Terms and Conditions of Use | Privacy Policy | Copyright Issues

Terms and Conditions of Use

The effective date of these Terms and Conditions of Use is April 1, 2008.

I. Acceptance of Terms

The Wisdom Commons website (the "Website"), is operated by the Common Wisdom Project (CWP) under the auspices of the Women's Bioethics Project of the Tides Center. It is located at www.WisdomCommons.org. WisdomCommons.org provides a collection of online information, resources, profiles and forums aimed at fostering awareness of and convergence on universal ethical principles (referred to hereinafter as the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to be bound by the following Terms and Conditions of Use, as well as any other guidelines, rules and additional terms referenced herein, and all such guidelines, rules and terms are hereby incorporated herein by this reference (collectively, "TOU"). These TOU set out the legally binding terms with respect to your use of and our provision the Service. Please read these TOU carefully. If you object to any term or condition of these TOU or any subsequent modifications thereto or become dissatisfied with the Service in any way, your only recourse is to immediately discontinue your use of the Service.

II. Modifications

CWP reserves the right, at our discretion, to change, modify or otherwise alter these TOU or the Service at any time without prior notice. Such modifications shall become effective immediately upon the posting of the new terms or upon implementation of the changes to the Service. You agree to review these TOU on a regular basis to keep yourself apprised of any changes. Your continued use of the Service after any modifications indicates your acceptance of these TOU and the Service, as modified. Unless expressly stated otherwise, any new features, new services, enhancements or modifications to the Service implemented after your initial access to the Service shall be subject to these TOU. You can find the most recent version of these TOU in our Terms and Conditions of Use section.

III. Suspension or Discontinuation of the Service

CWP reserves the right at any time to suspend or discontinue the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice to you. You agree that CWP shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any suspension or discontinuation of the Service.

IV. Member Registration Process and Obligations

If you wish to register and become a member of the Wisdom Commons community, you must read these TOU and indicate your acceptance at the end of this document before proceeding with the registration process. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) severely restricts what information can be collected from children under the age of thirteen (13). Accordingly, children under the age of 13 in the United States are prohibited from registering for an account with the Service, posting or editing any content on the Service or providing any of their personal information to CWP or to any user of the Service. Subject to the limitations set forth in the prior sentence and by local law, a child anywhere in the world (who is not prohibited from using the Service due to his or her age by the laws in his or her jurisdiction) may use the Service only with the permission and supervision of a parent or guardian. If you do not qualify, do not use the Service. Membership in the Wisdom Commons community is void where prohibited by applicable law, and the right to access the Service is revoked in such jurisdictions. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you have the right, authority and capacity to enter into these TOU and to abide by all of the terms and conditions set forth herein.

You must register as a Wisdom Commons member prior to creating or editing certain Content (as defined below) on the Service. You can set up an account ("Wisdom Commons Account") by designating a username and password and providing some additional required information, including your email address ("Registration Data"). You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for all activities that occur under your Wisdom Commons Account. Use of your Wisdom Commons Account is strictly limited to your own personal use. You agree to immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your Wisdom Commons Account or any other breach of security.

You also agree to (i) provide true, accurate, current and complete Registration Data and (ii) maintain and promptly update your Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. CWP reserves the right to refuse your registration of or cancel your Wisdom Commons Account in our sole discretion at any time for any reason.

V. Use of Service

You acknowledge that CWP may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Service, including without limitation the maximum number of days that personal messages, message board postings, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds or other uploaded materials ("Content") will be retained by the Service. You agree that CWP has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any messages or other Content on the Service. You acknowledge that CWP reserves the right to log off Wisdom Commons Accounts that are inactive for an extended period of time. You further acknowledge that CWP reserves the right to modify these general practices and limitations from time to time without your consent.

The Service is intended for use by people around the world. Recognizing the global nature of the Internet, you agree to comply with all local rules regarding online conduct and acceptable Content. Specifically, you agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside.

