Commons:Volunteer Response Team/als

This page in a nutshell: If a copyrighted file is uploaded by someone who is not the copyright holder, then the copyright holder needs to explicitly grant permission for the distribution of the file under a free license. If the file was previously published without a free license on an external website, then the copyright holder will need to establish their identity, even if they are the uploader. You can send permission statements to Wikimedia using the release generator.

Shortcuts: VRT • VRTS • COM:VRT • COM:VRTS

Current backlog (oldest unanswered mail or ticket) in permissions-commons queue is 7 days.

OTRS stoht für Open-source Ticket Request System, e Trouble-Ticket-System uff Internetbasis, wo für alli Wikimedia-Brojäkt ygsetzt wird. E-Bost an s OTRS werre vo freiwillige Mitschaffer beantwortet. Si kümmere sich in mehrere Sproche um generälli froge, Brässafroge und Gnehmigunge. Für d Allmänd/Commons wird s OTRS numme für s letscht verwändet. Sällewäg bedütet „öbbis an s OTRS sände“, dass e E-Brief an permissions-commons@wikimedia.org gschickt werre soll, dass sich e OTRS-Mitschaffer demit bschäftige cha.

'S empfihlt sich, eini vo de E-Brief-Vorlage z bruche zum um e nötigi Gnehmigung vom Rächtinhaber bitte.

Wenn dr e Gnehmigung griegt häsch, no leit sälli per E-Brief an d OTRS-Adräss (lüeg obe) witer. In de Gnehmigung, wo dr griegt häsch, müeß uff jede Fall e konkreti freii Lizänz age ßy, und d Nutzig darf nit uff d Commons oder d Wikipedia bschränkt ßy.

Emails sent to VRTS are handled by a multilingual team of trusted volunteers. Each topic is assigned a unique ticket number to keep related emails together and to ensure that correspondence can be found and re-examined at a later date. The correspondence is not visible to the public.

Im E-Brief an s OTRS sottsch agee, dass d Dateie/Bilder uff de Commons gspeichert ßin oder werre. Gibb wenn möglig de Dateiname und genaui Internetadrässe zu Referänzsite a. Gib druff Acht, dass dr de gsamt Schriftverchehr mit allne E-Mail-Header witerleitsch. Alternativ chasch de Rächtinhaber drum bitte, d Gnehmigung diräkt an s OTRS z sände - s OTRS isch e nit-öffentligs System; de Schriftverchehr chönne numme Lüt alüege, wo bim OTRS schaffe.

Wenn d Gnehmigung, wo dr ans OTRS gsändet/sände lo häsch, in Ordnig isch, no düet e OTRS-Mitschaffer säll bstätige. In dëm Fall chasch für d Dateie eini vo denne Vorlage verwände, wo dr unde findsch. Wenn d Gnehmigung unvollständig oder fählerhaft isch (z.B. wenn's Zwyfel git, dass de Absänder vo de Gnehmigung de Rächtinhaber isch, oder bi lizänzrächlige Broblem wie Bearbeitige), no wird dr säll öbber vom OTRS sage.

E Liste vo OTRS-Mitschaffer, wo au Administrator uff de Allmänd ßin, findsch under m:OTRS/personnel; si ßin dört mit me y in de Spalte Commons markiert. E Uszug findet mer au under Template talk:PermissionOTRS. Wenn dini E-Bost oder Afrog über längeri Zit nit beantwortet wird, no chasch eini vo denne Persone aschrybe und si bitte, de Vorgang z briefe und z bearbeite.

OTRS-Mitschaffer bschäftige sich au mit Mäldige über Urheberrächtsverletzige. Wenn dr dich an de commonsbezogene OTRS-Arbet bedeilige wottsch, no chasch Kontakt mit em Raymond de oder öbber anderem vo de Liste m:OTRS/personnel uffneh, dass dr als freiwilligs Mitglyd registriert wirsch.

Inquiries about the validity or status of an VRTS ticket can be made at the VRT Noticeboard.

