Copyright

With rare exception all original works are copyrighted automatically by USA copyright law. An author is under no obligation to provide copyright notice and the absence of such notice should not be considered a release of rights. Explicit permission must be given or use of materials is a violation of copyright law.

Copyright: The exclusive, legally-secured right to, among other things, reproduce and distribute works of original expression. Under copyright law, creators hold copyright in a book or other literary work from the moment they put the words down on paper, into a computer file, or into some other tangible medium. Copyright protection in works created after January 1, 1978 generally lasts until 70 years after the death of the creator. Copyright in works created by businesses or before 1978 can last for 95 years from publication. After a work is no longer protected, it falls into the public domain.

Intellectual Property: Products of the human mind, such as books, inventions, computer programs, songs, movies, and other works – are often owned by the creator as "intellectual property," meaning that the creator may have control over uses of the work such as reproduction. Intellectual property is recognized under copyright, patent, trademark, and other laws. If a work is not legally protected as intellectual property (possibly because its protection has expired), it is said to be in the "public domain".

Public Domain: For most works, "public domain" includes those for which the copyright has expired (70 yrs after the death of author), or the work was ineligible for copyright. The latter includes U.S. national government publications, such as from the USDA, USGS, NASA, NOAA, NSF, etc. For help finding public domain or Creative Commons Licensed images, browse our list of sites where such images may be found.

NOTE: Some of the above details are specific to the United States and may differ in other countries. For more information on U.S. copyright or how to initiate a copyright search visit the U.S. Copyright Office website.

CreationWiki Copyrights

 * Main Article: CreationWiki:Copyrights

CreationWiki content can be copied, modified, and redistributed so long as the new version grants the same freedoms to others and acknowledges the authors of the CreationWiki article used (a direct link back to the article satisfies our author credit requirement). CreationWiki articles therefore will remain free forever and can be used by anybody subject to certain restrictions, most of which serve to ensure that freedom.

To fulfill the above goals, the CreationWiki is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.