Statement of Policies

Publicity and Citation:

We encourage you to let people know about the Watchdog Blog and to use or refer to our postings in news articles, other blogs, other writing, or in any other way that seems appropriate. Please let us know if you cite or link to the blog and, when you do so, please acknowledge the name of the individual author of the posting.

Comments Policy:

Comments are moderated to ensure their relevance and encourage a constructive dialogue. Public Citizen respects a diversity of view points and will post comments with opposing views when they evince respect and raise issues of substance. Correspondingly, views stated in comments to posts do not necessarily reflect those of Public Citizen.

Intellectual Property:

It is our policy to respond to notices of infringement of copyright and other intellectual property rights. We will promptly process and investigate notices of alleged infringement and take appropriate action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 512 ("DMCA"), and other applicable intellectual property laws, including the termination of access by repeat infringers. Pursuant to the DMCA, notifications of claimed copyright infringement should be sent to our designated agent: Diane Wilkinson, Administrative Assistant, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, 215 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003. To be effective, the notification must be a clear written communication that includes the following: (a) a signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed; (c) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material; (d) information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted; (e) a statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or applicable law; and (f) a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.