AVirginian

Hello, AVirginian, and Welcome to Wikipedia! Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or or by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Also, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:30, 2 October 2011 (UTC) Getting started Introduction The five pillars of Wikipedia How to edit a page Intuitive guide to Wikipedia Finding your way around Table of contents Department directory Editing articles How to develop an article Manual of Style Getting help Frequently asked questions Cheatsheet Where to ask a question Help pages New contributors' help page Article Wizard – a Wizard to help you create articles How you can help Contributing to Wikipedia Community Portal Follow Wikipedia etiquette Practice civility

Copyright problems: Annefield (Saxe, Virginia)

Welcome to Wikipedia, and thank you for all the work you've done on this article. Unfortunately, there is a major problem with it in regards to our copyright policies. Wikipedia is not permitted to host copyrighted text or content closely derived from copyrighted text unless the copyright holder releases the material into the public domain or under a license that is compatible with our site. (See Wikipedia:Copy-paste.) While US government authored works are automatically public domain, this is not the case for the descriptions of historic buildings submitted to the National Register of Historic Buildings. Some time back, we wrote to their office to confirm this, as unfortunately this is not the first time that an article has been built from text on one of their forms.

In order to include this text, we will need verification of license from the form preparer and presumptive copyright owner, W. Scott Smith, managing partner of HistoryTech (formerly The Antiquaries) in Lynchburg, Va. If by chance you are W. Scott Smith, the procedure for verifying is relatively straightforward; you can read more about it at Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials. Basically, you will simply need to send an email from an address associated with your website ([1]) confirming that you are copyright owner and are releasing it. If you are not Mr. Smith but believe you can obtain his permission, please see Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission for some recommended approaches. If you send in permission or know that Mr. Smith has sent in permission, please put {{OTRS pending}} (curly brackets and all) on Talk:Annefield (Saxe, Virginia).

If permission is not provided for the content, we will very likely have to delete it. We generally allow a week for this process to complete, during which you are welcome to propose alternative text which has been written from scratch by you. The article itself has now been blanked and should not be edited prior to permission, but we have a space where you may work on an alternative: [2]. If you decide to write a new version of the article, please put a note at Talk:Annefield (Saxe, Virginia) stating that you have done so.

If you have any questions, please feel free to come by my talk page by following the "talk" link after my username. Thank you. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 14:30, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your note. I've put the {{OTRS pending}} tag on the article. It would ideally be best for whomever wrote the text to verify the license, although sending it in through Mr. Smith's address would be best. There are two common problems that delay processing these kinds of permissions: (a) if the address that sends them in is not clearly connected to the copyright holder(s), or (b) if the permission does not specifically name a usable license. Unless you also have a website, it will almost certainly be easiest to connect your email to the form if it sent by his domain. :) To eliminate all concerns about not clearly licensing the content, it would be best if Mr. Smith (or you) just complete the form at Wikipedia:Declaration of consent for all enquiries. It's designed to be clear.

If you let me know when you send in the form, I will try to expedite processing. I can access the emails and will see if I can hurry it through the queue. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 17:23, 2 October 2011 (UTC)