Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not for sale
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Jimmy Wales @jimmy_walesReplying to @LevineJonathan
Not for sale.
December 7, 2022[1]
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Wikipedia is not for sale. Wikipedia is a non-commercial website run by the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in San Francisco. We are not looking to be acquired by the highest bidder. Our mission is to create a free online encyclopedia that anyone can access and contribute to.
Funding
editWikipedia is funded primarily by donations and grants. It does not charge for access nor offer any paid subscription services. If you're looking to acquire a profitable company to diversify your business portfolio, or if you're thinking of trying to save an indebted company from bankruptcy, Wikipedia isn't it. See Wikipedia:Fundraising statistics.
Ownership of content
editBuying Wikipedia doesn't mean you own the content in Wikipedia's articles. Because all text on Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, content remain under the copyright of the editors that contributed them. Wikipedia's articles may be freely reused anywhere—even for commercial purposes—provided the original contributors are properly attributed and that any modifications are also under the same license. See Wikipedia:Copyrights.
Wikipedia's articles are built collaboratively by the community. No one editor owns any particular article, and there is no centralized editorial board managing all our content. Wikipedia articles can be edited by anyone, and the community—not a single editor—determines through consensus whether articles are kept or removed. See Wikipedia:Ownership of content.
If you disagree with how Wikipedia is run...
editDisagreement is a normal part of the human experience. On Wikipedia, we resolve disagreements through discussion and consensus, not by throwing money at the problem or scoring other means of gaining power. If you still disagree with consensus, it's more productive to move on and accept the decision, rather than trying to buy out the website. See Wikipedia:Dispute resolution.
Still interested in buying Wikipedia?
editIf, despite all of the above, you still want to make an offer to purchase Wikipedia for yourself, see Help:Buying Wikipedia for our current listed sale price!
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Jimmy Wales [@jimmy_wales] (December 7, 2022). "Not for sale" (Tweet) – via Twitter.