notes" (Proposed deletions, November 2006) "O.J. Simpson suicide note"(Possible copyright violations, November 2006) "Unenforceable copyright/Presumed PD Without Release" (Copyright policy discussion, November 2006) "Controversy over copyright restrictions" (Wikisource news, November 2006) Public speeches in general (Possible copyright violations, December 2006) "Copyright in speeches" (essay by User:Physchim62) Speeches (June 2007) List of Countries Where Politicians' Speeches are Copyright-Free (Possible copyright violations, April 2010)

Unenforceable copyright

description	Unenforceable copyright is a copyright that is otherwise valid in the United States but cannot be enforced due to specific circumstances, such as an application of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (which makes all commerce with an enemy state or organisation illegal).
status	Unenforceable copyright is prohibited on Wikisource, which seeks to build a free content library. Although the copyrighted works may be freely exploited for the time being or in limited situations, the rights have nonetheless not been granted and the works are prohibited.
discussions	"Pages from Category:Suicide notes" (Proposed deletions, November 2006) "O.J. Simpson suicide note"(Possible copyright violations, November 2006) "Image:Zodiac-SFC-Map.jpg" (Possible copyright violations, November 2006) "Unenforceable copyright/Presumed PD Without Release" (Copyright policy discussion, November 2006) "Controversy over copyright restrictions" (Wikisource news, November 2006)

Licenses

Compatible

Apache 2.0

Works licensed under the Apache License can be hosted on Wikisource.

Creative Commons Attribution

All original content on Wikisource is dual-licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike and the GNU Free Documentation License. Works licensed under CC BY or CC BY-SA can be hosted on Wikisource.

Creative Commons Share-Alike

All original content on Wikisource is dual-licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike and the GNU Free Documentation License. Works licensed under CC BY-SA can be hosted on Wikisource.

Open Government License

Works licensed under any version of the UK Open Government License can be hosted on Wikisource. For more information, see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Open_Government_Licence

Not compatible

Creative Commons Non-Commercial

Works hosted on Wikisource must be usable for any purpose, including commercial purposes. For this reason works under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial license cannot be hosted on Wikisource.

Creative Commons Non-Derivative

Works hosted on Wikisource must be usable for any purpose, including creating derivative works. For this reason works under a Creative Commons Non-Derivative license cannot be hosted on Wikisource.

GNU Free Documentation License

All original content on Wikisource is dual-licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike and the GNU Free Documentation License. Works under the GFDL can be hosted if they are also licensed under another, permitted license. Works that are hosted only under the GFDL are prohibited by the Terms of Use.

Project Gutenberg License

The Project Gutenberg License (PGL) applies to ebooks and other works that use or contain the Project Gutenberg trademark. The PGL is non-derivative and therefore such works are prohibited as described above. A public domain work published as a Project Gutenberg ebook cannot be hosted as such, but if the PGL and all other mention of Project Gutenberg are removed then the PGL no longer applies and the public domain work may be hosted here.