Cardhuntria:Policy

Revision as of 20:23, 8 September 2013

Policy is a term referring to the processes and rules observed involving the creation, editing, and management of articles on Cardhuntria as well as treatment of other users. Violating a Cardhuntria policy will at the very least lead to a page being edited to conform to policy. Edits or new pages that are created that do not conform to a specific policy are subject to change by another user (assuming that change conforms with policy) without expectation of appeal to an admin, as is all content within the site. However, it may also lead to the page being deleted or — for the worst offenses — it may lead to the poster being declared a vandal and become banned or blocked. Treatment of users who engage in destruction of content, harassment, or misuse of content (spam) is also governed by policy.

Copyright policy

For a statement of copyright ownership regarding material in this wiki, see Cardhuntria:Copyrights.

This policy sets out information and rules for respecting Blue Manchu's copyrights in its works. In order to reproduce any of Blue Manchu's content, including images, characters, storylines, or text, we must either have Blue Manchu's clear permission to do so, or meet the criteria required for "fair use".

Terminology

Copyright

See Wikipedia:Copyright

Copyright is the legal ownership that automatically attaches to creative works. For example, if you were to write a novel in your spare time, you would own the copyright of that novel, and no one else could use its text without your permission. Copyright protects not only the actual text of a novel or code of a computer game, but the characters, plot points, and other creative expressions within.

Copyright law is enforced internationally, based on a series of treaties.

Fair use

See Wikipedia:Fair use

Fair use or fair dealing allows limited reproduction of copyrighted works for specific purposes, such as study or criticism. Fair use considerations of particular relevance to this site include:

1. The source of the material must be acknowledged.
2. The amount of the original copied. Generally speaking the less, the better. "Quote or closely paraphrase as little as possible to make your point: under 10% is best; above 20% is high risk...although in some cases 1% may not be fair use, and 100% can be fair use, it’s impossible to provide percentage guidelines that always work". A small paragraph or sentence paraphrased or quoted verbatim from a source is likely fine, quoting or paraphrasing an entire article/quest/event from a source is likely not. Use sound judgement.
3. The purpose of the copying. If we reproduce some of Blue Manchu's ideas as a guide to their games and books, that is more likely to be considered a valid purpose than if we included content which could serve as alternatives to the games and books.

Trademark

See Wikipedia:Trademark

Copyright is often confused with trademark, which is a registered name or logo used to sell goods or services. In the case of Blue Manchu, Blue Manchu™, Card Hunter™, and the Blue Manchu and Card Hunter logos, are all registered trademarks used to sell its games and books. No one else can use those logos in the marketplace. Trademark laws protect Blue Manchus' names and logos, while copyright laws protect its games and books.

Copyleft

See Wikipedia:Copyleft

The term copyleft is often used in the context of wikis, and is a form of licensing which allows free distribution, with the main limit that the person using the software must also distribute it freely. Naturally, in order to allow our content to be freely distributed, we must first ensure that we have permission to post it.

Policy

This policy covers all articles which describe or discuss the content of Blue Manchu's computer games, novels, RPG books, manga, and other works. While articles containing direct quotes and images are obviously included, all articles which describe Blue Manchu's storylines, characters, and other creative expressions are also covered by Blue Manchu's copyright, despite being written in our own words.

There are only two ways that we can use ideas, text, and images from Blue Manchu's works:

1. With Blue Manchu's clear permission.
2. According to the fair use exception.

All articles covered by this policy must fall into one or both of these categories.

Blue Manchu's permission

Blue Manchu gives express permission to reproduce certain material on fansites (Blue Manchu copyright attribution). This includes:

1. Material downloaded from their website.
2. Screenshots of their games.

You should include copyright information as near as possible to the use of the material reproduced (on Image: page or using a citation or reference).

Fair use

In order to be considered fair use of copyrighted material on Cardhuntria, all of the following must be met.

1. The specific source of the material must be acknowledged.
2. The tone of the article must be that of a guide to the Card Hunter universe, not that of a competing creative work.
   • For example, an article describing a novel should objectively describe the main characters and major plot points. It should not be written as a narrative short story which serves to take the place of the novel. Likewise, a description of the events of a game or cinematic should not be in the form of a dramatic short story.
3. Where direct quotes are used, special care is required. Note that closely paraphrasing Blue Manchu's text to avoid direct quotation would still be plagiarism. Try to reduce the information down to 10% of the original source to be safe.
   • Quotes must be clearly marked as quotes, using quotation marks or the <blockquote> element.
   • Quotes must be used sparingly, and be as brief as possible.
   • Quotes must be offered in support of a claim. Do not reproduce Blue Manchu's text to fill in the substantive content of an article. The only exception to this is if the only information for a subject is limited to a sentence or small paragraph. Quoting or paraphrasing a small bit of information is ok, as long as it includes quotation marks or the <blockquote> element, as well as the ref.

Enforcement

Because it involves issues which could incur legal liability for the wiki, it is imperative that all editors read, follow, and help enforce this policy. Articles not in compliance with this policy should be brought into compliance with it promptly through the removal or editing of the contravening content.

Using Cardhuntria content on other sites

Using content from Cardhuntria carries with it the expectation that the content will be attributed properly and that the content or any derivations of the content will be shared alike.

To re-distribute a text page in any form, provide credit to the authors either by including a) a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the page or pages you are re-using, b) a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy which is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on this website, or c) a list of all authors. (Any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions) If you make modifications or additions to the page you re-use, you must license them under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 or later. For further information, please refer to the legal code of the CC-BY-SA License.

Screenshots, videos, and other Blue Manchu-copyrighted source material may be used by permission from Blue Manchu. Content from external sources may have additional attribution requirements beyond what is described on this page.

Off-wiki content (for example, e-mails and other forms of communication) is not necessarily released under this license unless otherwise stated.

Do not post policy

Vandalism policy

This is the definition of vandalism for the purposes of this policy:

1. Removing valid content without explanation or an explanation that makes no sense.
2. Items listed in the Do not post policy.
3. Pretending to remove other vandalism content in order to prevent cleaning. This includes minor edits or minor removals while leaving a bulk of unwanted content ("spam"), but making a comment as if you removed the unwanted content.

Cleaning vandalism

An act of vandalism can be removed or reverted with only a comment in the edit summary identifying the type of vandalism (usually spam, unexplained deletes, etc.). Disagreement with the edit should be posted in the related discussion page.

Blocking vandals

Blocking by an admin will occur after the first known act of vandalism, vandals will be indefinitely blocked with no reprieve whatsoever. This site maintains a no-nonsense policy against all acts of vandalism as the target audience encompasses minors. For reference you can look at the log of users who have been blocked.

Appealing a block

You may appeal a by e-mailing an administrator (or other direct method to contact the admin if it is available)