Copyright, Fair Use, Trademark, and Defamation
state-medical-board.org/ respects intellectual property and follows the procedures set out in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512. This page sets out how to send a takedown notice, how to send a counter-notice, our editorial position on fair use for factual reporting on board actions, and our position on nominative trademark use for state board, FSMB, NPDB, AMA, AOA, ABMS, and member specialty board names.
What’s on this page
1. Policy Summary
If you believe content on state-medical-board.org/ infringes a copyright you own or are authorised to enforce, you can send us a DMCA notice. We will respond promptly: removing or disabling access to the content, notifying the affected uploader (if applicable), and accepting counter-notices. We follow the safe-harbour framework of 17 U.S.C. § 512.
2. What This Covers
state-medical-board.org/ publishes practical information about U.S. state medical boards, federal regulators, and the framework around physician licensing. We do not host disciplinary records, NPDB reports, or any government-held content; we link to those sources at the agency itself. Most editorial content on the Site is original research and writing by our editorial team. Where we quote short passages from official agency publications, we do so under fair use for the purpose of editorial commentary and reference, with attribution and source link.
3. The Six Required Elements of a DMCA Notice
A valid notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) must include:
- A signature — physical or electronic — of the copyright owner or someone authorised to act on the owner’s behalf
- Identification of the work claimed to have been infringed (title, registration number if any, location of the original)
- Identification of the allegedly infringing material — including the specific URL on state-medical-board.org/ so we can locate it
- Your contact information — name, postal address, telephone number, email
- A good-faith statement that you believe the use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are authorised to act on behalf of the copyright owner
4. How to Submit a Notice
Send notices to info@state-medical-board.org with subject line “DMCA Notice.” Please paste the notice in the body of the email or attach a signed PDF. Sending the notice to a non-DMCA channel will delay our response.
For the purposes of 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(2), our designated agent for receipt of DMCA notices is the editorial team at info@state-medical-board.org. We register and update our designated-agent contact in line with the U.S. Copyright Office’s DMCA Designated Agent Directory practice.
5. What We Do With a Valid Notice
- Acknowledge. We acknowledge receipt within five business days
- Assess. We assess whether the notice is facially valid (all six elements present) and whether the identified material is reasonably the subject of the asserted copyright
- Act. If facially valid, we remove or disable access to the material expeditiously, consistent with the safe-harbour framework
- Notify. If the material was uploaded by a third-party contributor (rare on this Site), we notify them and give them an opportunity to submit a counter-notice
- Document. We log the notice, our response, and any counter-notice, and we maintain those logs as required
6. Counter-Notice Procedure
If you believe material was removed in error or as a result of misidentification, you can submit a counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3). A valid counter-notice must include:
- Your physical or electronic signature
- Identification of the material that was removed and the location it appeared at before removal
- A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification
- Your name, address, and telephone number
- A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if outside the U.S., for any judicial district in which we may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original notice or from their agent
Send counter-notices to info@state-medical-board.org with subject line “DMCA Counter-Notice.” We will forward the counter-notice to the original notice-sender and, unless we receive notice that the sender has filed a court action seeking to restrain the activity, we may restore the material in 10 to 14 business days.
7. Repeat-Infringer Policy
Consistent with 17 U.S.C. § 512(i), we have adopted and reasonably implement a policy that provides for the termination, in appropriate circumstances, of users (including any contributor accounts) who are repeat infringers. Our editorial team is small and content uploads from outside contributors are rare; this policy applies primarily as a structural commitment.
8. Abuse of the DMCA Process
Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing — or that material was removed by mistake or misidentification — is liable for damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, to the alleged infringer, the copyright owner, or our service provider, as applicable. We take abuse of the DMCA process seriously: pretextual notices targeted at suppressing accurate factual reporting on board action — particularly disciplinary action — will not be honoured beyond the assessment stage and may be referred to counsel. We may also publicly catalogue notices we receive (with the sender identified) where that is necessary to protect the public interest in transparency.
