Omaha Commons:Copyright Policy
Content on most websites is copyrighted and thus you are not allowed to cut and paste text from other sites into the Omaha wiki. You can use content from other sites as long as it is rewritten in your own words. Two exceptions to this general rule are: (1) sites such as Wikipedia that license their content under the GFDL license or (2) content that is now in the public domain. In the United States, material published before 1923 is generally in the public domain since there was a 75 year limit on copyrights until the 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act extended the length of copyrights.
Omaha Wiki encourages users to upload their own, original content whenever possible. If another’s work must be used, it must meet the criteria of “fair use,” established by the United States Supreme Court:
- The work must be referenced for nonprofit educational purposes—not for commercial or promotional purposes
- The copyrighted work must be reproduced for the public interest
- The amount or portion relative to the whole work matters—reproducing less of the work (not more) is always better
- The reproduced work should have little to no effect on the business and market of the work’s author or product (especially if the sample is taken from a book)
Any reproduced written work should be set in italics and any text taken verbatim should be set within quotes with proper citation to the original author and work—this policy stands for work reproduced from books, company and organization web sites, journals, periodicals, and other often-cited sources. Whenever possible, summarize reproduced works in your own words and then properly cite your sources. For more details, check out Wikipedia’s recommendations.
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