OpenGeofiction:Terms of Use

Introduction

Thank you for your interest in OpenGeofiction. These terms cover your use of services officially operated and provided by the hobbyists of the OpenGeofiction community (OGF). In particular these are:

• the opengeofiction.net website and associated services and APIs,
• the OpenGeofiction map data distribution,
• the OpenGeofiction wiki and wiki-based forums.

(together, the “Services”).

By using these Services, you agree to be bound by the following Terms of Service, as updated from time to time (collectively, the "Terms"'). Please read them carefully. If you don’t agree to these Terms, you may not use the Services.

Please be aware of the following:

• OGF as host: OpenGeofiction is a collaborative project. A volunteer group operates the infrastructure and websites (many of which are collaborative Open Source projects), but the map data, wiki, mailing lists, and forums are contributed by users. While one of the goals of the OpenGeofiction project is a place for hobbyists to map collaboratively, OGF does not and cannot proactively review all edits or other contributions.
• You are responsible for your own actions: You are legally responsible for your edits and contributions, 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. Although we may not agree with such actions, we warn editors and contributors that authorities may seek to apply other countries’ laws to you, including local laws where you live or where you view or edit content. OGF generally cannot offer any protection, guarantee, immunity or indemnification.
• The nature of the OGF community: OpenGeofiction is a community of hobbyists and volunteers, who operate and/or the Services on goodwill and as a free association of individuals. The administrative team is comprised of individuals from this community's user base. The only benefits provided to any member of the OGF community are the intangible benefits of a venue for creative expression and interpersonal engagement.
• All English versions of the Terms and other official documentation is considered authoritative and binding, and translations—while helpful—are considered unofficial.

OpenGeofiction (OGF) data available through these Services is licensed under the Open Database License as interpreted by the OGF administrative team and in alignment with the OpenStreetMap Foundation Guidelines. Contributions to OGF are governed by the OGF Contributor Terms.

Though we hope OGF will continue for the foreseeable future, we reserve the right to suspend or end the Services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice.

Privacy Policy

Please carefully review the terms of privacy, so that you are aware of how we collect and use your information. Certain aspects of the Services require you to have an OGF account and to be logged into that account while you access those aspects. You are required to log into your account to edit the map and edit the wiki. You are not required to log into an account to view or browse the site.

Personal information that we collect for editing privileges on the site is limited to an email address, OGF user name, and IP address associated with the user account. These pieces of information are stored in servers hosted in the United States of America. If you are a resident of another country, you consent to any such transfer of information outside your country by using our Services. Information provided is never sold, distributed to third parties, or otherwise released except to abide by US law and other applicable treaties, such as the GDPR for EU, EEA, or EFTA residents. Additionally, you may request to close an account and permanently delete all associated data at any given time.

You agree to keep the contact information associated with your OGF account current and complete. Your contact information will be used in accordance with the privacy terms set above.

To fulfill the goal of distributing data that is truly open, untethered by rights of third parties and of high quality, we do not support anonymous contributions. Common legitimate interests for which the limited amount of OGF user data is gathered involve:

• identifying all the contributions made by an account,
• contacting the contributor in the case of questions in respect to the nature and source of the contributions,
• detection, removal and correction of spam or sock-puppetry accounts, vandalism and violations of the rights of third parties,
• facilitating communication between OGF contributors,

Use by minors

You must be 13 years or older to use the Services. If you are at least 13 but under 16 years of age, a parent or other adult authorized by your parent may create an account for you to use. The account must not contain any personal data about you, and you must not add any personal data about yourself. For example, your parent may create an account using your parent’s email address and a username that is not associated with you, which your parent may permit you to use to contribute map and wiki edits. For your protection, you are discouraged from using the social aspects of the Services (diary posts, setting a ‘home’ location in your profile), but you may contribute edits to the map and the wiki. You are advised to not reveal any personal data in any communications you have regarding your map edits.

By registering as a user or providing personal information on the Services, you represent that you are at least 16 years old.

Unlawful and other unauthorized uses

You are solely responsible for your compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and third party agreements in your use of the Services. You represent you are not, and are not controlled by, an individual, organization or entity organized or located in a country or territory that is the target of sanctions imposed, or on any restricted or sanctioned party list maintained by the United States of America.

You may not use the Services in any manner that could damage or overburden the Services or interfere with any other party's use of the Services. You agree to abide by OGF's rules and other policies posted on the OGF website in conjunction with the Services, including accompanying documentation. Those policies are incorporated by reference into these Terms.

