The Archive of Our Own is a place for fanworks, including fan fiction based on books, TV, movies, comics, other media, and real-person fiction (RPF).
What We Believe
There are five parts to the Terms of Service (ToS):
A. The legalese: including where a lawsuit would be filed, when, and under what law
The ToS constitute the entire agreement between you and
the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) and govern your use of the Service
(the Archive of Our Own).
service (hereinafter "Service", "AO3" or
"Archive"). It takes the place of all prior agreements
between you and the OTW concerning your use of the Service. It does not
govern your use of other OTW sites and/or projects including the OTW site
itself, Fanlore,
or Transformative
Works and Cultures, or donations to or membership
in the OTW, or OTW elections, all
of which are covered under separate agreements hosted on each of
the OTW Sites.
The AO3 ToS and,
the relationship between you and the OTW, and all disputes arising out of
or related to it, shall be governed by the laws of the United States stateand
specifically the State of New York (refer to the ToS FAQ), without regard to
its conflict of law provisions.
You and the OTW agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within New York County (Manhattan), New York, and to waive any objection to the laying of venue there.
The OTW's failure to enforce any part of the ToS will not waive the OTW's ability to enforce it, and any waiver with regard to a specific instance shall not constitute a waiver of any other breaches of the ToS, even with regard to the same user.
If any provision of the ToS is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, you agree that the court should give effect to the party's intentions as reflected in the provision, and that the other provisions of the ToS 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 use of the Archive or the ToS must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.
B. You agree to the Terms of Service
Subject to amendments of the update process by the OTW Board, this is the only means by which the Terms of Service may be altered. The Terms of Service cannot be changed by, e.g., emails or oral communications with you.
C. Potential problems with the Service
In other words,
the OTW is not liable to you for allowing you to post Content,
download Content, use the Service, or do
other thingsinteract with OTW services AO3.
The OTW does not assume whatever legal risks you face by posting,
viewing, or doing other things with Content.
You agree not to use the OTW services
(including Service (as well as the e-mail
addresses and URLs of OTW sites):
A list of countries that apply the GDPR can be found here. Each user is responsible for knowing the laws of their own country.
E. Content you see through use of the Service:
G. What we do with your contentContent:
The OTW does not claim any ownership or copyright in your Content. Repeat: we do not own your Content. Nothing in this agreement changes that in any way. Running the Archive, however, requires us to make copies, and backup copies, on servers that may be located anywhere around the world.
Modifying and adapting here refer strictly to how your work is displayed—not how it is written, drawn, or otherwise created. But because your Content may be transmitted over various networks, we may have to make changes to the formatting or display of your Content in order to adapt to the technical requirements of different networks or devices. Multimedia content may not display properly on all devices. In some circumstances, we may make changes to improve accessibility. For example, we may automatically convert html tags to our standard forms (e.g., changing "bold" html to "strong"). Or we may make special provisions for accessibility, such as allowing you to use nonstandard fonts but also providing an alternate format for those who cannot read such fonts. We may use an internal search engine whose results display relevant snippets from your Content.
User-provided tags are subject to organization, which is a process we call tag wrangling; for a full explanation of tag wrangling, refer to the ToS FAQ.
H. Data and Content Processing
AO3 and the OTW exist to host Content by creative people like you. In order to host or share your works, as well as comments, Kudos and whatever you put into your User Profile, we have to process certain data and information including personally identifying information that we collect from Users, and that each User inputs. In order to operate the site, host OTW and user Content, and prevent technical issues and breaches, we need to process (e.g. collect, store, retrieve, disseminate, make available, and delete) certain data and information including personally identifying information, also known as "Personal Data". Personal Data includes your username, your email address, your IP information and any personally identifying information you enter on the Archive, including information that you put into your profile, a work's notes or tags, into the body of a work or other Content itself.
