Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use

The community – the network of users who are constantly building and using the Projects and/or their websites (hereby referred to as "Project Websites") – is the principal means through which the goals of the mission are achieved. The community contributes to and helps govern our Projects and Project Websites. The community also undertakes the critical function of creating and enforcing policies for the specific Project editions (such as the different language editions for the Wikipedia Project or the Wikimedia Commons multilingual edition).

You, the user, are welcome to join as a contributor, editor, or author, but you should follow the policies that govern each of the independent Project editions, including the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC), which apply to all Project editions. The largest of our Projects is Wikipedia, but we host other Projects too, each with different objectives and work methods. Each Project edition has a team of contributors, editors or authors who work together to create and manage the content on that Project edition. You are welcome to join these teams and work with them to improve these Projects. Since we are dedicated to making content freely accessible to the public, content you contribute is made available under a free license or released in the public domain.

Please be aware that you are legally responsible for all of your contributions, edits, and reuse of Wikimedia content under the laws of the United States of America and other applicable laws (which may include laws where you or the subject of your contributions are located). This means it is important that you exercise caution when posting, modifying or reusing content. In light of this responsibility, we have some rules about what you cannot do, most of which are 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 an appropriate 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 Wikimedia chapters and associations, that may share in the same mission are nevertheless legally independent and separate from the Wikimedia Foundation. Unless otherwise stated by the Foundation as an authorized party on a given Project's Website, those other organizations have no responsibility for the operations of the Project's Website or its content.

The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development, and distribution of free multilingual content, and to hosting the full content of these wiki-based Projects for the public free of charge. Our role is to host some of the largest collaboratively edited reference Projects in the world, which can be found here. However, we act only as a hosting service provider, maintaining the infrastructure and organizational framework. This infrastructure and framework allow our users to build the Projects by contributing and editing content themselves. They also allow our users to reuse that content. The infrastructure we maintain includes specialized technological infrastructure that enables users to programmatically interact with and reuse content on Projects (referred to as "Application Programming Interface" or "APIs"), and mobile applications.

As used throughout the rest of the Terms of Use, our services consist of: The Project Websites we host, technological infrastructure that we maintain, and any technical spaces that we host for the maintenance and improvement of our Projects.

Because of our unique role, there are a couple of things you should be aware of when considering our relationship to you, the Projects, and other 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.

The Projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation only exist because of the vibrant community of 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 shared Project. We ask that all users review and follow the Universal Code of Conduct ("UCoC"), which lays out requirements for collegial, civil collaboration across all Projects that we host.

Certain activities, whether legal or illegal under the applicable law, 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, or otherwise using, our Projects. These activities include:

Harassing and Abusing Others

• Engaging in threats, stalking, spamming, vandalism, or harassment as described in the UCoC;
• Transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users;
• Posting or modifying content with the intention to seriously harm others, such as deliberate inducements to self-harm, or deliberate triggering of epilepsy.

Violating the Privacy of Others

• Infringing the privacy rights of others under the laws of the United States of America or other applicable laws (which may include the laws where you live or where you view or edit content);
• Soliciting personally identifiable information for the purposes of harassment, exploitation, or violation of privacy, or for any promotional or commercial purpose not explicitly approved by the Wikimedia Foundation; and
• Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 years, or under the age of majority where you are if higher than 18 years, for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.

Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud

• Intentionally or knowingly posting content that constitutes libel or defamation under the laws of the United States of America;
• Posting or modifying content with the intent to deceive or mislead others;
• Attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, hiding your affiliation with any individual or entity when disclosure is required by these terms or local Project policy, or using the name or username of another person with the intent to deceive; and
• Engaging in fraud.

Committing Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights

• Infringing copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights under the applicable law.

Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes

• Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law concerning child pornography or child sexual abuse material, or encouraging, grooming, or advocating for others to create or share such material;
• Posting or trafficking in obscene material that is unlawful under applicable law; and
• Using the services in a manner that is inconsistent with applicable law.

Engaging in Disruptive and Illegal Misuse of Facilities

• Posting or distributing content that contains any viruses, malware, worms, Trojan horses, malicious code, or other device that could harm our technical infrastructure or system or that of other users;
• Engaging in automated uses of the Project Websites that are abusive or disruptive of the services, violate acceptable usage policies where available, or have not been approved by the Wikimedia community;
• Disrupting the services by placing an undue burden on an API, Project Website or the networks or servers connected with a particular Project Website;

• Disrupting the services by inundating any of the Project Websites with communications or other traffic that suggests no serious intent to use the Project website for its stated purpose;
• Knowingly accessing, tampering with, or using any of our non-public areas in our computer systems without authorization; and
• Probing, scanning, or testing the vulnerability of any of our technical systems or networks unless all the following conditions are met:

• such actions do not unduly abuse or disrupt our technical systems or networks;

• such actions are not for personal gain (except for credit for your work);

• you report any vulnerabilities to the relevant developers (or fix it yourself); and

• you do not undertake such actions with malicious or destructive intent.

Paid Contributions Without Disclosure

• You must disclose each and any employer, client, intended beneficiary 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:

• a statement on your user page,
• a statement on the talk page accompanying any paid contributions, or
• a statement in the edit summary accompanying any paid contributions.

