Can I use Wikipedia's articles for my own Wikipedia?

Question

So I've started my own Wikipedia, and was wondering if I can use other Wikipedia articles in my encyclopedia. Wikipedia and most other wikipedia-clones use the GNU Free documentation license. Anybody know anything about this? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You can do it, and be sure to license those copies under the GFDL and/or CC-by-SA (which aims to preserve the freedom of redistribution of the content while maintaining credit for the author/s).



Most content is licensed under GFDL, but the content is about to be relicensed under CC-by-SA by late June 2009. Be sure to follow Wikipedia's licensing standards, and you'll be safe from complaints of copyright violations.

Answer 2

Yes you can.



Make sure you link to GFDL copy from your site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_Licence



If you want the complete history of the article then use extension Special:Export; then import it on your wiki from Special:Import

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Export



or just copy-paste the text and list the original contributors in the edit summary or talk page of the article on your wiki.

Answer 3

...i think you can but you need to rephrase it...because if you just copy and paste it to your own wikipedia..you will violate the 6th rule in the Ten commandments of computer ethics

Answer 4

You can do that. Make sure that you cite the links that you took from.