AgilityNerd Copyright and Licensing

Occasionally I get an email from a reader asking to reprint one of my articles in their club newsletter or for Clean Run Course Designer files for a course. While I am agreeable to almost all requests I do place some restrictions on how my content is used. In this article I'll try to clarify the ways information on my site can be used in accordance with my site's license.

I retain the copyright for everything I post and everything I post (unless otherwise specified) is covered by a Creative Commons license that is posted on the bottom of every page. This license allows others to use, share and make derivatives of my work. There are three stipulations when you use my work for anything other than your own personal use:

You must attribute the work to me
You can't use this work for commercial purposes
If you build on my work your work must follow this same license

Creative Commons allows authors to choose a license to meet the author's needs. In this article I'll explain my reasoning for these choices and the specific application of the license to reprints, class handouts, and courses.

Attribution

I try very hard to correctly acknowledge the trainers who have influenced and helped me and who created, extended, or perfected a training approach, course design, handling, or equipment that I write about. They were kind enough to help me and let me write about their efforts. The least I can do is make it clear in my writing that I am presenting their thoughts.

If you ever find I have omitted, or incorrectly attributed something I do want to know about it so I can correct my mistake.

So I just ask that I am extended the same courtesy. If you use material from my site I ask that you tell anyone with whom you share that information where you obtained it and give them a link to the original page on my site.

Non Commercial Use

Here I ask that users of my work do as they would want done with their own work. I am happy to share what I've learned and I enjoy the feedback I get from my readers. I wouldn't post articles if I didn't want people to share them and use the courses. But it takes time for me to write my articles. Designing practice courses and writing them up takes 3-4 hours each. "How to" articles with video can take over 8 hours to put together.

Consequently, I don't want someone to take the materials I provide for free, use them to make money, and not compensate me for my work.

Derivative Works

This is the viral aspect of this license. Since I make my work available for others to use if you extend my work (i.e. come up with more sequences for a course setup) those derivative works must use the same license.

Specific Uses

So you might say: "That is all well and good but what does it really mean to me?". Here are some examples.

Personal Use

As an individual you can use my site's information, share it with friends, save it, and print it as long as you don't violate the license. You have free and complete use of the material. The license only effects you if you seek to modify, redistribute or profit from my work. If you want to discuss my articles on your website or blog I would just hope that you link to me.

Publishing Articles

If you wish to re-publish any of my articles in a non-commercial publication, newsletter, or email newsletter I ask that you do the following:

Contact me via email so I can "meet" you and thank you
Include the following copyright notice: "Copyright © 2007 Steve Schwarz http://agilitnerd.com"
Include a full link to the original article within the publication
Send me a copy of the publication

If you are a commercial organization please email me and we can discuss your use of my materials and come to an agreement.

Redistributing Articles/Handouts

If you are a non-profit club/organization feel free to use my articles, etc. in classes, fun runs, etc. (as long as you follow the remainder of the license). If you are giving out copies of my articles as handouts I ask that you do the following:

Contact me via email so I can "meet" you and thank you
Print or copy the article directly from the website and distribute it in an unaltered form (i.e. don't print it on logo stationary, "wrap it" in additional text, or delete any text)

As a non-profit you can also charge for classes/programs using my materials, I am happy you find them useful. I learned a lot about dog training, agility, and flyball from clubs and individuals who volunteered their time and want to reciprocate where I can.

Professional trainers, training facilities, and other for profit organization are required to contact me if you wish to use my articles as handouts and we can come to an agreement. You can provide students with links to articles on my site but you can't just print out my articles and give them out.

Courses/Course Analyses

I'm discussing use of my courses separately because I know a few trainers set up my courses in their classes and, in order to be accommodating, I have slightly more relaxed rules.

If you are a non-profit organization feel free to use my courses in classes, run throughs, or any way you wish that is in keeping with my license. I only require that you inform your students each time you use one of my courses and either make the link to the course available or provide handouts of the course (as described above in Redistributing Articles/Handouts).

If you are a for-profit trainer, company or organization I ask that you not use my courses as a majority of your courses for any group of training classes, run throughs, or other activities (i.e. not more than four courses in a session of eight classes). I realize that trainer's like to try other designer's courses or might be "stuck" for a course on a given week, so I'm happy to accommodate. I just don't want to be the course designer for an entire set of training classes without remuneration. If you would like to base your curriculum on my courses please contact me.

I've decided to not make CRCD versions of my courses available for download. That format just makes it too easy to unintentionally violate my copyright and license.

Conclusion

I've always wanted this blog to be helpful to others in the sport. I only want to be treated fairly, so I hope you find that my few requests are reasonable. I also love to hear that you are using my articles and courses, so please leave a comment on the article or email me.

Have any questions? Just email me!