We are committed to provide all users the most satisfying and safest experience possible and will act accordingly. We expect all users, including community members and visitors, to do the same. If you cannot meet the requirements or disagree with the Terms of Use, do not use our Services and deactivate your Account.
These Terms of Use apply to your use of all of the websites that OpenReference Initiative operates, including OpenReference (http://ORwiki.org), and OpenDevelopment (http://dev.ORwiki.org) (the “Websites”), as well as the products, information, and services provided through the Websites.
Read our License page to learn more about using OpenReference content.
The Terms of Use (a.k.a. 'Acceptable Use Policy') tell you about our services at OpenReference Initiative, our relationship to you, and the rights and responsibilities that guide us both. The editorial control is in the hands of our community of volunteers; you and your fellow authors, editors and users.
These Terms of Use are written and shall be interpreted to support our mission to:
You are welcome to join as a contributor, editor, or author, but you should follow the policies that govern the services and our general Acceptable Use Policies. Each Domain has a team of contributors, editors or authors who work together to create and manage the content on that Domain. You are welcome to join these teams and work with them to improve these Domains. 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 OpenReference content under the laws of the United States of America and other applicable laws (which may include the laws where you live or where you view or edit content). 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 or qualified professional. We also include other important notices and disclaimers, so please read these Terms of Use in their entirety.
For clarity, other organizations, such as local OpenReference Initiative chapters and associations, that may share in the same mission are nevertheless legally independent and separate from the OpenReference Initiative and have no responsibility for the operations of these websites or its content.
At OpenReference Initiative we provide a variety of different services. The most important services include encouraging and hosting the development of Open Standards content (for example by means of 'meetings', 'conferences' and discussion web services 'talk') and hosting the full content of OpenReference (e.g. the 'wiki').
We provide these services to you free of charge, following our definition of Open Standards and to our best effort. If you need some guarantee of a particular service level, then please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss whether we could offer you a commercial version of any of our services (assuming one is not already available).
Some of our services will have specific terms tailored for them. If that is the case, OpenReference Initiative’s contract with you for that service will be on these terms, supplemented by any terms specific to the service. In the case of any conflict, service specific terms will take precedence.
We process personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy. As part of this agreement you consent to our doing so. You should read the policy carefully, especially if you have any concerns about your privacy.
Our website uses cookies, in accordance with our Cookies Policy, because we believe it improves your experience using our website.
The communities hosted by the OpenReference Initiative only exist because of dedicated users like you who collaborate to write, edit, and curate the content. We happily welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be civil and polite in your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and to make edits and contributions aimed at furthering the Mission of the OpenReference Initiative.
Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, may be harmful to other users and violate our rules, and some activities may also subject you to liability. Therefore, for your own protection and for that of other users, you may not engage in such activities on our sites. These activities include:
Harassing and Abusing Others
Violating the Privacy of Others
Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud
Committing Infringement
Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes
Engaging in Disruptive and Illegal Misuse of Facilities
Paid contributions without disclosure These Terms of Use prohibit engaging in deceptive activities, including misrepresentation of affiliation, impersonation, and fraud. As part of these obligations, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. You must make that disclosure in at least one of the following ways:
Applicable law, or community and OpenReference Initiative policies and guidelines, such as those addressing conflicts of interest, may further limit paid contributions or require more detailed disclosure.
We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to the above terms.
You are responsible for safeguarding your own password and should never disclose it to any third party. If pressure is applied to you to do so — for example if an employer demands your username and password — please inform them that their attempt to subvert your agreement with us will mean that they have no permission to use any of our services.
All OpenReference trademarks belong to the OpenReference Initiative, and any use of our trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, or domain names must be in compliance with these Terms of Use. To protect OpenReference users from fraudulent impersonators, OpenReference Initiative must protect its trademarks against fraudulent use. Because of this, we ask that you please respect our trademarks ('marks').
You have the right to use marks to:
You may request license to use marks to:
You do NOT have the right to use marks to:
We grant you, the public, permission to use the licensed material under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International License. Our Content Licensing page explains your usage rights ('license') in short.
To expand our Open Standards knowledge and standards, all users contributing (authoring, editing, commenting) are required to grant permissions permissions to the general public 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 (the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International License).
You agree to the following licensing requirements:
In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other applicable law, we have adopted a policy of removing copyrighted materials and terminating, in appropriate circumstances and at our sole discretion, users or account holders who are deemed to be repeat infringers.
Read our Copyright page to learn more about our processes to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
You are solely responsible for your use of any third-party websites or resources. Although pages contain links to third-party websites and resources, we do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for their availability, accuracy, or the related content, products, or services (including, without limitation, any viruses or other disabling features), nor do we have any obligation to monitor such third-party content.
We hope that no serious disagreements arise involving you, but, in the event there is a dispute, we encourage you to seek resolution through the dispute resolution procedures or mechanisms provided by the OpenReference Initiative. If you seek to file a legal claim against us, you agree to file and resolve it exclusively in a state or federal court located in Delaware, United States. You also agree that the laws of the State of Delaware and, to the extent applicable, the laws of the United States of America will govern these Terms of Use, as well as any legal 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 Delaware, USA, in any legal action or proceeding relating to us or these Terms of Use.
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 these Terms of Use must be filed within the applicable statute of limitations or, if earlier, one (1) year after the pertinent facts underlying such claim or cause of action could have been discovered with reasonable diligence (or be forever barred).
At the OpenReference Initiative, we do our best to provide informational content 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 these Terms of Use.
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 jurisdictions do not allow the types of disclaimers in this section, so they may not apply to you either in part or in full depending on the law.
The OpenReference Initiative 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 exceed one thousand U.S. dollars (USD 1000.00) 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.
Because it may be necessary to modify these Terms of Use from time to time, we will provide notice of such modifications and the opportunity to comment via the OpenReference websites. Your continued use of our services after the new Terms of Use become official following the notice and review period constitutes an acceptance of these Terms of Use on your part.
These Terms of Use do not create an employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture relationship between you and us, the OpenReference Initiative. If you have not signed a separate agreement with us, these Terms of Use are the entire agreement between you and us. If there is any conflict between these Terms of Use 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 Terms of Use, by email, regular mail, or postings on OpenReference websites.
If in any circumstance, we do not apply or enforce any provision of these Terms of Use, it is not a waiver of that provision.
You understand that, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by us, you have no expectation of compensation for any activity, contribution, or idea that you provide to us, the community, or other OpenReference partners.
If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms of Use is found unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms of Use and will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and all other provisions of these Terms of Use will remain in full force and effect.
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