Copyright Policy

The following is for informational purposes and should not be construed as legal advice. If you need legal advice or have specific questions about copyright, copyright ownership, or other intellectual property issues, please contact a lawyer.

Copyright - In General

Copyright protects "original works of authorship" including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. Copyright protection exists from the moment a work is created in a fixed form. The copyright in the work immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright.

You, as copyright owner, own exclusive rights in your copyrighted work: to copy or allow someone else to copy the work; to distribute copies of the work; to create derivative works based on the original (examples of derivative works include translating the work into another language, writing a screenplay based on a novel); to display or perform the work publicly. As copyright owner, you may sell or license all or some of these exclusive rights to someone else. But any transfer of an interest in a copyright must be in writing.

Similarly, if you use all or a portion of another person's copyrighted work without permission, you may be infringing on that owner's rights. If you want to use portions of a work created by another person, you should own the rights or you should obtain written permission. For example, if you write a screenplay based on someone else's novel, you should first have written permission from the copyright owner of the original novel.

What You Can and Can't Do with Other Peoples' Copyrights

Unless you have written permission (a license) from the owner of the copyright, you may only display the content for your own noncommercial personal use. You may not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, publicly display or publicly perform, distribute or create derivative works based on this content (either in whole or in part) unless you have specific permission to do so by the owner of the copyrighted work..

If you are not sure whether your use or your intended use is permissible, please contact an attorney.

Public Domain

There has been a lot of attention recently to copyright and the public domain. Just because a work is freely available does not mean that it is in the public domain. Copyright protection lasts for a limited number of years and, although it is a comparatively long term, copyright protection does not last forever. Works in the public domain are works that you may use without permission. For example, a book published in 1900 would probably now be in the public domain and you could freely use portions of that book.

Determining when a work is in the public domain can be complicated especially since the copyright laws differ from country to country and have been amended a number of times throughout the years. And, even if a work appears to be in the public domain, you should be careful to look for new material that might have been added (a new introduction, new illustrations) and that might be protected..

If you have any doubts about whether a work is in the public domain, please consult with an attorney.

Fair Use

A limited "Fair Use" exception to copyright law in the United States allows you to use a copyrighted work or parts of a copyrighted work without permission of the copyright owner. For example, reporters may use copyrighted works to report news, a commentator may use clips or portions of a copyrighted work in order to write a review of the work, and, in some instances, teachers may use portions of a copyrighted work for educational purposes.

You should be cautious about relying on fair use as a defense, however, because there is no black and white rule that you can apply in deciding whether your use is fair. Generally, a court will apply a four factor test in making a determination of fair use, but there is rarely a clear right or wrong answer.

Since the penalties for copyright infringement can be very expensive, you should consult a lawyer about fair use questions.

Materials Uploaded to IssueLab's Website

Federal copyright law requires that we take down any content that you have uploaded to our website if we are told that it infringes someone else's copyright. If you believe that we have mistakenly taken down content that you uploaded (if you own the copyright or have written permission from the copyright owner), you should inform us of that fact. However, if we learn that you upload infringing material, we reserve the option to terminate your account or take other reasonable action. You could also find yourself facing criminal and civil penalties for copyright infringement.

Form for Take Down Notice (Request for us to remove infringing material)

IssueLab respects the copyrights of others and we ask everyone who uses our services to do the same. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, we want to know. Please provide us with information regarding any infringement or violation at http://www.issuelab.org/notice_and_takedown and we will take the necessary steps to remove your copyrighted work from our website. This form of the take down notice is suggested by the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act which can be found at the US Copyright Office website at http://www.copyright.gov.

Content License from You to IssueLab

Although you retain your copyright in material that you submit or upload to our website, by submitting, posting or displaying your material, you give us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide royalty-free non-exclusive license to copy, reproduce, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute your material on or through our website and our service

If you use our service, you agree to indemnify, hold harmless and defend IssueLab, Inc., its officers, employees, members, agents, and affiliates against any and all claims, suits, losses, damages, costs, fees and expenses resulting from or arising out of any and all violations of this Copyright Policy, including but not limited to any damages, losses, or liabilities whatsoever with respect to damage to any property or loss of any data arising from the possession, use, or operation of our website and our service by you.

IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS STATED HEREIN, PLEASE DO NOT USE OUR WEBSITE.

Choosing to Share Your Copyrighted Material

Our website and service are designed to encourage you to share your research with other members of the nonprofit community. In fact, we are fans of Creative Commons and have decided that all IssueLab-generated content is subject to a Creative Commons license. However, since there is no way for us to ensure that your material will not be misused when you upload and share it online, you might consider electing to make it available under a Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons is in the business of developing licenses that allow you and others like you to let people know how and under what conditions they may use your copyrighted material. To learn more about Creative Commons or to tailor a Creative Commons license for your material, check out their website at http://creativecommons.org.