Help:Licensing

Copyright can be intimidating and confusing, but in its essence, it means that when you create something you own the copyright to it. You can control how it is used, preventing other people from using it without your permission.

A license is a formal permission to use a copyrighted work. Licenses can be given only by the copyright owner. Sometimes they are bought and paid for; other times the copyright owner makes them available for free.

While you own the copyright to content that you create by publishing it to Fandom, by submitting the content to our network you agree to license it under a Creative Commons license.

CC-BY-SA license[]

Unless specifically noted otherwise, all of the text on a wiki is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).

The CC-BY-SA is a type of license that grants broad permissions to the general public to reuse, remix, and adapt your contributions in any way as long as they follow the license terms. There are various types of Creative Commons licenses, which you can learn more about on their site.

CC-BY-SA license terms[]

The CC-BY-SA has some very clear terms or requirements that have to be followed to qualify for the license. To adhere to the terms of the CC-BY-SA, anyone who reuses the content has to do these things:

Identify the license used and link to the license terms (for example, https://www.fandom.com/licensing or https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ ).
Attribution (BY), means that whoever uses the content has to make sure that the original author receives credit. When you add your content to Fandom, you agree that being attributed in any of the following ways satisfies the attribution requirement:
- A link to or URL of the original article.
- A link to or URL of a stable copy of the article that credits the authors similarly to the edit history on Fandom.
- A list of all the contributing authors.
Sharealike (SA) means that if you alter, transform, or build upon the material, you can only release the resulting work under the same or similar license. Because of this, if you add more information, then that information along with the original content must remain under the same license, or one very close to it. You also need to identify the changes to the original work. On Fandom wikis, this is done automatically through versioning and diff views.

Importing non-text files[]

Remember that uploading images or video files does not necessarily mean they are released under the CC-BY-SA. While text contributions automatically fall under the CC-BY-SA, image and video files do not.

It is a best practice to make sure that you specify the license that applies to each non-text file you upload to Fandom. You should generally cite the source of the file, attribute the authors, and note any copyright information that might apply, such as whether you are claiming that file qualifies as a fair use or whether you created the image yourself. See the Help page for Image Copyright Tags for more information.

Many individual communities elaborate upon and refine requirements for file uploads. You should always make sure you are following the local community guidelines when you add non-text files to a community.

Importing text[]

When you import text from other sources to your community, it has to be available under terms that are compatible with the CC-BY-SA license. This means, for example, that you cannot import text from a CC-BY-NC licensed-wiki into a CC-BY-SA because that changes the terms of the license.

Assuming the license is compatible, as long as you attribute the original authors, you can generally import text from other Fandom communities, Wikipedia, or many outside wikis. Importing pages in their entirety using the Import/Export tool is the best way to make sure you cover all your bases because you can include the entire page history along with the content.

However, it is usually best to only import content when you desire to use it in a new or unique way — or to re-contextualize it. Things like translating a wiki into a different language or taking Fandom pages about a novel and building them into a community for the film version are ideal cases of importing content. It is a good idea to let the community know you are importing their content so they do not think you are just making a blanket copy of it.

Alternate licenses[]

Licensing statement — Licensing information can be found at the bottom of every page.

The vast majority of communities on Fandom use the CC-BY-SA, although there are a few with other Creative Commons licenses. These were generally communities acquired by Fandom whose CC-BY-NC noncommercial license were kept intact. See our Licensing Policy page for more information about contributing to communities with alternate licenses. To check the license of the community you are contributing to, you should check right underneath the category and languages section on any page — or on the edit page of that wiki.

Fandom does not change the license of a community on request.

Licensing failures[]

When you see your content somewhere else, the person who is reusing it must credit you and release the work under a similar license. If they do not, they are violating the terms of the license and infringing your copyright. If it is happening on Fandom, we advise that you contact the admins responsible for this content and explain this policy to them, and share a link to our Licensing Policy. If they are unwilling to address the issue, please use Special:Contact to send us:

The URL to the conversation you've had with them
Examples of copied pages (including two URLs each -- one for the page on their wiki and one for the page on yours) so we can research the issue further.

If someone outside of Fandom is using your content without attribution, as the copyright holder, you should start by leaving them a friendly note explaining the issue and presenting them with options for how to credit you properly. Many times, the lack of attribution is unintentional. If the friendly approach fails, you are free to send a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Further help & feedback[]

Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article