Introduction

Stephen E. Baker (TheLiberative) and TheLiberative.com respect the intellectual property of others, and I ask all visitors to this site to do the same with my intellectual property as well as the intellectual property of others that may appear on this site.

Please keep in mind that Stephen E. Baker (TheLiberative) and TheLiberative.com have no responsibility for content on other websites that you may find or access when using TheLiberative.com's products or services. Material available on or through other websites may be protected by copyright and the intellectual property laws of the United States and/or other countries. The terms of use of those websites, and not the TheLiberative.com's Terms of Service, govern your use of that material.

How to Contact Me to License My Copyrighted Material

My website and its material (including text, graphics, audio files, video files, pictures, and so on) are copyrighted.

A copyright notice reserving all rights appears in the footer area of every page on this site.

If you would like to use some of my copyrighted material yourself, I invite you to contact me to explain your use and to request that I grant you the right(s) you need for that use. Please use my Email Contact Form to contact me with your request.

I do have a desire to help my material spread out to as wide an audience as possible, so I will take your request seriously and see if we can make a suitable arrangement.

My Approach to a Copyright Concern of Yours

I don't ever want to get into a copyright dispute with anyone. However, despite my desire to quote the copyrighted works of others in ways that are legal or that qualify under the Fair Use guidelines, you may disagree with the way I have quoted your material. I will take seriously any notice, formal or informal, from someone who believes I have infringed on a copyright they own.

It is my belief that proper or appropriate use of copyrighted material can provide benefits on the one hand to me and this website and on the other hand to you, the owner of the copyrighted material. So my aim will be to work with you, the copyright owner, to create a quote or use of your material that satisfies Fair Use or other such criteria in a reasonable and equitable manner, so that the material can remain on this site in a manner that both of us find acceptable.

If we cannot come to an agreement that works for both of us, I will be open to removing the material. Obviously, I hope that removal will not be necessary. Also, if I believe my use does qualify under fair use or other criteria, or if I believe the material actually is not copyrighted or copyrightable, despite your statement to the contrary, I reserve the right to continue to use the material on this site. I take copyright law seriously, but I also intend to adhere to customs and laws related to free speech.

Informal Notice on Material I Quote

Informal notice using my Email Contact Form is my preferred method for dealing with such matters. Please contact me informally first.

In order to handle your concern expeditiously, I need you to provide certain information:

1. Some kind of proof that you are the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
2. A description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed (this could be a URL to a page that displays your work);
3. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on TheLiberative.com website, with enough detail that I may find it on the website (in most circumstances, I will need a URL but further identifying information could be helpful);
4. Your email address, and
5. A statement by you as to why you believe that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law (including Fair Use guidelines);

If you have a way to edit the material on my site to make it acceptable to you, please do include your suggestion in your email.

I believe virtually any copyright question that may exist between us can be equitably and cheaply discussed and amicably settled through informal contact, without getting a lawyer involved. You always have the option of moving to the formal method of contact shown below if the informal contact process doesn't work for you. Again, please try the informal Email Contact Form first.

Informal Notice on Material Quoted By Commenters

I am not currently claiming safe harbor under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") as an Online Service Provider from comments on TheLiberative.com that may contain copyright-infringing material. However, I reserve the right to do so at any time in the future, and I do not intend for my lack of claiming safe harbor to restrict in any way other protections I may have.

For now, if you are a copyright owner and believe that a visitor to this site has left a comment that contains material that you believe may infringe one or more of your copyrights, please use my Email Contact Form to alert me to the potential problem. I will need:

1. Some kind of proof that you are the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
2. A description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed (this could be a URL to a page that displays your work);
3. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on TheLiberative.com website, with enough detail that I may find it on the website (in most circumstances, I will need not just a URL but further identifying information such as the commenter’s name and/or the time and date the comment was made);
4. Your email address, and
5. A statement by you as to why you believe that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law (including Fair Use guidelines);

If you have a way to edit the material in that comment to make it acceptable to you, please do include your suggestion.

I promise to examine your concerns within no more than a few days. If I agree with you, I will either edit or remove the comment. If I don't see a problem or believe I could edit the material to make it non-infringing, I will reply to you with my suggested solution. You can then reply with acceptance, rejection, or further modifications. Between the two of us, we should be able to come to a mutually agreeable solution to the issue.

It is TheLiberative.com's policy, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of visitors who may infringe or repeatedly infringe the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of TheLiberative.com and/or others, and/or to deny such infringing visitors access to this site.

To Contact Me Formally About a Copyright Question

My designated agent for service of electronic or physical notices or subpoenas related to possible copyright infringement on TheLiberative.com website is Domains By Proxy, Inc. You can contact them using the following information:

You can also go to Domains By Proxy, Inc.,'s Legal Issues page. Look at the "Who to Contact" section on the right of that page, or look in the footer for a link to DBP's subpoena policies or for contacting DBP about TheLiberative.com if you are a member of a law enforcement agency.

Please Note: Domains By Proxy is not a lawyer. DBP is only my designated agent for service in matters related to TheLiberative.com.

Information to Include in a Formal Notice of Infringement

If you believe that your work has been infringed, or that your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, and you wish to make a Formal Notice to me, please provide the following information to my agent, Domains By Proxy, Inc.:

1. An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
2. Aa description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed (this could be a URL to a page that displays your work);
3. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on TheLiberative.com website, with enough detail that I may find it on the website (in most circumstances, I will need a URL but additional identifying information could be helpful or necessary);
4. Your address, telephone number, and email address;
5. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law (including Fair Use guidelines);
6. A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Formal Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner’s behalf.

In some circumstances I may forward a copy of a valid Formal Notice to Chilling Effects (http://www.chillingeffects.org) for publication, if I feel that the notice is an attempt to restrict free speech on this site for me or for any of my commenters.

Closing Remarks

If you have anything you would like to add on this subject of Copyrights for this website, feel free to Contact Me or enter a comment below.

I would also like to thank Yahoo! for some of the material on this page, which is from Yahoo!'s Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy. If you are a representative of Yahoo! and feel that my use of some of Yahoo's material here is inappropriate, please accept my apology and use my Email Contact Form to contact me and express your concern. I will work with you to correct the problem.