My mission through the Witnessing Project and the Archive is to help people share with others experiences they have had witnessing violence and violation by providing a central and safe environment for people to read and learn about others’ experiences in witnessing violence. This mission is best served by promoting wide access to and dissemination of witnessing accounts while ensuring that this dissemination preserves the integrity of the original accounts. 

When a witnessing account is submitted for inclusion in the Witnessing Archive, the copyright for that work must be transferred to me, Kaethe Weingarten, Ph.D., as the person who represents the Archive. Having me, as the representative of the Archive, own the copyright in a work helps to ensure the continuing availability of the work not only through its original publication in the Archive but also through later derivative works that might be produced to further the Witnessing Project’s mission. It also provides a mechanism to preserve the integrity of the original work and helps ensure that proper attribution is given the original author(s) in all future uses. 

By transferring your rights in your witnessing account to me, as the representative of the Archive, you give me the right to use all or part of your account for any purposes, including in lectures, articles and books, without asking your permission each time the account is used. Once you sign the Copyright Transfer form, copies of your account may not be used by you or others without my permission. Every effort will be made to consider and honor requests for permission that are in keeping with the mission of the Witnessing Project and Archive. 

I wish that we did not live in a world that required these legal protections and I am sorry to have to impose them on you. I hope that you will understand that I do this to protect the integrity of the Witnessing Archive, which I have created as a service and as a vehicle for global transformation. I consider the reading and disseminating of these accounts a privilege. It is my intention and commitment to treat the accounts with the utmost honor and respect.

The copyright transfer form is accessible on a separate page. This form provides for the signatures of authors indicating transfer of the copyright of the subject work to me as the representative of the Archive. If there is more than one author of a witnessing account, all authors must sign the copyright transfer form. It is not sufficient for one author to sign on behalf of coauthors. Coauthors may all sign the same form or each sign a separate form.