Copyright Information and Notice
All quotes © Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (unless otherwise noted)
Unless otherwise explicitly noted, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society holds the copyright for all quotes and scans cataloged at this site.
Note, however, that in many cases the original copyright has expired without renewal. In those cases, the works are now considered to be in the "public domain" and as such are not encumbered by copyright restrictions — see, for example, the Watch Tower books from the 1940s and 1950s available on the Watchtower Bookshelf CD-ROM.
For publications still protected by copyright, this Web site publishes under the provisions of international copyright law, which allows for excerpts to be published, for the purpose of review and/or study, without first obtaining the express written consent of the copyright holder. According to the FAQ at the U.S. Copyright office:
How much of someone else's work can I use without getting permission?
Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of specific number of words counts, a certain number of musical notes, or percentages of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See Circular 21 and FL 102.
The above mentioned FAQ is a simple language synopsis of relevant copyright law, in particular §107 of the US Code — Title 17 — Copyrights; Chapter 1 — Subject Matter and Scope of Copyrights.
Canadian Law on this subject is very similar. According to the Frequently Asked Questions section of The Canadian Intellectual Property Office:
What is "fair dealing?"
It is the use or reproduction of a work for private study, research, criticism, review or news reporting.
For more information about copyrights, Web sites, and your rights, consult this web resource or this one.