Web Site Policy

This document describes a policy which is being developed for the following groups, in supplying information and material, in particular for providing the following web sites ...

Group
 Site
Ecclesfield Village Plan www.ecclesfieldgroups.com
and     plan.ecclesfieldgroups.com
Ecclesfield Conservation Group conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com
Ecclesfield in Bloom www.ecclesfieldinbloom.co.uk
Ecclesfield Street Dusters dusters.ecclesfieldgroups.com
Friends of Ecclesfield Library library.ecclesfieldgroups.com

Since each group controls and is responsible for its own site, the degree to which the policy has been adopted by any group must be assessed by examining that group's agenda's and minutes. Furthermore, although there are currently no special conditions, should one or more of the groups decide to adopt any, then this note will be amended, and the special conditions will override or add to these general conditions, but only for that particular group.

Irrespective of this however, when they supply information, place information on there web sites, or refer people to pages on their sites, members and officials of those groups may wish to refer their recipients (or browsers) to...
        http://www.ecclesfieldgroups.com/disclaimer
In doing this, the members or officials are applying the conditions given in this document (together with any other conditions they might mention), in return for supplying the information. Any rights to use the information (for instance by printing a photograph) are then conditional on the terms given herein. If these terms are not, or cannot be agreed to then the recipients should not copy or use the information. If at any time these terms are, or can no longer be applied, then any further use publication, or copying should cease.

In what follows, "We" "Group" or "Groups" refers to each of the above groups. "Site" or "Sites" refers to The Group's respective sites as indicated in the table above.

Web site disclaimer

The Groups, and their webmasters cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, either on their Sites, or on any of the destinations that their Sites may link to.

Furthermore, the mention of other organisations, or the provision of links to their web sites, does not mean that these organisations have been vetted or are recommended by any of the Groups. It is therefore important to make sure that the information provided is correct and suitable for your requirements.

Linking to and copying material on these Sites

People using the Sites should be aware that they contain material which is copyright, and that some of these copyrights may not be owned by the Groups concerned. Apart from any licenses that might be included, for instance in the EXIF information in jpg images, all rights under UK and International copyright law are therefore reserved.

However, we do welcome both links to the Sites, and links to their individual pages. People are also welcome to print out individual sheets or posters, unedited whole pages, or unedited part pages. Such pages will often contain the url of the Site of which they were part of. Also, the software used to print the page may add the url automatically. However, if neither of these applies, or if for any other reason the url does not appear on one (or more) of the sheets of the printout, then then the url of the Site should be legibly added and associated with that (those) sheet(s).

All pages linked to by the home page may also be crawled and indexed. Where all the requirements associated with both "fair dealing" and "implied permission" apply (as described below), then extracts and thumbnails may be derived and used.

Supplying photographs and other copyright material to the Groups

We welcome photographs which we are permitted to publish, whether from members or others.

However, we request that people only send the Webmaster, and other officers of the Groups, material for which they either own the copyright (E.g. because they took the photograph), or which the Group concerned can publish  (E.g. because it is public domain). If material is sent which cannot be published, then we request that it be marked "Not for Publication".

We suggest that any material be sent with a copyright notice or license, saying what uses the copyright holder wish to permit. In the case of jpg images this can be adding to the EXIF "Comment" field. Otherwise, it can be included with the email to which the material is attached.

In Windows XP SP3, EXIF information can be added by right clicking the jpg file, selecting Properties, and then the Summary tab. Scrolling down to the "Comments" field allows licence information to be entered.

In Windows 7, it can be done by selecting the jpg file, clicking on the Organise >  Layout > Details Pane. Pulling up the horizontal bar will show the Comments field and allow licence information to be entered into it (See http://www.sevenforums.com/music-pictures-video/82642-how-search-jpg-metadata-specifically-comments.html).

If we can find no description or license, then we will take the supply of the material as an implied license to use what is submitted in accordance with that version of the group's default license pertaining at the time. This currently includes permission to place the photograph or information on the Group's web site, and to submit it to a newspaper, such as LookLocal. In the case of jpg images, before any publication, we may add the following to the EXIF comment field to record this licence restriction...

    Licence http://ecclesfieldgroups.com/go/1.0 <followed by the Group name>

We will use our best endeavors to comply with any copyright information supplied with any material we are given, or in the absence of this, the default licence. We will not knowingly delete licence information, and if we find that it has been deleted, for example by a photo editor, we will endeavour to add it back. Similarly, we will not upload jpg files that we can see contain EXIF copyright information, to sites which we believe to delete it ( Flickr and Facebook - http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/03/26/adding-copyright-to-exif-automatically/ ).

For brevity, where applicable, we suggest that the licence or copyright notice consists of an Internet url such as one of those given below...

For example, if there are no identifiable people, in the photograph, and no other sensitive material, and the copyright owner wants to allow the photograph to be used without being bothered by further requests, then they may wish to insert the following link into the comment field, to indicate that they wish to place the work in the public domain...
     http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Alternatively, if there are any identifiable people in the photograph, or other sensitive material, then photographers may prefer to indicate that they are only allowing restricted use, by including the following ...
    Licence http://ecclesfieldgroups.com/go/1.0 Conservation

Note that in this case a reference to the name of the group concerned can be placed after the url.

Two or more Groups can be referenced by appending the names of the groups which the copyright holder wishes the license to refer to.

All or any Group in Ecclesfield Village can be referred to by appending the words "Ecclesfield Village".

Policy on photographs containing identifiable individuals

We use our best endeavors not to take or use photographs...

...containing identifiable individuals in places which could be deemed private, unless we believe that we have the permission of all such identifiable individuals;

...of children under the age of 18, unless we believe that we have the permission of the parent or legal guardian;

...identifying people who have told us that they do not like their photograph taken.

We also use our best endeavors to comply with any request to remove photographs from the Internet and to cease publication, that might at any time be made by anybody who appears on, or whose name is associated with those photographs.

To that end, this policy is to restrict all publication of photographs identifying individuals to, at widest, the default licence restrictions at the link above.

Policy on naming individuals

We try to ensure that we only name individuals who are public figures; have official posts; are attending in an official capacity; or for an organisation, company, or trading entity. If any individuals object to being named, then we will endeavour to remove the references. Otherwise, members and visitors etc may be described by ambiguous terms such as initials.

Policy on web site photographs, and other published information

We use our best endeavors to ensure that we comply with International copyright law. This includes the Berne Convention and the requirement that exemptions to copyright law do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.

The aims of some of the Groups, and therefore some of the Sites, includes informing people in Ecclesfield about the work of others. To do this effectively, it is necessary for the Groups to scan other web sites and derive extracts such as urls, headings, information, and thumbnails.

If owners of any copyright material that might appear on such sites, do not wish this to be done, then they can arrange that web sites containing their material use the standard "robots.txt" method to prevent it. All they need to do is to set the default access property for either the whole site, or the page concerned, to "Disallow". (An introduction to the robots.txt file can be found http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/robots.shtml)

In particular, if we use, derive, or display thumbnails from larger images for which we may not hold the copyright, then we use use our best endeavors to ensure that we have "implied permission" to derive and display any such thumbnails under European law, and that all of the following applies ...

1. The images have been displayed on a publicly available web site by the copyright owner, or with the apparent permission of the copyright owner.

2. The root directory of the web site on which the image was found does not contain a file named "robots.txt"; or if it does contain such a file then that file does not set the default access property for either the whole site, or access property for the page on which the image was found, to "Disallow".

3. We provide a link or other acknowledgment to the source.

(See http://ttlfnews.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/german-federal-supreme-court-finds-that-google%E2%80%99s-image-search-does-not-infringe-the-rights-of-copyright-holders/ or http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2011/10/second-bgh-decision-on-google-image.html for reports of a case which we believe forms part of the relevant European case law)

In addition to complying with European law, we also use our best endeavors to ensure that everything we do complies with US copyright law. For example, if we use, derive, or display thumbnails from larger images, then we try to ensure that what we do also complies with US "fair dealing" provisions and that all of the following applies ...

5. Purpose and Character: Our use is transformative, not commercial, and does not replace the original.

6. Nature of the copied work: The works have already been freely published elsewhere, and we provide a link or acknowledgment to the source whenever this is known.

7. Amount: we only display sufficient material for our purposes - E.g. a reduced resolution, or thumbnail image.

8. Value: There appears to be no harm to the copyright holder(s) as a result of what we are doing.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use for an explanation of the above, and https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/05/p10-v-google-public-interest-prevails-digital-copyright-showdown for a report of a case which we believe forms part of relevant US case law)

Emails

Anybody who has agreed to receive material from any of the Groups by email (such as in the Ecclesfield Conservation Group's minutes and agendas), and anybody downloading or displaying the material, should be aware that the Groups do not claim to own the copyright to all the material that may be included. Furthermore, the Groups do not indemnify the recipient against any action resulting from the use of this material. It is therefore suggested that any further use of this material is restricted to single copies, made for personal use or for research, and is strictly non-commercial.

Data Protection

See the section of the Ecclesfield Conservation Group's Constitution, headed "Data Protection Act" for the policy on this.

Conventions

Browsing these Sites

Please report any problems browsing these sites to .

Our web host https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/ cannot yet offer SSL secured (I.e https) sites. Until they do, what you see on the screen could be intercepted and changed.

Due humility

The above policy is not meant to be final, fixed, or in any sense "correct". Instead it is recognised that different generations, different groups, and different parts of the Internet have very different attitudes, practices and therefore policy requirements. Instead, it is merely hoped that for the groups above, at the moment, having this policy to refer to is better than having no policy.

Disclaimer for this page

THE AUTHOR OF THIS PAGE IS NOT A LAWYER AND HAS NO LEGAL TRAINING. THE GROUPS ABOVE ARE NOT LAW FIRMS AND DO NOT PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES. USE OF THIS INFORMATION DOES NOT CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. THE GROUPS PROVIDE THIS INFORMATION ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS AND MAKE NO WARRANTIES REGARDING THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, AND DISCLAIM LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ITS USE.

Last Update 2012-03-26
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