Wikipedia:Requesting free content

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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WP:REQFREE

This page in a nutshell: This page offers suggestions on how to request free images for Wikipedia articles.

Some information in this essay appears to be out of date. Please see Commons:Template:Email templates/Consent for the latest consent.

See Wikipedia talk:Requesting free content for this essay's GFDL history before April 2009.

These are the techniques some editors use for contacting article subjects, photographers, or other copyright holders to ask that images be released under a free content license for the purpose of illustrating Wikipedia articles. This is by no means an exhaustive guide; it's just tips that editors have learned. Please feel free to use or modify them in whatever way best works for you. For that matter, feel free to edit or add to this page, if you've found an improvement to these methods. If you are the subject of an article and wish to submit your photo to Wikipedia see Wikipedia:Contact us/Photo submission.

Be warned in advance that, when dealing with notable people, it's almost never as easy as simply requesting a free picture and then getting one that you can immediately use. The article subjects are usually not the copyright holder but may have images they own the copyright to or provide the contact information of their photographers. Frequently you're just going to be ignored. Even if you get an answer, you must be prepared to do a lot of work with the associated article, and a lot of e-mailing back and forth with the person or their representatives, before the process is complete. Sometimes you'll spend hours working with the person about their concerns with the article, and they still won't send you a picture. If this happens to you, be of good cheer—you've still done the right thing, and improved Wikipedia in the process.

Before you begin

Have a professional user page

By stepping forward to contact an article subject, you are volunteering to represent the whole Wikipedia community in the eyes of that person. Any request you send on behalf of Wikipedia should include a hyperlink back to your Wikipedia user page, so that the person you are contacting can assure themselves that you are who you say you are, and not just some fanboy or unscrupulous person looking to score a free picture so that they can sell it or use it on a product.

Your user page should be simple and professional-appearing. Be cognizant of what's on there—for instance, if your page says you're a huge hentai fan, that's probably not a huge problem if the only people you plan on contacting are fetish models. It could be a problem if you are contacting archbishops, politicians, or CEOs. It's actually better to avoid fancruft on your userpage altogether, especially if any of it refers to the person you're contacting. In some editors' experience, many celebrities get sick of dealing with fans (despite what they may say in public), because of the obsessive minority of fans that do things like stalk them. In day-to-day business, most of them would rather deal with a professional; that is how you should present yourself.

If you plan to request images from Flickr or MySpace (see below), you should set up profiles there as well, prominently mentioning your affiliation with Wikipedia and linking to your user page here.

Review the article for compliance with policy

By contacting the person for a photo, you're letting them know that they have an article in Wikipedia—don't embarrass us by calling their attention to an article that contains vandalism, unsourced controversial statements, or blatant copyright violations. Such material should be boldly removed immediately—especially if potentially libellous.

If the article already contains a non-free image of the article subject that is being used solely to illustrate what the person looks like (such as a copyrighted publicity photo, screenshot, or album cover), then I recommend that you remove it. The article subject is less likely to give you a photo to illustrate their article if it's already illustrated. Non-free images of living people, used solely to show what the person looks like, are nearly always replaceable per the non-free content criteria, item 1, except in rare examples like Osama bin Laden. Include a good edit summary like "removing replaceable non-free image per WP:NFCC#1", and, if necessary, tag the offending image with {{subst:rfu}}.

When the article is in compliance with policy, place it on your watchlist, so that you can monitor activity on the article while you're dealing with the subject. Also, after you make your image request, sometimes you will see the subject themselves show up and begin editing the article, a situation you should be prepared to deal with (see below).

Making requests from article subjects

Find a point of contact

This is usually fairly easy. If the Wikipedia article doesn't already contain a link to the person's official site, a Google search will normally turn one up. Most of the time there will be a "contact" e-mail address somewhere on the site (for the webmaster, if nothing else).

If you're lucky, there will also be contact information for the celebrity's agent, publicist, or manager, in addition to an address for the celebrity. In some editors' experience, you're more likely to get a response from those people than from the celebrity, because your request isn't lost in a sea of fan mail. (Some editors include the fan mail address anyway—there have been instances where the celebrity has responded when the manager has not.) An advantage to working with talent professionals is that they often have other notable clients, and by working with them you have a chance to build a network to gain additional images.

Another way is to contact the subject's firm or organization—for example, one editor got in touch with Eric Flint by contacting Baen Books, and with James K. Glassman by contacting the American Enterprise Institute. Even if they don't put you directly in touch with the article subject, these organizations frequently possess the copyright to publicity photos of their employees or members, and are willing to release them under a free license.

