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Simply, I need some countries, states and cities names in some certain orders (eg. according to population). I just search and find articles from wikipedia, for example: Lists of cities from the country X, which has some cities of that country ordered according to population. Now, I might just use the name and location of cities/states that I choose according to some of the information presented about them (the cities/states) in wikipedia.

So, what do I have to do to use these data in a form drop-down list ( tag)?

Do I still have to attribute and make this data public and free to use somehow? I think these data will be modified somehow, especially the language and the way of display. I'm not going to copy the comparison table, instead I'm using the city properties, not presenting them.

user
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Omar
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1 Answers1

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Do I still have to attribute and make this data public and free to use somehow? I

If the original license requires that, sure, you principally have to do that.

As the original license allows you to do modifications, e.g. removing large parts, it does not make much of a difference whether or not you do modifications. So making modifications - as you do - does not change much about it.

Depending on the area of law you act in, there can be some difference of how the work in the sense of a database is treated that you copy over.

In some countries of the world for example this falls below copyright already.

In some other countries of the world, the plain facts like the name of country and it's population can not be copyrighted at all.

In your case you might just want to leave a link to wikipedia and name the works you have made use of at your website's credit page. If you do not have a credits page yet, create it or make it a section of your contact / legal page.

However I am not your lawyer so this is no legal advice. It's just from the point of view of a software author and content contributor to wikipedia.

hakre
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  • +1 to the plain facts statement. However, if they are presented in the same way as those [lists of cities](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_cities), an attribution will be needed because the presentation style falls under the license. – Bergi Aug 04 '12 at 21:28
  • If that was not clear enough in my answer: For simplification, consistency and showing good faith, I would always suggest to give attributions on a credits page. Simple. Just create a credits page, list the works, give attribution. Link authors, link sources, it's hypertext anyway. – hakre Aug 04 '12 at 21:47
  • Yes, that's a good and simple strategy. Also, even when data needs no license, the information is worthless without a reference to the reliable source of it :-) – Bergi Aug 04 '12 at 21:54
  • @hakre Thanks for the help.. So, creating a credits page should be enough.. Choosing as correct answer (well, it's the only answer anyway!). – Omar Aug 05 '12 at 02:57
  • Well, I found in Wikipedia:FAQ/Copyright page: That facts aren't and can't be copyrighted, and I think all I'm doing is using facts, except for the order.. So, I think I'm going to use alphabetical order to pass that. I think I have no problem in adding references/links, the problem is that re-publishing that to the public domain is a bit tricky for me. – Omar Aug 05 '12 at 10:07
  • @OmarKhattab: I do not know where you live, but what you write sounds like US law only. There can be many reasons why you do not need to attribute here, however I can not give you absolution that it is okay in your case to not attribute. If you are that much bound on the legal side that you need to know if it's possible to skip attribution, you need to contact a lawyer on your behalf. Also you might want to read: [Where do I include the copyright notice of someone else's work in my website?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/11070021) – hakre Aug 05 '12 at 10:22