I thought it was funny to see that the �spiral-notebook-look � is so common and popular among the recent contributions lately. As if that is what will make a sheet �good � It is a bit sad that so many people are so obsessed with layouts. As soon as you have your 30 points, why worry so much about downloads? We create the sheets with our students in mind, not potential downloaders or am I living in a bubble? Of course it is important that a sheet looks nice but people, proportions~! I understand that a new user wants to get to his 30 downloads asap but there is nothing wrong with having to send a few sheets before you get there. Most of my sheets don �t have 30 downloads but still I got to a point where I have more points than I would ever need.

I am not using the fancy layouts for various reasons. One they take too much space, space I prefer to use for the actual exercises (and leave a realistic space for students to write) or illustrative pictures, second, I can not print in color in our school so it just becomes too much of a grey and gloomy smudge...

First thing I usually do when downloading a sheet with a colored background is clicking �no background, no page border � and clean up the sheet that way....

Thanks for bringing up the topic again. I �ll try to clarify things to avoid further discussions:

 

This has nothing to do with copyright. It is an internal rule of this website, intended to provide a friendly atmosphere. After all, asking for permission is the least we can do. It is not a huge effort.

 

No. If you start from a blank page, there is no problem.

You must have permission if you download other user �s worksheet, remove the text, and use it as template to make a new worksheet.

 

 

I repeat that this has nothing to do with copyright, it is a rule of this website.

 

Anyway, let me say that the worksheets that contain, for example, pictures of disney characters are not inflicting copyright. It is considered educational fair use.

For example, if you copy disney characters to make a comic and sell it, it would be a copyright violation, because you are making a product similar to the original, and you are damaging the commercial interests of the original author. But if you make an ESL worksheet with disney characters, the purpose is completely different to the original, and there is no commercial damage. This is considered fair use, and it is not a copyright violation.

On the contrary, if you take the pictures of a "sports vocabulary worksheet" from other book or website, and use them to make a new "sports vocabulary worksheet", it wouldn �t be  fair use, because the purpose is the same, and it could damage the commercial interests of the original author.

 

Another example: imagine this is the page of an ESL book:

If I scan the picture and use it to make a worksheet on "giving directions" it wouldn �t be fair use, because the purpose is the same as the original.

But if I had taken this picture from a tourist map of a city and I made a worksheet using it, it would be considered educational fair use.

 

 

Have a nice day,

 

Victor