Send your request

Keep it short, simple, and respectful—a long request is more likely to be ignored. Tell the person exactly what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to use it. Your letter should show why it is a benefit to them to give us a freely-licensed image. Offer to provide photo credit and a link back to the person's site. Include the terms of the free license under which you would like the person to release the image, such as GFDL, Creative Commons, BSD, MPL, FAL, or Attribution, below your signature so they can research that if they want. For a list of free licenses compatible with Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Image copyright tags/Free licenses.

Some editors think it's better to give your real name than to simply use your Wikipedia username; you're more likely to be taken seriously.

Some editors mention Wikipedia's prominence in web searches in their requests—as of the time this was written, Wikipedia was ranked by Alexa as the 6th most-visited site in the world. To see Wikipedia's current ranking, visit here.

Sample request for article subject

Creative Commons

To: Jimbo Wales
Subject: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Dear Mr. Wales,

I am one of thousands of volunteer writers for the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. I am presently working on improving an article related to you, which currently contains no freely-licensed photo. I was hoping you might be willing to provide an image or two to be used to illustrate the article. If you desire, your credit will be attached to the photo, along with a link back to your site.

The Wikipedia article in question can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales.

Wikipedia accepts only freely-licensed pictures; if you would like to contribute one, please include the following statement in your e-mail:

"I own the copyright to the image(s) attached to this email letter. I grant permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License v.3.0: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"

Thank you for your time. Wikipedia is currently the 6th most-visited English-language website in the world—I think improving your article benefits you, Wikipedia, and readers who would like to learn more about you and your endeavors.

With respect,
<your real name>
<your e-mail address>
<hyperlink to your Wikipedia user page>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wikipedia's image use policy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is to create a comprehensive knowledge base that may be freely distributed and available at no charge.

I ask permission for material to be used under the terms of the Creative Commons License. This means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to share, copy, distribute, remix, and adapt the work—and even potentially use them commercially—so long as they attribute the work in the manner specified by you (but not in any way that suggests that you endorse the use of the work).

You can read this license in full at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This license expressly protects creators from being considered responsible for modifications made by others, while ensuring that creators are credited for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

I choose the Creative Commons license because I consider it the best available tool for ensuring your work can remain free for all to use, while providing you credit. This may or may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on your website. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your materials will not be used at Wikipedia—we have a very strict policy against copyright violations.

We also accept licensing under other free-content licenses.

With your permission, we will credit you for your work in the image's permanent description page, noting that it is your work and is used with your permission, and we will provide a link back to your website.

We invite your collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject and any others that might interest you. Please see the following article for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome,_newcomers

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End Wikipedia's image use policy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BSD

To: Jimbo Wales
Subject: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Dear Mr. Wales,

I am one of thousands of volunteer writers for the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. I am presently working on improving an article related to you, which currently contains no freely-licensed photo. I was hoping you might be willing to provide an image or two to be used to illustrate the article. If you desire, your credit will be attached to the photo, along with a link back to your site.

The Wikipedia article in question can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales.

Wikipedia accepts only freely-licensed pictures; if you would like to contribute one, please include the following statement in your email:

"I own the copyright to the image(s) attached to this email letter. Copyright © belongs to me, all rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, with my name, and this list of conditions; Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, my name, and this list of conditions in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution; Neither my name nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from it without specific prior written permission."

Thank you for your time. Wikipedia is currently the 6th most-visited English-language website in the world—I think improving your article benefits you, Wikipedia, and readers who would like to learn more about you and your endeavors.

With respect,
<your real name>
<your -mail address>
<hyperlink to your Wikipedia user page>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wikipedia's image use policy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is to create a comprehensive knowledge base that may be freely distributed and available at no charge.

I ask permission for material to be used under the terms of the BSD License. This means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to redistribute—and even potentially use them commercially—so long as they retain the above copyright notice, with your name, and the list of conditions in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. Neither you name nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from it without specific prior written permission.

You can read this license in full at: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php

This license expressly protects creators from being considered responsible for modifications made by others, while ensuring that creators are credited for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

I choose the BSD license because I consider it the best available tool for ensuring your work can remain free for all to use, while providing you credit. This may or may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on your website. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your materials will not be used at Wikipedia—we have a very strict policy against copyright violations.

We also accept licensing under other free-content licenses.

With your permission, we will credit you for your work in the image's permanent description page, noting that it is your work and is used with your permission, and we will provide a link back to your website.

We invite your collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject and any others that might interest you. Please see the following article for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome,_newcomers

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End Wikipedia's image use policy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

MPL

To: Jimbo Wales
Subject: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Dear Mr. Wales,

I am one of thousands of volunteer writers for the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. I am presently working on improving an article related to you, which currently contains no freely-licensed photo. I was hoping you might be willing to provide an image or two to be used to illustrate the article. If you desire, your credit will be attached to the photo, along with a link back to your site.

