Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation . Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one for each language. The project's aim is to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has expanded to become a general-content library. The project officially began on November 24, 2003, under the name Project Sourceberg , a play on Project Gutenberg . The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name .
107-522: The project holds works that are either in the public domain or freely licensed ; professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products . Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of other digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, which ensures the reliability and accuracy of the project's texts. Some individual Wikisources, each representing
214-405: A PDF or DjVu file and uploaded to either Wikisource or Wikimedia Commons . This system assists editors in ensuring the accuracy of texts on Wikisource. The original page scans of completed works remain available to any user so that errors may be corrected later and readers may check texts against the originals. ProofreadPage also allows greater participation, since access to a physical copy of
321-404: A PDF or DjVu file and uploaded to either Wikisource or Wikimedia Commons . This system assists editors in ensuring the accuracy of texts on Wikisource. The original page scans of completed works remain available to any user so that errors may be corrected later and readers may check texts against the originals. ProofreadPage also allows greater participation, since access to a physical copy of
428-465: A "Public Domain Day" was initially informal; the earliest known mention was in 2004 by Wallace McLean (a Canadian public domain activist), with support for the idea echoed by Lawrence Lessig . As of 1 January 2010, there is as Public Domain Day website lists the authors whose works are entering the public domain. There are activities in countries around the world by various organizations all under
535-529: A copyright has expired depends on an examination of the copyright in its source country. In most countries that are signatories to the Berne Convention , copyright term is based on the life of the author, and extends to 50 or 70 years beyond the death of the author. (See List of copyright terms of countries .) In the United States, determining whether a work has entered the public domain or
642-415: A country's copyright laws, and are therefore in the public domain; for example, in the United States, items excluded from copyright include the formulae of Newtonian physics and cooking recipes. Other works are actively dedicated by their authors to the public domain (see waiver ); examples include reference implementations of cryptographic algorithms, and the image-processing software ImageJ (created by
749-429: A country-by-country basis, and the absence of registration in a particular country, if required, gives rise to public-domain status for a work in that country. The term public domain may also be interchangeably used with other imprecise or undefined terms such as the public sphere or commons , including concepts such as the "commons of the mind", the "intellectual commons", and the "information commons". Although
856-494: A project-specific coordination wiki, first realized at Wikisource, also took hold in another Wikimedia project, namely at Wikiversity 's Beta Wiki . Like wikisource.org, it serves Wikiversity coordination in all languages, and as a language incubator, but unlike Wikisource, its Main Page does not serve as its multilingual portal. Misplaced Pages co-founder Larry Sanger has criticised Wikisource, and sister project Wiktionary , because
963-442: A project-specific coordination wiki, first realized at Wikisource, also took hold in another Wikimedia project, namely at Wikiversity 's Beta Wiki . Like wikisource.org, it serves Wikiversity coordination in all languages, and as a language incubator, but unlike Wikisource, its Main Page does not serve as its multilingual portal. Misplaced Pages co-founder Larry Sanger has criticised Wikisource, and sister project Wiktionary , because
1070-466: A specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, from comics to film to audiobooks . Some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. The project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as
1177-407: A specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, from comics to film to audiobooks . Some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. The project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as
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#17327718810301284-475: A work, as well as other forms of transformation or adaptation. Copyrighted works may not be used for derivative works without permission from the copyright owner, while public domain works can be freely used for derivative works without permission. Artworks that are public domain may also be reproduced photographically or artistically or used as the basis of new, interpretive works. Works derived from public domain works can be copyrighted. Once works enter into
1391-836: Is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, which is whatever we want it to be." The project began its activity at ps.wikipedia.org. The contributors understood the "PS" subdomain to mean either "primary sources" or Project Sourceberg. However, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Misplaced Pages (the ISO language code of the Pashto language is "ps"). Project Sourceberg officially launched on November 24, 2003, when it received its own temporary URL, at sources.wikipedia.org, and all texts and discussions hosted on ps.wikipedia.org were moved to
1498-599: Is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, which is whatever we want it to be." The project began its activity at ps.wikipedia.org. The contributors understood the "PS" subdomain to mean either "primary sources" or Project Sourceberg. However, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Misplaced Pages (the ISO language code of the Pashto language is "ps"). Project Sourceberg officially launched on November 24, 2003, when it received its own temporary URL, at sources.wikipedia.org, and all texts and discussions hosted on ps.wikipedia.org were moved to
