text Copyright Violations 101

If the copyvio or the processes for handling them are unclear, you can do the same as above and the admins who work at the copyright problems board will address it.

• Copyvios might be unclear if:
  • The source has a license, but you are unsure if it is compatible. (Note that GFDL-only compatible texts imported before 1 November 2008 are acceptable, but texts from GFDL-only compatible sources imported on or after that date are not.)
  • The source may have copied from Wikipedia, but there is not enough evidence for you to decide that it is a {{backwardscopyvio}}.

Partial infringement

If the copyvio only concerns a part of the article and has been added in a manner that it can be reverted to easily without also removing non-infringing content added in other parts of the article, handle this as though it were a Complete infringement (below).

If the copyvio only concerns a part of the article that cannot immediately be reverted to (because other parts of the article have been expanded in the meantime):

1. excise the copyvio
2. use the {{subst:cclean|url=link to source}} tag on the talk page to indicate that you did.
3. check to make sure that the contributor (if registered or recent IP) has been properly warned about the infringement and consider whether additional actions, such as a block or Contributor Copyright Investigation is necessary. (See Wiki: Copyright violations)
4. if appropriate request revision deletion of the reverted edits by adding {{copyvio-revdel}}

Complete infringement

Articles that seem to be complete infringements are handled in one of three ways:

• If the infringement is foundational copyvio (there since the article's creation) and there is no reason to believe that permission could be forthcoming:
  • process through speedy deletion in accordance with WP:CSD#G12
• If there is reason to believe that permission could be forthcoming (foundational or not):
  • Tag the article with {{subst:copyvio|url=link to the source text}}, list it at WP:CP and use the notification generated by the template to let the contributor know how to verify. It will be processed when permission arrives or, failing that, after a week.
• If the infringement is not foundational and there is no reason to believe that permission could be forthcoming:
  1. Revert the article to the last known good version with a relevant edit summary
  2. Recover any non-creative content you can (references, infoboxes, ELs, CATs and other)
  3. Enter the article's history
  4. Tick the checkbox for the last version before your revert
  5. Hold the shift key and tick the checkbox of the version where the copyvio was inserted
  6. Click the "Del / Undel Selected Revisions" button
  7. In the Revision Deletion interface, set "Hide revision text" to yes, and leave the rest untouched.
  8. Pick Criterion RD1
  9. Submit and exit.

Important note: Do not hide contributor names, in particular if you recover any content contributed by others, as you would otherwise infringe on their right to be attributed under the CC-BY-SA and GFDL licenses.

Sample scenarios

• A film stub has a 2-line lead and some cast information. Someone copy-pastes the synopsis from IMDB. After that, one or more editors create sections for production notes and reception, but the synopsis remains untouched. This is a safe case where you could revert back to the stub before the IMDB plot synopsis was added, then reintroduce the other sections (remember to credit the contributors in the edit summary), and revision delete.
• The same film stub gets the same synopsis, and the synopsis is then gradually expanded and partially rewritten, and only the first two paragraphs of the original material remain. This is a case where the original copyvio has led to an unauthorized derivative work, and you cannot delete the two remaining infringing paragraphs while retaining the rest of the synopsis - it remains "tainted" by the original copyvio.

Sounds too complex? Tag it with {{subst:copyvio|url=link to source}} instead; volunteers at WP:CP will deal with it.

Wiki has several tools that may be useful in checking for copyright problems.

• Earwig's Copyvio Detector will scan an article against the internet, excluding known mirrors (though not less common ones), and against its external links. It displays a percentage of text copied from the orginal source and highlights copies.
• The Duplication Detector will compare an article with another document, online or uploaded (including pdfs), looking for text string duplication.
• Wikiblame. Accessible under the "history" tab of every page on Wikipedia as "Revision history search", this tool can be useful in determining when a run of text first entered an article.
• User:Enterprisey/cv-revdel – Script to aid in tagging articles for revision deletion.
• There's a list of administrators willing to assist with copyvio work at Category:Wikipedia administrators willing to investigate copyright matters.