Copyright and DMCA Policy

Wayward Leaders LLC. Wayward Leaders Press.

This Copyright and DMCA Policy (this “Notice”) describes the copyright and trademark rights of Wayward Leaders LLC (“Wayward Leaders,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) in our websites, books, Training materials, Tools, and other content, and the procedures for submitting and responding to notices of claimed copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, 17 U.S.C. § 512 (the “DMCA”). It applies to www.waywardleaders.com, www.vfdmentor.ai, www.brandloyalty.ai, www.moduslimbi.com, and waywardcarl.gumroad.com (collectively, the “Services”), and forms part of our Terms and Conditions.

1. Copyright Notice

All content made available through the Services, including field guides, field notes, articles, and other web pages; books and e-books published under the Wayward Leaders Press imprint; Training materials, slide decks, workbooks, handouts, and certificates; checklists, worksheets, templates, and other Digital Products; reports and other deliverables; the VFD simulations, calculators, VFD Mentor, and its reference library; assessment instruments, survey items, and scoring methods, including the Maintenance Health Index and Specialist Health Index; research papers and academic content; video and audio recordings; photographs, illustrations, graphics, page layouts, designs, software, source code, and data compilations; and the selection, arrangement, and presentation of all of the foregoing (collectively, the “Works”), is the copyrighted property of Wayward Leaders LLC or its licensors. The Works are protected by the copyright laws of the United States, applicable international treaties (including the Berne Convention), and the laws of other countries.

2. Trademark Notice

“Wayward Leaders,” “Wayward Leaders Press,” “VFD Mentor,” “See. Move. Stabilize.,” “Maintenance Health Index,” “Specialist Health Index,” the Wayward Leaders logo, and all related program names, course titles, credential names, and slogans are trademarks or service marks of Wayward Leaders LLC, whether registered or unregistered. Use of any of these marks without our prior written consent is prohibited and may constitute trademark infringement, unfair competition, or false designation of origin under federal and state law.

All other trademarks, product names, and logos appearing in any Work, including manufacturer names and product designations such as ABB, Allen-Bradley, PowerFlex, and the names of other drive and motor manufacturers, are the property of their respective owners. We reference them solely for identification, education, commentary, comparison, and nominative reference. Wayward Leaders is vendor-neutral, and no endorsement, sponsorship, certification, or affiliation with any third-party owner is implied.

3. Public Pages: Linking and Quotation

You are welcome to link to any public page on the Services. You may quote brief excerpts from public pages, such as a field guide or field note, for commentary, teaching, or reference, provided you credit Wayward Leaders and link to the original page. Reproducing a whole page, or enough of it to substitute for the original, requires our written permission.

4. Purchased and Gated Works: Permitted Use

If you have lawfully purchased or been granted access to a Work that is not publicly available, such as a book, Digital Product, Training material, or deliverable, you are granted only a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, and revocable license to use that Work in accordance with our Terms and Conditions and, for deliverables, the applicable Statement of Work. No other rights are granted, whether by implication, estoppel, or otherwise. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by Wayward Leaders LLC and its licensors.

5. Prohibited Uses

Except as allowed in Sections 3 and 4, or with our prior express written permission, you may not, and you may not permit any third party to:

copy, reproduce, photocopy, scan, screenshot for redistribution, screen-record, audio-record, or otherwise duplicate any Work, in whole or in substantial part;
modify, adapt, translate, edit, abridge, or create any derivative work based on any Work;
sell, resell, rent, lease, lend, sublicense, distribute, transmit, broadcast, stream, publicly display, or publicly perform any Work;
post or upload any purchased or gated Work, in whole or in part, to any website, file-sharing platform, social media, course platform, learning management system, file storage service, or other location accessible to others;
use any purchased or gated Work, or bulk-copied content from any Work, to train, fine-tune, evaluate, benchmark, or otherwise build any artificial intelligence or machine learning model;
extract the prompts, instructions, or reference library of VFD Mentor or any other Tool;
circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with any access control, watermarking, security, or authentication mechanism applied to any Work;
remove, obscure, or alter any copyright notice, trademark, watermark, or other proprietary marking on any Work;
use any Work or any portion of it to develop, market, or deliver any competing course, book, training program, consulting service, assessment instrument, or other commercial offering.

