The Amsterdammer, an independent student newspaper in Amsterdam, the Netherland; and the staff members, individuals seeking to contribute creative work product to the Publication; agree to the following license governing the Staff Member’s contribution(s) to the Publication (the Work(s)).
The Staff Member may be subject to additional terms and conditions by agreement with The Publication.
1. Code of ethics
1.1. Seek truth
(A) Defamation and libel
Unsubstantiated material will be considered slander. The Publication has no place for mocking individuals—regardless of the reason.
(B) Avoid plagiarism
All photos, videos, texts and citations should be credited to the original author. The Publication may terminate a staff’ membership if they steal someone else’s work or words. Give credit.
(C) Avoid fabrication
Writers may not make up facts that they think should or might exist. They should check and double-check all sources.
(D) Avoid conflicts of interest
It is impossible to be objective and write a piece about a close friend, a teacher you know well, or a family member. Writers should not interview someone with a possible conflict of interest.
1.2. Accountability
The Staff Member should:
i. Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences. Encourage a civil dialogue with the public about journalistic practices, coverage and news content.
ii. Respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness.
iii. Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently.
iv. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.
v. Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.
vi. Abide by the same high standards they expect of others.
1.2. Funding
The Publication is a free platform that has been funded by Isabel Bonnet since March 2018. Donations are available to support the cost of the domain and WordPress template.
1.3. Complaints procedure
If you wish to complain about any comment or post appearing on The Amsterdammer, please send us an email at contact@theamsterdammer.org
2. Members conditions
2.1. License and Rights.
The Staff Member grants all licenses necessary to the Publication for the purpose of the Publication’s inclusion of the Works in its print and electronic media publishing efforts, including without limitation the right to reproduce, distribute, display, perform, and electronically transmit issues of the Publication as described herein.
2.2. Grant of Rights.
By contributing the Works to the Publication, the Staff Member grants a nonexclusive license to the Publication to reproduce, display and distribute copies of the Works in the issue for which the Works were originally submitted, future or commemorative issues, the Publication’s Web site or other physical or electronic media now known or later discovered.
Photographers, videographers and illustrators give permission to The Amsterdammer to use their pictures for all online platforms available as well as for commercial purposes.
2.3. Reserved Rights.
Except as expressly granted, the Staff Member retains all rights associated with ownership of the Works. Any individual Work contributed to the Publication by the Staff Member is not considered a work made for hire and is the sole property of the Staff Member. Any future use of the Works by the Publication (beyond normal subscription and reprint fees, if any) requires an additional license from the Staff Member.
Photographers, videographers and illustrators will be credited for all content produced by them on The Amsterdammer online platforms.
2.4. Term.
The Staff Member agrees that the license shall exist as long as the intellectual property is entitled to protection under the laws of the Netherlands and cannot be revoked except with written consent from the Publication.
2.5. Territory and Media.
The Publication shall have the right to reproduce, publish, and distribute the Works in any format now known or later discovered, including without limitation any physical, broadcast, electronic, and Internet-based medium, and any future uses directly controlled by the Publication; save that the Publication shall have the obligation to comply with the terms of this contract with respect to uses for compensation as described herein.
2.6. Compensation and Royalties.
No compensation or royalties are required from the Publication for the use of the Works as described herein.
The Publication does not provide any sort of remuneration to its staff members. The Staff Member voluntarily produce the content for The Publication. The Staff Member can earn some sort of remuneration by teaching workshops (5€ entrance fee) for which 80% of the revenues will go to them and 20% to the payment of the website domain.
2.7. Termination.
(A) Breaches
This agreement will not terminate due to a breach, regardless of whether or not it is a material breach, unless the breaching party is given an opportunity to cure (as described herein) and fails to do so, except in the following situations that give rise to immediate termination of the agreement:
The Staff Member is found to have acted knowingly to deceive the publication as to the authorship of her/his works, as determined by a good faith vote of the editorial board of the Publication; in which case, such deceptive work(s) are released from this contract and no future works are accepted, though non-infringing existing works remain under contract.
