Copyright



That means with teeth if policies are violated. 


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NOTE: Even if an experiencers contributor agrees to allow usage of their story and signs an exclusivity agreement with a publisher, written permission must still come from OBERF.  The reasons are listed in the discussion below.


If you are interested in obtaining written copyright permission from OBERF, please contact Jody.  Thank you in advance for your decency and sense of fair play.

For OBERF purposes, it is our policy to reserve all copyright protections specifically contemplated or derived by caselaw and those gray areas including but not limited to electronic copying, that information temporarily copied into RAM memory, and but not limited to, that information copied to a hard drive, viewed on a monitor and, but not limited to, derivative works such as subsequent printing. 

Cybertheft and other intellectual property issues are becoming an ever increasing problem.  In response, ACDRF has carefully considered the laws and formulated policies to give contributors that delicate balance between ownership of their experience and protection from unscrupulous people.  

A Common misconception is that information on the World Wide Web is freely and universally available and hence is public domain and not subject to copyright. Unless information on a Web page specifically states that permission is given to freely copy or distribute the information, Web information and images should be treated like print information and images and hence subject to copyright laws. 

OBERF�s mission is to promote awareness of spiritual spectrum experiences to the most people such that experiences are recognized as real and authentic experiences in the common culture.  We value our contributor�s experiences and therefore, respect privacy and confidentiality concerns.  Being a doctor and lawyer, rest assured that Jeff and I both hold ourselves and those who work with us to higher standards of confidentiality than most other professions.  We guarantee that the integrity of your submissions will remain in tact.  And lastly, we stress that OBERF is a NON-PROFIT organization. 

 As a mission to promote awareness of experiencers, OBERF will cooperate to the fullest extent possible to help others in getting the word out to the world.  This means that if your experience is published on the web and you tell us that it is o.k.,  OBERF will from time to time, contact you regarding possible interviews with various authors, television or radio personalities.  If you are shy about publicity, please let us know.  We will respect your privacy and make sure not to bother you.   

 Take notice that more people will read your account on the web than ever in a book.  We get close to 1,000 hits on the website per week.  If you wonder about how well experiencers books are selling, then I invite you to check the ratings on amazon.com.  experiencers books simply are not a money making proposition.  Therefore, please be aware that most publishers require authors to sign all copyrights to the book material over to the publishers.  Taken to the extreme, publishers could demand that we take the account off the website, or they could try to take us to court for copyright violations.  To avoid these potentially nasty situations, we give notice to everyone.  These accounts, as published on the web, are joint ownership between Dr. Long (as copyrighted 1999) and the experiencer.* (Discussion below)  

As daunting as legalese may sound, joint-ownership is actually a form of protection for our contributors and allows for the experiencers experiences to be viewed in their entirety, by the world, and uncorrupted by commercial interests.  Many publishers require stories to be sensationalized.  Moreover, we have had horror stories of peoples� accounts being lifted off the internet with the names changed and included in books.  If you see your account published with someone else's name on it, we won't hesitate to go after it.  In today's world, cyber theft is a hot item for intellectual property attorneys.

That's the teeth part of the website and unfortunately, some of those teeth have to show on the website so the greedy ones will understand there will be consequences for their actions.  Our policy is to keep the experiences on the web for all to learn from.  It also means that we'd like to use the excerpts from experiences in scientific research studies or future books.  Getting the message of hope to as many people as possible is the ultimate goal.  

While the teeth shown on the web may mention that written permission may be needed for commercial uses, this is mainly to protect the experiencers from harassment.  Hopefully, a publisher or author would have the decency to approach us first and then we can contact you from there.  That way you know it is a legitimate request and not some fly-by-night drag on your time that will never come to fruition.  Our policy with experiencers is that if they wish to give someone permission to use their account, that is fine with us.  We don't mind signing off on spreading the word.  However, we want publishers and other media to know that the account was shared with us first and as such, should remain on the web for all to see.

*OWNERSHIP:  The accounts as presented on the website falls under joint authorship, which means �a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole.�  The website submission site is specifically designed to illicit as much detailed recall as possible, and is presented in such a manner that information obtained represents a co-authorship.  The final product is a much more detailed account than would be possible by a reasonable person in just a narrative fashion.  Any author, publisher, or media, gains the benefit of the contributor insights which are much more detailed as a result of the detailed questionnaire.  OBERF is a nonprofit organization that researches spontaneous OBEs, NDE-Like experiences, and spiritually transformative events.  We do not authorize commercial use of our materials for a profit without a specifically written agreement from OBERF regarding copyright permissions and what exactly is the scope of that permission.  Dr. Jeffrey P. Long owns half of the reproduction, distribution, derivative work, and public performance rights.

Copyright1999 by Dr. Jeffrey & Jody Long .  All rights reserved.

OBERF is Copyrighted.  This means that book writers, publishers, and others seeking to use materials presented on this website for commercial use must get specific written permission from OBERF.  Violations will be prosecuted.