Policy:Terms of Use

WickedGov is a community-edited wiki that provides civic information about Massachusetts. Before participating or using WickedGov, you must agree to these terms of use.

Definitions

We aim to keep this page in plain English so that anyone may understand it. There are a few definitions that you should know to better understand this page.

you

You as a user of WickedGov, whether you are a reader or an editor and whether you are an individual, organization, or something else.

we/us

The office that hosts WickedGov.

WickedGov

This site, including all its features and parts.

third party/third parties

Anyone except you and us.

About WickedGov

• We do not have editorial control over content. Content decisions are generally made by the community, not by the wiki office. However, we may make decisions in exceptional circumstances if we have compelling legal reasons to do so.
• WickedGov is provided without any warranty. Please see the General Disclaimer for more information.
• We may collect, use and share certain information about you when you use WickedGov. Please see the Privacy Policy for more information. By using WickedGov, you agree to the Privacy Policy.

Your contributions

• You take full legal responsibility for your actions on WickedGov, including both reading and writing.
• By publishing text contributions to which you hold the copyright, you agree to license the contribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license ("CC BY-SA").
• By uploading media to which you hold the copyright, you agree to license the contribution under whatever license you select on the file description page. If you do not provide a license, CC BY-SA applies.
• Furthermore, by contributing to WickedGov, you agree that attribution through any of the following methods is sufficient under CC BY-SA:
  • Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the article to which you contributed (since each article has a history page that lists all contributors, authors and editors).
  • Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy that is freely accessible, which conforms with the relevant license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on the Project Website.
  • Through a list of all authors (but please note that any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions).
• The CC BY-SA license is perpetual and irrevocable, except according to the license terms.
• When contributing text or media to which you do not hold the copyright, you must follow the Copyright Policy.

Prohibited conduct

You must refrain from certain activities while using WickedGov. These include, but are not limited to:

Abuse

• Engaging in threats, stalking, spamming, vandalism, or harassment.
• 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.
• 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 WickedGov that are abusive or disruptive of the services, violate acceptable usage policies where available, or have not been approved by the community.
• Knowingly accessing, tampering with, or using any of our non-public areas in our computer systems without authorization.
• Engaging in fraud or deception.

Privacy

• 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 this policy.
• 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.

Legal

• Intentionally or knowingly posting content that constitutes libel or defamation under the laws of the United States of America.
• Infringing copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights under the applicable law, or violating the Copyright Policy.
• Posting child sexual abuse material 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.
• Using the services in any manner that is inconsistent with applicable law.

Termination of access

We reserve the right to terminate your access to edit and/or view WickedGov (or parts thereof) at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice.

Changes to this policy

Changes to this policy are governed by the Amendment Policy.