1605-619: Is a combination of the copyright symbol , which acts as copyright notice , with the international 'no' symbol . The Europeana databases use it, and for instance on the Wikimedia Commons in February 2016 2.9 million works (~10% of all works) are listed with the mark. The underlying idea that is expressed or manifested in the creation of a work generally cannot be the subject of copyright law (see idea–expression divide ). Mathematical formulae will therefore generally form part of
1712-512: Is a film that was never under copyright, was released to public domain by its author, or whose copyright has expired. All films in the United States before January 1st, 1929 have been entered in the public domain. Pamela Samuelson has identified eight "values" that can arise from information and works in the public domain. Possible values include: Derivative works include translations , musical arrangements , and dramatizations of
1819-622: Is better known as aspirin in the United States—a generic term. In Canada, however, Aspirin , with an uppercase A, is still a trademark of the German company Bayer , while aspirin, with a lowercase "a", is not. Bayer lost the trademark in the United States, the UK and France after World War I, as part of the Treaty of Versailles . So many copycat products entered the marketplace during the war that it
1926-497: Is in the public domain due to an unrenewed copyright. Courts in different jurisdictions have come to different conclusions as to whether the reproduction of a public domain work gains its own rights protection, or whether it to is in the public domain. In a German 2016 case, the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen , an art museum, sued Wikimedia Commons over photographs uploaded to the database depicting pieces of art in
2033-479: Is not possible to waive those rights, but only the rights related to the exploitation of the work. A solution to this issue (as found in the Creative Commons Zero dedication) is to interpret the license by setting "three different layers of action. First, the right holder waives any copyright and related rights that can be waived in accordance with the applicable law. Secondly, if there are rights that
2140-513: Is only registered in reference to food products (a trademark claim is made within a particular field). Such defences have failed in the United Kingdom. Public Domain Day is an observance of when copyrighted works expire and works enter into the public domain. This legal transition of copyright works into the public domain usually happens every year on 1 January based on the individual copyright laws of each country . The observance of
2247-506: Is required to grant permission (" Permission culture "). There are multiple licenses which aim to release works into the public domain. In 2000 the WTFPL was released as a public domain like software license . Creative Commons (created in 2002 by Lawrence Lessig , Hal Abelson , and Eric Eldred ) has introduced several public-domain-like licenses, called Creative Commons licenses . These give authors of works (that would qualify for copyright)
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#17327718810302354-411: Is still under copyright depends upon what the law or regulation was at creation, and whether new regulations have grandfathered in certain older works. Because copyright terms shifted over the course of the 20th century from a fixed-term based on first publication, with a possible renewal term , to a term extending to 50, then 70, years after the death of the author. The claim that "pre-1929 works are in
2461-718: Is the Zero Clause BSD license , released in 2006 and aimed at software. In October 2014, the Open Knowledge Foundation recommends the Creative Commons CC0 license to dedicate content to the public domain, and the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL) for data. In most countries, the term of rights for patents is 20 years, after which the invention becomes part of
2568-457: Is to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has expanded to become a general-content library. The project officially began on November 24, 2003, under the name Project Sourceberg , a play on Project Gutenberg . The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name . The project holds works that are either in
2675-422: The public sphere or commons , including concepts such as the "commons of the mind", the "intellectual commons", and the "information commons". A public-domain book is a book with no copyright, a book that was created without a license, or a book where its copyrights expired or have been forfeited. In most countries the term of protection of copyright expires on the first day of January, 70 years after
2782-734: The English Wikisource passed 20,000 text-units in its third month of existence, already holding more texts than did the entire project in April (before the move to language subdomains). On May 10, 2006, the first Wikisource Portal was created. On February 14, 2008, the English Wikisource passed 100,000 text-units with Chapter LXXIV of Six Months at the White House , a memoir by painter Francis Bicknell Carpenter . In November, 2011, 250,000 text-units milestone
2889-484: The English Wikisource passed 20,000 text-units in its third month of existence, already holding more texts than did the entire project in April (before the move to language subdomains). On May 10, 2006, the first Wikisource Portal was created. On February 14, 2008, the English Wikisource passed 100,000 text-units with Chapter LXXIV of Six Months at the White House , a memoir by painter Francis Bicknell Carpenter . In November, 2011, 250,000 text-units milestone