• In addition, if you make a public posting off the Projects advertising editing services on Wikipedia in exchange for compensation of any kind, you must disclose all Wikipedia accounts you have used or will use for this service in the public posting on the third-party service.

• Applicable law, or Project-specific policies and Foundation policies and guidelines, such as those addressing conflicts of interest, may further limit paid contributions or require more detailed disclosure. For example, infringing Wikimedia Trademarks (defined hereinafter at Section 6) to advertise paid editing services, removing disclosures on previously adequately disclosed paid edits, or logged-out paid editing in a manner that makes adequate disclosure a practical impossibility violate this section.

• A Wikimedia Project community may adopt an alternative paid contribution disclosure policy which may supplement or replace this section. If a Project adopts an alternative disclosure policy, you may comply with that policy instead of the requirements in this section (titled "Paid Contributions Without Disclosure") when contributing to that particular Project.

For more information, please read our FAQ on disclosure of paid contributions.

We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to the provisions in section 4 of these Terms of Use. Where required, enforcement of these terms may include actions not listed in the Wikimedia Foundation Office Action Policy. If enforcement is required in new circumstances, we will make an effort within at most one (1) year to update the Office Action Policy to catalog the new type of action.

Marketing Company Mediations

Undisclosed editing by users receiving compensation creates an unreasonable burden on volunteer editors who investigate and enforce community policies. Therefore, for violations of this section related to undisclosed paid editing, you agree to submit to binding "Med-Arb" (a "Marketing Company Mediation") as described in section 14 of these Terms of Use.

You are responsible for safeguarding your own password and other security credentials, and should never disclose them to any third party.

Although you have considerable freedoms for reuse of the content on the Project Websites, it is important that, at the Wikimedia Foundation, we protect our trademark rights so that we can protect our users from fraudulent impersonators. Because of this, we ask that you please respect our trademarks. All Wikimedia Foundation trademarks belong to the Wikimedia Foundation, and any use of our trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, or domain names must be in compliance with these Terms of Use and in compliance with our Trademark Policy.

To grow the commons of free knowledge and free culture, all users contributing to the Projects or Project Websites are required to grant broad permissions to the general public to redistribute and reuse their contributions freely, so long as that use is properly attributed and the same freedom to reuse and redistribute 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 may access it.

You agree to the following licensing requirements:

The Wikimedia Foundation wants to ensure that the content that we host can be reused by other users without fear of liability and that it is not infringing the proprietary rights of others. In fairness to our users, as well as to other creators and copyright holders, our policy is to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the formalities of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). Pursuant to the DMCA, we will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, users and account holders of our system and network who are repeat infringers on our Projects and services.

However, we also recognize that not every takedown notice is valid or in good faith. In such cases, we strongly encourage users to file counter-notifications when they appropriately believe a DMCA takedown demand is invalid or improper. For more information on what to do if you think a DMCA notice has been improperly filed, you may wish to consult the Lumen Database 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 by filing a notice under the DMCA. To make such a request, please email us at legalwikimediaorg or snail mail our designated agent.

Alternatively, you may make a request to our community, which often handles copyright issues faster and more effectively than the process prescribed under the DMCA. In that case, you can post a notice explaining your copyright concerns. For a non-exhaustive and non-authoritative list of the relevant processes for the different Project editions, visit the Copyright Problems page. Before filing a DMCA claim, you also have the option of sending an email to the community at infowikimediaorg.

You are solely responsible for your use of any third-party websites or resources. Although the Projects and Project Websites 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.

The community has the primary role in creating and enforcing policies applying to the different Project editions. At the Wikimedia Foundation, we rarely intervene in community decisions about policy and its enforcement.

It is possible to notify us of illegal content, or content that violates our Terms of Use (including all policies and other documents incorporated by reference) for other reasons by contacting us directly. However, you can typically make a request directly to the Project's community: this may be more efficient, and is more consistent with our Projects' aim to empower the user community.

Each Project will usually provide "Help" or "Contact" pages for further guidance, or specific tools for reporting issues. Alternatively – if in doubt – you can ask members of the community for help, by sending an email to infowikimediaorg or a more language-specific address from the Volunteer Response Team page. Please note that these mailboxes are monitored by users of the Projects, not the Foundation. As a result, they should not be threatened or issued with legal demands.

If you contact the Foundation with a problem, we will typically explore whether and how existing community-led mechanisms can investigate and, where appropriate, resolve it.

In an unusual case, the need may arise, or the community may ask us, to address an especially problematic user or especially problematic content because of significant Project disturbance or dangerous behavior. In such cases, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion (or where legally compelled), to:

• Investigate your use of the Projects or our services (a) to determine whether a violation of these Terms of Use, Project edition policy, or other applicable law or policy has occurred, or (b) to comply with any applicable law, legal process, or an appropriate governmental request;
• Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, false or unverifiable information, security, or technical issues or respond to user support requests;
• Refuse, revert, disable, or restrict access to contributions of any user who violates these Terms of Use;

• Ban a user from editing or contributing or block a user's account or access for actions violating these Terms of Use, including repeat posting of unlawful material under applicable law in line with human rights principles;
• Take legal action against users who violate these Terms of Use (including reports to law enforcement authorities); and
• Manage otherwise the Project websites in a manner designed to facilitate their proper functioning and protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and our users, licensors, partners, and the public.

