Forum:Copyrights

A quick look at the policies on Star Wars Fanon shows that the wiki lacks a general copyright policy. I tend to think it would be a good idea to have such a thing; while I know a number of users make explicit disclaimers that all terms, characters, words, etc. from canon are copyrighted by Lucasfilm, there's not an official site policy. I recommend the community and administration put together something like, because it's one thing to say that everything here is on GFDL (which is stated on the Editing policy), but it's quite another to have a policy to point to spelling that out. Not all of that Wookieepedia page will necessarily apply here, but it's important that Star Wars Fanon, as with all fansites, errs on the side of caution when it comes to copyrights and respecting them.

Anticipated questions

 * Q: What is copyright?
 * A: A copyright basically states that some form of written word or media is the property of the copyright holder, and it's up to them how that material is used.


 * Q: This is teh internetz! Dont tell me we hav 2 folow copyrihts hur?
 * A: Yes, you do. Wikia's servers are in Florida, and therefore U.S. and Florida copyright laws apply to all content on Star Wars Fanon. You can carve that in stone.


 * Q: I use copyrighted images in my fanon. Will this policy affect those?
 * A: Short answer: No. Longer answer: When you use a copyrighted image in your fanon, you are (or should be) claiming fair use, which in a nutshell states that you can use copyrighted material in certain uses&mdash;i.e. ones that do not involve you making money or promoting a particular product, company, organization, etc. with said copyrighted material.


 * Q: Does this mean I cannot use Wookieepedia content here?
 * A: Unfortunately, no. While I personally abhor the porting of entire Wookieepedia articles over here&mdash;particularly the featured ones&mdash;only to have them littered with poor quality fanon, there is nothing to stop you, as long as your work is licensed under GFDL (and everything on SWF is, except for certain images) and you give credit to the original authors, for example in a talk page notice.


 * Q: MY FANINZ IS COPYRIGHTED TOO, RIGHT?
 * A: lololololol. See above, but more or less, your work is not and cannot be copyrighted, because all contributions to SWF (except for some images) are licensed under the GFDL license. At any rate, the idea of you trying to copyright something that includes property belonging to Lucasfilm is A) laughable and B) A good way to bring a cease-and-desist letter and/or a small army of armored corporate lawyers bearing the power of Lucasfil down upon your/this wiki's head.


 * Q: But people can't just steal my fanon, right?
 * A: Tricky. Technically, they can use your fanon without asking particularly if it's not on Star Wars Fanon&mdash;though again, they must give credit to the original author and license their own work under GFDL. The only thing protecting your fanon on this site is an internal policy having nothing to do with copyrights. The more important question is, why would somebody want to steal fanon of all things?

I will first put this up to vote as to whether or not the community desires such a thing. You guys can work out the exact details of what all your page should entail. Atarumaster88  ( Talk page ) 19:18, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, we should probably have this, just in case

 * 1) Atarumaster88  [[Image:Jedi_Order.svg|20px]] ( Talk page ) 19:18, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Discussion

 * To give a basic idea of things that might be on such a page, there could be a mention and links to the GFDL license, brief explanation of copyright policy on a level suitable for most users to understand it, acknowledgment that everything Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm, explanations with how to deal with copyright violations, explanations for how to report a copyright violation, and terms of use for using content from SWF. Atarumaster88  [[Image:Jedi_Order.svg|20px]] ( Talk page ) 19:18, 8 November 2008 (UTC)