Policy:Terms of Use/de-formal
This policy is approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. It may not be circumvented, eroded, or ignored by Wikimedia Foundation officers or staff nor local policies of any Wikimedia project. |
Nutzungsbedingungen der Wikimedia Foundation Dies ist eine Zusammenfassung der Nutzungsbedingungen. Scrollen Sie nach unten oder klicken Sie hier, um die vollständigen Bedingungen zu lesen. ![]() Dies ist eine verständliche Zusammenfassung unserer Nutzungsbedingungen. Hinweis: Diese Zusammenfassung ist nicht Bestandteil der Nutzungsbedingungen und stellt kein Rechtsdokument dar. Vielmehr handelt es sich um eine praktische Handreichung zum Verständnis der vollständigen Nutzungsbedingungen. Man kann sich diese Zusammenfassung daher als nutzerfreundlichen Zugang zur juristischen Sprache der Nutzungsbedingungen vorstellen. Zu unseren Zielen gehört es:
Sie dürfen:
Unter den folgenden Bedingungen:
Wobei Ihnen Folgendes bewusst ist:
Wenn Sie Hilfe brauchen oder eine Verletzung dieser Nutzungsbedingungen melden möchten, können Sie:
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Unsere Nutzungsbedingungen
Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder einzelne Mensch freien Anteil an der Gesamtheit des Wissens hat. Das ist unser Ziel. – [[foundationsite:Template:Foundationsite languageabout/vision|Unsere Vision]]
Willkommen bei Wikimedia! Die Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. („wir“, „uns“ oder „Foundation“) ist eine nichtkommerzielle wohltätige Organisation mit Hauptsitz in San Francisco, Kalifornien, Vereinigte Staaten, [[foundationsite:Template:Foundationsite languageabout/mission|deren Leitbild]] es ist, Menschen auf der ganzen Welt die Möglichkeit zu geben und sie dazu zu motivieren, Inhalte zusammenzustellen und zu entwickeln, die unter einer freien Lizenz stehen oder gemeinfrei sind, und diese kostenlos, effektiv und weltweit zu verbreiten.
Um unsere lebendige Gemeinschaft zu unterstützen, stellen wir die grundlegende Infrastruktur und den organisatorischen Rahmen für die Entwicklung der mehrsprachigen Wiki-Projekte und ihrer Versionen (wie auf unserer [[foundationsite:Template:Foundationsite languageour-work/wikimedia-projects|Seite zu Wikimedia-Projekten]] näher beschrieben; hier als „Projekte“ bezeichnet) sowie für andere Vorhaben, die diesem Ziel dienlich sind, zur Verfügung. Unser Ziel ist es, die Informationen und Bildungsinhalte, die in unseren Projekten verfügbar sind, im Internet dauerhaft unentgeltlich bereitzustellen.
Wir heißen Sie („Sie“ oder der „Benutzer“) als Leser, Bearbeiter, Autor oder Mitarbeiter der Wikimedia-Projekte willkommen und ermutigen Sie, sich der Wikimedia-Gemeinschaft anzuschließen. Zuvor möchten wir Sie allerdings bitten, die folgenden Nutzungsbedingungen („Nutzungsbedingungen“) zu lesen und ihnen zuzustimmen.
Übersicht
Diese Nutzungsbedingungen informieren Sie über die öffentlichen Leistungen der Wikimedia Foundation, unsere Beziehung zu Ihnen als Nutzer und über die Rechte und Pflichten, an denen wir uns gemeinsam orientieren. Wir stellen eine enorme Menge an Bildungs- und Informationsinhalten bereit, die alle von Benutzern wie Ihnen beigetragen worden sind. Wir selbst beteiligen uns grundsätzlich nicht an der Erstellung, Überwachung oder Löschung von Inhalten (mit der seltenen Ausnahme von Richtlinien wie diesen Nutzungsbedingungen oder von Änderungen, die erforderlich sind, um die Einhaltung gesetzlicher Bestimmungen zu gewährleisten oder bei dringenden Androhungen ernsthafter Schäden). Dies bedeutet, dass die inhaltliche Kontrolle in Ihren Händen und denen der anderen Benutzer liegt, die Inhalte schaffen und verwalten.