Emails are handled by community volunteers. VRTS tickets in the permissions-commons queue are visible to all volunteers who have access to that queue. The Wikimedia Foundation cannot guarantee confidential treatment of any sensitive information you include in your message, although all volunteers are required to treat it with confidentiality. Users should be careful of revealing personally-identifying information of subjects or creators, particularly names, physical addresses, and emails.

When contacting VRT is unnecessary edit

If any of the following statements is one you could make with regard to the file you wish to upload, you do not need to contact VRT:

I do not have permission to use the file and it has not been released under a free license.

Commons can only accept images that are under a free license or in the public domain. If the file does not fall in one of those two groups, please do not upload it.

I created the file myself, it hasn't been previously published, and I am the sole owner of its copyright.

Just follow the instructions found on the Commons:Upload page, unless the image/file is of outstanding or professional quality or there is some other reason your authorship may be doubted.

The image was first published on my website, or on my own space of a shared website.

That's great! If it's your own website, please follow Creative Commons' instructions to adopt the free culture license of your choice. It will then be reviewed when files are uploaded by you or others. Use the Internet Archive's "Save Page Now" feature to store proof of your license statement.

My/Our website uses Wordpress: You can place the entire website in CC-BY-SA license in a handful of clicks.
My/Our website is on Blogspot: Follow the steps to update your theme.
I/We publish on Flickr: Follow Flickr publish steps.
I/We publish on YouTube: You can use CC-BY.
I/We publish on social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.): Edit the post containing your photo to indicate that it is published under a free license. If the platform does not allow editing of posts (e.g. Twitter), then make a new post referring back to the photo. Please ensure that visibility is set to public.

I found the image on Flickr where it was marked as having been released under a free license.

Commons has a procedure in place for reviewing those images. Please have a look on Commons:Flickr files.

Licensing images: when do I contact VRT? edit

If any of the following statements is one you could make, then you must send an email to the VRTS system:

I have received permission from the original author (not me) to upload the file to Commons.

Please ask the copyright holder to send a permission statement to the address listed above. We require that owners make a clear statement that they release the image under a free license; to help prevent confusion or misunderstandings we prefer one of the email templates be used. Permission grants must specifically contain a free license grant and may not merely give permissions for Commons or Wikipedia. If you have already uploaded the image to Commons, follow the instructions on Template:Permission pending.
If the image has been deleted, do not recreate the deleted content but include in the correspondence a link to the deleted image or a link to your talk page in order to help the work of the VRT members.

I am the copyright owner but my file has been previously published without a free license on a medium I can't alter.

Please send us a clear statement that you wish to release your work (with a link to the original location) under a specific free license. See Commons:Email templates for the preferred form. Alternatively, add a free license to your work and place the text {{License review}} somewhere on the file description page on Commons. We will review your statement for authenticity and will let you know if we can accept it as valid.

I am an employee of the copyright owner.

Please send us a clear statement from an email address that shows that you act for the copyright holder, stating that you are authorised by your employer to release the work, under a specific free license. See Commons:Email templates for the preferred form. Alternatively, add a free license to the work alongside the file on the copyright holder's website. We will review your statement for authenticity and will let you know if we can accept it as valid.

I regularly publish my work elsewhere and want to avoid the hassle of sending permission statements for every upload I make.

Please send us a clear statement that your Commons account (or some other Commons account) is authorized to license your works, either any work or some set of works, e.g. "My images from event X, 2013-10-15". We will make a note of this for your future uploads.

I am the copyright owner and my file is being hosted on Commons without permission.

Send us an email (to commons-copyviowikimedia.org) with as much information as possible about the problem, including the URL of the file on Commons and, if applicable, the URL of the place it was originally published. We will review your request and if we find the file was uploaded without proper permission, it will be deleted.

