License information for images from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons

If you're new to this website, these are probably ten things you may not know about images on Wikipedia. We hope this gives you a better idea of the whats and whys of illustrating the world's most popular encyclopedia. If you're more experienced with images on Wikipedia, you probably know most of these—but maybe you've never seen them written down, or you don't know where to point other people who want a quick and easy (sometimes complicated) explanation of a subject.

This page sets out the policies towards images—including format, content, and copyright issues—applicable on the English-language Wikipedia.

Commons respects the legal rights of the subjects of our photographs and has a moral obligation to behave ethically with regard to photographs of people. The legal rights of the subjects constitute non-copyright restrictions on use of images. Country-specific laws may affect what content we can host, how it may be published, and whether consent is required to re-use it.

We the undersigned affirm:

That Copyright is the workers’ right of recording artists, musicians, composers, and other creative workers.

That the Fair Trade protection of our natural and human environment that we demand as the basis for US trade agreements includes the right of working creators to protection from unfair competition with an open, corporate, ad funded black market.

That we support the recommendations of the AFM, SAG AFTRA, ASCAP, and BMI (as expressed in the Music Community’s response to the US Copyright Office)* as the basis for reforms needed to restore fair market conditions.

Together, we can fight for OUR future, one with economic justice for ALL those whose labor makes the internet possible: from the CWA workers who build and maintain its infrastructure; to the many exploited employees and subcontractors within digital industries; to the recording artists, film makers, and other creators whose ad monetized ‘content’ generates much of the digital environment’s vast wealth.

In solidarity,