2996-572: The English version , along with 8 other languages that were created early that morning and late the night before. Three more languages were created on March 29, 2006, and then another large wave of 14 language domains was created on June 2, 2006. Languages without subdomains are locally incubated. As of September 2020, 182 languages are hosted locally . As of November 2024, there are Wikisource subdomains for 81 languages of which 79 are active and 2 are closed. The active sites have 6,243,078 articles and
3103-528: The German Copyright Act , stating that since the photographer needed to make practical decisions about the photograph that it was protected material. In contrast, in the 1999 US case Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. , the court ruled that exact photographic copies of public domain images could not be protected by copyright in the United States because the copies lack originality . In some countries, certain works may never fully lapse into
3210-546: The Music of Mesopotamia system, was created 4,000 years ago. Guido of Arezzo introduced Latin musical notation in the 10th century. This laid the foundation for the preservation of global music in the public domain, a distinction formalized alongside copyright systems in the 17th century. Musicians copyrighted their publications of musical notation as literary writings, but performing copyrighted pieces and creating derivative works were not restricted by early copyright laws. Copying
3317-538: The National Archives and Records Administration . As of November 2024, there are Wikisource subdomains active for 79 languages comprising a total of 6,243,078 articles and 3,043 recently active editors. The original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Misplaced Pages articles, by providing primary evidence and original source texts, and as an archive in its own right. The collection
Wikisource - Misplaced Pages Continue
3424-468: The National Archives and Records Administration . As of November 2024, there are Wikisource subdomains active for 79 languages comprising a total of 6,243,078 articles and 3,043 recently active editors. The original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Misplaced Pages articles, by providing primary evidence and original source texts, and as an archive in its own right. The collection
3531-482: The National Institutes of Health ). The term public domain is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, in which case use of the work is referred to as "under license" or "with permission". As rights vary by country and jurisdiction, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another. Some rights depend on registrations on
3638-628: The University of Georgia , identified errors in the translation of the Book of Genesis as of 2008. In 2010, Wikimedia France signed an agreement with the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France) to add scans from its own Gallica digital library to French Wikisource. Fourteen hundred public domain French texts were added to the Wikisource library as a result via upload to
3745-407: The University of Georgia , identified errors in the translation of the Book of Genesis as of 2008. In 2010, Wikimedia France signed an agreement with the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France) to add scans from its own Gallica digital library to French Wikisource. Fourteen hundred public domain French texts were added to the Wikisource library as a result via upload to
3852-591: The Wikimedia Commons . The quality of the transcriptions, previously automatically generated by optical character recognition (OCR), was expected to be improved by Wikisource's human proofreaders. In 2011, the English Wikisource received many high-quality scans of documents from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) as part of their efforts "to increase the accessibility and visibility of its holdings." Processing and upload to Commons of these documents, along with many images from
3959-516: The Wikimedia Commons . The quality of the transcriptions, previously automatically generated by optical character recognition (OCR), was expected to be improved by Wikisource's human proofreaders. In 2011, the English Wikisource received many high-quality scans of documents from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) as part of their efforts "to increase the accessibility and visibility of its holdings." Processing and upload to Commons of these documents, along with many images from
4066-416: The public domain or freely licensed ; professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products . Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of other digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, which ensures the reliability and accuracy of the project's texts. Some individual Wikisources, each representing
4173-427: The "personality" of the person drawing them, are not subject to copyright protection. This is separate from the patent rights just mentioned. A trademark registration may remain in force indefinitely, or expire without specific regard to its age. For a trademark registration to remain valid, the owner must continue to use it. In some circumstances, such as disuse, failure to assert trademark rights, or common usage by
4280-511: The English Wikisource is the Wiki Bible project, intended to create a new, "laissez-faire translation" of The Bible . A separate Hebrew version of Wikisource ( he.wikisource.org ) was created in August 2004. The need for a language-specific Hebrew website derived from the difficulty of typing and editing Hebrew texts in a left-to-right environment (Hebrew is written right-to-left). In
4387-399: The English Wikisource is the Wiki Bible project, intended to create a new, "laissez-faire translation" of The Bible . A separate Hebrew version of Wikisource ( he.wikisource.org ) was created in August 2004. The need for a language-specific Hebrew website derived from the difficulty of typing and editing Hebrew texts in a left-to-right environment (Hebrew is written right-to-left). In
Wikisource - Misplaced Pages Continue
4494-725: The NARA collection, was facilitated by a NARA Wikimedian in residence , Dominic McDevitt-Parks. Many of these documents have been transcribed and proofread by the Wikisource community and are featured as links in the National Archives' own online catalog. Wikisource About Wikisource Public domain The public domain ( PD ) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived , or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds
4601-584: The UK). In countries where they cannot be waived they will remain into full effect in accordance to the applicable law (think of France, Spain or Italy where moral rights cannot be waived)." The same occurs in Switzerland. The Unlicense , published around 2010, has a focus on an anti-copyright message. The Unlicense offers a public domain waiver text with a fallback public domain-like license inspired by permissive licenses but without attribution. Another option
4708-482: The US, foreign-sourced works and US-sourced works are now treated differently, with foreign-sourced works remaining under copyright regardless of compliance with formalities, while domestically sourced works may be in the public domain if they failed to comply with then-existing formalities requirements—a situation described as odd by some scholars, and unfair by some US-based rightsholders. Works of various governments around
4815-565: The US, works could be easily given into the public domain by just releasing it without an explicit copyright notice . With the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 (and the earlier Copyright Act of 1976 , which went into effect in 1978), all works were by default copyright protected and needed to be actively given into public domain by a waiver statement/ anti-copyright can call notice . Not all legal systems have processes for reliably donating works to
4922-491: The Misplaced Pages portal the Wikisource slogan appears around the logo in the project's ten largest languages. Clicking on the portal's central images (the iceberg logo in the center and the "Wikisource" heading at the top of the page) links to a list of translations for Wikisource and The Free Library in 60 languages. A MediaWiki extension called ProofreadPage was developed for Wikisource by developer ThomasV to improve
5029-434: The Misplaced Pages portal the Wikisource slogan appears around the logo in the project's ten largest languages. Clicking on the portal's central images (the iceberg logo in the center and the "Wikisource" heading at the top of the page) links to a list of translations for Wikisource and The Free Library in 60 languages. A MediaWiki extension called ProofreadPage was developed for Wikisource by developer ThomasV to improve
5136-464: The ability to decide which protections they would like to place on their material. As copyright is the default license for new material, Creative Commons licenses offer authors a variety of options to designate their work under whichever license they wish, as long as this does not violate standing copyright law. For example, a CC BY license allows for re-users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon material, while also agreeing to provide attribution to
5243-603: The author in any of these cases. In 2009 the Creative Commons released the CC0 , which was created for compatibility with law domains which have no concept of dedicating into public domain . This is achieved by a public domain waiver statement and a fallback all-permissive license, in case the waiver is not possible. Unlike in the US, where author's moral rights are generally not specifically regulated, in some countries where moral rights are protected separately in law it
5350-474: The banner Public Domain Day, this can help people around the world celebrate works written a while ago. Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation . Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one for each language. The project's aim
5457-538: The capacity for annotated editions of texts. On Wikisource, the annotations are supplementary to the original text, which remains the primary objective of the project. By contrast, on Wikibooks the annotations are primary, with the original text as only a reference or supplement, if present at all. Annotated editions are more popular on the German Wikisource. The project also accommodates translations of texts provided by its users. A significant translation on
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#17327718810305564-468: The capacity for annotated editions of texts. On Wikisource, the annotations are supplementary to the original text, which remains the primary objective of the project. By contrast, on Wikibooks the annotations are primary, with the original text as only a reference or supplement, if present at all. Annotated editions are more popular on the German Wikisource. The project also accommodates translations of texts provided by its users. A significant translation on
5671-422: The closed sites have 13 articles. There are 4,976,482 registered users of which 3,043 are recently active. The top ten Wikisource language projects by mainspace article count: For a complete list with totals see Wikimedia Statistics: During the move to language subdomains, the community requested that the main wikisource.org website remain a functioning wiki, in order to serve three purposes: The idea of
5778-418: The closed sites have 13 articles. There are 4,976,482 registered users of which 3,043 are recently active. The top ten Wikisource language projects by mainspace article count: For a complete list with totals see Wikimedia Statistics: During the move to language subdomains, the community requested that the main wikisource.org website remain a functioning wiki, in order to serve three purposes: The idea of
5885-581: The collaborative nature and technology of these projects means there is no oversight by experts and therefore their content is not reliable. Bart D. Ehrman , a New Testament scholar and professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , has criticised the English Wikisource's project to create a user-generated translation of the Bible saying "Democratization isn't necessarily good for scholarship." Richard Elliott Friedman , an Old Testament scholar and professor of Jewish studies at
