Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

Uploading a Non-free Image

In March 2007, the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation passed a policy (see http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Licensing_policy) banning future uploads of any media unless the media is licensed as free content. Free content is any work that doesn’t require permission or payment for any use, including commercial. At most, free content requires attribution: crediting the person who created the image. Free content also has no restrictions on redistribution of the image by others.

The Foundation’s resolution allows exceptions only as provided by a project-specific exemption policy. That policy for the English Wikipedia is Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria (shortcut: WP:NFCC). It sets out a list of 10 criteria for copyrighted images and other media files that lack a free content license (see Figure 15-14). You may use such media only where all ten of the criteria are met. Otherwise, as explained on Before You Upload, the images you upload must be your own work, or in the public domain, or licensed as free content by its owner.

Figure 15-14. Wikipedia doesn’t like non-free content. It can be used only if it meets every one of the ten criteria in the policy Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria (shortcut: WP:NFCC). Most of all, note number 8, which specifies that the non-free material must significantly increase readers' understanding ...