Terms of use/draft

Our Terms of Use:

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment. – Our Vision Statement

Welcome to Wikimedia! The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (“we” or ”us”), is a nonprofit charitable organization whose mission is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally, free of charge.

To support our vibrant Community, we provide the essential infrastructure and organizational framework for the development of multilingual wiki Projects and other endeavors which serve this mission. We strive to make and keep useful information from the Projects available on the Internet free of charge, in perpetuity.

We welcome you (“you” or the “User”) to use our Services and join the Wikimedia Community as an Editor, but before you do, we ask that you please read and agree to the following Terms of Use (the “Agreement”).

Overview of this Agreement

This Agreement tells you about our Services, our relationship to you as a User, and the rights and responsibilities that guide us both. We want you to know that we host an incredible quantity of informational content, all of which is contributed and made possible by Users like yourself. Please keep in mind that we are only a hosting service, and that we do not contribute, monitor, or delete content (with the rare exception of legal compliance for DMCA notices, etc.). This means that editorial control is in the hands of you and your fellow Users. Additionally, because we are dedicated to making content freely accessible to the public, we generally require that all content you contribute is available under a free license or in the public domain.

Please be aware that you are legally responsible for all of your contributions, edits, and re-use of Wikimedia content under the laws of the United States and of your home country. This means it is important that you use caution when posting content. In light of this responsibility, we have some rules about what you cannot post, most of which is either for your own protection or for the protection of other Users like yourself. Please keep in mind that the content we host is for general informational purposes only, so if you need expert advice for a particular question (such as medical, legal, or financial issues), you should seek the help of a licensed professional. We also include other important notices and disclaimers, so please read the entire agreement.

1. A Description of Our Services

We are dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based Projects to the public for its free use. Our role is to host some of the largest collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, which you can find at http://www.wikimedia.org. We act only as a hosting service, maintaining the infrastructure and organizational framework that allows our Users to build the Wikimedia Projects by contributing and editing content themselves. Because of our unique role, there are a couple things you should be aware of when considering our relationship to you, the Projects, and the other Users:

a. We Do Not Take an Editorial Role: Because the Wikimedia Projects are collaboratively edited, all of the content that we host is provided by Users like yourself, and we do not take an editorial role. This means that we generally do not monitor or edit the content of the Project websites, and we do not take any responsibility for this content. Similarly, we do not endorse any opinions expressed via our Services, and we do not represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any submitted content. Instead, we simply provide access to the content that your fellow Users have contributed and edited.

b. You are Responsible for Your Own Actions: You are legally responsible for your edits and contributions on Wikimedia Projects, so for your own protection you should exercise caution and avoid contributing any content that may result in criminal or civil liability. Please be aware of the laws of the United States, where we are based, and the laws of your home country and jurisdiction.

2. Please Look at Our Privacy Policy

We try to keep only a limited amount of information about our Users. We ask that you review the terms of our Privacy Policy, so that you are aware of how we collect and use your information.

Because our Services are used by people all over the world, personal information that we collect may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which we or our agents maintain facilities. By using our Services, you consent to any such transfer of information outside your country.

3. About the Content We Host

a. You May Find Some Material Objectionable: Because we provide a wide array of content that is produced or gathered by fellow Users, you may encounter material that you find offensive, erroneous, misleading, mislabeled, or otherwise objectionable. We therefore ask that you use common sense and proper judgment when using our Services.

b. Our Content Is for General Informational Purposes Only: Although we host a great deal of information that pertains to professional topics, including medical, legal, or financial issues, this content is presented for general informational purposes only, and should not be taken as professional advice. Please seek independent professional counseling from someone who is licensed or knowledgeable in the applicable area in lieu of acting on any information, opinion, or advice contained in one of the Project websites.

6. Please Respect Our Trademarks

Any use of Wikimedia Foundation trademarks domain names must be in compliance with our Trademark Policy.

7. How Content Is Licensed

To grow the commons of free knowledge and free culture, all Users contributing to the Projects are required to grant broad permissions to the general public to re-distribute and re-use their contributions freely, so long as that use is properly attributed and the same freedom to re-use and re-distribute is granted to any derivative works. In keeping with our goal of providing free information to the widest possible audience, we require that when necessary all submitted content be licensed so that it is freely reusable by anyone who cares to access it.

The following are our rules for licensing content:

a. Text that you hold the copyright to: When you submit text that you hold the copyright to, you agree to license it under:

• Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (“CC BY-SA”), and
• GNU Free Documentation License (“GFDL”) (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts).

The only exception is if the local Project or feature requires a different license. In that case, you agree to license any text you contribute under that particular license. For example, Wikinews mandates that all text content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic License (CC BY 2.5).

