Use, Copyright, and Reprint Policy
All material on the website of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (“Reporters Committee” or “RCFP”), www.rcfp.org, is copyrighted by the Reporters Committee (unless otherwise specified), 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 are described below. Any use not covered by this policy should be presumed to be a use for which payment may be required; contact RCFP at media@rcfp.org for more information.
Please note that the material on RCFP’s website is presented solely for informational purposes. This website does not provide legal advice and use thereof does not create an attorney-client relationship or constitute the receipt of legal advice from RCFP or any of its employees. Although we endeavor to keep our current guides up to date, neither RCFP nor any of its employees make any warranty or claim as to the currentness, completeness, or accuracy of any content available through RCFP’s website.
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.
Use in Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems
As noted above, RCFP provides information through its website for informational and educational purposes. We recognize that systems using artificial intelligence are rapidly evolving and may have educational applications that assist members of the news media. At the same time, there are practical, ethical, and legal questions implicated by the use of AI systems.
Members of the news media may use RCFP’s Open Government Guide (https://www.rcfp.org/open-government-guide) to train AI systems or as source material for retrieval augmented generation (“RAG”) applications so long as: (1) the AI system/RAG encourages its users to verify and compare any generative output to the original RCFP material on our website, (2) the generative output of the AI system/RAG is not represented as reflecting the conclusions, beliefs, or positions of the Reporters Committee, and (3) continued and reasonable efforts are made to use the most updated version of the Open Government Guide.
Except for use of the Open Government Guide as described above, the use of any other material from RCFP’s website to train an AI system or as source material for a RAG application is prohibited, absent an express agreement with RCFP.
The use of any material from RCFP’s website to train, fine tune, or ground any AI system or RAG that purports to offer legal advice is forbidden. Additionally, the use of any material from RCFP’s website to train, fine tune, or ground any AI system or RAG relating to pre-publication review is forbidden. For any questions related to RCFP’s AI policy, contact media@rcfp.org.