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JWTalk - Jehovah's Witnesses Online Community

JWTalk

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  1. Blog, Blogger, and Blogging - just what do these words mean? What exactly is a blog? How does it work? Should I start one? Should I start one on JWTalk? We will try to help answer these questions in this blog article. So what is a blog, exactly? A blog is a type of website. This is a blog - what you are reading right now. It's basically written content in the form of journal entries where your thoughts are maintained on the web. Your blog articles would generally be instructional or informational to your readers. The blog itself is a collection of article entries. These blog articles are arranged in reverse chronological order, that is, with the most recent entries on top. As you keep postings more and more articles, the older entries will get bumped down the page and eventually pushed back into subsequent pages. This way, the newest, freshest content is always at the top and displayed first. You can allow readers who enjoy your articles to add their own comments/feedback on any of your blog entries. At JWTalk, only registered members can leave feedback on your articles. Please note that blogs are not to be confused with the forums. When you start a topic for discussion in the forum, you are doing so because you desire to have a conversation about that subject. Members will post back and forth with each others, oftentimes making several replies. The discussion can grow and go on for pages and pages. A blog entry is not like that. When you publish a blog article, it's because you are wanting to share something instructional or informative with others. Think of a journal entry or newspaper article. You are not looking to have a conversation. You simply want to present information. However, your readers can leave comments or feedback at the bottom of the page below your article entry. Personal blogs are quite like an online diary that people can share with the world. Members may use blogs to promote their art or creative writing or share information about a particular subject, hobby, niche, or topic that you are passionate about. You could also want to create a blog to share your unique life experiences and stories with others who may want to read about them. Maybe you just want to inspire others. So let's sum up the difference between a blog, a website, and a forum. A website is usually a collection of static landing pages. These pages, once created, and not updated or revised very often at all. A blog is a type of website where the main focus is on prominently showcasing regularly published blog articles/entries by displaying them on the front page of the blog in reverse chronological order. You add new articles on a regular basis. A forum is a place where members can interact with each other over a subject/topic for discussion. Members reply to one another sharing their thoughts with each other. These conversations can grow and become several pages long, and they are archived and available for search and reference.
  2. Blogs is a feature of JWTalk that allows it's members to create their own individual or group blogs within our community. Blogs can be about a variety of subjects, and you can use these blogs to share your ideas, thoughts and insights on various subjects that interest you, and possibly be of interest to others in the community. Please Note: Currently, we only allow Full Access members to create a Blog. If you are a Limited Access User and interested in starting a Blog, or you are a Full Access User who would like to move your existing Blog over to JWTalk (which we can do via RSS), please bring this to the attention of the Staff. You may do this by posting in the Site Support forum (public) or if you would prefer to do this privately, use the Confidential Talk forum. Most Blogs are displayed to the public, meaning that anybody, including an unregistered guest visiting the site, can read the Blogs. However, you can also set up an Invite-only Blog, where only the members whom you personally grant permission to can find and read the Blog. You can Share your Blog entries throughout the community or on social media with our easy built in share features. Some other features of JWTalk blogs include: RSS Exports - RSS feeds allow your members to add your blog feed to their favorite RSS reader. Cover Photos - Customize your blog categories and blog entries with their own cover photos. Import Gallery Albums - Associating gallery albums when submitting your blog entry will display images alongside your entry content. Schedule Publish Times - Need to schedule a blog post to automatically publish on a certain date and time? No problem. Follow Blogs - Be notified as soon as new content is posted on your favorite blog by following blog categories and entries. Sorting and Filtering - Interested in viewing your entries by the most comments or most views? That's simple using our filters. If you would like to create and maintain a Blog on JWTalk, please contact the Staff and we will help set you up and get you started.
