DMCA & 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. The procedure below follows the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act because it is the most widely used framework for online notices, but we apply the same process to valid notices under equivalent laws elsewhere, because our readers and rights holders are everywhere.

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 licence that permits our use. Stills, trailers, key art, product images and renderings supplied in press kits by studios, publishers, manufacturers and tourism bodies are used for the purpose they were supplied for and credited. Public records, such as court documents, official statements, election returns, recall notices and published papers, are reproduced because they are public and because showing the actual document is better journalism than describing it.

Short quotations from other works appear under fair use or fair dealing, for reporting, criticism or comment, with attribution. Where a story is about a document, a clip 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 or video from social media without permission simply because they are visible. When a picture taken by a member of the public 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 authorised to act for, send a notice to support@riverdalestandard.com with LEGAL and DMCA in the subject line. Under 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 authorised 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 authorised 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 authorised 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 writing.

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, supplied in a press kit, or is in the public domain, we say so and show our basis. If the use is fair use or fair dealing, 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 about a film, a team, a company, a government or a product, 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, defamation or an unflattering review. 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 graphic, 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, universities and non-profit groups asking to reproduce a story for teaching or non-commercial use will usually get a yes quickly. Commercial republication, including inclusion in paid newsletters, research products and briefings, is licensed on terms we agree in writing.