View source for Wiki143:Mirrors and forks

{{short description|List of sites that copy Wikipedia (with or without changes), noting their license compliance}}
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{{redirect|WP:MF|WikiProject Microformats|WP:μF}}
{{Hatnote|Please add new links to the alphabetically ordered pages below.}}
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'''Mirrors and forks of Wikipedia''' are publications that [[mirror website|mirror]] (copy exactly) or [[Fork (software development)|fork]] (copy, but change parts of the material of) [[Wikipedia]]. Many correctly follow the licensing terms; however, many others fail – accidentally or intentionally – to place the notice required by these terms. Such pages are listed in subpages grouped alphabetically – see section {{See section||How to list new mirrors}} below. If you find such links, please add them here. {{As of|2024|8|alt=In August 2024|post=,}} the subpages listed a total of 730 mirrors and forks of Wikipedia.

==Things you need to know==
{{see also|WP:BACKWARDSCOPY}}
;Using these mirrors and forks on Wikipedia
:Copies of Wikipedia are '''not [[WP:RS|reliable sources]]''' and '''not acceptable [[WP:EL|external links]]''' in articles per the [[WP:CIRCULAR|verifiability policy]]. Articles that use a republished work as a source should be edited to either remove the work or to tag the source with {{tl|Circular-ref}}. Leave {{tl|backwardscopy}} on the article's talk page to identify Wikipedia as the original source.
;Copyright status of mirrors and forks
:Every contribution to the English Wikipedia has been licensed for re-use, including commercial, for-profit websites. Republication is not necessarily a breach of copyright, so long as the appropriate licenses are complied with.
;Effect of non-compliance with licenses
:If the license is not complied with, then the republication is a [[copyright violation]]. '''You''' own the copyright to your contributions, not the Wikimedia Foundation. Legally, the Wikimedia Foundation is in the same position as the republishers (except that the WMF always complies with your license terms), because the WMF is republishing your copyrighted content under your license. If someone violates the terms of the license, then enforcement needs to come from the copyright owner. Consequently, complaints about violations need to be made by a person who actually wrote part of the improperly republished material. See [[#Non-compliance process]] for one typical method for dealing with publishers who violate ''your'' copyright. If your own copyright has not been violated, then you may contact one or more of the editors who own the copyright for the material in question, and suggest that they follow the steps in the suggested process. The Wikimedia Foundation and the community cannot do this on behalf of the copyright owner.

==How to list new mirrors==
'''List new mirrors in the appropriate alphabetical section:'''

'''[[/Abc|#ABC]] – [[/Def|DEF]] – [[/Ghi|GHI]] – [[/Jkl|JKL]] – [[/Mno|MNO]] – [[/Pqr|PQR]] – [[/Stu|STU]] – [[/Vwxyz|VWXYZ]]'''

Also include them on the [[Wikipedia:CC BY-SA Compliance|CC BY-SA Compliance]] (most sites) or [[Wikipedia:GFDL Compliance|GFDL compliance]] pages (if they say they comply with that license).
{| class="wikitable" style="clear:right"
|Use this form to add new ones:<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">
===name===
{{Wikipedia mirror
| name = <name of the webpage> (not url)
| url = URL
|description = its scope, what features it has, differences with WP, innovations, etc.
| sample = URL
| rating = "High", "Medium", or "Low/None" compliance with CC BY-SA (matches Wikipedia:CC BY-SA Compliance) (compare against GFDL if they choose that license).
| compliance = Describe details of compliance or lack thereof. List violations here.
| contact = E-mails, phone numbers, contact form URLs, etc. of admin and ISP.
| action = Actions taken (if any) to attempt to make the website comply.
}}</syntaxhighlight>
|}

==Archiving mirrors==

If a mirror link is permanently offline, it should be [[WP:COPY|copied]] to the [[/archive|archive]] page. A site is permanently offline if the domain has expired or the domain has been transferred to a new owner.

