TOU

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TOU

Please help me with my tou smiley I have no ide what to include in it smiley Right nog i have one that's not very good just to have one smiley

I had the same problem when I started out, and I can tell you one thing: You'll never be done with it - always new things to add or remove, or re-formulate, or explain...

What I did back then was take about 20 TOUs from products I had downloaded/purchased and "stole" ideas from them to fit my needs. Personally, I prefer the TOUs that are friendly and welcoming, and not the ones where you feel like a criminal just for reading the TOU (threats about FBI, Police, and public hanging...). Write it as if YOU were your customer.

The important thing is, that the reader understands what you mean, so straight-forward text is preferred. And for goodness sake, KEEP IT SHORT!!! I read one last week boring me for 3 FULL A4 PAGES! And when I was finally done, I still didn't know what I was allowed to do with it...hmm...!

If you want/need I will be pleased to proofread whatever you come up with.

XOXO
Trine

Hihi yeah that's what i've been doing until now smiley "stealing" from others smiley I do want a short one and one in txt, cause i hate it when they come in wordfiles och pdf smiley I would never write FBI, Police and stuff like that cause that would freak me out too smiley That might even make me delete stuff smiley And i want people to enjoy it, not get terrafied by using it smiley

this is mine right now:

PU TOU:
You may recolor, resize, etc to suit your needs.

Do not use any part of my kit, either as a whole or in parts to make other kits.

My kits are for personal use only. Do not use in commercial projects.

If you would like to use my kits to make blog layouts, please contact me for permission at [email protected].

Under no circumstances are you to use my kits for any projects for profit of any kind.

Do not in parts or as a whole, share the kit, or add to sharing files.

Leave all file names intact

Do not recolor/resize or alter so that you can claim the work as your own.

You may use my kits in tutorials, however, direct back to my blog for download. Please provide a link to my blog, and credit my work.

It would be nice to know if you have used my kits in a tut, but it is not necessary.

You may print out the content of this kit, for PERSONAL scrapbooking. (do NOT print out to use in a commercial project)

contact: [email protected]

Curious as to why you put

Quote:
Leave all file names intact

Sometimes I do rename files to suit my filing system. I do not share my work at this stage, but I may in the future.

"...and not the ones where you feel like a criminal just for reading the TOU (threats about FBI, Police, and public hanging...). Write it as if YOU were your customer."

@Trine: that's exactly how I feel sometimes reading them...

It's perfect Jessica! I understand it - and I'm not scared at all smiley)

XOXO
Trine

Thanx Trine smiley It's so hard for no mather how you write it it's gonna be a bit negative.. Don't do this and don't do that... But i guess that is what tous are for smiley

Short, to the point (dot points are awesome! lol), I go cross-eyed sometimes reading some TOU's smiley

I guess you are right - it is hard to not be negative in a TOU. But compared to so many other TOUs, yours is almost "gleaming in the sun"-positive ;0)))))

A solution to the negatives are, of course, to only list the things that you CAN do. But I tried that, and it gets looooong!

XOXO

I always like to know if the paper/kits are S4H friendly, because I do a lot of custom books for people.

I believe that scrap for hire would basically be the same as commercial use (correct me if I'm wrong). My understanding is that if you make any sort of profit from the materials, then you would need to make sure that they are available for commercial use.

Yeah since most of the templates i have is just CU (not cu4cu) exept from this site ofc smiley i can only make PU with them... Any kind of profit and i have to make it with cu4cu or people that allow CU to be used for cu4cu... it's not easy knowning what to do when everyone makes there own rules and there's really don't seem to be a "strikt" guideline smiley

lol...well most of that was Greek to me. I know what pu, cu, s4h, and s4o are...but I don't have a clue what cu4cu is. There really should be a standard definition for each of these that designers would adhere to. Then again that's just the opinion of someone who is trying to distinguish between what can be used for a photography book layout/card/template for clients. smiley

If the only thing that I could use for my kind of project is cu4u, then how would scrap for hire be defined?

CU4CU: a commercial use item that can be used to create other commercial use things. For example, you can use a cu4cu ribbon to include in a kit you are going to sell in your scrapbook store...

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Curious as to why you put

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Leave all file names intact

I second this. Just curious as to the reasoning behind it!

Otherwise, I think that what you have now sounds fairly straightforward and easy to understand. I think I saw someone in a recent TOU generally state that if you receive any income from using her product, it wasn't allowed. Which I thought pretty nicely summed it up.

Thanks for clarifying Lorien. So, I think I should be safe doing my work with either s4h or cu kits/items...though it sounds like I should just lean toward cu. What a great idea Lady Phillippa (just stating that you can't use their work if you receive any income from the product...very straightforward).

I made my CU tou really simple: Do what you like aslong as you don't clame it as your own smiley What do you think about that?

I like it, Jessica! A Good Karma Philosophy!

I have put together a "Good Karma" TOU that you can see below: Just an idea that I had, after earlier discussions on TOUs and giving designs freely, at PixelScrapper:

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HERE ARE SOME LINKS TO CHECK OUT FOR TERMINOLOGY

HERE

HERE

THIS IS FROM ABOUT.COM

What is Personal Use?
Personal Use is generally defined as using the products for your own layouts (or hybrid projects). There is no universal Personal Use definition. Each designer sets their own definition of what is acceptable under Personal Use for their products. Read the Terms of Use documents included with your digital scrapbooking downloads. That is the best way to understand what types of use are acceptable for a particular product.

