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	Category
als/Alemannisch	yes	yes	Erklärige zum Urheberrächt	similar to enwiki
ar/Arabic	yes	yes	Non-free content	similar to enwiki
bar/Bavarian	yes	yes	Reglweak fia pragmatische Ausnahma	similar to dewiki
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	no	no	Licenční politika u souborů
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 such logos is below the threshold of originality. The copyright tag does not mention 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, frames of films, deceased persons. Disallowed for living people and/or reproducible content. The criteria are the same as 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.
en/English	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. Historically 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.
frr/Northern Frisian	yes	yes	License types incl. non-free content (B.,D.,E.,F.,G.)	Policy according to dewiki.
hr/Croatian	yes	yes	Politika doktrine izuzetaka
hy/Armenian	yes	yes	Ոչ ազատ պատկերների օգտագործում	Based on Armenian legislation (Law on Copyrights and related rights, article 22). Very similar to enwiki.
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.
is/Icelandic	yes	yes	EDP per is.wiki	1) Allowed when no comparable file is on commons 2) Short excerpts of a work can be used for critical analysis or commentary. 3) Pictures of buildings and artwork placed permanently outdoors with the photographers permission. 4) Pictures of trademarks. 5) Documents from the Icelandic government. 6) Free images should be uploaded to commons. Note: All text on is.wiki, including information about images has to be in Icelandic.
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, frames of films, 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	Doesn't appear to have an EDP	Similar to 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:Википедија:Подигање на слики#Фер употреба		mk:Категорија:Википедија:Неслободна содржина
ml/Malayalam	yes	yes	?	similar to enwiki
ms/Malay	yes	yes	Kriteria kandungan tidak bebas	Almost similar to enwiki, but also takes into account Akta Hakcipta Malaysia.	ms:Kategori:Kandungan Wikipedia bukan bebas
nl/Dutch	yes	no
nn/Norwegian Nynorsk	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 understanding the article. Uploads which do not fulfil 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 enwiki. Romanian copyright law allows for similar fair use exemptions.
ru/Russian	yes	yes	Добросовестное использование
sa/Sanskrit	yes	yes	?	Policy similar to enwiki. As of now, no formal policy page exists, but one is in development.
si/Sinhala	yes	yes	?	Similar to enwiki.
simple/Simple English	yes	no		No image uploads, but free use sound uploads are allowed.
sl/Slovenian	yes	yes	Politika izjem	Similar to enwiki.
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 of 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
en/English	sysops	?	Wiktionary:Non-free content criteria	Draft proposal only; consensus has not been reached.
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
oldwikisource	yes	no
ar/Arabic	yes	?	Unclear
as/Assamese	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
az/Azerbaijani	yes	?	Unclear
be/Belarusian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
bg/Bulgarian	no	no		The local upload form is hidden via CSS. However, some files are present on the wiki.
bn/Bengali	yes	?	Unclear
br/Breton	no (de facto)	yes		Some non-free texts, no policy.
bs/Bosnian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
ca/Catalan	yes	yes	Unclear	Non-free content is apparently permitted, but no EDP can be found.
cs/Czech	sysops	no
cy/Welsh	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
da/Danish	yes	no
de/German	yes	?		Non-free media seems to be disallowed, but it is unclear.
el/Greek	yes	?		Non-free media seems to be disallowed, but it is unclear.
en/English	yes	no
eo/Esperanto	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
es/Spanish	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
et/Estonian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
fa/Persian	yes	yes	Defers to Persian Wikipedia	This project does not have its own EDP, instead linking across to fawiki.
fi/Finnish	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
fo/Faroese	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
fr/French	yes	yes	Respect du copyright, Vote	Unfree media discouraged, some media free according lex loci but not in US.
gl/Galician	yes	?	Unclear
gu/Gujarati	yes	?	Unclear
he/Hebrew	yes	?	Unclear	Many images, some of which may be non-free, are present.
hu/Hungarian	yes	?	Unclear
hy/Armenian	yes	?	Unclear
id/Indonesian	yes	?	Unclear
is/Icelandic	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
it/Italian	yes	?	Unclear
ja/Japanese	no	no
kn/Kannada	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
ko/Korean	yes	no
la/Latin	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
li/Limburgish	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
lt/Lithuanian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
mk/Macedonian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
ml/Malayalam	yes	?	Unclear
mr/Marathi	yes	?	Unclear
nl/Dutch	yes	no
no/Norwegian (bokmål)	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
pl/Polish	yes	no
pt/Portuguese	yes	no
ro/Romanian	yes	?	Unclear
ru/Russian	yes	?	Unclear
sa/Sanskrit	yes	?	Unclear
sah/Sakha	yes	?	Unclear
sk/Slovak	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
sl/Slovenian	yes	?	Unclear
sr/Serbian	yes	?	Unclear
sv/Swedish	sysops and autopatrollers	no		Media published in Sweden and Finland has to respect Swedish and Finnish copyright law, besides the US.
ta/Tamil	yes	yes	Unclear	Some non-free files appear to be present.
te/Telugu	yes	?	Unclear
th/Thai	yes	?	Unclear
tr/Turkish	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
uk/Ukrainian	yes	?
vec/vèneto	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
vi/Vietnamese	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).
yi/Yiddish	yes	?
zh/Chinese	yes	no?		The upload form does not indicate that non-free media is forbidden.
zh-min-nan/Chinese (Min Nan)	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-21).

