IFWiki:Copyright discussions

This page contains some factual information about copyright on IFWiki. Any discussion can take place on the associated talk page, IFWiki talk:Copyright discussions.

Discussions in 2005

The founders of IFWiki had long discussions on the topic in 2005, which are all archived here: IFWiki:Copyright discussions (2005).

IFWiki copyright notice

The copyright page, IFWiki:Copyright, has stated the following since its creation by Dswxyz on 21 February 2007‎:

Please note that all contributions to IFWiki are either public domain or licensed by the original page creator. The default is public domain. If you wish to set a license such as Creative Commons or if you wish to manage a copyrighted article, you may do so by adding a License section to your article and adding the appropriate licensing text.

It is IFWiki's intent that most or all content be public domain. In the event that a page creator specifies a license, they are responsible for the content even if other people edit it. IFWiki is not responsible for content including copyright notices, attribution, or editing policies. You should maintain a copy of your work outside of IFWiki.

By placing your content on IFWiki, you give explicit permission to publish your material on IFWiki or any of its mirrors. If you wish to have your material deleted, please submit a written request to admin@ifwiki.org.

DO NOT SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION!

Notification of copyright position to contributors

Before creating or editing any page the editor is presented with the the copyright text above, above the heading:

Copyright and Licensing Information - PLEASE READ!

IFWiki disclaimer

The disclaimer page, IFWiki:General disclaimer, has stated the following since its creation by David Cornelson on 6 February 2005‎.

IFWiki or any of its mirror websites are not responsible for any content within this website. All content is either public domain or freely published by its author and/or copyright holder.

If any unlicensed copyright material appears on IFWiki, please notify us at admin@ifwiki.org so that we may remove it immediately.

The FAQ page

The FAQ page has his own separate licence, stating:

This work was created by Nick Montfort and is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

The licence is "Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)". The CC website states (with icons, hyperlinks and bold text removed):

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. Disclaimer.

You are free to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

This license is acceptable for Free Cultural Works.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
• No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.

No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

The Starters page

The Starters page contains the "How to Play Interactive Fiction" postcard which is captioned:

"Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License."

The human-readable summary for CC BY-SA 3.0 US seems to be the same as for the CC BY-SA 2.0 licence, quoted above.

Generic pages

There are some relevant pages, albeit not directly relevant to IFWiki:

• License
• Creative Commons

IFTF projects

The following are subject to Creative Commons licences, though each one is subject to a different licence.

IFDB

Extract from the copyright page, minus hyperlinks:

This site is copyrighted © 2007, 2021 by Michael J. Roberts.

Reviews from Baf's Guide to the IF Archive are copyrighted by their respective authors and are used here by permission. Baf's Guide is copyrighted © 2007 by Carl Muckenhoupt.

"Cover art" images (in game listings) and personal profile images have individual copyrights that are indicated in the full-size view of each image. When not otherwise specified, these images are copyrighted by their respective authors.

User-contributed items (such as reviews, bibliographical data, comments, and news items), except as noted above, are copyrighted by their credited authors and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States license, as described in our Terms of Service.

Please note that the games themselves cataloged on IFDB are not user-contributed items, and thus are not subject to the Creative Commons license. IFDB doesn't store any games - just metadata about the games, such as bibliography and reviews. Each game's copyright and license terms are set exclusively by the game's author(s), and inclusion in IFDB does not in any way affect those terms.

IF Archive

Extract from the Terms of Use page, minus hyperlinks:

The IF Archive is an IFTF project and operates under the IFTF Terms of Service. This page contains a summary of those terms as they apply to the IF Archive. This is only a summary; see the full Terms for all the details.

The contents of the IF Archive (including donated games, tools, documents, and other material) are the intellectual property of their original creators. They are, where possible, archived and distributed with permission.

Some material on the Archive includes a distribution license (such as an open-source or Creative Commons license). Such material is distributed under its licensed terms. Any material with no attached license is presumed to be licensed for personal use only.

All ancillary content on this web site (metadata, indexes, and file descriptions — everything other than donated files) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may redistribute and adapt this ancillary content freely as long as you attribute it to the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (www.iftechfoundation.org).

We prefer that material be donated by the original author or someone with the legal right to accept these terms. However, we understand that some IF-related material, particularly from the early years, was distributed with no clear license or terms. We host this material as part of the common heritage of interactive fiction. If you donate work which you did not create, you warrant that, to the best of your knowledge, it may be legitimately stored and distributed by the Archive. If you are a copyright owner and wish to dispute our use of your work, please contact us. If you wish to file a DMCA takedown notice, see below.

Since the Archive includes material licensed for personal use only, it may not be compiled for commercial distribution. If you wish to commercially distribute a subset of the Archive's contents, you must obey the license of each and every file you distribute, and get permission from the author of every file with no attached license. The Archive maintainers are not able to give that permission. Note that "commercial distribution" includes selling games or game compilations on online auction sites.

IFComp

Extract from the website footer, minus hyperlinks:

Except where otherwise noted, content of this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, attributable to Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (www.iftechfoundation.org).