Permission and License:

Hello Everybody,

I hope that teachers will feel free to teach their classes "in partnership" with this site.  By that I mean, go ahead and use www.lifeprint.com (ASL University) as the text for your course instead of requiring your students to purchase expensive books and materials.

Also, for you website developers out there, I don't mind people using a few of my images or a couple of my articles as long as they do it in good taste and provide a "linkback."  Allow me to extend to you a general license to use the original material from this site and define the methods in which the material may be used:

General License:

1.  You may use the Lifeprint / ASL University curriculum to teach your own in-person classes.
2.  You may post links to any of my sites: Lifeprint.com http://asl.ms  http://asl.gs  http://asl.bz (or any others).
3.  You may download (copy and paste) the practice sheets and other information and store them on your computer or your school's computers.  You may manipulate the information electronically, adjust the material to match your teaching style or lesson requirements, and make printouts for your in-person students or send the information to them in emails. You may NOT repost more than a few pages of my information or curriculum to a publicly accessible network without my specific permission. Instead just link to lifeprint.com directly.
4. You may NOT "re-sell" my material (material from this site) for a profit, but you MAY repackage the material in printed form, inform students where to find the original material, and charge students for normal and ordinary copying expenses.
5.  You may copy and paste a few articles or other information from this website into your own website, but only if in good taste, (as judged by me). If you post Lifeprint information to your website, please be so kind as to link back.

Linkbacks:

Here is the suggested html code for linking back:

Or, just copy and paste this. I made it small so it won't take up a lot of room on your page: 

(For more American Sign Language (ASL) resources check out Lifeprint.com)

6.  You may electronically post up to thirty (20) of my graphics as long as you link the graphics back to http://Lifeprint.com or put a live link from the credit to my site.  You may not alter the electronically posted graphics. No "photoshopping" them. The graphics must be displayed in good taste (as judged by me).

Credit:

Suppose you are making handouts that utilize information from this website.  You could put a 8-point or larger type-font notice at the top or bottom of the page stating: "Material courtesy of Bill Vicars and www.lifeprint.com" or "Material this page modified from www.lifeprint.com" or "For more ASL-related material, visit www.lifeprint.com." (Use any of those statements or come up with a similar statement.)   Here are two very simple methods:
 

"© 2004, www.Lifeprint.com. Adapted by permission."

or
"© 2004, www.Lifeprint.com. Used by permission."

I think it is great if someone wants to use the material here to help facilitate the teaching of ASL classes.  If you want to download and print out the lessons, lesson plans, and/or ASL-related graphics then copy them and sell the copies to your students for the same amount you paid--that's great!  If you want to sell the copies for more than the copying costs--that is not acceptable.  Write your own book.

If you "did" write your own book, want to sell it for a profit, and want to use my graphics, you can use a few (up to 20) signs from this site (giving conspicuous credit) without asking further permission.  If you want to use more than 20 signs well then you'd best plan on getting permission first.

If you are a reporter or general writer and just need a few signs to spice up your article for publication, go ahead.  Make sure to give conspicuous credit.

Note:  A very small amount of material at this site consists of excerpts from texts that I have reviewed and recommend to my students.  Such excerpts are copyrighted by others and such being the case you'd best contact the current copyright holders if you plan on using such material in a manner other than that which is protected by the "Fair Use Act." 

Also, if you feel there are changes that should be made to the curriculum (for example, you feel that a certain "practice sentence" should be modified)--let me know and chances are I will modify the sentence right away.  That is the beauty of an online curriculum, it is very flexible.
 

---

In a message dated 7/8/2002 12:01:05 PM Pacific Daylight Time, an instructor writes:

Hi Bill,
Legal question for you...
I am using your materials as the basis for a short one-week, 5 hr. class for kids. I reformatted it and changed a couple things around (wrote another story at the end of the lesson, added a few topics to discuss, couple vocab. items).
Am I giving you the right credit by putting the copyright symbol and notation at the bottom?
Is there another acknowledgment you'd like me to use?
I have only worked with Lesson 1 so far. For Lesson 2, I plan to change the stories a bit but keeping with the same basic set of vocabulary.
I want to be certain to give you the proper credit for your work.
Please advise,
Thanks,
Janice
_____________________

Janice,
I'm flexible. The way you put it is fine. [She sent an example of her copyright notation that included  my name].
Another way to put it might be:
"© 2004, www.Lifeprint.com. Adapted by permission."
Make it relatively small (10pts or so).  I want students to focus on your handout, not the credit line.
Good luck with your class.
Have a nice week.
Bill
----------------------
In a message dated 7/9/2002 4:39:28 AM Pacific Daylight Time, an instructor writes:
Thanks Bill,
I'll make the changes you suggest.:) I was a bit hesitant to put the web address down on the page. I have it in several places on my initial letter to parents. I was hesitant because I wasn't sure if you would want people accessing the site and just trying to learn the language by looking at the pictures without any other direction. We both know what potential problems that might be (wink).... signs going in opposite directions, wrong handshapes, people claiming to know the language and trying to 'teach' others.
I have nooooooo problem putting the web address on the page as you've suggested after reading your comments.
Thanks for allowing me to do so.
Janice
------------
Janice,
I came to the decision a while back that it is better for a newbie to learn "imperfect" ASL, get hooked, fall in love with the Deaf community, and eventually get straightened out--than to never learn ASL at all and never become involved with the community. 
Bill

---

In a message dated 6/7/2003 1:44:15 PM Central Daylight Time, yyanay@ writes:

Hi Bill
Your site is really interesting for my project. I am developing a demo lesson plan for a single ASL unit ... as my final project at the Persons School Masters in Teaching with Internet Technologies program. The site will provide an example to be used eventually (in a fully developed course) as online support materials and course module for an ASL course for hearing HS students which is delivered via high speed videoconference (VILN) by teachers at the Austine School for the Deaf in VT.