Wikibooks

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
af/Afrikaans	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-24).
ar/Arabic	yes	?	Unclear
az/Azerbaijani	yes	yes	Unclear	The fair-use tag does not link to an EDP.
be/Belarusian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-24).
bg/Bulgarian	no	no		The local upload form is hidden via CSS. However, many files are present on the wiki.
bn/Bengali	yes	yes	Unclear	The upload form description (copied verbatim from bn.wp) says that non-free media is allowed. However, no EDP is correctly linked from that form.
bs/Bosnian	yes	yes	Unclear	The fair use policy is a broken link.
ca/Catalan	yes	no
cs/Czech	sysops	no
cv/Chuvash	yes	yes	Unclear	Various screenshots of non-free software are present.
cy/Welsh	yes	yes	Unclear	Various screenshots of non-free software are present.
da/Danish	yes	?		Non-free media seems to be disallowed, but it is unclear.
de/German	yes	no
el/Greek	yes	yes	Unclear	The image use policy is a redlink. Many images that appear non-free are present.
en/English	uploaders and sysops	yes	Media	Local uploads for non-free content only.
eo/Esperanto	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-24).
es/Spanish	no	no
et/Estonian	yes	yes	Unclear	Various screenshots of non-free software are present.
eu/Basque	yes	?	Unclear
fa/Persian	yes	yes	Defers to Persian Wikipedia	This project does not have its own EDP, instead linking across to fawiki.
fi/Finnish	yes	?	Unclear
fr/French	yes	?	Unclear
fy/Western Frisian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-24).
gl/Galician	yes	?	Unclear	The image use policy is a redlink.
he/Hebrew	yes	?	Unclear
hi/Hindi	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-30).
hr/Croatian	yes	yes	Unclear	The fair-use tag, in use on 2 images (as of 2013-01-30), does not link to an EDP.
hu/Hungarian	yes	?	Unclear	The upload form description (copied verbatim from hu.wp) contains a broken link to "image guidelines".
hy/Armenian	yes	yes	Unclear	Various screenshots of non-free software are present.
ia/Interlingua	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-30).
id/Indonesian	yes	yes	Unclear	Fair use is permitted per the upload form, there is plenty of non-free media present, and a license tag (b:id:Template:Fairuse) exists. But there is no EDP.
ie/Interlingue	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-30).
is/Icelandic	sysops	no
it/Italian	yes	yes	b:it:Aiuto:Copyright immagini#.28d.29_Fair_use	The EDP (if you can call it that) only allows non-free images of money.
ja/Japanese	yes	?	Unclear	Like fa, ja defers to Japanese Wikipedia. However, it links to jawiki's general image use policy, not specifically to the EDP, so it is unclear if non-free media is accepted on Japanese Wikibooks. Some non-free media seems to exist.
pt/Portuguese	yes	no

Wikiquote

Note: All Wikiquote editions host text under fair use doctrines. Currently, the table below relates to images only. Anyone is welcome to expand the table to include text-related EDP links.

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
af/Afrikaans	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
ar/Arabic	yes	?	Unclear	The image use policy is a redlink. There appear to be a few non-free files.
az/Azerbaijani	yes	?	Unclear	There are a couple of non-free (?) logos.
be/Belarusian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
bg/Bulgarian	no	no		The local upload form is hidden via CSS.
br/Breton	yes	yes	Defers to Breton Wikipedia	This project does not have its own EDP, instead linking across to brwiki.
br/Breton	yes	yes	Unclear	There are a few non-free files copied from other projects (such as q:ca:File:Companys.jpg).
cs/Czech	sysops	no
de/German	?	?	?	?
el/Greek	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
en/English	no	no		Text governed by Fair use.
eo/Esperanto	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
es/Spanish	no	no
et/Estonian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
eu/Basque	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
fa/Persian	yes	yes	Defers to Persian Wikipedia	This project does not have its own EDP, instead linking across to fawiki.
fi/Finnish	yes	yes	Unclear	The upload form says that fair use media is accepted, but there is no policy, and no fair-use files are actually present.
fr/French	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
gl/Galician	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
gu/Gujarati	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
he/Hebrew	yes	yes	q:he:ויקיציטוט:רישוי/שימוש_הוגן
hi/Hindi	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
hr/Croatian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
hu/Hungarian	yes	no
hy/Armenian	yes	yes	Unclear	There are a few non-free files, but no evidence of a policy.
id/Indonesian	yes	yes	Unclear	There are a few non-free files, but the fair use policy is a redlink.
is/Icelandic	bureaucrats	no
it/Italian	no	no
ja/Japanese	yes	?	Unclear	Like br and fa, ja defers to Japanese Wikipedia. However, it links to jawiki's general image use policy, not specifically to the EDP, so it is unclear if non-free media is accepted on Japanese Wikiquote. Whatever the case, there is no non-free media present.
ka/Georgian	yes	yes	Unclear	There are non-free content tags in use on several images, but the linked policy page does not exist.
kn/Kannada	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
ko/Korean	yes	?		No obviously non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
ku/Kurdish	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
ky/Kirghiz	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
la/Latin	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
li/Limburgish	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
lt/Lithuanian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
ml/Malayalam	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
mr/Marathi	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
nl/Dutch	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
nn/Norwegian Nynorsk	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
no/Norwegian (bokmål)	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
pl/Polish	yes	no
pt/Portuguese	yes	yes	Unclear	There are a few non-free files, but no evidence of a policy.
ro/Romanian	yes	yes	Unclear	There are a few non-free files, but no evidence of a policy.
ru/Russian	no	no
sk/Slovak	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
sl/Slovenian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
sq/Albanian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
sr/Serbian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
su/Sundanese	yes	?		Google Translate doesn't understand Sundanese :(
sv/Swedish	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
ta/Tamil	yes	yes	Unclear	There are a few non-free files, but no evidence of a policy.
te/Telugu	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
te/Telugu	yes	yes	Unclear	There are many non-free files, but no evidence of a policy.
tr/Turkish	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
uk/Ukrainian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
ur/Urdu	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
uz/Uzbek	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
vi/Vietnamese	unwanted	no		Notice on upload page states that file uploads are not wanted.
wo/Wolof	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
zh/Chinese	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
zh-min-nan/Chinese (Min Nan)	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).