Die Gemeinschaft – das Netzwerk von Benutzern, die die Projekte und/oder Websites (hier als „Projekt-Websites“ bezeichnet) benutzen und kontinuierlich an deren Aufbau arbeiten – ist das wichtigste Instrument, über das unsere Ziele erreicht werden. Die Gemeinschaft leistet Beiträge zu unseren Websites und unterstützt uns dabei, unsere Projekte und Projekt-Websites zu verwalten. Sie nimmt auch die wichtige Aufgabe wahr, Regeln für die jeweiligen Projektversionen (zum Beispiel die verschiedenen Sprachversionen des Wikipedia-Projekts oder das mehrsprachige Wikimedia Commons) zu schaffen und durchzusetzen.
Wir laden Sie, den Benutzer, ein, sich als Beitragender, Bearbeiter oder Autor einzubringen. Dabei sollten Sie allerdings die Regeln beachten, die für jede der unabhängigen Projektversionen gelten, darunter der universelle Verhaltenskodex (UCoC), der für alle Projektversionen gilt. Unser größtes Projekt ist Wikipedia, aber wir unterhalten auch andere Projekte mit jeweils eigenen Zielsetzungen und Arbeitsweisen. In jeder dieser Projektversionen arbeitet eine Gruppe von Beitragenden, Bearbeitern und Autoren zusammen, um die Inhalte der jeweiligen Projektversion zu erstellen und zu verwalten. Wir laden Sie ein, sich diesen Gruppen anzuschließen und mit ihnen an der Verbesserung der Projekte zu arbeiten. Da wir uns dem Ziel verschrieben haben, Inhalte für die Öffentlichkeit frei verfügbar zu machen, werden Inhalte, die Sie beitragen, unter einer freien Lizenz stehen oder gemeinfrei sein.
Bitte beachten Sie, dass Sie für Ihre sämtlichen Beiträge, Bearbeitungen und Weiternutzungshandlungen nach dem Recht der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika sowie anderen anwendbaren Rechtsordnungen (darunter gegebenenfalls derjenigen des Landes, in dem Sie leben oder im dem sich der Gegenstand Ihrer Beiträge befindet) verantwortlich sind. Es ist aus diesem Grund wichtig, dass Sie beim Einstellen, Verändern oder Weiternutzen von Inhalten vorsichtig vorgehen. In Anbetracht dieser Verantwortung gibt es einige Regeln dazu, was Sie nicht tun dürfen; die meisten davon dienen entweder Ihrem eigenen Schutz oder dem Schutz anderer Benutzer. Bitte denken Sie daran, dass die Inhalte, die wir bereitstellen, lediglich der allgemeinen Information dienen; falls Sie in bestimmten Fragen den Rat von Experten benötigen (etwa in medizinischen, rechtlichen oder finanziellen Angelegenheiten), sollten Sie daher die Hilfe geeigneter Fachleute in Anspruch nehmen. Da diese Nutzungsbedingungen darüber hinaus noch weitere wichtige Hinweise und Haftungsausschlüsse beinhalten, bitten wir Sie darum, sie vollständig zu lesen.
Zur Klarstellung sei darauf hingewiesen, dass andere Organisationen wie lokale Wikimedia-Chapter und Vereine, die mitunter dieselben Ziele verfolgen, dennoch rechtlich unabhängig und verschieden von der Wikimedia Foundation sind. Sofern nicht anders von der Foundation als autorisierter Partei auf einer entsprechenden Projekt-Website angegeben, tragen diese anderen Organisationen keine Verantwortung für die Abläufe oder Inhalte der Projekt-Website.