(B) Merge
In the event the Publication becomes a party to a merger or other corporate combination, the Staff Member has the right, but not the obligation, to cancel within thirty (30) business days of learning of the merger.
(C) Duties
The Termination, or expiration of the Term, of this agreement does not discharge all duties of either party.
2.8. Approvals.
(A) For-Profit Use Approval
Any future use of the Staff Member’s works by Publication that would result in payment to the Publication (beyond normal subscription and reprint fees, if any) requires an additional license from the Staff Member.
(B) Non-Profit Use Approval
Any future use of the Staff Member’s works by Publication that would not result in payment to the publication (beyond normal subscription and reprint fees, if any) does not require any additional license from the Staff Member and is covered by the terms of this agreement.
(C) Agents
Approvals are requested by the editor-in-chief of the publication or her/his designee, using the editorial mailing address provided upon request. Approvals are sent to the Staff Member’s last known mailing address, physical and digital, which it is Staff Member’s obligation to keep current.
(D) Withholding approval
In the event that any party withholds an approval, that party agrees to explain why approval was withheld. The Publication has the right to re-submit a substantially similar request for approval if it reasonably believes that either the substance of the request or circumstances surrounding the request have been changed.
(E) Prior Approvals
Once given, the granting party is bound to an approval and such approval cannot be revoked save for an additional contract executed by both parties.
(F) Communication
All requests for approval, approvals and/or denials must be in writing, accompanied by appropriate additional materials necessary for the approval process as established herein, and sent by hand delivery, facsimile, standard mail, private courier, established overnight delivery, or e-mail; save that e-mail must be accompanied by some physical method. A failure to respond to a request for approval within thirty (30) business days shall be deemed an approval, a condition that shall be specified in the written request. A request and/or response is deemed given the day after it is sent. If, after diligent efforts to contact the author to obtain such permission, the author cannot be found, such additional permission may be presumed to be granted. Only an affirmative non-approval is considered a denial of approval.
2.9. Representations and Warrantees.
(A) The Staff Member represents and warrants that:
i. The Staff Member is either the full legal owner of the intellectual property it is submitting to the publication, or, to the extent s/he is not, s/he has obtained all necessary consents, licenses, and clearances as necessary to permit the Publication to publish said intellectual property, or, to the extent s/he has not, s/he has informed the publication as to the need to obtain such consents, licenses and clearances.
ii. The Staff Member will make all best attempts to identify and avoid plagiarism, to the extent plagiarism is defined by the academic institution the Staff Member is attending, or if the Staff Member is not attending an institution, the institution the Publication primarily covers and draws staff from.
iii. In the event the Staff Member sells her/his interest in the Works to a third party, that the Staff Member will notify the purchaser of the existence of this contract and the licenses granted hereunder and will transfer her/his obligations under this license to the new owner of the Works in any such transfer.
(B) The Publication represents and warrants that:
iv. All publications of submissions by the Staff Member will include credit to the Staff Member, except as separately agreed and executed in writing.
2.10. Indemnifications.
The Staff Member agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold the Publication harmless from any and against all losses, costs, and liability incurred due to a third party’s claim, lawsuit, cause of action or arbitration (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses; settlements; judgments; and arbitration awards) arising from or related to a breach by the Staff Member of the representations and warrantees set out in this agreement. The Publication agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold the Staff Member harmless from any and against all losses, costs, and liability incurred due to a third party’s claim, lawsuit, cause of action or arbitration (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses; settlements; judgments; and arbitration awards) arising from or related to a breach by the Publication of the representations and warrantees set out in this agreement.
In the event that the Staff Member sells her/his ownership of the copyright in the Work(s) to a third party and fails to inform the third party of this contract and that the transfer of the Work(s) will not terminate this license, the Staff Member agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold the Publication harmless from any and all losses, costs, and liability due to a claim, lawsuit, cause of action or arbitration by the purchasing party or its licensees (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses; settlements; judgments; and arbitration awards) arising from or related to a breach by the Staff Member of the representations and warrantees set out in this agreement.