By using the site, you consent to our collection, processing, retention and display of your Content as set forth and explained in these Terms of Use so we can operate, manage, display and share the creativity on AO3; if we believe that using, retaining and/or sharing that information is necessary to preserve the integrity of the Archive and the Content that we host; for legitimate legal and/or accounting audit purposes; when we have a good faith belief it is required by law, such as pursuant to a subpoena or other legal process; or when we have a good faith belief that doing so will help prevent imminent harm to someone.
This Age Policy covers the Archive's treatment of users (a) who
are residents or citizens of the European Union and of the age where consent of
a parent or legal guardian is required for the processing of personal data of
children including email addresses and IP addresses, as well as certain uses of
cookies; and (b) who are under the age of thirteen (13).) and
residents or citizens of any other country.
In compliance with United States regulations regarding online privacy for children, the Archive does not knowingly solicit or collect information from children under the age of thirteen (13). Children under the age of thirteen (13) are therefore not permitted to have an account or upload Content of any type to the Archive. By submitting Content to the Archive, you thereby confirm that you are thirteen (13) years old or older (refer to the ToS FAQ).
Asking a parent or legal guardian to upload Content does not constitute submitting Content under this policy. If you are under the age of thirteen (13) and not an Age-Barred Individual (as defined below), your parent or legal guardian may upload your Content through their account.
We as an organization have opted to protect teen users' privacy. As a result, we cannot receive or host Content from individuals that we know are under the age of sixteen (16) and residents/citizens of the European Union, unless they are residents/citizens of the EU countries that allow the collection of Special Categories of Personal Data from those at a younger age ("Age-Barred Individuals"). Age-Barred Individuals may not maintain accounts or submit Content. AO3 Personnel may, in their reasonable discretion, hide and/or delete accounts held by and/or Content submitted by Age-Barred Individuals.
The Archive is a project of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), which is committed to fan privacy. For more information about how you can support the OTW, please see the OTW Website. This Privacy Policy governs the Archive.
B. The TOSThis
TOS, including the Privacy Policy, applies only to the Archive
This Privacy Policy covers the Archive's treatment of personally
identifying information submitted to us and which we collect
when you use our services in the course of ordinary communications., and
which we collect when you use our services in the course of ordinary
communications. Each site or Service hosted by the OTW has its own
Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The OTW or users of its Services
may provide links to or content via sites that are owned or controlled by third
parties, and may use such sites, including Twitter and Tumblr, to communicate
information about the OTW and its family of sites including the
Archive. The OTW has no control over such sites or their terms of use
or privacy policies, and you agree that the OTW is not responsible
for and does not endorse their content, terms or availability. If
you follow links off the Archive, you should review those sites' privacy
policies, which may be different, and for which the Archive takes no
responsibility.
If these Terms of Service and/or this policy
changesPrivacy Policy change at any point in
the future, we will post the policy changes to the Archive
of Our Own. Such changes will be used only for information provided by
those who have visited, used, or accessed the siteService
after the effective date of such policy changes. If you are concerned about how
your information is used, you should check back at the Archive site
periodically to review the policies.
D. Archive adherence to the TOS:
If you feel that this siteService
is not following its stated information policy, please contact Archive Personnel
contact Archive administrators..
IV. Content and Abuse Policies
We recognize that there is no such thing as a popular abuse policy. By their nature, abuse complaints are unpleasant at best. And policy needs to be applied by people, which always complicates matters. We have tried to set out clear procedures to minimize and channel the inevitable conflicts.
The Content and Abuse policyPolicy
covers procedures, spam and
commercial promotion, threatening the technical
integrity of the site, copyright, plagiarism, personal information and
fannish identities, harassment, illegal and non-fanwork content, and ratings
and warnings. We have developed a FAQ page to answer additional
questions about Content and Abuse (refer
to the ToS FAQ).
The Archive does not prescreen for content. Complaints are investigated only when they are submitted through the appropriate channels and with the appropriate information.
