Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations

Contributor copyright investigations

Contributor copyright investigations (CCI) is a process for identifying users who have repeatedly committed copyright violations over long periods of time and review their contributions for any remaining issues. A CCI begins when an editor notices a large-scale pattern of copyright violations from a user and files a case request. Administrators or copyright clerks review the request and may open a full survey of their contributions, which will be reviewed and removed if suspected or confirmed to be a copyright violation. CCI is intended for large-scale systematic copyright violations only. Persistent unattributed copying within Wikipedia or from compatibly licensed sources and translations from sister projects may also be raised here. To list individual articles or files for evaluation, see Wikipedia:Copyright problems or Wikipedia:Files for discussion; however, attempting resolution is not required prior to filing a CCI request. When and how should a CCI be started? At least five instances of clear copyvios (copy/pasting of unlicensed third party material; clear derivative works) is required to file a case. More may be required for issues like copying within Wikipedia or plagiarism from free sources. There are no other requirements for filing a CCI request, but listing diffs, sources, and warnings clearly and concisely is recommended. New cases should be filed by placing the {{subst:CCI-request}} underneath the requests header below. {{subst:CCI-request |user = the user subject to the CCI |evidence = your reasoning for opening the case }} Please remember to remain civil. Most contributors violate copyright policies due to misunderstandings rather than malicious intent. While it may be necessary to intervene to prevent future copyright issues, treating individuals discourteously is unhelpful. Good faith requests are welcome even if they should prove mistaken. However, this is a serious allegation and should not be made without evidence. Requests without evidence may be interpreted as harassment and will be removed by administrators or clerks. After submitting a case, please notify the contributor by adding {{subst:CCI-notice}} ~~~~ to the bottom of their talk page. It is not necessary to notify individuals who are currently blocked for copyright infringement, even if temporarily. Review of CCI requests Simplified flowchart Further information: Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Instructions A CCI clerk or admin will review the request and determine if a full case is needed based off of the evidence presented, responses by the editor subject to a request, and their own brief survey. Clerks may request that an administrator review deleted contributions where necessary. If the evidence does not substantiate the concern, the CCI request will be declined, and then archived. If a user has requested evaluation of your contributions here, please remember that the purpose of CCI is not to harass or embarrass you, but to keep Wikipedia compliant with copyright laws. If you believe that your contributions are not a copyright problem under Wikipedia's policies, please succinctly provide your rationale. If the user who made the request is proven mistaken, the request will be declined with a note. However, if a case is opened, you may best demonstrate your willingness to comply with Wikipedia's copyright policies by helping to identify and address the copyright issues you have caused. Accepted cases Upon accepting a case, a clerk or admin will create the appropriate contributor survey subpage and then populate the contribution data. If contributors have been proven to have a history of extensive copyright violation, it may be assumed without further evidence that all of their major contributions are copyright violations, and thus removed indiscriminately, in accordance with our copyright violation policy. CCI tries to avoid significant collateral damage and generally reviews each article carefully, but presumptive wholesale removal is used if the effort required to review is much higher than reasonably expected. To participate in cases, follow the link of one of the open cases. All contributors with no outstanding history of copyright problems are welcome to contribute to clean up, and users who are listed here are encouraged to help clean up their own materials. Users subject to a CCI will not receive notices of articles or images that are deleted or blanked for copyright concerns during the investigation. The {{y}} and {{n}} templates are used to confirm whether the edit was a copyright issue. The {{?}} template is used to indicate that the edit has already been either deleted or completely rewritten, and therefore not worth the effort. Upon completion, the CCI case will be archived.

Requests

Please add all requests at the bottom of the list below, following the format given at How should a case be filed? above. A copyright clerk or administrator will review your request, according to the instructions, then either open the case or decline it.

SecondLooneyaccount

• SecondLooneyaccount (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
• Check requested by BluePenguin18 🐧 ( 💬 )
• In July 2021, DanCherek warned this user about the addition of copyrighted content to Draft:The Fairly OddParents (2022 TV series), though the draft has been deleted and Dan's message did not specify what the violation entailed. In January 2022, Onel5969 nominated List of Nailed It! episodes for speedy deletion under criterion G12 for copying episode descriptions from Netflix. This user accepted that the descriptions were copied, agreeing to remove them to avoid speedy deletion. In July 2023, Belbury reverted this user's attempt to change the infobox image at High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season 4 to an unlicensed image, which has since been deleted. While New Page Patrolling today, I found that the lead sections of Step Class (Abbott Elementary) and Open House (Abbott Elementary) were both copied by this user in late April 2024 from the official episode descriptions found on Hulu and Rotten Tomatoes and am writing unique replacements. This user has also been warned against copying text from other Wikipedia pages without edit summary attribution in November 2021 and February 2022, and uploaded File:Schitts Creek S1poster.jpg, File:Schitts Creek S2poster.jpg, File:Schitts Creek S3poster.jpg, and File:Schitts Creek S6poster.jpg without a non-free media use rationale (ultimately provided by Salavat). I am raising this case because the documented instances of copyright infringement have occurred over a multi-year span and the user is still active. BluePenguin18 🐧 ( 💬 ) 17:42, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

Ramblersen2

• Ramblersen2 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
• Check requested by Fram (talk)
• The autopatrolled editor has more than 100,000 edits across their accounts (User:Ramblersen was the first). They have received some copyvio warnings over the years, the most recent one in January 2022 from user:Diannaa. Their copyright violations seem to have remained undetected because they were translations, which don't get picked up by our tools. I removed a partial copyvio from their most recent contribution Arnold Eugen Reimann (landowner), and upon further checking found (next to instances of close paraphrasing) blatant copyvios in other very recent contributions like The Iron Foundry, Burmeister & Wain and Kronborg Tapestries, which I nominated for speedy deletion. But as copyright violations also seemed to appear further down his list of contributions (e.g. in Simon Aron Eibeschütz, the "Personal life and legacy" section, is in parts identical to the text of the source[1]) a CCI seemed the way to go. I also would suggest that their Autopatrolled right should be revoked, because of the copyvios and because of very sloppy writing (highlighted in my comments on their talk page as well). Fram (talk) 09:53, 31 May 2024 (UTC) Fram (talk) 09:53, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
• I checked further, and the copyvios seem to be going back a long time, judging from Johan Daniel Herholdt (physician) from December 2023 which has a long literal copy of the Google translated version of the source. Fram (talk) 11:44, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

Vaoverland

• Vaoverland (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
• Check requested by Mackensen (talk)
• Vaoverland was a prolific user in the early days of Wikipedia. He passed away in 2011. Investigation has identified five articles created in 2004 which were substantially copyright violations from the moment of creation:

• Chesapeake and Ohio Railway: copied from this page from the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society
• Florida East Coast Railway: copied from this page from the Flagler Museum.
• Southern Railway (U.S.): copied from this page from the Southern Railway Historical Association.

• DrOrinScrivello (talk · contribs) has identified two others (Sewell's Point and Battle of Hampton Roads) and I'll let them supply the details. Mackensen (talk) 00:59, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
  • As Mackensen mentioned, Sewell's Point has a large section copied from this page (Vaoverland's initial version, which is still visible in the page history, was copied from other sites as well, but most has been gradually removed from the article over time), and Battle of Hampton Roads is largely copied from this site. These are just two that I found in some quick searching; unfortunately the user was quite prolific around this time, so I'm worried there's much more. DrOrinScrivello (talk) 13:51, 20 June 2024 (UTC)
  • Upon further inspection, it looks like Battle of Hampton Roads is a false positive; that page copied from us. Also, I did some more looking at Vaoverland's contributions after those mentioned above, and I'm less sure that there's a persistent issue. I'll let someone more experienced in these matters than me decide, however. DrOrinScrivello (talk) 16:28, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Deisenbe

• Deisenbe (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
• Check requested by MER-C
• Editor has received multiple copyright warnings on their talk page, some handwritten (e.g. [2][3], note some other instances have had permission cleared). After investigating another matter, I came across [4], which was copied from https://eu.tallahassee.com/story/news/2014/02/05/neamathla-led-tribe-near-lake-lafayette/5218971/. I am concerned that there is more lurking in their 76000+ edits. MER-C 18:23, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
• I haave 76,000 edits. There have been a few mistakes. This measure is intended for "large-scale systematic copyright violations only". My violations are neither large-scale nor systematic. deisenbe (talk) 14:56, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

Selfstudier

• Selfstudier (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
• Check requested by GreenLipstickLesbian (talk)
• User has been warned several times by multiple users for copyright violations([5][6][7][8][9][10]) and copying from compatibly licensed sources/CWW without attribution([11][12]). To their credit, they have gotten a lot better at attribution with respect to CWW issues.

Violations that I have found today, after spot checking ten of their recent contributions:

• [13] contains text copied from [14]
• [15] contains text copied from [16]
• [17] contains text copied from [18]
• [19] contains text copied from [20], but you can just look at the quote they included in the ref.
• [21] contains text copied from [22] GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 09:48, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

I fixed 3 of those vios above, the other 2 are not in the articles anymore afaics.