  3. Our Copyright and Image Policy Explained Our Community Membership Policy prohibits uploading copyrighted content to the community when you do not have a license or permission to do so. This is the member's responsibility, and senior members who have earned our trust are allowed to submit content without any oversight or approval process. Since we are on an "honor system", we generally assume that such uploaded attachment is either an original work, was taken from a site that offers the content for free, or the member has a license or permission to distribute it. However, there is one particular type of content that you might sometimes see here that obviously doesn't fit this description, and thus raises the following question: QUESTION: "We sometimes see quotations from the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses, excerpts from the New World Translation, or artwork from the literature on topics/replies at JWTalk? Does the organization endorse this?" This is a very good question. We should start by saying that that the Branch doesn’t “endorse” any website or service that it does not manage or operate directly. To “endorse” means “to recommend, or to publicly express support or approval of." So the Branch is not going to endorse Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even JWTalk. However, we have responded to indirect email requests from the Branch to remove content, and we have removed features and made policy changes after having direct discussions regarding the community with a Branch-assigned Circuit Overseer. None of this constitutes an “endorsement”, but we are confident that when they are concerned about some facet of JWTalk or it’s community, they won’t hesitate to reach out to us directly. Quotations and Excerpts from Literature Some individuals have the mistaken view that you cannot quote publications or the Bible itself because it’s copyrighted. This springs from a misunderstanding of copyright laws and what they are intended to do for the copyright owner, and maybe never having heard of “fair use” laws either. We’re not going to get deep into these here, as plenty of information is available for you to research on the internet. Plus, laws may vary from country to country. So here is the simplified version: Copyright laws say it is not okay to completely copy someone’s work. These laws make it illegal for someone completely replicate someone else’s work and redistribute it. This means you cannot reproduce an entire book, chapter, or article and share it, whether you do so by means of a copy machine, by downloading and publicly redistributing an electronic version, by typing it out on a discussion board, or even by copying it all by hand. This likewise applies to copying music and video (bootleg), or even artwork (forgery). Fair Use laws says you can quote or take a small excerpt from a person’s work and comment on it. A quotation can be anywhere from a single sentence to a couple short paragraphs. Fair Use also allows someone to take a small portion of some other work and create something of your own based on that work. For example, a new song may momentarily use a sample from an older song or some movie dialogue. Or, while it is illegal to upload and redistribute someone else’s video, you can create an original video of yourself giving commentary or critique of the original video. Movie reviewers do this all the time. What about uploaded images? Images are copyrighted as well. A graphics designer could be hired to create unique logos, icons, charts and graphs just like an artist or photographer could be hired to create beautiful pictures. It would be wrong to copy these materials and redistribute them elsewhere. This is why images are included among the other products mentioned in the "Terms of Use" at JW.org and within the JW Library app, which says “You may not post on the Internet any artwork, electronic publications, trademarks, music, photos, videos, or articles from our websites.” Because of this, we have a strict policy about not uploading any electronic publications, multimedia, or images from JW.org, JW Library, or it’s associated publications as downloadable file in our Files Library, or as an attachment to any Post or Reply within the community. We are serious about enforcing this, and if a member Reports a post to us containing such an uploaded attachment, we delete the attachment immediately and send a message to the member reminding him not to do that again. However, we will occasionally allow screencaps or images that have been written on with a digital pen or marked up with arrows or other additional markings. A member might need such visual representation to explain something he doesn’t understand about an image, chart, or graph. Likewise, another member may find it necessary to make notes over an image or graph to help make his reply clear. Uploading screencaps or images that have been marked up in this manner falls under Fair Use and so there is no need for other members to report these to us. What about embedded images? Sometimes the image you see displayed is NOT actually copied and uploaded to JWTalk’s server, but has rather been embedded. Embedding is a common practice on websites, blogs, and forums. Most community software, including the software we use, has a built-in function to automatically display media when a member pastes the link into the post. For example, a user may paste a YouTube link, and it will automatically display the video’s title screen and can be played right from the post. Likewise, a user may paste an image link, and the image will automatically be embedded into the post. Embedding images means that no copy is made on the post providing the link (the link is just HTML code pointing to the image or other material), therefore it does not give rise to liability for copyright infringement, unless your site deliberately creates the impression that you are somehow affiliated with or endorsed by the site to which you are linking. We, on the other hand, make every effort to make it clear that JWTalk.net is not an official website of Jehovah's Witnesses, nor are we endorsed, sponsored, or maintained by any legal entity used by Jehovah's Witnesses. Our policy regarding the automatic embedding of images is that a member may embed ONE image only, and may only do so if embedding that image is absolutely necessary to the coherency of his post or reply. You can tell if an image has been automatically embedded or illegally uploaded to our server by either mousing over it on a PC, or by long-pressing on it with your mobile device. If a file location says it’s at “jwtalk.net/uploads” or “jwtalk.net/files” and it is infringing, then you should report it. If the file location says it’s at “jw.org” or “akamaihd.net/assets” (JW.org uses Akamai services for content distribution) then it’s not an illegal copy and you don’t have to report it to us. Requesting Removal of your content While the above explanation uses the example of copyrighted content from JW.org, the same principles apply to all copyrighted materials. If you are the copyright holder of content that has been submitted by a member without permission, we're pretty easygoing about addressing disputes. Please read our DCMA Copyright Takedown Policy for information about how to prepare and submit a takedown notice. View full article