Complaints may be submitted to our abusePolicy
& Abuse team. Except in the case of copyright
complaints, a complainant may submit a complaint via the Policy & Abuse web form, which
does not require identifying information.. Depending
on the nature of the complaint, however, anonymity of the complainant may
hinder our ability to examine and/or verify the complaint or
affect the credibility of the complaint.. In order
for the abuse teampersonnel to
follow up on any allegation, the exact location (URL) and nature of the alleged
violation must be supplied in the original complaint. Repeated unverified abuse
complaints from the same source may be subject to summary rejection.
Only people who need to know about a complaint will be informed about it. The details of any individual complaint are confidential and must be used only in resolving that complaint.
The subject of a complaint may also
be among those who need to know about it. Only information provided in the
complaint will be passed on. The complainant has complete control over what
information is submitted to Policy & Abuse, and can submit thea
complaint anonymouslypseudonymously.
(Legal names and other information sufficient to identify a person in the
physical world will never be disclosed as part of a standard abuse complaint.
For further clarification, please refer to our
privacy policy.)
In general, the abusePolicy
& Abuse team will only communicate with the subject of a
complaint if there appears to be a violation of the abusesite
policy, or if the abuse team needspersonnel
need more information to resolve the issue.
The abusePolicy
& Abuse team records the IP address from which each anonymous
complaint is submitted, to prevent misuse of the abuse system and/or
Service.
Subject to obligations of
confidentiality about specific complaints, the abusePolicy
& Abuse team may release statistics about general trends, such
as the number of plagiarism complaints made and the actions taken by the abuse team,
in public or to other OTW committees, to facilitate discussions of
policies, procedures, and trends in abuse complaints.
When the abuse team determinesPolicy
& Abuse personnel determine that contentContent
needs to be removed, if contact information is available for
reasons other than violation of the Age Policy by Age-Barred Individuals,
the abuse team will notify the original
poster (the complaint subject), identify the nature of the problem
with the contentContent, and
set a deadline for voluntary removal of the contentContent.
An administrator may also hide contentContent from
other users where appropriate. If the original poster does not remove the contentContent
within the deadline, the Archive will remove the contentContent.
In addition, we may remove contentContent
immediately, without waiting for a response, if we are contacted by a
legitimate law enforcement agency or if we determine that the contentContent
is threatening to an individual or reveals an individual's personal information
without consent. In such cases we will inform the original poster as soon as
possible. The original poster will then have the option to resubmit with the
violating contentContent
removed.
The abusePolicy
& Abuse team may also determine that tags need to be added to
or edited in an item of contentContent. For
more information, please see the ratings/warnings section.
If contentContent
violating the ToS is posted anonymously or
with invalid contact information, it will be removed without prior notice.
If the complainant requests notification of the resolution of the complaint and provides contact information, we will notify them.
The complainant or the original
poster may appeal a decision to the abusePolicy
& Abuse team as a whole. During the appeal, the original
decision will remain in effect. We will attempt to resolve appeals as speedily
as possible, but please remember that we are allthe
Policy & Abuse team is entirely comprised of volunteers. The abuse
team's decisions are final unless overturned by the Board at the Board's sole
discretion. There is no right of appeal to the Board. The abuse team,
however, may consult with the Board or with committee members authorized by the
Board if the abuse team decides that consultation
would help resolve an issue.
"Account status" refers to the existence of warnings on an account and whether that account has been suspended, temporarily or permanently (refer to the ToS FAQ).
The abusePolicy
& Abuse team may issue warnings when it determines that a
violation of the ToS was minor or unintentional. More serious,
intentional, or repeated violations of the ToS will trigger
suspensions. A suspension will generally be for a defined period of time, such
as a month. The abuse team may also permanently
suspend users when it determines that such action is justified. Permanent
suspensions for violations other than spam, violation of the
Archive's Age Policy by Age-Barred Individuals, or threatening the
technical integrity of the site require a majority vote of the abuse team.
