Up: The Geometry Center Home Page
Back: Please press the back button in your browser.
Requesting Permission to Use Geometry Center Materials
All of the materials on our Web-site are copyrighted!
In most cases, the copyrights are held by
the Regents of the University of Minnesota
on behalf of The Geometry Center.
In a few cases, another person or organization
has given us permission to display their materials;
we can put you in touch with the copyright holder of those items.
Having said that, we want you to know that:
- we hope you find our web pages useful and interesting, and
- we are, in general, delighted to have others use materials from our WWW site, but
- we do still ask that you follow the guidelines in this document:
- register, or ask our permission first, as appropriate (described below);
- clearly indicate what it is you want to use
(asking to use ``your site'' or ``some images'' is not adequate;
you must give full product, image, page, or path name(s) for
every item you wish to copy and use);
- give us credit for our original development
(we'll explain this when we reply to your request); and
- let us know how to locate your copy of our work
(e.g., send us the electronic address of your copy or adaptation;
send us a copy of the product you are distributing
(if it's a commercial product, we normally ask for two copies);
other options may be negotiated).
When to register or request permission to use
Geometry Center materials
Remember, we really are delighted to have others use materials
from our WWW site, and we want to make the process as simple as possible!
But our funding agencies require us to report where this occurs so,
while we do not charge a monetary fee for use of our materials,
we do require that you let us know how you are using our materials.
In some cases, a formal permission request is required. At other times, simple registration is adequate.
Registration and formal permission requests will normally contain most
of the same information: the only difference is whether you need to contact us for advance permission.
Some people have asked us to clarify the distinction, however,
so we'll cover that in the next few sections:
You should register your use of our materials when you use them for:
- Links:
In most cases, we would actually prefer that you simply use a LINK
from your page to the definitive copy of the material at our site.
We consider a simple link to be comparable to a citation in print media:
you can put one in your document at your own discretion. You do not
need our permission to do so.
We do appreciate it if you let us know you are linking to our site.
You may use the permission request form for such registration.
- It is useful for us to know all the different ways our materials
are being used.
- Since we have shortcuts to some of the more popular areas, we can
tell you if one of those exists for your link.
- Since we reorganize our site periodically, we can tell you if you
are planning to use an out-of-date link.
- If your link is likely to generate some phenomenally increased
load at our site, then we'd also like to know that so we can discuss
with you the best ways to handle this.
- Personal Copies:
In the spirit of easy exchange fostered by the Internet, you may feel
free to make a single copy of any material from our web site for your
own personal use. Some of our materials are available only via a
commercial publisher and, in those cases, we give you a little sample
and tell you how to contact the publisher to get the real thing. But
if you can find it on our Web-site today, you may make a copy for
your own personal, private use today.
We do ask you to tell us about any of our materials that you obtain
and use this way. Our supporters want to know the range of ways in
which our materials are used, and the more we have to report,
the more likely it is we'll be able to keep getting support to do more
of this: so your help in this area is really important to us.
You may not make a copy yourself and then redistribute it in any way
under this provision. See the next section for more information.
You must ask permission in advance for:
- All Other Direct Copies:
If you want to redistribute our material in any way, then you must first ask
for permission. Examples of actions that fall under this category
include, but are not limited to, the following:
- including one of our graphic images on your web page;
- installing copies of one of our software packages on all the
machines at an institution;
- taking a screen snapshot of one of our pages to use in your book;
- and so on...
- Any Adaptations:
If you want to adapt our materials and then redistribute them, again
you must first ask for permission. Examples of actions that fall
under this category include, but are not limited to, the following:
- using one of our graphics, but substituting different colors, or
adding some text, or any other modification;
- using one of our software tools but building a different interface
to it;
- using one of our laboratory activities but modifying some of the
specific questions;
- and so on...
What about educational or other non-commercial "fair use"?
As stated earlier, we are delighted to be able to give others
permission to use our work. But our materials are copyrighted, and we
just want you to ask first.
Many people mis-understand the concept of fair use, and we cannot give
an entire lesson on that topic here. Instead, we will give a few examples
of areas where questions might arise and how we would respond in each
case. Be aware that these examples are not always perfectly aligned
with the official definition of fair use so the best general guideline
for our site or any other is, "Ask for permission!"
- You want to put copies of a couple of our software tools on all
the machines in your own classroom: we'd be generous and
call that a simple extension of personal use;
we would ask you to register the use as soon as possible,
but would not insist that you ask permission first.
- You want to put copies of a couple of our software tools on all
the machines at your institution: we'd call that distribution
and expect you to ask permission first.
- You want to make a copy of one of our tools and give it to your
neighbor who is not yet on the Internet: we'd still ask that your
neighbor register that use with us via hardcopy, but would not insist
that you ask permission first.
- You want to make copies of one of our software tools and
distribute them at a talk you are giving at a professional meeting:
we would expect you to ask permission first.
- You want to make a copy of one of our graphic images and hang it
on your office or classroom wall: we'd still ask you to register this
use, and include a credit that the image is from the Geometry Center,
but would not insist that you ask permission first.
- You want to make a copy of one of our graphic images on
posters you are having made up to sell as a fund-raiser for a
registered charity: we would expect you to ask permission first.
To send a permission request to the Geometry Center via hard-copy...
Please address your correspondence to:
Permission Department
The Geometry Center
400 Lind Hall
207 Church Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612-626-0888 (voice)
612-626-7131 (fax)
Back: Please press the back button in your browser.
Copyright © 1996 by
The Geometry Center.
All rights reserved.
Comments to:
webmaster@www.geom.uiuc.edu
Created: Feb 16 1996 ---
Last modified: Thu Aug 14 15:23:32 1997