VI. Content

You understand that all Content posted on or made available on the Service, is the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. More specifically, you are entirely responsible for any and all Content that you post or otherwise make available on the Service. You understand that CWP does not control and is not responsible for certain Content made available through the Service, and that by using the Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, inaccurate, misleading or otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate and bear all risks associated with your use of any Content on the Service, that you may not rely on the accuracy of said Content and that under no circumstances will CWP be liable in any way for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of your use of any Content posted or otherwise made available via the Service. You acknowledge that CWP does not pre-screen or approve most Content created by users of the Service, but that CWP shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to refuse to post, modify, delete or move any Content on the Service, for violating the letter or spirit of these TOU or for any other reason. You understand that some Content on the Service may recently have been changed, vandalized or altered by someone whose opinion does not correspond with the state of knowledge in the particular area you are exploring.

VII. Third Party Content, Sites and Services

The Service may contain links to third party resources which are completely independent of CWP, including websites, directories, servers, networks, systems, information and databases, applications, software, programs, products or services. CWP makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such resource. Your use of any third party resource is at your own risk. CWP has no control over such resources, and you acknowledge and agree that CWP is not responsible for the availability of such resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any Content, goods or services on or available through such resources or for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such Content, goods or services on or available through such resources. Your interactions with organizations and/or individuals found on or through the Service, including payment and delivery of goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such organizations and/or individuals. You should make whatever investigation you feel necessary or appropriate before proceeding with any online or offline transaction with any of these third parties. You agree that CWP shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings.

VIII. User Disputes

If there is a dispute between users of the Service, or between a user and any third party, you understand and agree that CWP reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor or intervene in such a dispute. In the event that you have a dispute with one or more other users of the Service, you hereby release CWP, its licensors, employees, sponsors, affiliates, successors, assigns, directors, service providers and suppliers from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind or nature, known or unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related to such dispute. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code Section 1542 to the extent applicable, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which, if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."

IX. Copyright Infringement

CWP has adopted the following policy toward copyright infringement in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (posted at http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf). In short, it is CWP's policy to (i) block access to or remove material that has been reported through the process below to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our affiliates, Content providers, members or users and (ii) remove and discontinue service to repeat offenders. The address of CWP's Designated Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement ("Designated Agent") is provided at the end of this Section X.

A. Procedure for Reporting Copyright Infringements

If you believe that any Content residing on or accessible through the Service infringes a copyright, please send a notice of copyright infringement containing the following information to the Designated Agent listed below ("Proper Bona Fide Infringement Notification"):

A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright that has been allegedly infringed;
Identification of works or materials being infringed;
Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing including information regarding the location of the infringing materials that the copyright owner seeks to have removed, with sufficient detail so that CWP is capable of finding and verifying its existence;
Contact information about the notifier including address, telephone number and email address;
A statement that the notifier has a good faith belief that the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information provided is accurate and the notifying party is authorized to make the complaint on behalf of the copyright owner.

B. Upon Receipt of a Bona Fide Infringement Notification

Once Proper Bona Fide Infringement Notification is received by the Designated Agent, it is CWP's policy:

To remove or disable access to the infringing material;
To notify the Content provider, member or user that it has removed or disabled access to the material; and
That repeat offenders will have the infringing material removed from the system and that CWP will terminate such Content provider's, member's or user's access to the Service.

C. Procedure to Supply a Counter-Notice to the Designated Agent

If the Content provider, member or user believes that the material that was removed or to which access was disabled is either not infringing, or the Content provider, member or user believes that it has the right to post and use such material from the copyright owner, the copyright owner's agent, or pursuant to the law, the Content provider, member or user must send a counter-notice containing the following information to the Designated Agent listed below:

A physical or electronic signature of the Content provider, member or user;
Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access to has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled;
A statement that the Content provider, member or user has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the material; and
The Content provider's, member's or user's name, address, telephone number and, if available, email address and a statement that such person or entity consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal Court for the judicial district in which the Content provider's, member's or user's address is located, or if the Content provider's, member's or user's address is located outside the United States, for any judicial district in which CWP is located, and that such person or entity will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.

