Plain Language Abuse Policy

The Terms of Service document contains the full list of things you agree to regarding your use of Dreamwidth Studios. Still, Terms of Service are sometimes hard to understand. We've created this page to explain what sort of things we take action on, and why.

This document is not an addendum to the Terms of Service. It does not create or remove any further contractual provisions. In the event of a dispute between this page and the Terms of Service, the Terms of Service are the only governing item.

Because Dreamwidth is a United States-based site, United States law takes precedence over all other jurisdictions, and we must be guided by US law when making decisions, even for those users who reside outside the US.

This page is only intended to provide a basic outline of how the Terms of Service are enforced on Dreamwidth. This is not a comprehensive list of all possible violations, and these enforcement policies are subject to change at any time without notice.

Summary

• Don't post illegal stuff.
• Don't spam people.
• Don't use your account just to abuse other people.
• Don't facilitate identity theft.
• Don't post things that might damage someone else's computer.
• If you don't do any of that, we'll probably leave you alone.

What's your general philosophy for the site?

We believe in free expression to the maximum amount allowable by law, and we're willing to fight for it. In exchange, we ask that you try your best to make it so that we don't have to, by exercising your best discretion in using privacy settings and warnings as appropriate on material that's not illegal, but that other people might find questionable. We won't make you do it, but it'll make everyone's lives easier.

How do you determine if something's illegal?

In most cases, we require a judgment rendered by a United States court or a Maryland State court saying that specific content is illegal. The exception is content that the United States Criminal Code specifically identifies as illegal and provides enough information for us to be able to definitively identify it, with no possibility of misinterpretation. Obviously, as the law changes, our policies will need to change as well.

It's very hard for us to give examples. In general, though, if we think it's not an open-and-shut case and that a court might say the content isn't illegal, we'll leave it alone and let the courts decide.

How do you define "defamatory"? How do you define "libelous"?

The Terms of Service prohibit defamatory and libelous content. These words have a specific legal meaning. In order for us to remove content on these grounds, we require a judgment from a United States court or a Maryland State court saying that the content meets these definitions.

In most cases, if someone posts negative things about you, those things don't fit the legal definition of libelous or defamatory. We aren't equipped to make that judgment call. The best thing to do is to ignore it. Or, make a post of your own to set the record straight.

What do you mean, 'just to abuse other people'?

We mean accounts created just to harass other people -- such as creating an account with a similar username to someone, filling it with hateful material, and posting in similar communities to make people think it belongs to the victim.

What do you mean, 'facilitate identity theft'?

We mean things like posting someone else's Social Security Number/national identification number, or posting enough of their information (full name, address, phone number, and date of birth all posted together, for instance) for someone malicious to be able to do bad things to them.

What are your copyright policies?

We are bound by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), signed into legislation in 1998. This law specifies exactly how we must handle copyright complaints. For a description of our obligations and your rights involving copyright infringement, please see our Copyright Policy.

What if something on the site offends me?

In most cases, we've chosen to place the minimum restrictions possible as dictated by United States law. This means that there will probably be content you personally find offensive located on the site. If the content doesn't fall into one of the categories we will take action on, though, we won't take it down, no matter how offensive it might be.

Dreamwidth Studios is a community with many divergent opinions, attitudes, and methods of expression. We believe it's more important to preserve free expression than to create a service where nobody will ever be offended, especially since it's impossible to determine what might offend everyone. While we promise that we'll do our best to avoid giving offense with things that we (the company) do and say, we can't make the same guarantee for the entire community.

If you're offended by content in a particular account, we recommend that you avoid reading that content. If you're offended by someone's behavior in a community, we suggest that you contact the maintainer of the community to see if they're willing to remove the other member of the community. If all else fails, you can leave the community and start a similar one.

Aren't these enforcement policies less restrictive than the Terms of Service?

Yes. Our Terms of Service are there to provide a full list of what you shouldn't do. In a lot of cases, the Terms of Service are to provide us options in the event that someone thinks up a new and inventive way to disrupt the service. In general, though, we believe in taking a hands-off approach as much as possible.

We always reserve the right to enforce the Terms of Service as written, and we retain sole discretion as to what actions should be taken regarding any content posted to the service.

What happens if something I posted violates your policies?

We don't look for violations of these policies. If content is reported to us, and we determine that it violates our policies, in most cases we'll contact you and give you a few days to resolve the sitution. The most frequent exceptions to the several-day grace period are if the situation is urgent (such as an account that's making the service unusable for others or if we believe that allowing the content to remain visible for that length of time would open us up to liability), or if the entire account exists just to abuse the service. In these cases, along with any other situations where we feel it's necessary, we will suspend the account to prevent further abuse and remove the contents from view.