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Wikimedia Commons (also known simply as Commons)
is a project that collects images, sounds, videos
and other educational and explanatory multimedia resources.
The files hosted in Commons can be used freely,
also for commercial purposes, given the respect of the terms of use.
Brother of Wikipedia, Commons was born in 2004
as a common repository for the several projects of the Wikimedia Foundation,
and then evolved as an independent project with its own guidelines.
In Commons you can find pictures of places and landmarks.
Animals, plants, minerals.
Pictures of people, everyday objects, art works.
And again historical pictures and recordings, and scans of ancient books.
Schemes, diagrams, graphs and maps,
Video and audio recordings... and much more.
In some cases the files are no longer protected by the copyright,
in other cases, the authors or the copyright holders gave the permission
to use their materials under some simple conditions,
such as the attribution, or the release of derivative works under the same license.
There are more than 7 millions resources in Commons, freely downloadable
that can be used for papers, web sites, posters, advertising, art works...
The resources from Commons can be directly included
into the pages of Wikipedia and any other Wikimedia project,
under the respect of the specific project guidelines,
of the linguistic community the project is aimed for
and of the law enforced in the country of origin.
Every file in Commons has its own wiki-page.
First comes the title, then the multimedia resource
or its preview, as it happens for very big photographs.
Then a description follows (often multilingual)
and all the available information such as the source, the author, the date, the terms of use.
The history of the file lists all the existing modifications.
In fact, it's possible to modify and improve the files uploaded by other users.
There's also a list of the pages of Commons
and of the other projects of Wikimedia Foundation
that link or embed the resource.
At the bottom, there are the categories
under which the resource has been catalogued.
The categories are standardized in English,
but an approximate knowledge of the language is enough to handle them.
How can you contribute to Commons?
Those very fond of photography can upload their pictures,
a good illustrator can add diagrams and animations,
a musician can upload recordings of free music.
Even movies and recordings of theatre plays can be uploaded,
as long as they are free from any copyright.
In order to upload files on Commons, you have to be a registered user.
The registration is for free, quick and unnecessary if...
...you are already a registered user of another Wikimedia Foundation project.
It's allowed to upload only resources having a free format.
As an example, the only allowed format for the video is the Ogg Theora.
Several open-source format converters are available
than can be freely downloaded and used.
Every uploaded file must comply with: the law of the United States,
where the Wikimedia Foundation legally resides;
the law of the nation where the resource comes from;
the law of the nation of the user, that is held responsible for the uploaded content.
Then you have to check that you're not infringing
the laws about the privacy and the trademarks
or the restrictions posed by some museums about the use of the art works.
In case of material already published somewhere else under a non-free license,
the authors or the copyright holders have to send an e-mail
in which they identify themselves and declare their consent
to the publication of their material under a free license.
Like Wikipedia, Commons is a wiki, a site open to everybody
and is managed by volunteer users from every corner of the world
that work to identify and categorize the material,
complete or translate the descriptions,
create galleries and theme-specific pages,
find and delete the resources having unsuitable sources or licences.
Commons is a multilingual project:
a single site hosts all the translated versions
and the various linguistic communities share the same space.
For an easier search of materials in Commons,
other than the categories, you can look in the galleries,
that are pages purposefully created
to collect materials about a given topic.
The discussions about a content take place
in the discussion page that every resource has,
while general discussions about Commons take place in a dedicated page.
The communication is mainly in English,
but discussion pages in other languages are available as well.
Should you have problems, there's a help desk
and many help pages, available in several languages.
For specific or particularly complex issues,
you can ask the administrators, which are volunteers
that earned in time the trust of the community
for their knowledge of the project, and are the only ones allowed
to execute some delicate operations,
such as the deletion of a resource.
If you want to use a resource from Commons, always make sure
to comply with the law of your own country.
Commons cannot guarantee the lawfulness
of the use of a resource in any context,
nor its absolute accuracy and reliability.
But it's incredible to see how much valid and useful material has been uploaded.
More and more public archives, museums, libraries, private collections
make small and big "donations" of materials
that become a wealth available to everybody.
Several professional photographers publish their work on Commons,
proud of seeing their work being spread around the world.
The same for illustrators that gave to Commons
particularly effective and elegant schemes and diagrams.
The community has several ways for the acknowledgement of quality works:
there's a contest to award the photograph of the year.
Another selection picks the best pictures
produced by Commons' users
and another one awards the most effective pictures for a genre.
A particularly interesting picture is chosen daily
and the same happens for the other multimedia resources.
You can support Commons in substance
by making a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation,
or you can choose to support (also with your 5x1000)
Wikimedia Italia, a no-profit association
that promotes in Italy
Commons and the other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation.