Wikipedia:Lyrics and poetry: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 18:01, 29 June 2005

This page documents an English Wikipedia guideline.

Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

[[Category:Wikipedia {{{1}}}s|Lyrics and poetry]]

Lyrics should not generally be submitted to Wikipedia. This is primarily because most songwriters have not released their lyrics under an open content license and therefore their inclusion violates their copyright.

Do not just copy and paste the lyrics - this would be considered a primary source. An encyclopedic article on a song should have an analytical framework that describes the song. Quotations of the song within this analytical framework can fall into the fair use (and fair dealing) provisions within copyright law. However, how much of a song you can quote is open to interpretation.

There are some exceptions however:

Lyrics whose copyright has expired, e.g. Three Blind Mice.
National anthems.

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 There are some exceptions however:
-* There should be no problems in uploading lyrics that are [[copyright expired]], for example ''[[Three Blind Mice]]''. <!-- think of a better (much longer) example -->
+* Lyrics whose copyright has expired, e.g. ''[[Three Blind Mice]]''. <!-- think of a better (much longer) example -->
-* [[National anthems]]. <!-- elaborate why --> If you know the lyrics to a national anthem, putting them on the proper page will be good.''
+* [[National anthems]]. <!-- elaborate why -->
 [[Category:Wikipedia guidelines|{{PAGENAME}}]]