User:Rhododendrites/how to contribute your media

Contributing media to Wikimedia Commons can be complicated when that media has already been published somewhere and the copyright owner is not a Wikimedian.

This page is for people and organizations with whom I have been in contact directly about a media contribution. It is not intended as a general help page for Commons. If you would like my help, please send me an email before following any of the steps on this page. If someone else sent you to this page, please keep in touch with them and substitute their name for instances of "me/I" below.

Step 1: Can you legally release the media?

In nearly all cases, the photographer is the copyright owner of a photograph. Being in possession of a photograph or being depicted in a photograph doesn't change the copyright -- it still belongs to the photographer. Even requesting a photograph by taken with your camera does not grant you copyright of the photograph. The exception is when a photographer signs over copyright, by contract or some other legal document (i.e. not just verbally/informally), to someone else. This is most common when an employee takes a picture for a company or organization, with an arrangement that the company or organization becomes sole owner of the copyright. It cannot be presumed that this is the case for every photograph taken by an employee, however.

Do you own the copyright to the media you would like to contribute, or do you legally represent the copyright owner (for example, as a designated representative of the organization which owns the media)?

Yes → advance to step 2.

No → you cannot complete this process. Please direct the copyright owner to this page to have him/her follow these steps. Feel free to connect me to the copyright owner by email if it would be helpful.

Step 2: The license

This process will result in the image being released with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, also known as CC BY-SA 4.0. This is a standard license on Commons, and what I use for all of my own media.

CC BY-SA 4.0 allows anyone to use your work for any purpose, and allows your work to be adapted and shared as long as the derivative work is licensed with the same license (or a more permissive license). It is an irrevocable license, meaning once you agree to release it, you cannot change your mind. Once you've released it, someone else might use it, and they need to know that if they do so, the material they use won't someday transform into something they're not allowed to use.

The full text of the license is available on the Creative Commons website.

Do you consent to release your media with a CC BY-SA 4.0 license?

Yes → advance to step 3.

No → do not advance to step 3. If you would like to discuss other licenses, please email me.

Step 3: Send the media to me (or whomever sent you to this page)

Send the media you would like to contribute to me (or whomever directed you to this page) via email. Please include the highest resolution possible.

I will upload the media and email back to you one or more URLs. Please take note of these URLs for the next step.

Once you have received the URL(s), advance to Step 4.

Step 4: Copy some text, replace a few fields, put it in an email

Below are two versions of an email. You will only need to send one of them. The first is if you are the copyright owner. The second is if you legally represent the copyright owner. Click to expand the relevant one.

For copyright owners

Copy the indented text below. Replace both (2) instances of "[Jane Doe]" with your name in the text below. Replace "[FILE URL(s)]" with the URL(s) I sent to you in Step 4. Replace "[DATE]" with today's date. Once you have replaced these elements, send it, in its entirety, to permissions-commons@wikimedia.org and CC me so that I can help keep track of it. I hereby affirm that I, [Jane Doe], am the creator and/or sole owner of the exclusive copyright of the media work(s): [FILE URL(s)] I agree to publish the above-mentioned work under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. 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. [Jane Doe] [DATE]

For representatives of the copyright owner

Copy the text below. Replace both (2) instances of "[OWNER'S NAME]" in the text below with the name of the copyright owner. Replace "[FILE URL(s)]" with the URL(s) I sent to you in Step 4. Replace "[Jane Doe]" with your name. Replace "[DATE]" with today's date. Once you have replaced these elements, send it, in its entirety, to permissions-commons@wikimedia.org and CC me so that I can help keep track of it. I hereby affirm that I represent [OWNER'S NAME], the creator and/or sole owner of the exclusive copyright of the media work(s): [FILE URL(s)] I agree to publish the above-mentioned work under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. 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. [Jane Doe] Representative of [OWNER'S NAME] [DATE]

Step 5: Success!

There is no step 5. You're done. Thanks for contributing to Wikimedia Commons! The process isn't necessarily an intuitive one, but hopefully this series of steps simplified things for you.

At some point, you will receive an email back from OTRS (the team of volunteers you've sent the permission email to). It will likely just indicate to you "all done," but if there are outstanding issues to resolve, please respond to them or contact me for help.