  4. Our Copyright and Image Policy Explained Our Community Membership Policy prohibits uploading copyrighted content to the community when you do not have a license or permission to do so. This is the member's responsibility, and senior members who have earned our trust are allowed to submit content without any oversight or approval process. Since we are on an "honor system", we generally assume that such uploaded attachment is either an original work, was taken from a site that offers the content for free, or the member has a license or permission to distribute it. However, there is one particular type of content that you might sometimes see here that obviously doesn't fit this description, and thus raises the following question: QUESTION: "We sometimes see quotations from the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses, excerpts from the New World Translation, or artwork from the literature on topics/replies at JWTalk? Does the organization endorse this?" This is a very good question. We should start by saying that that the Branch doesn’t “endorse” any website or service that it does not manage or operate directly. To “endorse” means “to recommend, or to publicly express support or approval of." So the Branch is not going to endorse Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even JWTalk. However, we have responded to indirect email requests from the Branch to remove content, and we have removed features and made policy changes after having direct discussions regarding the community with a Branch-assigned Circuit Overseer. None of this constitutes an “endorsement”, but we are confident that when they are concerned about some facet of JWTalk or it’s community, they won’t hesitate to reach out to us directly. Quotations and Excerpts from Literature Some individuals have the mistaken view that you cannot quote publications or the Bible itself because it’s copyrighted. This springs from a misunderstanding of copyright laws and what they are intended to do for the copyright owner, and maybe never having heard of “fair use” laws either. We’re not going to get deep into these here, as plenty of information is available for you to research on the internet. Plus, laws may vary from country to country. So here is the simplified version: Copyright laws say it is not okay to completely copy someone’s work. These laws make it illegal for someone completely replicate someone else’s work and redistribute it. This means you cannot reproduce an entire book, chapter, or article and share it, whether you do so by means of a copy machine, by downloading and publicly redistributing an electronic version, by typing it out on a discussion board, or even by copying it all by hand. This likewise applies to copying music and video (bootleg), or even artwork (forgery). Fair Use laws says you can quote or take a small excerpt from a person’s work and comment on it. A quotation can be anywhere from a single sentence to a couple short paragraphs. Fair Use also allows someone to take a small portion of some other work and create something of your own based on that work. For example, a new song may momentarily use a sample from an older song or some movie dialogue. Or, while it is illegal to upload and redistribute someone else’s video, you can create an original video of yourself giving commentary or critique of the original video. Movie reviewers do this all the time. What about uploaded images? Images are copyrighted as well. A graphics designer could be hired to create unique logos, icons, charts and graphs just like an artist or photographer could be hired to create beautiful pictures. It would be wrong to copy these materials and redistribute them elsewhere. This is why images are included among the other products mentioned in the "Terms of Use" at JW.org and within the JW Library app, which says “You may not post on the Internet any artwork, electronic publications, trademarks, music, photos, videos, or articles from our websites.” Because of this, we have a strict policy about not uploading any electronic publications, multimedia, or images from JW.org, JW Library, or it’s associated publications as downloadable file in our Files Library, or as an attachment to any Post or Reply within the community. We are serious about enforcing this, and if a member Reports a post to us containing such an uploaded attachment, we delete the attachment immediately and send a message to the member reminding him not to do that again. However, we will occasionally allow screencaps or images that have been written on with a digital pen or marked up with arrows or other additional markings. A member might need such visual representation to explain something he doesn’t understand about an image, chart, or graph. Likewise, another member may find it necessary to make notes over an image or graph to help make his reply clear. Uploading screencaps or images that have been marked up in this manner falls under Fair Use and so there is no need for other members to report these to us. What about embedded images? Sometimes the image you see displayed is NOT actually copied and uploaded to JWTalk’s server, but has rather been embedded. Embedding is a common practice on websites, blogs, and forums. Most community software, including the software we use, has a built-in function to automatically display media when a member pastes the link into the post. For example, a user may paste a YouTube link, and it will automatically display the video’s title screen and can be played right from the post. Likewise, a user may paste an image link, and the image will automatically be embedded into the post. Embedding images means that no copy is made on the post providing the link (the link is just HTML code pointing to the image or other material), therefore it does not give rise to liability for copyright infringement, unless your site deliberately creates the impression that you are somehow affiliated with or endorsed by the site to which you are linking. We, on the other hand, make every effort to make it clear that JWTalk.net is not an official website of Jehovah's Witnesses, nor are we endorsed, sponsored, or maintained by any legal entity used by Jehovah's Witnesses. Our policy regarding the automatic embedding of images is that a member may embed ONE image only, and may only do so if embedding that image is absolutely necessary to the coherency of his post or reply. You can tell if an image has been automatically embedded or illegally uploaded to our server by either mousing over it on a PC, or by long-pressing on it with your mobile device. If a file location says it’s at “jwtalk.net/uploads” or “jwtalk.net/files” and it is infringing, then you should report it. If the file location says it’s at “jw.org” or “akamaihd.net/assets” (JW.org uses Akamai services for content distribution) then it’s not an illegal copy and you don’t have to report it to us. Requesting Removal of your content While the above explanation uses the example of copyrighted content from JW.org, the same principles apply to all copyrighted materials. If you are the copyright holder of content that has been submitted by a member without permission, we're pretty easygoing about addressing disputes. Please read our DCMA Copyright Takedown Policy for information about how to prepare and submit a takedown notice.
