Home |  E-newsletter |  RSS |  Become a Member |  Feedback

What Works in Public Education

Legal Restrictions and Terms of Use

Welcome to the Edutopia Web site (the "Edutopia Site" or the "Site"). The following legal restrictions and terms of use apply to Edutopia.org, any successor pages thereto, the Edutopia microsite on Apple's iTunes University, and other Web sites owned or operated by The George Lucas Educational Foundation ("GLEF" or "we", "us" or "our"). PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE EDUTOPIA SITE. USE OF THE SITE SIGNIFIES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THESE TERMS OF USE.

1. Agreement to Terms. By using this Site, you signify that you agree to these Terms of Use. In addition, when using particular services available on this Site, you will be subject to any posted guidelines, rules or additional terms of service applicable to such services that may be posted from time to time (the "Guidelines"), including without limitation our Privacy Policy. All such Guidelines are hereby incorporated by reference into the Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use or any of the Guidelines, you may not use the Site. We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of the Terms of Use or any of the Guidelines at any time. Please check these Terms of Use and the Guidelines periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Site after the posting of changes will mean you agree to abide by those changes. Please note that additional and/or different terms of use may apply to services provided through one or more business associates of GLEF, and you should refer to those before using such services.

2. Ownership. This Site is owned and operated by GLEF. The contents of this Site are protected by United States copyright and trademark law, international conventions and other applicable laws. All materials contained in the Site, are the copyrighted property of GLEF or its affiliated companies and/or third-party licensors and are offered to you by GLEF for the limited use solely pursuant to these Terms of Use. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are proprietary to The George Lucas Educational Foundation or its affiliates and/or third-party licensors. All logos, characters, artwork, stories, information, names, and other elements associated thereto are the sole and exclusive property of The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

3. Reprint Rights. Articles on this Site may be reproduced in limited numbers for nonprofit and educational use, as long as The George Lucas Educational Foundation copyright notice is included, and any other credit, byline, and copyright notice attributable to a specific article is also reproduced. Please list the source: "Originally published (insert publication date referenced with the article) © Edutopia.org; The George Lucas Educational Foundation."

4. Use of Embeddable Player. At its sole discretion, GLEF may make available an Edutopia Embeddable Player to distribute Edutopia media and content. If you use the Edutopia Embeddable Player on your Web site, you must include a prominent source link back to the Site on the pages containing the Embeddable Player and you may not modify, build upon, or block any portion of the Embeddable Player in any way.

Modification of the materials or use of the materials for any other purpose is a violation of GLEF’s copyright and other proprietary rights. As a condition of your use of the Site, you will not use the Site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms of Use. You may not use the Site in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair any Site or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of any Site. You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site or other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Site, through hacking, password mining or any other means. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available through the Site.

Any use of any of the materials on this Site, including the Edutopia Embeddable Player and articles that may be reproduced, other than for noncommercial purposes is strictly prohibited. The sale, auction, lease, loan, gift, trade or barter, or use of any of the materials contained herein, for any other purpose except as expressly permitted pursuant to these Terms of Use, in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed, including the use of any of the aforementioned materials on any other Web site or networked computer environment, without a prior written consent from GLEF, is expressly prohibited.

Prohibited commercial uses include any of the following actions taken without GLEF’s express approval:

• sale of access to the Site or its related services (such as the Edutopia Embeddable Player) on another Web site;
• use of the Site or its related services (such as the Edutopia Embeddable Player), for the primary purpose of gaining advertising or subscription revenue; and
• the sale of advertising, on the Site or any third-party Web site, targeted to the content of specific User Submissions or Edutopia content.

Prohibited commercial uses do not include

• using the Edutopia Embeddable Player to show Edutopia videos on an ad-enabled blog or Web site, provided the primary purpose of using the Edutopia Embeddable Player is not to gain advertising revenue;
any use that GLEF expressly authorizes in writing.

In connection with the Edutopia Embeddable Player, GLEF grants you a nonexclusive, nontransferable, revocable, limited right and license to access and use the Edutopia Embeddable Player solely for the purpose of using the Embeddable Player on your Web site to distribute only the Edutopia media and content made available to you by GLEF and solely in accordance with these Terms of Use.