The Wikipedia article in question can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales.

Wikipedia accepts only freely-licensed pictures; if you would like to contribute one, please include the following statement in your email:

"I own the copyright to the image(s) attached to this email letter. The contents of this file are subject to the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/ Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations under the License."

Thank you for your time. Wikipedia is currently the 6th most-visited English-language website in the world—I think improving your article benefits you, Wikipedia, and readers who would like to learn more about you and your endeavors.

With respect,
<your real name>
<your email address>
<hyperlink to your Wikipedia user page>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wikipedia's image use policy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is to create a comprehensive knowledge base that may be freely distributed and available at no charge.

I ask permission for material to be used under the terms of the Mozilla Public License. This means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to distribute—and even potentially use them commercially—so long as in compliance with the license, on an "as is" basis, without warranty of any kind.

You can read this license in full at: http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/

This license expressly protects creators from being considered responsible for modifications made by others, while ensuring that creators are credited for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

I choose the Mozilla Public License because I consider it the best available tool for ensuring your work can remain free for all to use, while providing you credit. This may or may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on your website. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your materials will not be used at Wikipedia—we have a very strict policy against copyright violations.

We also accept licensing under other free-content licenses.

With your permission, we will credit you for your work in the image's permanent description page, noting that it is your work and is used with your permission, and we will provide a link back to your website.

We invite your collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject and any others that might interest you. Please see the following article for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome,_newcomers

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End Wikipedia's image use policy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

FAL

To: Jimbo Wales
Subject: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Dear Mr. Wales,

I am one of thousands of volunteer writers for the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. I am presently working on improving an article related to you, which currently contains no freely-licensed photo. I was hoping you might be willing to provide an image or two to be used to illustrate the article. If you desire, your credit will be attached to the photo, along with a link back to your site.

The Wikipedia article in question can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales.

Wikipedia accepts only freely-licensed pictures; if you would like to contribute one, please include the following statement in your email:

"I own the copyright to the image(s) attached to this email letter. This work of art is distributed under the Free Art license. You are free to redistribute it and/or modify it according to terms of this license. ArtLibre.org"

Thank you for your time. Wikipedia is currently the 6th most-visited English-language website in the world—I think improving your article benefits you, Wikipedia, and readers who would like to learn more about you and your endeavors.

With respect,
<your real name>
<your email address>
<hyperlink to your Wikipedia user page>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wikipedia's image use policy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is to create a comprehensive knowledge base that may be freely distributed and available at no charge.

I ask permission for material to be used under the terms of the Free Art license. This means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to distribute, redistribute, and modify—and even potentially use them commercially—so long as it is according to terms of this license.

You can read this license in full at: http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/

This license expressly protects creators from being considered responsible for modifications made by others, while ensuring that creators are credited for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

I choose the Free Art license because I consider it the best available tool for ensuring your work can remain free for all to use, while providing you credit. This may or may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on your website. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your materials will not be used at Wikipedia—we have a very strict policy against copyright violations.

We also accept licensing under other free-content licenses.

With your permission, we will credit you for your work in the image's permanent description page, noting that it is your work and is used with your permission, and we will provide a link back to your website.

We invite your collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject and any others that might interest you. Please see the following article for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome,_newcomers

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End Wikipedia's image use policy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Attribution

To: Jimbo Wales
Subject: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Dear Mr. Wales,

I am one of thousands of volunteer writers for the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. I am presently working on improving an article related to you, which currently contains no freely-licensed photo. I was hoping you might be willing to provide an image or two to be used to illustrate the article. If you desire, your credit will be attached to the photo, along with a link back to your site.

The Wikipedia article in question can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales.

Wikipedia accepts only freely-licensed pictures; if you would like to contribute one, please include the following statement in your email:

"I own the copyright to the image(s) attached to this email letter. I allow anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that I am properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted."

Thank you for your time. Wikipedia is currently the 6th most-visited English-language website in the world—I think improving your article benefits you, Wikipedia, and readers who would like to learn more about you and your endeavors.

With respect,
<your real name>
<your email address>
<hyperlink to your Wikipedia user page>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wikipedia's image use policy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is to create a comprehensive knowledge base that may be freely distributed and available at no charge.

I ask permission for material to be used under the terms of Attribution. This means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to use it for any purpose—and even potentially use them commercially—so long you are properly attributed.

You can read about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_%28copyright%29

This expressly protects creators from being considered responsible for modifications made by others, while ensuring that creators are credited for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

I choose the Attribution because I consider it the best available tool for ensuring your work can remain free for all to use, while providing you credit. This may or may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on your website. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your materials will not be used at Wikipedia—we have a very strict policy against copyright violations.