  5. DCMA Copyright Takedown Policy JWTalk - Jehovah's Witnesses Online Community ("JWTalk") enables threaded discussions, social networking, and private messaging between registered users of the community. JWTalk is a "Service Provider" within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. § 512(k)(1) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Accordingly, it is entitled to certain protections from claims of copyright infringement under the DMCA, commonly referred to as the “safe harbor” provisions. JWTalk respects the rights of copyright holders and abides by DMCA and similar regulations in other jurisdictions by responding to written notifications of alleged infringement by copyright holders. As part of our response, we may remove or disable access to allegedly infringing material residing in our community. This Copyright Takedown Policy supplements, and is incorporated into, JWTalk’s Terms and Conditions, also called the “Community Membership Policy”. What Is the DMCA? In order to understand the DMCA and some of the policy lines it draws, it’s helpful to learn about the reasons the act was created. Before the DMCA, an Internet-based service providers could be liable for copyright infringement in the United States just for hosting its users’ pictures, music, videos or code. This was true even if it had no actual knowledge of any infringing content. This was a problem, since even a single claim of copyright infringement can carry statutory damages of up to $150,000. With potential damages that high multiplied across millions of users, cloud-computing and user-generated content sites like YouTube, Facebook or GitHub probably never would have existed (or at least not without passing some of that cost downstream to their users). The DMCA attempted to fix this problem by creating a so-called copyright liability “safe harbor” for service providers hosting allegedly infringing user-generated content. (See U.S. Code, Title 17, Section 512.) Essentially, so long as a service provider follows the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown rules, it won’t be liable for copyright infringement based on user-generated content. Two types of DMCA Notices DMCA takedown notices are used by copyright owners to ask JWTalk to take down infringing content. If someone else is using your copyrighted content in an unauthorized manner on JWTalk, you can send us a DMCA takedown notice to request that the infringing content be changed or removed. On the other hand, counter notices can be used to correct mistakes. Maybe the person sending the takedown notice does not hold the copyright or did not realize that you have a license or made some other mistake in their takedown notice. Since JWTalk usually cannot know if there has been a mistake, the DMCA counter notice allows you to let us know and ask that we put the content back up. A. How It Works JWTalk acts as a middleman. The copyright owner gives JWTalk a complaint about a user, and we pass that complaint along to the user and remove the offending content. If the user disputes the complaint, JWTalk passes that dispute back to the copyright owner, and may restore the disputed content. It is up to the parties (and their lawyers) to evaluate the merit of their claims, bearing in mind that notices must be made under penalty of perjury. These are the basic steps of the process: 1. Copyright Owner Investigates. A copyright owner should always conduct an initial investigation to confirm both (a) that they own the copyright to an original work and (b) that the content on JWTalk is unauthorized and infringing. 2. Copyright Owner Sends a Takedown Notice. After investigating, a copyright owner prepares and sends a takedown notice to JWTalk. Assuming the takedown notice is sufficiently detailed according to the statutory requirements (detailed below), we will disable the content and notify the affected user. 3. Copyright Owner Revises or Retracts the Notice. After making changes, the copyright owner must review them and renew or revise their takedown notice if the changes are insufficient. If the copyright owner is satisfied with the changes, they do not have to do anything. JWTalk will interpret silence longer than two weeks as an implied retraction of the takedown notice. 4. User/Member May Send a Counter Notice. We encourage users who have had content disabled to consult with a lawyer about their options. If a user believes that their content was disabled because of a mistake or misidentification, they may send us a counter notice. As with the original notice, the counter notice must be sufficiently detailed (see below). If it is, we will pass the notice back to the copyright owner. If a counter notice is submitted, the user may be able to restore or reupload the disputed content. 5. Copyright Owner May File a Legal Action. If a copyright owner wishes to keep the content disabled after receiving a counter notice, they will need to initiate a legal action seeking a court order to restrain the user from engaging in infringing activity relating to the content on JWTalk. In other words, you, the member/user might get sued by the copyright owner. B. Transparency We believe that transparency is a virtue. The public should know what content is being removed from JWTalk and why. We will post redacted copies of any legal notices we receive (including original notices, counter notices or retractions) in an area that is publicly visible. We will not publicly publish your personal contact information; we will remove personal information (except for usernames in URLs to your public profile) before publishing notices. Please also note that, although we will not publicly publish unredacted notices, we may provide a complete unredacted copy of any notices we receive directly to any party whose rights would be affected by it. C. Repeated Infringement It is the policy of JWTalk, in appropriate circumstances and in its sole discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may infringe upon the copyrights of others. We may also and at our sole discretion limit and/or terminate access to the Services of any users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is any repeat infringement. D. Submitting a Copyright Takedown Notice Filing a DMCA complaint is the start of a pre-defined legal process. Your complaint will be reviewed for accuracy, validity, and completeness. If your complaint has satisfied these requirements, we will take action on your request - which includes forwarding a full copy of your notice (including your name, address, phone