Informatics Educational Institutions & Programs

Note: All text on this page is dedicated by its authors to the public domain

The model letters set out below are meant to be sent to web sites (and their service providers) in order to explain the requirements of the CC BY-SA, and to urge compliance. This page is part of Wikipedia:Mirrors and Forks. The original letters on this page were based on User:MyRedDice/Abacci Letter. Prior to sending out one of these letter please read the Non-compliance process guideline at Wikipedia's Mirrors and forks. A general consensus supports this process.^[1][2]

Note:

• These letters are intended for material that is licensed solely under CC BY-SA. As of 2009, most of Wikipedia's articles are dual-licensed under the GFDL as well. If an article is dual-licensed under the GFDL too (look at the footer and talk page of the article), you should instead send Wikipedia:Standard license violation letter.

Warning:

• You can only file a lawsuit (or file a DMCA take down notice) if you hold a significant copyright interest in one or more articles, and you must list articles that are available only under CC BY-SA. Most articles are (as of 2009) dual-licensed.

Letters for website that acknowledges Wikipedia as a source

Dear <WEBSITE OWNER>:

I have noticed that you are making use of English Wikipedia articles as part of your website, <WEBSITE>. One example is <URL>, which includes material from the Wikipedia article "<ARTICLE>", which is located at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<ARTICLE>. Wikipedia encourages the redistribution of its content. We also appreciate you citing Wikipedia as a source. However, it is also necessary to comply with the terms of our primary license, the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Failure to do so is a copyright violation. The text of the CC BY-SA, the relevant legally binding document, can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CCBYSA . Wikipedia offers advice about how to comply with the CC BY-SA which can be found in detail at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights. One of the most important steps is to mention the CC BY-SA. More specifically, at the bottom of every page that uses Wikipedia material, you should include text similar to: "This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article (put article name here); it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC BY-SA." You should link the text "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License" to a copy of the text of the CC BY-SA. Also, you must link back to the original Wikipedia article.

Thank you for your cooperation.

<SENDER>

Letter for website that does not acknowledge Wikipedia as a source

Dear <WEBSITE OWNER>:

I have noticed that you are making use of English Wikipedia articles as part of your website, <WEBSITE>. One example is <URL>, which includes material from the Wikipedia article "<ARTICLE>", which is located at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<ARTICLE>. Wikipedia encourages the redistribution of its content. However, it is necessary to comply with the terms of our primary license, the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Failure to do so is a copyright violation. The text of the CC BY-SA can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CC-BY-SA . That is the relevant legally binding document. Wikipedia also offers advice about how to comply with the CC BY-SA 4.0. This can be found in detail at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights. In sum and substance, the important steps are to mention the CC BY-SA 4.0 license and provide attribution to the authors of the content, which is here the Wikipedia editors who contributed to the article. More specifically, at the bottom of every page that uses Wikipedia material, you should include text similar to: "This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article (put article name here); it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC BY-SA 4.0" You should link the text "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License" to a copy of the text of the CC BY-SA 4.0. Also, you must link back to the original Wikipedia article.

Thank you for your cooperation.

<SENDER>

Letter aimed at a specific violation

The following sample letter (based on one I recently sent) is aimed at a mirror that has copied an article which includes text written by the individual sending the letter. It therefore emphasises the infringement of the individual's copyright, and is worded as an individual communication. I hereby release this sample letter to the public domain. DES ^(talk) 23:13, 28 October 2005 (UTC) [reply]

Dear <Site Operator>:

I am pleased to see that your website, <SITE>, uses content from Wikipedia (<https://en.wikipedia.org/>), the free encyclopedia. This is the sort of reuse that those who contribute to Wikipedia, as I do, wish to promote.

However, you must follow the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CC-BY-SA), which governs all Wikipedia text. Only the CC BY-SA is legally binding. However, we do make certain recommendations about how to comply. First, I would like to point out that when you use content from Wikipedia you should include a link back to the source Wikipedia article as is suggested on Wikipedia’s copyrights page, which is located at <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights>. Additionally, you should also include a CC BY-SA notice. One way of doing this is to add the text "This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license", and provide a link to a copy of the CC BY-SA. Text such as "This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia" is a good way to acknowledge the general source of the text.

Specifically, your page <Specific Address> uses content from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARTICLE NAME>. I was a contributor to this article, and text that I wrote appears on your site. Since it appears without linking the original article or specifically attributing me (and the other authors), or linking to the text of the CC BY-SA under which I released my contributions, the existence of this page violates my copyright, as well as those of all other contributors.