We also accept licensing under other free-content licenses.

With your permission, we will credit you for your work in the image's permanent description page, noting that it is your work and is used with your permission, and we will provide a link back to your website.

We invite your collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject and any others that might interest you. Please see the following article for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome,_newcomers

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End Wikipedia's image use policy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sample request for subject's representative or webmaster

This example uses the GFDL. If you would like to use another license, simply copy and paste the relevant sections from one of the examples above.

To: The Wikimedia Foundation
Subject: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Dear Sir or Ma'am,

I am one of thousands of volunteer writers for the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. I am presently working on improving an article related to Jimbo Wales, which currently contains no freely-licensed photo. I was hoping you might be willing to provide an image or two to be used to illustrate the article. If you desire, your credit will be attached to the photo, along with a link back to your site.

The Wikipedia article in question can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales.

Wikipedia accepts only freely-licensed pictures; if you would like to contribute one, please include the following statement in your e-mail:

"I own the copyright to the image(s) attached to this email letter. I grant permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts."

Thank you for your time. Wikipedia is currently the 6th most-visited English-language website in the world—I think improving the article benefits you, Wikipedia, and readers who would like to learn more about you and your endeavors.

With respect,
<your real name>
<your e-mail address>
<hyperlink to your Wikipedia user page>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wikipedia's image use policy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is to create a comprehensive knowledge base that may be freely distributed and available at no charge.

Normally we ask permission for material to be used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. This means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to use, copy, and share your materials freely—and even potentially use them commercially—so long as they do not try to claim the copyright themselves, nor prevent others from using or copying them freely.

You can read this license in full at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GFDL

This license expressly protects creators from being considered responsible for modifications made by others, while ensuring that creators are credited for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

We choose the GFDL because we consider it the best available tool for ensuring our encyclopedia can remain free for all to use, while providing credit to everyone who donates text and images. This may or may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on your website. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your materials will not be used at Wikipedia—we have a very strict policy against copyright violations.

We also accept licensing under other free-content licenses.

With your permission, we will credit you for your work in the image's permanent description page, noting that it is your work and is used with your permission, and we will provide a link back to your website.

We invite your collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject and any others that might interest you. Please see the following article for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome,_newcomers

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End Wikipedia's image use policy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Working with the article subject

Get the license statement!

Often, the person you contact will respond with a photo, but forget to include the required a free license licensing statement. Don't upload the photo until you get an explicit statement. This can almost always be fixed with a simple followup request:

To: You

From: Jimbo Wales

Subject: Re: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Attachment: Picture.jpg

Sure, you can have this picture. Glad to see someone is fixing that article, which doesn't currently do justice to my magnificent achievements on behalf of mankind.

Regards, Jimbo

To: Jimbo Wales

From: Me

Subject: Re: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Mr. Wales, thanks so much for the photo—I think it will look great in the article. I have one additional favor to ask—would you mind replying to this e-mail with the following licensing statement so we can use the photo in the encyclopedia? I'm sorry for the legal hassle but you know how it is—we want to be absolutely certain we are not infringing on your copyright.

"I own the copyright to the image(s) attached to this email letter. I grant permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts."

Respectfully, Me

The aforementioned followup request uses the GFDL. If you would like to use another license, simply copy and paste the relevant sections from one of the examples above.

Sometimes, especially with people who have picture galleries on their websites, you'll get a response back that you may use any of the photos on a certain page, or in a particular area of the website. In that case, ask them to give you a licensing statement referring to either the URL of the page, or to the URLs of the specific pictures you would like to use. The following example uses the GFDL. If you would like to use another license, simply copy and paste the relevant sections from one of the examples above.

To: You

From: admin@jimbowales.com

Subject: Re: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

You can use any of the pictures in the free tour area of our site.

Sincerely, Eugene T. Webbmeister

To: Eugene

From: Me

Subject: Re: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Mr. Webbmeister, thanks for the reply—I've selected the specific photos we would like to use for the article. I have one additional favor to ask—would you mind replying to this e-mail with the following licensing statement so we can use the photos in the encyclopedia? I'm sorry for the legal hassle but you know how it is—we want to be absolutely certain we are not infringing on your copyright.

"I own the copyright to the images found at http://www.jimbowales.com/freetour/picture1.jpg and http://www.jimbowales.com/freetour/picture2.jpg. I grant permission to copy, distribute and/or modify these documents under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts."

Respectfully, Me

Common concerns of article subjects

See also: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons

These are some of the common problems editors have dealt with as a result of establishing contact with the article subject. These examples are actual quotes from real e-mail messages editors have received (though of course the names and a few of the details have been changed).