==License== 
[[Wikipedia:Copyrights|Wikipedia's main license]], the [[WP:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License|Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License]] (CC BY-SA), requires that any derivative of works from Wikipedia must be released under that same license, must state that it is released under that license, and must acknowledge the contributors (which can be accomplished with a link back to that article on Wikipedia).

As of 2024, most Wikipedia text is also dual-licensed under the [[:WP:Text of GNU Free Documentation License|GNU Free Documentation License]] (GFDL). However, this will gradually change as CC BY-SA text is imported. Thus, it is not safe for most reusers to use the GFDL. Pages identified to use imported CC content are included at [[:Category:Articles with imported Creative Commons licensed text]]. The GFDL can still be used indefinitely for pages without CC BY-SA only content. Generally, the GFDL imposes requirements that are similar to the CC BY-SA but more stringent.

For details about Wikipedia's interpretation of the CC BY-SA and GFDL, see [[Wikipedia:Copyrights]]. However, always remember that only the CC BY-SA and GFDL themselves are legally binding.

Note that all notices and/or links must be visible to all users who can see the content. Thus, CSS and [[JavaScript]]-only links and/or notices are not acceptable if the Wikipedia article is plain HTML.

The license does not apply to materials in the [[public domain]] or that is used under [[fair use]]. Also, material can be used under other terms if and only if all contributors have approved them.

The websites listed on the "compliance" pages below use content original to Wikipedia as a source for at least some of their content. Wikipedia itself is not included.

==Dealing with mirrors and forks==
{{shortcut|WP:BACKWARDSCOPY}}
In some instances, it is clear that two pieces of text (one on Wikipedia, and one elsewhere) are copies of each other, but not clear which piece is the original and which is the copy. "Compliant" sites that copy Wikipedia text note that they have done so, but not all of our re-users are compliant. 

In such cases, check the [[WP:Talk pages|talk page]] to see if there is a note regarding any "backwards-copying". If not, try to identify any possible problems with the text. Does the website have a record of unattributed copying of articles (use the list below)? Did the content show up on Wikipedia all in one piece, inserted by a single editor? If you don't see good evidence that Wikipedia had it first, file an investigation request by following the [[Wikipedia:Copyright Problems#Instructions|instructions for listing]] at the [[Wikipedia:Copyright Problems|Copyright Problems]] page.

If you confirm with certainty that the content originated from Wikipedia, please consider adding {{tl|backwardscopy}} to the article's talk page with an explanation of how you know.
===Non-compliance process===
: This section describes the steps that might be taken on discovering a new site that uses Wikipedia content without properly complying with the license.
: Note that Wikipedia does not give legal advice. Contributors retain their own copyright for submitted work.
'''''If you do contact a website about infringement relating to work originally submitted to Wikipedia, please note it on the relevant subpage listed above. Doing this will help coordinate activities in helping other websites become compliant with our licence, without webmasters feeling harassed by lots of angry non-compliance notices.'''''

You may want to consider using a [[disposable e-mail address]] for this; since many of the websites listed here are built for advertising purposes, spamming is a possibility. Also, if the owner is planning to shut down the webpage, or remove the Wikipedia content as a whole, suggest to them that they use [http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/remove.html#exclude_website robots.txt] or [http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/remove.html#exclude_website meta tags] so we can remove and prevent future search engine indexing and caching for those websites. Also, if the owner is reachable, suggest that they update their Wiki with the latest [[Wikipedia:database dumps|database dumps]] to keep up with recent changes.

