Copyright and Reprint Policy

All material on the website of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is copyrighted by the Reporters Committee (unless otherwise specified on the work), which reserves all rights in the work.

However, we intentionally allow generous use of our materials for nonprofit or educational purposes. The details of those licensed uses is described below. Any use not covered by this policy should be presumed to be a use for which payment may be required; contact the Reporters Committee at copyright@rcfp.org for more information.

Educational uses

Students, teachers, professors or other school officials making copies for classes may reproduce our materials for no fee, without need to obtain permission or request a license, provided they are given to students at no cost or for a fee that only covers reproduction costs.

Textbook publishers

For-profit publishers of textbooks must pay a fee for duplications of any of our materials. Contact us at the address above for details.

Nonprofit uses

Nonprofit organizations, including state bar associations and continuing legal education groups, may reproduce Reporters Committee materials for no fee, provided that the use is for an event (as opposed to a publication not tied to attendance at an event), and that any attendance fee for the event is only enough to cover costs of the event.

Legal uses

Reproduction of any of our works to submit to a legal authority, such as in an appendix to a brief, is allowed under the copyright law. No permission is required from the Reporters Committee.

Fair use

Fair use of a portion of a copyrighted work is allowed under the copyright law and the First Amendment, and no permission is required. The Reporters Committee encourages broad use of our materials in such limited manners. However, reprinting of an entire Reporters Committee publication, even for not-for-profit use, will usually exceed fair use rights. If you want to use a portion of our works and are not sure if the amount is excessive, contact us at the address above. We will always prefer uses that include this attribution: “Copyright [year] The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The original work is available at [provide the rcfp.org link].”

Use on websites and linking

Fair use exceptions apply equally on the Web. However, we discourage websites from using extensive portions of our materials on websites, primarily because readers will not be aware of any changes or updates we make. We encourage you to provide links to our site instead. We make every effort to make the links permanent, or automatically redirected when links are outdated.