Forum:Image transfer

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I have a question that – I think – normally would be proposed by admins: I am not a very experienced wikia-contributor. Currently I'm working a lot on the german version of The Sims Wiki. I'm not very experienced in image processing, too. The german wiki isn't really large, only 408 articles by now. That means, a whole lot of images/icons are missing, too. My question is, would I be allowed to take images from this wiki (e.g. icons for dishes or moodlets, that stuff) and put it into the german one? I could reference the english articles on the german versions in return. -- CompleCCity (talk) 15:19, March 7, 2015 (UTC)

Discussion

Moved to Help desk. --I am k6ka ^{Talk to me!} _{See what I have done} 15:43, March 7, 2015 (UTC)

Of course you may, just be sure to credit EA for those images. On the English The Sims Wiki, we use {{Copyright by EA}} to license our images. --I am k6ka ^{Talk to me!} _{See what I have done} 15:43, March 7, 2015 (UTC)

The short answer to your question is: yes, you may.

The long and complicated answer is... The images themselves are all copyrighted, and the copyrights are held by different people. Most images on the wiki are from The Sims games in some way, so the copyright in those cases is held by Electronic Arts. The Sims Wiki uses those copyrighted images, but justifies their use as being "Fair Use" under copyright law. For an idea of what I mean, take a look at {{Copyright by EA}}, the template we use to indicate that EA has a copyright on a particular image:

File:CopyrightEmblem.svg

Copyrighted by Electronic Arts

This file is copyrighted. This file may consist of: an image or video recording taken from The Sims series of video games; an image from websites created and owned by Electronic Arts; an audio file created by or whose copyright is held by Electronic Arts, or; a video file created by or whose copyright is held by Electronic Arts. All trademarks and registered trademarks present in the image are proprietary to Electronic Arts, the inclusion of which implies no affiliation with The Sims Wiki. The inclusion of this message alongside a file signifies the assertion by the file uploader and/or The Sims Wiki that the file it accompanies is uploaded and used lawfully in accordance with fair use principles under United States copyright law. Specifically, this file:

• Is not utilized in any manner which would produce a financial profit for the uploader or The Sims Wiki
• Does not detract from the potential of Electronic Arts to profit financially from the same or similar works
• Is an insignificantly small portion of the copyrighted material as a whole

So, you or anyone else can use an EA-copyrighted image, even if you take the image from The Sims Wiki, and all you need to do is justify its use under Fair Use or some other doctrine. You do not need to give any attribution or credit to The Sims Wiki or the wiki's editors unless any contributors here made modifications to the image. In most cases, especially with game images and icons, that will not be the case. As long as you respect EA's copyright on the images, you may freely use the images without giving attribution to this wiki. - LostInRiverview ^{talk • blog • contribs} 15:46, March 7, 2015 (UTC)

Thanks to you all. In Germany the wikias don't use such an elaborate template, but in its meaning it's similar. Roughly translated it states: "This image is probably copyrighted. It's used explicitly as content-related explanation as of paragraph 51 of the German copyright law. It mustn't be edited. It may only be used in a direct content-relation. A correct and accurate declaration of source is evident." Unfortunately there's no other template in that wiki with mentioning of "fair use" and EA and The Sims – I've found something similar in another German game-wikia. I think I will tinker one by myself, let's see … Again, thanks for the permission. Would have been a bunch of work to extract those images by myself. -- CompleCCity (talk) 17:37, March 7, 2015 (UTC)