D. Removal

If a counter-notice is received by the Designated Agent, CWP may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that it may replace the removed material or cease disabling it in ten (10) business days. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the Content provider, member or user, the removed material may be replaced or access to it restored in ten (10) to fourteen (14) business days or more after receipt of the counter-notice, at CWP's discretion. Should the need arise, please contact CWP's Designated Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement via email at: admin@wisdomcommons.org

X.Privacy and Information Disclosure

CWP has established a Privacy Policy to explain to users how information is collected and used within the Service, which is located in our Privacy Policy. Your use of the Service signifies acknowledgement of and agreement to our Privacy Policy, as the same may be amended from time to time.

XI.Conduct

You agree not to post or otherwise make available on the Service any Content:

unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, promotes or encourages illegal activity or is harmful to minors in any way;
that is pornographic or depicts sexual conduct;
that harasses, degrades, intimidates or is hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability;
that violates federal, state or local equal employment opportunity laws, including but not limited to, stating in any posting for employment a preference or requirement based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability;
with respect to employers that employ four (4) or more employees, that violates the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, including requiring U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency (green card status) as a condition for employment, unless otherwise required in order to comply with law, regulation, executive order or federal, state or local government contract;
that impersonates any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a CWP employee, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or entity (this provision does not apply to Content that constitutes lawful parody);
that is false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful or constitutes a "bait and switch";
that infringes, misappropriates or violates any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, other intellectual property, publicity, proprietary or other rights of any person or entity, or Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships;
that constitutes or contains "affiliate marketing," "link referral code," "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or unsolicited commercial advertisement;
that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation if posted in areas of the Website which are not designated for such purposes or emailed to users of the Service who have not indicated in writing that it is ok to contact them about other services, products or commercial interests;
that advertises any illegal service or the sale of any items the sale of which is prohibited or restricted by any applicable law, including without limitation items the sale of which is prohibited or regulated by California law;
that contains software viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware or telecommunications equipment;
that, by virtue of its volume, imposes, or may impose in our sole discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our IT infrastructure which supports the Service, or that otherwise negatively affects other users' ability to use the Service or
that employs misleading email addresses, forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of Content transmitted through the Service.

Additionally, you agree not to:

contact anyone who has asked not to be contacted;
"stalk" or otherwise harass anyone;
collect personal data about other users for commercial or unlawful purposes;
use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools or the like to download, retrieve or index any data from the Service, unless expressly permitted by CWP;
attempt to gain unauthorized access to CWP's computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, interferes with the performance of or impairs the functionality of, the Service;
with exception to the Content made available on the Service, modify, adapt, translate or reverse engineer any portion of the Service;
remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained on the Website or within the Service;
reformat or frame any portion of the web pages that are part of the Website and/or Service;
create user accounts by automated means or under false or fraudulent pretenses;
create or transmit unwanted electronic communications to other users of the Service or otherwise interfere with other users' enjoyment of the Service;
submit any third party Content to the Service without such third party's prior written consent;
use the Service to violate the security of any computer network, crack passwords or security encryption codes, transfer or store illegal material including that are deemed threatening or obscene or
use the Website and/or Service, intentionally or unintentionally, to violate any applicable local, state, national or international law.

XII. CWP License

Subject to the limitations set forth herein, CWP grants you, on behalf of itself and its licensors, a limited license (the "CWP License") to copy, modify, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly display or in any way exploit any of the original Content made available by the Service, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. A copy of the most recent version of the license is presently available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. CWP's grant of the CWP License to you does not create or imply any contractual or extracontractual liability on the part of CWP or any of its licensors, employees, sponsors, members or other users. This license applies only to material that has been placed on the site by the author of that material, or to co-authored articles and essays created collectively by the member community, or to content created by CWP. We ask that members not post in violation of copyright laws, but the copyright status of any content that has been placed in the site by someone other than the author should be verified before reuse.