Defamatory or confidential information

To: You

From: Roxy Pronstar

Subject: Re: Roxy Pronstar article on Wikipedia

Yeah have no problems attaching photos but could you please remove my real name and place and date of birth it is giving me a load of shit!

Roxy

Confidential information that has not been published in multiple reliable sources must not only be removed immediately, but expunged from the edit history. You may either put the article subject in touch with the folks at requests for oversight, or forward the e-mail to the oversight mailing list yourself, providing a link to the article and an explanation of the problem. The same applies for any information that is potentially libellous when the article subject specifically asks for the information to be removed. Deal with the problem as quickly as possible and let the article subject know that you have done so.

Incorrect, unsourced, or poorly sourced information

To: You

From: Susan B. Movie

Subject: Re: Susan B. Movie article on Wikipedia

Hi, thanks for getting in touch! I'm honored to be in Wikipedia, but can you help me? The article says that I was born in 1958, but I was really born in 1963. I have the same problem with IMDb, my lawyer is on it with them!

Susan

Incorrect information, or information that cannot be reliably sourced, should also be removed if the article subject requests it. When you remove the information, leave a good edit summary explaining why you did so (for example, "removing poorly-sourced information per request from article subject, WP:BLP and WP:SPS". You should also leave a note on the talk page explaining your actions.

Sometimes other editors will revert your changes under the mistaken impression that you are vandalizing the article. If you can't work things out by talking to the other editor, ask for help in dealing with the situation.

Unbalanced article

To: You

From: Robert Talkinghead

Subject: Re: Robert Talkinghead article on Wikipedia

OK, so I just looked at the entry and there are COMPLETE LIES.

The people who post on this site intentionally try to paint a picture of me that is far more left wing than I am. In fact, the page is a forum for just that. To refer to me as a "liberal" is ridiculous and inaccurate. These postings are written by haters, pure and simple, who have an agenda to paint me a certain way that is inaccurate. They jump on anything that they think supports their agenda and ignore everything to the contrary (such as my vigorous support of gun rights).

I really want to talk to someone at Wikipedia on the phone. Is that possible? There is never anything positive included yet people are allowed to put up total lies. They pick and choose things that support their views and ignore all the things I say that go against their agenda.

Editors run into this problem most frequently with people involved in politics and journalism. Examples include articles that include everything negative the person has ever done, but nothing positive, "political position" sections that give undue weight to particular liberal or conservative viewpoints, or "criticism" sections that focus narrowly on a particular issue and/or have poor sources like blogs or Internet forums.

If you can, rewrite the problematic article or section(s) to be more neutral, including additional sources as required (which may sometimes be provided by the article subject). Avoid weasel words and peacock terms. "Criticism" sections should be eliminated and any relevant, sourced facts integrated into the body of the article. Leave good edit summaries describing what you are doing. If you're unable to rewrite the material yourself, some editors recommend moving unbalanced sections from the article page to the talk page, with an explanation.

In articles about controversial people, be prepared for a dispute. These articles are sometimes hangouts for POV-pushers, who may assume that your attempt at neutrality actually means you are a partisan for the article subject. If you can't handle the situation via consensus, then you should ask for help or seek dispute resolution.

When you've done what you can, let the article subject know. One editor—who has worked with subjects whose articles include discussion of substance abuse, involvement in scandals, and brushes with the law—reports that they have yet to deal with an article subject that has demanded deletion of criticism if the article is balanced as a whole, and the criticism is discussed in neutral language and sourced.

Article is too short

To: You

From: Vladimir Wordsmith

Subject: Re: Vladimir Wordsmith article on Wikipedia

No problem—I'll look around on my computer for a good picture. But the article mentions almost nothing about my work with

<insert lengthy autobiography/philosophical essay here, with no references or sources>

Please include this information in the article, and let me review it when it is ready for release.

Vlad

Frequently the article subject is unhappy because not enough information is included in the article, and they will attempt to give you additional information to help you out. Sometimes, this is actually helpful if the information is non-controversial and unlikely to be disputed, like their birthdate and place of birth, name of spouse, number of children, etc. Or sometimes they refer to facts that can be verified with other sources.

In some cases, you can add at least some of this information to the article. If you're not comfortable doing that, add the information to the article's talk page, with a note on where you got it. Other editors may decide to verify and include the information.

Once in a while, in conjunction with photos, you'll get "official biographies" or other press release–style documents as text attachments to replies, complete with a GFDL-compatible license. In these cases, some editors add the text to a subpage of the article talk page (see Talk:Reina/Official Bio for an example) and leave a note on the article talk page about the contributed material. When an editor does this, they pass along the license permission to OTRS with a link to the talk subpage, to avoid any allegations of copyright infringement.

When you receive this type of response from the article subject, thank them and tell them you have passed along the information to Wikipedia's editing staff.