1. Unsere Leistungen
Die Wikimedia Foundation verschreibt sich dem Ziel, den Ausbau, die Entwicklung sowie die Verbreitung freier Inhalte in vielerlei Sprachen zu fördern und den vollständigen Inhalt dieser Wiki-basierten Projekte der Öffentlichkeit kostenfrei zur Verfügung zu stellen. Unsere Rolle besteht dabei darin, einige der größten gemeinschaftlich geschaffenen Nachschlagewerke der Welt bereitzustellen; die einzelnen Projekte finden sich hier. Allerdings fungieren wir nur als Bereitstellungsdienstleister und unterhalten die Infrastruktur und den organisatorischen Rahmen. Diese Infrastruktur und der Rahmen ermöglichen unseren Nutzern, die Projekte aufzubauen, indem sie selbst neue Inhalte beitragen und bestehende bearbeiten. Sie ermöglichen unseren Benutzern auch die Weiterverwendung dieser Inhalte. Die von uns unterhaltene Infrastruktur umfasst eine spezielle technologische Infrastruktur, die es Benutzern ermöglicht, programmgesteuert mit Inhalten in Projekten (über die „Programmierschnittstelle“ oder „API“) zu interagieren und diese weiterzuverwenden, sowie mobile Anwendungen.
Wie im weiteren Verlauf der Nutzungsbedingungen verwendet, bestehen unsere Dienste aus: den Projekt-Websites, die wir betreiben, der technischen Infrastruktur, die wir warten, und allen technischen Räumen, die wir für die Wartung und Verbesserung unserer Projekte bereitstellen.
Aufgrund unserer besonderen Rolle gibt es einige Dinge, die Sie wissen sollten, wenn es um unsere Beziehung zu Ihnen, den Projekten und anderen Benutzern geht:
- Wir nehmen keine redaktionelle Rolle wahr: Weil die Projekte gemeinschaftlich bearbeitet werden, wird die überwiegende Mehrheit der bereitgehaltenen Inhalte von Benutzern eingebracht; uns kommt dabei keine redaktionelle Rolle zu. Das bedeutet, dass wir Projektinhalte grundsätzlich nicht überwachen oder bearbeiten und keinerlei Verantwortung für diese übernehmen. Entsprechend machen wir uns auch keine über unsere Dienste geäußerten Meinungen zu eigen, sofern wir nicht etwas anderes angegeben haben. Weder garantieren noch versprechen wir bezüglich irgendwelcher von Benutzern eingebrachter Inhalte in den Projekten, dass diese wahrheitsgemäß, richtig oder verlässlich wären.
- Sie sind für Ihre Handlungen selbst verantwortlich: Sie sind rechtlich für Ihre Bearbeitungen und Beiträge in den Projekten, Ihre Weiterverwendung von Inhalten in den Projekten, Ihre Nutzung der APIs und Ihre Nutzung unserer Dienste im Allgemeinen verantwortlich. Zu Ihrem eigenen Schutz ist es ratsam, Vorsicht walten zu lassen und Aktionen zu vermeiden, die in einer der anwendbaren Rechtsordnungen straf- oder zivilrechtliche Folgen nach sich ziehen können. Zu den anwendbaren Rechtsordnungen zählt mindestens das Recht der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und das Recht des Staates Kalifornien. Für andere Länder wird dies im Einzelfall festgelegt. Wenn wir auch mit entsprechenden Maßnahmen mitunter nicht einverstanden sein mögen, warnen wir Benutzer – insbesondere Autoren und Beitragende – dass Behörden aus anderen Ländern als den USA möglicherweise versuchen werden, Rechtsnormen anderer Staaten auf deine Handlungen anzuwenden, zum Beispiel die Gesetze, die an Ihrem Wohnort oder dem Ort, an dem Sie Inhalte betrachten oder bearbeiten, gelten. Wir können grundsätzlich weder Schutz noch Garantien, Immunität oder Entschädigungsleistungen gegen die Anwendung solcher Rechtsordnungen gewähren.
2. Datenschutzrichtlinie
Bitte lesen Sie unsere Datenschutzrichtlinie, damit Sie wissen, wie wir Ihre Daten erheben und nutzen.
3. Bereitgestellte Inhalte
- Es kann sein, dass Sie bestimmte Materialien als anstößig oder fehlerhaft empfinden: Da wir eine große Bandbreite von Inhalten bereitstellen, die durch andere Benutzer erstellt oder zusammengestellt werden, kann es vorkommen, dass Sie auf Material stoßen, das Sie als verletzend, fehlerhaft, irreführend, falsch beschrieben oder in anderer Weise als anstößig empfinden. Aus diesem Grund bitten wir Sie, bei der Inanspruchnahme unserer Dienste von Ihrem Menschenverstand und Ihrem Urteilsvermögen Gebrauch zu machen.
- The Projects' content is for general informational purposes only: Although our Projects host a great deal of information that pertains to professional topics, including medical, legal, or financial issues, this content is presented for general informational purposes only. 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 one of the Project Websites.
4. Refraining from Certain Activities
The Projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation only exist because of the vibrant community of users like you who collaborate to write, edit, and curate the content. We happily welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be civil and polite in your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and to make edits and contributions aimed at furthering the mission of the shared Project. We ask that all users review and follow the Universal Code of Conduct ("UCoC"), which lays out requirements for collegial, civil collaboration across all Projects that we host.
Certain activities, whether legal or illegal under the applicable law, may be harmful to other users and violate our rules, and some activities may also subject you to liability. Therefore, for your own protection and for that of other users, you may not engage in such activities on, or otherwise using, our Projects. These activities include:
- Harassing and Abusing Others
- Engaging in threats, stalking, spamming, vandalism, or harassment as described in the UCoC;
- Transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users;
- Posting or modifying content with the intention to seriously harm others, such as deliberate inducements to self-harm, or deliberate triggering of epilepsy.
- Violating the Privacy of Others
- Infringing the privacy rights of others under the laws of the United States of America or other applicable laws (which may include the laws where you live or where you view or edit content);
- Soliciting personally identifiable information for the purposes of harassment, exploitation, or violation of privacy, or for any promotional or commercial purpose not explicitly approved by the Wikimedia Foundation; and
- Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 years, or under the age of majority where you are if higher than 18 years, for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.
- Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud
- Intentionally or knowingly posting content that constitutes libel or defamation under the laws of the United States of America;
- Posting or modifying content with the intent to deceive or mislead others;
- Attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, hiding your affiliation with any individual or entity when disclosure is required by these terms or local Project policy, or using the name or username of another person with the intent to deceive; and
- Engaging in fraud.
- Committing Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights
- Infringing copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights under the applicable law.
- Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes
- Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law concerning child pornography or child sexual abuse material, or encouraging, grooming, or advocating for others to create or share such material;
- Posting or trafficking in obscene material that is unlawful under applicable law; and
- Using the services in a manner that is inconsistent with applicable law.
- Engaging in Disruptive and Illegal Misuse of Facilities
- Posting or distributing content that contains any viruses, malware, worms, Trojan horses, malicious code, or other device that could harm our technical infrastructure or system or that of other users;
- Engaging in automated uses of the Project Websites that are abusive or disruptive of the services, violate acceptable usage policies where available, or have not been approved by the Wikimedia community;
- Disrupting the services by placing an undue burden on an API, Project Website or the networks or servers connected with a particular Project Website;
- Disrupting the services by inundating any of the Project Websites with communications or other traffic that suggests no serious intent to use the Project website for its stated purpose;
- Knowingly accessing, tampering with, or using any of our non-public areas in our computer systems without authorization; and
- Probing, scanning, or testing the vulnerability of any of our technical systems or networks unless all the following conditions are met:
- such actions do not unduly abuse or disrupt our technical systems or networks;
- such actions are not for personal gain (except for credit for your work);
- you report any vulnerabilities to the relevant developers (or fix it yourself); and
- you do not undertake such actions with malicious or destructive intent.
- Paid Contributions Without Disclosure
- You must disclose each and any employer, client, intended beneficiary and affiliation with respect to any contribution for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. You must make that disclosure in at least one of the following ways:
- a statement on your user page,
- a statement on the talk page accompanying any paid contributions, or
- a statement in the edit summary accompanying any paid contributions.
- In addition, if you make a public posting off the Projects advertising editing services on Wikipedia in exchange for compensation of any kind, you must disclose all Wikipedia accounts you have used or will use for this service in the public posting on the third-party service.
- Applicable law, or Project-specific policies and Foundation policies and guidelines, such as those addressing conflicts of interest, may further limit paid contributions or require more detailed disclosure. For example, infringing Wikimedia Trademarks (defined hereinafter at Section 6) to advertise paid editing services, removing disclosures on previously adequately disclosed paid edits, or logged-out paid editing in a manner that makes adequate disclosure a practical impossibility violate this section.
