Copyright clearance
Copyright clearance (or clearance) is Distributed Proofreaders's verification that a document meets the public domain and copyright criteria established by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
A cleared document is a document that Distributed Proofreaders has verified meets the public domain and copyright criteria established by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
WHY Copyright Clearance is needed
Distributed Proofreaders will not process a document that does not meet the public domain and copyright criteria established by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Copyright Clearance
This article from Project Gutenberg's (PGLAF's) website discusses PGLAF's philosophy and gives instructions about their copyright clearance process.
For most documents, the PGLAF's goal is to establish that all of a document's United States copyrights have expired, making the document part of the United States public domain.
- Content Providers may find this flowchart from Sunstein Kann Murphy & Timbers LLP's website a convenient resource to determine a whether a document's copyrights have expired before requesting a copyright clearance from the PGLAF.
HOW TO request a Copyright Clearance
Copyright clearance requests may be submitted through Project Gutenberg's website.
- For more information, see the Content Providing FAQ.