So a Client Asked: "What are the legal rules regarding using stuff from Wikipedia in a new publication?

My client, an editor working on book project for a large Association, noted that a number of the contributors used chunks of material obtained from Wikipedia. Notwithstanding the wisdom of trusting publicly-sourced content from Wikipedia, can you use info you find there in your work? Yes, for the most part you can. When someone contributes to Wikipedia, they must agree to license the work under the Creative Commons license or GNU Free Documentation license. Under these licenses, you can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercially. What they ask of you: you must give appropriate credit. Also, you must “share alike”—you can’t claim copyright yourself for that material taken from an open license even if you “remixed, transformed or built” upon the material. When using material found on Wikipedia, include a hyperlink or URL to the article or to “an alternative, stable online copy that is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on the Project website.” Granted, listing a URL in a print document is cumbersome and distracting, but attribution is important according to the Wikipedia terms of use.

*This post is meant to provide general legal information and is not meant to address any specific legal issue or provide legal advice.