This page includes the following important information regarding your use of the LibertyLion® site.

• Terms of Use
• Copyright
• Privacy Policy

Please read this information carefully.

Terms of Use

This is a summary of the Terms of Use. See the full Terms of Use below. This is a human-readable summary of the Terms of Use.

Disclaimer: This summary is not a part of the Terms of Use and is not a legal document. It is simply a handy reference for understanding the full terms. Think of it as the user-friendly interface to the legal language of our Terms of Use.
 

Terms of Use Summary

Imagine a world in which the knowledge needed to become and remain free is freely available to every single human being, empowering each of us to influence our leaders and those around them to pursue a course that ensures the maximum individual liberty, freedom under the law, and the greatest economic prosperity possible in the real world. That’s our goal.

Our mission is to

Engage people around the world to work together to collect, refine and disseminate a Knowledge Base of Liberty that will empower those who use it to gain and/or maintain their unalienable Rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness and Prosperity through Self-determination and voluntary, uncoerced interaction as Free Agents, under Rule of Law. Read also, our Mission Statement.

You are free to:

• Read and Print our articles and other media free of charge with attribution.
• Share and Reuse our articles and other media under free and open licenses, with attribution.
• Contribute To and Edit content on our sites.

Under the following conditions:

• Responsibility – You take responsibility for your contributions and edits (since we only host your content).
• Civility – You support a civil environment and do not harass other users.
• Lawful Behavior – You do not violate copyright or other laws.
• No Promotion of Violence - You will not propose or promote violence as a solution to political problems.
• No Harm – You do not harm our technology infrastructure.
• Terms of Use and Policies – You adhere to the below Terms of Use and to the applicable community policies when you visit our sites or participate in our communities.

With the understanding that:

• You Assign the Copyright - by contributing content to the LibertyLion® websites, you assign the copyright to your work to LibertyLion® under a Creative Commons copyright.
• You License Freely Your Contributions – you license your contributions and edits to our sites under a free and open license that is compatible with the Creative Commons copyright used by the LibertyLion® websites (unless your contribution is in the public domain).
• No Professional Advice – the content of articles and other projects is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

LibertyLion® Terms of Use

We welcome you (“you” or the “user”) as a reader, editor, author, or contributor of the LibertyLion® (“our” or “we”) sites. Before you participate, however, we ask that you please read and agree to the following Terms of Use (“Terms of Use”).

Overview

These Terms of Use tell you about our services at LibertyLion® (“our” or “we”), our relationship to you as a user, and the rights and responsibilities that guide us both. We host content, all of which is contributed and made possible by users like you. Generally we do not contribute, monitor, or delete content (with the rare exception of policies like these Terms of Use or legal compliance for DMCA (cache) or copyright notices). This means that editorial control is in the hands of you and your fellow users who create and manage the content. We merely host this content.

You are welcome to join LibertyLion® University as a registered User that gives you the ability to create a Profile page, save information in a personal archive, comment on the pages, blogs and forums, along with other benefits. You may request the ability to contribute and edit content as a Member or Editor, by selecting the Feedback item from the main menu.

You are legally responsible for all of your contributions, edits, and re-use of LibertyLion® content under the laws of the United States of America and Switzerland, where the LibertyLion® sites are hosted, as well as 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. If you need expert advice for a particular question (such as 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.

LibertyLion® Society

(SECTION TO BE ADDED IN THE SOCIETY TERMS OF USE)
Membership in LibertyLion® Society (the “Society”) is by invitation only. It is reserved for those who want to work together with others in self-created groups to focus on ways of spreading liberty throughout the world. Society Membership includes use of the LibertyLion® Society website as well as the LibertyLion® Personal website that provides secure email, calendaring, and online organizational tools. As a member of the LibertyLion® Society, you have the privilege of inviting others to join the Society. When you do, you will be listed as the new members sponsor. So be sure to invite those that you will be proud to have brought into the network of those working for freedom. 

1. Our Services

LibertyLion® is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of liberty related content, but we act only as a hosting service, maintaining the infrastructure and organizational framework that allows our users to share their knowledge and ideas by contributing and editing content themselves. Because of our unique role, there are a couple of things you should be aware of when considering our relationship to you and the other users:

1. We do not take an editorial role:
   Because the LibertyLion® websites 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 LibertyLion® 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 community content. Instead, we simply provide access to the content that your fellow users have contributed and edited.
2. Contributions by LibertyLion® staff and developers:
   To the extent that LibertyLion® owners, staff, employees, or developers contribute or edit content on the websites, they do so as individual members and do not represent LibertyLion®.
3. You are responsible for your own actions:
   You are legally responsible for your edits and contributions on the LibertyLion® websites, so for your own protection you should exercise caution and avoid contributing any content that may result in criminal or civil liability under any applicable laws. For clarity, applicable law includes at least the laws of the United States of America and Switzerland. Although we may not agree with such actions, we warn editors and contributors that authorities may seek to apply other country laws to you, including local laws where you live or where you view or edit content. LibertyLion® generally cannot offer any protection, guarantee, immunity or indemnification.

2. Privacy Policy

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 of America, Switzerland 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. Content We Host

1. You may find some material objectionable or erroneous:
   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.
2. Our content is for general informational purposes only:
   Although we host a information that pertains to legal and political issues, it should not be taken as professional advice. Please seek independent professional counseling from someone who is licensed or qualified in the applicable area in lieu of acting on any information, opinion, or advice contained in the LibertyLion® websites.

4. Refraining from Certain Activities

LibertyLion® content exists 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 knowledge, understanding, and action aimed at sustaining individual liberty.

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:

Maliciously Editing the work of Others

• If you disagree with the content or conclusions of content contributed by other contributors, you may not use your editing privileges to undermine their work
• You may, however, contribute opposing views as a separate contribution and link to the content with which you disagree
• All editing of other’s work should be done with the intent of improving that work

Harassing and Abusing Others 

• Engaging in harassment, threats, stalking, spamming, or vandalism; and
• Transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users.

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 purposes of harassment, exploitation, violation of privacy, or any promotional or commercial purpose not explicitly approved by the LibertyLion®; and
• Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 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;
• Posting content that is false or inaccurate with the intent to deceive;
• Attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, or using the username of another user with the intent to deceive; and
• Engaging in fraud.

Committing Infringement 

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

Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes 

• Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law concerning child pornography;
• 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 our users;
• Engaging in automated uses of the site that are abusive or disruptive of the services and have not been approved by the LibertyLion®;
• Disrupting the services by placing an undue burden on a Project website or the networks or servers connected with a 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 LibertyLion® developers; and
  • you do not undertake such actions with malicious or destructive intent.
  
  We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to the above terms.

Engaging in Anti-Liberty Activities 

• Although LibertyLion® welcomes discussion of all political views and philosophies, its resources are intended to support and promote individual liberty, consequently;
• you may not use LibertyLion® to promote activities, legislation, etc. that is clearly intended to deny or diminish the reasonable liberties and inalienable rights of others.

5. Password Security

You are responsible for safeguarding your own password and should never disclose it to any third party.

6. Trademarks

Although you have considerable freedoms for re-use of the content on the Project websites, it is important that, at LibertyLion®, 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 LibertyLion® trademarks belong to the owner(s) of LibertyLion®, 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.

7. Licensing of Content

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 for non-commercial use by anyone who cares to access it. All users also grant the copyright to all contributed content to LibertyLion®.

For complete details, refer to the Copyright page. LibertyLion® reserves the right to change this licensing model at any time. All changes will be posted and described on the Copyright page.

You agree to the following CreativeCommons licensing requirements:

1. Attribution:
   Attribution is an important part of this license. 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:
   • Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the article to which you contributed (since each article has a history page that lists all authors and editors);
   • Through 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
   • Through a list of all authors (but please note that any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions).
2. 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-NC-SA 3.0 license (or, as explained above, another license when exceptionally required by the Project edition or feature)("CC BY-NC-SA").
   
