1. Terms of use (last updated 27 October 2009)

By using OLnet.org, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, please do not use the site. We may need to change these Terms of Use from time to time. If you disagree with a change to the Terms of Use, please do not use the site.

OLnet.org is provided by The Open University in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University as part of the Open Learning Network project, which is funded by the The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation until February 2012.

If you see anything on the site that contravenes these Terms, please notify us using the contact us form.

2. Content and information

The content and structure of the Olnet.org site is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales license.

When you use OLnet.org, you create and upload content to the site – for instance, blog posts, images and messages to groups – and this content is included within the licence, so by putting this information on the site, you are saying that:

1. the content is yours, or you have the permission of the owner to agree to this usage, and
2. you accept that the content is available to others upon the terms of the Creative Commons License accessed through the following link [creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk] (which means you are giving us the right to distribute your material as long as it is attributed to you);
3. you may use content and services directly available through the OLnet.org site under the same license. This means you may reuse, modify and redistribute the content, including for commercial purposes, but you must attribute us and any identified author in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Licence;
4. content and services embedded from third party sites, for instance YouTube or Flickr, may be subject to the terms of those sites. It is your responsibility to check.

If you no longer want us to use the content you have added, you should delete it from the site. It will stop being available to other users immediately. (It will remain in the site backups for a reasonable period of time, but will not be available to other users.)

3. Your personal information

All of the personal information you upload to the site, with two exceptions, is available to everyone who uses the site. By putting personal information on the site, you agree to it being available in this way. You can change or delete your personal information yourself at any time, by editing your profile. The first exception is your email address. We store this so that we can operate the site and contact you when we need to about the site. We will never pass it on to anyone for marketing purposes. The second exception is your IP address, a number which identifies the computer you use to access the site. We store this in order to track usage of the site, and monitor abuse of the site. We will not make your email address or IP address available to anyone outside the team operating the site, unless required to by law. We use Google Analytics on the site, which captures information about the use of the site, to help us monitor and improve it. None of the information captured by Google Analytics is personally-identifiable information - i.e., nothing that can identify you as an individual is stored. Personal information is not visible to people who view the site as a guest, ie without logging on.

4. Privacy and safety

We want OLnet.org to be an open and safe place. It is primarily aimed at researchers and teachers with interest in OERs, but if you are not in this category you are still free to get involved. If you are under 16, though, you should have your parent or guardian's permission to use the site, and talk to them about staying safe online. Advice on how to stay safe online can be found here.

5. Acceptable use and behaviour

People learn best when they feel secure and supported. We want the site to feel like that. So please make every effort you can to be friendly and to help and support other people on the site. If you see people being less than helpful, encourage them gently to help out. There are some things, however, that are not acceptable on OLnet.org. You may not use OLnet.org for any unlawful purpose, or to infringe the rights of others on the site. You may not use OLnet.org to harrass, distress, or inconvenience anyone. You may not post information to OLnet.org that is abusive, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise offensive or objectionable. You may not use OLnet.org for advertising or for promotion except where you are promoting open educational events and resources. If you see something on OLnet.org that is not acceptable, please report it using the contact us form.

6. Trademarks

Logos and trademarks from partners and third party sites (for example, The Open University, Hewlett Foundation, OpenLearn, YouTube) are subject to the terms of those sites. It is your responsibility to check whether you can reuse them.

7. Our responsibility to you

We will do our best to continue to provide the site, to make sure that all users abide by these terms, and to make sure that the site is safe to use. However, we can't guarantee this. In legal terms, we exclude any warranty, express or implied, as to the quality, accuracy, timeliness, completeness, performance, fitness for a particular purpose of the web site or any of its contents. We will not be liable for any damages (including without limitation damages for loss of profit, revenue or anticipated savings) arising in contract, tort or otherwise from the use of or inability to use the web site or any of its contents or from any action taken (or refrained from being taken) as a result of using the web site or any such contents. We make no warranty that the contents of the web site are free from infection by viruses or anything else which has contaminating or destructive properties.