TheVault:Copyrights

The Vault @ The EERIE Files welcomes contributions from anyone with a case, a location, a story or a piece of research worth filing — but everything added to the Vault needs to respect other people's rights as carefully as it respects the stories being told. This page sets out what that means in practice.

The short version

• Write case files, profiles and assessments in your own words. Paraphrase and summarise sources — don't copy text from Wikipedia, news articles, books or other websites.
• Only upload images you have the right to use (see Images below).
• Always cite where information came from, using {{cite web}} / {{cite news}} and a proper {{Reflist}} at the bottom of the page.
• Short, attributed quotations are fine. Reproducing whole paragraphs, articles, song lyrics or entire chapters is not, no matter how well-sourced.
• If you didn't write it and don't hold the rights to it, don't paste it in — link to it instead.

A note on jurisdiction

The Vault is edited and run by people based in the UK, so UK copyright law — the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 — is what governs our own decisions about what we publish, even though the site itself (and Hostinger, who host it) can be accessed from anywhere. UK law doesn't have a broad "fair use" defence the way US law does; it has the narrower fair dealing exception, which only covers specific purposes — criticism and review, quotation, reporting current events, and parody or pastiche — and even then only where the amount used and its effect on the rights holder are judged "fair."

The Vault does make limited, deliberate use of fair dealing, under the strict conditions set out below. It is not a general licence to use whatever image or text looks useful — it's a narrow exception for specific, justified cases, and every use of it needs to show its working via {{Fair-dealing}}, not just assert that it applies.

Text

Every article in the Vault should be written specifically for the Vault, not lifted wholesale from another source. This applies even when a source is freely available online, in the public domain in some jurisdictions, or itself unsourced — copying it wholesale doesn't become acceptable just because it was easy to find.

What's fine:

• Summarising what a source says, in your own sentence structure and wording.
• A short, exact quotation (a sentence or a phrase) where the precise wording matters — a courtroom statement, a named claim, a memorable line from an interview — attributed with a citation. This is itself a form of fair dealing (quotation), and doesn't need the {{Fair-dealing}} process below; ordinary citation is enough.
• Linking to an original article, book or paper for anyone who wants the full text.

What isn't:

• Copy-pasting a paragraph (or more) from a news article, Wikipedia, or any other site, even with a citation attached. A citation tells the reader where a fact came from — it doesn't grant permission to reproduce the source's actual writing.
• Reconstructing an article by paraphrasing it sentence-by-sentence in the same order, covering the same points, in a way that just tracks the original's structure. That's still effectively a copy.
• Reproducing song lyrics, poems, or other complete short works in any amount, in a case file or anywhere else on the site. Lyrics and poems are excluded from the Vault's fair dealing allowance entirely — see below.

If you're ever unsure whether something counts as "your own words," a good test is: could you show your draft next to the source and have it obviously look like a different piece of writing, covering the same facts? If not, go back and rewrite it, or shorten it to a citation and a link.

Images

Only add an image to the Vault if one of the following is true:

• You took the photo yourself and are happy to share it under the Vault's terms.
• The image is clearly in the public domain (e.g. very old photographs, works released under the Open Government Licence) or under a licence that permits reuse (e.g. Creative Commons), and you note the licence and source when uploading.
• You have explicit permission from the rights holder to use it, and can say so.
• It qualifies under the Vault's fair dealing policy below, and you complete the {{Fair-dealing}} rationale in full.

If none of these apply — including images with no clear source or licence at all — don't upload it. Describe the image in the caption instead, and link out to where readers can see it on the original site.

Fair dealing: when and how

Fair dealing is a narrow legal exception, not a general permission, so the Vault only relies on it under specific circumstances, and every single use requires an explicit, filled-in rationale — never a bare claim that "fair dealing applies."

What it can be used for on the Vault:

• Book covers, where the cover is being identified and discussed as part of a genuine bibliography or review-style commentary (e.g. a Vault article that discusses a specific book's content, reception or significance) — not merely as decoration.
• A single still frame from a film or documentary being specifically discussed or reviewed in the article, for the same reason.
• Small excerpts of text where a short quotation genuinely isn't enough to make the point (this should be rare — most cases are already covered by ordinary quotation under "Text," above).

What it can never be used for on the Vault, regardless of rationale:

• Press photographs, paparazzi shots, or promotional stills of people, locations or events. These almost always fail the "effect on the market" test outright — they exist specifically to be licensed, and using one instead of licensing it is exactly the harm fair dealing doesn't protect against.
• Song lyrics, poems, or other short creative works, in any amount.
• Anything being used to illustrate an article generally, rather than being the specific subject of discussion in that article. If a Corner Pin pub photo would just be "nice to have" for the Spirit Searchers page, that's not fair dealing — it's decoration, and decoration doesn't qualify.
• Full-resolution or large images where a small, low-resolution version would serve the same illustrative purpose.

Every fair dealing use must satisfy all of the following before it's uploaded:

1. Purpose — it falls under one of the categories above, and that purpose is stated in the {{Fair-dealing}} rationale.
2. Necessity — the point being made genuinely can't be made in words alone, or by linking out instead.
3. Minimal use — only the smallest portion / lowest resolution that still serves the purpose. A book cover thumbnail, not a full-page scan. A single still, not a sequence of frames.
4. Discussed, not decorative — the image's specific subject (that book, that film, that scene) is actually discussed in the surrounding article text, not just captioned.
5. No free alternative exists — check first whether a public domain, Creative Commons, or "used with permission" version could serve the same purpose instead. Fair dealing is the last resort, not the first option.
6. Attribution — credit the actual rights holder (publisher, studio, photographer) in the {{Fair-dealing}} rationale, even though you don't have their permission.

If you're not confident an image clears all six of these, it doesn't belong on the Vault — use a caption and a link instead, the same as for anything else that fails the Copyright policy.

User-submitted stories

Some of the Vault's most valuable material comes from people sharing their own encounters. If you're filing a story someone told you (a family member, a friend, a forum post, a Facebook Group comment), it's on you to:

• Have the teller's okay to share it, especially if it identifies them or their location.
• Say clearly in the entry that it's a personal account being relayed by you, and by whom, rather than presenting it as your own first-hand experience if it isn't.
• Avoid pasting someone else's exact written account word-for-word from elsewhere online without their permission — summarise it, and link to the original if it's public, the same as with any other source.

If something on the Vault shouldn't be here

If you believe a page, image or passage on the Vault infringes your copyright, or was uploaded without proper permission, contact us via the Facebook Group or Instagram with:

• A link to the specific page.
• A description of the material and why it shouldn't be here.
• Where possible, a link to the original source it was taken from.

We'll review it and remove or amend the material where the concern is valid. This isn't a legal process — it's a normal editorial one, and most issues get sorted out quickly and without drama.