Non-free content

Non-free content on Wikimedia projects

This page examines the status of non-free content (like fair use) on Wikimedia Projects. Note that the Wikimedia licensing policy requires that any project allowing fair use implement an exemption doctrine policy.

Copyright policies

Wikipedia

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
als/Alemannisch	yes	yes		similar to enwiki
be-x-old/‪Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‬	yes	yes	Крытэры добрасумленнага выкарыстаньня	Similar to enwiki.
bg/Bulgarian	no	no
bn/Bengali	yes	yes	উইকিপিডিয়া:মুক্ত নয় এমন উপাদান	Developing Similar to enwiki; strongly discouraged for images of living people.
ca/Catalan	yes	yes	Continguts no lliures	Narrowly defined circumstances when no other option is or will be available and when it is necessary to understand the subject; cannot be used for decorative purposes; strongly discouraged for living people
cs/Czech	yes	yes	Licenční politika u souborů	logos used with permission
da/Danish	yes	no
de/German	yes	yes	Bilder, deren Urheber nicht bekannt ist	Some simple logos are uploaded using the tag "Bild-LogoSH". The design of this logos is below the threshold of originality. The copyright tag however not mentions this clearly (to avoid complaints). Therefore Bild-LogoSH is not a fair use but a public domain tag. If the date of death of the creator is unknown, images are allowed if they are old enough. Some of these images can be non-free. These images are marked with Bild-PD-alt-100 or Bild-PD-alt-1923.
el/Greek	yes	yes	Βικιπαίδεια:Κριτήρια εύλογης χρήσης Fairuse criteria, not a new policy	Allowed for logos, album covers, paintings and such, movieshots, deceased persons. Disallowed for living people and/or reproducible content. The criteria are the same with those on English wikipedia, based on US copyright law. The greek law has a provision that short excerpts of a work can be used for presentation, critical analysis, commentary etc.
wikipedia	yes	yes	Non-free content criteria	Narrowly defined circumstances, strongly discouraged for images of living people. A bot removes fair use images from non-article namespaces.	en:Category:Wikipedia non-free content
eo/Esperanto	yes	yes	Regularo pri justa uzo	Narrowly defined circumstances. Adapted from the English version.	eo:Kategorio:Ĉiuj_neliberaj_dosieroj
es/Spanish	no	no
et/Estonian	yes	yes	Mittevaba sisu kriteeriumid	Logos; media files specially allowed to be used in the Estonian Wikipedia.
eu/Basque	no	no
fa/Persian	yes	yes	معیارهای محتوای غیر آزاد
fi/Finnish	yes	yes	Sitaattioikeus	Non-free images or music samples are allowed if 1) they are not replaceable by free content considering the purpose which they are serving in the article and 2) they are used in accordance with the quotation right of the Finnish copyright law. Historially significant non-free images are forbidden, as they could be replaced. Also non-free images of living people are forbidden.
fr/French	yes	yes	Exceptions au droit d'auteur	Logotypes, recent buildings and money
hr/Croatian	yes	yes	Politika doktrine izuzetaka
ia/Interlingua	no	no
id/Indonesian	yes	yes	Penggunaan media non-bebas	It is not a copyright violation if it is used for educational (or knowledge) purposes.
it/Italian	yes	yes	EDP per it.wiki	Non-free images are allowed if they are not replaceable by free content considering the purpose which they are serving in the article. Narrowly defined circumstances when no other option is or will be available and when it is necessary to understand the subject. Cannot be used for decorative purposes. Allowed for logos, album covers, stamps and such, movieshots, deceased persons. Disallowed for living people. The Italian copyright law has a provision that short excerpts of a work can be used for presentation, critical analysis, commentary, etc.
ja/Japanese	yes	yes	屋外美術を被写体とする写真の利用方針	Policy on usage of photographs portraying outdoor artwork. Concerns freedom of panorama. §46 of Japanese copyright law allows non-commercial reproduction of artistic works located permanently in open places accessible by public, or where it could easily be seen by public.
jbo/Lojban	yes	yes		transients, in practice, however, similar as on enwiki
ko/Korean	yes	no		a draft EDP was rejected by the community
lb/Luxembourgish	yes	yes	Richtlinne fir d'Applikatioun vun der Ausnamsdoktrin	Similar to enwiki.
lt/Lithuanian	yes	yes	Fairuse
lv/Latvian	yes	yes	Godprātīga lietošana
mk/Macedonian	yes	yes			mk:Категорија:Википедија:Неслободна содржина
ml/Malayalam	yes	yes		similar to enwiki
ms/Malay	yes	yes	Kriteria kandungan tidak bebas	Almost similar to en.wiki, also takes into account Akta Hakcipta Malaysia	ms:Kategori:Kandungan Wikipedia bukan bebas
nl/Dutch	yes	no
no/Norwegian (bokmål)‬	yes	no
pl/Polish	yes	no
pt/Portuguese	yes	yes	Política de Isenção da Doutrina	The policy allows only the content that is relevant to the article understanding. The content which information has not fulfilled the policy requisites are eliminated and the maximum upload size is 500 kilobytes.	pt:Categoria:!Política de conteúdo restrito
ro/Romanian	yes	yes	Materiale_protejate	Similar to the one at en.wp. The Romanian copyright law allows for similar fair use exemptions.
ru/Russian	yes	yes	Добросовестное использование
sa/Sanskrit	yes	yes		Similar policy as in the English Wikipedia. As of now, no formal policy page exists, but in development.
si/Sinhala	yes	yes		Similar to enwiki.
simple/Simple English	no	no		No Image Uploads but free use sound uploads are allowed.
sr/Serbian	yes	yes	Политика доктрине изузећа
sv/Swedish	no	no
ta/Tamil	yes	yes	in development
th/Thai	yes	yes	เงื่อนไขสำหรับเนื้อหาที่ใช้งานโดยชอบธรรม	Similar to enwiki.
tl/Tagalog	yes	yes	in development Pamantayan ng nilalamang 'di-malaya	Similar to enwiki as the Philippines shares the same fair use doctrine as the United States, but modified to allow for the use of looser Philippine fair use interpretations in certain circumstances. Strongly discouraged for images of living people, and images of standing buildings are forbidden.
tr/Turkish	yes	yes	Adil kullanım politikası	Strongly discouraged for images of living people.
tt/Tatar	yes	yes	Намуслы куллану шартлары
uk/Ukrainian	yes	yes	Критерії добропорядного використання	similar to enwiki
vi/Vietnamese	yes	yes	Tiêu chuẩn cho nội dung không tự do	similar to enwiki	vi:Thể loại:Nội dung không tự do Wikipedia
zh/Chinese	yes	yes	合理使用準則	Similar to enwiki; strongly discouraged for images of living people. A bot removes all EDP images from non-article namespaces.

