Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Help desk/Archive 8 (section)

== Copyright question ==

I am terribly confused.  I want to use an article (specifically the article on "kleptocracy") in a book I am writing.  The article is absolutely perfect for my needs.

I certainly want to give credit where credit is due, but I'm afraid I do not understand the conditions in the "GNU Free Documentation License".

Can I acknowledge the source of this article with a standard bibliographic entry, or am I actually required to post the entire license somewhere in my work?

If that's the requirement, I'm afraid the value of that short article won't be worth the trouble of adding such an incredibly long license document.

Someone please give me some good news!  Thanks ahead.

:Standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and [[Wikipedia:Legal disclaimer|Wikipedia does not give legal advice]].  With any luck, your publisher will have a lawyer they can contact about matters like this, and I'd recommend that you have them do so.  That said, I'll see if I can help shed any light on the subject, and hopefully I won't misinterpret the law ''too'' badly.

:If you want to use only a part of [[Kleptocracy|the article]], it may be considered [[fair use]], in which case you could quote and cite it as you would any other excerpt from a copyrighted work, and not have to worry about the [[Wikipedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation License|GFDL]].  If, on the other hand, you are copying the entire article, things become a little more problematic.

:It seems like you would be printing a verbatim copy of the article, and that you would indeed be required to include the full text of the GFDL.  See [[Wikipedia:Verbatim_copying#Printed_copies]] for a more thorough explanation.  Compared to the length of an entire book, I don't think the GFDL is all ''that'' large, but that's your decision.

:You should also keep in mind that, depending on various factors including the nature of your use of the article, it's possible that some lawyers would consider your book a "derivative work" based upon the article, which would mean that your entire book would have to be licensed under the terms of the GFDL as well.  This might seem strange to you and I, but it's not our opinions that matter&mdash;again I would urge you to obtain professional legal advice.

:Hope this helps[[User:Triskaideka|<nowiki></nowiki>]]&mdash;[[User:Triskaideka|Triskaideka]] 17:38, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)