Please note that each of these licenses do allow commercial uses of your contributions, as long as such uses are compliant with the terms.

b. Attribution: Attribution is an important part of these licenses. We consider it giving credit where credit is due – to authors like yourself. When you contribute text, you agree to be attributed in any of the following fashions:

• (i) Via hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the article or articles that you contributed to;
• (ii) Via hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy that is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on the Project website; or
• (iii) Via a list of all authors (but please note that any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions).

c. Importing text: You may import text that you have found elsewhere or that you have co-authored with others, but in such case you warrant that the text is available under terms that are compatible with the CC BY-SA license. (That is, content available only under GFDL is not permissible). If you import text under a CC BY-SA compatible license that requires attribution, you agree to credit the author(s). Where such credit is commonly given through page histories (such as Wikimedia-internal copying), it is sufficient to give attribution in the edit summary, which is recorded in the page history, when importing the text. Unfortunately, the attribution requirements are sometimes too intrusive for particular circumstances (regardless of the license), and there may be instances where the Wikimedia Community decides that imported text cannot be used for that reason.

d. Non-text media: Non-text media on the Projects are available under a variety of different licenses that support the general goal of allowing unrestricted re-use and re-distribution. When you contribute non-text media, you agree to comply with the requirements for such licenses as described in our Licensing Policy, and also comply with the requirements of the particular Project or feature you are contributing to. Also see the Wikimedia Commons Licensing Policy for more information on contributing non-text media to that Project.

e. Third-party licenses: In addition to the above licensing requirements, when you post content, you warrant that you have fully complied with any third-party license relating to your contribution, and that you have done so in a way so as to convey to other Users any required terms that they should be aware of.

f. No revocation of license: You agree that you will not revoke or seek invalidation of any license that you have granted under this Agreement for text content or non-text media contributed to the Wikimedia Projects or features, even if you terminate use of our Services.

g. Public domain content: Content that is in the public domain is welcome! It is important however that you confirm its public domain status. When you contribute content that is in the public domain, you warrant that the material is actually in the public domain, and you agree to label it appropriately.

h. Re-use: Re-use of content that we host is welcome (and quite common!), but any re-use must comply with the underlying license(s). This means that for text content that is dual-licensed, you agree to comply with either:

• CC BY-SA, or
• GFDL

There are two exceptions for re-use of text content:

• (i) If the Project or feature you are obtaining material from uses different licensing requirements, you agree to comply with that license. For example, if the content to be re-used originated from Wikinews, it was released under CC BY 2.5 and you must comply with that license.
• (ii) If the text content was imported from another source, it is possible that the content is licensed under CC BY-SA but not GFDL (as described in “Importing text,” above). In that case, you agree to comply with CC BY-SA, and do not have the option to re-license it under GFDL. In order to determine if the content you are interested in re-using is only available under CC BY-SA, you should review the page footer, page history, and discussion page for attribution of CC BY-SA-only content.

In addition, please be aware that text that originated from external sources and was imported into a Wikimedia Project may attach additional attribution requirements. Users agree to indicate these additional attribution requirements clearly. Depending on the Wikimedia Project, such requirements may appear for example in a banner or other notations pointing out that some or all of the content was originally published elsewhere.

For any non-text media, you agree to comply with whatever license the work has been made available under (which can be discovered by clicking on the work and looking at the licensing section on its description page or reviewing an applicable source page for that work). When re-using any content that we host, you agree to comply with the relevant attribution requirements as they pertain to the underlying license or licenses.

i. Modifications or additions to material that you re-use: When modifying or making additions to text content that you have obtained from a Wikimedia Project website, you agree to license the modified or added content under either:

• CC BY-SA 3.0 or later, or
• GFDL

When modifying or making additions to any non-text media that you have obtained from a Wikimedia Project website, you agree to license the modified or added content in accordance with whatever license the work has been made available under.

With both text content and non-text media, you agree to clearly indicate that the original work has been modified. For instance, if you are re-using text content in a wiki, it is sufficient to indicate in the page history that you made a change to the imported text. For each copy or modified version that you distribute, you agree to include a licensing notice stating which license the work is released under, along with either a hyperlink or URL to the text of the license, or a copy of the license itself.

8. DMCA and copyright compliance

Our policy is to respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the formalities of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Users may file counter-notifications when they believe a DMCA takedown demand is invalid or improper. For more information see the Chilling Effects website.

If you are the owner of content that is being improperly used on one of the Projects without your permission, you may request that the content be removed. To have infringing content removed:

• Informally (fastest route): Check the copyright violations page for the particular Project that is hosting the content you want to have removed (for example, see the English Wikipedia page on informal complaints); or
• Formally: Email our designated agent at legal wikimedia.org, or mail a request to the listed address.

9. Third Party Websites and Resources

The Projects contain links and references to third-party websites and resources - we do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for them.

