Welcome to the CUNY Academic Commons.

The CUNY Academic Commons is part of the City University of New York (CUNY). We are dedicated to the free expression of our users in a collaborative and sharing environment. We are a community that seeks to use the Academic Commons as a means of fulfilling our highest aspirations for integrating technology into our teaching, learning, and collaborating.

We reserve only the rights necessary to facilitate the dissemination of content and material on this Site. We support the intellectual property rights of the authors of those materials. We also support the use of open source software and the widespread dissemination and use of online materials consistent with the rights of our users and applicable law.

Members of the faculty, administration, staff, and graduate students of CUNY may register on the Site. We will take all reasonable measures to keep information and users safe.

We hope your experience with the CUNY Academic Commons will be enjoyable and productive.

The CUNY Academic Commons is located at https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/.

Terms that Govern the Use of the CUNY Academic Commons.

1. General Use of the Site and Agreement to these Terms.

Please read these Terms of Use (“Terms”) carefully as they govern our mutual rights and responsibilities when you use the resources and services provided by CUNY (also referred to as “we” or “us” or “our”) through the CUNY Academic Commons (also referred to as the “Commons” or “Site”).  These Terms apply to all activities and modalities on the Site, including but not limited to, blogs, forums, groups, and wikis.

If you are a registered user, when you click on the “I Accept Terms of Use” button below, you signify that you have read, understand, and agree to these Terms.

If you are a non-registered “public” user, accessing the Site signifies that you have read, understand, and agree to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, you are not authorized to use the Site.

Unless otherwise agreed to, you are subject to these Terms, and any additional terms that may apply. These additional terms, if any, will be available through the Site. All of these terms create a legal agreement between you and the Site and supersede any prior agreements between you and the Site.

The CUNY Policy on Acceptable Use of Computer Resources, the CUNY.edu Privacy Policy, and our Privacy Policy are incorporated into these Terms by reference and you should read them before using the Site.

2. Rights and Obligations Related to Content and Material.

The Site and its Contents are protected by copyright pursuant to U.S. and international copyright laws.

a.         Your Responsibilities.

If you operate a blog or website, comment on a blog, post material or links to any part of the Site, or otherwise make material available by means of the Site (any such material, “Content”), you are responsible for the Content and any harm resulting from it.

You warrant and represent that you either own or otherwise control all of the rights to Content you provide to the Site, including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input or submit the Content, or that your use of the Content is a protected fair use. You warrant and represent also that the Content does not violate these Terms and that you will indemnify and hold harmless CUNY from any claims arising from Content you provide.

You may not copy, distribute transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, participate in the transfer or sale of, create new works from, or in any way exploit, any of the Content on the Site (including software) in whole or in part in any manner unless it is consistent with, and authorized by, the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Share Alike 3.0 license (see 2.c below), other Creative Commons license, or other more restrictive rights applicable to the Content.

b.         License to CUNY.

By posting Content on this Site, you are granting CUNY a nonexclusive, royalty free, perpetual, and worldwide license to use the Content on the Site until you remove or delete it, including but not limited to, the right to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, edit, translate, and reformat the Content, and/or to incorporate it into a collective work.

If you delete Content, CUNY will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Site, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

Whenever possible, we will credit you as an author, and by posting Content on the Site you agree to give CUNY the right to use your name for attribution purposes.

c.         License to Site Users.

Unless you specify otherwise, all Content you submit to the Site is submitted under the terms and conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Share Alike 3.0 license, or any successor or equivalent Creative Commons license.  Under the terms of this license, you permit anyone to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt your Content, royalty-free, for non-commercial purposes on the condition that they credit your authorship each time they do so.  You also permit others to distribute derivative works of your Content, but only if they do so under the same Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike license that governs your Content.  Please read the full text of the Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 license (which includes a link to the full Creative Commons Legal Code).

This license also permits RSS aggregators to copy, distribute, display, and perform any of your Content that you syndicate using RSS.  If you want to offer your Content under a different Creative Commons license, indicate on your blog, website or posting the license that applies.

You may offer your Content on a more restrictive basis by removing the Creative Commons logo and link from the blog, website or posting and labeling your Content with a full copyright notice:  your name, the word “copyright” or symbol © and the year it was first published.

For all Creative Commons licenses, see http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/.

3. Reporting Violations or Concerns.

If you have reason to believe that any Content or activity on this Site violates these Terms or is illegal or inappropriate, or to report any other abusive behavior in connection with the Site, please contact us by email at commons@gc.cuny.edu or write to: Dr. George Otte, University Director of Academic Technology, CUNY, 555 W. 57th Street, New York, NY 10019.   If you do not include an electronic signature with your claim, we may ask you to submit a signed paper copy. Your notification of infringement must include:

The CUNY Academic Commons and CUNY comply with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).  If you have reason to believe that any Content or activity on this Site is infringing in rights owned by you or another (provided you are authorized to act of behalf of the person), please review CUNY’s DMCA information for assistance in making a claim.

4. Termination.

These Terms will continue to apply until terminated by either you or CUNY.

CUNY may at any time terminate its legal agreement with you and your right to access and use the Site if you have breached any provision of the Terms, CUNY is required to do so by law, or CUNY no longer maintains the Site and is terminating the service.

5. Governing Law.

You agree that if CUNY does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy that is contained in these Terms (or for which CUNY is entitled under any applicable law), this will not be taken to be a formal waiver of these rights and remedies.

These Terms, and your relationship with the CUNY Academic Commons, shall be governed by the rules, regulations, and policies of CUNY, and the laws of the State of New York without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You and CUNY agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the state of New York to resolve any legal matter arising from these Terms.  However, you agree that CUNY shall still be allowed to apply for injunctive remedies (or any equivalent type of urgent legal relief) in any jurisdiction.

6. Children Under 13.

You are not permitted to provide to the Site any Content intended for children under the age of 13 without the express written permission of CUNY. You are also not permitted to collect personal information from children under the age of 13.

7. Trademark Rights.

“The City University of New York”, “CUNY”, “CUNY Academic Commons,” the names of CUNY colleges and schools, and all related trade names and trademarks are the property of CUNY and CUNY retains all applicable trademark rights.  You may not use any CUNY name or logo to endorse or promote any product, opinion, cause or political candidate.  Representation of your personal opinions as institutionally endorsed by CUNY or any of its colleges, schools or organizations, is strictly prohibited.

8. No Warranties and Disclaimer of Liability.

The posts, comments, and other Content on the Site are the views and opinions of their authors.  Content is the sole responsibility of its authors.  We cannot verify or guarantee that the information presented on the Site is accurate or complete and CUNY shall not be liable for any harm or damages arising from Content posted on the Site.  The Site is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.  CUNY makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, regarding the availability, operation, or administration of the Site or the information or Content on it.  To the full extent permitted by applicable law, CUNY specifically disclaims all such warranties, whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.  CUNY will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use or inability to use the Site.  You expressly agree that you use the Site solely at your own risk.

9.  Modification of These Terms of Use.

We reserve the right to change, at any time, at our sole discretion, these Terms.  You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms.  Your continued use of the Site constitutes your agreement to all of these Terms.

10. Right to Remove Content and Discontinue Service.

CUNY has the right (though not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or remove any Content at any time that violates these Terms or any CUNY policy, or applicable federal or state statutes, or common laws.

CUNY also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Site, with or without notice, at any time and without any liability to Site users.

Last updated: November 28, 2011