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This page in a nutshell: Do not copy text from sources without a CC-BY-SA-compatible license. |
Wikipedia's copyright policy is among its fundamental policies, and yet policies regarding text-based copyright, which are needed for everyday editing, are buried in technical detail. This policy contains the bare minimum about text-based copyright issues that every editor needs to know.
The current copyright policy allows an editor to directly copy material into Wikipedia only if that editor is in a position to release the material under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA-3.0). This means that you are allowed to insert text into Wikipedia only if you satisfy one of the following conditions:
Whenever you make a direct copy of external text, it is essential to clearly indicate that you did not write it yourself, where you obtained the text and why you feel you have a right to use it.
Material from non-CC-BY-SA sources can be included as quotations under the "fair use" doctrine of copyright law according to the guidelines for non-free content which has the following requirements on the quoted text: