Help:Copyright

Copyright is a type of intellectual property law. It protects "artistic expression" from being used without the permission of the person who created it. Copyright is distinct from trademark and patent protection, because it covers works of authorship instead of identifying the source of goods or useful inventions.

Copyright applies to a creative work as soon as the author fixes it in a non-transitory medium. This means that an article qualifies for copyright protection as soon as you write it. It also means that there is no publishing or registration requirement.

Copyright protection applies to literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. There is a minimal standard for creativity, so even minor edits are eligible for copyright protection. In the internet context, copyright law is governed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Owning the copyright to a work means that you have the exclusive ability to do the following:
 * 1) Distribute the work.
 * 2) Make derivatives of the work.
 * 3) Reproduce (copy) the work.
 * 4) Perform the work.
 * 5) Display the work.

You also have the ability to sell or give these rights way and keep anyone from doing any of these things without your permission. ​If someone does any of these things without the permission of the copyright owner, then they have infringed the owner's copyright.

Your Copyright on Wikia
When you contribute to Wikia, you retain the copyright to your edits although you agree to licence them under the terms of the CC-BY-SA licence. New wikis and the vast majority of existing wikis use the CC-BY-SA. The license used by an individual wiki is made clear in the footer and/or on the edit page of that wiki. This means that although you are the owner of the copyright, you have given blanket permission to the world at large to reuse, remix, and transform your work as long as you are attributed as the author. Please note that images are not automatically released under the CC-BY-SA licence.

You may find that an outside source is using content from your wiki. This is acceptable under the Creative Commons licence as long as they provide proper attribution on every article and link back to your wiki. There's an example of how to provide proper attribution in our Terms of Use here.

Infringement
If you believe someone has violated your copyright, a good first step is to approach an administrator or similarly situated user on the offending site and explain the attribution requirement to them. Often, the failure to attribute is an oversight and an authority there will fix it by adding attribution.

If that does not work, your next step is to send a Takedown Notice. Under the DMCA, copyright infringements are subject to a notice and takedown procedure. This involves sending a notice to the host of the infringing content and informing them of the infringement.

When a copyright owner discovers a possible infringement on Wikia, they send a Takedown Notice. That notice must include the following, in accordance with the DMCA: As a host for user-generated content, Wikia is then obligated to remove any infringing material that we receive notice of. Repeated copyright violations can lead to loss of user rights (if any are present and necessary to be removed), blocking, the loss of your account, or even the closure of your wiki.
 * The contact information (name, address) and signature of the complaining party. If the notice is sent electronically, the signature can be electronic.
 * A link to original version of the material (if such a link exists) and a link to the allegedly infringing material on Wikia.
 * A statement by the complaining party that they have a good faith belief that there is no legal basis for the material's use on Wikia.
 * A statement that, under penalty of perjury, the information contained within the notice is accurate and that the individual sending the notice is authorised to act on behalf of the material's owner.

If you feel that your copyright is currently being infringed on Wikia, please contact our designated agent under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act:
 * Attn: Copyright Agent
 * Wikia, Inc.
 * 360 Third Street
 * Suite 750
 * San Francisco, CA 94107

You may email the designated agent via copyright@wikia.com. Please include "Claim of Copyright Infringement" in the subject of your email.

Adding copyrighted content to your wiki
Your community may want to include copyrighted material from outside sources on the wiki. This is only allowed under one or more of the following conditions: If your use of content does not fall under one of these broad categories, it likely infringes someone's copyright. It is therefore against our Terms of Use to submit that material. We recommend using content that has a compatible licence or is released to the public domain whenever possible.
 * 1) Your use of the material will be likely to qualify as a fair use or similar exception.
 * 2) You have the permission of the copyright holder.
 * 3) The material you want to use is licenced under a Creative Commons or other open licence that permits free reuse.
 * 4) The material is in the public domain.
 * 5) ​You have created the material yourself.