Steps: Clarify copyright status and getting permission.

Wikimedia projects only host content under free licenses. The material that you contribute must comply with that. In any content partnership, good copyright clearance is key. In the sections below, you will find guidelines to understand copyright and free licenses on wiki.

Clarify copyright status

The first step is to make sure that the copyright of the data and media files is compatible with Wikimedia projects.

On Wikidata

All data uploaded on Wikidata must be Creative Commons CC0 (public domain). Some data, however, is not copyrightable. For example, an entire database might be under copyright, but not its individual information, such as single metadata and IDs.

Open Data: defined by the license and the formats the data is made available, open data is data that anyone can freely and easily access, use, and share.
Linked Open Data (LOD): open data that is linked to other data sets, such as Structured data.

If the institution is not certain about the copyright status of its collection or if it would like to make a license change on the data, contacting the Wikidata community or a local Wikimedia chapter or community might be a good idea. Copyright restrictions change from country to country.

For more information about database or copyright and forms of Protection (in the United States and Europe), see the Wikimedia Foundation’s guidance on database rights.

For an overview of open data and data licensing, see Wikidata:Open data publishing. Some information is also available at Wikidata and copyright and at Help:Copyrights.

Find a few considerations when contributing data, media, or other assets to Wikimedia projects at Wikidata:Linked open data workflow. To find some other institutions that have contributed with data for Wikidata, see organisations who have worked with Wikidata.

On Wikimedia Commons

The media files' copyright must be compatible with the Wikimedia Commons policy. See Commons:Licensing for comprehensive information and the infographic on the side for a brief overview of how it works.

Those donating content should ensure assets are released under a free license or that copyright has expired. An easy way to prepare images for Commons is to upload collections to Flickr, especially for GLAMs through Flickr Commons or The Commons, and set the proper license for the images (CC0, CC-BY, or CC-BY-SA). Do not use non-commercial (NC) licenses.

The following table shows the seven Creative Commons licenses. Among them, those accepted within the Wikimedia projects are in dark green:

Getting permission

If permissions and licenses for copyrighted media files aren't published in a public place, the institutions need to make sure the permissions are clarified by sending an e-mail to OTRS, the Open-source Ticket Request System. This message might be required in order to provide evidence that the copyright holder, or GLAM institution, has really given permission to publish a file (or many files) under a free license.

The OTRS is the platform used by the Wikimedia projects to manage and archive e-mail conversations. It's run by Wikimedia volunteers and it might be subjected to language, with a specific email address per language. See a list of its members by language.

This step is also important because it might provide the institution a proper and unique license that will identify the institution's content on Wikimedia Commons. This is relevant as it makes sure to prove the provenance of the media files and indicates the institution's part in the partnership or donation of content to the Wikimedia projects.

To know more, check Licensing images: when do I contact OTRS? or watch the video below.