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Triforce Wiki:Copyrights
Everything created by official parties for The Legend of Zelda franchise and other related franchises are registered trademarks of Nintendo and its associates. Triforce Wiki is in no way affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by Nintendo, nor does it claim that the work presented on this website is "official" or produced or sanctioned by the owner of the aforementioned trademarks. Triforce Wiki will take all steps necessary to ensure that any usage of trademarked items in no way confuses the audience of this site as to its origin. Triforce Wiki does not own, nor claim to own the names Zelda, "Triforce", "Link", or any of the names related to the franchise as a whole. Images that are displayed on this site are copyrighted to Nintendo (in the case of screen shots and similar pictures), creators of images (for fan-made artwork), or where otherwise noted. Visitors may download any pictures displayed on this site for personal use as long as proper credit is given.
Article content
Anyone is free to use the text content of Triforce Wiki in websites, articles, or other publications, provided you follow the guidelines of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-SA) license, which establishes the following requirements:
- Authorship of the original article must be acknowledged
- For any reuse or distribution, license terms MUST be made clear
If you are simply duplicating a Triforce Wiki article, the obligations can be fulfilled by providing a conspicuous and distinct direct link back to Triforce Wiki article hosted on this website. Derivative versions, whether they be through changing or adding content, both acknowledgements for authorship must be provided, as well as access to the original copy of the text.
Important: The content of this website does not apply to the original works and trademarked names! The Zelda titles and associated names are the sole property of Nintendo. The administrators of Triforce Wiki believe that the operation of this website falls under the definition of "fair use" under United States copyright laws.
Literatures, images, and other media
Images that are displayed on Triforce Wiki remain the property of their original creators, and are only included on this website for purposes of illustration under fair use guidelines. Unless the original author of the image expressly grants written permission, images do not fall under the scope of the Creative Commons license. In all cases, the images must be uploaded to our database, accompanied by a specific note with:
- Credit for the original author of the image or other media file (if the file is a fan-created work) including a link where the original author may be contacted, or
- The original source of the image or other media file (if the file is derived from an official Zelda source, e.g. screen shots and sound clips).
- Whether the file is uploaded to Triforce Wiki with express permission of the author, or under fair use rules
- The source type of the file, being a specific video game, episode, book, other official work, a website, or any other medium.
Copyrighted works
Any copyrighted work under "fair use" or special permission to use a copyrighted work from the copyright holder under the our license's terms, MUST be noted, and preferably dated. It is important to freely redistribute as much of Triforce Wiki's material as possible within the limits of copyright law.
Original images and sound files licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-SA) license or in the public domain are greatly preferred to copyrighted media files used under fair use. Under no circumstance should materials that infringe the copyrights of others be used, as it creates legal liabilities that are difficult to overcome.
Copyright law governs the expression of ideas, but not the ideas or information themselves. Therefore, it is perfectly legal to read an encyclopedia article or other work, reformulate it in one's own words, and submit it to Triforce Wiki.
Public domain
Public domain comprises of copyright-free works and is intended to give incentive for people to create original works. Thus, a person could create a sculpture or write a novel and expect to be able to control that work for a certain amount of time. The creator can publish the work, copy it, and authorize copies and so on at his or her discretion. Alternately, they can deny permission to make copies for any reason. After a certain amount of time, the copyright and the work becomes available to the general public. In addition, the copyright owner can sell or give the right to copy to anyone, and they can even state "this work is now in the public domain". The wiki utilizes several public domain images, as found here.
Scanned images
Images are one of the most abused mediums on the Internet. It's common and actually widely accepted for people to scan in an image, then put them on their web site, send them in emails, and/or post them to newsgroups at will. Common and accepted does not translate to legal.
An example can be illustrated in such way:
A scanned photo of Shigeru Miyamoto from a magazine, added onto a website violates copyright. Even if that same picture is run through a filter, or modified heavily, be it by cropping the image or by adding artwork, it is violating copyright law.
However, should a thumbnail of the Shigeru Miyamoto picture be used with a reference to the original, then it is allowed under "fair use", as well as linking to a legal copy of Shigeru Miyamoto's picture on the internet using A HREF. But, linking Shigeru Miyamoto's picture on the internet using IMG SRC, is both violating copyright and also bandwidth theft. It is generally wise to get a model release signed by the subject(s) in the photo if the use is significant.
Linking to copyrighted works
A general rule is, if it's on the Internet, one can link to it. It's considered good form to only link to web pages (TEXT, HTML or HTML-like objects). It's considered bad form to link directly to images, sounds, zip files, and so on using A HREF without permission. It is a copyright violation to link using IMG SRC.
Copyright infringement
Triforce Wiki members should not feel obligated to scan every article or image for possible copyright infringement, but should potential infringement be observed, it should be brought to attention in a talk section or to an administrator. Others can then examine the situation and take action if needed. Some of the most important ways to avoid or protect against copyright infringement is through the use of linking to URLs or other methods of sourcing.
Triforce Wiki requests that in the case that the owner or owners of a copyrighted work feel that their work is being illegally infringed upon, they provide a full list of all items which they believe are infringing, along with the reasoning behind the belief that those items are infringing to the site host or an administrator while providing the name of a person, along with their mailing address and e-mail address if possible, for a reply or follow-up letters.