   You agree that, if you import text under a CC BY-NC-SA license that requires attribution, you must credit the author(s) in a reasonable fashion. Although it is possible to give credit through page histories and edit summaries, this is not sufficient. You should explicitly state, within the page itself, all required attribution credits. The attribution requirements are sometimes too intrusive for particular circumstances (regardless of the license), and there may be instances where the LibertyLion® administrators decides that imported text cannot be used for that reason.
3. Non-text media:
   Non-text media on the Projects are also available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license , with the general goal of allowing 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 Copyright Policy, and also comply with the requirements of the specific Project edition or feature to which you are contributing.
4. No revocation of license:
   Except as consistent with your license, you agree that you will not unilaterally revoke or seek invalidation of any license that you have granted under these Terms of Use for text content or non-text media contributed to the LibertyLion® Projects or features, even if you terminate use of our services.
5. Public domain content:
   Content that is in the public domain is welcome! It is important however that you confirm the public domain status of the content under the law of the United States of America and Switzerland, as well as the laws of any other countries as required. 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.
6. Re-use:
   Re-use of content that LibertyLion® hosts is welcome, though exceptions exist for content contributed under "fair use" or similar exemptions under copyright law. Any re-use must comply with the underlying license(s).
   
   When you re-use or re-distribute a text page developed by the LibertyLion® community, you agree to attribute the authors in any of the following fashions:
   • Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the page or pages that you are re-using (since each page has a history page that lists all authors and editors);
   • Through 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
   • Through a list of all authors (but please note that any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions).
   • Through a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the LibertyLion® home page (http://libertylion.net/) that provides credit to LibertyLion® as the original licensee of the material.
   
   If the text content was imported from another source, it is possible that the content is licensed under a compatible CC BY-NC-SA license. In that case, you agree to comply with the compatible CC BY-NC-SA license and do not have the option to re-license. To determine the license that applies to the content that you seek to re-use or re-distribute, you should review the page footer, page history, and discussion page.
   
   In addition, please be aware that text that originated from external sources and was imported into a Project may be under a license that attaches additional attribution requirements. Users agree to indicate these additional attribution requirements clearly. Depending on the 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. Where there are such visible notations, re-users should preserve them.
   
   For any non-text media, you agree to comply with whatever license under which the work has been made available (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.
7. Modifications or additions to material that you re-use:
   When modifying or making additions to text that you have obtained from a LibertyLion® website, you agree to license the modified or added content under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 or later (or, as explained above, another license when exceptionally required by the specific Project edition or feature).
   
   When modifying or making additions to any non-text media that you have obtained from a LibertyLion® website, you agree to license the modified or added content in accordance with whatever license under which the work has been made available.
   
   With both text content and non-text media, you agree to clearly indicate that the original work has been modified. 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 Compliance

LibertyLion® wants to ensure that the content that we host can be re-used 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.

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 Chilling Effects (cache) website.

If you are the owner of content that is being improperly used on one of the LibertyLion® websites without your permission, you may request that the content be removed under the DMCA. To make such a request, please email us at admin@libertylion.com.

9. Third-party Websites and Resources

You are solely responsible for your use of any third-party websites or resources. Although the LibertyLion® 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.

10. Management of Websites

The community has the primary role in creating and enforcing policies applying to the content by reporting abuse, but LibertyLion® reserves the right at its sole discretion, but does not have the obligation to:

• Investigate your use of the service (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 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 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 copyright infringement;
• 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.

In the interests of our users and the LibertyLion® project, in the extreme circumstance that any individual has had his or her account or access blocked under this provision, he or she is prohibited from creating or using another account on or seeking access to the same Project, unless we provide explicit permission.

The blocking of an account or access or the banning of a user under this provision shall be in accordance with Section 12 of these Terms of Use.

11. Resolutions and Project Policies

LibertyLio®n releases Policy Updates from time to time. Some of these policies may be mandatory, and when they are, you agree to abide by them as applicable.