10. Our Right to Manage the Project Websites and Terminate Infringing Users

Typically, isolated violations of Project policy and other similar issues will be dealt with by the Wikimedia Community , and will not require our intervention. However, although it is only rarely the case, there may be times when the need arises or the Community wants us to address an especially problematic User because of significant Project disturbance or dangerous behavior. Because of such rare cases, we reserve the right, but do not have the obligation to:

• Investigate your use of the Service (a) to determine whether a violation of this Agreement or the law has occurred, or (b) to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or appropriate governmental request;
• Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues or respond to User support requests;
• Refuse, disable, or restrict access to the contribution of any User that violates this Agreement;
• Terminate the accounts, block and/or ban people who violate this agreement

In the interests of our Users and the Projects, in the extreme circumstance that any individual has had his or her account terminated under this provision, he or she is prohibited from creating or using another account on the Project for which he or she was terminated, unless we provide explicit permission. Additionally, especially problematic Users who have had accounts terminated on multiple Projects may be subject to a ban from all of the Projects, in accordance with the Global Ban Policy. Termination under this provision shall be in accordance with Section 12 of this Agreement.

In addition, please be aware that authorized members of the Wikimedia Community may also take action according to the policies of individual Projects, including but not limited to investigating, blocking, and/or banning Users who violate those policies.

13. Disputes; Jurisdiction Is in San Francisco, California

Any dispute between you and us, you agree to resolve it exclusively in a state or federal court located in San Francisco County, California. You also agree that the laws of the State of California and, to the extent applicable, the laws of the United States of America will govern this Agreement, as well as any claim that might arise between you and us (without reference to conflict of laws principles). You agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of, and agree that venue is proper in, the courts located in San Francisco County, California, in any legal action or proceeding relating to us or this Agreement.

To ensure that disputes are dealt with soon after they arise, you agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action you might have arising out of or related to use of our services or the Agreement must be filed within the applicable statute of limitations or, if earlier, one year after discovery of the pertinent facts underlying such claim or cause of action or be forever barred.

14. Disclaimers

We provide educational and informational services to a very wide audience, but your use of our Services is at your sole risk. We provide these Services on an "as is" and "as available" basis, and we expressly disclaim all express or implied warranties of all kinds, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We make no warranty that our Services will meet your requirements, be safe, secure, uninterrupted, timely, accurate, or error-free, or that your information will be secure.

We are not responsible for the content, data, or actions of third parties, and you release us, our directors, officers, employees, and agents from any claims and damages, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with any claim you have against any such third parties. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from us or through or from our Services creates any warranty not expressly stated in this Agreement.

Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through your use of our Services is done at your own discretion and risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material. You agree that we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any content or communication maintained by the Service. We retain the right to create limits on use and storage at our sole discretion at any time, with or without notice.

Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the types of disclaimers in this section, so they may not apply to you.

15. Limitation on Liability

We will not be liable to you or to any other party for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses, regardless of whether we were advised of the possibility of such damage. In no event shall our liability under these rules exceed one-hundred dollars ($100.00) in aggregate. In the case that applicable law may not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability or incidental or consequential damages, the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you, although our liability will be limited to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

16. Indemnity

Please remember that you are responsible for your own actions when you contribute content or use our Services. If your actions, contributions, or other use of our Services are in violation of this agreement, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from and against all costs, including any expense or liability arising from all claims, losses, damages (both actual and consequential), suits, judgments, litigation costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees, of every kind.

17. How We Will Notify Users If We Modify This Agreement

Just as the Wikimedia Community's input is essential for the growth and maintenance of the Projects, we believe that Community input is essential for this Agreement to properly serve our Users. It is also essential for a fair contract. Therefore, we will provide this Agreement, as well as any substantial future revisions of this Agreement, to the Community for comment at least thirty days before it goes into effect. For changes for legal or administrative reasons, to correct an inaccurate statement, or changes in response to Community comments, we will provide at least three days notice.

Because it may be necessary to modify this Agreement or the related policies from time to time, we will try to provide you with notice of such modifications and the opportunity to comment via the Project websites, and via a notification on Announce-L. However, we ask that you please periodically review the most up-to-date version of this Agreement (available at http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms of use), because your continued use of our Services after the new Agreement becomes official following the notice and review period constitutes an acceptance of the Agreement on your part. For the protection of the Wikimedia Foundation and other Users like yourself, if you do not agree with our Terms of Use, you cannot use our Services.

18. Other Terms

If there is any conflict between this Agreement and a signed written agreement between you and us, the signed agreement will control.

You agree that we may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Agreement, by email, regular mail, or postings on Project websites.

If in any circumstance we do not apply or enforce any provision of this agreement, it is not a waiver of that provision.

You warrant that you understand that you have no expectation of compensation for any unsolicited ideas that you provide to us.

This Agreement was written in English (U.S.), and to the extent that any translated version of this Agreement conflicts with the English version, the English version controls.

If any provision or part of a provision of this Agreement is found unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from this Agreement and will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and all other provisions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.

Thank You for Reading Our Terms of Use!

We appreciate you taking the time to read this Agreement, and we are very happy to have you contributing to the Projects and using our Services. Through your contributions, you are helping to build something really big – not only an important collection of collaboratively-edited reference projects that provides information and education to millions who might otherwise lack access, but also a vibrant community of like-minded and engaged peers, focused on a very noble goal.

Thank you, and remember:

Be bold!