Mike Bland

Policies

An explanation of the license and restrictions governing the reuse, modification, and redistribution of content from Mike Bland's blog

I'm thrilled to have people access the information I provide on my blog, and potentially adapt it to new formats or languages, should they find it interesting and/or useful. To that end, unless otherwise noted, most of the individual blog posts and the elements which comprise them are covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, as noted at the bottom of the text of each post. That means that you're free to copy and adapt my blog posts, provided you ensure that your copy or derivative work contains an appropriate attribution.

Basically, the policy is, feel free to copy my content so long as you link back to me, don't try to pass off my content as your own, and don't try to make it sound like there's an official business or otherwise collaborative connection with me without my explicit written consent. Be careful with images or videos or other bits I might've incorporated from other sources. Beyond that, do what thou wilt.

Restrictions

Some posts may contain images I acquired from other sources; these images are not covered by the license, and I will provide a link back to the original source immediately below such images. Some of these images are licensed under stricter terms than this blog and should not be included in any copies or derivative works without the express permission of the original copyright holder, particularly if such copies or derivative works are produced in a non-hyperlinked format or are published for commercial purposes.

Videos and other embedded content linked from other websites, such as YouTube, are also not covered by the license.

Attribution

The official legal requirements are in section 3(a) of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License legal code. Drawing inspiration from the Creative Commons Best practices for attribution, here are some suggestions for the format of such attributions:

Exact reproductions and translations: For exact reproductions or translations of any blog post or other page from this site, please include a by line with my name linked thus:

<a href="https://mike-bland.com/">Mike Bland</a>

Please update all links within the reproduced content to contain the rel="nofollow" attribute, to avoid the appearance of guest blog link spamming, with one exception: The link to the original source in the license notice below must not contain the rel="nofollow" attribute. Include the following copyright notice and attribution code at the end of the reproduction, replacing the title, copyright date, and source link as appropriate:

<a href="https://mike-bland.com/2014/04/09/heartbleed-and-heartbreak.html">Heartbleed and Heartbreak</a>,
Copyright 2014 <a rel="nofollow" href="https://mike-bland.com/about.html">Mike Bland</a>,
is licensed under <a rel="nofollow" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US">CC BY 4.0</a>.

For images, first review the restrictions earlier in this document. If the image you wish to use is one I own, use the same attribution as above, except use the name of the image file itself as the title in the attribution:

<a href="https://mike-bland.com/images/t-shirt-2007-testing-fixit.jpg">t-shirt-2007-testing-fixit.jpg</a>,
Copyright 2011 <a rel="nofollow" href="https://mike-bland.com/about.html">Mike Bland</a>,
is licensed under <a rel="nofollow" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US">CC BY 4.0</a>.

Feel free to contact me if you are unsure of the copyright date of any image.

Derivative works: For works based on text or images from this site, use the same basic attribution format as for exact reproductions, but prefix it with: This work, "Title of My Derived Work", is derived from

Other media: If the reproduction or adaptation is produced using a medium that does not support hypertext links, such as a book, recording, or video, please include a written or spoken attribution in line with the messages above.

Endorsements

Feel free to republish my content, provided your documents include the attributions described above in the appropriate language, but do not imply an official endorsement or explicit association with me unless I've provided explicit written consent, via email or a paper letter. To quote section 2(a)(6) of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License legal code:

No endorsement. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is, connected with, or sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor or others designated to receive attribution as provided in Section 3(a)(1)(A)(i).

In practical terms, if you choose to run a blog post of mine as an article on your site, feel free. But do not list me as an official contributing author to your site unless I explicitly say so. Chances are I won't agree to be associated thus, but feel free to ask.

History

This is the reverse-chronological history of updates to the license and related policy issues for this site:

Credit

Many of the ideas in this policy document were lifted from the now dead Google Code Site Policies page (originally at http://code.google.com/policies.html).