- A Wikimedia Project community may adopt an alternative paid contribution disclosure policy which may supplement or replace this section. If a Project adopts an alternative disclosure policy, you may comply with that policy instead of the requirements in this section (titled "Paid Contributions Without Disclosure") when contributing to that particular Project.
- For more information, please read our FAQ on disclosure of paid contributions.
We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to the provisions in section 4 of these Terms of Use. Where required, enforcement of these terms may include actions not listed in the Wikimedia Foundation Office Action Policy. If enforcement is required in new circumstances, we will make an effort within at most one (1) year to update the Office Action Policy to catalog the new type of action.
Marketing Company Mediations
Undisclosed editing by users receiving compensation creates an unreasonable burden on volunteer editors who investigate and enforce community policies. Therefore, for violations of this section related to undisclosed paid editing, you agree to submit to binding "Med-Arb" (a "Marketing Company Mediation") as described in section 14 of these Terms of Use.
5. Password Security
You are responsible for safeguarding your own password and other security credentials, and should never disclose them to any third party.
6. Trademarks
Although you have considerable freedoms for reuse of the content on the Project Websites, it is important that, at the Wikimedia Foundation, we protect our trademark rights so that we can protect our users from fraudulent impersonators. Because of this, we ask that you please respect our trademarks. All Wikimedia Foundation trademarks belong to the Wikimedia Foundation, and any use of our trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, or domain names must be in compliance with these Terms of Use and in compliance with our Trademark Policy.
7. Licensing of Content
To grow the commons of free knowledge and free culture, all users contributing to the Projects or Project Websites are required to grant broad permissions to the general public to redistribute and reuse their contributions freely, so long as that use is properly attributed and the same freedom to reuse and redistribute is granted to any derivative works. In keeping with our goal of providing free information to the widest possible audience, we require that when necessary all submitted content be licensed so that it is freely reusable by anyone who may access it.
You agree to the following licensing requirements:
Text to which you hold the copyright: When you submit text to which you hold the copyright, you agree to license it under:
- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License ("CC BY-SA 4.0"), and
- GNU Free Documentation License ("GFDL") (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts).
Reusers may comply with either license or both.
The only exception is if the Project edition or feature requires a different license. In that case, you agree to license any text you contribute under the particular license prescribed by the Project edition or the feature.
Please note that these licenses do allow commercial uses of your contributions, as long as such uses are compliant with the terms of the respective licenses. Where you own Sui Generis Database Rights covered by CC BY-SA 4.0, you waive these rights. As an example, this means facts you contribute to the projects may be reused freely without attribution.
- Attribution: Attribution is an important part of these licenses. 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 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; 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).
- Importing text: You may import text that you have found elsewhere or that you have co-authored with others, but in such case you represent and warrant that the text is available under terms that are compatible with CC BY-SA (or, as explained above, another license when exceptionally required by the Project edition or feature). For a list of compatible licenses, see Creative Commons. You shall not import content that is available solely under GFDL.
You agree that, if you import text under a CC license that requires attribution, you must credit the author(s) in a reasonable fashion. Where such credit is commonly given through page histories (such as Wikimedia-internal copying), it is sufficient to give attribution in the edit summary, which is recorded in the page history, when importing the text. The attribution requirements are sometimes too intrusive for particular circumstances (regardless of the license), and there may be instances where the Wikimedia community decides that imported text cannot be used for that reason.
- Non-text media: Non-text media on the Projects are available under a variety of different licenses that support the general goal of allowing unrestricted reuse and redistribution. When you contribute non-text media, you agree to comply with the requirements for such licenses as described in our Licensing Policy, and also comply with the requirements of the specific Project edition or feature to which you are contributing. Also see the Wikimedia Commons Licensing Policy for more information on contributing non-text media to Wikimedia Commons.
- 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 Projects or features, even if you terminate use of our services.
- 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 as well as the laws of any other countries as required by the specific Project edition. 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.
- Re-use: Reuse of content that we host is welcome, though exceptions exist for content contributed under "fair use" or similar exemptions under applicable copyright law. Any reuse must comply with the underlying license(s).
When you reuse or redistribute a text page developed by the Wikimedia 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 reusing (since each page 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 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).