Search engines and AI answer engines may index public pages on the Services and cite them with a link in their results. That permission does not extend to purchased or gated Works.

Each Work is licensed, not sold. Unauthorized use is a material breach of our Terms and Conditions, terminates your license automatically, and may subject you to civil liability (including actual damages, profits, and statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c) for willful infringement) and, in appropriate cases, criminal penalties.

6. Third-Party Materials in Our Works

Some Works include third-party materials used under license, fair use, nominative reference, or other applicable legal doctrines, including:

Manufacturer names, model numbers, and images: from drive, motor, and automation manufacturers, used for educational identification, reference, and instruction.
Stock and AI-generated imagery: including imagery generated through Adobe Firefly and similar tools, used under the applicable terms of those tools.
Licensed typefaces: including Montserrat and Source Serif 4 (licensed under the SIL Open Font License), and Palatino and TeX Gyre Pagella (used under their respective licenses).

All such third-party materials remain the property of their respective owners. Our use of them does not grant you any right to reuse them outside the context in which they appear.

7. Reporting Alleged Copyright Infringement (DMCA Notice)

Wayward Leaders respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects users of the Services to do the same. In accordance with the DMCA, we respond expeditiously to notices of claimed copyright infringement sent to our designated agent in Section 8.

If you believe in good faith that material on or accessible through the Services infringes your copyright, you may submit a written notification (a “DMCA Notice”). Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), a valid DMCA Notice must include substantially the following:

a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of them;
identification of the material claimed to be infringing and to be removed or disabled, with information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate it (such as a URL);
information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as your address, telephone number, and email address;
a statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

CAUTION. UNDER 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), ANY PERSON WHO KNOWINGLY MATERIALLY MISREPRESENTS THAT MATERIAL IS INFRINGING MAY BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING COSTS AND ATTORNEYS’ FEES. DO NOT SUBMIT A DMCA NOTICE FOR MATERIAL YOU DO NOT HAVE A GOOD-FAITH BASIS TO BELIEVE IS INFRINGING.

8. Designated Copyright Agent

Send DMCA Notices and counter-notifications to our designated agent. Notices sent to any other contact may not receive a response.

Designated Agent: Dr. Carl Lee Tolbert

Service Provider: Wayward Leaders LLC

Mailing Address: Wayward Leaders LLC, 2124 S. Duluth Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57105, United States

Email: carl@waywardleaders.com

Telephone: (678) 523-2050

Subject line: “DMCA Notice: Wayward Leaders”

Our designated agent is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office DMCA Designated Agent Directory, Registration Number DMCA-1082658.

9. Counter-Notification

If you believe material you posted to the Services was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notification to our designated agent. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3), a valid counter-notification must include substantially the following:

your physical or electronic signature;
identification of the material that was removed or disabled and the location where it appeared before removal;
a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification;
your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or, if your address is outside the United States, any judicial district in which Wayward Leaders may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the DMCA Notice or that person’s agent.

On receipt of a valid counter-notification, we will forward a copy to the person who sent the original DMCA Notice and may restore the material in not less than ten (10), nor more than fourteen (14), business days after receipt, unless our designated agent first receives notice that the original complainant has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the alleged infringement.

10. Repeat Infringer Policy

It is our policy, in appropriate circumstances and in our sole discretion, to suspend, disable, terminate, and refuse to do business with users, Account holders, or other persons determined to be repeat infringers of copyright or other intellectual property rights, in accordance with 17 U.S.C. § 512(i). Termination under this policy results in revocation of access to all purchased Digital Products and Tools without refund.

11. International Rights Holders

If you are a rights holder outside the United States, you may submit a notice using the procedure in Section 7. We will treat it in good faith and respond as we would to a DMCA Notice, consistent with applicable law. Nothing in this Notice waives any right you may have under the copyright laws of your jurisdiction or any applicable treaty.

12. No Legal Advice

Nothing in this Notice is legal advice. If you are unsure whether material is infringing or whether your intended use is permitted, consult an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

13. Changes to This Notice

We may update this Notice from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last Updated” date above.

14. Contact (Non-DMCA Matters)

For permission requests and general copyright or trademark questions that are not DMCA notices or counter-notifications:

Wayward Leaders LLC

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States

Email: carl@waywardleaders.com

Phone: (678) 523-2050