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Hi Folks,

I'm rather disappointed that I have to write this forum, but it is with hope that we never have to write another.

I was informed by a user earlier today that he had been copying information from another site without attribution. I will not name the user, but this stops immediately.

So, you're saying I cant use stuff from other sites?

No.

There are two main exceptions that we can use to reuse content. "Fair Use" and the "Creative Commons License".

Creative Commons license

When a site, such as ours, makes our content available to the world, we are making an open offer to the world to use our content, for almost any purpose the user likes. We, like many other sites, use the CC-BY-SA content.

You can use their content, subject to you agreeing to the terms of the Creative Commons license. You confirm your acceptance of this by using their content.

It in effect becomes a contract between you and the previous authors [1]

You are required to uphold your part of the contract. That includes, where relevant, correct attribution. You either follow that sites guidelines as to how to attribute them, or you make sure you identify the source adequately so the previous authors can be identified. That probably means a link back to the original.

If you do not uphold your part of the contract, this is copyright infringement. Not only is it illegal (a civil wrong), its against the Terms of Use of this site.

Fair Use

Fair use is a bit more... Fuzzy and is a feature of US copyright law. As a US site, content here is held under US laws.

United States Code 17 (§107) outlines this exception

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 USC §106 and §106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:
  1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
  4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.[2]

What does that mean? Well it means there's no fixed definition of what Fair Use actually means. Its all on a case by case basis. What we use, how much we use, and why we use it all help determine whether or not something is fair use, as does any possible loss of sales as a result of what we do.

Now no-ones' likely to argue that Bethesda lose game sales from what we do (if anything I'd think we help sell more through helping link newer Fallout fans to the older titles), but things like Game Guides could become an issue here - if we had the Prima game guides in their entirety - or even in significant parts - that of course would affect sales of the guides (and thus probably would not be fair use).

When using other content, make sure you only use as much as you need (and no more), and link back to the original where possible, driving folks who are interested in more back to there.

Consequences

Firstly, from a legal point of view... You can get this site, or parts of it, deleted or shut down. Copyright holders can issue a DMCA notice - if Wikia gets it, they start deleting stuff. If Wikia's ISP gets it, they might turn off the internet connection.

You personally can also potentially be sued. It might be unlikely cos its messy and likely to cost more than its worth, but it is possible. Jammie Thomas knows that being sued for copyright infringement isn't a joke.

A lot of internet companies have a shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy when it comes to getting a DMCA notice... You've probably read stories about massive takedowns on YouTube. The reason is, as long as they comply with these notices, they can't be sued. They ignore em, or otherwise don't meed the DMCA rules, they open themselves to a lawsuit.

A "Counter notice" can then be issued saying "its a mistake to pull that", but in the meantime, the contents gone.

But thats pretty pie in the sky you might be thinking, well, here's what it means to you.

If you are wilfully infringing copyright, you can, and will, be banned. If you are lucky, you'll be caught by one of us, and only temp banned from the wiki in normal guidelines.

If you are unlucky, you might get caught by Wikia (perhaps after they received a DMCA notice), and then you get banned all over the network.

I don't try and mandate a "Zero Tolerance" rule (not sure if I even can), but if you spot someone who should know better, and isn't making a good faith attempt to do it properly, I would advise admins not to err on the side of leniency. This is potentially a major issue.

We don't like it when people misuse our content. We expect no less than good faith attempts to get it right by our contributors.

Any Questions? Agent c (talk) 10:45, February 3, 2014 (UTC)

Questions here

From which sources is the content copied mostly? It would be good to note so it can be tracked down. Energy X 10:48, February 3, 2014 (UTC)

In this case it was some content from The Vault.

Footnotes

  1. Before I get any "I didn't sign anything so there's no contract" or that because you didn't talk to them there's no contract complaints, I refer you to the case of Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1892] QB as a wonderful example of this sort of contract in action. Thats an example of an offer made to the world that doesn't require any formal acceptance being given or anything signed. Equally if you put up a lost dog sign with a promised reward of $100, and I find your dog, we have a contract for you to give me $100 for finding your dog. You enter contracts all the time that don't require a signature - you probably did several times today already when you bought stuff in a shop.
  2. sourced from Wikipedia, but non copyrightable

Questions here

Footnotes

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