Terms of use
Introduction
Wikimedia UK hosts and manages a variety of servers and websites in order to further its charitable mission, including an open wiki which is available for anyone to edit. As a charity that is committed to openness and transparency, we welcome contributions from anyone, whether based in the UK or not. If you would like to contribute to online discussions on our wiki, we suggest that you register a username for yourself (you do not have to use your real name if you would prefer not to). If you are already a contributor to Wikipedia or any other of the websites run by the Wikimedia Foundation, please note that your user credentials on those sites will not work here.
Wikimedia UK is a charitable company that is subject to the law of England and Wales, and is legally separate from the Wikimedia Foundation, the US-based non-profit organization that manages the English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and its sister sites.
The servers and websites of Wikimedia UK are not principally intended for hosting Open Content, but for supporting our own work and that of others who can help advance our charitable mission. Our websites do not host Wikimedia Foundation projects and accordingly these terms of use and the way they are applied may be different from those that apply on Wikipedia and its sister projects.
The board and the Chief Executive have a legal responsibility to ensure that our servers and websites are properly run in a manner which falls within the scope of our charitable objects. These terms of use are intended to protect our volunteers, trustees and staff, and the charity itself, while providing for a high level of open and public discussion and engagement. Our wiki serves as both a public-facing website and a work environment and we want to ensure that users are treated with dignity and respect, so that everyone can work in an environment that is safe, respectful and conducive to productivity.
Terms of use
Unless otherwise stated, these terms of use apply to all interactions with Wikimedia UK websites and servers, including email servers ("our services"), not just to our wiki. The expression 'posting' includes the use of our systems to receive or transmit any data, including the uploading of files, the sending of emails or other messages, and the posting of text on our wiki.
By using our services you agree to abide by these terms of use.
Prohibited Activities
The following activities are prohibited on all WMUK websites and servers:
Disruptive and harassing activities
- Posting offensive, pornographic, racist, sexist, vulgar, obscene or otherwise inappropriate material
- Engaging in personal attacks, defamatory, threatening or abusive behaviour, bullying, harassment, stalking, use of offensive language or insults
- Posting material which may constitute a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability
- Posting material which would give offence to a reasonable person in relation to gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or working status
- Spamming, vandalism, or use of our services for non-approved promotional or commercial activities
- Trolling, defined as repeatedly posting disruptive content that is:
- inflammatory, offensive or off-topic; or
- by virtue of its content, tone, frequency or quantity, disruptive to normal on-topic discussion threads; or
- whether deliberately or otherwise, likely to anger, provoke, upset, harass or annoy other productive editors or readers
- Posting any type of executable code without prior permission
The wiki is a space for collaboration and co-operation. You must maintain a collegial approach when working there. Disagreement and debate are very welcome, but if you need to be critical remember to focus on solving problems, not on personalities.
The wiki is not an appropriate forum for posting public complaints about the performance or behaviour of individual members of staff (whether explicitly named or not). This rule is to protect individuals from personal attack and does not apply to critical discussion in good faith about the activities and performance of the charity as a whole. If you wish to complain about an individual staff member please send a private email to the Chief Executive - or if regarding the Chief Executive, to the Chair of the Board of Trustees.
Violating the Privacy of Others
- Breaching the Wikimedia UK Privacy policy
- Soliciting personally identifiable information for the apparent purpose of harassment, exploitation, violation of privacy, promotional or commercial ends, or for any illegal purpose
- Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18.
Misrepresentation
- Posting content that is false, inaccurate or deliberately misleading
- Impersonation or using the username of another user (even with that user's permission)
- Misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity
Technical disruption
- Posting chain messages, junk messages or spam
- Engaging in abusive or disruptive automated uses of our services
- Deliberately or otherwise disrupting the normal operation of our services, or placing an undue burden on our technical staff
- Probing, scanning or testing the vulnerability of our services unless:
- your actions have no destructive intent, are not malicious or reckless, and are not for personal gain;
- your actions do not disrupt or interfere in any way with the normal operation of our services;
- your actions fully comply with these terms of use in all other respects; and
- you promptly report any vulnerabilities in confidence to Wikimedia UK.
Unlawful activities
- Using our services in any manner which is illegal or unlawful under UK law or the law of England and Wales, including but not limited to:
- engaging in fraud
- intentionally or recklessly posting content that is or may be libellous
- infringing any intellectual property rights
- posting or controlling any virus, malicious content or malicious computer code
Password Security
You are responsible for safeguarding your own password and must never disclose it to any third party. You must contact us immediately on 020 7065 0990 if you have reason to believe that your password may no longer be secure.
Licensing of Content
Wikimedia UK intends that, with as few exceptions as possible, all text and media files which are available via our wiki are public domain or available on a free licence, typically the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (“CC BY-SA”).
You agree that all contributed text content is, by your act of posting it to the wiki, licensed by you under the CC BY-SA licence.
You agree that all contributed media files are by, your act of uploading, licensed by you under the CC BY-SA licence (unless you explicitly state otherwise at the time of uploading). You agree that where you have uploaded a file without stating a licence or public domain status, the content of which appears to have been created personally by you, any editor may add a CC BY-SA licensing template. This paragraph applies only to media files uploaded on or after 1 May 2014.
Once you have posted content on the wiki you may not modify or revoke, or attempt to modify or revoke, the terms of any licence; nor may you attempt to resile from any statement that such content was released by you to the public domain.
Text and media files which are not in the public domain nor available on a free licence may exceptionally be held on the wiki only:
- with the approval of the Chief Executive, and
- with the use of an appropriate and clear template to indicate its non-free status.
Please bear in mind that infringing intellectual property rights is prohibited at any time. You may only post content that you have personally created or where you have written permission to do so from the copyright owner.
Trade marks
Trade marks (including word marks and logos) used on our websites, whether registered or unregistered, are the property of their owners, and are not normally available under a free licence. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, we do not give you permission to use any trade mark on our websites.
Disclaimers
Please see our Disclaimers. They form an integral part of these terms of use.
Legal
These terms of use are to be interpreted according to the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction.
If any provision or part of a provision of these terms of use is found unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision or part shall be deemed severable from these terms of use and shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and the remainder of these terms of use shall remain in full force and effect.
We may change these terms of use at our discretion at any time.
Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation or any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under the law of England and Wales.