5. Downloadable Content You may download only the Content designated as downloadable for non-commercial educational purposes only. You are permitted to download the Content, incorporate the Content unmodified into a presentation (such as a PowerPoint, an essay), and present copies of the Content, but you may not edit or alter the Content or create any derivative works of the Content. If you are using an Internet site to present Edutopia content, please use the Embeddable Player, as noted in Section 4.

6. User Submissions, Forums and Blogs.

a. You are welcome to post, transmit or submit messages (collectively "Messages") to bulletin boards, blogs, or other public areas within, or in connection with, this Site (collectively "User Submissions"). You acknowledge and agree that the materials submitted by you are being sent voluntarily, and not in confidence, and that no confidential relationship is intended or created between GLEF and you by your submission of the materials submitted by you. If your Message includes a reference to your school or students, you attest that you have followed your school district's policy for receiving permission from each parent/legal guardian whose child is depicted in the Message, and that you have the permission of the principal or headmaster to make a particular Message, or, if no such policy exists, that you have obtained written consent from at least one parent/guardian of each student who appears in your Message. Messages that include images or video should not contain any visible logos, drawings, cartoons, phrases, trademarks or other third-party materials. If a Message includes any third-party materials (including but not limited to, any copyright, trademark, logo or mark that identifies a brand), the owner of such trademark, brand, copyright, logo, etc. may insist that his trademark, brand, copyright, logo, etc. be removed from the site. GLEF accepts no responsibility whatsoever in connection with or arising from such Messages. GLEF does not endorse and has no control over the content of Messages submitted by others as User Submissions. Messages submitted as User Submissions are not necessarily reviewed by GLEF prior to posting and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of GLEF. GLEF makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the content of the Messages as User Submissions or the accuracy and reliability of any Messages and other materials as User Submissions. Nonetheless, GLEF reserves the right to prevent you from submitting Materials as User Submissions and to edit, restrict or remove such Messages for any reason at any time.
b. From time to time, GLEF may invite User Submissions to outside sites (such as YouTube and TeacherTube) with tags such as "edutopiatips". If you use these sites, please carefully read the Terms and Conditions as GLEF makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the content and service of these sites.
c. GLEF assumes no responsibility for actively monitoring User Submissions for inappropriate Messages. If at any time GLEF chooses, in its sole discretion, to monitor the User Submissions, GLEF nonetheless assumes no responsibility for the content of the Messages, no obligation to modify or remove any inappropriate Messages, and no responsibility for the conduct of the user submitting any Message. In submitting Messages as User Submissions, you agree to strictly limit yourself to exchanges about the subject matter for which the User Submissions are intended. You agree that GLEF accepts no liability whatsoever if it determines to prevent your Messages from being submitted or if it edits, restricts or removes your Messages. You also agree to permit any other user of this Site to access, view, store or reproduce the material for that other user's personal use and not to restrict or inhibit the use of the Site by any other person.
d. Children under the age of thirteen are not authorized to post messages or participate in making User Submissions.
e. GLEF and George Lucas present a variety of viewpoints. The views expressed or implied on Edutopia.org regarding any program, organization, resource, product, person, place, or school should not be interpreted as an endorsement by GLEF or George Lucas personally. Any informational materials provided on the Site, including without limitation the opinions and/or recommendations of any authors and/or moderators, are not intended to substitute for any professional educational, medical, legal, psychiatric, employment or other advice. Without limitation of the Disclaimer paragraphs set forth below, GLEF makes no representations or warranties regarding, and expressly disclaims any and all liability concerning, any action by any person following the information offered or provided within or through the Site. If you have concerns or a situation in which you require professional advice, you should consult with an appropriately qualified professional in the relevant field.
f. GLEF welcomes story ideas and pitches that relate to learning and teaching in our nations public schools from educators and professional writers alike. If you send any submission or, despite our request that you not send us any other creative materials (including materials you upload to, distribute through or post on Edutopia.org, or any GLEF-related site), you send us creative suggestions, ideas, notes, drawings, concepts, or other information (collectively the "Submissions"), you hereby grant GLEF and its agents and licensees a worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license to use, including without limitation the right to reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, and distribute such materials, (in whole or in part or alone or in combination with other material) throughout the universe and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed, for the full term of any copyright, trademark or patent that may exist in such material for any purpose that GLEF chooses, whether internal, public, commercial, or otherwise, without any compensation, credit or notice to the sender whatsoever. The sender waives all so-called moral rights in all Submissions. The sender further waives the right to make any claims against GLEF relating to unsolicited submissions, including, but not limited to, unfair competition, breach of implied contract and/or breach of confidentiality.