5992-527: The collaborative nature and technology of these projects means there is no oversight by experts and therefore their content is not reliable. Bart D. Ehrman , a New Testament scholar and professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , has criticised the English Wikisource's project to create a user-generated translation of the Bible saying "Democratization isn't necessarily good for scholarship." Richard Elliott Friedman , an Old Testament scholar and professor of Jewish studies at
6099-674: The construction of the idea of "public domain" sprouted from the concepts of res communes , res publicae , and res universitatis in early Roman law. When the first early copyright law was originally established in Britain with the Statute of Anne in 1710, public domain did not appear. However, similar concepts were developed by British and French jurists in the 18th century. Instead of "public domain", they used terms such as publici juris or propriété publique to describe works that were not covered by copyright law. The phrase "fall in
6206-405: The date and location of publishing, unless explicitly released beforehand. The Musopen project records music in the public domain for the purposes of making the music available to the general public in a high-quality audio format. Online musical archives preserve collections of classical music recorded by Musopen and offer them for download/distribution as a public service. A public-domain film
6313-470: The death of the latest living author. The longest copyright term is in Mexico, which has life plus 100 years for all deaths since July 1928. A notable exception is the United States, where every book and tale published before 1929 is in the public domain; US copyrights last for 95 years for books originally published between 1929 and 1978 if the copyright was properly registered and maintained. For example:
6420-410: The ensuing months, contributors in other languages including German requested their own wikis, but a December vote on the creation of separate language domains was inconclusive. Finally, a second vote that ended May 12, 2005, supported the adoption of separate language subdomains at Wikisource by a large margin, allowing each language to host its texts on its own wiki. An initial wave of 14 languages
6527-410: The ensuing months, contributors in other languages including German requested their own wikis, but a December vote on the creation of separate language domains was inconclusive. Finally, a second vote that ended May 12, 2005, supported the adoption of separate language subdomains at Wikisource by a large margin, allowing each language to host its texts on its own wiki. An initial wave of 14 languages
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#17327718810306634-470: The exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission. As examples, the works of William Shakespeare , Ludwig van Beethoven , Miguel de Cervantes , Zoroaster , Lao Zi , Confucius , Aristotle , L. Frank Baum , Leonardo da Vinci and Georges Méliès are in the public domain either by virtue of their having been created before copyright existed, or by their copyright term having expired. Some works are not covered by
6741-501: The former of which refers to melody, notation or lyrics created by a composer or lyricist, including sheet music, and the latter referring to a recording performed by an artist, including a CD, LP, or digital sound file. Musical compositions fall under the same general rules as other works, and anything published before 1925 is considered public domain. Sound recordings, on the other hand, are subject to different rules and are not eligible for public domain status until 2021–2067, depending on
6848-419: The launching point for transformative retellings such as Tom Stoppard 's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Troma Entertainment 's Tromeo and Juliet . Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. is a derivative of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa , one of thousands of derivative works based on the public domain painting. The 2018 film A Star is Born is a remake of the 1937 film of the same name , which
6955-480: The museum. The museum claimed that the photos were taken by their staff, and that photography within the museum by visitors was prohibited. Therefore, photos taken by the museum, even of material that itself had fallen into the public domain, were protected by copyright law and would need to be removed from the Wikimedia image repository. The court ruled that the photographs taken by the museum would be protected under
7062-430: The need for the project, writing "The hard question, I guess, is why we are reinventing the wheel, when Project Gutenberg already exists? We'd want to complement Project Gutenberg—how, exactly?", and Jimmy Wales adding "like Larry, I'm interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone — I mean, Shakespeare
7169-429: The need for the project, writing "The hard question, I guess, is why we are reinventing the wheel, when Project Gutenberg already exists? We'd want to complement Project Gutenberg—how, exactly?", and Jimmy Wales adding "like Larry, I'm interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone — I mean, Shakespeare
7276-622: The ocean of the public domain." Copyright law differs by country, and the American legal scholar Pamela Samuelson has described the public domain as being "different sizes at different times in different countries". Definitions of the boundaries of the public domain in relation to copyright, or intellectual property more generally, regard the public domain as a negative space; that is, it consists of works that are no longer in copyright term or were never protected by copyright law. According to James Boyle this definition underlines common usage of
7383-643: The original work is not necessary to be able to contribute to the project once images have been uploaded. Within two weeks of the project's official start at sources.wikipedia.org, over 1,000 pages had been created, with approximately 200 of these being designated as actual articles. On January 4, 2004, Wikisource welcomed its 100th registered user. In early July, 2004 the number of articles exceeded 2,400, and more than 500 users had registered. On April 30, 2005, there were 2667 registered users (including 18 administrators) and almost 19,000 articles. The project passed its 96,000th edit that same day. On November 27, 2005,
