How to reuse Commons media files

In order to find certain media files on Wikimedia Commons, you can search an entire category, or see if a gallery page for your subject exists. Commons has fewer pages than Wikipedia has articles, but does have a number of gallery pages, such as forBicycle,Lake, manyNational Parks, plant species, and animals, that can make searching or linking easier. You can add a link from a Wikimedia Commons gallery page to a Wikipedia article where the collection would be more appropriate than a single media file.

If you want to reuse Wikimedia Commons media files outside Wikimedia projects, you are welcome to do so. However, keep some very important points in mind:

• Unlike traditional media repositories, Wikimedia Commons isfree. Everyone is allowed to copy, use and modify any files here freely for any purpose including commercial onesas long as the source and the authors are credited and, in many cases, as long as you release your copies/improvements under the same freedom to others.

• The Wikimedia Commons database itself and the texts in it are licensed under theCC-BY-SA and theGNU Free Documentation License. The license conditions of each individual media file can be found on their description pages.

• However, be aware that we cannot guarantee the correctness of the information given on each file. So please verify on your own the license conditions given on the media file you want to use.

• More detailed information on usage conditions can be found atCommons:Licensing.

In general, to embed a Wikimedia Commons media file in Wikipedia or anotherWikimedia wiki, just include it in the same way as if it were to be stored locally there.^{[clarification needed]}To include an image in a page, use for example a link in the form (standard usage shown):

[[Image:file.jpg|thumb|descriptive text]]

To include a sound, you can choose between two possibilities if the{{Audio}} template is present in your local wiki (otherwise you can use the first method):

[[Media:file.ogg|descriptive text]]

{{Audio|Filename-without-namespace|descriptive text}}

Further details can be found at theimages help page on MediaWiki, atWikipedia image markup page, atWikipedia picture tutorial and atCommons:Video#Video usage.

Main page:Commons:Reusing content outside Wikimedia

Wikimedia Commons files can be embedded in third-party MediaWiki installs by using these MediaWikisettings. This feature is known asInstantCommons.

You are always welcome to download files you are interested in for reuse, as long as you follow thelicense conditions provided alongside the files. This means you should credit the author as described on the file's page and if possible link to the file on Wikimedia Commons.

Wikimedia Commons pages:

• Commons:Media help for solving problems on watching media files
• Commons:Pronunciation files requests andCommons:List of audio templates for the Wikipedias for embedding of audio files into Wikipedia
• Commons:Reusing content outside Wikimedia

MediaWiki handbook:

• Images and other uploaded files

• Commons help