Wikipedia as a source of information [answered]

[Danila]

Hi! I'm new here and trying to figure out stuff.

I wonder if I could copy information about books and authors from Wikipedia — I mean plot summaries, biographies, photos and cover images.

All the articles on Wikipedia are distributed under Creative Commons licence that requires attribution, but otherwise allows to do pretty much anything. Every picture have its own licensing terms, and of course we can't copy it if the license gives usage rights only for Wikipedia articles, but mostly, the images are also CC-licensed.

So, can I use Wikipedia as a source of biographic info and a photo of an author with an attribution message in the end (“biographic info and a photo taken from Wikipedia under the terms of Creative Commons license” in fine print :-))?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

No images; we are not set up to properly show the necessary attribution.

Author bios are fine with proper attribution.

Plot summaries on Wikipedia almost always have spoilers, so I would not consider them a good source for those in most cases.

[Danila]

Thank you for the answer!
And what if the images are claimed to be in the public domain?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Public domain images are fine.

[Danila]

Thanks!