License: copy, adapt and share, with credit

What you may do #

• Share: copy and pass on the material, in any medium or format, for any purpose, including commercially.
• Adapt: edit, translate, cut, combine and build on it, for any purpose, including commercially.

A safety officer can print a page for a stand-down, a test-pilot school can put the framework in its course notes, and anyone can translate it. These freedoms can’t be revoked as long as you follow the license terms.

What you must do #

• Credit the source: name the title and Mike Meier, link to the page and to the license, and say if you made changes. Do it in any reasonable way, but not in a way that suggests Mike endorses you or your use.
• Share alike: if you adapt the material, share your version under the same license.
• Add no restrictions: don’t apply legal terms or technical measures that stop others doing what the license allows.

A credit line to copy #

Every page ends with its own credit line: title, author, address and license. For one page, copy that line, for example:

Murphy’s Corollary by Mike Meier, meiersafe.com/murphys-corollary/, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

For a version you have changed:

Adapted from Murphy’s Corollary by Mike Meier, meiersafe.com/murphys-corollary/, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes: [say what you changed].

For the framework as a whole, as in the Briefing Kit:

Lessons Learned and Murphy’s Corollary by Mike Meier, meiersafe.com, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

On a web page, link the title to the page, Mike’s name to About, and “CC BY-SA 4.0” to the license. To cite a page in a paper rather than reuse it, use the “Cite this page” block on that page.

The paper #

The original 2015 edition of Lessons Learned and Murphy’s Corollary reads “Copyright © 2015 by Michael W. Meier – All Rights Reserved,” and so does the copy at the Flight Test Safety Committee. The meiersafe.com edition is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, with a note of the original copyright: the paper as a PDF.

Mike’s photos #

Mike’s own photos are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 like his text, so trainers can use them in briefings: the test-flying photos on About, except the Glacier Point launch, and the photo of the correctly connected sweep wire on Hard questions.

What the license does not cover #

The license covers Mike’s own text, diagrams and photos. It does not cover the following, each credited where it appears. To reuse any of these, go to the source.

• Quotations from other people. Their words are theirs: for example Gene Kranz, Larry Mulloy, Rod Huete and Doug Wickert on Three Random Thoughts On Safety, and Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton’s Moonshot on The pressure to go and Apollo 1.
• Art Tomassetti’s chart and words. His skill-and-luck chart, from the May 2021 Flight Test Safety Fact, and the words quoted from him are his. Mike’s charts on Luck and uncertainty adapt Art’s chart, so they credit him and are outside the license too. Each chart carries the source note “Art Tomassetti – Flight Test Safety Fact – May 2021”. In October 2026 Art told Mike he had “no issues with any of it” on meiersafe.com, and that with the source noted on the chart he has no issue with others using it. So the charts may be shown in a briefing or course as they are, with the source note kept and credit to Art and Mike; to change them, ask Art and Mike.
• Quotations from investigation reports. Quotations from investigation reports, such as the Rogers Commission’s report on Challenger, are U.S. government works, not Mike’s to license; credit the source when you use them. Case studies.
• Photos and video that aren’t Mike’s. The landing-crash video in the Anaheim talk is Dave Aldrich’s, used with his permission. The cord-and-tang photo is of another pilot’s glider; its photographer is unknown, and it is used with the permission of Davis Straub, who published it in the Oz Report. The watermelon video on Hard questions was shot by Linda. The Fledge landings on Hard questions are from Tom Tatum’s film, shown with his permission; Mike filmed the downwind landing. The top-landing photo on The 1995 top landing is Rob Kells’s. The other clips on the site are Mike’s own footage.
• Photos of Mike taken by other people. The portrait (Brad Hagen) and the production test-flight launch (Wills Wing staff) in Background on About, the Glacier Point launch (Johnny French, used with his permission) on About, the SETP Fellows induction photos (SETP) and the two photos with Mark Stucky on About, and the 2015 stage photo (SETP) on Speaking. To reuse one, ask Mike.
• The “Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous” poster. Its text is quoted; the image is not used. Hard questions.
• Mike’s slides. The 2015 slides on the Briefing Kit carry Mike’s copyright notice; show them as they are.
• The SETP recordings. SETP recorded the Anaheim talk and made the Fellows induction video, and owns both; they appear here with SETP’s permission.

Mike’s “Lucky or Good – Further Thoughts” first ran in Flight Test Safety Fact in September 2021. Mark Jones, who published it there, is fine with Mike republishing it here.