Wikis and copyright

I've always wondered, how do various wikis created for video games manage to skirt around the issues of copyright? For example a wiki might be using icons for armour and weapons from the game, displaying it on their own website thus "distributing" copyrighted content that is not theirs, not to mention also profiting from it from the ads on their sites.

How does that remain legal? Or is it technically not, and the copyright owners simply turn a blind eye to it since it actually benefits them?

 

Educational fair use as detailed by Circular 21. It can be a bit difficult to follow like most legal documents, but essentially it allows limited use of copyrighted works in education and research.

You may also find the Wikipedia non-free guildlines interesting.

 

Legally, what @Ryiah said. Usually most popular games have a wiki. It is built and maintained by fans in support of the game, it isn't competing or attempting to dilute the brand. So technically educational/review purposes as noted in Fair Use. But often, they supported by the developer. For instance the MAA Wiki is entirely fan maintained, but we are in touch with the editors, and have provided them with content/info. I believe they have permission to use our content (though I believe technically they don't need it under fair use). In fact, they do such a good job of maintaining the details of the game that often we start there when looking for info, the fan Wiki is (in some cases), better organized and easier to search than our internal docs. (and often more complete).


Also most of the time copyright owners can't/won't "turn a blind eye". They either will officially allow or give permission or just acknowledge fair use usage. If you selectively ignore infringing content, you lose legal ground to in enforce it. You have to actively and equally protect it. You can selectively give permission, but that is different selectively ignoring infringement.

 

Wikis are mostly beneficial to businesses, and wikis are almost always non-profit.

There wouldn't be much benefit to suing them.

 

Hm, I see. I didn't think a wiki was covered by the 'fair use' exception. But what about 3rd party tools created by fans that sometimes use content from the game? Things like, maybe some kind of crafting helper for an online game, which uses item icons from the game? Are those also covered by fair use, or are do they all get permission first before creating them?

 

Should be fine in most cases, but it's best to check. Some games are openly modable, so those ones are almost certainly fine.

Here's the golden rule: companies really only care if what you're doing is a threat to their revenue.