If you are NOT the copyright holder edit

If you are not the copyright holder and the work is not in the public domain or readily available under a Commons-compatible free license, you will need to contact the copyright holder and obtain permission for their work to be uploaded to Commons. Please follow these steps:

Before you upload the file to Commons, please identify and contact the copyright holder and ask them to release the work under a free license.
The copyright holder must choose one of the licenses permitted on Commons; in particular, restricting use to Wikipedia or Wikimedia projects is not acceptable. See Commons:Email templates for a recommended reply from the author. It is entirely up to the copyright holder to decide whether to allow releasing of the file under a free license. If the copyright holder declines to release this file under a free license, unfortunately, this file cannot be uploaded on Commons.
When you receive a reply, please check that the license authorized by the copyright holder is appropriate to Commons. If so, upload the image to Commons and place the tag {{subst:PP}} ("Permission Pending") on the file description page in addition to the license chosen by the copyright holder.

Following this, ask the author to forward the email with their clear statement of permission to permissions-commonswikimedia.org, including the full header and any previously exchanged correspondence with you, and a link to the image on Commons. Make sure to ask the author to include information on the origin (source) of the file and its license.
A VRT volunteer will check the email to verify that the permission statement is sufficient and authentic, and will then replace the {{Permission pending}} tag with {{PermissionTicket}}.

(If you are the copyright holder writing to confirm the license for a previously published work that you have already uploaded to Commons, you should, of course, send the permission statement yourself.)

Declaration of consent for all enquiries edit

Shortcut

COM:VRT/CONSENT

COM:CONSENT redirects here. For information about consent to deal with photographs of people, see Commons:Photographs of identifiable people.

Use the Interactive Release Generator!

If you have been directed to this page because you wish to release the rights to a file to which you own the copyright, please consider clicking on the link above rather than completing the following email template. The Interactive Release Generator is designed to make the process of releasing the rights to a file efficient and simple. The use of the following template, though still perfectly valid and certainly useful as a work of reference, is now discouraged and should only be used in exceptional circumstances. Thank you!

Email message template for release of rights to a file edit

We receive a large number of email messages from copyright holders wishing to allow Wikipedia to reuse their content (messages such as, "I allow Wikipedia to reuse my photos", etc.). Unfortunately, such statements are insufficient from a legal standpoint: we require a more specific declaration of consent to accept your permission. The following template will allow you to produce such a declaration.

Before you send us any email message, ensure that you've removed all the red instructions from the template.
Replace the template text (such as name) with your own details, and remove all of the brackets and footnotes.

To: permissions-commons@wikimedia.org

I hereby affirm that I choose one: [am name] or [represent copyright holder's name], the choose one: [creator] or [sole owner] of the exclusive copyright of choose one: [the media work]^[1] or [the work depicted in the media]^[2] or [both the work depicted and the media]^[3] as shown here: [exact URL of the file uploaded on Wikimedia Commons],^[4] and have legal authority in my capacity to release the copyright of that work.

I agree to publish the above-mentioned content under the following free license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.^[5]

I acknowledge that by doing so I grant anyone the right to use the work, even in a commercial product or otherwise, and to modify it according to their needs, provided that they abide by the terms of the license and any other applicable laws.

I am aware that this agreement is not limited to Wikipedia or related sites.

I am aware that the copyright holder always retains ownership of the copyright as well as the right to be attributed in accordance with the license chosen. Modifications others make to the work will not be claimed to have been made by the copyright holder.

I acknowledge that I cannot withdraw this agreement, and that the content may or may not be kept permanently on a Wikimedia project.

[Sender's name]
[Sender's authority (if applicable. E.g. "Copyright holder", "Director", "Appointed representative of", etc.)]
[Date]

↑ The words "media work" should be chosen for cases where the "medium" is also the "work", e.g., a photograph of a sunset or a person, an original digital drawing, diagram, or map, a sound recording of a bird, the text of a web page, etc., but not a photograph of another person's copyrighted painting or a sound recording of a person playing a flute or pronouncing a series of words, for which see below.
↑ The words "work depicted in the media" mean, for example, the case of a digital photograph (the medium) of an artistic sculpture (the work) where the sculptor did not take the photograph but is the individual here making the licensing statement.
↑ The words, "both the work depicted and the media" mean those instances when the person making the statement is the copyright owner of the thing depicted (e.g., the sculpture, the oil painting, the particular musical performance, the reading of a monologue from Hamlet) as well as the owner of the medium in which it is being provided (e.g., the photograph of it, the movie clip in which it appears, the Photoshop drawing of it, the sound clip containing it).
↑ You must clearly identify the content that you're permitting us to use. A statement such as "I am creator of the images used on XYZ page" is NOT sufficient. You must provide exact URL link(s) to the content or attach the content to the email message. For images, we prefer that you upload them to Wikimedia Commons, place {{subst:OP}} somewhere on the file description page, and provide the URL(s) of the uploaded content in your email message.
↑ You may choose another license from our list of free licenses if you wish, but you MUST state a license; otherwise, this declaration is invalid. Please also indicate the license's most recent version number, if applicable: CC BY-SA 4.0 or Creative Commons 0 Public Domain Dedication 1.0 are acceptably specific; simply stating Creative Commons license, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike, or CC BY (without the version number) is not.

