Wikipedians wishing to help clean copyright concerns should be reasonably familiar with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines related to copyright. In addition to links in the "Wikipedia Copyright" box, useful resources may include:
Earwig's Copyvio Detecctor runs 3 types of checks: internet scan using Google search, in-text URLs, and cached CopyPatrolBot checks. It can scan certain revisions as well. This does not search offline sources or Google Books and is likely to miss close paraphrasing issues, but is highly effective for detecting web-based violations.
Duplication Detector. This runs a comparison between an article and a specific other document, including pdfs and documents you upload, ranking duplications in text according to amount matched. It may not detect close paraphrasing. It is customizable in a number of ways, including permitting the exclusion of quotations and numbers and specifying the number of words to look for.
Wikiblame. Accessible under the "history" tab of every page on Wikipedia as "Revision history search", this tool can be useful in determining when a run of text first entered an article, thereby helping to determine if text evolved naturally or came in at one chunk. It is also useful in identifying the problematic contributor if copyright issues are confirmed.
mw:Who Wrote That is a browser extension that shows the first insertion of text present in the revision currently viewed, giving the revision ID, time, edit summary, and contributor. It also highlights the percentage of the page written by the contributor and all other text they have written.
Contribution Surveyor, used at WP:CCI. It lists all the articles to which a contributor has contributed, with diffs sorted by edit size. Options allow eliminating "reversions" and "minor edits" and specifying date ranges for output. The output size can also be modified by number of reports per page.
Copyright maintenance templates
There are a number of copyright maintenance templates that have been created to facilitate marking and correcting issues with articles and files and communicating with contributors. Please add new templates as these are devised and remove older ones that are deprecated. All templates in these tables should be included in Category:Wikipedia copyright maintenance templates, since all relate to copyright maintenance.
When copyright infringement is unambiguous: there is no credible assertion of public domain, fair use, or free license, and there is no non-infringing content on the page or in its history worth saving. If it does not meet these criteria, it should be listed for investigation at the copyright problems board instead. Consider checking to see if the source is a mirror of Wikipedia or if other strong evidence exists that Wikipedia came first. Also consider whether the source is likely to be public domain, as for examples by age or production by the US government. (See also Wikipedia:CP#Instructions and WP:CSD#G12)
Notify the article's contributor with the notice that the template will generate.
Blanks the article with a generated notice that its contents may be a copyright problem. Cautions against editing until the matter is resolved by an administrator.
When you are certain that the contents of the page substantially duplicate an unfree or presumably unfree source, even if you aren't certain which comes first. The entire contents of the page need not duplicate the source. If only one section is involved, you may indicate the end of the problem area by typing </div> after the last of the problem text. Consider checking to see if the source is a mirror of Wikipedia or if other strong evidence exists that Wikipedia came first. Also consider whether the source is likely to be public domain, as for examples by age or production by the US government. (See also Wikipedia:CP#Instructions) This template can also be used with offline sources, with a note of explanation in the url field.
Follow the directions the template generates to list the article at the copyright problems board and advise the contributor.
{{Copyvio-histpurge|url=http://example.org|diff=url of the cut-off point in the article history}}
Lists the article in Category:Requested history purges so that an administrator can delete copyright infringement from an article's history.
When there is unambiguous copyright infringement in the article's history but either somebody else has purged and rewritten the content or you have done so yourself. Note that if any creative text is utilized from earlier versions, attribution must be given to the contributors of that text to comply with GFDL and CC BY-SA. If only a few contributors are involved, it is sufficient to give credit in edit summary. If the list is more complex, consider opening a history section in the article's talk page and pointing to it in the edit summary. As with all infringements, consider whether the source may be public domain or compatibly licensed and check to see if it is a mirror of Wikipedia before proposing a history purge.
Notify the original contributor of the copyright infringement of copyright policies. {{subst:Uw-copyright|Article}} ~~~~ works for this, as does as individually crafted note.
Places a notice on an article that its contents seem to have been pasted and may represent a copyright concern.
When you are certain that the contents of the page substantially duplicate another source, but there is good reason to believe that the source may be free for duplication or that the Wikipedia article may have come first.
No further action is required, but consider listing the article manually at the copyright problems board for follow-up.
Places a notice that one or more sources used in an article are copyright infringements or suspected to be copyright infringements.
Use {{Copyvioel}} when an article contains multiple sources that infringe copyright, placing it at the top of the page or section. For one or two, use {{Copyvio link}} instead, placing after the reference. If the external links are not used as sources, but are included in the "external links" section, remove them instead.
Consider whether you can remove or replace the links yourself.
{{subst:cclean|url=http://example.org}} (on article talk; template automatically includes signature and timestamp)
Places a notice on an article's talk page notifying other users that material has been removed for copyright concerns, identifying the source, and cautioning against restoration. Also includes information on how to verify permission and how to revise.
When infringement has been removed from an article and might inadvertently be restored.
Leave a note in the edit summary explaining the removal and pointing to the talk.
{{subst:Backwardscopyvio|title=Title|url=http://www.etc|year=year of publication}} (on top of article talk)
Place an infobox notifying contributors that a potential copyright violation has been investigated and cleared, as the external source duplicated Wikipedia.