XIII. License to User Content

By posting original Content on the Service, you agree to and hereby do grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, CWP and the users of the Service an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully sublicensable, fully paid up, worldwide license to use, copy, publicly perform, digitally perform, publicly display and distribute such Content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such Content.

XIV. Violation of Local Law

Some of the Content available on the Service may violate the laws of the country or jurisdiction from where you are viewing this information. CWP does not encourage the violation of any laws, but as this information is stored on a server in the State of California in the United States of America, it is being maintained in reference to the protections afforded by the United States Constitution's First Amendment and under the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations ("UN Declaration"). The laws in your country may not recognize as broad a protection of free speech as the laws of the United States or the principles under the UN Declaration, and as CWP shall not be responsible for your violation of such a law should you use any of the Content made available on the Service.

XV. Term and Termination

These TOU will remain in full force and effect for so long as you use the Service, unless earlier terminated by CWP. You agree that CWP may terminate the Service, delete or deactivate your Wisdom Commons Account, block your IP address or otherwise terminate your access to or use of the Service at any time, in its sole discretion, and that CWP shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your access to the Service or your Wisdom Commons Account. Further, you agree not to attempt to use the Service after any such deletion, deactivation or termination.

XVI. Survival

Sections IX, X, XII, XIII, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI and XXII shall survive any termination of these TOU.

XVII. Ownership

Except for Content submitted by users of the Service, the Service and all aspects thereof, including all copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property or proprietary rights therein, are owned by CWP or its licensors. You acknowledge that any underlying technology or software used to provide the Service is proprietary to CWP, and you may not modify, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly display or in any way exploit the same. Except as expressly and unambiguously provided herein, CWP and its licensors do not grant you any express or implied rights, and all rights in the Service not expressly granted by CWP to you are retained by CWP.

XVIII. Disclaimer of Warranties

YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. CWP AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, STATUTORY OR IMPLIED AS TO THE OPERATION OF THE SERVICE OR THE CONTENT AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICE. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY APPLICABLE LAW, CWP AND ITS LICENSORS HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, STATUTORY OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS. WITHOUT LIMITING ANY OF THE FOREGOING, CWP AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT WARRANT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENT, INFORMATION, TEXT, GRAPHICS, LINKS OR OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE WITHIN THE SERVICE. CWP IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONDUCT OF ANY USER OF THE SERVICE. IN ADDITION, CWP DOES NOT WARRANT OR COVENANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ANY TIME OR FROM ANY PARTICULAR LOCATION, WILL BE SECURE OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED OR THAT THE SERVICE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER POTENTIALLY HARMFUL COMPONENTS. ANY MATERIAL OR CONTENT DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS ACCESSED 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. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY ANY USER FROM CWP OR THROUGH THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED HEREIN. IN SOME JURISDICTIONS LIMITATIONS OF WARRANTIES ARE NOT PERMITTED, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

XIX. Limitations of Liability

CWP shall not be liable for any failure to perform its obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond CWP's reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic or communications failure or degradation. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, CWP AND LICENSORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE UNDER ANY THEORY OF LAW, FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF INFORMATION OR DATA, OR LOSS OF PROFITS RESULTING FROM ANY ASPECT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, WHETHER THE DAMAGES ARISE FROM USE OR MISUSE OF THE SERVICE, FROM INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE OR THE INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, MODIFICATION, ALTERATION OR TERMINATION OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF CWP AND ITS LICENSORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SUCH LIMITATION SHALL ALSO APPLY WITH RESPECT TO DAMAGES INCURRED BY REASON OF OTHER SERVICES OR PRODUCTS RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICE OR ANY LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES FOUND WITHIN THE SERVICE, AS WELL AS BY REASON OF ANY INFORMATION OR ADVICE RECEIVED THROUGH THE SERVICE OR ANY LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES FOUND WITHIN THE SERVICE. THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

XX. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold CWP, its licensors, employees, sponsors, affiliates, successors, assigns, directors, officers, service providers and suppliers, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorney fees and costs, made by any third party due to or arising out of (i) the Content you submit, post or make available through the Service, (ii) your use of the Service, (iii) a violation of these TOU by you, (iv) your breach of any of the representations and warranties herein or (v) the infringement or violation by you of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

XXI. Trademark Information

The CWP name and logo, the Wisdom Commons name and logo, and other trademarks, service marks, logos and service names are trademarks of CWP (the "CWP Marks"). You agree not to display or use the CWP Marks in any manner without CWP's prior permission.

XXII. General Information

These TOU and all terms, guidelines and rules referenced herein constitute the entire agreement between you and CWP and govern your use of the Service, superseding any prior agreements between you and CWP. These TOU include the Wisdom Commons.org Privacy Policy and any notices regarding the Service or the Website. These TOU and the relationship between you and CWP shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and CWP agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of and venue in the state and federal courts located within the county of King, Washington. The failure of CWP to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these TOU shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of these TOU is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable or invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and that such provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that these TOU shall otherwise remain in full force and effect. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to your use of the Service or these TOU must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. The section titles in these TOU are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. No agency, partnership, joint venture or employment is created as a result of these TOU and you do not have any authority of any kind to bind CWP in any respect whatsoever. CWP may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to these TOU by email, regular mail or postings on the Service. You agree that, except as otherwise expressly provided in this TOU, there shall be no third-party beneficiaries to these TOU.

XXIII. Violations

Please report any violations of these TOU to admin@wisdomcommons.org.

XXIV. Acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Use

I AGREE THAT I AM AT LEAST THIRTEEN (13) YEARS OLD (IF I RESIDE IN THE UNITED STATES) OR THAT I AM NOT PROHIBITED FROM REGISTERING FOR AN ACCOUNT WITH OR USING THE SERVICE UNDER THE LAWS OF MY JURISDICTION (IF I RESIDE OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES), AND THAT I HAVE READ THESE TERMS & CONDITIONS OF USE AND AGREE TO ALL OF THE PROVISIONS CONTAINED ABOVE.

Privacy Policy

By using the Wisdom Commons, you permit the collection and use of your personal information as outlined below in our Privacy Policy. You should visit this page periodically to review any changes to the Privacy Policy.

I. Information We Collect

Our website collects certain personal information from you when you register for a Wisdom Commons account, including a username and your email address, as well as demographic information such as the country you reside in. You can also choose to add additional personal information in your user profile. Our website also collects information about your use of Wisdom Commons that you do not explicitly submit. For example, we log your browser-type related information, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp.

II. Use of Your Information

In order to create or edit certain content, you must register with Wisdom Commons and login to your account. Personal information such as your username may be visible to users in conjunction with messages or other postings that you contribute to Wisdom Commons. By clicking on your username, users may also view any personally identifiable information you have included in your profile, including an optional photo.

You are required to provide an email address when you register with Wisdom Commons. This email address will not be visible to users who view your profile. If you have opted in to receive communications from us, we may send emails to this address or send personal messages to your Wisdom Commons account in order to provide you with notifications related to your use of Wisdom Commons or updates or news regarding Wisdom Commons.

Every time you visit a web page, you send a lot of information to the web server. Most web servers routinely maintain access logs with a portion of this information, including browser-type related information, IP address, requested URL, referring URL and timestamp data, which can be used to get an overall picture of what pages are popular, what other websites link to Wisdom Commons, and what web browsers people are using. We use this information to diagnose and resolve technical problems, administer Wisdom Commons and otherwise provide the highest possible level of service to you. In addition, we use this information to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the Website. In very rare instances, we may use this information to correlate usernames and IP addresses of edits in investigating abuse of Wisdom Commons.