7490-641: The original work is not necessary to be able to contribute to the project once images have been uploaded. Within two weeks of the project's official start at sources.wikipedia.org, over 1,000 pages had been created, with approximately 200 of these being designated as actual articles. On January 4, 2004, Wikisource welcomed its 100th registered user. In early July, 2004 the number of articles exceeded 2,400, and more than 500 users had registered. On April 30, 2005, there were 2667 registered users (including 18 administrators) and almost 19,000 articles. The project passed its 96,000th edit that same day. On November 27, 2005,
7597-433: The picture's license was inappropriate for a Wikimedia Foundation logo and because a photo cannot scale properly—a stylized vector iceberg inspired by the original picture was mandated to serve as the project's logo. The first prominent use of Wikisource's slogan— The Free Library —was at the project's multilingual portal , when it was redesigned based upon the Misplaced Pages portal on August 27, 2005, (historical version). As in
7704-432: The picture's license was inappropriate for a Wikimedia Foundation logo and because a photo cannot scale properly—a stylized vector iceberg inspired by the original picture was mandated to serve as the project's logo. The first prominent use of Wikisource's slogan— The Free Library —was at the project's multilingual portal , when it was redesigned based upon the Misplaced Pages portal on August 27, 2005, (historical version). As in
7811-667: The project does not host " vanity press " books or documents produced by its contributors. A scanned source is preferred on many Wikisources and required on some. Most Wikisources will, however, accept works transcribed from offline sources or acquired from other digital libraries . The requirement for prior publication can also be waived in a small number of cases if the work is a source document of notable historical importance. The legal requirement for works to be licensed or free of copyright remains constant. The only original pieces accepted by Wikisource are annotations and translations. Wikisource, and its sister project Wikibooks , has
7918-660: The project does not host " vanity press " books or documents produced by its contributors. A scanned source is preferred on many Wikisources and required on some. Most Wikisources will, however, accept works transcribed from offline sources or acquired from other digital libraries . The requirement for prior publication can also be waived in a small number of cases if the work is a source document of notable historical importance. The legal requirement for works to be licensed or free of copyright remains constant. The only original pieces accepted by Wikisource are annotations and translations. Wikisource, and its sister project Wikibooks , has
8025-740: The public domain should be: "it should be a place of sanctuary for individual creative expression, a sanctuary conferring affirmative protection against the forces of private appropriation that threatened such expression". Patterson and Lindberg described the public domain not as a "territory", but rather as a concept: "[T]here are certain materials – the air we breathe, sunlight, rain, space, life, creations, thoughts, feelings, ideas, words, numbers – not subject to private ownership. The materials that compose our cultural heritage must be free for all living to use no less than matter necessary for biological survival." The term public domain may also be interchangeably used with other imprecise or undefined terms such as
8132-602: The public domain" can be traced to mid-19th-century France to describe the end of copyright term . The French poet Alfred de Vigny equated the expiration of copyright with a work falling "into the sink hole of public domain" and if the public domain receives any attention from intellectual property lawyers it is still treated as little more than that which is left when intellectual property rights, such as copyright , patents , and trademarks , expire or are abandoned. In this historical context Paul Torremans describes copyright as a, "little coral reef of private right jutting up from
8239-555: The public domain" is correct only for published works; unpublished works are under federal copyright for at least the life of the author plus 70 years. Legal traditions differ on whether a work in the public domain can have its copyright restored. In the European Union, the Copyright Duration Directive was applied retroactively, restoring and extending the terms of copyright on material previously in
8346-435: The public domain, derivative works such as adaptations in book and film may increase noticeably, as happened with Frances Hodgson Burnett 's novel The Secret Garden , which became public domain in the US in 1977 and most of the rest of the world in 1995. By 1999, the plays of Shakespeare, all public domain, had been used in more than 420 feature-length films. In addition to straightforward adaptation, they have been used as
8453-416: The public domain, e.g. civil law of continental Europe . This may even "effectively prohibit any attempt by copyright owners to surrender rights automatically conferred by law, particularly moral rights ". An alternative is for copyright holders to issue a license which irrevocably grants as many rights as possible to the general public. Real public domain makes licenses unnecessary, as no owner/author
8560-416: The public domain, to the extent that their expression in the form of software is not covered by copyright. Works created before the existence of copyright and patent laws also form part of the public domain. For example, the Bible and the inventions of Archimedes are in the public domain. However, translations or new formulations of these works may be copyrighted in themselves. Determination of whether