The
abuse team's discretion will be informed by the nature of the
violation and the response of the user, including the user's decision to
voluntarily remove, modify or edit the contentContent
that violates the ToS.
A user whose account has been permanently suspended for reasons other than age may not rejoin under another identity.
Where possible, we encourage users
to try mediating disputes before contacting Policy & Abuse.
We provide tools for registered users to control Content that is uploaded in
their own spaces. For example, users are able to delete comments on their own
stories. If you are unable to resolve the problem on your own, you can file a
complaint with the volunteer abusePolicy & Abuse
team.
In some cases, objectionable contentContent
may have already been deleted before the abusePolicy
& Abuse team acts. We appreciate good faith attempts to
resolve disputes, and in most such cases will close the abuse complaint
with no further action. However, we reserve the right to consider individual
circumstances, including whether the poster has engaged in a pattern of such
conduct. In such cases, if we verify that the original contentContent
violated the ToS, we may still decide to warn or suspend the original
poster.
Penalties apply to users, not to
screen names/pseudonyms. Penalties are not retroactive: a suspended user's
nonobjectionable contentContent will
not be automatically removed. unless the user is an
Age-Barred Individual. Suspended users retain the right to delete
or orphanOrphan
their fanworks by contacting Archive adminstratorsadministrators.
B. Spam and commercial promotion
Promotion of commercial products or activities is not allowed. Repeated identical or nearly identical posts in multiple places, e.g., a large number of identical comments promoting a website, will also be considered spam regardless of commercial content.
Anything we determine is spam will be removed immediately. Users may be permanently suspended for spam the first time they post spam content.
In general, unsolicited commercial activity is not permitted on
the Archive. The abusePolicy & Abuse
team has discretion to decide that a fan-related offer was mistakenly
disseminated and issue a warning instead of a suspension.
Any spam- or commercial activity-related penalties may be appealed using the ordinary appeal process.
We may use automated means to filter out spam. If you submit contentContent
that is erroneously caught in a spam filter, please notify Archive
administrators.
C. Threatening the technical integrity of the siteService
Conduct that threatens the technical integrity of the Archive,
e.g. attempts to hack the siteService or
spread viruses through it, will result in an immediate account suspension and
deletion of any contentContent that
is hazardous to the operation of the siteService
or to users' computers. Threats to the technical integrity of the Archive
will not be subject to the two-person review process described above.
Users may be permanently suspended for threatening the technical integrity of
the Archive the first time they do so. Such suspensions may be appealed using
the ordinary appeal process.
Uploading technically misnamed contentfiles
or Content—e.g., non-textimage
files with a textan image
file extension name, used to disguise their actual
format—constitutes a threat to the technical integrity of the site.
Please be aware that the OTW believes that transformative fanworks are legal; therefore, complaints based merely on the existence of fanwork based on copyrighted content or mentioning trademarks will not be pursued.
If you believe that your content has been reproduced in whole or in part, without transformative use (transformative use is defined by the OTW as adding something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the source with new expression, meaning, or message), please follow our procedures for reporting copyright infringement.
The report must clearly and specifically indicate the exact location (URL), nature, and extent of each instance of allegedly infringing content, as well as the exact copyrighted material that is being infringed, as well as full and complete contact information for the copyright holder and/or an authorized agent.
Epigraphs and short quotations, including quotations from song lyrics and poetry, are allowed. Content that is set within or draws on an existing work is allowed. Reproductions of entire copyrighted works—whether songs, poems, transcripts, or other material—are not allowed without the consent of the copyright owner.
Plagiarism is an often-contested and fuzzy concept, and no definition will satisfy everyone. Our aim is to be transparent and fair in resolving disputes.
Plagiarism is the use of someone else's words or concepts without
properly attributing those words or concepts to their original source. Simply
finding and replacing names, substituting synonyms, or rearranging a few words
is not enough to make the work original to you. Deliberately writing a work
using the same general idea as another work is not plagiarism, but citation is
always appreciated. Generally, quotes from the source material (canon) on which
the contentContent is
based will not constitute plagiarism, nor will obvious allusions ("Use the
Force, Luke!"). However, when in doubt, cite. Be aware that the abusePolicy
& Abuse team may decide that your citation is not sufficient
to render the work your own; a mere nod to another author whose work you are
presenting as your own may result in a judgment of plagiarism.
Plagiarism is a violation of the ToS and will incur the
penalties described in the abuse policyAbuse Policy.
As with all contentContent that
violates the ToS, plagiarized contentContent
must be removed. Depending on the type and amount of plagiarized contentContent,
this might entail removing an entire piece of contentContent,
removing only the plagiarized portions from a longer work while leaving the
original material, or adding citations.
If you believe a fanwork posted on the Archive plagiarizes another work, please report the work to the Policy & Abuse team. In order to allow us to investigate, please provide a link to the work on the Archive, relevant excerpts, and a specific citation of the original material (for example, a URL or a book edition and page number).
F. Personal information and fannish identities
Harassment is any behavior that produces a generally hostile
environment for its target. This includes activities such as bullying and
hazing by groups of people as well as personal attacks by individuals. Not
everyone agrees about what is offensive and unacceptable. Individual users are
encouraged to try to resolve problems on their own before contacting the abusePolicy
& Abuse team.
Harassment is not allowed. Users engaging in this behavior may be warned, suspended, or permanently suspended as described in the general abuse procedure.
When judging whether a specific incident constitutes harassment,
the abuse team will consider factors such
as whether the behavior was repeated, whether it was repeated after the
offender was asked to stop, whether the behavior was targeted at a specific person,
whether that target could have easily avoided encountering the behavior,
whether the behavior would be considered unacceptable according to normal
community standards, etc. Additionally, making complaints that are both (a)
repeated and (b) baseless, particularly those targeting a specific user, can be
considered harassing behavior and may be deemed a violation of the ToS.
While these complaints will be reviewed on a case by case basis,
in general, threatening contentContent will
be considered harassment, while contentContent that
is merely annoying will be allowed. Please note that most statements like
"X is a terrible actor and should die!" are not death threats.
Writing a story where X dies as part of the plot is also not usually a death
threat. Content that is harder to avoid (such as comments on the target's
fanworks) will be judged more strictly than contentContent
that is easily avoidable (such as stories).
The behavior of the original poster (the complaint subject) may
also affect the abuse team's determination. If the
original poster repeatedly contacts the subject of the contentContent
about the contentContent
after being told to stop, harasses the subject, or requests that others harass
the subject, the contentContent may
be considered part of a general pattern of harassment and be removed. Please
use your best judgment both when producing contentContent
of this type and when reporting it.
A special note on RPF (real-person fiction):
Writing RPF (real-person fiction) never constitutes
harassment in and of itself. However, contentContent
that advocates specific, real harmful actions towards real people is not
allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, death threats and requests for
readers to harass specific people. If you find contentContent
that you believe contains harassing or threatening material, please contact the Policy & Abuse team.. As
Real-Person Fiction is fictional, generally Archive policy will be that Content
in RPF that would be deemed Personal Data and/or Special Categories
of Personal Data (e.g. full names, usernames on social media services, city of
residence, birth date) will not be considered as such. However, if information
that is accurate, non-public and not that of the User is included (i.e.
non-public phone numbers, residential addresses, email addresses or hotel room
numbers) the work can be removed from public view by the Archive's Policy &
Abuse team in its sole discretion.
