Wikipedia:Precautionary principle

This is an explanatory essay about the the Wikipedia:Copyrights policy. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

Because Wikipedia is a free content encyclopedia, files and text are expected to be freely licensed. The precautionary principle is that – with the exception of acceptable non-free content – where there is significant doubt about the freedom of particular content, it should be deleted. External links to copyright violations should be removed.

Also, arguments that amount to "we can get away with it", such as the following, are against Wikipedia's aims:

1. "The copyright owner will not bother to sue or cannot afford to."
2. "The copyright owner will never find out."
3. "The copyright owner will not mind/should be pleased that we have disseminated their work."
4. "Nobody knows who the copyright owner is, so it really doesn’t matter."
5. "It is obviously common property. It can be found all over the internet and nobody has complained."