Many pages on your site are highly relevant to our lesson plan, and we would sure link our students to some of your pages, credit, and thank you for allowing that. By reading your permissions page it seems you are very generous and fair in allowing teachers to hard copy and distribute your content, yet our web pages are not meant to be used in hard copies. I was wondering about re-distribution online - would you permit using some of the text on your pages on our pages (with full owner's copyright notice and link to original page)? We do not wish to edit the text but use portions of it as is.

We'd like not to overwhelm students with resources but rather provide well targeted content, we are also using small QT video clips to demonstrate signs and do not feel it is necessary to refer students to still images of signs.

I will understand if you chose not to allow copy/paste of your text on other pages. In that case we will consider instructing students exactly which portions of text on your pages to read, but that might be a little too confusing for them. Or, as you suggest, write our own content.
In any case I would like to thank you for your current generosity.

I'd like to mention that the course is currently my final project for school but is meant to be used this coming fall with active students, and when that takes place the content will be posted only for the duration of the instruction. Participating schools will not be charged for content, but will be charged for the cost of the ISDN lines facilitating the high speed videoconference sessions.
Thanks,
Yoram
 

---

Yoram,
Well, looks like its time for me to have an online distribution policy eh?
Look this over and tell me if you think it needs any changes:

Lifeprint Online Distribution Policy:
Other websites and distributors of electronic media may copy and paste selections of information from Lifeprint.com / ASL University into their own pages according to the following guidelines:
If you are putting together your own online class and want to include small portions of this site go ahead.
Websites and other electronic media must provide an active "clickable" hyperlink back to Lifeprint.com. The link should go to Lifeprint.com rather than/or in addition to a specific page--because from time to time the site is reorganized and internal links may shift.
You may NOT "resell" material from this site, but you MAY repackage portions of the material, give www.lifeprint.com conspicuous credit where it is due, note any significant modifications you make to the original material, inform students where to find the original material, then charge students for normal and ordinary expenses. For example, if you want to download portions of the website and then make copies of it for your students you can charge them for normal copying costs.
Bill Vicars,
 

---

Thank You Bill!
Your online distribution policy is more than fair. It certainly serves our purpose very well, since it allows us to post small portions of your textual content on our pages, thus providing learners with access to specific, relevant content and relives them from following virtual browsing instructions for external pages. We will certainly provide direct links, under excerpts used on our pages, hyperlinking Copyright Lifeprint.com as well as thank you.

Although it may appear self-defeating, I would like to demonstrate my appreciation to your policy and ask you to consider the following in order to protect your rights:

1. further specify "small portions" (maybe by defining percentage of your pages that may be copied and posted on hosting sites or by defining word count per excerpt per page on hosting sites)
2. limit the duration the excerpts may be posted (to the duration of instruction related to the excerpt)
3. ask that text excerpts, from top to bottom, not be internally edited or modified in any way yet allow to post text chunks users see right to excerpt for their purpose.

I wish there were more like you and like your policies online

Thanks Again
Yoram

---

Yoram,
I find that by treating people well and by honestly striving to help others--they in turn treat me well and I end up having a great journey because of it. Oh, sure, I get nailed once in a while, but the big picture is really quite nice.
So, while I think your additional suggestions are excellent, I'm going to keep the permissions flexible because I'd rather be burned once in a while than for someone to miss out who would otherwise have benefited from my efforts.
Take care, and good luck with your program.
Bill

---

In a message dated 7/23/2003 10:19:45 AM Central Daylight Time, allybrooks@ writes:

Hi Bill,
I am an ASL teacher as well as a Grad Student in NYC. This summer I took an Integrate Web Publish Class Curriculum course using Dream Weaver. I have a final project of creating a small website for my professor; I am working on creating a simple ASL website for students in a particular level. There are some pictures and information from your site that I would like to use in my website just for my professor. This would save a lot of my time in creating signs, etc. What do you suggest I do? Or shall I simple insert "© 2003, www.Lifeprint.com. Adapted by permission." (in my homepage)? Thank you.
Allison Brooks

Hi Allison,
Yes, you may go ahead and use a few of the pictures (up to fifty individual signs and their accompanying picts) and some of the information (up to 10 articles). On your homepage and each page that you use my info just put
"© 2003, www.Lifeprint.com. Adapted by permission."
at the bottom or wherever. It doesn't need to be "BIG," just so as it is not microscopic. Also, please make sure the www.Lifeprint.com part is an active hyperlink.
If you need "more" pics or articles, just email me back and tell me what you need.
Bill Vicars
Lifeprint.com

---

In a message dated 7/23/2003 9:24:09 AM Central Daylight Time, mshafhd@ writes:
I have been wanting to learn sign language and yesterday came across your online class and have a few questions. I would first like to know if it is ok to print any of the material out to study from. I am not sure where the copyright laws come into play with your material.
I do not think I will be a registered student but I will be taking your course and am excited to continue reading through the material and get started. Thanks.
Sarah

Sarah,
Yes, you may print it all out and study it for your personal use.
You may even print it out and make copies for your friends, neighbors, associates, relatives, and coworkers.
The only trick is to not charge them more than the actual copying costs.
Take care and good luck with your studies.
Dr. Bill
 :)