Send the statement to our email response team ("VRT") at permissions-commons@wikimedia.org, and then tag the subject file(s) with {{subst:PP}}. The email message you send should come from an email address that we can recognize as somehow associated with the content being released. For instance, if you are releasing images shown on a website, your email address should be associated with the website or listed on the contact page of the website; if you are releasing images on behalf of an organization, your email address should be at an official address of the organization; if you are releasing a work that is not available online, you may be asked to privately provide evidence of your identity to the VRT agent who processes your statement; if you are releasing a work for which you are acting on the copyright holder's behalf, you may be asked to provide proof of this authorization such as a forwarded email message with full Internet headers from the copyright holder designating you as their representative in this matter.

Vorlage für d Verwändig in Dateibschrybigssite edit

Nutzer, wo s OTRS kontaktiere, aber bisher kei Antwort griegt hän, sotte {{OTRS pending}} verwände zum d Kontaktuffnahm dokumentiere.
Nutzer, wo s OTRS kontaktiert hän und d Ticketnummer vo ihrem Vorgang känne, gänn {{PermissionOTRS|ticket=URL}} a.
OTRS-Mitglyder chönne {{PermissionOTRS|ticket=URL}} verwände.

Lüeg au edit

On Commons

Email templates – use these when requesting permission by email
VRT Noticeboard – for asking agents a question or verifying a ticket
Guidance for paid editors
List of VRT agents
WikiProject Permission requests
Information team

On other projects

meta:VRT/Volunteering has information for people who would like to be VRT agents
Example requests for permission on English Wikipedia
Requesting copyright permission on English Wikipedia
Licensing contact information on English Wikipedia (including information on photo submission via email)
Wikiportrait (Dutch) on Meta
Public VRT coordination and policies on Meta

[1] The words "media work" should be chosen for cases where the "medium" is also the "work", e.g., a photograph of a sunset or a person, an original digital drawing, diagram, or map, a sound recording of a bird, the text of a web page, etc., but not a photograph of another person's copyrighted painting or a sound recording of a person playing a flute or pronouncing a series of words, for which see below.

[2] The words "work depicted in the media" mean, for example, the case of a digital photograph (the medium) of an artistic sculpture (the work) where the sculptor did not take the photograph but is the individual here making the licensing statement.

[3] The words, "both the work depicted and the media" mean those instances when the person making the statement is the copyright owner of the thing depicted (e.g., the sculpture, the oil painting, the particular musical performance, the reading of a monologue from Hamlet) as well as the owner of the medium in which it is being provided (e.g., the photograph of it, the movie clip in which it appears, the Photoshop drawing of it, the sound clip containing it).

[4] You must clearly identify the content that you're permitting us to use. A statement such as "I am creator of the images used on XYZ page" is NOT sufficient. You must provide exact URL link(s) to the content or attach the content to the email message. For images, we prefer that you upload them to Wikimedia Commons, place {{subst:OP}} somewhere on the file description page, and provide the URL(s) of the uploaded content in your email message.

[5] You may choose another license from our list of free licenses if you wish, but you MUST state a license; otherwise, this declaration is invalid. Please also indicate the license's most recent version number, if applicable: CC BY-SA 4.0 or Creative Commons 0 Public Domain Dedication 1.0 are acceptably specific; simply stating Creative Commons license, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike, or CC BY (without the version number) is not.

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