Our terms and conditions set out the detail of what you can and cannot do with our content and all use of MCL Global content is subject to them. This copyright policy summarises how users are permitted to use our content and also explains the types of use that require the purchase of additional licences. Thank you for reading this policy, our ability to invest in high quality journalism depends on our users complying with it. We reserve the right to change our copyright policy from time to time by publishing an updated policy on MCL Global, which shall become effective and replace any previous policy with effect from publication.

This version of the copyright policy was published on 2nd June 2010.

What is copyright?

Copyright law gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to control the use of copyright protected works. All of the material published on our website and other digital/wireless platforms is protected by copyright law and should only be used as set out in the “How may I use MCL Global content?” section below. Use that is made without our permission may therefore infringe our copyright which can result in personal and corporate liability. Where we state below that something is not allowed or permitted, then to do so is a breach of our terms and conditions, i.e. is a breach of contract, and may also violate copyright law.

How may I use MCL Global content?

You may do the following:

• View our content for your personal use on any device that is compatible with content from MCL Global (this might be your PC, laptop, Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device) and store our content on that device for your personal use;
   
• Print single copies of articles on paper for your personal use;
   
• Share links to articles by using the article tools we make available alongside each article.

How may I republish or redistribute MCL Global content?

You may not copy MCL Global on‐line or hard copy content or any third party source of MCL Global content such as news aggregators and you may not republish or redistribute full text articles, for example by pasting them into emails or republishing them in any media, including websites, newsletters or intranets. Full text means the whole article.

We recognise that users of the Internet want to share information with others. We therefore permit limited republishing and redistribution of MCL Global content as set out below provided that this does not create a Substitute for MCL Global or MCL Global’s own products or services. We define a Substitute as a product or service that reduces the need for users or other third parties to pay for MCL Global content directly, or which creates revenue from use of the MCL Global content to the detriment of MCL Global’s own ability to generate revenues from that content.

As long as you do not create a Substitute, you may do the following:

• Publish online, the original MCL Global headline and a link to the article and the first 120 characters of an article (what we call teaser text);
   
• Forward the original headlines, links and teaser text to other individuals;
   
• You may download our RSS feeds and view them for your personal use. We currently publish headlines and teaser text within our RSS feeds. You may also make an RSS feed available to third parties, users within an organisation you work for or users of a website that you publish, on condition that you:
  
  • only publish the feed for access via a web‐based browser.
  • publish the feed as it is made available on MCL Global, so that you only include the headline and teaser content, and ensure that the headline links back to the full text article on MCL Global
  • attribute the feed to MCL Global as “© MCL Global [year]”.
  • do not archive the feed or any of its content.

Am I allowed to copy or summarise limited parts of MCL Global full text content?

As specified above you may not republish or redistribute full text articles labelled as Premium Content. You may however republish or redistribute “Summaries” of MCL Global member articles if you comply with the conditions set out below. “Summaries” can be either an “extract” or an “abstract”. By “extract” we mean 30 words copied verbatim from an MCL Global articles which are inserted into a longer original work. By “abstract” we mean a 30 word non‐verbatim summary of the news or facts reported in an MCL Global article which does not form part of a longer work.

These are the conditions you must comply with in order to produce summaries:

‐ you source MCL Global as the author of any article from which you have derived a summary by way of an attribution such as “[journalist name] at MCL Global reported that”, with a hypertext link from the word “MCL Global” to the original story published on MCL Global;

‐ in the case of abstracts, you make clear that the abstract has been produced by you by stating “this abstract from MCL Global was produced by [name]”, with a hypertext link from the word “MCL Global” to the original story published on MCL Global;

‐ you ensure that your summaries do not in whole or in part form a Substitute for MCL Global’s own products and services (see above for how we define Substitute). The more summaries you create the greater the risk of substitution. No individual or organisation may create, republish or redistribute more than two summaries in aggregate each day, each one sourced from a different MCL Global article that is published on the same day you create the summary;

‐ you do not use or create summaries that promote or endorse any product or service; and

‐ if MCL Global notifies you that it believes you are creating, republishing or redistributing summaries outside of these parameters, you shall immediately cease doing so and your rights to create summaries shall be regarded as having been withdrawn, unless/until MCL Global reaches an agreement with you regarding your use of MCL Global articles.

What am I not permitted to do with MCL Global content?

You cannot do anything other than make use of the content as set out above, unless you buy the appropriate licence, see below for details. By way of example only, this means that you cannot:

• If you are a registered user or subscriber, share your user name and password (which includes PINs) with anyone else. A password is for one person’s use. Sharing a password means a copy of our content may subsequently be made by someone who is not authorised to do so. Password sharing is a breach of our terms and conditions and is likely to result in an infringement of copyright. We can now monitor usage to detect password sharing.
   
• Copy, publish or redistribute full text articles, photographs, graphics, tables or images in any way.
   
• Archive or store any of our content for access by anyone other than yourself.
   
• Create derivative works from our content, unless you are creating summaries as described above.
   
• Photocopy or scan copies of articles.

I thought that as long as I linked back to your website or published an attribution, that there are no restrictions on how I can use your content?

This is not correct. Merely providing a link or an attribution is not a defence to copyright infringement.

Why does it matter if I copy MCL Global content without permission?

Unauthorised copying is a way of avoiding paying for the value you are gaining by using the content. We make a significant investment in creating MCL Global content to deliver value to you and to make a return on that investment. If we are unable to protect that investment by licensing our content and collecting revenue, then it threatens our ability to continue to create the content.

What about “fair dealing” or “fair use” − doesn’t that allow me to copy things for the purpose of reporting news or current events?

Copyright law does allow, to a limited extent, republication for certain limited purposes, including the reporting of news or current events. We recommend that you take independent legal advice on the exact meaning of these terms if you want to rely on them. Unless your use of our content is permitted by this Copyright Policy, it is likely that we regard it as “unfair” and a breach of our terms and conditions.

Is all material published on MCL Global protected by copyright?

Yes, it is, so is all of the content we publish in our monthly magazine as well as MCL Global content published on third party platforms. Our content is also protected in other ways, for example, protected as a database by way of database rights.

I have some questions about your policy, who should I contact?

Please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it