Requests for Content
Alteration & Takedown

July 2012 – June 2014

Total Number of Requests
304

July 2012 – June 2014

Percentage of Requests Granted
0%

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

The Wikimedia projects make up one of the world's largest repositories of human knowledge. With that much information, someone is bound to get upset by some of the content from time to time. While the vast majority of content disputes are resolved by users themselves, in some extreme cases the Wikimedia Foundation may receive a legal demand to override our users.

The Wikimedia projects are yours, not ours. People just like you from around the world write, upload, edit, and curate all of the content. Therefore, we believe users should decide what belongs on Wikimedia projects whenever legally possible.

Below, you will find more information about the number of requests we receive, where they come from, and how they could impact free knowledge. You can also learn more about how we fight for freedom of speech through our user assistance programs in the FAQ.

We change people through conversation, not through censorship.

French Intelligence Agency
March 2013

A French intelligence agency summoned a Wikipedia user to its offices, and threatened him with severe criminal penalties if he did not use his administrative rights to delete information about a military base from French Wikipedia that the agency deemed classified. The supposedly classified information was actually publicly available because the military had provided interviews and a tour of the base to local reporters. We defended the user involved and fought to keep the content up on Wikipedia. Read more...

Monkey Selfie
January 2014

A photographer left his camera unattended in a national park in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. A female crested black macaque monkey got ahold of the camera and took a series of pictures, including some self-portraits. The pictures were featured in an online newspaper article and eventually posted to Commons. We received a takedown request from the photographer, claiming that he owned the copyright to the photographs. We didn't agree, so we denied the request.

Aboriginal Language
July 2012

A Tasmanian aboriginal language center demanded the removal of the English Wikipedia article on 'palawa kani', claiming copyright over the entirety of the language. We refused to remove the article because copyright law simply cannot be used to stop people from using an entire language or to prevent general discussion about the language. Such a broad claim would have chilled free speech and negatively impacted research, education, and public discourse—activities that Wikimedia serves to promote.

Where did these requests come from?

Which Wikimedia projects were targeted?





July 2012 – June 2014

Total Number of DMCA Takedown Requests
58

July 2012 – June 2014

Percentage of Requests Granted
41%

DMCA Takedown Notices

The Wikimedia community is made up of creators, collectors, and consumers of free knowledge. While most material appearing on Wikimedia projects is in the public domain or freely licensed, on occasion, copyrighted material makes its way onto the projects.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbor provision requires us to remove infringing material if we receive a proper takedown request. We thoroughly evaluate each DMCA takedown request to ensure that it is valid. We only remove allegedly infringing content when we believe that a request is valid and we are transparent about that removal. If we do not believe a request to be valid, we will push back as appropriate. To learn more about DMCA procedures, see our DMCA policy.

Below, we provide information about the DMCA takedown notices we have received in the past and how we responded to them.

A well-functioning copyright law carefully balances the interests of the public in access to expressive works and... the interests of copyright owners in being compensated for uses of their works.

Babe Ruth's Called Shot
March 2014

A film shot by Matt Kandle at the 1932 World Series provides evidence of Babe Ruth's famous “called shot,” in which he gestured to center field before hitting a home run to the same location. The copyright owner sent us a DMCA takedown request regarding a still image from the film used on English Wikipedia. We declined to remove the image on the basis of fair use, citing its extraordinary value in illustrating the famous moment and the educational purpose it serves.

Obama & Mandela Meet
December 2013

We received a takedown notice for a photo on Commons of then-Senator Barack Obama’s first meeting with Nelson Mandela. Because the photographer David Katz was a federal employee at the time, the photo was believed to be in the public domain. Katz argued the photo was not taken as part of his “official duties” and thus not in the public domain. After an exhaustive factual investigation, we could not find sufficient evidence that photography was one of Katz’s official duties and therefore removed the image. Read more...

The Classics
November 2013

A publishing company sent us a takedown request concerning four famous works on Wikisource: French translations of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, a French translation of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables. We immediately noticed the peculiarity with the request: all four original works (and likely their French translations as well) were old enough to have fallen into the public domain. When we alerted the company to this point, it rescinded the takedown notice.

DMCA requests received, and how we responded

Request Granted?

Yes

No

Which Wikimedia projects were targeted?