Licensing : Re-use of material

By David Merrick, 2024

Checking for updates : A requirement of using material is that you occasionally check for updates, and where it is possible amend your work as appropriate. This is because improvements and corrections are always made to works. If it is helpful for the task, there are many sites on the web (for example diffchecker) and free programs (for example winmerge) to compare two different versions of a work, highlighting the changes, which will be of particular use for written material.

Non-profit uses : You are free to use any of the material I produce for any non-profit matter, but you should provide attribution/credit unless there's a special case where it's a problem to do so, in which case a general statement about the degree to which you've utilised other people's works will suffice.
• Link-backs should be added where it doesn't impact your work, generally I think it's better to the original photos or document rather than a profile unless the photos/document are likely to disappear. For example for an iNaturalist photo you might put "iNaturalist 1234567 by David Merrick" with 1234567 the observation number hyperlinked to the observation. If there's plenty of space you could put location and date, as plants do vary geographically.
• Letting me know with each use is not required, but if they are on a webspace associated with me where you can leave comments you could leave a comment note there and if your work is public you might add a link too, this will also give you a little advertisement.
• Alterations : If quotations are not exact (use of ... ellipsis is fine) or if pictures have been substantially changed or excessively cropped (small cropping or brightness/colour adjustment is not a substantial change), your attribution should note the alteration performed so that it is known that the original differs.
• Uncertain Material : Sometimes I'll post photos or material where I state that certain things (such as plant ID or a paragraph) I am uncertain, any reuse should imply in some way that I was uncertain (and therefore the choice to use it is by the person reusing the material). For example it could state "...by David Merrick (ID given as uncertain)" or "... (posted as uncertain)".

Commercial uses : Where the total free material by anyone used in your commercial work is a small (<5%) part of the work, you are free to use any of my material as per non-profit, because the bulk of your work is your own effort; but any more than that, please do ask for permission, which will usually be granted as per non-profit since most botanical works are not making much profit, unless your work is likely to or is making a substantial profit, then we can discuss matters. However in all cases of needing permission if you try to contact me with at least 3 attempts at least a week apart and don't hear back from me after 2 weeks after the third attempt, please do go ahead and use and we can if needed work something out retrospectively.