Grimm Wiki:Fair Use Policy

Fair use isn't the easiest law to understand, but that doesn't mean we should ignore it. If your images are being deleted, it's likely they don't follow the fair use laws or this wiki's fair use policies. Wikis regularly violating Wikia's fair use policy or American or international copyright laws are subject to surprise deletion (as in the whole website gets deleted without Wikia warning us). Therefore, it's in everyone's best interest to learn how this works before uploading images!

Laws

 * Wikia's servers are in the United States. They are subject to U.S. laws.
 * It's illegal to display nonfree media without explicit permission from its owner unless it can be justified as "fair use".
 * "Fair use" means the image is being used to illustrate a specific subject and that a free image is not already available. Example: an encyclopedia article about a Blutbad may have a single image of a Blutbad as it appears in the television series, and should have no further images of Blutbaden from the television series.
 * Fair use no longer applies the instant a free alternative is available.
 * For an image to be used fairly, it may never be larger or higher resolution than is required for the intended use.
 * Using an image fairly in one location does not mean it is automatically fair use anywhere else, especially in an encyclopedia where each subject is typically illustrated only on a single page.
 * Images appearing where they are not required (for example, a userspace image gallery) never qualify for fair use.

Things we must do to stay legal

 * ALL images from the series are known to be nonfree.
 * Nonfree images should not be more than 300 pixels wide (thumbnail size).
 * If there's a free alternative, use it instead.
 * Nonfree images not in use MUST be deleted, including old revisions of nonfree images.
 * Use as few nonfree images as possible to illustrate any article. Galleries generally are not going to qualify for fair use.
 * Nonfree images generally do not belong on any pages except articles. There are very few exceptions to this rule. User image gallery or portfolio pages or templates should never include nonfree media.

Additional fair use policies we've adopted at this wiki
This fair use policy is adapted from the ones at Wikipedia and several other wikis and has had the input of multiple users of this wiki. Under normal circumstances, these rules wouldn't apply, but since we are devoted to documenting the Grimm series, we have an obligation not to spoil the Grimm franchise through the unintentional "giving away" of content that otherwise would help fund the series.


 * When possible, limit images to covers of comic books, promotional images of episodes, etc.
 * Images of actual events (for example, a picture of Nick punching someone) should never be used unless they are the only option for illustrating a subject (for example, perhaps this is the only illustration available of a particular type of Wesen). In such a case, it is appropriate to crop the image so only the relevant part of the image is visible.