You may not use the Services to:

• Disseminate or store material that infringes the copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other intellectual property right of any person;
• Impersonate any person, create a false identity (a pseudonym does not count as a false identity) or otherwise attempt to mislead others as to the identity or origin of any communication, or engage in fraud;
• Interfere with or attempt to gain unauthorized access to any computer network;
• Host with, transmit to or provide to us any information that is subject to specific European Union or United Kingdom government regulation, including, without limitation, personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, or genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health, data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation (other than personal data about yourself that you contribute to your user pages or diary posts, which is completely voluntary on your part and you can delete at any time), or data relating to criminal convictions and offenses or related security measures, and information subject to export control or economic sanction laws;
• Transmit viruses, trojan horses, or any other malicious code or program;
• Engage in any form of unsolicited advertising;
• Recreate or proxy any part of the Services in order to evade these Terms (including aiding anyone else in doing so);
• Store data available through the Services in order to evade these Terms (including aiding anyone else in doing so); or
• Engage in any other activity reasonably deemed by the OGF administrative team to be in conflict with the spirit or intent of these Terms.

Additional limitations on use of personal data: Through your OGF account, you may have access to some personal data from other OGF contributors. You may not use, store, or process any personal data available through the Services for any purpose other than:

• If you are a natural person, in the course of a purely personal or household activity
• As necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which you are subject, such as those authorized by the General Data Privacy Regulation.

For the avoidance of doubt, you may not use personal data available through the Services to:

• Attempt to re-identify any natural person
• Attempt to stalk or harass any natural person
• Gather or collect email addresses, real names, home addresses or phone numbers without express consent
• Seek personal data from any minor without the express consent of their parent or legal guardian

You are also prohibited from using personal data offered on unofficial, off-site venues such as Facebook groups or Discord servers to re-identify, stalk, harass, or otherwise harm any natural person. Such violations will result in the termination of the account and submitted to the relevant legal authorities where required by law.

Use by an entity

If you are entering into this agreement on behalf of your company or another legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity to these Terms, in which case "you" will mean the entity you represent.

Third-party account access and notification

You may not permit other individuals or other third parties to use the Services in any way that would be a violation of these Terms if done by you, and you agree to take reasonable efforts to prevent such use. You agree to promptly notify the OGF administrative team in writing if you become aware of any misappropriation or unauthorized use of the Services associated with your account.

Account cancellation or suspension

You are free to stop using the Services any time.

In addition, we may cancel or suspend your account for violation of any policy as determined by the OGF administrative team. Upon cancellation or suspension, your right to use the Services will stop immediately. Attempting to evade a cancellation or suspension (such as by creating a new account or using an alternate account) is a violation of these Terms.

You may not have access to data that you stored on the Services after we cancel or suspend your account. You are responsible for backing up data that you use with the Services.

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. In such circumstances, however, you may not be able to access your account or settings.

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 the preceding sections.

Additional terms

You agree that we may freely exploit and make available any and all feedback, suggestions, ideas, enhancement requests, recommendations or other information you provide relating to the Services.

If any provision of these Terms is held to be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. Headings are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.

You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and OGF as a result of these Terms or your use of the Services. You further acknowledge no confidential, fiduciary, contractually implied, or other relationship is created between you and OGF other than pursuant to these Terms. Goodwill donations made to help fund the overhead costs of running the Services do not constitute ownership, partnership, or other financial relationships.

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 through the administrative team.

Disclaimers

Your use of the Services is at your sole risk. We provide the 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, 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.

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.

We may add, change, replace, remove, or discontinue the features and functions of the Services, including APIs. It is your responsibility to ensure that calls or requests you make to the Services are compatible with then-current APIs and authentication methods, and that you handle responses properly.

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.

Limitation on liability

OGF is a community of hobbyists, and the community and its users 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 goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses, regardless of whether the OGF community were advised of the possibility of such damage.

Changes to Services or Terms

We may modify these Terms and other terms related to your use of the Services from time to time, by posting the changed terms on the OGF website. All changes will be effective immediately upon posting to the OGF website unless they specify a later date. Changes will not apply retroactively. Please check these Terms periodically for changes; your continued use of the Services after new Terms become effective constitutes your binding acceptance of the new Terms.

The text of these terms is adapted from the Wikimedia Foundation Terms of Use and the OpenStreetMap Foundation Terms of Use and available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.