Under US case law, e.g. Eckes v. Card Prices Update, lists of items that are created entirely or primarily as a result of editorial opinion are subject to copyright protection. This explicitly excludes lists which are derived solely from facts, statistics, or polling data, as only opinion based lists are considered by the courts to have the requisite creativity required for copyright protection under US law.
Consequently, the inclusion of the entirety of such a list solely for the purposes of adding it to Wikipedia will generally constitute a copyright infringment. Excerpts of such lists can be used in Wikipedia under the doctrine of fair use when they are associated with meaningful discussion of the contents of the list, but under typical circumstances, one should never reproduce the entirety of such a list.
The following is a list of lists that appear to be copyright problems.
Problem lists edit
- List of VH1's 100 Greatest Songs from the Past 25 Years
- 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll
- 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock
- Maxim magazine's 20 Most Annoying Songs Ever!
- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll
- List of VH1's 40 Most Awesomely Bad Breakup Songs
- 100 Greatest Songs of Rock 'N' Roll
- 40 Most Awesomely Bad No. 1 Songs
- Blender Magazine's 50 Worst Songs Ever!
- Blender Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born
- See also Blender Magazine's 50 Worst Artists and Blender Magazine's 2005 Loser Of The Year, which were similar copyvios before redirection. -- nae'blis (talk) 17:36, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
- Observer's 50 funniest
- List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
- 1. Has anyone bothered to ask Rolling Stone if they mind? It is worth asking. They might be magnanimous, so adhering to Wikipedia's principle of Assuming Good Faith, would be to at least give Rolling Stone the opportunity to grant us permission. I'd be prepared to write on my own behalf, but I think it better if someone more senior than me do so on behalf of Wikipedia.
- 2. Please do not delete the list or links to the list without first noting the rankings on the individual album pages. The list is copyrighted, but the fact of a ranking is not copyrighted, only the compilation as a list. Hu 20:03, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
- 1. Has anyone bothered to ask Rolling Stone if they mind? It is worth asking. They might be magnanimous, so adhering to Wikipedia's principle of Assuming Good Faith, would be to at least give Rolling Stone the opportunity to grant us permission.
- 2. Please do not delete the list or links to the list without first noting the rankings on the individual guitarists pages. The list is copyrighted, but the fact of a ranking is not copyrighted, only the compilation as a list. Hu 20:03, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
- List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
- Rolling Stone's list of the 50 Moments that Changed Rock and Roll
- List of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Album Covers
- 100 Top Celebrities
- List of Wall Street Journal's 50 women to watch in 2005
- List of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century
- List of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2005
- List of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2004
- World Almanac's Ten Most Influential People of the Second Millennium
- List of TV Guide's Top 50 Greatest Shows of All Time
- List of Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time
- Arthur C. Clarke's list of the best science fiction films
- Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Albums of The 1970s
- Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Albums of The 1980s
- Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Albums of The 1990s
- Talkers magazine's 25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of All Time
- Talkers magazine's 25 Greatest Television Talk Show Hosts of All Time
- CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music
- The World's 10 Worst Dictators
- List of Roger Ebert's Great Movies
- Roger Ebert's Top 10 Lists
- Roger Ebert's most hated films
- Sight and Sound Top Ten Films
- Vatican Film List
- A&E's Biography of the Millennium
Here's another:
- World's Most Livable Cities Pilatus 17:44, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
- This is a proposterous thing to claim. The list is widely reported in the press, and referenced in other Wikipedia articles. How come you jump up and down as soon as the more significant Economist (EIU) list is added to the existing, less recognised Mercer Human Resource Management list? --Couttsie 18:05, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
- Raul's 4th Law, anyone? Can we stop the indignant name-calling and start addressing the concerns regarding lists "created entirely or primarily as a result of editorial opinion", because this is one of those lists. Pilatus 18:14, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
- This is a proposterous thing to claim. The list is widely reported in the press, and referenced in other Wikipedia articles. How come you jump up and down as soon as the more significant Economist (EIU) list is added to the existing, less recognised Mercer Human Resource Management list? --Couttsie 18:05, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
- I agree with the deletion of all these lists as copyright violations, they are creative editorial works--nixie 04:37, 10 February 2006 (UTC)