What do we include and exclude?
Wikisource, as the free library that anyone can improve, exists to archive the free artistic and intellectual works created throughout history, and to present these publications in a faithful wiki version so that anyone may contribute added value to the collection.
Some things we include are:
- Source texts previously published by any author
- Translations of original texts
- Historical documents of national or international interest
- Bibliographies of authors whose works are in Wikisource
Contributions are not limited to this list, of course.
Some basic criteria for texts excluded from Wikisource are:
- Copyright infringements
- Original writings by a contributor to the project
- Mathematical data, formulae, and tables
- Source code (for computers)
- Statistical source data (such as election results)
These are just the most basic, obvious things that are excluded from Wikisource. There may of course be other things excluded by policy or convention.
Defining what is included
Different rules apply depending on when the work was created. Although US copyright law provided the convenient transition date, it is still possible that a work created before that date remains protected, or that a work created after that date is in the public domain.
Works created before 1923
Most written work (or transcript of original audio or visual content) published (or created but never published) prior to 1923 may be included in Wikisource, so long as it is verifiable. Valid sources include uploaded scans and printed paper sources. These works are expected to meet copyright requirements using {{PD-old}} or one of the {{Pd/1923 series}} licenses. They are unlikely to have conflicts with Acknowledged precedent exclusions.
Works created after 1922:
(meaning works created after December 31st, 1922)
Documentary sources
Documentary sources are characterized by one of two criteria:
- They are official documents of the body producing them, or
- They are evidentiary in nature, and created in the course of events.
These documents may range from constitutions and treaties to personal correspondence and diaries. This category may include material not historically available, such as historical telephone calls, judicial proceedings, and transcriptions of military operations. Documentary sources must be added in their complete form whenever possible, without substantive editorial amendment. The source of these works must be noted in order to allow others to verify that the copy displayed at Wikisource is a faithful reproduction. Expressions of mere opinion are not documentary.
For more information, please see:
Languages and translations
Wikisource is a multilingual project. Texts and translations of texts are welcome in all languages at the appropriate subdomains and at the general wikisource.org wiki.
This English wiki is for:
- Source texts originally in English
- English translations of source texts in other languages
- Parallel source with translations into English.
For information on languages and translations, please see:
Licencing on Wikisource.
All pages should have a licence at the bottom to indicate the legality of hosting and distributing the work. This template will also provide some further information about the reliability of the work. The licence templates usually describe the legal situation of the work, based on the date of publication and the date of the author’s death.
There are many licence templates but most situations are covered by the following four. To create dynamic copyright messaging that will update as time passes and stay accurate when the author’s death year (ADY) is known. Direction for including ADY is in each template document.
- Published prior to 1923, ADY 100+ years ago {{PD-old}}
- Published prior to 1923, ADY anything less than 100 years ago {{Pd/1923}}
- Published after 1922 and before 1964, Non-renewal confirmed {{PD-US-no-renewal}}
- Published between 1923 and 1996 {{Pd/1996}}
WIKISOURCE: COPYRIGHT POLICY
Unless otherwise noted, all user contributions to Wikisource are released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License (CC-BY-SA) and the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
The copyright laws applicable to Wikisource are primarily those of the United States of America, where the physical Wikimedia servers are located. The United States is not obliged to extend copyright beyond what it would be in the author’s own country, and virtually all countries have copyrights that last for the author’s life plus some number of years.
CONTRIBUTORS’ RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS
All works on Wikisource must be in the public domain or released under a license compatible with the free content definition. It is the responsibility of the contributor to assert compatibility with Wikisource’s license. A template should be used on the source material page to indicate the licence that the source material is posted under (see Help:Copyright tags).
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