7. Links. This Site includes links to other Internet sites solely as a convenience to users. GLEF does not endorse any such linked sites or the information, material, products or services contained on other linked sites or accessible through other linked sites. Furthermore, GLEF makes no express or implied warranties with regard to the information, material, products or services contained on or accessible through linked sites. Access and use of linked sites, including information, material, products and services on linked sites or available through linked sites is solely at the user’s own risk.

8. Communications. You agree that your activities on the Site (including without limitation to submission of any Messages to Forums, or any of Your Posted Material) will not

a. infringe GLEF or any third party's copyright, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy (and by submitting Messages to Forums or any of Your Posted Material, you represent to GLEF that you are the rightful owner of such material or that you have first obtained permission to submit the material from the rightful owner);
b. reveal trade secrets or any information that you have agreed, expressly or by implication, to keep confidential;
c. constitute (or encourage conduct that would constitute) a criminal offense, gives rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law or create liability for GLEF or cause GLEF to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our ISPs or other suppliers;
d. transmit content GLEF considers to be disruptive, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
e. impersonate or claim the identity, characteristics or qualifications of any other person or entity; or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity or are false, inaccurate or misleading;
f. unless specifically authorized by us, be for commercial purposes or contain advertising or be intended to solicit a person to buy or sell services or to make donations, including "spam" or any other form of solicitation or promotion, or link to, directly or indirectly, any sites that violate the restrictions set forth in this Section;
g. constitute, contain, or encourages "make money fast"-type messages, "chain letters" or "pyramid schemes" of any type;
h. contain any virus or other harmful component or any other potentially damaging content or otherwise disrupt the normal flow of communication in or operation of the Site in any way or take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on GLEF’s infrastructure, including without limitation denial-of-service attacks;
i. attempt to circumvent user authentication or the security of any user account or use any robot, spider or other automatic device or manual process to monitor or copy the Site’s Web pages or any of the materials contained in them; or
j. be libelous, or constitute an invasion on privacy or publicity rights.

9. Representations/Warranties. You represent, warrant, covenant and agree that: (i) you have full right and authority to enter into these Terms of Use; (ii) no rights are being retained or reserved by you or any third party; (iii) your submitted materials shall not interfere with or infringe under common or statutory law the rights of any third party, including without limitation contract rights, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, rights of publicity and privacy, or otherwise violate the rights of any third party; (iv) the use of your submitted materials by GLEF or the exercise by GLEF of any of the rights granted by you under these Terms of Use, in whole or in part, including without limitation its contents and all audio, visual and musical elements and all names, likenesses, biographies, trademarks, trade names, or logos used in or as part of the materials you submitted, shall not interfere with or infringe under common or statutory law the rights of any third party, including without limitation contract rights, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, rights of publicity and privacy, or otherwise violate the rights of any third party; (v) the materials shall be free of all liens, encumbrances and the claims of third parties; (vi) proper written permissions and releases have been obtained from all persons appearing in the materials or whose names or likenesses may be incorporated or used in the materials to enable and ensure GLEF's full exercise and enjoyment of the rights granted hereunder; (viii) no person who was engaged to work on the materials or who appear in the materials in any way has any approval or consultation rights or any rights of participation with respect to any use, exhibition or other exploitation of the materials or has any rights for royalty payments or residuals of any kind; (ix) the materials you submitted are not subject to any union or guild requirements or restrictions, whether current or ongoing, (x) you have paid and will pay all amounts that have become or may become payable to any suppliers, musicians, actors, employees, independent contractors and other rights holders in all or a portion of the materials you submitted, and to any person or persons who rendered services in or in connection with the materials by virtue of the use made of the materials hereunder, including without limitation residual, reuse, rerun, pension, health and welfare fund and payroll-tax payments;(xi) you have obtained written permission when filming any part of any of the materials incorporated in the materials you submitted on private property not owned or controlled by you, where such permission is required. You also acknowledge and agree that to the extent any moral rights of authors are not assignable, you hereby waive any such rights and irrevocably agree not to bring or maintain any claim or action based upon any alleged violation of any such moral rights anywhere in the world. If you include pictures of anyone in or with your submitted materials, you must have their written permission to include their image in or with the materials. If you submit an image of someone who is under eighteen years of age who is not your child, you must have the permission of that child's parent or legal guardian and you may be asked to provide permission in writing by GLEF.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties. THE MATERIALS IN THIS SITE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE SITE CODE, ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW, GLEF DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR WITH RESPECT TO THE SITE, ANY CONTENT, OR ANY GOODS OR SERVICES AVAILABLE, OFFERED OR SOLD THROUGHT THIS SITE. GLEF DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE MATERIALS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE SITE CODE, WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THIS SITE OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES IT AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS OR FREE FROM SECURITY BREACHES. GLEF DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE MATERIALS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE SITE CODE, IN THIS SITE IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. YOU (AND NOT GLEF) ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.