8667-914: The public domain. In the United Kingdom , for example, there is a perpetual crown copyright for the Authorized King James Version of the Bible . While the copyright has expired for the Peter Pan works by J. M. Barrie (the play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and the novel Peter and Wendy ) in the United Kingdom, it was granted a special exception under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (Schedule 6) that requires royalties to be paid for commercial performances, publications and broadcasts of
8774-405: The public domain. In the United States, the contents of patents are considered valid and enforceable for 20 years from the date of filing within the United States or 20 years from the earliest date of filing if under 35 USC 120, 121, or 365(c). However, the text and any illustration within a patent, provided the illustrations are essentially line drawings and do not in any substantive way reflect
8881-541: The public domain. Term extensions by the US and Australia generally have not removed works from the public domain, but rather delayed the addition of works to it. However, the United States moved away from that tradition with the Uruguay Round Agreements Act , which removed from the public domain many foreign-sourced works that had previously not been in copyright in the US for failure to comply with US-based formalities requirements . Consequently, in
8988-400: The public without regard for its intended use, it could become generic , and therefore part of the public domain. Because trademarks are registered with governments, some countries or trademark registries may recognize a mark, while others may have determined that it is generic and not allowable as a trademark in that registry. For example, the drug acetylsalicylic acid (2-acetoxybenzoic acid)
9095-518: The right holder cannot waive under applicable law, they are licensed in a way that mirrors as closely as possible the legal effect of a waiver. And finally, if there are any rights that the right holders cannot waive or license, they affirm that they will not exercise them and they will not assert any claim with respect to the use of the work, once again within the limits of applicable law. (...) In countries where moral rights exist but where they can be waived or not asserted, they are waived if asserted (e.g.
9202-499: The state or to an authors' association. The user does not have to seek permission to copy, present or perform the work, but does have to pay the fee. Typically the royalties are directed to support of living artists. In 2010, The Creative Commons proposed the Public Domain Mark (PDM) as symbol to indicate that a work is free of known copyright restrictions and therefore in the public domain. The public domain mark
9309-401: The story of Peter Pan within the UK, as long as Great Ormond Street Hospital (to whom Barrie gave the copyright) continues to exist. In a paying public domain regime, works that have entered the public domain after their copyright has expired, or traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions that have never been subject to copyright, are still subject to royalties payable to
9416-487: The temporary address. A vote on the project's name changed it to Wikisource on December 6, 2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL ( http://wikisource.org/ ) until July 23, 2004. Since Wikisource was initially called "Project Sourceberg", its first logo was a picture of an iceberg . Two votes conducted to choose a successor were inconclusive, and the original logo remained until 2006. Finally, for both legal and technical reasons—because
9523-485: The temporary address. A vote on the project's name changed it to Wikisource on December 6, 2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL ( http://wikisource.org/ ) until July 23, 2004. Since Wikisource was initially called "Project Sourceberg", its first logo was a picture of an iceberg . Two votes conducted to choose a successor were inconclusive, and the original logo remained until 2006. Finally, for both legal and technical reasons—because
9630-404: The term domain did not come into use until the mid-18th century, the concept can be traced back to the ancient Roman law , "as a preset system included in the property right system". The Romans had a large proprietary rights system where they defined "many things that cannot be privately owned" as res nullius , res communes , res publicae and res universitatis . The term res nullius
9737-461: The term public domain and equates the public domain to public property and works in copyright to private property . However, the usage of the term public domain can be more granular, including for example uses of works in copyright permitted by copyright exceptions . Such a definition regards work in copyright as private property subject to fair use rights and limitation on ownership. A conceptual definition comes from Lange, who focused on what
9844-446: The vetting of transcriptions by the project. This displays pages of scanned works side by side with the text relating to that page, allowing the text to be proofread and its accuracy later verified independently by any other editor. Once a book, or other text, has been scanned, the raw images can be modified with image processing software to correct for page rotations and other problems. The retouched images can then be converted into
9951-443: The vetting of transcriptions by the project. This displays pages of scanned works side by side with the text relating to that page, allowing the text to be proofread and its accuracy later verified independently by any other editor. Once a book, or other text, has been scanned, the raw images can be modified with image processing software to correct for page rotations and other problems. The retouched images can then be converted into
10058-467: The works of Jane Austen , Lewis Carroll , Machado de Assis , Olavo Bilac and Edgar Allan Poe are in the public domain worldwide as they all died over 100 years ago. Project Gutenberg , the Internet Archive and Wikisource make tens of thousands of public domain books available online as ebooks . People have been creating music for millennia. The first musical notation system,