Re the warnings, 4 of them are between 2018 and 2020, the fifth was mistaken, the material was in quotes with inline attribution and the person giving the warning reverted it, which I then restored and subsequently instead the editor changed his complaint to one of the quote being too long, which I don't think it was. Just the usual back and forth editing for an ongoing current event.

That leaves the recent June warning, which I confess was a screwup on my part. If you look back in 2023, I was editing this article frequently from the same source (periodic UN OCHA updates) with no problems and then the Gaza war intervened so I stopped doing that. Then in June, OCHA resumed reporting as it had done previously but with some format and other changes so I thought to resume editing as previously. What I was intending to do was to copy the relevant material out to the article and then use it like a sandbox (I know, bad...) to get the new information into the same way I was doing it in 2023. My mistake, won't happen again. Selfstudier (talk) 17:30, 12 July 2024 (UTC)

Open investigations

Only clerks or administrators should add or remove listings in this section. Proposed investigations should be listed in the section above. All contributors with no history of copyright problems are welcome to contribute to clean up. Additionally, contributors listed are encouraged to contribute to clean up of their own materials. New listings should mention the date they were opened, and listed in the order they are opened. Overview of rough stats here with Firefly's bot.

Case	Date	Notes
Hauganm	31 July 2011	Sweden, Norway, biographies
20111004	04 October 2011	aviation
Ironboy11	09 October 2011	Pakistan
SasiSasi	18 October 2011	copyright
Borsoka	23 October 2011	Eastern Europe
20111108	8 November 2011	text
Tiamut	11 March 2012	Middle East
20120412	12 April 2012	energy
Marcus334	19 April 2012	India, environment
Anglo Pyramidologist	6 June 2012	miscellaneous
Judgesurreal777	23 June 2012	pop culture
YHoshua	10 August 2012	Indiana
Striver	4 September 2012	Islam
Hyperionsteel	10 October 2012	Canada
Proudbolsahye	21 December 2012	Armenia
IWannaABillionaire	29 January 2013	popular culture
Tobyc75	13 February 2013	Switzerland
Snigdhasinghsweet	20 February 2013	India
Rosser1954	04 March 2013	Scotland
Hantsheroes	17 March 2013	Canada
Tamravidhir	25 March 2013	India
20130330	30 March 2013	philosophy
BhagyaMani	19 April 2013	wildlife
Gunkarta	10 June 2013	Indonesia
Arrwiki	17 June 2013	Indian films
20130819	20 August 2013	Military
Degen Earthfast	5 September 2013	Military
20130908	8 September 2013	geology, paleontology, biology
Zictor23	19 September 2013	Politics
FreshCorp619	14 October 2013	Schools
America789	31 October 2013	Military
Buster40004	31 October 2013	Military
DrMicro	13 November 2013	medicine
Aetheling1125	9 December 2013	British history
Premkudva	20 December 2013	India
Purrum	15 January 2014	Australian Football
20140127	27 January 2014	Biographies
Nehapant19	18 February 2014	India
Dante8	27 March 2014	feminism
$1LENCE D00600D	17 April 2014	American military history
Norden1990	25 April 2014	Hungary
DendroNaja	17 May 2014	snakes, crime
GordyB	1 June 2014	Rugby
Trident13	22 July 2014	Britain
Superzohar	10 August 2014	Russia
Kprtqrf06	16 August 2014	Canadian military history
Zozo2kx	23 August 2014	Syria
Lactasamir	27 August 2014	Europe
Skoojal	6 September 2014	philosophy, LGBT
Gryffindor	16 October 2014	various
El Cazangero	17 October 2014	various
20141020	20 October 2014	Native American history
Mztourist	29 October 2014	military
DocOfSoc	22 November 2014	California
Wysinger	1 December 2014	Jazz
Ajdebre	5 December 2014	Serbia
ProfReader	1 January 2015	South Carolina
Hahc21	18 January 2015	music
BiggestSataniaFangirl89	21 March 2015	History
Rick570	2 April 2015	New Zealand, Christian brothers
Headhitter	15 April 2015	Biographies, music, churches
Grunners	17 August 2015	Europe, railways
Oanabay04	25 August 2015	US railways and popular media
20150927	27 September 2015	Nigeria
20151115	15 November 2015	American history
Coldcreation	15 November 2015	Art
Koala15	15 November 2015	Film
20151212	12 December 2015	Ireland, TV shows
Aldebaran69	22 May 2017	unattributed translations about royalty
Nannadeem	23 May 2017	Pakistan, Islam
Faedra	23 May 2017	Nobility
Josephlalrinhlua786	23 May 2017	Film
Ahendra	23 May 2017	Islamic and other history
Helena Bx	24 May 2017	South Asian history
CJojoC	22 September 2017	Korean movies
20171031	31 October 2017	India
Jwratner1	1 December 2017	Earth
20180325	25 March 2018	Women and other minorities in history
Tanbircdq	22 August 2018	Asia
Sayerslle	11 September 2018	Politics and arthouse films
Nauriya	11 September 2018	Film and TV
20150507	11 September 2018	Animals and Cricket
Edelmand	11 September 2018	Britain and Led Zeppelin
Rochelimit	11 September 2018	Indonesian architecture
Hogie75	11 September 2018	Canadian geography
Mahussain06	11 September 2018	Boxing
Dunks58	11 September 2018	Australia, Milesago.com
