Content Policy
Last updated: [Month Day, Year]
Codal exists to help people and organizations create, improve, publish, preserve, and share books. This Content Policy explains what is and is not allowed on Codal.
You are responsible for the content you create, upload, import, publish, export, print, or distribute through Codal.
1. Your responsibility
You and your organization are responsible for your books, manuscripts, images, metadata, source documents, translations, annotations, covers, quotations, contributors, licenses, public-domain claims, and distribution decisions.
Codal may provide tools for readiness checks, rights review, accessibility, public-domain provenance, print preflight, package exports, verification, metadata, and preservation. These tools do not replace your responsibility to make sure your content is lawful and properly licensed.
2. Content that is not allowed
You may not use Codal to create, upload, import, publish, export, or distribute content that:
- violates the law
- infringes copyright, trademark, publicity, privacy, or other rights
- contains malware, malicious code, or intentionally harmful files
- impersonates a person, publisher, institution, organization, or rights holder in a deceptive way
- falsely claims ownership, authorship, license, or public-domain status
- includes private personal information without authorization
- is used for spam, fraud, phishing, scams, or deceptive activity
- promotes or facilitates violence, exploitation, or serious harm
- contains child sexual abuse material or sexual exploitation
- contains terrorist or unlawful extremist material
- harasses, threatens, or targets people unlawfully
- is designed to evade moderation, security, or access controls
- violates Codal's Terms or other policies
3. Copyright and third-party rights
Do not upload, import, publish, export, or distribute content unless you have the rights to do so.
This includes:
- books
- scans
- images
- cover art
- illustrations
- maps
- music
- lyrics
- quotations
- translations
- annotations
- datasets
- metadata
- source files
- AI-assisted outputs
If you use third-party material, you are responsible for making sure the use is lawful and properly attributed.
4. Public-domain content
Codal supports public-domain restoration and open editions, but public-domain claims must be made carefully.
Public-domain status may depend on:
- jurisdiction
- original publication date
- author death date
- publication history
- copyright notice and renewal history
- restoration rules
- edition history
- translations
- illustrations
- annotations
- forewords
- cover art
- scans and source files
Codal may ask you to provide jurisdiction, dates, source scan provenance, institution information, scan dates, OCR history, and component licenses. These fields help readers and rights reviewers understand the source of a public-domain edition.
Codal does not guarantee that a work is public domain. You are responsible for public-domain claims.
5. Mixed-rights editions
A book may contain content with different rights.
For example, a public-domain novel may include:
- a public-domain base text
- a modern introduction
- modern annotations
- a new translation
- a new cover
- images from third parties
- source scans from an institution
Each component may have different rights. You must accurately describe and license each component.
6. AI-assisted content
AI-assisted content is allowed when used responsibly.
You are responsible for reviewing and approving AI-assisted content before publishing it.
Do not use AI tools to:
- plagiarize or disguise infringement
- fabricate citations
- falsely claim sources
- impersonate authors or institutions
- generate unlawful content
- bypass contributor rights
- bypass review or release workflows
AI-assisted outputs may be inaccurate or incomplete. Verify facts, sources, quotations, translations, and rights before publishing.
7. Sensitive and private information
Do not publish private or sensitive information about another person without authorization.
This may include:
- addresses
- phone numbers
- private emails
- government IDs
- financial information
- medical information
- private messages
- personal data about minors
- confidential business information
8. Reports and enforcement
Users and rights holders may report content that they believe violates this policy.
Codal may:
- remove content
- disable public access
- restrict downloads or exports
- disable a release
- remove content from feeds or search
- suspend or terminate accounts
- preserve records for legal or safety reasons
- notify affected users or organizations
- require additional rights or provenance information
Codal may act without prior notice when necessary to address legal risk, security risk, or harm.
9. Appeals
If your content is removed or restricted, you may contact us to request review unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.
Appeals may be sent to:
Include:
- your account email
- project or release link
- explanation of why you believe the action was incorrect
- any supporting rights or license documentation
10. Contact
To report content or ask policy questions, contact: