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Almost all of the multimedia content hosted on Wikipedia may be freely reused subject to certain restrictions. You do not need to obtain a specific statement of permission for using the content unless you wish to use the work under different terms than the license states.

Content under open content licenses may be reused without any need to contact the creator, but just keep in mind that:

  • some licenses require that the original creator be attributed;
  • some licenses require that the specific license be identified when reusing (including, in some cases, stating or linking to the terms of the license);
  • some licenses require that if you modify the work, your modifications must also be similarly freely licensed; and finally,
  • While the copyright and licensing information supplied for each image is believed to be accurate, the Wikimedia Foundation does not provide any warranty regarding the copyright status or correctness of licensing terms. If you decide to reuse files from the Commons, you should verify the copyright status of each image just as you would when obtaining images from other sources.