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This rather simplistic guide is designed to take the anxiety out of selecting a suitable licensing option from the drop-down box at the Special:Upload form.

Uploading your own work[]

When uploading your own work you are encouraged to select the Self entry from the license pull down list box.

  • This will publish the file subject to the CC-BY-SA license which is the same license by which all text contributions you make at Wikia are released.
    1. This protects your right to be attributed for your work but ...
    2. does not prohibit another person from creating some derivative work and ...
    3. does not prohibit another person from using your work for some commercial purpose.

Of course you are free to specify any other license. If you do so then please use the Summary field at the time of upload to name yourself (or your organization) as the party to be attributed.

Fair use
no form of copyright notice can prohibit another person from using your work for what qualifies as "Fair use" (see below) and when used in such a way they are not required by law to attribute the work to you. If you think about it for a few minutes you'll realize that is only fair/reasonable.
  • Review Creative Commons Licenses for a beautifully simple table of license options and factors to consider when choosing a license.
If you find your creative work at this wiki and you are not satisfied with the license notice and/or attribution then please edit either or both to correct this oversight. Be assured that the original uploader believed themselves to be acting in good faith. A contributor is not always as familiar as an original content creator might be with the subtle differences among the multitude of possible licenses.

Uploading the work of others[]

You must acknowledge the author/licenser/creator (use the comment/summary block) and the nature of the license the copyright owner or licenser has stipulated.
In most cases you do not need to be any more specific than to classify it as:

(a) free ( CC-BY-SA and GFDL are the most common, otherwise choose Other and then specify which in the comment block)
(b) copyright - all rights reserved (there are only two acceptable scenarios for uploading such copyrighted work to Virtual Skipper Wiki)
(b1) fair use - sometimes called fair dealing (there is a simple test for what qualifies as fair use. Since the wiki is primarily here to educate newcomers by way of reviewing the work done by existing members that test is satisfied rather easily.)
(b2) permitted use i.e. the copyright holder must have given permission for it's use at Virtual Skipper Wiki
  • Nadeo CEO, Florent Castelnérac, (a.k.a. Hylis) has given explicit permission for any screenshots or video derived from in-game graphics to be used at the Virtual Skipper Wiki - see table below.
Please do not upload copyright material if it does not fit either of these scenarios.

Which license for which uploaded file?[]

Uploaded file Suggested license(s) Rationale
Any image derived from a VSK game client screenshot (including video derived from a replay file.)
.PNG, .JPG, .GIF, etc.
{{Permission}} "Posted: 11 Aug 2009 13:15 By: Hylis
to avoid any doubt, I give the Nadeo permission to use screenshots from the VSK game client and images derived from screenshots to be used as illustrations at the VirtualSkipper Wiki"
  • If the primary feature of the screenshot/image is a custom boat model, skin or track then attribute the author of that custom item (using CC-BY-SA) rather than Nadeo.
Custom boat model
(not including any text or images describing a boat model, e.g. polar diagrams, wind shadow diagrams, etc.)
.ZIP file
{{Cc-by-nc-nd-3.0}} The recommended license reserves the most rights for the Author but also requires that anyone wanting to develop a derivative work contact the author to receive a waiver first. The VSK community should have a vested interest in not allowing too many derivatives of a boat model to evolve and circulate. The original author is always free to change this to a less restrictive license at some later date.
Custom boat skin
.ZIP file
{{Cc-by-sa-3.0}} Check if the author stipulates an alternative license and if there is none then this a good choice to ensure the author is given due credit.
Custom track
.GBX file
{{Cc-by-sa-3.0}} Check if the author stipulates an alternative license and if there is none then this a good choice to ensure the author is given due credit.
Custom avatar
.GIF file
{{Cc-by-sa-3.0}} Check if the author stipulates an alternative license and if there is none then this a good choice to ensure the author is given due credit.
Any work from ISAF {{Fairuse}} ISAF have been contacted but have chosen not to respond (they must get thousands of such requests a year). Most imaginable uses at Virtual Skipper Wiki are for the purpose of review or education and so qualifies as fair use and therefore explicit permission is not required by law.
Illustrations you created using the Racing Scenario Illustrator {{Cc-by-nc-sa-3.0}} CC-BY-SA is recommended for any original content you upload. CC-BY-NC-SA further stipulates that commercial use is not permitted without explicit waiver from the original content creator.
You are ensured attribution and others are free to create derivative works from your original work.
Images from any other website {{Fairuse}} at first then, either:
{{Permission}} or
{{Cc-by-sa-3.0}}
Where possible please contact the webmaster to ask for explicit permission for the Virtual Skipper Wiki to use their creative work for illustration/review/education purposes. So initially fairuse and subsequently permission is the ideal way to show respect for the creative work of others.
Utility scripts, worksheets, office documents etc. {{Permission}} or
{{Bsd}} or
{{Cc-gnu-gpl-2.0}}
Always contact the original author to ask for permission for the Virtual Skipper Wiki to host their creative work.

Due to their likely familiarity with licensing of software applications and because of their relative infrequent occurrence please get permission from a tool developer before uploading. Choosing fairuse initially is not as likely to be a safe way to go especially if the utility's author is accepting donations at some other website for the same piece of creative work.

feel free to add to this table as you think of other broad categories of files that may get uploaded
In all cases use the comment block of the Upload file form
(a) to give due credit to the original author and
(b) to provide a link to or a description of your source for the file uploaded.
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