What is Scrap for Hire Use?
Scrap for Hire licenses cover usage guidelines for digital scrapbookers who create albums and/or pages for clients as a service. Without a Scrap for Hire license, it is not legal to purchase digital scrapbooking products and create pages as a paid service for other people. The process of doing so, even if you are delivering a “flattened” file without the individual products files, is considered creating what’s called a derivative work. The license to create derivative works is controlled solely by the original copyright holder (in this case, the designer). Without permission from the original copyright holder to create derivative works, doing so is copyright infringement. Many designers sell their products either with both personal use and Scrap for Hire use licenses automatically, or for a nominal, extra charge.

What is Commercial Use?
Commercial Use licensed products are sold mainly to other designers as design tools to aid in the creation of digital scrapbooking products. Acceptable use within the bounds of a Commercial Use license often varies somewhat significantly. For example, some Commercial Use licenses strictly prohibit the creation of products that will be given as “freebies,” while others do not. Commercial Use licensed products are sold at a higher price point than Personal Use or Scrap for Hire Use products.

What about freebies or gifts?
Just because you were given a product free of charge by the designer does not mean the product isn’t protected by copyright. Freebies and gifts still include Terms of Use documentation that is to be respected.

What if I don’t quite understand the guidelines in the Terms of Use or my usage situation isn’t addressed?
Sometimes you may encounter a situation where the wording of a TOU doesn’t seem quite clear, or you want to use the product for a project that doesn’t fit within the definitions of the TOU. When in doubt, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification. Most designers include an email address where they can be contacted in their TOU. If there is no email address, contact the store or source from which you downloaded the product and ask them if they can help you contact the designer about a TOU question.

What if there are no Terms of Use included?
In the rare case you receive digital scrapbooking products unaccompanied by a Terms of Use file, don’t proceed to do whatever you want with them. Do your best to contact the designer and ask them to send you a copy of the Terms of Use. If you are unsuccessful at contacting the designer, err on the safe side to make sure you aren’t infringing on anyone’s rights. Don’t use them. If you purchased the products from a store, get clear (written) guidelines on usage. If you downloaded them for free, you can delete the file(s) without any skin off of your nose.

Who does the Use license I’ve purchased cover?
Sometimes, a scrapbooker may question who is able to legally use the products they’ve purchased. If you’ve purchased the product, can your teenage daughter use it in her layout? Many designers consider their use license to be for a household, meaning whoever is legally resides in the house can use the product. It doesn’t, however, mean that certain designers haven’t structured their Use licenses differently. Always, if you are in doubt, contact the designer. You are in no way bothering or bugging them. Designers appreciate customers who ask questions in order to respect their Terms of Use.

Why do designers and artists create all these “usage rules?” I’m not trying to make money with their products!
It’s important to note that according to US copyright laws, copyright infringement and the enforcement of copyright law has nothing to do with profit. What that means is that it doesn’t matter if you’re not making money off of whatever you’re doing, if it violates copyright laws, it violates the laws—period. Consider a scenario where you take a photo of your child. You publish your photo to your blog so that you can share it with your friends and family. Then, someone comes along and takes that photo and posts it elsewhere or uses it in some way without your permission. They’ve infringed on your copyright. Unless they have written permission to publish or use your photo, they have no right to use your photo in any way—even if they’ve gained no profit from the use.

Now imagine if you sold some form of use license for that photo to a company. You have the right to dictate how your photo is used. You can say that your photo cannot be used in any way that is discriminatory or pornographic or exploitive. It doesn’t matter how much money the client has paid to you. They still must follow the usage guidelines you set for them when they made the purchase. Why? It’s simply because the photo is still your property. The only time this wouldn’t apply is if you sign a copyright release form, essentially transferring the copyright to another entity or stated that you’ve released your copyright and the work is now public domain (meaning anyone can use it without restriction).

Another great site that's working to make licensing easy is creative commons. It's helpful to look through their licensing to get an idea of what you need, and also, you can use theirs if you'd like: http://creativecommons.org/

Question: What is FTU?

Found that one recently, and just not clear on what it means.

FTU means Free to use. Usually it was an item they had in their store but have now made it free.

@ Sunny: I love that Good Karma TOU! Great Ideas Ladies!! I'm vamping my TOU right now and have absolutely no idea what to put down! I know one for non commercial use and one for commercial use. I'm getting ready to open my store, frankly I've been working on it for months ... between working 40+ hours a week and this plus my family ... I've been busy!!
Anyways, @ Marisa ... Thank you for the CC site! It's awesome what they do!

I've read TOU's that literally scared me half to death to the point were I deleted their stuff from my hard drive! I'm always really careful about what I download now after reading some TOU's out there!!

@ Sunny ... Do you mind if I use parts of your "Good Karma TOU"? I just love it and it's straight forward!!

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Community Points: 440

Question: What is FTU?

Found that one recently, and just not clear on what it means.

Quote:
FTU means Free to use. Usually it was an item they had in their store but have now made it free.

I never heard of this before so I had to look it up. It drive me up the wall when I go unzip a kit and there's no TOU in it. Sometimes there isn't even a designers name in the file name, so I can't even use it cause if I post it I can't give credit. What I would really like too is if designer's would include whether their templates are CT friendly. Most say S4H, but that's different...

Cat, I have seen some that have CT ok - Creative Team in their TOU as well.