Please add the required links and acknowledgments to all parts of your <Title> site that use Wikipedia content promptly. Thank you.

Sincerely, <Wikipedia User's Name>

Followup

Dear <insert name of site owner>,

We have previously contacted you about your web site <insert site name and URL here>, which uses Wikipedia content licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA). An example is <URL>, which is based on the Wikipedia article <ARTICLE> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<ARTICLE>). The text of the CC BY-SA can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CCBYSA . To use that content without copyright infringement you must comply with the requirements of the CC BY-SA. We recommend you start by doing both of the following:

1. Include a readily readable link to the article in the Wikipedia from which the content came.
2. Linking to a copy of the CC BY-SA

A notice of this form is suggested, for the article called Bar:

 This article is licensed under the <a href="ccbysa.html">
 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License</a>. It uses material from the 
 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar">Wikipedia article "Bar"</a>.

Please promptly change your site to comply with the requirements and let us know that you have done so or tell us your schedule for doing so, so that we can let the copyright holders know that no further action is necessary.

Thank you,
<Your name here>

Letter to service provider of non-compliant website

To Whom It May Concern:

<SITE NAME> (<SITE URL>), a site using <PROVIDER>, is copying Wikipedia articles in violation of the terms of Wikipedia's license. One example is <URL>, which includes material from the Wikipedia article "<ARTICLE>", which is located at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<ARTICLE>. Wikipedia encourages the redistribution of its articles. However, distributors must comply with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA); the CC BY-SA is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CCBYSA. Violating the CC BY-SA is copyright infringement, a breach of <PROVIDER>'s Terms of Service (<TOS URL>). Only the text of the CC BY-SA is legally binding, but Wikipedia has recommendations for compliance. The website should first note that Wikipedia contributors created the article; there should also be a link back to the article on Wikipedia. There should be a CC BY-SA notice, such as "This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article (put article name here); it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC BY-SA." "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License" should be linked to a copy of the CC BY-SA. We have already attempted to contact <SITE OWNER>, the owner of <SITE NAME>, about these issues. However, <SITE NAME> is still not in compliance. I am writing to ask you to contact <SITE OWNER> to demand compliance with the CC BY-SA. If (s)he refuses, or you are unable to reach him/her, you should disable the website for copyright infringement. I hope I can count on your cooperation in this and future matters.

Sincerely,

<SENDER>

DMCA takedown notice

Warning: This notice includes the sentence "I swear under penalty of perjury that I am the copyright holder of the above works". As such, please only use this notice if you have made a significant contribution to the article in question, as doing so otherwise may constitute a felony under U.S. law.

(SENDER'S NAME)
(SENDER'S POSTAL ADDRESS)
(SENDER'S EMAIL ADDRESS)

Dear (RECIPIENT'S NAME),

I am delighted to see that your service provider, (ISP NAME), hosts a website, (SITE NAME) at <SITE URL>, which uses content from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/), the free encyclopedia. This is just the sort of application that Wikipedia wishes to promote. While the copyright to Wikipedia content is retained by its authors, this content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License [CC BY-SA] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CCBYSA>, which authorizes duplication without special permission, provided certain terms are followed.

However, (SITE NAME) does not currently comply fully with the terms of this license. For instance, the duplicated content must link to the CC BY-SA license, and must attribute its original source. As a result, (SITE NAME) includes unauthorized duplicates of Wikipedia content. Moreover, I have been unable to reach the site maintainers. Multiple requests have been sent to (SITE EMAIL) regarding this oversight without response; the last such request is appended below.

As you are the Designated Agent for (ISP NAME), I am sending you this formal takedown request as a last resort. The following articles, among others (including most of the content duplicated from Wikipedia), are being made available for copying through downloading from the listed URLs, without authorization from the copyright owners.

I personally hold copyright in the following articles:

1. (ARTICLE NAME)
Original: <ARTICLE URL AT WIKIPEDIA>
Infringing copy: <ARTICLE URL AT MIRROR>
Date found: (DATE)

2. (List others in same format)

I am giving notice of these activities pursuant to Section 512 of Title 17 of the U.S. Code (https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#512). The information in this notice is accurate; I have a good faith belief that this use of the material is not authorized by me, any agent of mine, or the law. I swear under penalty of perjury that I am the copyright holder of the above works. Please act quickly to remove the materials described above until they comply with this law and the CC BY-SA.

Please advise regarding what actions you take.

Yours sincerely,

(SENDER'S NAME)

• Wikipedia:Standard license violation letter