Wikinews

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
ar/Arabic	yes	no
bg/Bulgarian	no	no
bs/Bosnian	no	no
ca/Catalan	no	no
cs/Czech	sysops	?		No files have been uploaded other than the logo (as of 2013-01-06).
de/German	yes	yes	Unclear
el/Greek	no	no
en/English	yes	yes	Fair use
eo/Esperanto	no	no
es/Spanish	no	no
fa/Persian	yes	yes	n:fa:ویکی‌خبر:استفاده_منصفانه	The linked policy page doesn't actually exist. There are many non-free files.
fi/Finnish	no	no
fr/French	no	no
he/Hebrew	yes	?	Unclear	There are a few non-free files, but no evidence of a policy.
it/Italian	yes	yes	Unclear	Image copyright tags link back to Italian Wikipedia policies
ja/Japanese	no	no
ko/Korean	yes	?		No files have been uploaded other than the logo (as of 2013-01-06).
no/Norwegian (bokmål)	yes	yes	n:no:Wikinytt:Bildepolicy
pl/Polish	yes	yes	Dozwolony użytek
pt/Portuguese	no	no
ro/Romanian	no	no
ru/Russian	no	no
sr/Serbian	no	no
sq/Albanian	no	no
sv/Swedish	no	no
ta/Tamil	no	no
tr/Turkish	yes	?	Unclear	There is a non-free content tag in use on several images, but the linked policy page does not exist.
uk/Ukrainian	no	no
zh/Chinese	no	no

Wikiversity

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
betawikiversity	yes	?		Presumably, non-free content would not be permitted on this project, but there doesn't seem to be a policy.
cs/Czech	sysops	no		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
el/Greek	yes	?	Under development	Doesn't appear to have any non-free content (as of 2013-01-06).
en/English	yes	yes	Uploading files
es/Spanish	no	no
fi/Finnish	yes	?		Unclear. Some non-free files appear to be present
fr/French	yes	?		Unclear. Some non-free files appear to be present
it/Italian	yes	?		Most files are awaiting deletion.
ja/Japanese	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
sl/Slovenian	yes	?		No non-free files present (as of 2013-01-06).
sv/Swedish	no	no

Wikivoyage

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
de/German	yes	?		Unclear; appears to accept some free media that is not accepted by Commons
en/English	yes	yes	Non-free content	Only photographs of travel-relevant artwork and architecture are allowed, and aside from the copyrighted content, the photos must otherwise be freely licensed.
es/Spanish	no	no
fr/French	yes	yes	Contenu_non_libre (DRAFT)	Only photographs of travel-relevant artwork and architecture are allowed, and aside from the copyrighted content, the photos must otherwise be freely licensed.
he/Hebrew	yes	?		Unclear
it/Italian	yes	?		Uploads are enabled, but there are currently no local files (as of 2013-01-06).
nl/Dutch	no	no
pt/Portuguese	no	no
sv/Swedish	yes	no		"All content is 100% free." (voy:sv:Wikivoyage:Regler och riktlinjer)
ru/Russian	yes	yes	Правила добросовестного использования	Only photographs of travel-relevant artwork and architecture are allowed, and aside from the copyrighted content, the photos must otherwise be freely licensed.
uk/Ukrainian	sysops and uploaders	no		only noFOP photos are allowed

Other projects

Language	Local uploads	Non-free content	Exemption Doctrine Policy	EDP summary
commons	yes	no
incubator	bureaucrats	no		No local file uploads, except logos.
mediawikiwiki	yes	no
meta	yes	no
species	no	no		Image guidelines
wikidata	no	no

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 on the Chinese Wikipedia to clean up EDP images.