If the text content was imported from another source, it is possible that the content is licensed under a compatible CC BY-SA license but not GFDL (as described in "Importing text," above). In that case, you agree to comply with the compatible CC BY-SA license and do not have the option to relicense it under GFDL. To determine the license that applies to the content that you seek to reuse or redistribute, 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, reusers should preserve them.
For any non-text media, you agree to comply with the applicable 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 reusing any content that we host, you agree to comply with the relevant attribution requirements as they pertain to the underlying license or licenses.
- Modifications or additions to material that you reuse: When modifying or making additions to text that you have obtained from a Project Website, you agree to license the modified or added content under CC BY-SA 4.0 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 Project 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 reusing 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
The Wikimedia Foundation wants to ensure that the content that we host can be reused by other users without fear of liability and that it is not infringing the proprietary rights of others. In fairness to our users, as well as to other creators and copyright holders, our policy is to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the formalities of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Pursuant to the DMCA, we will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, users and account holders of our system and network who are repeat infringers on our Projects and services.
However, we also recognize that not every takedown notice is valid or in good faith. In such cases, we strongly encourage users to file counter-notifications when they appropriately believe a DMCA takedown demand is invalid or improper. For more information on what to do if you think a DMCA notice has been improperly filed, you may wish to consult the Lumen Database website.
If you are the owner of content that is being improperly used on one of the Projects without your permission, you may request that the content be removed by filing a notice under the DMCA. To make such a request, please email us at legalwikimedia
org or snail mail our designated agent.
Alternatively, you may make a request to our community, which often handles copyright issues faster and more effectively than the process prescribed under the DMCA. In that case, you can post a notice explaining your copyright concerns. For a non-exhaustive and non-authoritative list of the relevant processes for the different Project editions, visit the Copyright Problems page. Before filing a DMCA claim, you also have the option of sending an email to the community at infowikimedia
org.
9. Third-party Websites and Resources
You are solely responsible for your use of any third-party websites or resources. Although the Projects and Project Websites contain links to third-party websites and resources, we do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for their availability, accuracy, or the related content, products, or services (including, without limitation, any viruses or other disabling features), nor do we have any obligation to monitor such third-party content.
10. Management of Websites
The community has the primary role in creating and enforcing policies applying to the different Project editions. At the Wikimedia Foundation, we rarely intervene in community decisions about policy and its enforcement.
It is possible to notify us of illegal content, or content that violates our Terms of Use (including all policies and other documents incorporated by reference) for other reasons [[foundationsite:Template:Foundationsite languageabout/contact/|by contacting us directly]]. However, you can typically make a request directly to the Project's community: this may be more efficient, and is more consistent with our Projects' aim to empower the user community.
Each Project will usually provide "Help" or "Contact" pages for further guidance, or specific tools for reporting issues. Alternatively – if in doubt – you can ask members of the community for help, by sending an email to infowikimedia
org or a more language-specific address from the Volunteer Response Team page. Please note that these mailboxes are monitored by users of the Projects, not the Foundation. As a result, they should not be threatened or issued with legal demands.
If you contact the Foundation with a problem, we will typically explore whether and how existing community-led mechanisms can investigate and, where appropriate, resolve it.
In an unusual case, the need may arise, or the community may ask us, to address an especially problematic user or especially problematic content because of significant Project disturbance or dangerous behavior. In such cases, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion (or where legally compelled), to:
- Investigate your use of the Projects or our services (a) to determine whether a violation of these Terms of Use, Project edition policy, or other applicable law or policy has occurred, or (b) to comply with any applicable law, legal process, or an appropriate governmental request;
- Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, false or unverifiable information, security, or technical issues or respond to user support requests;
- Refuse, revert, disable, or restrict access to contributions of any user who violates these Terms of Use;
- Ban a user from editing or contributing or block a user's account or access for actions violating these Terms of Use, including repeat posting of unlawful material under applicable law in line with human rights principles;
- Take legal action against users who violate these Terms of Use (including reports to law enforcement authorities); and
- Manage otherwise the Project websites in a manner designed to facilitate their proper functioning and protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and our users, licensors, partners, and the public.
Those Foundation moderation activities may be informed or performed by software (such as traffic flood ("Denial of Service") protection). In those cases human review is normally available, [[foundationsite:Template:Foundationsite languageabout/contact/|upon request]].
