Wikipedia:Standard GFDL violation letter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The following is a general letter that can be used to contact users of Wikipedia content asking them to give Wikipedia credit and/or include a GFDL notice. Note: This letter was adapted from the text located at User:MyRedDice/Abacci Letter.

Note that while these letters are part of Wikiepdia (and thus subject to the GFDL) you may wish to remove the GFDL notice at the bottom of the letter as that notice may be confusing. Alternatively, rather than restating it in the letter, you can make reference to the notice at the bottom being the required notice under the GFDL, thereby (in a rather slick manner) leaving the GFDL notice in, but making it look like it is the required text that one is requesting to put on the web site though, obviously it will be functioning in both capacities (example and license notice).

Some cautionary notes:

Many uses of Wikipedia content will be covered by fair use, remember that wholesale copying is often not covered by fair use.
Sometimes text will be separately submitted by its author to Wikipedia and to another website. Sometimes the other website came first -- check the article's talk page and history.
Only one of the copyright owners can sue -- in most cases, this will not be you.

Letter for website that acknowledges Wikipedia as a source

Dear Website owner's name here,

We're delighted to see that your website, web page here, uses content from Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/), the free encyclopedia. This is just the sort of application that we at Wikipedia wish to promote. We're also glad to see that you have included a link back to the source Wikipedia article, as we've suggested on our copyrights page (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights).

However, we'd like to point out that to use content from Wikipedia you should also include a GFDL notice. One way of doing this would be to add the text "This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license", and provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.

Thanks for your assistance,
Your name here

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This message is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

GFDL: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
URL of source: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Standard_GFDL_violation_letter

Letter for website that doesn't acknowledge Wikipedia as a source

Dear Website owner's name here,

However, we'd like to point out that to use content from Wikipedia you should include a link back to the source Wikipedia article (give link here), as we've suggested on our copyrights page (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights). Additionally, you should also include a GFDL notice. One way of doing this would be to add the text "This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license", and provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.

Thanks for your assistance,
Your name here

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This message is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

GFDL: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
URL of source: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Standard_GFDL_violation_letter

GFDL Violation Letter Followup

(To be sent after not less than, but not a lot more than a month after the first - ideally, one month and less than a week after)

Dear Website owner's name here,

This is in regard with your web page here which uses Wikipedia content (http://www.wikipedia.org).

As we suggested in a prior message, your use of Wikipedia content automatically makes you a Licensee of that material, according to the Wikipedia Copyrights page and the international copyright laws. As a Licensee of the GNU Free Documentation Licence (GDFL), you have to abide by that respective license, which in turn means you have to perform the following steps:

You must include links to the article(s) in Wikipedia you copied on the pages containing the copied/modified material;
You must include a visible GFDL notice on every page using Wikipedia content, similar to the one at the bottom of this message.

This is the second message we have sent you; it appears that your violation of our copyright has not changed since we sent our first letter. Please make sure you follow these steps now.

For more information on your rights and obligations as a Licensee of the GNU FDL, see http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

Thank you,
Your name here

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This message is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

GFDL: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
URL of source: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Standard_GFDL_violation_letter

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