Those Foundation moderation activities may be informed or performed by software (such as traffic flood ("Denial of Service") protection). In those cases human review is normally available, upon request.

In the interests of our users and the Projects, in the extreme circumstance that any individual has had their account or access blocked under this section, they are prohibited from creating or using another account on or seeking access to the same Project, unless we provide explicit permission. Without limiting the authority of the community, the Foundation itself will not ban a user from editing or contributing or block a user's account or access solely because of good faith criticism that does not result in actions otherwise violating these Terms of Use or community policies.

The Wikimedia community and its members may also take action when so allowed by the community or Foundation policies applicable to the specific Project edition, including but not limited to warning, investigating, blocking, or banning users who violate those policies. You agree to comply with the final decisions of dispute resolution bodies that are established by the community for the specific Project editions (such as arbitration committees); these decisions may include sanctions as set out by the policy of the specific Project edition.

Especially problematic users who have had accounts or access blocked on multiple Project editions may be subject to a ban from all of the Project editions, in accordance with the Global Ban Policy. In contrast to Board resolutions or these Terms of Use, policies established by the community, which may cover a single Project edition or multiple Projects editions (like the Global Ban Policy), may be modified by the relevant community according to its own procedures.

The blocking of an account or access or the banning of a user under this provision shall be in accordance with Section 13 of these Terms of Use.

If you believe we have not satisfactorily acted on a problematic content report, or if you have been subjected to a Foundation moderation action that you wish to challenge, you may be able to submit an appeal.  Other information about routes of appeal may also be explained to you at the time, or in Project-specific help pages.

We reserve the right to suspend (temporarily, or permanently) our handling of reports or other correspondence from users or third parties, whether about allegedly illegal or otherwise problematic content or conduct, or requesting appeals against moderation actions, if such correspondence was made in bad faith, repetitive, unfounded, and/or abusive. In appropriate circumstances, your email address may even be blocked on our email system(s), and you will then need to contact us at our postal address if you wish to further correspond with us during that block. For less serious cases (e.g. up to three polite emails about one or more meritless complaints), this is likely to be temporary. More frequent or more abusive communications are more likely to lead to permanent measures.

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees releases official policies from time to time. Some of these policies may be mandatory for a particular Project or Project edition, and, when they are, you agree to abide by them as applicable.

We make available a set of APIs, which include documentation and associated tools, to enable users to build products that promote free knowledge. By using our APIs, you agree to abide by all applicable policies governing the use of the APIs, which include but are not limited to the User-Agent Policy, the Robot Policy, and the API:Etiquette (collectively, "API Documentation"), which are incorporated into these Terms of Use by reference.

Though we hope you will stay and continue to contribute to the Projects, you can stop using our services any time. In certain (hopefully unlikely) circumstances it may be necessary for either ourselves or the Wikimedia community or its members (as described in Section 10) to terminate part or all of our services, terminate these Terms of Use, block your account or access, or ban you as a user. If your account or access is blocked or otherwise terminated for any reason, your public contributions and a record of your activities on or in relation to the Projects (including any correspondence you have sent us) will be unaffected (subject to applicable policies), and you may still access our public pages for the sole purpose of reading publicly available content on the Projects. In such circumstances, however, you may not be able to access your account or settings. However, regardless of any other provision in these Terms of Use, we reserve the right to suspend or end the services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Even after your use and participation are banned, blocked or otherwise suspended, these Terms of Use will remain in effect with respect to relevant provisions, including Sections 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9-16, and 18.

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 these Terms of Use to properly serve our users. It is also essential for a fair contract. Therefore, we will provide these Terms of Use, as well as any substantial future revisions of these Terms of Use, to the community for comment at least thirty (30) days before the end of the comment period. If a future proposed revision is substantial, we will provide an additional 30 days for comments after posting a translation of the proposed revision in at least three languages (selected at our discretion). The community will be encouraged to translate the proposed revision in other languages as appropriate. 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 (3) days' notice.

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 Project websites, and via a notification on WikimediaAnnounce-l. However, we ask that you please periodically review the most up-to-date version of these Terms of Use. 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. 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.

These Terms of Use do not create an employment, agency, partnership, joint control or joint venture relationship between you and us, the Wikimedia Foundation. For the purposes of European Economic Area law, United Kingdom law, or other laws that involve a similar concept, you are not acting "under the authority of" the Foundation when you use the services. 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 the Projects or Project 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 the Projects or Project editions.

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in these Terms of Use, we (the Wikimedia Foundation) and you agree not to modify the applicable terms and requirements of any free license that is employed on the Projects or Project editions when such free license is authorized by these Terms of Use.

These Terms of Use were written in English (U.S.). While we hope that translations of these Terms of Use are accurate, in the event of any differences in meaning between the original English version and a translation, the original English version takes precedence.

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.