Copyright Issues

Copyright law secures for the creator of a creative work the exclusive right to control who can make
copies or derivative works from the original creation.

The Berne copyright convention, which almost all nations have signed, says that every creative work is
copyrighted the moment it is fixed in tangible form. No explicit notice of copyright is required, though it helps legal cases, and the copyright is good for 50 years after the creator's death.

Copyright law allows for something called "Fair Use" which permits strictly limited use of copyrighted works without explicit permission.  Fair-use is what permits a book reviewer to quote brief passages from the book being reviewed without asking for permission.  Any broader use of the original copyrighted work requires explicit permission from the owner.

Therefore, since I created the words, layout, images, and other components on this Web site (or asked the original creator for permission to us it), I own all the original work here and you have no right to reproduce it (except for "fair-use") without my explicit permission.

If you'd like to use, for other than "fair-use" purposes, any of the words, pictures, layout, or other components of this Web site for non-profit or personal use, I may grant you free permission to do so, but you must ask me first.  Please do me that courtesy before using any of this material.

-Mike Rodriguez