and email address) to the user(s) who posted the allegedly infringing material in question. We Will Only Act on Claims That… 1. Identify the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed. The specificity of your identification will depend on the nature of the work you believe has been infringed. If you have published your work, you might be able to just link back to a web page where it lives. If it is proprietary and not published, you might describe it and explain that it is proprietary. If you have registered it with the Copyright Office, you should include the registration number. If you are alleging that the hosted content is a direct, literal copy of your work, you can also just explain that fact. 2. Identify the infringing material. It is important to be as specific as possible in your identification. This identification needs to be reasonably sufficient to permit JWTalk to locate the material on our website. At a minimum, this means that you should include the URL to the material allegedly infringing your copyright. 3. Provide your contact information. Include your email address, name, telephone number and physical address. 4. Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law.” 5. Also include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner, or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.” 6. Include your signature. A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice) of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf. You may send your Copyright Takedown Notice to support@jwtalk.net and we will respond promptly. E. Requesting a Retraction If you believe that the materials reported in the copyright complaints were misidentified or removed in error, you may send us a counter-notification(s). A counter-notice is a request for JWTalk to reinstate the removed material, and it has legal consequences. Alternatively, you may be able to contact the reporter directly and ask for a retraction of the copyright complaint from. The reporter can send retractions to support@jwtalk.net and should include identification of the material that was disabled, and a statement that the reporter would like to retract their DMCA notice. This is the fastest and most efficient means of resolving an unresolved copyright complaint. A retraction is at the sole discretion of the original reporter. F. Submitting a Counter-Notice You may file a counter-notice if you believe that this material was misidentified, or you have a good faith belief that the material should not have been removed. If you’re unsure whether or not you should file a counter-notice, you may want to consult with an attorney, because a counter-notice is a request for JWTalk to reinstate the removed material, and is the start of a legal process that has legal consequences. Submitting a counter notice indicates that you consent to the jurisdiction of a U.S. Federal court and that you consent to the disclosure of your personal information to the reporter, who may use this information to sue you for copyright infringement in a court of law. If you receive a DMCA Takedown Notice for a copyright violation, we will send you a Private Message (PM) and an email detailing how to exercise these options if you disagree with us disabling the disputed content. Upon receipt of a valid counter-notice, we will promptly forward a copy to the person who filed the original notice. This means that the contact information that is submitted in your counter-notice will be shared to the person who filed the original notice. If the copyright owner disagrees that the content was removed in error or misidentification, they may pursue legal action against you. If we do not receive notice within 10-14 business days that the original reporter is seeking a court order to prevent further infringement of the material at issue, we may replace or cease disabling access to the material that was removed. We cannot offer any legal advice. Should you have questions, please consult an attorney. View full article
  6. DCMA Copyright Takedown Policy JWTalk - Jehovah's Witnesses Online Community ("JWTalk") enables threaded discussions, social networking, and private messaging between registered users of the community. JWTalk is a "Service Provider" within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. § 512(k)(1) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Accordingly, it is entitled to certain protections from claims of copyright infringement under the DMCA, commonly referred to as the “safe harbor” provisions. JWTalk respects the rights of copyright holders and abides by DMCA and similar regulations in other jurisdictions by responding to written notifications of alleged infringement by copyright holders. As part of our response, we may remove or disable access to allegedly infringing material residing in our community. This Copyright Takedown Policy supplements, and is incorporated into, JWTalk’s Terms and Conditions, also called the “Community Membership Policy”. What Is the DMCA? In order to understand the DMCA and some of the policy lines it draws, it’s helpful to learn about the reasons the act was created. Before the DMCA, an Internet-based service providers could be liable for copyright infringement in the United States just for hosting its users’ pictures, music, videos or code. This was true even if it had no actual knowledge of any infringing content. This was a problem, since even a single claim of copyright infringement can carry statutory damages of up to $150,000. With potential damages that high multiplied across millions of users, cloud-computing and user-generated content sites like YouTube, Facebook or GitHub probably never would have existed (or at least not without passing some of that cost downstream to their users). The DMCA attempted to fix this problem by creating a so-called copyright liability “safe harbor” for service providers hosting allegedly infringing user-generated content. (See U.S. Code, Title 17, Section 512.) Essentially, so long as a service provider follows the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown rules, it won’t be liable for copyright infringement based on user-generated content. Two types of DMCA Notices DMCA takedown notices are used by copyright owners to ask JWTalk to take down infringing content. If someone else is using your copyrighted content in an unauthorized manner on JWTalk, you can send us a DMCA takedown notice to request that the infringing content be changed or removed. On the other hand, counter notices can be used to correct mistakes. Maybe