9. Fair Use Position
Under 17 U.S.C. § 107, fair use of copyrighted material is permitted for purposes including criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. The four-factor analysis weighs:
- The purpose and character of the use (transformative, non-commercial, educational)
- The nature of the copyrighted work
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used
- The effect on the potential market for the original
Where we describe a state medical board’s published action — a reprimand, probation, suspension, revocation, or voluntary surrender — we are engaged in factual reporting on a matter of public concern, namely the regulatory record of a licensed physician. Brief paraphrases or short quotes from the board’s published order, with attribution, fall squarely within fair use. The First Amendment protects our right to publish accurate information about action taken by a government body. We will not honour DMCA notices used as a pretext to suppress accurate factual reporting on board actions; such notices may themselves give rise to liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) and constitute an abuse of process under state law.
10. Facts Are Not Copyrightable
Facts are not copyrightable under U.S. law (Feist Publications v Rural Telephone Service, 499 U.S. 340 (1991)). The fact that a state medical board has a particular phone number, mailing address, license-renewal cycle, or CME requirement is not protected by copyright. The fact that a particular physician received a particular disciplinary action on a particular date is not protected by copyright. State Medical Practice Acts are public statutes and are not copyrightable. Government-produced material — federal Federal Register notices, NPDB regulations, OIG-LEIE entries, DEA regulations, CMS guidance — is generally not subject to copyright under 17 U.S.C. § 105.
11. Trademark Concerns — Nominative Fair Use
Trademark concerns are not handled through DMCA. If you believe our use of a name infringes your trademark rights, please email info@state-medical-board.org with subject line “Trademark concern” and we will respond promptly.
We use the names of every state medical board, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), DocInfo, the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), HRSA, HHS-OIG, DEA, CMS, USMLE, COMLEX, NBOME, ECFMG, ACGME, the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), and member specialty boards (ABIM, ABFM, ABS, ACOG, AAOS, AAFP, etc.) to identify the agency or organisation each page covers. This is nominative fair use under U.S. trademark law (New Kids on the Block v News America Publishing, 971 F.2d 302 (9th Cir. 1992)) — we use only as much of the mark as necessary to identify the body, we do not suggest sponsorship or endorsement, and we do not reproduce official seals or logos. Nominative fair use is a defence to trademark-infringement claims; we will not voluntarily remove identifying references that meet this standard.
12. Defamation Claims
Defamation is a state-law tort, not handled through DMCA. If you believe a statement of fact on the Site about you is false and defamatory, please email info@state-medical-board.org with subject line “Defamation concern” and identify the page URL, the specific statement, and why you believe it is false. Public officials and public figures (including most physicians who are the subject of public board action) must show “actual malice” — knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth — under New York Times v Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964). Truth is an absolute defence to defamation in U.S. law, and statements of opinion that do not assert or imply false fact are protected. We correct factual errors promptly and will publish a correction note.
13. Sealed or Expunged Records
Some states permit expungement, sealing, or removal of older disciplinary actions from the publicly searchable database after a defined period and on conditions. Where a record has been formally expunged or sealed by the originating board and the board’s portal still displays it, that is an issue with the board’s portal, not with us — we link to the official portal rather than hosting the underlying record. If you notify us that a board has formally sealed a record, we will hold the page and refer you back to the originating board, which is the only body that can update the underlying database. Email info@state-medical-board.org with subject line “Sealed-record notice.”
14. Contact
| Subject line | For |
|---|---|
| DMCA Notice | Copyright takedown notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512 |
| DMCA Counter-Notice | Counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g) |
| Trademark concern | Trademark complaints (handled outside DMCA framework) |
| Defamation concern | Allegedly false and defamatory statement |
| Sealed-record notice | Board has formally sealed/expunged a record we link to |
Need to Send a Legal Notice?
Use the right subject line above and include the page URL plus all required statutory elements. We acknowledge within five business days.
📧 info@state-medical-board.org