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The College Board and Me
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In October of 1999, ETS lawyers sent me a "cease & desist" order for my distribution of the past AP Chemistry exams. This was done, much to the consternation of many AP Chemistry teachers.
Since then, the following message has been received from Lee Jones.
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Thanks to all who wrote/called/e-mail! Your VOICE is being heard...
Here's the latest in this controversy!
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 09:27:50
From: Jones, Lee (LJones@collegeboard.org)
To: hgendreau@aol.com
Subject: AP Chem free-response compilation
Hello, Harvey --
My name is Lee Jones and I'm the Executive Director of the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board. I'm writing to you because we have heard from numerous AP Chemistry teachers who were dismayed that they were unable to obtain the valuable compilation of AP Chemistry free-response questions that you had been making available to them.
First, please let me explain why you heard from lawyers regarding the sale of copyrighted materials last year. The College Board has been strongly advised by our lawyers that we must take action regarding the use, distribution, and sale by third parties of the materials bearing the AP trademark (AP, Advanced Placement Program, etc.) and/or materials that hold College Board/ETS-copyright. If we don't do this, any company can publish materials and claim that they are "AP" even though they may not align with our standards or even reflect accurate AP course and exam information. They have also advised that we must apply these consistently -- whether the party is an AP supporter and well-intentioned educator like yourself or a software or publishing company that mass produces and mass markets test prep materials or textbooks. If we permit one party to use materials or the AP name in a product that they sell without license for that use, we open ourselves to be contested for free use by any other parties. We just can't allow ourselves to be open to the risk of enabling a publisher or software company to use the AP name indiscriminately or to publish College Board/ETS copyrighted materials for their profit.
To allow use and publication of copyrighted materials by AP educators, we are currently working on a set of licensing regulations. I expect that virtually all educators who have compiled and are disseminating free, high quality AP support materials via the web, CD, etc will be granted "fast-track" license. Such license could conceivably include permission to cover costs of the CD/disc production, etc. So perhaps we will be able to develop a licensing agreement that would permit you to continue to distribute your compilation of AP Chem questions. We should correspond further about this.
In the short term, however, I feel badly that we in the AP Program did not understand the how much AP Chem teachers were depending on your compilation to assist them in their teaching. I would like to distribute free of charge the full set of questions you've compiled to all the AP Chem teachers that attended summer institutes this year if you will provide a master copy for duplication.
I'm sorry we did not have communication on this earlier and I look forward to hearing from you.
Lee
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Further message have been exchanged. Details to follow.
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You've obviously read this far
You've obviously read this far, then...
1) Are you an AP Chemistry teacher? (NO Student requests)
2) Can your e-mail system handle large attachments? (Hotmail and Yahoo can NOT!)
3) Have you gone to the College Board's web site and read what they have to say concerning the AP questions & copyright issues? ( http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/members/article/1,3046,184-0-0-10286,00.html)
4) Are you requesting a copy of the 1970-2003 free response questions & ANSWERS?
If you can answer YES to ALL the above questions, then send me an E-Mail [CLICK HERE] that includes:
a) Format: MACINTOSH (MS-Office ) OR Windows (MS-Office97)
b) Your name
c) Your school & address
d) School Phone
e) Principal/Headmaster Name
f) A pledge that you will not copy or distribute them without my permission. [Under NO circumstances should the ANSWERS be given to your students but you can review them with your students if you use the questions on a test, etc.]
NO requests will be honored from either Hotmail or Yahoo addresses.
Incomplete information will delay the process. Using your school E-Mail address will expedite the process. Upon confirmation of your faculty status, the files will be sent via E-Mail attachments (about 17 attachments to 6 E-Mails for Windows, 2 E-mails for Macintosh).
This is the best I can do without violating The College Board's copyright.
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