Copyright & IP Policy — FishingLicenseInfo.org — 17 U.S.C. & DMCA Section 512

1. Our Copyright

The original editorial content of fishinglicenseinfo.org/ — state-by-state guides, license-type comparison tables, step-by-step procedure walkthroughs, the six-tier source hierarchy, the eight-step verification workflow, the annual-fee-update discipline framework, and the manual-verification methodology — is protected by copyright under U.S. copyright law (17 U.S.C. §101 et seq.). All rights reserved, subject to fair use and the permitted-use clause of our Terms of Use.

We do not claim copyright in facts — a fee amount is not copyrightable, a residency definition is not copyrightable, a phone number is not copyrightable, an agency URL is not copyrightable. We do claim copyright in the original editorial presentation, structure, prose, and curated selection of facts.

2. Fair Use Under 17 U.S.C. §107

Fair use of our content is permitted under the four-factor test in 17 U.S.C. §107:

When relying on fair use, attribute fishinglicenseinfo.org/ and link to the source page where practicable.

3. Federal-Government Works — Public Domain Under §105

Under 17 U.S.C. §105, works of the U.S. federal government are not protected by copyright. This includes USFWS publications, NOAA Fisheries publications, federal agency regulations, federal statutes (the U.S. Code), federal court opinions, and U.S. Coast Guard guidance materials. We summarize and link to such material freely, with attribution to the originating agency.

4. State-Government Works

State-government works may or may not be copyrighted depending on the state. The “edicts of government” doctrine, recently reinforced by the U.S. Supreme Court in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org (2020), generally treats state statutes, judicial opinions, and certain official annotations as uncopyrightable. State agency administrative materials (e.g., fish-and-game regulations) are typically treated similarly. We attribute and link to all state-agency sources in either case, and rely on fair use where state-copyright status is ambiguous.

5. Trade Marks and Nominative Fair Use

The site refers to many marks belonging to federal agencies, state agencies, tribes, and authorized vendors, including (without limitation):

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and NOAA Fisheries
• Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), Wildlife Violator Compact
• State fish and wildlife agencies: California DFW, Texas TPWD, Florida FWC, New York DEC, Pennsylvania PFBC, Michigan DNR, Wisconsin DNR, Minnesota DNR, Washington WDFW, Oregon ODFW, Colorado CPW, Alaska ADFG, and equivalents in every other state
• Authorized retail vendors: Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Walmart Sporting Goods
• Federal consumer agencies: Federal Trade Commission, Better Business Bureau
• U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)

These marks are used nominatively — to identify the entity our editorial guide covers — under Lanham Act §33(b)(4) (15 U.S.C. §1115(b)(4)) and the nominative-fair-use doctrine recognized by:

• New Kids on the Block v. News America Publishing (9th Cir. 1992) — three-factor test for nominative fair use
• Toyota Motor Sales v. Tabari (9th Cir. 2010) — nominative use in domain-name context
• International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium v. Security University (2d Cir. 2016) — Second Circuit’s three-factor test

We do not use any third-party mark in a way that suggests endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation by the mark owner.

6. Identifying Real People — Defamation Framework

Where the site identifies real people — for example, named state agency directors or named state conservation officers in their professional capacity — we work to factual accuracy and to the standards of state common-law defamation and:

• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) — “actual malice” standard for public officials
• Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) — public-figure / private-figure framework
• State anti-SLAPP statutes where applicable to good-faith public-interest reporting

If you are identified on the site and believe a statement is defamatory, the procedure is the same as for copyright: email us with the page URL, the specific statement, and your basis. We review with editorial counsel.

7. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

For any third-party content on the site — user-submitted corrections, comments, or suggestions — we rely on the immunity provided by Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. §230), which states that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Section 230 does not immunize us from federal criminal liability, intellectual property claims (handled separately under the DMCA), or claims under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

8. DMCA Section 512 Takedown Procedure

To submit a takedown notice for content you believe infringes your copyright, email info@fishinglicenseinfo.org with the subject “DMCA notice”. Your notice must include all six elements required by 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3):

1. Signature (physical or electronic) of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (or a representative list, if multiple works on the same site).
3. Identification of the material claimed to be infringing — the specific URL on fishinglicenseinfo.org/ — with information reasonably sufficient for us to locate the material.
4. Contact information for the complaining party: name, address, telephone number, and email.
5. Good-faith statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. Accuracy statement: a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate, and that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

We acknowledge receipt within 5 business days and, where the notice is well-founded, act expeditiously to remove or disable access under DMCA §512.

9. Counter-Notice Procedure

If we remove material that you believe was lawfully posted, you may submit a counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. §512(g)(3) by email to info@fishinglicenseinfo.org with the subject “DMCA counter-notice”, including:

• Signature (physical or electronic)
• Identification of the material that was removed and its prior URL
• Statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification
• Your name, address, telephone number
• Consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, for non-U.S. residents, the federal district court for any judicial district in which we may be found), and consent to accept service from the original notice-giver

On a valid counter-notice, we may restore the material 10–14 business days after we forward the counter-notice to the original notice-giver, unless the original notice-giver files an action seeking a court order against the alleged infringer.

10. Repeat Infringer Policy

Consistent with 17 U.S.C. §512(i)(1)(A), we have adopted and reasonably implement a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the participation rights of any user who is a repeat infringer — the subject of multiple, well-founded DMCA notices. We retain a record of valid notices for three years.

11. What We Cannot Do Via This Procedure

• We cannot remove your license record from a state agency
• We cannot remove your record from USFWS, NOAA Fisheries, or any federal database
• We cannot remove your record from a tribal F&W system
• We cannot remove your record from an authorized vendor’s customer system
• We cannot suppress search-engine results — that is between you and the search engine, sometimes via a state privacy-law deletion request routed through the search engine’s removal channel

12. Contact

For any copyright, trade-mark, defamation, or hosting-liability question, email info@fishinglicenseinfo.org with a clear subject line.