the person sending the takedown notice does not hold the copyright or did not realize that you have a license or made some other mistake in their takedown notice. Since JWTalk usually cannot know if there has been a mistake, the DMCA counter notice allows you to let us know and ask that we put the content back up. A. How It Works JWTalk acts as a middleman. The copyright owner gives JWTalk a complaint about a user, and we pass that complaint along to the user and remove the offending content. If the user disputes the complaint, JWTalk passes that dispute back to the copyright owner, and may restore the disputed content. It is up to the parties (and their lawyers) to evaluate the merit of their claims, bearing in mind that notices must be made under penalty of perjury. These are the basic steps of the process: 1. Copyright Owner Investigates. A copyright owner should always conduct an initial investigation to confirm both (a) that they own the copyright to an original work and (b) that the content on JWTalk is unauthorized and infringing. 2. Copyright Owner Sends a Takedown Notice. After investigating, a copyright owner prepares and sends a takedown notice to JWTalk. Assuming the takedown notice is sufficiently detailed according to the statutory requirements (detailed below), we will disable the content and notify the affected user. 3. Copyright Owner Revises or Retracts the Notice. After making changes, the copyright owner must review them and renew or revise their takedown notice if the changes are insufficient. If the copyright owner is satisfied with the changes, they do not have to do anything. JWTalk will interpret silence longer than two weeks as an implied retraction of the takedown notice. 4. User/Member May Send a Counter Notice. We encourage users who have had content disabled to consult with a lawyer about their options. If a user believes that their content was disabled because of a mistake or misidentification, they may send us a counter notice. As with the original notice, the counter notice must be sufficiently detailed (see below). If it is, we will pass the notice back to the copyright owner. If a counter notice is submitted, the user may be able to restore or reupload the disputed content. 5. Copyright Owner May File a Legal Action. If a copyright owner wishes to keep the content disabled after receiving a counter notice, they will need to initiate a legal action seeking a court order to restrain the user from engaging in infringing activity relating to the content on JWTalk. In other words, you, the member/user might get sued by the copyright owner. B. Transparency We believe that transparency is a virtue. The public should know what content is being removed from JWTalk and why. We will post redacted copies of any legal notices we receive (including original notices, counter notices or retractions) in an area that is publicly visible. We will not publicly publish your personal contact information; we will remove personal information (except for usernames in URLs to your public profile) before publishing notices. Please also note that, although we will not publicly publish unredacted notices, we may provide a complete unredacted copy of any notices we receive directly to any party whose rights would be affected by it. C. Repeated Infringement It is the policy of JWTalk, in appropriate circumstances and in its sole discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who may infringe upon the copyrights of others. We may also and at our sole discretion limit and/or terminate access to the Services of any users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is any repeat infringement. D. Submitting a Copyright Takedown Notice Filing a DMCA complaint is the start of a pre-defined legal process. Your complaint will be reviewed for accuracy, validity, and completeness. If your complaint has satisfied these requirements, we will take action on your request - which includes forwarding a full copy of your notice (including your name, address, phone and email address) to the user(s) who posted the allegedly infringing material in question. We Will Only Act on Claims That… 1. Identify the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed. The specificity of your identification will depend on the nature of the work you believe has been infringed. If you have published your work, you might be able to just link back to a web page where it lives. If it is proprietary and not published, you might describe it and explain that it is proprietary. If you have registered it with the Copyright Office, you should include the registration number. If you are alleging that the hosted content is a direct, literal copy of your work, you can also just explain that fact. 2. Identify the infringing material. It is important to be as specific as possible in your identification. This identification needs to be reasonably sufficient to permit JWTalk to locate the material on our website. At a minimum, this means that you should include the URL to the material allegedly infringing your copyright. 3. Provide your contact information. Include your email address, name, telephone number and physical address. 4. Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law.” 5. Also include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner, or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.” 6. Include your signature. A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice) of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf. You may send your Copyright Takedown Notice to support@jwtalk.net and we will respond promptly. E. Requesting a Retraction If you believe that the materials reported in the copyright complaints were misidentified or removed in error, you may send us a counter-notification(s). A counter-notice is a request for JWTalk to reinstate the removed material, and it has legal consequences. Alternatively, you may be able to contact the reporter directly and ask for a retraction of the copyright complaint from. The reporter can send retractions to support@jwtalk.net and should include identification of the material that was disabled, and a statement that the reporter would like to retract their DMCA notice. This is the fastest and most efficient means of resolving an unresolved copyright complaint. A retraction is at the sole discretion of the original reporter. F. Submitting a Counter-Notice You may file a counter-notice if you believe that this material was misidentified, or you have a good faith belief that the material should not have been removed. If you’re