Open-ESL.org: Terms of Use

Contents of the Open-ESL.org website are provided without any charge ($0.00) and are freely usable.

Matrials on this site are easy to preview, download, and copy.

For all material on this site you may:

  • Make unlimited copies (electronic and printouts).
  • Distribute materials in class.
  • Show or play audio, video and web materials in class.
  • Copy the material to your own PC or other device.
  • Share the content with colleagues or students.
  • Place the materials on your personal or program web site.

Copyright status

This site has three major classes of materials:
  • Public Domain- This content is not protected by copyright.
    • Materials created by the United States government.
    • Materials with expired copyrights.
    • Materials that have been explicitly released to the Public Domain by the author or copyright holder.
  • Creative Commons- The author of a work can retain control of their work, while explictly releasing it for use under terms of a Creative Commons license. There are a number of variations of this type of license. The author can control whether:
    • Credit must be given to the author.
    • Work can be reused commercially.
    • 'Derivitive works' are allowed.
    • Whether derivitive works must be released under the same class of license as the original.
  • GNU General Public License- Software is not covered under the same class of protection as many other types of creative work. The GNU 'GPL' is used to provide the public with 'open' access to software and software source code, while still providing for proper attribution and labeling. It also sets up conditions for derivitive works. As an example from this site, the 'Kiosk' application and its source is covered by a GNU General Public License.

Attribution of material source

Open-ESL.org recommends that you always attribute the source of materials, whether that is a requirement of their copyright or license or not. This is a professional and moral courtesy even if not required by law. For most materials this means nothing more than retaining any source indicator already embedded in the work. On a PDF/paper document, this may be either words or a symbol that indicates copyright/license and authorship. For audio or graphic material, there may be embedded (silent/invisible) 'meta data' such as an 'ID3 tag' that labels the recording or picture.

Adaptations and derivitive works

Because of their non-copyrighted nature, works in the 'Public Domain' may be adapted and changed as you see fit.

Works covered by Creative Commons or a GNU GPL can be adapted if the terms of that license allows. For example, a Creative Commons licensed work with 'Share Alike' (SA) permissions can be adapted, but the derivitive work must provide for release under the same terms as the original.

Linking

You may freely link to any page on this site.
However: Link locations on this site may change frequently. In fact links to teaching content pages are very likely to change and in the future may even be generated dynamically as users search for and retrieve files. No notice will be provided when web addresses change.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you only link to these URL reference points:

  • http://www.Open-ESL.org/
  • http://www.Open-ESL.org/Kiosk/
  • http://www.Open-ESL.org/Sandbox/
  • http://www.Open-ESL.org/NewsUpdates/
Any other link is likely to 'break'.

Disclaimer

Use of materials from other sources does not imply any endorsement or relationship with the authors, publishers, or web sites. Nor does it imply any endorsement of Open-ESL.org by the creators of those materials.

If you find materials on this site that are hosted in violation of a copyright / terms of use, or which have been improperly credited, please contact the site andministrator with full details.

Contact email: [email protected]