10165-411: The world may be excluded from copyright law and may therefore be considered to be in the public domain in their respective countries. They may also be in the public domain in other countries as well. The legal scholar Melville Nimmer has written that "it is axiomatic that material in the public domain is not protected by copyright, even when incorporated into a copyrighted work". Before 1 March 1989, in
10272-457: Was deemed generic just three years later. Informal uses of trademarks are not covered by trademark protection. For example, Hormel , producer of the canned meat product Spam , does not object to informal use of the word "spam" in reference to unsolicited commercial email. However, it has fought attempts by other companies to register names including the word 'spam' as a trademark in relation to computer products, despite that Hormel's trademark
10379-404: Was defined as things not yet appropriated. The term res communes was defined as "things that could be commonly enjoyed by mankind, such as air, sunlight and ocean." The term res publicae referred to things that were shared by all citizens, and the term res universitatis meant things that were owned by the municipalities of Rome. When looking at it from a historical perspective, one could say
10486-435: Was initially focused on important historical and cultural material, distinguishing it from other digital archives like Project Gutenberg. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages (a play on words for Project Gutenberg). In 2001, there was a dispute on Misplaced Pages regarding the addition of primary-source materials, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg
10593-433: Was initially focused on important historical and cultural material, distinguishing it from other digital archives like Project Gutenberg. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages (a play on words for Project Gutenberg). In 2001, there was a dispute on Misplaced Pages regarding the addition of primary-source materials, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg
10700-694: Was passed. Wikisource collects and stores in digital format previously published texts; including novels, non-fiction works, letters, speeches, constitutional and historical documents, laws and a range of other documents. All texts collected are either free of copyright or released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License . Texts in all languages are welcomed, as are translations. In addition to texts, Wikisource hosts material such as comics , films , recordings and spoken-word works. All texts held by Wikisource must have been previously published;
10807-584: Was passed. Wikisource collects and stores in digital format previously published texts; including novels, non-fiction works, letters, speeches, constitutional and historical documents, laws and a range of other documents. All texts collected are either free of copyright or released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License . Texts in all languages are welcomed, as are translations. In addition to texts, Wikisource hosts material such as comics , films , recordings and spoken-word works. All texts held by Wikisource must have been previously published;
10914-550: Was reconfigured to enable the English version , along with 8 other languages that were created early that morning and late the night before. Three more languages were created on March 29, 2006, and then another large wave of 14 language domains was created on June 2, 2006. Languages without subdomains are locally incubated. As of September 2020 , 182 languages are hosted locally . As of November 2024, there are Wikisource subdomains for 81 languages of which 79 are active and 2 are closed. The active sites have 6,243,078 articles and
11021-399: Was set up on August 23, 2005. The new languages did not include English, but the code en: was temporarily set to redirect to the main website ( wikisource.org ). At this point the Wikisource community, through a mass project of manually sorting thousands of pages and categories by language, prepared for a second wave of page imports to local wikis. On September 11, 2005, the wikisource.org wiki
11128-425: Was set up on August 23, 2005. The new languages did not include English, but the code en: was temporarily set to redirect to the main website ( wikisource.org ). At this point the Wikisource community, through a mass project of manually sorting thousands of pages and categories by language, prepared for a second wave of page imports to local wikis. On September 11, 2005, the wikisource.org wiki was reconfigured to enable
11235-553: Was suggested as a solution to this. In describing the proposed project, user The Cunctator said, "It would be to Project Gutenberg what Misplaced Pages is to Nupedia ", soon clarifying the statement with "we don't want to try to duplicate Project Gutenberg's efforts; rather, we want to complement them. Perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Misplaced Pages to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG." Initial comments were skeptical, with Larry Sanger questioning
11342-551: Was suggested as a solution to this. In describing the proposed project, user The Cunctator said, "It would be to Project Gutenberg what Misplaced Pages is to Nupedia ", soon clarifying the statement with "we don't want to try to duplicate Project Gutenberg's efforts; rather, we want to complement them. Perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Misplaced Pages to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG." Initial comments were skeptical, with Larry Sanger questioning
11449-428: Was widespread, in compliance with the law, but expansions of those laws intended to benefit literary works and responding to commercial music recording technology's reproducibility have led to stricter rules. Relatively recently, a normative view that copying in music is not desirable and lazy has become popular among professional musicians. US copyright laws distinguish between musical compositions and sound recordings,
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