2.11. Exclusivity.
The Staff Member shall not, for three (3) months following the initial submission of the work to the Publication, permit the story, or any shorter or longer version of the story, to be published in a competing publication without obtaining prior written consent from The Publication.
(A) Definition of Competitive
As used under this paragraph, a “Competitive” publication is a print, broadcast, or Internet publication that reaches a substantial portion of the circulation reached by the Publication.
(B) Counting Days
For purposes of counting time under this section, the first day is the day after the work was submitted to an editor of the publication for inclusion in the Publication’s media offering(s). Pre-publication consultation with editors will not start the period.
2.12. Notice.
The Staff Member shall provide a written 2-week notice to their editors and editor-in-chief if they no longer want to be part of The Amsterdammer.
2.13. Opportunity to Cure.
For any breach or material breach that does not expressly give rise to immediate termination as described herein, the breaching party shall have a reasonable opportunity to cure the breach with no effect on this contract or its terms. Upon being notified of the breach, the breaching party and non-breaching party will attempt to agree on an appropriate cure period; if the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the breaching party will have ten (14) business days to cure any breach.
2.14. Choice of Law.
This agreement is governed and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the Netherlands, without regard to its conflicts of laws principles; and the intellectual property laws of the Netherlands. The parties hereby agree that the Netherlands intellectual property laws will exclusively govern any intellectual property subject to this contract and no other intellectual property conventions or rights will have any effect in the application, enforcement, performance or adjudication of this contract, including but not limited to moral rights as defined by the EU; the Dutch Copyright Act; and the definition of famous marks under the Paris Convention; the Berne Convention; or any other external treaties or laws not executed internally by the Netherlands.
2.15. Choice of Forum.
Any legal actions relating to this contract shall be maintained in a state court or a federal district court located in Amsterdam, and both the Publication and the Staff Member irrevocably consent to jurisdiction and venue in that city. In the event that any legal action or any other proceeding is commenced to enforce any provision of this contract or as a result of a breach, default or misrepresentation in connection with any provision of this contract, the successful or prevailing party shall be entitled, in addition to any other relief to which said party may be entitled, to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation incurred in such action or proceeding.
If any provision or any portion of any provision(s) of this contract is illegal, invalid, or unenforceable for any reason, including (without limitation) any restrictive covenants and/or any law(s) of this or any other jurisdiction where this contract is enforced or construed, the offensive provision(s) or portion(s) thereof are considered void and eliminated from the contract as if never incorporated herein, unless striking the illegal, invalid or unenforceable part of the contract frustrates the purpose of the contract.
2.16. Waiver.
This agreement constitutes the complete, final and entire understanding between the parties and supersedes all prior representations, negotiations, promises, understandings or agreements, whether oral or written, between the parties with respect to the subject matter. No amendment of this agreement will have legal force unless in writing and executed by the authorized officers of the respective parties.
2.17. Headings.
The headings used in this Agreement are intended for reference only and shall not be deemed part of this Agreement.
2.18. Staff remuneration
The Amsterdammer does not provide any sort of remuneration to its staff members. All members voluntarily produce the content of the website. Staff members can earn some sort of remuneration by teaching workshops (5€ entrance fee) for which 80% of the revenues will go to them and 20% to the payment of the website.
2.19. Participation
(A) Meetings
The Staff Member will attend the bi-monthly general staff meetings. The Staff Member should not miss more than 3 meetings without consulting the editor-in-chief.
(B) Communication platforms
The Staff Member should answer the messages in the communication platform used (Slack, Email, etc.).
2.20. Fairness and Corrections
(A) Sources
Sources agree to not see the article after their interview, and before publication.
(B) Writers
The Staff Member can call sources for the sole purpose of fact-checking quotes. Diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing.
The final content produced cannot be shared to any external party, including the sources, before publication unless specified otherwise.
(C) Editors
Editors and copy editors do not have to, but can, justify their choices of deleting or modifying the content of their respective section.