12. Termination

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 (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 will remain publicly available (subject to applicable policies), and, unless we notify you otherwise, you may still access our public pages for the sole purpose of reading publicly available content on the Project. In such circumstances, however, you may not be able to access your account or settings. We reserve the right to suspend or end your use of the services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice, at the sole discretion of LibertyLion®. 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, 9-15, and 17.

13. Disputes and Jurisdiction

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 Project and LibertyLion. 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 Ventura 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 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 Ventura County, California, 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).

14. Disclaimers

At the LibertyLion®, we do our best to provide educational and informational content to a 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. Because we cannot guarantee that the content you contribute to LibertyLion® will be permanently stored or free from loss due to technical factors and suspension of LibertyLion® websites, you should keep personal copies of all of the content you have contributed to LibertyLion®.Some states or 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.

15. Limitation on Liability

LibertyLion 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.

16. Modifications to these Terms of Use

Just as the LibertyLion® community's input is essential for the growth and maintenance of the Project, 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 seven (7) days before the change. 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 LibertyLion® Feedback. 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 LibertyLion® and other users like yourself, if you do not agree with our Terms of Use, you cannot use our services.

17. Other Terms

These Terms of Use do not create an employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture relationship between you and LibertyLion. 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 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 LibertyLion® Project.

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in these Terms of Use, 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 any 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.

Thank You!

We appreciate your taking the time to read these Terms of Use, and we are very happy to have you contributing to the LibertyLion® Project. Through your contributions, you are helping to build something really big – you are helping maintain and spread the knowledge and understanding needed to preserve and spread individual liberty worldwide, for yourself. What you do here will affect millions who might otherwise lack the information needed to become or remain free.

These Terms of Use were based upon the Wikimedia Terms of Use (cache), and are available under a Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License (cache).

Copyright

Draft - In development

Copyright Information

All information on the LibertyLion® website (http://libertylion.net) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommericial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license.

You are free:

• to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by LibertyLion™ (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
•  Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
• Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

With the understanding that:

• Waiver — Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
• Public Domain — Where the work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
• Other Rights — In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:

• Your fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable copyright exceptions and limitations;

  • The author's moral rights;
  • Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.
• Notice — For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.

 

 

Privacy Policy

Privacy Philosophy

Disclaimer: This "Privacy Philsophy" is not a part of the Privacy Policy and is not a part of the legal document. It is simply a reference for understanding the LibertyLion®'s attitude toward privacy and how we try to think differently from most websites about your private information.

We believe your personal information should really be private. Unlike the myriad of websites you have probably already signed up for, LibertyLion® will not collect and mine your data. Your privacy really does matter. We will never track what you do or use the information you post or contribute, the friends you have, or the content of your messages and emails to analyze your behavior or figure out how to market to you. We will never provide any information about you individually to anyone else except as required by law.

If you have taken the time to read the fine print in the terms of use and privacy policies for virtually all websites at which you register, you are no doubt appalled (if you can understand them) by the extent of the invasion of your privacy they expect you to allow while offering supposed privacy controls that you can’t find and that can change the next time they publish their privacy policy which you automatically approve by continuing your use of the site, even though you don’t know anything has changed. In some you are actually signing up to make your personal computer a part of their “virtual” network, meaning they will be routing other people’s traffic through your computer and internet connection. Don’t put up with such invasion of your privacy. Your information is private.

Privacy Policy

General Scope

This policy covers personally identifiable information collected or stored by the LibertyLion® on its servers in relation to the Project. Consistent with its Data Retention Policy, LibertyLion® collects and retains the least amount of personally identifiable information needed to fulfill the Projects' operational needs.

For more information on why this is important, see "Privacy Matters."

The public and collaborative nature of the projects

LibertyLion® content is collaboratively developed by its users using the LibertyLion® website. Anyone with Internet access may view the publicly distributed content, registered users may comment on the content, and members may edit the content. By doing this, contributors create a document of every word added, subtracted, or changed that can be accessed by Editors. All contributions made to the content, and all information about those contributions, are irrevocably licensed and may be freely copied, quoted, reused and adapted for non-commercial use by third parties with few restrictions.

