Commons:Copyright tags/Not free or uncertain

Copyright tags

• Commonly used licenses
• General public domain
• Country-specific tags
• GNU licenses
• Free Creative Commons licenses
• Various free licenses
• Not free or uncertain
• Descriptive tags
• Index by source

A file may be tagged to indicate that it has a unfree or uncertain copyright status. Such a file will be flagged for rapid review and may be deleted as a result.

Unfree licenses

Non-commercial

Non-derivative

Category:License redirects to speedy deletion lists over 250 tags that place the file in a queue for review to see if it should be speedily deleted, often based on the source of the file. A file may sometimes be retained if it has another license tag that shows it may be kept. Thus {{Fairuse}} is not a valid reason to keep a file, but it might be kept if it also had a valid {{PD-old-70}} tag. A sample of generic unfree licenses is given below.

• {{Copyvio}} – Copyright violation. This image will need to be deleted.
• {{Screenshot}} – Copyrighted screenshots. Use {{Free screenshot}} for uncopyrighted screenshots.
• {{Fairuse}} – Copyrighted content that may be used as fair-use, but since Commons does not accept fair use content this image will need to be deleted. See Commons:Fair use for details why.
• {{Logo above threshold of originality}} – The file is a copyright violation because it is a logo or a derivative work thereof, which are always presumed to be copyrighted unless they are too simple to be copyrightable.
• {{Noncommercial}} – Noncommercial copyright status. This image will have to be deleted. Note that this includes any Creative Commons "nc" license.
• {{Nonderivative}} – Copyright status that does not allow changes to the image or file. This image will have to be deleted. Note this includes any Creative Commons "nd" license.
• {{Permission}} – For WikiProject use only. This image will have to be deleted.

Uncertain status

Free License?

A number of license tags listed at Category:Problem tags may be used for files that may or may not be acceptable. These files will be queued for review. A sample:

• {{Currency-unknown}} - It is not known if currency in this photo is allowed by Wikimedia Commons.
• {{Disputed}} – It is disputed whether the copyright tag on this file is correct.
• {{FoP-unknown}} – It is not known if freedom of panorama applies to this image.
• {{No license since}} – This media file does not have sufficient information on its copyright status.
• {{TOO-unknown}} – It is not known if this image is below threshold of originality.
• {{Wrong license}} – This file may not have the correct information on its copyright status.
• {{Not-PD-US-URAA}} - This file may not be free in USA.

Tags for incomplete or missing license info

Category:Media cleanup templates lists templates that may be used for files where the description is incomplete or other clean-up is needed. These include:

• {{Description missing}} – This file has no description, and may be lacking other information.
• {{No license|month=July|day=20|year=2024}} or simply {{subst:nld}} – Unknown copyright status. Copyright status is needed to keep this image. Use even if the image has no license info, but has been claimed by the uploader as own original work. The uploader probably meant to place it under some free license, but did not specify which one.
• {{No source since|month=July|day=20|year=2024}} or simply {{subst:nsd}} – No source information or the image has been tagged as being under a free license, but information required by the license (or to verify the status) is missing. The source must be given so that the copyright status can be verified.