Copying Articles from the Privacy Blog and Republishing Them Elsewhere

I think my copyright statement is a bit different from most others. Here is the brief version:

Take it. You are free to copy my words from any Privacy Blog article to any NON-COMMERCIAL web site or message board or printed publication you wish. Don’t bother to ask permission, just do it.

There are a few caveats, however:

I do ask that you credit this web site as the source of the words. I think it would be nice if you mentioned the newsletter’s web site: https://www.privacyblog.com. Copying articles from any web site or printed publication without crediting the original author(s) might be illegal and always is in poor taste. Don’t do it.

You may not republish any articles containing words attributed to another person or organization until you obtain permission from that person or organization. While you do have permission to republish words written by Richard W. Eastman, you do not have automatic authority to republish words written by others, even if their words appear in this blog.

You may republish OCCASIONAL articles. Republishing two or three articles per month is acceptable. Wholesale copying and republishing of dozens of articles per month is never allowed for any purpose without advance permission. If you do start republishing many of the articles from the Privacy Blog, my attorney will contact you to discuss fees.

If you want to use any articles from the Privacy Blog on a commercial web site, including any web site that contains advertising, please ask in advance. I usually say “yes” but I do want to know where and how each article will be used on a commercial web site.

NOTE: any web site that contains advertising of any sort, even Google Ads, is legally a commercial web site. That’s true even if the web site is not profitable. Ask any attorney.

Anyone complying with the above does not need to ask permission in advance for non-commercial uses. Just do it.

Any questions? If so, please click here to contact the webmaster/owner of this blog.

Thank you for your cooperation.