20190125	25 January 2019	American military
MatteoNL97	24 July 2019	Cigarettes and motorcycles
Contaldo80	24 July 2019	Homosexuality and religion
Dead.rabbit	24 July 2019	Bangladesh BLPs
Flooded with them hundreds	24 July 2019	Music
20190724	24 July 2019	Unattributed NASA copies
Favre1fan93	24 July 2019	Superhero media
20190724a	24 July 2019	Terrorism in India
Kailash29792	26 December 2019	Indian cinema
Dutchy85	26 December 2019	Old films and TV
20200212	12 February 2020	Aviation and transport
20200411	11 April 2020	India: Assam
Georgiano	22 May 2020	Caucasus history
Dhollm	19 July 2020	Science
Snickers2686	21 July 2020	American politics
ZarhanFastfire	29 July 2020	Canadian art
Isinbill	22 August 2020	Ethnic groups and Mexico
Veillg1	2 September 2020	Machine translations, Quebec
Lmmnhn	7 September 2020	Hong Kong
Kiraroshi1976	16 September 2020	American culture and movies
20201008	8 October 2020	Britain
20201108	8 November 2020	Royalty and foreign arthouse films
20201122	22 November 2020	The Middle East and technology
Comhar	27 November 2020	Ireland
Greenock125	30 November 2020	Songs
Sengkang	7 December 2020	Singapore geography
211.237.125.110	7 December 2020	Japan
ZaDoraemonzu	7 December 2020	International relations
Ssolbergj	24 December 2020	The EU and Europe
JoeScarce	9 January 2021	Catholicism and news
20210111	11 January 2021	Britain
Shootingstar88	26 January 2021	Sexuality
20210126a	26 January 2021	Books and art pop
20210126b	26 January 2021	Film
20210127	27 January 2021	Nigeria
20210127c	27 January 2021	Alcohol
Backendgaming	28 January 2021	Asia, music, and news
20210128	28 January 2021	Indian cinema
20210206	6 February 2021	Guyana
Manannan51	15 February 2021	Catholic
TheriusRooney	4 March 2021	Motoring
Troy86	12 March 2021	Brazil
20210314	14 March 2021	Austrialia, world history
20210315	15 March 2021	Misc. american history
Kahsiav	16 March 2021	India
Vvven	22 March 2021	Ibero-America
20210410	10 April 2021	Tamil movies
Amshpatten	16 April 2021	Indian history and culture
20210418	18 April 2021	Military history
Lg16spears	24 April 2021	Movies and TV shows
BornonJune8	25 April 2021	American sports and TV
Verosaurus	30 April 2021	Ships
Rockysantos	11 May 2021	Portugal
20210531	31 May 2021	World history
LupEnd007	4 June 2021	Rap music
20210813	13 August 2021	India- Kollam
Bluecountrymutt	26 August 2021	US Air Force
Elan Morin Tedronai	2 October 2021	Science fiction, fantasy and music
Enthusiast01	13 October 2021	Australia, world events
20211022	22 October 2021	European biographies
DaWulf2013	31 October 2021	US military regiments
Werldwayd	6 November 2021	Music
20211117	17 November 2021	Hinduism
20211215	15 December 2021	Indian history
MWD115	26 January 2022	Unattributed translations
BOZ	1 February 2022	Table top games and video games
Shadowwarrior8	14 February 2022	Islam
Qualitatis	20 February 2022	Israel, Palestine
JShanley98	20 February 2022	Movies
Harshhussey	20 February 2022	Cricket
Ashim nep	20 February 2022	Nepal
Ewf9h-bg	4 March 2022	Ancient society
Friedjof	4 March 2022	German biographies
DeltaSquad833	4 March 2022	Ships
Rtkat3	25 April 2022	Comics
TDKR Chicago 101	15 June 2022	Biographies and Chicago
20220623	23 June 2022	Cuba
20220731	31 July 2022	Bangladesh and Indian films
Nicholas0	1 September 2022	Film
Suslindisambiguator	24 September 2022	Science biographies
20221001	1 October 2022	Translations
J Bar	23 October 2022	Australian media
20221029	29 October 2022	The Bible
Takhellei	30 October 2022	Manipur films
Chinakpradhan	5 January 2023	Spaceflight
20230110	10 January 2023	Sikhs
Profile101	11 February 2023	Transport
SuperSwift	12 February 2023	Nigerian history and government
20230303	3 March 2023	Sustainability
SGT141	8 May 2023	US police
20230508	8 May 2023	Afghan military history
Sittaconde	8 June 2023	Sierra Leone
Chamaemelum	21 July 2023	Science and genetics
Zackmann08	21 July 2023	Fires and firefighting
Peripatetic	12 August 2023	Biographies
20230813	13 August 2023	Australian music
20230831	31 August 2023	Diving and South Africa
20230909	9 September 2023	Australia
1Sire	22 October 2023	Music
Gilabrand	3 November 2023	Israel
20231125	25 November 2023	Botany
Piledhigheranddeeper	19 December 2023	USA history
Hadden	13 January 2024	USA history
FuzzyMagma	13 January 2024	Middle East
Cs california	13 January 2024	Plants
OcelotHod	13 January 2024	Films
20240203	3 February 2024	Mathematics
Gre regiment	2 March 2024	Greece, Turkey
20240428	28 April 2024	Veterinary medicine
Opus88888	3 May 2024	Latin American music
20240707	7 July 2024	Israeli archeology
20240708	8 July 2024	Iran
Rjdeadly	11 July 2024	Roman history
Broadmoor	18 July 2024	US college sports
Zeorymer	21 July 2024	Portuguese heritage
Colman2000	31 July 2024	Texas
20240901	1 September 2024	Species
Skitash	9 September 2024	Middle East
Kippelboy	1 October 2024	Catalan BLPs
DrPlantGenomics	9 November 2024	STEM
Mladifilozof	30 November 2024	Yugoslavia
20241213	13 December 2024	US Sports
20241214	13 December 2024	Tamil TV