Editing by article subject

See also: Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Autobiography

In some cases, after you've contacted the article subject, you'll see the subject or (worse) their publicist show up at the article. Frequently these editors are anonymous IPs, but often its blatantly obvious who the editor is, with a username that is the same as the article subject's.

Sometimes the edits are in good faith, like corrections of factual errors. Other times the edits will have a public relations slant—removing criticism, adding peacock terms, and generally turning the article into a résumé.

You can deal with this in one of several ways. If you're already in contact with the subject, you can get back in touch with them to try to explain Wikipedia's conflict of interest guidelines. Or you can wait until they've finished and moved on, and try to clean up the article afterward (which is what I normally do). If you need help or are not sure how to handle the situation, you can leave a report at the conflict of interest noticeboard.

If a celebrity you are working with establishes an account and begins editing Wikipedia, consider adding the {{Notable Wikipedian}} template to the article talk page.

Making requests from Flickr users

Shortcut

WP:REQUESTFLICKR

Many photographers post their work to the online photo sharing site Flickr. Some people even scan old photos and post them there, giving you an opportunity to obtain a free image of a deceased person or a past event.

Creative Commons licensing

Flickr uses Creative Commons licenses, some of which of are free content by Wikipedia standards. Specifically, photos licensed as "Attribution" {{cc-by-2.0}} or Share-alike {{cc-by-sa-2.0}} are considered free, while any licensed with "Non-commercial" or "No Derivatives" are not considered free.

To determine the licensing status of a Flickr photo, look down on the lower right side of the image page. You'll either see a statement that says "All rights reserved" (example) which means it's not CC-licensed, or a clickable statement labeled "Some rights reserved". If you don't understand the icons, you can click the link to see the license provisions. Here is an example of a photo whose license allows us to use it with no further permissions, which here is a photo with a non-free Creative Commons license.

If the image already has a free license, you're good to go! You may use the image, be sure to properly label and attribute it (see below) and thank the owner (see below) as well. If not, you can contact the copyright holder in one of two ways to obtain an image release.

Configure your profile

As mentioned above, you should have a professional-looking profile that makes clear your Wikipedia affiliation.

Flickr uses an internal messaging system called "Flickr Mail", this is the primary method you'll probably be using to communicate with other Flickr users. In the default setup, these e-mails cannot be forwarded outside the Flickr system. One thing it's important for you to do—in the "Your account" configuration page, you will see an "E-mail" tab, which contains a "Forwarding Flickr e-mails" section. Enable the account to send you e-mails when someone sends you personal messages. The reason you need to do this is that sometimes you will get permissions via Flickr Mail, and you need to have it in a format that you can forward to OTRS.

Contacting

It goes without saying that you may be rejected but mostly ignored (probably with them not active on Flickr anymore) as in any area of requesting free content. There are some indications that the Flickr user may be more inclined to accept your request. For instance, those who already have uploaded using any other Creative Commons license (they're more likely not earning via their work, won't mind donating to a cause such as Wikipedia). Similarly, those with full restrictions ("All rights reserved") and "professional" looking--judging through their profile page and quality of their uploaded works, are very unlikely to agree. They probably earn money via reproduction fees. There's a chance that a user with an impressive stream of photographs would likely have been asked before, check at the Commons whether there are other uploads credited to their name to see your chances of being accepted.

You can either post a comment on that image or send a Flickrmail. Flickrmail is more preferable as it's more likely to get their attention and is more personalised. Brownie points for actually working on that article, it's highly recommended you at least read through it to spot obvious errors and blatant cleanup problems. Even though you're likely not contacting the article subject, a user having a photograph of it will likely be interested in it as well. Thus, they will be more inclined to help someone whom they think has equal interest and is working on improving the said article. Don't let them see the article in a bad shape, as it was said before, don't embarrass us!

Finally, if accepted, then great! Don't forget to thank the owner and go ahead uploading it. Further instructions for both are given below. Note that they might change the license without any reply, keep checking it (see the Comment method for instructions on "watching" an image).

Comment method

Some editors use this the most frequently. When they find an image they would like to use, they first add it to "My Favorites" by clicking the "Add to Faves" button above the picture—this allows them to keep track of activity on the image. Then they add the following comment to the picture. Replace the text in red with the hyperlink to the Wikipedia article, and the title of the article.

Hi, would you consider licensing this as CC-Attribution/Share Alike so that it can be used to illustrate the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Liu">Lucy Liu article</a> on Wikipedia? We would be happy to credit you and link back to you.

After you've added your comment, you can periodically come back to visit the photo to see if the copyright holder has changed the licensing, or you can use the "Activity" menu at the bottom of your Flickr page to monitor activity on comments you've made—it will tell you if any additional comments are made on that image.

