DMCA and Copyright Policy

Our approach to copyright

Riverdale Standard makes its living from original work, so we take other people’s copyright seriously, and we expect the same in return. This page explains how we use material we did not create, how to tell us if you believe we have infringed your rights, what we do when you tell us, and how to respond if material you posted was removed because of a complaint. It also explains how to ask permission to use ours.

How we use material we did not create

Photographs on this site are our own, licensed from the agencies or photographers who own them, supplied by their subjects for publication, in the public domain, or released under a license that permits our use. Public records, such as county agendas, ordinances, court filings and government reports, are reproduced because they are public and because reproducing the actual document is better journalism than describing it. Short quotations from other works appear under fair use, for the purpose of reporting, criticism or comment, with attribution. Where a story is about a document, a screenshot or a social media post, we show the material that is the subject of the story and no more of it than the story needs.

We do not lift photographs from social media accounts without permission simply because they are visible. When a picture taken by a member of the public in Riverdale or elsewhere in Clayton County is the news, we ask, we credit, and where appropriate we pay.

Notice of claimed infringement

If you believe material on riverdalestandard.com infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to act for, send a notice to support@riverdalestandard.com with LEGAL and DMCA in the subject line. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. section 512(c)(3), a valid notice must include the following.

• Your physical or electronic signature, or that of a person authorized to act for the copyright owner.
• Identification of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed. If several works are covered by one notice, a representative list is enough.
• Identification of the material you claim is infringing, with enough detail for us to find it. The URL of the page and a description of which image or passage you mean is what we need.
• Your name, mailing address, telephone number and email address.
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.

A notice missing these elements may not be acted on, though we will usually write back to say what is missing. If a physical address for our designated agent is legally required for your purposes, ask and we will provide it in reply.

What happens when we receive a notice

We confirm receipt within two business days. An editor who was not involved in publishing the material reviews the notice. If the material is ours and the claim is plainly right, we remove or replace it and tell you. If the material was licensed or is in the public domain, we say so and show our basis. If the use is fair use, we explain why and leave it up, and you may pursue the matter as the law allows. If the material was posted by a reader in a comment or contribution, we remove it promptly and notify the person who posted it, giving them the notice and the opportunity to respond.

Removal in response to a notice is not an admission that the material was infringing. It is the procedure the law sets out, and we follow it while the question is resolved.

Counter-notification

If material you posted was removed because of a notice and you believe the removal was a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notification to the same address. It must include your physical or electronic signature; identification of the material that was removed and where it appeared; a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed by mistake or misidentification; your name, address and telephone number; and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the district in which your address is located, or, if outside the United States, any judicial district in which we may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the original notice.

We will forward the counter-notification to the original complainant. If they do not tell us within ten business days that they have filed a court action to restrain the alleged infringement, we may restore the material, generally within ten to fourteen business days of receiving the counter-notification.

Misrepresentation

Under section 512(f), anyone who knowingly misrepresents that material is infringing, or that it was removed by mistake, may be liable for damages including costs and legal fees. Notices used to suppress accurate reporting rather than to protect a genuine copyright are treated as what they are, and we may say so publicly.

Repeat infringers

If comments or reader contributions are enabled, an account responsible for repeated infringement will be barred. Where a freelancer supplies material that turns out to infringe, the relationship ends.

Complaints that are not about copyright

A DMCA notice is the wrong tool for a complaint about accuracy, fairness, privacy or defamation. Those go to the same address under CORRECTION or LEGAL, and they are handled under our corrections policy and, where necessary, with legal advice. Sending a copyright notice to try to remove a story you dislike will not work and may expose you to the liability described above.

Using our work

You may link to any story and quote short passages with attribution and a link. To republish an article, use a photograph, or reproduce more than a brief excerpt, write to support@riverdalestandard.com with PERMISSIONS in the subject line, saying what you want to use and how. Schools, libraries and community groups in Clayton County asking to reproduce a local story for non-commercial use will usually get a yes quickly. Commercial republication is licensed on terms we agree in writing.