Legal Information

All material included within this site is produced by Le Petit Jardin Productions/Michael S. Liebman, unless otherwise indicated. Portions of this site are from 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. No portion of this site may be reproduced without permission.

The drop-down menu javascript is used by permission from Netscape Communicatons Corp. Other javascript is used by permission from Macromedia, Inc.

Certain depicted, quoted or other underlying material remains the copyright of its respected owners.

Understanding Copyrights

There have been many changes to copyright legislation in the past few decades and things are getting even more complicated by sites like this one. So lets review some key elements of a copyright. First, this kind of notice isn't necessary for someone to hold the copyright on their work. Secondly, the work does not need to be published. Finally, the work does not need to be registered in order to claim a copyright.

For basic information on copyrights, visit the U.S. Copyright Office or the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Intellectual Property Archive.

Obtaining Permission

Just because I am exerting control over my intellectual property doesn't mean that I'm not willing to share things. I am an ardent supporter of Open Source, especially free, software, free speech and academic discussion. And I'm certainly not looking to limit any of those things through copyrighting this site.

So, here is what you need to do to get permission from me: Just ask. Really, it's just as easy as sending me an email if your request is reasonable.

If you want to link to this site, you do not need permission. I wouldn't mind knowing that you are linking to my stuff, but feel free to build those a href's without asking first.

Fair Use

Of course you don't need permission to use my work under the Fair Use exemption. But please remember that fair use should be fair to everyone. That means me the owner and you the user. There are four factors that determine if usage is fair. The last one is most important, but all of the factors must be considered together.

1. Purpose and nature of use: Education, free, individual, sponataneous and temporary are good.
2. Nature of the work: Consider if an element of the whole site you wish to use is also a free standing work under copyright.
3. Substantiality of the work to be used: Using less is more likely fair use.
4. Effect on potential market or value: If you aren't making it difficult for me to make money on my work, that is likely to be fair use.