Schenker Documents Online delineates three levels of copyright as applying to materials in its digital edition:

1. Intellectual Property Rights

SDO and all its contributors acknowledge their obligation to obtain in writing from the originator of a document to be edited, or from the heir(s) or representative(s) of that originator, permission to publish the document on the web. It places a statement of that permission at the foot of each document, in some such form as:

© Heirs of Hans Weisse, published with kind permission.

For a list of all permissions granted, cleared, or being sought, see "Clearances."

Negotiation of these rights is constantly on-going, and is integral to the work of the project. IPR are deemed for these purposes to apply up until January 1 of the year following seventy years from the death of the originator of the intellectual property.

Where SDO has made a good-faith effort to locate heirs or representatives of an originator and has been unsuccessful, it may publish a document with some such copyright declaration as "Under inquiry." In the case of all documents published, whether with permission or under inquiry, it provides an email address to which anyone believing they may have a claim to rights in a document may lodge that claim.

Reminder to User:

Most of the texts on this website are covered under intellectual property rights law. For use of any material from SDO that you intend to publish beyond the provision of fair dealing, you are responsible for obtaining clearance of IPR from the relevant rights holder.

You may not use images that appear on SDO. For such images, you must apply to the image holder, sign a license agreement with that holder, and pay the relevant fee.

2. Ownership Rights

SDO acknowledges for all physical documents the contents of which are edited in its digital edition the rights of the owners of those documents, whether archives, libraries, or private persons, to their physical property. Accordingly, SDO does not post images of documents to the web without having first received permission to do so and paid any license fees that may be due.

3. Editorial Rights

SDO asserts on behalf of its transcribers, translators, and editors their copyright on all the work they supply to SDO and is published on its website. Rights to transcriptions and translations are declared at the foot of each document, in some such form as:

© Transcription John Rothgeb 2006

or:

© Translation William Drabkin 2008.

These rights are reinforced in the metadata of each document, and are claimed there also for all footnotes and other editorial supporting commentary.