DMCA & Copyright Policy

This page covers copyright in both directions: what you may do with our work, and what to do if something of yours has been published here without permission. The takedown section follows the statute, because a notice missing an element cannot be acted on. Last updated: August 2026.

What belongs to us

The articles, headlines, photographs, illustrations, charts, page design and the WORLDHAB name are ours, or licensed to us by the people who made them. Free to read is a decision about advertising rather than a waiver of copyright, as our ownership and funding page explains.

Reading, printing a page for yourself and sending somebody a link need no permission. Reproducing an article elsewhere does, and that includes pasting the full text into a forum, a newsletter, a print edition, a training set, or an aggregator page that stops readers reaching the original. Translating a piece counts as reproducing it.

Quoting us, and linking to us

Quote us. A paragraph or two with our name on it and a link back is welcome, and we do the same when another outlet gets somewhere first. Credit the site, credit the writer where the piece carries a byline, and make the link a real link.

What is not welcome is the practice we spent years on before this site: taking a story another newsroom reported, changing enough wording that it registers as new, and publishing inside the hour. That is not quotation, and paraphrase does not transform it. If your version would be pointless without ours underneath it, quote a passage and link instead.

Asking for permission or a licence

Reprints, syndication, translation and inclusion in a book or course pack are available and handled case by case. Write to support@worldhab.com with “permission” in the subject line and tell us which article, where it would appear, whether the use is commercial, and whether you need the images as well as the text.

Image rights are often held by a photographer or an agency rather than by us, so those are answered separately, and sometimes we cannot pass on what we do not hold. Teachers, students and community groups usually get a yes for free with a credit line. Commercial republication is priced. The reply comes from an editor rather than a licensing department, as our contact page describes.

Filing a takedown notice

If you own copyright in something published here, or you are authorised to act for the owner, you can send a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. section 512. To be valid it must contain all six of the following. A notice missing one gets a reply asking for the missing piece.

• Identification of the copyrighted work you say has been infringed. Where one notice covers several works, a representative list is enough.
• Identification of the material here you want removed or disabled, in enough detail for us to find it: the full URL, plus the paragraph, image or embed.
• Your name, postal address, telephone number and email address, so we can reach you and the person who posted the material can respond.
• A statement that you have a good faith belief the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner, made under penalty of perjury.
• Your physical or electronic signature.

Send it to support@worldhab.com with “DMCA” in the subject line. Our managing editor acts as the designated agent for copyright notices and reads them personally. If your notice is about a factual error rather than ownership, our corrections process settles it faster and without lawyers.

What happens once a notice arrives

Notices come out of the queue ahead of everything except a correction report, and you get an acknowledgement within a working day. Where the claim is clear we remove or disable the material expeditiously, usually the same day, and the page carries a note saying what was removed and on what grounds. Nothing here vanishes without a trace.

If the material came from a contributor or commenter rather than staff, we tell them what went, pass on the notice, and explain how to counter notify. Where a notice is plainly aimed at suppressing reporting rather than protecting a work, we say so, we answer it in writing, and we do not remove journalism to make a complaint go away.

Counter notification

If your material was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you can send a counter notice. It needs your signature, physical or electronic, identification of the material and where it appeared before removal, your name, address and telephone number, and a statement under penalty of perjury that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification.

It also needs your consent to the jurisdiction of a federal district court where you live, or where the service provider may be found if you are outside the United States, and your agreement to accept service from whoever filed the notice. We forward a valid counter notice to them. Unless they tell us they have filed a court action to restrain the activity, the material goes back up between 10 and 14 business days later, which is the window the statute sets rather than one we chose.

Repeat infringers, and false claims

Comment accounts and contributor arrangements are terminated for repeat infringement. In practice a first notice against a contributor means everything else they filed gets re-checked, and a second ends the working relationship, the standard our editorial standards apply to plagiarism by staff.

Section 512(f) makes anybody who knowingly misrepresents that material is infringing liable for the damages and costs of the party harmed, including our legal fees, and we keep every notice. Filing a takedown against an article because it reports something you would rather nobody read is that kind of misrepresentation. If you are unsure whether a use needs permission, ask at the address above first, because the conversation is cheaper than the notice for both of us.