In the interests of our users and the Projects, in the extreme circumstance that any individual has had their account or access blocked under this section, they are prohibited from creating or using another account on or seeking access to the same Project, unless we provide explicit permission. Without limiting the authority of the community, the Foundation itself will not ban a user from editing or contributing or block a user's account or access solely because of good faith criticism that does not result in actions otherwise violating these Terms of Use or community policies.
The Wikimedia community and its members may also take action when so allowed by the community or Foundation policies applicable to the specific Project edition, including but not limited to warning, investigating, blocking, or banning users who violate those policies. You agree to comply with the final decisions of dispute resolution bodies that are established by the community for the specific Project editions (such as arbitration committees); these decisions may include sanctions as set out by the policy of the specific Project edition.
Especially problematic users who have had accounts or access blocked on multiple Project editions may be subject to a ban from all of the Project editions, in accordance with the Global Ban Policy. In contrast to Board resolutions or these Terms of Use, policies established by the community, which may cover a single Project edition or multiple Projects editions (like the Global Ban Policy), may be modified by the relevant community according to its own procedures.
The blocking of an account or access or the banning of a user under this provision shall be in accordance with Section 13 of these Terms of Use.
If you believe we have not satisfactorily acted on a problematic content report, or if you have been subjected to a Foundation moderation action that you wish to challenge, you may be able to submit an appeal. Other information about routes of appeal may also be explained to you at the time, or in Project-specific help pages.
We reserve the right to suspend (temporarily, or permanently) our handling of reports or other correspondence from users or third parties, whether about allegedly illegal or otherwise problematic content or conduct, or requesting appeals against moderation actions, if such correspondence was made in bad faith, repetitive, unfounded, and/or abusive. In appropriate circumstances, your email address may even be blocked on our email system(s), and you will then need to contact us [[foundationsite:Template:Foundationsite languageabout/contact/|at our postal address]] if you wish to further correspond with us during that block. For less serious cases (e.g. up to three polite emails about one or more meritless complaints), this is likely to be temporary. More frequent or more abusive communications are more likely to lead to permanent measures.
11. Resolutions and Project Policies
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees releases official policies from time to time. Some of these policies may be mandatory for a particular Project or Project edition, and, when they are, you agree to abide by them as applicable.
12. API Terms
We make available a set of APIs, which include documentation and associated tools, to enable users to build products that promote free knowledge. By using our APIs, you agree to abide by all applicable policies governing the use of the APIs, which include but are not limited to the User-Agent Policy, the Robot Policy, and the API:Etiquette (collectively, "API Documentation"), which are incorporated into these Terms of Use by reference.
13. 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 for either ourselves or the Wikimedia community or its members (as described in Section 10) to terminate part or all of our services, terminate these Terms of Use, block your account or access, or ban you as a user. If your account or access is blocked or otherwise terminated for any reason, your public contributions and a record of your activities on or in relation to the Projects (including any correspondence you have sent us) will be unaffected (subject to applicable policies), and you may still access our public pages for the sole purpose of reading publicly available content on the Projects. In such circumstances, however, you may not be able to access your account or settings. However, regardless of any other provision in these Terms of Use, we reserve the right to suspend or end the services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Even after your use and participation are banned, blocked or otherwise suspended, these Terms of Use will remain in effect with respect to relevant provisions, including Sections 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9-16, and 18.
14. Disputes and Jurisdiction
Highlighted for emphasis
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 Projects or Project editions and the Wikimedia Foundation. 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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).
Schlichtung für Marketingunternehmen
As described in section 4 of these Terms of Use, you agree to resolve violations of the Paid Contributions without Disclosure in a Marketing Company Mediation at the Foundation's discretion. Marketing Company Mediations are binding mediations where, at the end of either a half or full day session, any disputed items that remain unresolved will be decided by the mediator in a legally binding decision. They will be conducted in meetings by teleconference or videoconference. If an in-person meeting is required, then the Marketing Company Mediation will take place in San Francisco County, California. The parties will split all fees and expenses related to the mediation/arbitration equally.
You agree, as part of a Marketing Company Mediation, to cooperate with the Foundation, including by timely providing any documentation in your possession relating to your undisclosed paid editing activities including the accounts used, articles affected, and clients who purchased such services.
