The goal of the Ecological Data Wiki is to provide an open forum for accessing and working with data. We hope that much of the data and documentation found here will be easily accessible and freely available for use; however, that will not always be the case. We provide a list of guidelines to follow when contributing and working with the dataset pages to avoid unnecessary conflict with reuse.
Be aware of copyright and reuse limitations. Text, images, and data found on the internet are NOT freely available by default. Before use, be sure to clearly understand the copyright conditions and licensing terms of the information you intend to reuse. When in doubt, assume that information is NOT available for reuse. Wikipedia provides great documentation of these issues HERE. When availble, chose public domain and Creative Commons information before non-free content or be sure to obtain permission when necessary.
Clearly describe the copywrite of any new information you provide. We strongly urge you to use established Creative Commons Licensing or clearly acknowledge your information exists in the public domain. Creative Commons differs from public domain information in that the reuse requires acknowledgement of source and attribution to the original authors.
Clearly cite and attribute non-original information. When directly quoting text from an outside source please clearly mark the text with quoatation marks and cite the author and location of the original text (Wikipedia notes). Paraphrasing is encouraged, with adequate citation, to digest and improve the understanding of information as it relates to data reuse.
Use 'Fair Use' sparingly and only when absolutely necessary. 'Fair Use' describes the instance where copyrighted material is reused without permission from the original author under conditions that could be considered acceptable. Fair use only applies as a defense for copyright infrigement and should be USED WITH EXTREME CAUTION. Notable fair use conditions include research or education purposes, significant changes to orinigal work (i.e., paraphrasing & thumbnails), non-commercial uses, and lack of infrigement on moentary gain for the original author.