unsure whether or not you should file a counter-notice, you may want to consult with an attorney, because a counter-notice is a request for JWTalk to reinstate the removed material, and is the start of a legal process that has legal consequences. Submitting a counter notice indicates that you consent to the jurisdiction of a U.S. Federal court and that you consent to the disclosure of your personal information to the reporter, who may use this information to sue you for copyright infringement in a court of law. If you receive a DMCA Takedown Notice for a copyright violation, we will send you a Private Message (PM) and an email detailing how to exercise these options if you disagree with us disabling the disputed content. Upon receipt of a valid counter-notice, we will promptly forward a copy to the person who filed the original notice. This means that the contact information that is submitted in your counter-notice will be shared to the person who filed the original notice. If the copyright owner disagrees that the content was removed in error or misidentification, they may pursue legal action against you. If we do not receive notice within 10-14 business days that the original reporter is seeking a court order to prevent further infringement of the material at issue, we may replace or cease disabling access to the material that was removed. We cannot offer any legal advice. Should you have questions, please consult an attorney.
  7. PRIVACY POLICY What personal information do we receive from you? When you register for an account, you voluntarily provide us with personal information necessary to be able to communicate with you in connection with your membership and activity at JWTalk. This personal information includes your name, email address, location, gender, and congregation details. How and why we use your personal information? We use your personal information to respond to you when you contact us, or to update you about the services we provide or changes to our policies. We also use your personal information to verify that you qualify for membership in the JWTalk community. How long do we keep your personal information for? We keep your personal information for the entire duration of your membership at JWTalk. If you want to temporarily stop using JWTalk, we will deactivate your account, and your personal information will continue to be retained so that you may return to the community at any time. You cannot delete your account, but you may request that your personal information be deleted from your account, at which point you will not have access to the services provided to members of JWTalk. Who do we share your personal information with? We do not sell or share your information to other websites or to advertisers. We may share information about you with your local congregation elders or with other responsible individuals within Jehovah’s organization. Your information is visible to all our Team members, listed here. Who can see the content I submit? Only you and Community Team members can see your personal information that is connected to your account, such as your full name, email address, location, and congregation. Only your first name and other information you choose to share is visible to others. When you start a New Topic or post a Reply to an existing topic in a Forum, Club, or Blog, this content becomes public. Even if you post it in one of the members only areas, threads containing your posts may be moved to a publicly visible area at our discretion. Private Messages are only visible between you and the other participants, unless you or the other participants make a request to the Community Managers to review the content of a Private Message. You can control who can view albums you create in the Photo Gallery. Files you submit to our Files Library are available for downloading to the general public. How can I manage or delete information about me? You can manage the personal information you share when you use JWTalk in your Account Settings. Some of your information can only be edited by the Staff at your request. You cannot delete your posts, as this would break the flow of conversation in topics you participated in. JWTalk is a public community for Jehovah's Witnesses, and when you voluntarily participate in discussions with other members, the content you submit to the JWTalk community becomes the property of JWTalk as stated in our Community Membership Policy. You can delete your Status Updates, Albums in the Photo Gallery, and your Private Messages at any time. What other data do you collect about my visits? When you visit JWTalk, we receive data from your Internet Service Provider as well as data about the type of device you have and the browser you are using. Do we use Cookies to collect personal information on you? No. However, to provide better service to you on JWTalk, we use cookies when you are browsing our community. If you disable cookies in your browser, the features and services provided to registered members of JWTalk may no longer work properly for you. For more details about our use of cookies, click here. How do we respond to legal requests or prevent harm? We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. We also may retain information from accounts disabled for violations of our terms to prevent repeat abuse or other violations of our terms. Where do you store my personal information? Your information is stored on our secure server in the United States of America. How will we notify you of changes to this policy? Changes to this policy will be posted in the community so as to give you the opportunity to review and comment on the revised policy. When it the new policy becomes effective, you will have to accept it before continuing to use your membership privileges. How will we contact you? We may contact you by private message, email, or social media. If you prefer a particular contact means over another please just let us know. How can you contact us? If you have further questions on the processing of your personal information, please use the Contact Us form at the bottom or send an email. Registered members may also post a new topic in the Confidential Talk forum. or Private Message one of the Community Managers. View full article