3. Guidelines
3.1. Responsibilities of student journalists
Students who work at The Amsterdammer are responsible for that content.
These students should strive to:
1. Produce media based upon professional standards of accuracy, objectivity and fairness;
2. Review material to improve sentence structure, grammar, spelling and punctuation;
3. Reasonably check and verify all facts and the accuracy quotations; and
4. In the case of editorials or letters to the editor concerning controversial issues, determine the need for rebuttal comments and opinions and provide space or airtime, if appropriate.
3.2. Unprotected expression
The following types of student expression are not protected by this policy:
1. Material that is obscene, as defined by state law and this policy.
“Obscenity” is defined as material that meets all three of the following requirements: (a) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the publication, taken as a whole, appeals to a prurient interest in sex; (b) the publication depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct such as ultimate sexual acts (normal or perverted), masturbation and lewd exhibition of the genitals; and (c) the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. Indecent or vulgar language is not obscene.
2. Libelous material, as defined by state law.
3. Material that unlawfully invades a person’s right to privacy, as defined by state law.
4. Material that will cause “a material and substantial disruption” of college activities.
“Disruption” includes student rioting, unlawful seizures of property, destruction of property, or substantial student participation in a college boycott, sit?in, walk?out or other related form of seriously disruptive, physical activity. Material such as racial, religious or ethnic slurs, however distasteful, is not in and of itself disruptive under these guidelines.
Threats of violence are not materially disruptive without some act in furtherance of that threat or a reasonable belief and expectation that the author of the threat has the capability and intent of carrying through on that threat in a manner that does not allow acts other than suppression of speech to mitigate the threat in a timely manner.
Material that stimulates heated discussion or debate does not constitute the type of disruption prohibited. or student media to be considered disruptive, specific facts must exist upon which one could reasonably forecast a likelihood of a material and substantial disruption to normal college activities would occur if the material were further distributed or has occurred as a result of the material’s distribution or dissemination. Mere undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough; college administrators must be able affirmatively to show substantial facts that reasonably support a forecast of likely disruption.
In determining whether student media is disruptive, consideration must be given to the context of the distribution as well as the content of the material. In this regard, consideration should be given to past experience in the college with similar material, past experience in the college in dealing with and supervising the students in the college, current events influencing student attitudes and behavior and whether there have been any instances of actual or threatened disruption prior to or contemporaneously with the dissemination of the student publication in question. College officials have a responsibility to protect advocates of unpopular viewpoints.
3.3. Guidelines for Interviews
(A) Reporters
First, make it clear that you are a reporter. This puts your conversation on the record, which means the information you receive from a source can be used in The Publication and is attributable to that source by name.
While most interviews can and should be conducted entirely on the record, sometimes it is necessary to consider other options. Most non-journalists _ both sources and readers are unfamiliar with newspaper terminology. So for the sake of clarity, avoid the use of phrases such as “off the record,” “not for attribution” and “on background.” Instead, make sure in plain English the source understands what he or she is agreeing to, what information you can use and in what manner.
(B) Editors
Ensure that your reporter understands the preceding rules. Have him tell you the identity of any source he wants to grant confidentiality. Before deciding to allow a reporter to write using such sourcing, consider the following:
i. The information: How essential is the information to the public’s understanding of a significant issue? How can you help the reporter get the information on the record, either by using an identifiable source or by reporting factual material in another way?
ii. The source: Does the source have a legitimate reason for wishing to be shielded? Could significant harm come to the person if his or her identity is revealed?
iii. The reason: Could the source have a motive? Is he or she making a character attack, accusation or unsubstantiated generalization that might defame or vilify another person, place or institution?
(C) Copy Editors
Flag each unapproved use of anonymously sourced material to your supervisor or the senior editor on duty. If confidential sourcing has been marked approved but appears to violate Chronicle policy, discuss the matter with your supervisor.
4. Privacy Policy
Please refer to this website: https://theamsterdammer.org/privacy-policy/
