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Commons:Copyright tags/GNU licenses

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The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a license for free documentation. The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or GPL) is a free software license, which guarantees end users the freedom to run, study, share and modify the software. GFDL and GPL are copyleft licenses, which means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. Works licensed under the GNU family of licenses may be uploaded to Wikimedia.

The GFDL is rather impractical for images and short texts because it requires the full text of the GFDL to be published along with the image. This is prohibitive for print media: in order to use a single image in a newspaper, a full page containing the GFDL would have to be printed. To resolve this, please dual-license your work under GFDL and an equivalent Creative Commons license like CC-by-sa-3.0. This helps to make your work usable not only freely, but also easily.

GFDL license tags edit

See Category:GFDL license tags for a complete list of over 80 GFDL license tags. These include {{tl|GFDL-user-xy}} tags for most Wikipedia language versions, such as {{GFDL-user-bpy}} for users of the Bishnupriya Wikipedia.

  • {{GFDL}} – GNU Free Documentation License
  • {{GFDL-1.2}} – for works released under the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 specifically.
  • {{GFDL-self}} – for works released per the GNU Free Documentation License by their creators.
  • {{GFDL-en}} – for works from the English Wikipedia, and originally licensed as GFDL there. This GFDL is "subject to disclaimers".
  • {{GFDL-user}} – for works by other Commons users that are under the GNU Free Documentation License.
  • {{GFDL-user|lang}} – for works from other Wikimedia projects. lang is an optional parameter.
  • {{GFDL-user-w|projectcode|projectname|username}} – for works released under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License by their creators when the creators are other Wikipedia users. Note: The variable projectcode is the language name of the creator's local Wikipedia (e.g. "de" for the German Wikipedia, and "ja" for the Japanese); It may also contain the project name for non-Wikipedia projects (i.e. "de:wiktionary" for the German Wiktionary). The variable projectname is the human readable project name (e.g. "French Wikipedia", "German Wiktionary", etc.). The variable username is the creator's log-in name at that project.

GPL license tags edit

See Category:GPL license tags for all GPL templates. There are specific versions such as tags for screenshots from a given website. Common GPL tags are listed below.

  • {{GPLv2}} – GNU General Public License. Note: do not use this as the only license for your work if you can avoid it. The GPL is intended for computer programs, not for media files.
  • {{GPLv2+}} – GNU General Public License. Note: do not use this as the only license for your work if you can avoid it. The GPL is intended for computer programs, not for media files.
  • {{LGPLv2.1+}} – GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 or later. Note: do not use this as the only license for your work if you can avoid it. The LGPL is intended for computer programs, not for media files.
  • {{LGPLv3}} – GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or later. Note: do not use this as the only license for your work if you can avoid it. The LGPL is intended for computer programs, not for media files.
  • {{AGPL}} – The Affero General Public License. Note: do not use this as the only license for your work if you can avoid it. The AGPL is intended for computer programs, not for media files.

Other GNU license tags edit

There are over 250 custom GFDL license tags, many of which are listed at Category:Custom GFDL license tags. Typically they are used for the works of individuals, but there are examples of GFDL tags for works published by organizations, as shown below.

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