GuildWiki:Image license guide

(This is a proposed revision; the currently accepted version is located here)

Images, just like any other creative work, are protected by copyright. At GuildWiki we do our best to abide by the rules of copyright in all our content, including images. Thus, all images uploaded to GuildWiki for any purpose must have their copyright and/or licensing status posted. According to our Image use policy, any image uploaded without licensing information will be deleted after 7 days.

Applying a license
When you upload an image, you will see a drop-down list on the upload form where you can choose the image's licensing information. If you forget to make a selection in this list when you upload an image, that's okay - you can always go back to the image's page later and edit it to add the information.

Selecting the right license
The descriptions given in the licensing drop-down list should be fairly self-explanatory, but if you are having trouble selecting the appropriate license for your image, here are some tips:


 * If the image is a screenshot of Guild Wars, or has been edited from a screenshot, then you must use the Guild Wars screenshot license template, described below. Even though you took the screenshot and even if you cropped/edited the image yourself, ArenaNet, as the developer of the game, is still the copyright holder.  For more details see ArenaNet's terms of use.
 * If you got the image from one of the fansite kits released by ArenaNet, then you must use the fansite kit image license template.
 * If you found the image on another website, you must find their terms and conditions (typically linked at the bottom of the website's home page), then use the generic license template to list the image's copyright information. If the website does not list their copyright terms, use of the image falls under fair-use rules, and you should use the fair-use license template.
 * If you created the image yourself, or if a friend created the image for you to use on the wiki, then you may use the user-created image license template.

Generic license template

 * Template:
 * Usage:

This is the generic template used to display image licensing information. You should only need to use it if the licensing terms of your image do not fit the requirements to use one of the other templates below. Note that even though and are the only required parameters for the template, other parameters may be required by the terms of your image's license: for example, an image released under the Attribution clause of the Creative Commons license would require the parameter.

Guild Wars screenshot

 * Template:
 * Usage:
 * Requirements: This template can only be used on images that are screenshots of Guild Wars. Screenshots of any other game must use a different license according to the terms of that game's developers.

Fansite kit image

 * Template:
 * Usage: No options
 * Requirements: This template can only be used on images that are taken from the Guild Wars fansite kits.

Fair-use image

 * Template:
 * Usage:
 * Requirements: This template is to be used for copyrighted images whose use on GuildWiki complies with the fair use rules of United States copyright law.


 * The, , and parameters are all required in this template. If the reasoning is determined by other users to be "weak", the image will be tagged with the incorrect copyright template.  If you do not provide a stronger reasoning withing 7 days, the image will be deleted.


 * In most cases, the fair use of an image only allows it to be used in a few places on the wiki. Thus, if the image is not intended for use in userspace under the fair-use reasoning, the parameter must be set to "No".

GFDL image

 * Template:
 * Usage:
 * Requirements: This template is only for use on images that have been released under the GNU Free Documentation License. The Guild Wars Wiki and most of the Wikia wikis are under the GFDL, so images taken from those sources are covered by this license as long as they have no other copyright information.


 * The parameter will default to "Image uploader" if no value is given; however, it is strongly suggested that you supply this information, even if you are the creator of the image. GFDL images that are not user-created should have both the and parameters filled in.

User-created image

 * Template:
 * Usage:
 * Requirements: This template is for use on images that are the original work of a GuildWiki user or that have been given to a GuildWiki user for use on GuildWiki. If the user who uploaded the image is not the creator of the image, then the image's author must be identified in the parameter.


 * The default license used by this template is the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. If you wish to release your image under a different license, provide the information in the parameter.


 * If you do not want your image to be used on userpages (other than your own), you must set to "No".

Public domain image

 * Template:
 * Usage:
 * Requirements: This template is only for use on images that are in the public domain. There are two main categories of public domain works:
 * Works that are originally released to the public domain.
 * Works whose original copyright has expired, and thus have been released to the public domain.


 * The source of the image must be given in the parameter.

MediaWiki Screenshot

 * Template:
 * Usage:
 * Requirements: This template is for use on images that are screenshots of GuildWiki itself, or of other wikis that also use the MediaWiki software.

Licensing error templates
If you notice an error in an image's licensing details, or suspect the image's use of being in violation of its copyright, you can use one of the following templates.

Copyright violation
Images suspected of being in violation of copyright should be tagged with this template. It will automatically categorize the image to Category:Suspected copyright violations, and wiki administrators will review the image's copyright and licensing status.
 * Template:
 * Usage:

Incorrect license details
This template is to be used if an image's licensing details are incomplete (required parameters of a license template are left blank) or if they are incorrect according to the image's copyright status. The image will automatically be categorized to Category:Incorrect copyright details.
 * Template:
 * Usage:

The five tildes ( "" ) required in the template parameters set a timestamp indicating when the template was added. Images will be deleted after 7 days of being tagged with this template.

Missing license details
Any image that does not have licensing information should be tagged with this template. The image will be automatically categorized to Category:Unattributed images.
 * Template:
 * Usage:

Again, the five tildes in the template parameters will set a timestamp, and unattributed mages will be deleted after 7 days.

License error notification
You are expected to notify the image uploader of the issue whenever you tag an image with the above error templates. This template provides a "form letter" of sorts that allows you to include up to 10 images as parameters. Place this template on the user's talk page and follow with your signature. If the template already exists on the talk page, you can simply add to the list of images, rather than add the template again. If you need to specify more than 10 images, place links to the images after the template rather than using it a second time.
 * Template:
 * Usage:

Template quick reference

 * Core template
 * License
 * Copyright templates
 * Fair-use image
 * Fansite kit image
 * GFDL image
 * Mediawiki Screenshot
 * Public domain image
 * Screenshot
 * User-created image
 * Error templates
 * Copyvio
 * Incorrect copyright
 * Unattributed image
 * Error notification template
 * Image copyright