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Carnegie Mellon University

Software Engineering Institute

Intellectual Property

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) respects the intellectual property rights of others and endeavors to comply with all applicable U.S. laws regarding intellectual property. We have posted this Intellectual Property Statement to inform you of our practices regarding the intellectual property found online via this Service (as defined in the Terms of Use). The Service was created in the United States and does not necessarily comply with laws of any other country, so please review this statement before using any intellectual property made available to you by this Service. This Intellectual Property Statement is incorporated into and subject to the Terms of Use. Please direct any questions or comments regarding this statement to permission@sei.cmu.edu.

Do You Need Permission?

Many uses of Carnegie Mellon copyrighted materials require written permission, but in some cases written permission is not required (e.g., if permission is already granted in the front matter of the document or if you are using the work for government purposes). See the following general guidelines for more information, and be sure to check the guidelines for text and images below to determine whether you need written permission for your intended use of specific Carnegie Mellon copyrighted materials.

General Guidelines

If you wish to use Carnegie Mellon University trademarks or service marks, the SEI name, or any logo associated with the SEI in connection with any of your organization's goods or services, you must obtain written permission from the SEI. See Request Permission for more information.

Front Matter

Some of the institute's Carnegie Mellon copyrighted materials automatically grant permission for internal use (use within your organization) and/or external use (use outside your organization). Look directly below the Carnegie Mellon copyright notice in the front matter of the document for such permission. If permission for your intended use is already granted in the document, you do not need to seek additional permission, but you must (a) include the original copyright notice attributing copyright ownership to Carnegie Mellon University and (b) refer correctly to any Carnegie Mellon University trademarks and service marks that appear in the text.

Government Purposes

The SEI is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)). The government of the United States has a royalty-free government-purpose license to use, duplicate, or disclose works authored by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, in whole or in part and in any manner, and to have or permit others to do so, for government purposes pursuant to the copyright license under the clause at 252.227.7013 of Federal Government Contract Number FA8702-15-D-0002. (Government purposes include competitive procurement but do not include the right to have or to permit others to have for commercial purposes.)

Although no additional permission is required, reproductions and derivative works for government purposes must (a) include the original copyright notice attributing copyright ownership to Carnegie Mellon University and (b) refer correctly to any Carnegie Mellon University trademarks and service marks that appear in the text.

Text Guidelines

SEI Publications

SEI technical documents and publications (e.g., technical reports, technical notes, news@sei, The Member Bulletin, The SEI Annual Report, The SEI Technical Program of Work) are copyrighted materials. Written permission to use the materials may not be required if permission is granted in the front matter or if the use is for government purposes (see Government Purposes above). If you wish to reprint articles from these SEI publications for use in another publication, please submit your request via this permission form or by FAX at 412-268-5758.

Web Content

You should not assume that all items found on the Service (articles, white papers, reports, manuals, announcements, terms, documents, images, photos, etc.) are copyrighted by Carnegie Mellon University. Determine the identity of the copyright owner before requesting permission from the SEI. If other parties are identified as copyright owners, contact them directly for permission to use their copyrighted materials. If the copyright is attributed to the SEI (or if there is no attribution) and permission to use materials is not granted in these guidelines, please contact the SEI for permission as described in the General Guidelines.

Linking to the Service

Because we update many of our web documents regularly, we would prefer that you link to our web pages whenever possible rather than reproduce them. It is not necessary to request permission to make referential hypertext links to the Service.

Image Guidelines

To use Carnegie Mellon SEI graphics (logos, diagrams, charts, etc.), please see Request Permission as described in the General Guidelines.

Trademarks and Service Mark Guidelines

See Trademarks and Service Marks for more information.

DMCA Complaint

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office) and other applicable intellectual property laws, which may include removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity. If we remove or disable access to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the owner or administrator of each affected site so that they may make a counter notification pursuant to Sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of that Act. It is our policy to document all notices of alleged infringement on which we act. A copy of the notice will be sent to a third party who will make it available to the public.

To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail—not by email, except by prior agreement) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether certain material of yours is protected by copyright laws, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following format (including section numbers):

  1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed. For example, "The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on www._______________.edu."
  2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in Item 1 above.
  3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit the SEI to contact you (email address is preferred).
  4. Provide information, if possible, sufficient to permit the SEI to notify the owner, administrator, or poster of the content that allegedly contains infringing material (email address is preferred).
  5. Include the following statement: "I have a good-faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
  6. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
  7. Sign the paper.

Send the written communication to CMU's Registered Copyright Agent via postal mail or fax:
Carnegie Mellon University
ATTN: John Lerchey
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Fax: 412-268-4987

Counter Notification

The administrator of an affected site may make a counter notification pursuant to Sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When we receive a counter notification, we will reinstate the material in question. To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail—not by email, except by prior agreement) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is not infringing the copyrights of others. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether certain material infringes the copyrights of others, we suggest that you first contact an attorney. A sample counter notification may be found at https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Terrorism/form-letter.html.

To expedite our ability to process your counter notification, please use the following format (including section numbers):

  1. Identify the specific URLs of material that the SEI has removed or to which it has disabled access.
  2. Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under Subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
  3. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good-faith belief that each search result or message identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled."
  4. Sign the paper.

Send the written communication to CMU's Registered Copyright Agent via postal mail or fax:
Carnegie Mellon University
ATTN: John Lerchey
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Fax: 412-268-4987