Use with caution, only where you are certain of reverse infringement. See template page for optional parameters.
{{copied|from=source|to=destination|diff=permanent diff}} (on top of article talk)
Places a notice on an article's talk page notifying other users that material has either been copied between it and another article.
When material has been duplicate from one article to another (such as through merge or split, use this template on the talk pages of both to clarify attribution and help guard against inadvertent history deletion.
Marks a file for speedy deletion as a blatant copyright infringement.
Use when a file is obviously copied from a source where there is no assertion or evidence that the file is public domain, fair-use, or available under a free license. If, however, the file can be used under non-free content criteria, consider modifying the file with an appropriate tag and fair use rationale.
Notes that no source has been provided for a file and sets the speedy deletion clock if one is not supplied.
Place the template on the file page. If the image is used under a non-free use rationale, place {{di-no source|date=day month year|non-free=yes}}. Follow the notification directions that the template generates.
Notes that a file has been uploaded with an unacceptable license, such as "for non-commercial use only", "non-derivative use", "for Wikipedia use only" or "used with permission". (See WP:CSD#F3)
Apply the template to the file page and follow directions for notification.
For use when you suspect that a file has been taken from an unfree source, but the criteria for speedy deletion are not met. Follow the directions the template generates for (a) listing the file at WP:PUF, (b) tagging the file in articles where it used, and (c) notifying the contributor.
Notes that an image is being used under fair use claim, but lacks fair use rationale. Sets the speedy deletion clock if this is not corrected.
Apply only if fair use rationales are lacking for all uses of an image and you are not able to supply a usable fair use rationale. If there are fair use rationales for some uses, simply remove the image from those articles for which fair use rationales are lacking. If you dispute the fair use rationale, use Template:Di-disputed fair use rationale( | talk | history | links | watch | logs) instead or list the image for review at WP:NFR or WP:IfD.
Apply the template to the file page and follow directions for notification. If remedies are proposed that don't satisfy your concerns, you may wish to follow up at WP:NFR or WP:IfD.
Notes that a fair use file is replaceable and so may not meet non-free content criteria. Sets the speedy deletion clock if this is not successfully corrected or challenged.
Apply the template to the file page and follow directions for notification.
Notes that a fair use file is orphaned. As non-free content criteria require that fair use files be in at least one article, this sets a clock for speedy deletion.
Apply the template to the file page and follow directions for notification. Consider whether, instead of being deleted, the image could and should legitimately be used in an article with a proper fair use rational
When a file has a fair use rationale that does not seem appropriate under WP:NFC. But be aware that this is not a quick forum; it is almost inactive, and more urgent situations should almost certainly be handled through speedy process or at WP:FFD. Follow the posted directions at WP:NFR to list the file. It is courteous to notify the creator. You may also wish to place a notice on the talk page of articles where usage of the image is disputed.
Apply the template to the file page. Once the file has been replaced with a smaller version, place {{Non-free reduced}} on the file page to request deletion of the older, larger file, unless you are an administrator and can delete the older file yourself.
A welcome notice to a new contributor who has violated our copyright policy. Article and username parameter are optional. The latter creates a link to your talk page.
{{subst:Uw-copyright-new|article=article title (optional)|student=yes (optional)|comment=additional note (optional)}}--~~~~
A welcome notice to a new contributor who has violated our copyright policy. Article, student and comment are optional. The student parameter adds direction for them to contact their campus ambassador and should not be used unless you know that the contributor is part of the Wikipedia Education Program. The article parameter includes a statement indicating that content has been removed from the named article.
Alerts contributors that copying Wikipedia content without attribution violate Wikipedia's license. Please follow through with providing attribution. See Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia for more.
Alerts contributors that cut & paste moves violate Wikipedia's license. Please follow through with repairing the cut & paste move you've identified. See Wikipedia:Cut and paste move repair holding pen for more.
Alerts a contributor to our copyright policies when his or her article has been nominated for speedy deletion or so deleted. Automatically generated by speedy deletion template with parameters filled in; however, may be useful by itself in some cases, as when an admin notices and deletes a G12 without placing the G12 template on the article.
Alerts a contributor who has indicated authorship that an article has been deleted because the time to verify has expired and what steps to take next if he or she still wants to verify.
You will automatically be added to the participants category. You can also add yourself directly to that category without the userbox by placing [[Category:WikiProject Copyright Cleanup participants|{{PAGENAME}}]] to your userpage.
Contributors to copyright cleanup, whether a member of this project or not, can be thanked for their efforts with a note of appreciation or one of Wikipedia's "awards", like {{The Copyright Cleanup Barnstar}}:
The Copyright Cleanup Barnstar
{{{1}}}
To bestow the barnstar, add {{The Copyright Cleanup Barnstar|Your message here ~~~~}} to the talk page of the editor.
Offline resources
Some members of this WikiProject have found the following offline resources helpful:
Fishman, Stephen (2006). Richard Stim (ed.). The Public Domain: How to Find and Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art, and More (3rd ed.). Nolo. ISBN 978-1-4133-0454-1.
