 | This page documents an English Wikipedia content guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Do not add full text works to Wikipedia if they are uncomfortably long or if it is copyrighted. |
Wikipedia is not a mirror of public domain or other primary source material. In Wikipedia articles, quotes of any original texts being discussed should be relevant to the discussion (or illustrative of style) and should be kept to an appropriate length.
- If out of copyright, shorter texts – such as short speeches (the Gettysburg Address), short poems ("Ozymandias"), and short songs (most national anthems) – are usually included in their article. Longer texts are best summarised with the full text placed on Wikisource, or given as an external link.
- If the work is in copyright, then be careful to limit the amount quoted, do not place it on Wikisource, and only link to websites containing it if they have a right to do so. For instance, a band's official site may contain lyrics or videos for one of their songs; these could be linked to, but we must not link to an unauthorized copy of their video on YouTube, or to a site infringing the copyright on their lyrics.