Standard Use Agreement

The standard use agreement retains all of the expectations and restrictions on attribution present in the permissive use agreement, but also adds a number of other restrictions. Alternate versions of some of these restrictions are available and can be selected by data contributors to further customize the agreement.

When is the standard use agreement appropriate? The standard version of the agreement may be appropriate whenever there are certain specific kinds of restrictions that should be applied to use and re-use of media. Some specific forms of certain restrictions aspire to emulate the same basic goals as certain CC licenses, albeit without reference to or expectations of copyright. This agreement also includes provisions specific to 3D data. We have created a document detailing the standard use agreement with all possible alternative versions of each provision that it can contain. As the document is fairly complicated, the provisions of the standard re-use agreement that are not part of the permissive agreement will be discussed, and where possible, the specific fields that can be used to customize them will be noted.

Provision C: Limits on informal or private sharing (read full text of provisions here)

All versions of the standard agreement include this provision that aims to prohibit the direct sharing or re-distribution of media downloaded from MorphoSource. The basic expectation of this provision is that if user A who has downloaded media from MorphoSource wants another user B to be able to access that media, user A should should not directly send the media to user B. Instead, user A should direct user B to the MorphoSource website (e.g., A should provide B with the media URL, ARK or DOI), so that user B can download the media for themselves.

Note that this provision does explicitly allow media to be shared directly between users under a limited number of allowable circumstances, and those circumstances are outlined in detail in the text of the agreement itself. An example of allowable sharing includes classroom use.

Provision D: Limits through redistribution through other repositories (read full text of provisions here)

All versions of the standard agreement include this provision that states that the downloader may not re-archive and/or publish the downloaded media in a different repository without explicit permission of the original IP holders of the downloaded media. 

Why would a contributor want to limit/forbid redistribution through other repositories? Media archived on non-MorphoSource repositories will not necessarily be presented with use agreements requiring citation of museum specimen identifiers and MorphoSource original media identifiers when re-using the media in other contexts. In addition, they often only allow use to be regulated through CC licenses. They will probably not make reference to allowability of re-archiving, re-distribution, or 3D printing (see below). Furthermore, MorphoSource cannot track re-use of media on third party sites. This may be a problem for museums or contributors who need to track the impact of media representing their physical collections or scholarly efforts.

Provision E: Commercial usage of data (read full text of provisions here)

Can be customized with metadata field Permits commercial use.

This provision indicates whether commercial use is permitted or prohibited, based on the selection the data contributor chooses for the field Permits commercial use. The default value for this field is to prohibit commercial use. Note that if a non-commercial copyright statement or CC license is chosen, data contributors are required to select commercial use prohibited for this field.

Provision F: Derivatives (read full text of provisions here)

Can be customized with field Required archival of published derivatives.

This provision indicates whether and how derivatives created from downloaded media may be archived and/or published in MorphoSource or other digital repositories. These requirements and expectations only apply to derivatives that are used in a public-facing project (e.g., for a published research study, a lesson plan published online, or a blog post). Data contributors can use the field Required archival of published derivatives to select from four specific requirements: 

1. Archiving of derivatives is forbidden under any circumstance. Important: This option will soon be added to MorphoSource, and is not currently selectable.
2. Archiving of derivatives is encouraged, but not required.  Any repository may be used, though the use of MorphoSource for this purpose is encouraged.
3. Archiving of derivatives is required. Any repository may be used, though the use of MorphoSource for this purpose is encouraged.
4. Archiving of derivatives is required. Derivatives must be archived on MorphoSource. 

Why would a contributor or museum want to specify MorphoSource as the required repository for derivatives of their media? Media archived on non-MorphoSource repositories will not necessarily be presented with re-use agreements requiring citation of museum specimen identifiers and MorphoSource original media identifiers when re-using the media in other contexts. They often only allow re-use to be regulated through CC licenses. They will probably not make reference to allowability of re-archiving, re-distribution, or 3D printing (see below). Furthermore, MorphoSource cannot track re-use of media on third party sites. This may be a problem for museums or contributors who need to track the impact of media representing their physical collections or scholarly efforts.

Provision G: 3D Printing (read full text of provisions here)

Can be customized with field Permits 3D use.

This provision indicates whether 3D printing of downloaded media is freely permitted, permitted with limits, or prohibited. Permission with limits requires that media are allowed to be 3D printed only if the data was initially downloaded with the intent of 3D printing, as indicated by the user’s download intent survey responses, and that sharing of 3D prints is permitted only in small-scale informal circumstances such as those explicitly allowed under provision C.