Declined requests and Closed investigations

All closed and declined investigations can be found at Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Archive.

Templates and tools

CCI specific templates

See Category:Wikipedia contributor copyright investigations templates.

• {{CCI}}: placed on article talk pages to note cleanup
• {{CCId}}: placed on article talk pages when it has been tagged presumptively for deletion review in one week
• {{CCI-notice}} to notify contributors of a new listing
• {{CCI-project}} to notify a project of a CCI with which they may help
• {{CCI project update}} to notify a project that a CCI has been completed
• {{CCI update}} to notify people who have assisted in a CCI that it is finished.
• {{CCI-subject}} to notify contributors that their CCI is finished.
• {{CCI-request}} to request new investigations
• {{CCI-open}} to denote open CCI requests, this template should only be used by a clerk or administrator

Other useful copyright and attribution templates

• {{Source-attribution}} to attribute public domain content (either at end of articles or for references)
• {{Text release}} for placing on talk pages of articles that contain content that was under a free license, but the source no longer states it as such
• {{CC-notice}} to attribute content licensed under a Creative Commons license
• {{Copyvio}} for listing an article at WP:Copyright problems
• {{Copyvios}} and {{CVD}} provides link to Earwig's copyvio detector report of an inputted diff

Tools

• Earwig's Copyright Violation Detector (Option: Use this link to install directly into your Tools menu)
• mw:Who Wrote That? to determine the writers of an article
• User:Enterprisey/cv-revdel for quickly applying a {{copyvio-revdel}} template to pages
• Wikipedia:Deputy for assisted processing of CCI cases
  • Wikipedia:Deputy/Attribution Notice Template Editor to modify a page's {{copied}}, {{backwards copy}}, {{translated page}}, etc. templates
  • Wikipedia:Deputy/Infringement Assistant to help with filing copyright problems entries.
• Copyright tables at Commons Helpful to determine whether copied text/images are public domain in the United States. Note: copied works/images published outside of the United States must be PD in the United States.
• US Copyright (register/renewal) Helpful to determine alongside Hirtle Chart above to determine whether books are PD in USA.
• MER-C's contribution surveyor - works on a maximum of 10,000 non-minor mainspace edits. Ping MER-C for larger edit counts
• WP:Compatible licence Helpful to determine which Creative Commons licenses are usable on English Wikipedia

Statistics