Activities on LibertyLion® websites

In general, this Policy only applies to private information stored or held by the LibertyLion® which is not publicly available.

User accounts and authorship

LibertyLion® requires editors to register Registered users are identified by their chosen username. Users select a password, which is confidential and used to verify the integrity of their account. Except insofar as it may be required by law, no person should disclose, or knowingly expose, either user passwords and/or cookies generated to identify a user. Once created, user accounts will not be removed. It may be possible for a username to be changed. LibertyLion® does not guarantee that a username will be changed on request.

Purpose of the collection of private information

The Foundation limits the collection of personally identifiable user data to purposes which serve the well-being of its project, including but not limited to the following:

• To enhance the public accountability of the project. The Foundation recognizes that any system that is open enough to allow the greatest possible participation of the general public will also be vulnerable to certain kinds of abuse and counterproductive behavior. The Foundation and the project communities have established a number of mechanisms to prevent or remedy abusive activities. For example, when investigating abuse on a project, including the suspected use of malicious “sockpuppets” (duplicate accounts), vandalism, harassment of other users, or disruptive behavior, the IP addresses of users (derived either from those logs or from records in the database) may be used to identify the source(s) of the abusive behavior. This information may be shared by users with administrative authority who are charged with protecting the project.
• To provide site statistics. LibertyLion® statistically samples raw log data from users' visits. These logs are used to produce the site statistics pages; the raw log data is not made public.
• To solve technical problems. Log data may be examined by developers in the course of solving technical problems and in tracking down badly-behaved web spiders that overwhelm the site.

Details of data retention – General Expectations

IP and other technical information

When a visitor requests or reads a page, or sends email to a LibertyLion® server, no more information is collected than is typically collected by web sites. LibertyLion® may keep raw logs of such transactions, but these will not be published or used to track legitimate users.

Cookies

This site uses a temporary session cookie on a visitor's computer whenever a LibertyLion® page is visited. Readers who do not intend to log in or edit may deny this cookie; it will be deleted at the end of the browser's session. More cookies may be set when one logs in to maintain logged-in status. Contributors using a public machine who do not wish to show their username to future users of the machine should clear these cookies after use.

Page history

Edits or other contributions to a LibertyLion® pages, blogs, forums, etc. are generally retained forever. Removing text from a project does not permanently delete it. Editors can look at a previous version of an article and see what was there and roll back the changes. Even if an article is "deleted", a user entrusted with higher level of access may still see what was removed from public view. Information can be permanently deleted by Managers, but aside from the rare circumstance when the site is required to delete editing-history material in response to a court order or equivalent legal process, there is no guarantee any permanent deletion will happen.

User contribution

User contributions are also aggregated and publicly available. User contributions are aggregated according to their registration and login status. Data on user contributions, such as the times at which users edited and the number of edits they have made, are publicly available via user contributions lists, and in aggregated forms published by other users.

Reading projects

No more information on users and other visitors reading pages is collected than is typically collected in server logs by web sites. Aside from the above raw log data collected for general purposes, page visits do not expose a visitor's identity publicly. LibertyLion® records user’s IP addresses but they are only visible to site administrators.

Editing projects

Edits of content pages are identified with the username of the editor, and editing history is aggregated by author in a contribution list. Such information will be available permanently.

• Logged in users do not expose their IP address to the. A user's IP address is stored on the wiki servers for a period of time, during which it can be seen by server.
• IP address information, and its connection to any usernames that share it, may be released under certain circumstances (see below).
• Editors using a company mail server from home or telecommuting over a DSL or cable Internet connection, are likely to be easy to identify by their IP address; in which case it may be easy to cross-identify all contributions to various Projects made by that IP. Using a username is a better way of preserving privacy in this situation.