Marketing Company Mediations are subject to and governed by the Federal Arbitration Act to the extent that the mediator becomes an arbitrator. The prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its attorneys' fees (including all fees necessary to determine the applicability of the Marketing Company Mediation and to enforce the binding result) and all costs relating to the investigation and enforcement of its rights. A party may be deemed "prevailing" even if it is not successful on every claim asserted.
If for some reason the entirety of these Marketing Company Mediation requirements are found to be unenforceable, you agree to resolve any disputes as described in the beginning of this section.
15. Disclaimers
Zur Verdeutlichung hervorgehoben
At the Wikimedia Foundation, we do our best to provide educational and informational content to a very 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.
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.
16. Limitation on Liability
Zur Verdeutlichung hervorgehoben
The Wikimedia Foundation 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.
17. Modifications to these Terms of Use
Just as the Wikimedia community's input is essential for the growth and maintenance of the Projects, we believe that community input is essential for these Terms of Use to properly serve our users. It is also essential for a fair contract. Therefore, we will provide these Terms of Use, as well as any substantial future revisions of these Terms of Use, to the community for comment at least thirty (30) days before the end of the comment period. If a future proposed revision is substantial, we will provide an additional 30 days for comments after posting a translation of the proposed revision in at least three languages (selected at our discretion). The community will be encouraged to translate the proposed revision in other languages as appropriate. For changes for legal or administrative reasons, to correct an inaccurate statement, or changes in response to community comments, we will provide at least three (3) days' notice.
Because it may be necessary to modify these Terms of Use from time to time, we will provide notice of such modifications and the opportunity to comment via the Project websites, and via a notification on WikimediaAnnounce-l. However, we ask that you please periodically review the most up-to-date version of these Terms of Use. Your continued use of our services after the new Terms of Use become official following the notice and review period constitutes an acceptance of these Terms of Use on your part. For the protection of the Wikimedia Foundation and other users like yourself, if you do not agree with our Terms of Use, you cannot use our services.
18. Other Terms
These Terms of Use do not create an employment, agency, partnership, joint control or joint venture relationship between you and us, the Wikimedia Foundation. For the purposes of European Economic Area law, United Kingdom law, or other laws that involve a similar concept, you are not acting "under the authority of" the Foundation when you use the services. If you have not signed a separate agreement with us, these Terms of Use are the entire agreement between you and us. If there is any conflict between these Terms of Use and a signed written agreement between you and us, the signed agreement will control.
You agree that we may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms of Use, by email, regular mail, or postings on the Projects or Project Websites.
If in any circumstance, we do not apply or enforce any provision of these Terms of Use, it is not a waiver of that provision.
You understand that, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by us, you have no expectation of compensation for any activity, contribution, or idea that you provide to us, the community, or the Projects or Project editions.
Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in these Terms of Use, we (the Wikimedia Foundation) and you agree not to modify the applicable terms and requirements of any free license that is employed on the Projects or Project editions when such free license is authorized by these Terms of Use.
These Terms of Use were written in English (U.S.). While we hope that translations of these Terms of Use are accurate, in the event of any differences in meaning between the original English version and a translation, the original English version takes precedence.
If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms of Use is found unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms of Use and will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and all other provisions of these Terms of Use will remain in full force and effect.
Danke!
We appreciate your taking the time to read these Terms of Use, and we are very happy to have you contributing to the Projects and using our services. Through your contributions, you are helping to build something really big – not only an important collection of collaboratively edited reference Projects that provides education and information to millions who might otherwise lack access, but also a vibrant community of like-minded and engaged peers, focused on a very noble goal.
These Terms of Use went into effect on June 7, 2023. Previous versions of the terms:
- Terms of Use (2014-2023): effective from June 16, 2014 until June 7, 2023
- Terms of Use (2012-2014): effective from May 24, 2012 until June 16, 2014
- Terms of Use (2009): effective from 2009 until May 24, 2012
Bitte beachte, dass im Falle von Unterschieden in der Bedeutung oder Interpretation zwischen der englischen Originalversion dieses Inhalts und einer Übersetzung die englische Originalversion Vorrang hat.