MediaWiki:UploadFormLicenseHelp/ownwork

License: Choose the license under which you want to publish your file here at the Commons. The Commons accepts only media that either are explicitly licensed under a free license, or that are in the public domain. You must therefore either freely license your file, or place it into the public domain. In any case, anyone may use and redistribute the file or modified versions thereof for any legal purpose (including commercial purposes) in any way.

• If you place your file into the public domain, you basically give up all rights. Users of the file don't even need to state where it came from or mention your name.
• Free licenses offer you some more control:
  • {{Cc-by}} (the "Creative Commons Attribution" license) requires that you be attributed wherever the file is re-used.
  • {{Cc-by-sa}} (the "Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike" license) requires additionally that any redistribution (of the original file or of a modified version) be placed under the same license.
  • {{GFDL}} (the GNU Free Documentation License) is like {{Cc-by-sa}}, but additionally requires that any redistribution of the file also include or be accompanied by a copy of the full text of the GFDL itself, and that it be stated where the original can be found.
  • {{FAL}} (the Free Art License) is similar to the GFDL.

In all cases, see the original and full license texts for the precise terms and conditions imposed by these licenses. The above are just very brief summaries. More information is also available on our page on licensing.

If your file is an image of some copyrighted artwork, please also explain in the description why your image is not subject to the copyright on the artwork shown. For more information, check our image casebook.

In all cases, you remain the owner of the copyrights on your work, and you are free to license it to someone else under different terms, or to try to exploit your work elsewhere commercially. But note that any free license is non-exclusive, not limited in time, and cannot be retracted once granted.