Logged in registered users:

Discussions

• Users are required to list an email address when registering. This is required to receive notifications from the LibertyLion™ site (such as page updates, notifications, and account resets. Users can control their message settings and optionally make their email address (and name) visible to other site visitors by modifying their user preferences. By default, users’ email address and names are not visible to others.

Any editable page can theoretically be the location of a discussion. In general, discussions occur on comment pages and forums. Privacy expectations apply to discussion pages in the same way as they do elsewhere.

Via email:

Access to and release of personally identifiable information

Access:
Projects are primarily run by volunteer contributors. Some dedicated users are given privileged access. For example, Editors (who are volunteers) have access to page editing histories.

Other users who may have access to private identifiable information include, but are not limited to, Managers (who are volunteers) and LibertyLion® Administrators and employees as well as developers, IT personnel and others with high levels of server access.

Access to and publication of this information is governed by the ===Access to nonpublic data policy=== (cache), (NEED TO CHECK THIS POLICY ALSO) Sharing information with other privileged users is not considered "distribution."

Release: Policy on Release of Data
It is the policy of LibertyLion®that personally identifiable data collected in the server logs, or through records in the database via the CheckUser feature, or through other non-publicly-available methods, may be released by LibertyLion® volunteers or staff, in any of the following situations:

1. In response to a valid subpoena or other compulsory request from law enforcement,
2. With permission of the affected user,
3. When necessary for investigation of abuse complaints,
4. Where the information pertains to page views generated by a spider or bot and its dissemination is necessary to illustrate or resolve technical issues,
5. Where the user has been vandalizing articles or persistently behaving in a disruptive way, data may be released to a service provider, carrier, or other third-party entity to assist in the targeting of IP blocks, or to assist in the formulation of a complaint to relevant Internet Service Providers,
6. Where it is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of LibertyLion®, its users or the public.

Except as described above, LibertyLion® policy does not permit distribution of personally identifiable information under any circumstances. Third-party access and notifying registered users when receiving legal process:

As a general principle, the access to, and retention of, personally identifiable data in all projects should be minimal and should be used only internally to serve the well-being of the projects. Occasionally, however, LibertyLion® may receive a subpoena or other compulsory request from a law-enforcement agency or a court or equivalent government body that requests the disclosure of information about a registered user, and may be compelled by law to comply with the request. In the event of such a legally compulsory request, LibertyLion® will attempt to notify the affected user within three business days after the arrival of such subpoena by sending a notice by email to the email address that the affected user has listed in his or her user preferences.

LibertyLion® cannot advise a user receiving such a notification regarding the law or an appropriate response to a subpoena. Such users may have the legal right to resist or limit that information in court by filing a motion to quash the subpoena. Users who wish to oppose a subpoena or other compulsory request should seek legal advice concerning applicable rights and procedures that may be available.

If LibertyLion® receives a court-filed motion to quash or otherwise limit the subpoena as a result of action by a user or their lawyer, LibertyLion™ will not disclose the requested information until an an order has been received from the court to do so.

Third-party Applications and Widgets

The LibertyLion® website makes use of third-party applications and widgets. These applications (and their respective privacy policy) are listed here:

• AddThis: Social network sharing widget
  http://www.addthis.com/privacy
• Piwik: Website analytics
  http://piwik.org/privacy/

Disclaimer

LibertyLion® believes that maintaining and preserving the privacy of user data is an important value. This Privacy Policy, together with other policies, resolutions, and actions by LibertyLion®, represents a committed effort to safeguard the security of the limited user information that is collected and retained on our servers. Nevertheless, the Foundation cannot guarantee that user information will remain private. We acknowledge that, in spite of our committed effort to protect private user information, determined individuals may still develop data-mining and other methods to uncover such information and disclose it. For this reason, the Foundation can make no guarantee against unauthorized access to information provided in the course of participating in the LibertyLion® Project or communities.

Attribution

This “Privacy Policy” statement is a derivative work of the Wikipedia Privacy Policy (cache). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License (cache); additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.