CK-12 Foundation
Terms of Use

Welcome to the high-level summary of the Terms of Use. This summary is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for the full text of the Terms of Use, available below. We recognize that you come to our site to receive educational materials and not to be burdened with a long legal document. Unfortunately, our lawyers tell us that we really should have a long legal document that spells out all of the rules for using the CK-12 Platform and accessing all of the educational materials we provide for free. So to use the CK-12 Platform you do have to agree to our Terms of Use. Our goal is to minimize legal and compliance costs, so we can continue to provide you free content and services. But we’ve created this overview in the hope that it will make your reviewing the Terms of Use a bit easier to digest once you know what is in there. This summary, however, does not supersede the legally binding provisions of our Terms of Use.
  1. The CK-12 Platform. CK-12 provides a platform for teachers and students to access educational content for free to aid in teaching and learning. By using the CK-12 platform, you are entering into a contract with CK-12 that governs your use of the platform and its contents. There may be other agreements (like our Curriculum Materials License) that you also need to comply with.
  2. Arbitration and Class Action Waiver. The Terms of Use include an arbitration provision and class action waiver. This means that, except for certain kinds of disputes described in the Terms of Use, all disputes arising out of your use of the CK-12 platform will be resolved by binding, individual arbitration, and you are waiving the right to a trial by a jury or to participate in any class action or representative proceeding. For more information, click here.
  3. Your Use of the CK-12 Platform. As long as you comply with the Terms of Use, you are granted a limited license to use the platform and its contents for educational purposes. However, you are not permitted to resell any portion of the platform or any content provided via the platform. If you give us ideas, suggestions, or feedback, we can use that information any way we want. For more information, click here. So please don’t steal our content and use it for other purposes, including but not limited to for-profit ventures. Any derivative works created from our content would be subject to our Terms of Use. When in doubt about whether a proposed use is permitted, please email us at legal@ck12.org.
  4. Other People’s Copyrights (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). We respect the rights of copyright owners and expect you to do the same. We comply with U.S. copyright laws, including sections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe that any content on our platform infringes your copyrights, please let us know by submitting a notice according to the instructions in our DMCA Notice. For more information, click here. If you are proposing a remedial measure short of complete removal or disabling of access to allegedly infringing content, then please identify that in your communication as it will help us to minimize costs (e.g., if you wish to receive attribution for a posted item of content).
  5. Our Liability Is Limited. Because we offer the platform and the educational materials for free we incur lots of expenses with no revenues. We therefore cap our total liability under the Terms of Use. We are not responsible for any non-direct damages. For more information, click here.
  6. We Can Change These Terms. The laws, our platform, and methods of education may evolve rapidly. We therefore reserve the right to change the platform and update the Terms of Use in the future. We will attempt to notify you if we make updates, and you will not be able to continue using the platform without agreeing to any updated version of the Terms of Use. For more information, click here.
Last Updated: February 16, 2021