Wiktionary

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
wiktionary	sysops	no
de/German	yes	no
it/Italian	sysops	no
es/Spanish	sysops	no
sv/Swedish	no

Wikisource

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
wikisource	yes	no
fr/French	yes	yes	Respect du copyright	unfree media strongly discouraged
pt/Portuguese	yes	no		unfree media strongly discouraged
sv/Swedish	yes	no		Media published in Sweden and Finland has to respect Swedish and Finnish copyright-law, besides the US.
zh/Chinese	yes	no

Wikibooks

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
wikibooks	uploaders and sysops	yes	Media	Local uploads for non-free content only; all others to Commons.
pt/Portuguese	yes	no

Wikiquote

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
wikiquote	no	no		Local uploads disabled. Text governed by Fair use.
bg/Bulgarian	no	no		Comment: Local uploads disabled via CSS
it/Italian	no	no		Comment: Local uploads disabled via bugzilla request

Wikinews

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
wikinews	yes	yes	Fair use
es/Spanish	no	no
pl/Polish	yes	yes	Dozwolony użytek
ru/Russian	no
zh/Chinese	sysops	no		free content should upload to Wikimedia Commons.

Wikiversity

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
wikiversity	yes	yes	Uploading files
el/Greek	yes		under development
sv/Swedish	no

Other projects

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
commons	yes	no
incubator	bureaucrats	no	N/A	no local file uploads; except logo
meta	yes	no
species	no	no	Image guidelines

See also

• Wikimedia licensing policy
• Do fair use images violate the GFDL?
• Overview of Wikipedia image policies
• commons:Commons:Turning off local uploads
• Python:Deledpimage.py - a bot code run at chinese wikipedia to clean EDP images