jcstream-legal-copy-author

name

jcstream-legal-copy-author

description

Use when editing user-facing legal language in JCStream templates — presumed-innocent banners, FCRA disclaimer, ORC § 149.43 attribution, ORC § 2953.32 expungement removal protocol, no-fee guarantee, CC BY-NC 4.0 license footer, comment-policy block. Touches web/templates/{index,inmate,stats,statute,data}.html and web/templates/base.html footer (incl. noindex/noarchive meta). Trigger phrases: "update the disclaimer", "rephrase the banner", "fix the FCRA notice", "removal policy", "expungement language", "sealing notice", "takedown protocol", "no-fee guarantee", "license footer", "presumption of innocence".

JCStream legal copy author

You own the user-facing legal language. Legal exposure on a public-records mirror is real; consistency across pages is the defense.

Files and where the copy lives

Element	File
Top-of-page banner (presumed innocent + ORC 149.43 + FCRA + ORC 2953.32)	web/templates/index.html
Inmate detail "alert" + record-legal paragraph	web/templates/inmate.html (presumed-innocent box + ORC 149.43 + removal protocol)
Inmate JSON-LD legal claims (isAccessibleForFree, CC BY-NC license, ORC § 149.43 source license)	web/templates/inmate.html
Inmate booking-photo figcaption attribution (Booking photo · ORC § 149.43)	web/templates/inmate.html
Inmate footer attribution (CC BY-NC 4.0 + no-fee guarantee full tail)	web/templates/inmate.html
Stats page alert + removal/no-fee paragraph	web/templates/stats.html
Statute page alert (Charges are accusations only)	web/templates/statute.html
Data & methodology + Legal notices section (incl. HB 234 / HB 96 amendments, ORC §§ 2953.31–2953.61, CC BY-NC 4.0 grant)	web/templates/data.html
Footer-legal block, every page (FCRA + non-affiliation + CC BY-NC 4.0 license of arranged data)	web/templates/base.html
noarchive robots meta with explicit ORC § 2953.32 sealing/expungement rationale	web/templates/base.html
Meta description / OG description (both contain "presumed innocent" claims)	web/templates/base.html
Comment policy on inmate page	web/templates/inmate.html (.comment-policy)

Required phrases (verbatim across every page that touches the topic)

• "legally presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law"
• "Arrest is not conviction."
• "charges are accusations only" (statute.html capitalizes the leading C — Charges are accusations only. at statute.html; intentional sentence-initial caps, not a separate phrase)
• "Not a consumer reporting agency" + "Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq."
• "ORC § 149.43" (Ohio Public Records Act — the source-of-record citation)
• "ORC § 2953.32" (sealing / expungement — the removal-on-request basis)
• "there is never a fee, and there never will be" (no-fee guarantee — full tail required on every removal mention: index.html, inmate.html, inmate.html, stats.html, data.html)
• CC BY-NC 4.0 licensing of the JCStream-arranged record data (footer at base.html; inmate attribution at inmate.html; data page grant at data.html; JSON-LD license URL at inmate.html). The MIT license covers source code only and does not license the data.
• Removal endpoint: https://github.com/AICincy/JCStream/issues

If you change one of these, change them everywhere — grep first.

Tone

• Plain English, present tense, third person.
• No editorialization on guilt or character.
• No softening of the legal facts ("might be innocent" — no; "is legally presumed innocent" — yes).
• No marketing voice ("we believe in transparency" — no; "JCStream republishes public records" — yes).

What you can change

• Phrasing improvements that preserve meaning and keep the required phrases above intact.
• Adding a new disclaimer for a new feature (e.g. if a future feature surfaces something the existing copy doesn't cover).
• Tightening repeated text.

What you cannot change without an explicit owner approval

• Dropping the FCRA disclaimer or making it less prominent.
• Removing the no-fee guarantee.
• Changing the removal endpoint.
• Changing the data license (CC BY-NC 4.0) or merging it into the MIT code license — the two cover different things on purpose.
• Removing the noarchive rationale tying the meta to ORC § 2953.32 sealing/expungement at base.html.
• Asserting guilt or summarizing charges in a way that implies guilt.
• Adding language that suggests this site is operated by or endorsed by HCSO or any government entity.
• Dropping any of the comment-policy commitments enumerated below.

Comment-policy commitments (inmate.html)

The .comment-policy block is a binding policy, not flavor text. Edits must preserve each of:

• Comments are tied to a GitHub account, are publicly visible, and are the commenter's sole responsibility.
• Removed without notice: identifying / contact info for the listed individual, family, victims, or witnesses.
• Removed without notice: threats, harassment, or incitement to harm any person.
• Removed without notice: statements of guilt presented as established fact rather than as pending charges.
• Removed without notice: defamation, invasion of privacy, or content likely to cause unjust reputational harm.
• Discussion threads are closed and removed when the underlying record is removed from the HCSO public roster.
• The site does not adopt, endorse, or assume liability for user-submitted content.
• A reporting endpoint is named (currently the GitHub issues URL).

Reference statutes

• ORC § 149.43 — Ohio Public Records Act. Authorizes republication.
• ORC § 2953.32 — Sealing / expungement of records. Authorizes removal-on-court-order. Cited as amended, including changes by 135th G.A. HB 234 and 136th G.A. HB 96 (see data.html).
• ORC §§ 2953.31–2953.61 — full Ohio sealing-and-expungement chapter; cited at data.html as the rehabilitative-purpose context for voluntary compliance.
• 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. — Fair Credit Reporting Act. The "not a CRA, don't use for employment/housing/credit" disclaimer.
• CC BY-NC 4.0 — non-statutory but legally operative: the license under which the JCStream-arranged record data is published.

Anti-patterns

• Inconsistent phrasing between pages ("presumed not guilty" on one page, "presumed innocent" on another). Grep before commit.
• Removing the "and there never will be" tail of the no-fee guarantee — it's a forward commitment.
• Linking to a paid-removal service. There is none affiliated with this project.

Verify

grep -rE "presumed innocent|legally presumed|ORC.{1,3}149\.43|2953\.32|never (be|a) fee" web/templates/

Every public-facing page should hit on each phrase.