Iād like to take a moment today to say THANK YOU!
Thank you to all of my faithful subscribers and readers. And a special thank you to those of you who have chosen to use my curriculum in your homeschools. My family has been greatly blessed by your generosity and encouragement. I whole heartedly pray that my printables have blessed your family and your homeschooling endeavor.
Thank you!
To those of you who have gotten caught up in the popular groups that condone illegal file sharing, today my prayers go out to you.
Unfortunately there are groups of homeschoolers who are choosing to come together and āshareā files they are not permitted to share. It greatly saddens my heart to think that homeschoolers would do something like this. Maybe you simply arenāt aware, but hosting and sharing files (paid or free) that were not made by you is illegal without the express written consent of the author. Downloading these files is also illegal. What you are doing is called āstealingā in the online world.
You may have even justified your actions due to your budgetary constraints, or simply out of the desire to āget a good deal.ā I wonder how many of you would be able to walk up to your child and say āHoney, I really wanted this curriculum, but wanted to save money, so mommy stole it.ā Conversely what would you say if your child did something similar? I hope you can understand there are no excuses for this type of behavior.
Homeschooling isnāt just about academics, but instead it is our way of imparting our character, values, morals, ethics, spiritual beliefs, and life skills onto our children. Today my prayer is that you would be encouraged to check your ways and think twice before participating in these āsharingā groups. What you are doing is not only illegal and unethical, but you are also taking advantage of all of the bloggers and homeschooling companies that have put their valuable time and energy into creating products to help your homeschooling be more successful.
My pastor has always said that ācompromise always leads to more compromise.ā I pray diligently that you do not allow this small compromise to creep into other areas of your life. And most importantly I pray you are not passing down these values to your children.
Instead I encourage you to trust God to provide for you as He has lead you into this homeschooling journey. He will provide for your needs and make your paths straight. ~ Proverbs 3:6
Now may the God of peaceā¦make you complete in every good work to do His will. (Hebrews 13:20-21)
It makes me sad that people would do that! I mean, really, I am shocked everyday at how people twist truth to fit their circumstances! Keep up the good work!
Im so sorry that happened to you š I just want to say thank you for all you do, I bought several of your curriculums now I just need to stock up on some paper and ink so I can print everything š
I love everything in your store. My Last post I was talking about the Exploration Earth Set. And I gave my Readers a link to come here to see how awesome you are…..if they didn’t already know! š
Thank you for your letter. I had no idea this was going on. I have actually had to have short conversations with a new homeschooling mom about this very thing. She thought it would be ok to copy stuff and use it again when her children got older. I had to gently remind her that that was stealing and against the law. She recognized it as such but wasn’t happy that I pointed it out. I hope she has made the right decision. I don’t think I’ve done this personally. I’ve shared your website with a bunch of friends and have told them about your freebies, as well as freebies from other sites, but I’ve not emailed files to anyone. I don’t even think I’ve given away copies that I’ve made of stuff and didn’t use. God forgive me if I have and don’t know it. Thank you for all you do for homeschooling families, especially encouraging us to keep Christ in the center of our homeschool.
I am a new homeschool mom, but what is wrong with reusing curriculum inside your own home? I certainly can’t afford to rebuy everything 3,4+ times for each of my children. I understood it as you are buying a license to use the material as you see fit within your own homeschool. The problem would be using the individual license in a coop or selling/giving it to someone outside of your household. Can someone please clarify this?
There isn’t anything wrong with using it in your own home for your children. Some people purchase files and give assess to others. The others are not paying for use which isn’t right.
You may re-use what you have individually bought digitally for a very long time. If you buy a consumable paper copy, you should replace it for every child as photocopying it does break copyright. Very few publishers allow the consumable to be copied. Some materials are labeled reproducible, mostly classroom teacher style books, can be copied.
You can reuse many materials in your own home for you own children, if they are reproducible. If it is legal to reproduce them it will be noted in the first few pages of the books. Generally math textbooks such as Math U See are not reproducible, but the teacher books can be reused. I have been homeschooling for 25 years now and I still use some items with my current children that I used with their older siblings in the other years….all legally!!
Sheryl,
Latonya, Angie, and Anita said it beautifully. And I absolutely do NOT require you purchase additional items for each of your children. Sometimes vendors vary, but for my curriculum you’re welcome to re-use or print copies it with your own children no matter how many you have!
Oh, I do ask that if you are going to use my curriculum in your school classroom, or with a multiple family co-op that you purchase the classroom version of it, but otherwise you can use it with your own children as many times as needed :o) Hope that makes sense!
And that is what I have done with my coop. Where applicable, I purchase the classroom version! We LOVE your material and we have been so blessed by them as a family! The very LEAST I can do is bless you back by paying for your hard work! We have pretty much purchased EVERYTHING!!!!! Can’t thank you enough!