Regardless of whether you are registered with Wisdom Commons or logged into your account, anytime you visit Wisdom Commons you can be identified by your IP address. This is a series of numbers which identifies the Internet address from which you are contacting Wisdom Commons. Depending on your connection, this number may be traceable only to a large Internet service provider, or more specifically to your school, place of business or home.

III. Transfer of Information

Except where otherwise specified, all user authored text and certain other content found on Wisdom Commons is available for reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-commerical ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see the Wisdom Commons Terms and Conditions of Use for more information about such rights.

The Wisdom Commons will not make personal information, such as your email address, available to third parties, unless you agree to release this information or unless one of the situations described in this paragraph occurs. We may preserve or disclose the content you post on Wisdom Commons, as well as other information about you and your use of Wisdom Commons, such as your email address, IP address and timestamp data, if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a subpoena, a court order or another legal process. Further, we may preserve or disclose such information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities or suspected fraud; to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Wisdom Commons, its users or the general public or to enforce or apply the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and/or the Wisdom Commons.org Terms and Conditions of Use (which can be found in our Terms and Conditions of Use section), as the same may be amended from time to time.

IV. Links to Other Websites

Wisdom Commons contains links to third party websites to which the Wisdom Commons has no affiliation. The Wisdom Commons does not share your personal information with those websites and is not responsible for their privacy practices. Should you decide to visit one of these third party websites, we suggest that you read its privacy policy.

V. Use of Cookies

Like most websites, Wisdom Commons requires cookies to function properly. Cookies are small text files that reside on a user's computer and identify you as a unique user. We use cookies to refine our site and simplify the user experience. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature; however, you should note that cookies may be necessary to provide you with certain features (e.g., customized delivery of information) available on Wisdom Commons.

VI. Controlling Your Personal Information

You should be aware that when you voluntarily disclose personally identifiable information (e.g., your real name or email address) through messages, forums, postings, or in other areas of Wisdom Commons, that information, along with any substantive information disclosed in your communication, can be collected and used by third parties and may result in your receipt of unsolicited messages from other posters or third parties. Such activities are beyond our control. We strongly encourage you not to use your real name as your username on Wisdom Commons. Please do not post any personal information on Wisdom Commons that you expect to keep private.

As a registered Wisdom Commons user, you can modify some of the personal information you have included in your profile by logging in and accessing your account. You cannot, however, change your username once you have registered. Upon your request, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete your Wisdom Commons account and the personal information in your profile; however, it may be impossible to remove your account without some residual information being retained. Your contributions to the wisdom collection and your comments in discussion forums will remain. Registered users who wish to close their account should contact admin@wisdomcommons.org.

VII. Security

The Wisdom Commons tries very hard to protect our users' information. Wisdom Commons user accounts are password-protected. We limit access to your personal information to employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our services. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations. Your password is encrypted and is not available to any of our employees.

If you have any questions about the security of Wisdom Commons, please contact us at admin@wisdomcommons.org. Although we aim to take sufficient measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

VIII. Editing of Content

Registered users are able to add, modify and delete certain text and other content found on Wisdom Commons. Some areas of Wisdom Commons contain editing history functionality which records and stores every change made to a webpage. All such changes are viewable by both registered and unregistered users, regardless of whether the changes there are additions, modifications or deletions of content. Thus, content that has been added to a webpage within Wisdom Commons may permanently be accessible for viewing by our users who look at the editing history of that webpage, even if such content had been deleted after being posted on Wisdom Commons. Content that has been deleted can also be reinstated on a Wisdom Commons webpage if a registered user or Wisdom Commons representative chooses to revert to such content in the editing history. Please keep all of this in mind when posting and editing information on Wisdom Commons.