Flickr Mail method

The simplest way is them setting it to CC-BY-SA. Some Flickr users prefer not to use the Creative Commons license, or prefer to have a non-commercial license on the Flickr photo. But often they are nonetheless amenable to giving Wikipedia the photo under the a free license. If you believe this to be the case, you should forward your request, the terms of the license, and the required release statement to the person via Flickr Mail. This example uses the GFDL. If you would like to use another license, simply copy and paste the relevant sections from one of the examples above.

To: JoePaparazzi
Subject: Your photo of Britney Spears

I am one of thousands of volunteer writers for the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. I am presently working on improving an article related to Britney Spears, which currently contains no freely-licensed photo. I think your photo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/84138477@N00/864735486/ would look great in the article. Your credit will be attached to the photo, along with a link back to your Flickr profile or other website of your choice.

The Wikipedia article in question can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britney_Spears.

Wikipedia accepts only freely-licensed pictures; if you would like to contribute one under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (found below), please reply to this message with the following statement:

"I own the copyright to the image found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/84138477@N00/864735486/. I grant permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts."

Alternatively, Wikipedia also accepts photos with Creative Commons "Attribution" and "ShareAlike" licenses. Unfortunately we cannot accept the "NonCommercial" or "NoDerivs" licenses. If you would like to use this option, you may simply change the licensing provisions on the photo's page.

Thank you for your time. Wikipedia is currently the 6th most-visited website in the world—by contributing this photo, you'll both be helping us and giving a wider audience exposure to your work.

With respect,
<your real name>
<your e-mail address>
<hyperlink to your Wikipedia user page>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wikipedia's image use policy +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by volunteers from around the world. Our goal is to create a comprehensive knowledge base that may be freely distributed and available at no charge.

Normally we ask permission for material to be used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. This means that although you retain the copyright and authorship of your own work, you are granting permission for all others (not just Wikipedia) to use, copy, and share your materials freely—and even potentially use them commercially—so long as they do not try to claim the copyright themselves, nor prevent others from using or copying them freely.

You can read this license in full at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GFDL

This license expressly protects creators from being considered responsible for modifications made by others, while ensuring that creators are credited for their work. There is more information on our copyright policy at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights

We choose the GFDL because we consider it the best available tool for ensuring our encyclopedia can remain free for all to use, while providing credit to everyone who donates text and images. This may or may not be compatible with your goals in creating the materials available on your website. Please be assured that if permission is not granted, your materials will not be used at Wikipedia—we have a very strict policy against copyright violations.

We also accept licensing under other free-content licenses.

With your permission, we will credit you for your work in the image's permanent description page, noting that it is your work and is used with your permission, and we will provide a link back to your website.

We invite your collaboration in writing and editing articles on this subject and any others that might interest you. Please see the following article for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcome,_newcomers

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End Wikipedia's image use policy ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Upload your photo

Upload to Commons if possible

It is highly preferable to upload images with a free license to the Wikimedia Commons. The English Wikipedia is not a free hosting service. Uploading images to the Commons does not affect their availability for use on the English Wikipedia (syntax and usage are exactly the same), and also makes the images available for use on other Wikimedia projects.

Uploading

Once you've got your photo in hand, you're ready to upload it. This is where you want to take special care to ensure that you properly attribute the source and license of the image. Use the {{Information}} template in the "Summary" field of the upload form.

Sometimes you will receive photos in the BMP, GIF, or PNG file format—if consisting of photography, these should be converted to JPEG format prior to upload. Also, you should give the file a descriptive filename—"Jimbo_Wales_5.jpg" is much better than "JKHNH457FRE.jpg".

Example information—image sent as e-mail attachment

This example uses the GFDL. If you would like to use another license, simply copy and paste the relevant sections from one of the examples above.

{{Information|
|Description ={{en|Wikipedia founder [[Jimbo Wales]]}}
|Source = Image e-mailed to uploader ([[:en:User:Me]]) with GFDL license, in response to an e-mail request.
|Date = Image e-mailed to uploader with GFDL license on 2007-08-27.
|Author = [http://www.jimbowales.com Jimbo Wales.]
|Permission = GFDL license received with image and forwarded to OTRS.
|other_versions =
}}

Example information—permission for an image already online

This example uses the GFDL. If you would like to use another license, simply copy and paste the relevant sections from one of the examples above.

{{Information|
|Description ={{en|Wikipedia founder [[:en:Jimbo Wales]]}}
|Source = http://www.jimbowales.com/freetour/picture1.jpg
|Date = GFDL license e-mailed to uploader ([[:en:User:Me]]) by copyright holder on [[2007-07-16]].
|Author = [http://www.jimbowales.com Jimbo Wales.]
|Permission = GFDL license forwarded to [[WP:OTRS|OTRS]] on [[2007-07-16]].
|other_versions =
}}

Example information—Flickr photo with free Creative Commons license

Instead of manually filling in, there are tools available to automatically fill in details taken from the Flickr image page. See WP:FLICKR.

