Fair
Use Policy
Somewhere between an RIAA dystopia where no electronic device can exist that doesn't conform to the standards of those garbage-distribution conglomerates called "Hollywood" and "the music industry," and the situation prevailing some four and a half centuries ago, where Cervantes languished in debtors' prison while his immortal Don rode to the top of the European best-seller lists in pirate editions, is the right compromise point between copyright and fair use. I don't know where that point is. I don't know how it would be enforced. But I know what I want (and since it's my stuff...)
First, there is to be NO HOT LINKING TO ANY CONTENT ON THIS SITE FOR ANY REASON! That is bandwidth theft and it can run into buck$$$. I'm already stretching things to be able to bring you this site without popups from my web host. The ancient Greeks had a saying that seven cities contended for the honor of having been Homer's birthplace, but while he was alive Homer had to beg for his bread in every one of them. The material condition of the arts has NOT improved since then...cut me a break!
Second, Terms of Use:
Commercial Sites: if my art can help you make money I
want my share. Email me and we'll make a deal.
Government sites (and anybody else demanding a Social Security or equivalent
government-mandated personal ID number as a condition of transaction): don't
even ask. The answer is no.
Personal Use: by which I mean, whatever you do "in the privacy
of your own desktop." You may use whatever you wish on my site for your
own purposes. You are not permitted to repost it, place it in other galleries,
modify it and claim it as yours, or anything else which the law would consider
as "publishing," without my express PERMISSION.
Personal web pages: You may use whatever you wish provided that the
content is not modified, is labelled as mine, and clearly linked to my site.
Also, it would be nice if you would send me your URL so I can see how my "children"
are getting on in this world.
Organizations, movements, websites with a social/political/religious/sexual/philosophic
axe to grind: well, I have mine too, and I will generally support access to
the public marketplace for ideas I would not permit for one second in my home.
But first, ask for PERMISSION.