awareNet Copyright Policy

awareNet is a peer-to-peer social networking system to which users may add or upload content which they have created or which it is lawful for them to reproduce. By default, all such content supplied by users is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC) so that it may be made available to others for consumption, re-use, adaptation, translation and other purposes consistent with the awareNet's mission of education and personal empowerment.

If you cannot, or do not wish to make your contributions available under these terms you may choose from a range of different copyleft licenses including Academic Free License, the GNU Free Documentation License, additional Creative Commons licenses, etc. If you do not wish to grant others any use of your work beyond that consistent with South African copyright then by uploading or adding content to the network you grant the operators of awareNet a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform your content in connection with the Village Scribe Association's services and projects.

Procedure for reporting copyright infringement

If you believe material or content available on the awareNet network or an individual node infringes a copyright or the terms of the license under which it is made available, please send a notice of copyright infringement.  Correspondence should be sent (in English) to the Village Scribe Association, 9 Florence St, Grahamstown 6139, South Africa.

The notice of infringement should include:

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright that has allegedly been infringed;
• Identification of works or materials being infringed;
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing including information regarding the location of the infringing materials that the copyright owner seeks to have removed, with sufficient detail so that we are capable of finding and verifying its existence;
• Contact information about the notifier including address, telephone number and, if available, e-mail address;
• A statement that the notifier has a good faith belief that the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
• A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information provided is accurate and the notifying party is authorized to make the complaint on behalf of the copyright owner.

It is our policy to investigate the claims made in such a notice, and to remove content we reasonably believe to be infringing within 10 business days.

Please note that such claims must relate to infringement under South African law, specifically the Copyright Act of 1978 and its amendments.   Note also that awareNet's primary purpose is in education, and that the Act makes a "Fair Dealing" exception to copyright in Section 12(4) for copyrighted works used in the context of education:

12(4) The copyright in a literary or musical work shall not be infringed by using such work, to the extent justified by the purpose, by way of illustration in any publication, broadcast or sound or visual record for teaching: Provided that such use shall be compatible with fair practice and that the source shall be mentioned, as well as the name of the author if it appears on the work.