{{Information|
|Description ={{en|Actor [[:en:Danny Trejo]]}}
|Source = http://www.flickr.com/photos/deneyterrio/438628394/
|Date = [[2007-03-28]].
|Author = [http://www.flickr.com/people/deneyterrio/ Jason McELweenie (Flickr user deneyterio).]
|Permission = Creative Commons license (see licensing tag below).
|other_versions =
}}

Choose correct license tag

The "license" drop-down menu contains choices for common free licences. For special cases where a different license applies, you will need to add that to the image description page manually. See Wikipedia:Image copyright tags/All for a list of available tags.

Forward permission to OTRS

When you've uploaded the image, you must promptly forward the license statement (including the attached pictures, if applicable) to either permissions@wikimedia.org (for images uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons) or permissions-en@wikimedia.org (for images uploaded to the English Wikipedia). Include a link to the image's description page in your e-mail, so the volunteer knows which image you are talking about.

Keep the image page on your watchlist—if you've done everything properly, after a period of time (depending on backlog) you will see an OTRS volunteer add a ticket number to the image. If the image is on the English Wikipedia and it has been confirmed to be a free image, you should add the template {{Move to Commons}} to the image description page, so the image can be made available to other projects. This will not affect its use on the English Wikipedia.

Finishing up

Crediting (if relevant)

Per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Captions#Credits, it's okay in rare cases to add credit to the image's source if notable.

For example, adding the following text to the article produces the image to the right:

[[File:WM2006 0060.jpg|thumb|130px|Jimbo Wales.<br />''Photo courtesy of The Wikimedia Foundation.'']]

Drop a note on article talk page

Some editors think it's a good idea to leave a note on the article's talk page with a gallery of the contributed images. Sometimes you will receive more images than the article can accommodate, and by leaving a note for other editors, you can let them pick and choose from what's available. Also, if your image is ever deleted from or superseded on the article page, the talk page then contains a record of it in case someone wants to use it later.

== Contributed images ==
We received the following images for this article based on a [[WP:COPYREQ|request for copyright permission]]. ~~~~
<gallery>
Image1.jpg
Image2.jpg
</gallery>

Thank the image contributors!

After you've used the contributed image(s), don't forget to go back and thank the person who gave it to you, and provide a link so that they can see the results of their donation. Not only does it leave a good impression of Wikipedians in general, it makes it more likely that they will donate further material in the future, or, even better, refer their other notable friends to you.

Thank-you note for article subjects

To: Jimbo Wales

From: Me

Subject: Re: Jimbo Wales article on Wikipedia

Mr. Wales, thanks again for the photos—I've added them to the article, which you can see at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. Also, should anything incorrect, defamatory, or confidential ever appear in the article, please let me know. We are anxious to have a neutral and accurate article with which you are in agreement.

In addition, please feel free to pass my contact information along to any of your colleagues or clients who desire to see their articles in Wikipedia improved. I'd be happy to help them as well.

Best regards, and with respect,

Recognition for Flickr users

For Flickr users, again depending on your choice, you can personally thank them (via Flickrmail) or publicly acknowledge them. In the mail, give the link of the article page after you've updated it with their donated image and the original commons link where it's stored. Some editors try to give public recognition by adding a comment to that particular photo, indicating that it's being used on Wikipedia. Here's the format of the comment some editors use:

This photo is currently being used to illustrate the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Liu">Lucy Liu article</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>, one of the world's top-ten most-visited websites. Thanks, and congratulations!

If you notice that the user has a collection of potentially useful and high quality images, consider inviting them to contribute further to the Commons via this link https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:First_steps — especially if they've shown positive feedback in their reply.

If no permission is given

If a copyright holder does not agree to a release of rights, then is a good idea to thank them for their time anyway. Acting entitled is unlikely to help and will reflect poorly on the Wikipedia community.

In cases where the copyright holder does not respond or declines to release a file under a free license, consider leaving a note on any related talk pages so other editors will know not to waste their time trying to contact that copyright holder again. For existing non-free files on Wikipedia that are being used under fair use rules, this can be done by tagging the file with {{owner contacted}}. It may also be a good idea to log any such requests, whether successful or unsuccessful, at Commons:WikiProject Permission requests on Commons.

Conclusion

As you may have gathered from the above, getting free content is not as easy as you'd think. But it can be a lot of fun, and, in general, the more work you're willing to put into it, the more the payoff in high-quality images.