IX. Messaging

Wisdom Commons offers personal messaging functionality, enabling its registered users to quickly communicate with each other while on Wisdom Commons. At this time, registered users cannot opt-out of personal messages initiated by other Wisdom Commons users. Accordingly, if you are concerned about receiving possible unsolicited personal messages from Wisdom Commons or other users, we recommend that you do not register with Wisdom Commons.

X. Mailing Lists

Wisdom Commons may create mailing lists to which users can subscribe. If you subscribe to one of these lists we will use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that your email address is not exposed to other subscribers.

XI. Use by Children

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) severely restricts what information can be collected from children under the age of 13. Accordingly, children under the age of 13 in the United States are prohibited from registering for a Wisdom Commons account, posting or editing any content on Wisdom Commons or providing any of their personal information to us, but are otherwise permitted to access and view the information provided on Wisdom Commons with the permission and supervision of a parent or guardian. We do not knowingly solicit information from any child under the age of 13. Should a child whom we know to be under 13 in the United States send personal information to us, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child (or a parent or guardian) to inform him or her that he or she cannot use the Service.

XII.Enforcement

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our treatment of personal information or this Privacy Policy if you want to exercise any of the rights that you are granted under this Privacy Policy, you can contact: admin@wisdomcommons.org

When we receive formal written complaints, it is our policy to contact the complaining user regarding his or her concerns. We will cooperate with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that cannot be resolved between Wisdom Commons and an individual.

XIII. Terms and Modifications to this Privacy Policy

By using Wisdom Commons, you signify your agreement to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with these terms, you should not use Wisdom Commons. The Wisdom Commons may modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If a material change is made to this Privacy Policy and/or the way we use our users' personally identifiable information, then we will post a prominent notice of the nature of such change at the top of this Privacy Policy and also on our home page. You are responsible for reviewing this Privacy Policy periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes to it. Your continued use of the site indicates your assent to any changes to this Privacy Policy.

Copyright Issues

Copyright Holders:

The Wisdom Commons is an interactive website and any registered member has the ability to post contributions to the site. When members post content they have authored, they agree to place it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license (See Terms and Conditions of Use). Our copyright on the site covers only the art and design of the site itself, not the content of articles we have authored and placed here. However, one function of the Commons is to reflect our universal wisdom heritage, and many postings borrow from other sources, either ancient or contemporary. If you are here, one of our members values your work as part of that heritage.

We want to be respectful of copyright issues. If you have noticed a copyright violation, two options are possible:

You might consider leaving the material or a shorter excerpt available to all. We are happy to provide attribution, source information, and a link that allows users to access more of your material at another site. To add attribution and other details, or to truncate the material here and provide a link to the full text, please send an email to admin@wisdomcommons.org. If you provide a description of the content in question along with any corrections or attribution information, we are happy to make these changes.
If you want to request the removal of copyrighted material, please let us know through the procedure outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and described below.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, signed into law on October 28, 1998, amended the United States Copyright Act, Title 17 of the U.S. Code, to provide in part certain limitations on the liability of online service providers (OSPs) for copyright infringement. Subsection 512(c) of the Copyright Act provides limitations on service provider liability for storage, at the direction of a user, of copyrighted material residing on a system or network controlled or operated by or for the service provider, if, among other things, the service provider has designated an agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement by providing contact information to the Copyright Office and by posting such information on the service provider's publicly accessible website. http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/)

To request removal of copyrighted material, please provide the following to admin@wisdomcommons.org:

A description of the copyrighted work that is the subject of the claimed infringement;
A description of the infringing material and information sufficient to permit Wisdom Commons to locate the material;
If available, another website where the material can be read via link.
Contact information for you, including your address, telephone number and/or email address;
A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law;
A statement by you, signed under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you have the authority to enforce the copyrights that are claimed to be infringed; and
A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on its behalf sent as an attachment or copied into the body of your email.