Site Policies

Version March 3, 2009

We are pleased to license much of the documentation on Google Code under terms that explicitly encourage people to take, modify, reuse, re-purpose, and remix our work as they see fit.

You will find the following notice at the bottom of many pages on the Google Code website:

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

When you see a page with this notice you are free to use nearly everything on the page in your own creations. For example, you could quote the text in a book, cut-and-paste sections to your blog, record it as an audiobook for the visually impaired, or even translate it into Swahili. Really. That's what open content licenses are all about. We just ask that you give us attribution when you reuse our work.

You may also find the following notice on the bottom of some pages:

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.

When you see this notice, you are free to use the content, and in addition you are free to use the computer source code that appears in the content (such as in examples) in the code of your own projects.

What is not licensed?

We say "nearly everything" as there are a few common sense conditions that apply.

Google's trademarks and other brand features are not included in this license. Please see our standard guidelines for third party use of Google brand features for information about this usage.

In some cases, a page may include content, such as an image, that is not covered by the license. If this happens, we will label the content that is not licensed. In addition, content linked from a page is not covered by the Creative Commons license unless specifically noted. For example, pages may link to videos or slide decks that are not covered.

And when you reuse this content you need to give proper attribution to your source, as is explained below.

Attribution

Proper attribution is required when you reuse or create modified versions of content that appears on a page made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license. The complete requirements for attribution can be found in section 4b of the Creative Commons legal code.

In practice we ask that you provide attribution to Google to the best of the ability of the medium in which you are producing the work.

There are several typical ways in which this might apply:

Exact Reproductions

If your online work exactly reproduces text or images from this site, in whole or in part, please include a paragraph at the bottom of your page that reads:

Portions of this page are reproduced from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

Also, please link back to the original source page so that readers can refer there for more information.

Modified Versions

If your online work shows modified text or images based on the content from this site, please include a paragraph at the bottom of your page that reads:

Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

Again, please link back to the original source page so that readers can refer there for more information. This is even more important when the content has been modified.

Other Media

If you produce non-hypertext works, such as books, audio, or video, we ask that you make a best effort to include a spoken or written attribution in the spirit of the messages above.

Contact

If you have questions or suggestions regarding Google Code license policies, please email us at code+policies@google.com.

Although we are unable to send personal responses to every email we receive, we do read all of the feedback that is submitted and will use it to improve Google Code.