H. Illegal and inappropriate contentContent
The Archive of Our Own is a place for fanworks. Content may not be
uploaded to OTW's servers if it contains or links to child pornography
(images of real children); warez, cracks, hacks or other executable files and
their associated utilities; trade secrets, restricted technologies, or
classified information; or if it consists entirely of actual instruction
manuals, technical data, recipes, or other non-fanwork content, including
non-fanwork creative work (refer
to the ToS FAQ). Uploading such contentContent
is a violation of the ToS.
We may determine that we need to remove contentContent
to resolve a threatened or pending lawsuit. or
mitigate other liability. If so, we will remove the contentContent.
Unless itsaid Content or data
otherwise violates the ToS or was submitted by an Age-Barred Individual,
removal for this reasonsuch reasons
will not lead to a suspension.
If you believe contentContent
violates a specific law, you may report it to us. Please, however, read our offensive
content policyOffensive Content Policy below.
I. Offensive contentContent
Policy
As provided in part I.E.3 of the
Terms of Service, the OTW is not liable to you for any Content to
which you are exposed on or because of the OTW sites
Service.
Unless it violates some other policy, we will not remove Content
for offensiveness, no matter how awful, repugnant, or badly spelled we may
personally find that contentContent to
be.
User icons should be appropriate for general audiences. They should not contain depictions of genital nudity or explicit sexual activity. For more information, please refer to the ToS FAQ.
In response to a complaint, the abusePolicy
& Abuse team may decide that a "general" or
"teen" rating is misleading. In such cases, the creator may be
required to change the rating. If the creator declines or fails to respond, the abuse
team may hide the work, set the rating at "not rated," or take any
other appropriate action, but it will not add any other rating.
Fanworks labeled "not rated" may be treated, for purposes of searching, screening, and other Archive functions, like "explicit"-rated fanworks. Thus, users may be asked to agree that they have chosen to access the fanwork before proceeding to the fanwork.
There are two components to warnings on the Archive.
Selecting "choose not to use
Archive warnings," or the equivalent text as specified on the creator
upload form, satisfies a creator's obligation under the warnings policy. If a
fanwork uses this option, we will not sustain any failure-to-warn complaints.
If the abusePolicy & Abuse
team receives a failure-to-warn complaint in other circumstances, the abuse
team may decide the absence of a specific Archive warning is misleading. In
such cases, the creator may be asked to add a warning or to select the choose
not to warn option. If the creator declines or fails to respond, the abuse
team may hide the work, set the warning to indicate that the creator has chosen
not to warn, or take any other appropriate action, but it will not select any
other warning.
The fanwork may or may not contain any of the subject matter on the Archive list. Users who wish to avoid specific elements entirely should not access fanworks marked with "choose not to use Archive warnings." A creator can select both "choose not to use Archive warnings" and one of the Archive warnings in order to warn for some but not all of the Archive warnings.
In general, failure to use an appropriate rating or Archive warning is not a violation of the abuse policy.
It is our policy to defer to creators' categorizations, but we reserve the right to recategorize a fanwork in the situations described above.
A recategorization decision is
appealable through the ordinary abuse appeals process.
A recategorization of a fanwork
will not result in suspension of a user's account, unless it is a repeated
pattern for a single user, in which case it may be treated as grounds for a
suspension. Moreover, if a creator unilaterally reverses a recategorization,
without agreement from the abusePolicy & Abuse
team, that will be treated as grounds for a suspension.
It is our policy to defer to creators' categorizations, but we reserve the right to recategorize a fanwork type.
A manual recategorization decision
made by the abusePolicy & Abuse
team is appealable through the ordinary abuse
appeals process.
A manual recategorization of a
fanwork will not result in suspension of a user's account, unless it is a
repeated pattern for a single user, in which case it may be treated as grounds
for a suspension. Moreover, if a creator unilaterally reverses a manual recategorization,
without agreement from the abuse team, that will be treated as
grounds for a suspension.