;Steps
This is not an official guideline but a tool you can use for dealing with infringement. Continue the series below as long as the site is non-compliant. Note that you ''must'' choose only pages for which ''you'' hold (partial) copyright. These steps only work for dealing with infringement on websites in the United States.
#If the text is licensed under CC BY-SA only, send a [[Wikipedia:standard CC BY-SA violation letter|standard CC BY-SA violation letter]] to the site owner. If it is dually licensed, send a [[Wikipedia:Standard license violation letter|standard license violation letter]]. You can use a [[whois]] lookup to get contact info if it is not otherwise available. 
#One week (or more) later, send a follow-up reminder.
#Three weeks (or more) later, send a final warning, noting that continued infringement will result in a DMCA takedown notice being sent to their ISP.
#Two weeks (or more) later, send a [[Wikipedia:Standard GFDL violation letter#DMCA takedown notice|DMCA takedown notice]] to the ISP, enumerating articles that infringe '''''your''''' copyright. Note separately that the site also violates the copyrights of others. To find the appropriate address, first search the ISP's website. To find the ISP, you can: enter the domain name in the DNS search at http://dnsstuff.com, then click the IP. First search the ISP's site for a legal address. If that doesn't work, try to look them up at https://dmca.copyright.gov/osp/. If they're not in the directory, send the notice to the abuse address. Note that sites are not legally required to accept DMCA notices. If they don't, the only recourse is legal action.

== Remote loading ==
{{shortcut|WP:LIVEMIRROR}}

Some mirrors load a page from the Wikimedia servers directly every time someone requests a page from them. They alter the text in some way, such as framing it with ads, then send it on to the reader. This is called remote loading, and it is an unacceptable use of Wikimedia server resources. Even remote loading websites with little legitimate traffic can generate significant load on our servers, due to search engine [[web crawler]]s. 

If you suspect a website is remote loading Wikipedia content, you can report it at [[meta:Live mirrors]].

The appropriate way to run a mirror is to [[Wikipedia:Database download|download]] a [[m:Data_dumps|dump]] of the compressed 'pages-article' file and the images from http://download.wikimedia.org/, and then use a modified instance of [[MediaWiki]] to generate the required HTML, along with above mentioned copyrights information. Please use '''Articles, templates, image descriptions, and primary meta-pages''' (<code>pages-articles.xml.bz2</code>) for mirroring purposes.

==Copies of ''this'' list==
A separate list of sites that utilise Wikipedia content is maintained at the [[WP:OpenFacts|OpenFacts]] site: <span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20081015170146/http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Copies_of_Wikipedia_content Copies of Wikipedia content]</span>. This list consists primarily of complete copies of all Wikipedia articles. It is intended to show readers where they can get Wikipedia content when Wikipedia itself is down.

== See also ==
'''Wiki''pedia'''''
*[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia clones]] (mostly about clones' use as a source)
*[[Wikipedia:Republishers]]
*[[:Category:Websites which use Wikipedia|Websites which use Wikipedia]]
*[[Wikipedia:Content forking]]
*[[Wikipedia:Press coverage]]
*[[Wikipedia:Searching]] – Dealing with mirrors and forks in external search results
*[[Wikipedia:Send in the clones]] – a 2004 discussion of Wikipedia's relationships with its mirrors and forks
*[[Wikipedia:FAQ/Forking]]
*[[Wikipedia:Potentially unreliable sources#Wikipedia mirrors]]
*[[Wikipedia:Dealing with papers that copy Wikipedia]]

'''Wiki''media'''''
*[[meta:Guide to the CC dual-license]] – for authors who want to make their contributions available to Creative Commons sites
*[[meta:James explains law]] – Some of the interesting legal questions and issues affecting the project
*[[meta:Mirror filter]] – Filter list for filtering mirrors from Google search results
*[[meta:GFDL and CC BY-SA enforcement]] – if you want to go further
'''Other online encyclopedias (some are forks of, or are based on Wikipedia, the rest are competitors or colleagues)'''
* [[List of online encyclopedias]]

[[Category:Wikipedia copyright|Mirrors and forks]]
[[Category:Wikipedia-related projects|Mirrors and forks]]
[[Category:Wikipedia pages affected by the licensing transition|Mirrors and forks]]