Copyright is a form of legal protection given to authors of original works. As the copyright holder for the Walmyr Assessment Scales, we alone have the right to make copies of the scales, distribute the scales, display the scales online, and make derivative works, such as translations. For more information on US copyright laws, visit http://www.copyright.gov/.
You may not upload our scales to any computer system for any reason.
Our scales must not be photocopied for any reason.
The scales are valid and reliable as is. You may not rearrange, edit, remove, or add any items.
The scales are valid and reliable for English speakers in Western cultures only. You may not translate the scales.
You may not automate the administration or scoring of our scales. Automation includes (but is not limited to)
If you type, scan, or otherwise enter any of the items of our scales into a computer or word processor without express, written permission, you are in violation of US and international copyright laws.
No one has permission to photocopy our scales.
Clearly, the overwhelming majority of practitioners, faculty, and university administrators are keenly aware and dutifully observant of their obligations concerning the use of copyrighted materials. Unfortunately, a few are not aware or are careless in the observances that are such an important part of professional practice and university teaching and scholarship.
It is very sad that a few have little regard for copyright law and these few individuals create a serious problem for their agencies, colleges, and universities. It occasionally comes to our attention that a variety of intellectual properties are illegally copied for use in practice, research projects, and for training in the classroom.
Every copy of every measurement scale produced by our company states clearly that it is illegal to photocopy or otherwise reproduce the instrument. This infrequent but costly violation of copyright is one that is shared by a wide variety of publishers who produce measurement tools and other intellectual properties of value to practice, teaching, research, and scholarship.
The choice to ignore the law and sacrifice one’s integrity is made with every illegal photocopy.
You may not edit the scales in any way. Doing so suggests that the instruments are being typed into a computer, which is expressly forbidden under US and international copyright laws. The scales are reliable and valid as is; altering them in any way might have a detrimental result on their reliability and validity.
The scales are valid and reliable for English speakers in Western cultures only. A few scales have been translated under specific circumstances and their reliability and validity ratings have been measured and established.
To translate the scales into other languages requires complete studies to be performed on the translated instruments, something we are not equipped to do at this time. Translating the scales for use in your practice is forbidden. Please report the use of unauthorized translations to us so that we can take appropriate legal action.
Because copyrighted intellectual properties can be and are protected by law, persistence in copyright infringements and violations can lead to the pursuit of remedy. A much better and badly needed remedy is available and that consists of engaging a constructive collaboration between agencies and institutions of higher learning and the producers of teaching, research, and training materials that are used by colleges and universities.
The largest source of copyright violation and infringement is the lack of knowledge on the part of the offender. Thus, great progress can be made toward eliminating this infrequent but serious problem by informing all practitioners, faculty and students of their need to abide by the copyright restrictions that are posted in books, measurement tools, computer software, and other intellectual properties that are employed for use in practice, teaching, research, and other scholarly endeavors. Agency and university administrators at many levels can help greatly to alleviate these problems (and reduce the risks for their institutions) by doing little more than periodically alerting practitioners, faculty and students to the nature of the problem and their obligations as participants in the life of the professions and the university.
Over the past 30 years universities have created effective devices for reviewing research projects in the interest of protecting human subjects from harm. Because those committees are now well established, they might also serve as at least one central check on the observance of copyright restrictions.
We therefore urge that your agency and university human subjects review committee or Institutional Review Board be empowered with new policies that will enable them to also review submitted proposals with respect to the observance of copyrights in the conduct of officially sanctioned faculty and student research and scholarship.
We hope this message will be of use to those who share our concerns and that steps can be taken to further reduce a problem that is small in number but is very costly to those who seek to meet the publication needs of practitioners, teachers, researchers, scholars, and authors.
In the final analysis, theft of copyrighted intellectual property is theft from one’s colleagues and/or one’s teachers. The truly good news is that costly remedies can so easily be avoided if we can work together to eliminate the cause for remedy.
Please help by printing this document and sharing it with those who may not be well informed about the use of copyrighted materials.
Thank you.