At Boom Learning, we take pride in providing a quality experience for students and teachers and expect our Publishers to uphold our standards of quality. This Acceptable Use Policy for publishing to the store is incorporated into and is part of the Public Author Terms of Service.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Quality Matters

We enforce these terms to maintain a legal and high-quality storefront. Some of the most important rules are:

  • You must have authorization from the creator or owner to use any intellectual property that you did not make yourself.
  • Do not distribute materials that are biased, offensive, inappropriate, hateful, indecent, harassing, or unlawful, considered in light of the age of the students who are the intended users of the materials.
  • Do not game the algorithm by reposting essentially the same material again and again. (See Optimizing for Discoverability)

2. Be Truthful — Claims Must be Supported

Claims made about your product must be truthful and supported with evidence. We do remove decks, refund decks, and even suspend and close stores for engaging in “unfair and deceptive” trade practices. In the United States unfair and deceptive selling behavior is illegal. You can report a deck that you believe is deceptive or misleading in its description or tagging using the Report tool (click the Review tab). Please be very specific about what is false or misleading if you report a deck.


If you only make claims that are truthful and supported by evidence and are within your expertise you have no need to worry.


Here two examples of behavior that would get the Publisher in trouble:


A Publisher makes a deck with a black background and labels it “CVI friendly” in keywords and the description. The seller has no CVI training and no expertise in educating students with cortical/cerebral visual impairment (“CVI”). The claim is unsupported which renders it misleading. Worse if the deck includes elements that are contradicted by CVI research, the claim would be deceptive. The label “CVI friendly” is likely to mislead a buyer acting reasonably in the circumstances. This description and the keywords are false and misleading.



A Publisher creates a deck on vowel sounds and flags it as belonging to “ELA” and “Speech and Language”. The Publisher has no training in speech language pathology. Adding the “Speech and Language” topic misrepresents the content and the Publisher's skills and ability. A buyer would believe that the Publisher was making a claim that the deck is suitable for and designed for speech and language therapy uses, when really the deck was designed for general education and the “SLP” tag was added “just because”. This also is false and misleading.

3. Publishing to the Store is a Commercial Use

All items for which you click Publish to the Store must follow the rules for commercial sale. This is true even if the price is set as 0 (free). Private Publishing publishes items to your Library only and is not subject to these rules. You are also allowed to share decks you make to a fellow teacher's library without being subject to the commercial sale rules. 

4. Private Sales Must be Reported

Using share, clone, or transfer to engage in private sales to circumvent the Boom services fees is forbidden. If you need to make a private sale using share, contact customer service so we can apply the service fee to your account for the sale.

5. Consequences

If you violate the rules:

  • Your account will be downgraded (suspended) or locked out. 
  • Repeat offenders may have their accounts permanently locked out.
  • Locked-out accounts are not eligible to receive payout.
  • You will fix or refund at your expense decks that do not follow the rules.
  • You may not modify sold decks except to correct errors and omissions.
  • If you fix a deck it must have an equivalent value to the original once fixed.
  • You may be billed for refunds if you do not have enough money in your account to cover refunds.
  • Your payouts will be locked until all refunds are resolved - this can take up to 180 days.
  • You may not upgrade to a level that includes the store until you have fixed decks and identified decks to be refunded. The upgrade is at your expense.
  • Banned accounts forfeit all memberships, points, and unpaid proceeds and may be liable to us if their is a negative balance for refunds issued to customers.

6. Aim to Be Error - Free

With the ability to immediately correct and repair errors, there is no reason to not fix a deck with an error. We expect these things from you:

  • That you read the Other Marketplace FAQbefore selling Boom Cards from a site other than Boom Learning. Be sure that when you sell on other sites that you:
    • Show the required disclaimer.
    • Have current Special Promotion information.
    • Have tested your redemption links in the final .pdf before posting in more than one browser to ensure they work.
  • Only include material in decks that is appropriate for a student to see.
  • Respect the copyrights and trademarks of others. 

If you need to include teacher information to go with a deck, create a .pdf file or an adult-oriented deck (tag it Univ) and bundle it with the student-oriented deck. Do not put content for adults in decks tagged for a level of K-12.

7. Absolutely No Advertisements in Boom Cards decks

There are strict laws about what can be presented to students. There is zero tolerance for ads in decks tagged to a level of K-12. This is a suspension to banning level offense.


If we see any of these in a deck, your store will be suspended until all instances are removed:

1. A URL to a store
2. Words telling people where to purchase a complete deck
3. Words on how to follow you or asking people to follow you  


You may include these in a file that is bundled with a deck, but not in the deck itself.


If you include a video from Vimeo, you may only include videos for which you can suppress advertisements. Visit Vimeo to ensure you have the correct settings to embed your video advertising free in your decks. You must confirm that advertisements will not display in any video or it will be removed. If you have a deck with YouTube videos you will need to replace those with ad-free videos hosted at Vimeo.

8. Respect the Rights of Others - Copyrights and Trademark

We are Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) compliant and we expect you to respect the rights of others. If you violate the DMCA, the offending deck will be removed. If you are a repeat offender your store will be banned. It is your obligation to educate yourself. For a basic primer on copyright and trademark law for authors please read this article, "Fair Use of Logos."  We cannot provide you with legal advice. We will tell you (when asked) if a course of action will result in your account being at risk of suspension. 

8.1 Text or Art that Is Inspired by the Work of Others

Derivative works are works inspired by an original work by an author. If the derivative work is not in the public domain, 

you need to purchase a license for commercial use from the person managing the rights for the original creator. 


For example, if you make or buy a blue horse image that you design to look just like the blue horse created by Eric Carle, you have made a derivative work. You must have a license from The World of Eric Carle. If you buy or create a blue horse based on Franz Marc's Blue Horse, which is in the public domain, your image does not require a license.

8.2 Art Created with the Assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI images must be in compliance with our Use of AI Images policy. We only permit a small select group of AI image tools. You must disclose any images that were generated by AI.

8.3 The Original Creator Must License the Use

The original artist owns all exclusive rights to derivative works. If the person you purchased an image from had a right to sell it to you for commercial use they will be able to provide you with proof of a license from the original artist. 


Here is an example: You purchase Pete the Cat clipart from a clip artist. You can ask the clip artist if they have a license from Merrymakers that gives them a right to sell images for commercial use. If they do not have the license, it means your work is infringing and your account will be suspended.


We provide a non-exhaustive list as a courtesy only of some rights licensing agencies. We also provide a non-exhaustive list of artists who have given or explicitly denied permission to use their art in Boom Cards, however you must still obtain a license, even for artists who have granted permission!

8.4 Book and Movie Companions

The copyright owner of a work owns the exclusive right to perform (read aloud), display (show the pages), and make derivative works (use the original art in new ways) for a work of authorship. 


Unless you obtain a license from the copyright owner, no companion deck placed in the store may contain a read-aloud, show the cover or pages of, or include any original art, or copies of the original art, from a work by another.

8.5 What Happens If We Discover Materials That Appear to be Infringing

The course of action is determined by us in our sole discretion based on the facts available to us at the time we become aware of a potential issue.

  1. Your payouts will be locked.
  2. Your store will be suspended. 
  3. Your account records will be amended with a note of a strike for infringement. Accounts with strikes are ineligible for many benefits otherwise available to Publishers, including participation in the Premium Publisher program.
  4. In our sole discretion we may elect to automatically issue refunds for all purchased copies of the decks and permanently remove the deck from the store. Your payouts may be locked while we process refunds. 
  5. We may demand that you provide proof of a license from the original copyright owner. If provided, your account will be restored. A better course of action is to list the license in the Acknowledgements so we don't have to guess. 
  6. We may require you to correct decks that can be corrected and retain their value by replacing text and images. Do this during off-hours as it affects decks in customers' libraries. You will be responsible for any requested refunds. Your payouts will be locked for 30 days. You can request permission to reopen your store when complete. 
  7. If we suspend your account and you do not have a license, your membership is forfeit. You may only reopen our store with permission. DO NOT REPURCHASE A PUBLISHER membership before receiving our express permission.

8.6 What happens if we receive a DMCA takedown request

  • Your payouts will be locked
  • We will unpublish the notice material.
  • Your account records will be amended with a note of a strike for infringement.
  • You will be informed that you are the subject of a DMCA takedown request.


Repeat infringements may be banned from the Boom Store for a period of time solely determined by us, which may be permanent. A repeat infringer forfeits payouts pending at the time of banning.

8.7 What is Infringement?

Infringement is the copying of expressive elements without permission. Infringement cannot be based on the copying of a work in the public domain. For a work to be in the public domain, the term of copyright must have expired or there must be an affirmative statement from the original artist of abandonment to the public domain.


Infringement cannot be based on the copying of ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concept, principle, or discovery. Accordingly, gameplay is not protected by copyright. Concepts are not protect by copyright. Ideas are not protected by copyright. Copyright may not be used to obtain a monopoly on an idea, only patent may be used to obtain a monopoly on an idea. If you are contacting us complaining that another author copied your idea, but there is no evidence that your expression was copied, we will not take action. If you submit a DMCA takedown request and do not have a good faith belief of infringement of expression (not merely ideas), we will annotate your account. Those who abuse the DMCA takedown process will have their accounts locked.


For example, a blue horse in and of itself is not an infringement. "Blue horse" is an idea. A blue horse that replicates the pose of Franz Marc's blue horse is not an infringement, even though it copies expression, because Franz Marc's blue horse has entered the public domain and its copyright expression has expired. A blue horse that copies the pose, mane, tail, distinctive eyes, and look of Eric Carle's blue horse is an infringement because Eric Carle's works are still protected by copyright.


The test that applies depends on the number of non-copyrightable elements present. Here are some simplified versions for you to apply.

  • Do I look at this artwork or text and say that's __________________? If so, it is likely infringement unless copyright protection has expired.
  • Do I look at this and say, it reminds me of ___________________ , but only because both are (color) (type)? But it doesn't have anything that makes me think it is definitely a certain artist or source. If so, it is likely safe.
  • Do I look at this and say, it is a lot like ________________ even though it is distorted? If so, it is likely (but not always) infringement unless copyright protection has expired.

Some cases are evident.


For example a cat image drawn to look nearly identical to Pete the Cat (shoes, eyes, coloring, posture, whiskers, etc) or Peppa the Pig (posture, clothes, eyes, etc.) is infringing. We will act on those regardless of who reports them.


If the reporting party is not the copyright owner, we will determine, in our sole discretion, whether to remove an item, taking into account any information we have about the copyright owner's preferences, licenses, fair use, and unprotectable element analysis.

9. Only One Copy of Each Deck

To ensure that we only have the best quality in the Store, you may only publish one copy of any deck. If you modify a clone of that deck and choose to publish the clone as a replacement deck because you have made improvements in the quality and content of the deck, you must un-publish the original. Publishers are not allowed to un-publish decks, clone them, and then re-publish the clone to boost themselves in the Store search. Publishers that are reported for this behavior will receive a strike against their account. If the behavior continues, your account and payouts will be locked.