  8. PRIVACY POLICY What personal information do we receive from you? When you register for an account, you voluntarily provide us with personal information necessary to be able to communicate with you in connection with your membership and activity at JWTalk. This personal information includes your name, email address, location, gender, and congregation details. How and why we use your personal information? We use your personal information to respond to you when you contact us, or to update you about the services we provide or changes to our policies. We also use your personal information to verify that you qualify for membership in the JWTalk community. How long do we keep your personal information for? We keep your personal information for the entire duration of your membership at JWTalk. If you want to temporarily stop using JWTalk, we will deactivate your account, and your personal information will continue to be retained so that you may return to the community at any time. You cannot delete your account, but you may request that your personal information be deleted from your account, at which point you will not have access to the services provided to members of JWTalk. Who do we share your personal information with? We do not sell or share your information to other websites or to advertisers. We may share information about you with your local congregation elders or with other responsible individuals within Jehovah’s organization. Your information is visible to all our Team members, listed here. Who can see the content I submit? Only you and Community Team members can see your personal information that is connected to your account, such as your full name, email address, location, and congregation. Only your first name and other information you choose to share is visible to others. When you start a New Topic or post a Reply to an existing topic in a Forum, Club, or Blog, this content becomes public. Even if you post it in one of the members only areas, threads containing your posts may be moved to a publicly visible area at our discretion. Private Messages are only visible between you and the other participants, unless you or the other participants make a request to the Community Managers to review the content of a Private Message. You can control who can view albums you create in the Photo Gallery. Files you submit to our Files Library are available for downloading to the general public. How can I manage or delete information about me? You can manage the personal information you share when you use JWTalk in your Account Settings. Some of your information can only be edited by the Staff at your request. You cannot delete your posts, as this would break the flow of conversation in topics you participated in. JWTalk is a public community for Jehovah's Witnesses, and when you voluntarily participate in discussions with other members, the content you submit to the JWTalk community becomes the property of JWTalk as stated in our Community Membership Policy. You can delete your Status Updates, Albums in the Photo Gallery, and your Private Messages at any time. What other data do you collect about my visits? When you visit JWTalk, we receive data from your Internet Service Provider as well as data about the type of device you have and the browser you are using. Do we use Cookies to collect personal information on you? No. However, to provide better service to you on JWTalk, we use cookies when you are browsing our community. If you disable cookies in your browser, the features and services provided to registered members of JWTalk may no longer work properly for you. For more details about our use of cookies, click here. How do we respond to legal requests or prevent harm? We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. We also may retain information from accounts disabled for violations of our terms to prevent repeat abuse or other violations of our terms. Where do you store my personal information? Your information is stored on our secure server in the United States of America. How will we notify you of changes to this policy? Changes to this policy will be posted in the community so as to give you the opportunity to review and comment on the revised policy. When it the new policy becomes effective, you will have to accept it before continuing to use your membership privileges. How will we contact you? We may contact you by private message, email, or social media. If you prefer a particular contact means over another please just let us know. How can you contact us? If you have further questions on the processing of your personal information, please use the Contact Us form at the bottom or send an email. Registered members may also post a new topic in the Confidential Talk forum. or Private Message one of the Community Managers.
  9. The Witnesses wait as officials reconsider the government’s long-standing policy on the issue of conscientious objection to military service. View the full article on JW.org
  10. Judges in South Korea are increasingly searching for solutions for conscientious objectors to military service instead of imprisoning them. View the full article on JW.org
  11. Ongoing relief efforts to assist fellow Witnesses are expected to be completed by June 30, 2018. View the full article on JW.org
  12. The history of conscientious objection in Armenia shows how favorable ECHR judgments effected a major change in the government’s treatment of conscientious objectors. View the full article on JW.org
  13. The military court of Tajikistan rejected the appeal to acquit Daniil Islamov of the false charge of evading military service and to release him from prison. View the full article on JW.org
  14. Jehovah’s Witnesses were attacked by a mob and expelled from their homes. They have appealed to legal authorities for relief from this religious persecution. --------Link Fixed------- View the full article on JW.org
  15. A public exhibit at the Hatachana compound was designed to increase awareness of the persecution that Jehovah’s Witnesses experienced under the Nazi regime. https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/israel/tel-aviv-exhibit-jehovahs-witnesses/

About JWTalk.net - Jehovah's Witnesses Online Community

Since 2006, JWTalk has proved to be a well-moderated online community for real Jehovah's Witnesses on the web. However, our community is not an official website of Jehovah's Witnesses. It is not endorsed, sponsored, or maintained by any legal entity used by Jehovah's Witnesses. We are a pro-JW community maintained by brothers and sisters around the world. We expect all community members to be active publishers in their congregations, therefore, please do not apply for membership if you are not currently one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

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JWTalk 23.8.11 (changelog)