11. No Consequential Damages; Limitation of Liability. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NEGLIGENCE, SHALL GLEF BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE MATERIALS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY OF THE SITE CODE, ON THIS SITE OR ANY OTHER INTERACTIONS WITH GLEF, EVEN IF GLEF OR A GLEF AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

12. Termination. In addition to all of the legal and equitable rights and remedies available to GLEF in connection with the use by you of the Edutopia Embeddable Player or your submitted materials, you acknowledge and agree that GLEF shall have the right, in its sole discretion, not to post any of the materials submitted by you on the Site or on any Web site, to remove such materials from any Web site on which it has been posted, and not to use, exhibit or otherwise exploit the materials submitted by you in any manner whatsoever. Furthermore, GLEF shall have the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Edutopia Embeddable Player and/or to this Site or any GLEF related Web site and refuse to grant you access to use any GLEF or related Web site in the future with or without warning if GLEF, in its sole discretion, believes you have: (a) violated or tried to violate the rights of GLEF or its affiliates; (b) violated or tried to violate any of the representations, warranties or other terms or conditions of these Terms of Use; or (c) acted inconsistently with any of the terms or conditions herein. GLEF has no obligation to inform you of any decision not to post, to remove, or not to use, exhibit or otherwise exploit any materials you submit.

13. Injunctive Relief; Governing Law; Venue

a. You acknowledge and agree that a breach or threatened breach of any covenant contained in these Terms of Use would cause irreparable injury, that money damages would be an inadequate remedy and that GLEF shall be entitled to temporary and permanent injunctive relief, without the posting of any bond or other security, to restrain you from such breach or threatened breach. Nothing in this Section 11(a) shall be construed as preventing GLEF from pursuing any and all remedies available to it, including the recovery of money damages from you.
b. These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these terms or the Web Site shall be filed only in the state or federal courts in and for Marin County, California and you hereby consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purposes of litigating any such action.

14. Miscellaneous. The failure of GLEF to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of these terms shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that provision shall be deemed severable from these terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. These Terms of Use and related Guidelines may not be transferred or assigned by you but may be assigned by GLEF without restriction. Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 will survive any termination of this Agreement. This is the entire agreement between us relating to the subject matter herein and shall not be modified except in writing, signed by both parties, or by a change to these Terms of Use or Guidelines made by GLEF as set forth in Section 1 above.

15. International Matters. GLEF is controlled and operated from its United States offices in California. We make no representation that materials on the Site are appropriate or available for use in any particular location. Those who choose to access the Site do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

16. Disclosures. The services hereunder are offered by GLEF, located at PO Box 3494, San Rafael, CA 94912-3494. If you are a California resident, you may have this same information emailed to you by sending a letter to the foregoing address with your email address and a request for this information.

17. Copyright Infringement Policy; Notice of Copyright Infringement Claims

Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Safe Harbor Notice Provisions

It is the policy of GLEF to respect the intellectual property of others. If you are alleging that copyrighted material may have been or is being infringed with respect to any items on the Site, you may notify GLEF pursuant to the U.S. Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §512 (c), by sending a notice to the address listed below.

Such notice must include the following to be effective:

a. a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
b. identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
c. identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled and information reasonably sufficient to permit GLEF to locate the material;
d. information reasonably sufficient to permit GLEF to contact you, such as an address, a telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which you may be contacted;
e. a statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
f. a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Designated Agent for All Notices

All written notices should be sent to the following Designated Agent:
DMCA Complaints/COO
GLEF
PO Box 3494
San Rafael, CA 94912-3494
Fax: (415) 662-1532
Email: dmcacomplaints@edutopia.org
© 2009 The George Lucas Educational Foundation and/or its affiliated and related entities. All rights reserved.
Effective Date: 2/15/2008