Sheryl, I’m sorry if my comment was unclear. What I meant was that my friend wanted to buy one consumable workbook and make copies for her 2 children. That’s the part that is illegal. Consumables are just that – consumable. One time use. Teacher’s books, readers, etc. are reusable and are expected to be used multiple times. I hope that helps! The other commenters have provided some good information as well. We have to be so careful how we use the materials that we buy because publishers try to keep costs down for us and give us the best deals, but if dishonest homeschooling families take advantage of the law, then it pushes all the prices up and those who are honest suffer the most.
Always check with the company if you are unsure. For example, the representatives from Critical Thinking Company told me it was fine to reproduce their workbooks for family use, even though some of them weren’t listed as such in their catalog/website. It never hurts to ask.
First let me say I do understand what is behind this post, and I also think it’s horrible that other homeschoolers are not doing what Paul says to do, which is obey the law of the land as long as it does not force us to disobey God. Good for you for making the hard statements.
Second, though, I do think this copying for your own use issue is far grayer, as far as consumables go. They all say “for distribution”, and in my research it’s for distribution outside of your home and family. THAT is what is illegal. Especially if it’s for sale. The same for audio and video files; making copies for yourself is fine, it’s selling it or giving it away to others that is a violation. If there is a link that you can provide, that states the law, if it really is contrary to this, please include it. I would like to KNOW if I’m doing something wrong or not. I make photocopies of coloring book pages and workbook pages for my kids all the time because I thought it was ok. Most books I have even say you can do that, which is why I never considered it might be wrong. Please include a link stating the exact law. Thanks.
Unfortunately, a company has to come right out in their copyright and say that you are allowed to make multiple copies for it to be legal, and this includes for your other children. Most of our materials cannot be copied, so I would definitely check.
A Reason for Handwriting says “Except for brief quotations in reviews, no part of this publication may be stored or transmitted in any form, or reproduced by any means (photocopy, electronic, mechanical, recording, etc.).” “By any means” literally means that. For no friends and not even for your own family, unfortunately. This is how they keep costs down.
Our Explode the Code says the same thing. We do have an Evan-Moor book that specifically says you are allowed to photocopy it.
It’s not fancy, but after reading your post today I wanted to share it with you! Have a Great weekend!
http://manicmomstylehomeschool.blogspot.com/2013/06/do-you-go-with-flow.html
Thanks so much for the post, It was lovely! I tried to leave a comment on your blog, but for some reason it wasn’t letting me.
Ok, I am so behind with technology. What in the world are file sharing groups? Is it like a website or something?
You question made me laugh…I have no idea either! There is a reason that women as knowledgable as Erica are creating curriculum. I would not have any idea of how to bend the rules without a tutorial =)
So well said!! That is what I like about you, your blog and your homeschooling printables . . . . they are honest, pure, and want the best for our children that we have chosen to stay home and raise to the highest of character. Keep blogging! You are doing an amazing job! You have encouraged a stranger (me) on this journey called homeschooling!
So sorry that such a letter needs to be written! I will be using quite a bit of your curriculum over the coming year. I am fairly new to home schooling. It was born out of necessity for us and so far we are enjoying it immensely! My little boy is autistic and your curriculum seems to fit his learning style to the tee. Thank you for all your hard work, it is truly appreciated.
Thank You very much for bringing this to light. I find it very very odd that today of all days you are posting this. I believe its the work of someone much more than us. I HAVE recently gotten caught up in one fb group that’s been posting hundreds of files and web links for “free”. While I defend copyright, and would absolutely never share files myself, I was supporting this page by being a member. The problem comes in with temptation. An honest free resource posted next to a book that clearly should have been purchased. Or the one that got me was public schools and teachers saving files to public domains for “public” use. Even though the school might have purchased the license to use it that way, I’m sure the publisher did not intent for it to be the general public of the planet….more like the school or school district at most. I fell prey to this one and saved files. That being said, something happened to me today. The owner of that FB page I’m referring to msgd me and told me that she loved my profile pic, it made her smile each time she saw it and she wanted to know if she could download a copy of it. I was immediately scared. My profile pic is of my 4 year old child! I promptly told her no. She responded saying that it was public property. This whole issue came full circle today. From what I thought was simple files on a schools website to a picture of my life. I learned a very hard lesson today and I’m so very sorry. I pray that God will help me be stronger next time. P.s. it was none of your work.
Hi April,
Praise God that you found encouragement in this post. I’m so sorry about the picture of your child, it’s unfortunate but we have to be very careful with what we share online as not all people display good ethics.
I am saddened to read this is happening, but even more sadly, I’m not surprised. š I sell products I create on a popular hosting site, and unfortunately, people who sell there find their products posted illegally all over the internet as well. It isn’t just paid products either. It is the free ones too. Some of it even posted on school websites. I agree with you that what you described and what I’ve described–it is all stealing and so very wrong. I am sorry it has happened to your amazing products as well.
To this day, your Add-It and Subtract-It resources are some of our most favorite, and I really do think the Subtract-It helped my little ones really “GET” subtraction. THANK you for sharing so much and even for your paid products, you share generously by keeping the costs to others very reasonable. It is such a shame that people would take advantage of your generosity. š