Copyrights (ours and others)

Who owns the copyrights?

Most of the materials on this site are copyrighted. The copyrights to most text, images, and sound files belong to those who created them. Exceptions include items done for hire and those for which the creators assigned their copyrights to others--for example, as a condition of publishing an article in a journal. Works published prior to 1978 are generally in the public domain unless notice of copyright was given upon publication. Notices were generally not given for articles in scientific journals.

To give credit to the creators of items on this site and to help users determine copyright ownership, we give the source for all scanned text and sound files and for most images. Images with no source indicated (e.g., most distributions maps, some drawings of identification aids) were done by us or by those we hired.

For an authoritative explanation of copyright basics, view this document from the U.S. Copyright Office.

What uses may be made of copyrighted items on this site?

For items for which the developers of this site hold copyright, noncommercial, not-for-profit uses are permitted. Those wishing to incorporate items in a work to be offered for sale at a profit should get written permission from T. J. Walker, Department of Entomology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620 or T. E. Moore, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079.

For items for which we do not hold copyright, potential users should contact the copyright owners directly.

The following persons who have granted us permission to use their sound recordings or photographs have agreed to allow their posted contributions to be used for noncommercial, not-for-profit purposes: Ron Billings, John L. Capinera, Timothy G. Forrest, Darryll Gwynne, Donald W. Hall, Dan L. Johnson, J. E. Lloyd, G. K. Morris, D. B. Weissman. (Those wishing to use these items in a work to be offered for sale at a profit must get written permission from them.)

The following persons made photographs or drawings posted on this site as part of their duties as employees of the University of Florida: J. L. Castner, P. M. Choate, Harry McVay, Lucinda Treadwell, and S. A. Wineriter. For permission to use these, contact the Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620.

Under what terms have we posted items whose copyrights belong to others?

In most cases we have written permission. In other cases we deem our use to fall under the fair-use provisions of copyright law. These provisions permit certain uses of copyrighted works for teaching, scholarship, or research. What constitutes fair use depends on (a) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (b) the nature of the copyrighted work; (c) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (d) the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Case law on the application of these guidelines is limited, and those who benefit from fair use are apt to interpret them differently from those who do not.

What if the owner of copyright of an item judges our use to be an infringement?

We will remove the item immediately, unless there is a clear precedent that the use is not an infringement.