Some tags may be automatically
applied to a work. It is our policy to defer to creators' categorizations, but
we reserve the right to manually recategorize language and other Archive tags,
including fandom tags. A manual recategorization or removal of a tag will not
result in suspension of a user's account, unless it is a repeated pattern for a
single user, in which case it may be treated as grounds for a suspension.
Moreover, if a creator unilaterally reverses a manual recategorization or
removal, without agreement from the abuse team,
that will be treated as grounds for a suspension.
A. Collections, Challenges, and Exchanges
A challengeChallenge
is a form of AO3 Collection. A Challenge maintainer can
communicate with challengeChallenge
participants. The challengeChallenge
maintainer may have access to participants’participants'
email addresses for this purpose.
Registered Archive users may designate a fannish next-of-kin. A
next-of-kin agreement allows the transfer of contentContent
maintenance in the case of a user's permanent incapacitation or death.
Both parties to the agreement must be registered users of the Archive.
The Archive's role in this agreement is only to act as a facilitator. If the person designated as the fannish next-of-kin activates the agreement by sending a message to the Archive, the Archive will not do any independent investigation to confirm the necessity for the transfer.
A fannish next-of-kin agreement is confidential and accessible only by designated members of the Archive team, who may only use it for purposes of implementing the agreement.
C. Orphaning WorksContent
and Deleting Data
One of the goals of the OTW and the
Archive is to provide a permanent long-term home for fanworks. We also
understand that circumstances can arise in which creators wish to remove their
stories from the internet or otherwise dissociate themselves from their work.
Our Archive software gives creators the ability to anonymize or orphan"Orphan"
fanworks along with the option of deleting them from the Archive. For a more
detailed description of orphaningOrphaning,
please see the Orphaning FAQ.
Users will have the ability to
delete or orphanOrphan their
worksContent
themselves as long as they have a valid AO3 account. Users
are responsible for saving their, including the
account passwordspassword and
keeping their/or access to the e-mail addresses
up to dateaddress connected with that AO3 account.
Users will be able to have passwords e-mailed to them and to change the e-mail
addresses associated with accounts. However, a user who has lost a password and
has no access to the e-mail associated with the account may be unable to access
the account for any purpose, including orphaningOrphaning
or deletion, unless the user can verify identity in some other way, as
described below.
If a user affirmatively orphans
a workOrphans Content, any connection
between the user and the work will be removed. It therefore may be difficult or
even impossible to restore the link between an orphaned workOrphaned
Content and a user.
As part of the OTW's commitment
to privacy, users are not allowed to
use comments or tags to publicly identify the creator of an orphanedOrphaned
work after the work has been orphanedOrphaned.
Users who add public identifying tags or comments after a work has been orphanedOrphaned
violate the Archive's Terms of Service. Additionally, identifying tags or comments
will be removed.
Our policy is that creators should
be able to orphanOrphan or
delete a workContent, and
they should also be protected against claims by non-creators. We willDeleting
Content is a user's way of withdrawing consent for AO3 to continue hosting said
Content. We provide creators with several alternative methods of
confirming source, including using the e-mail address associated with the
fanwork; using information from a creator's own site or journal; or using an
e-mail address or other form of contact associated with a different copy of the
fanwork, including on the Internet
Archive. We will also consult with the maintainer of any collection of
which the fanwork is a part and take any other actions that seem likely to help
with verification.
If the source of the request is
confirmed, we will comply with the request. When the link between the source of
the request and the fanwork's creator cannot be confirmed, and attempts to
contact the fanwork's creator through any existing contact information receive
no response, we will orphanOrphan the
fanwork.
Please note: these terms are designed for agreements between the
OTW and archive ownersowners/maintainers of
archives/collections of fanworks that were originally hosted on third-party
sites.
The Open Doors project of the Organization for Transformative Works is dedicated to preserving fanworks for the future.
We are happy to help maintainers of typical fanfic archives preserve or back up their collections by transferring the contents of their archive into the Archive of Our Own. Other fannish projects that cannot be integrated into the Archive may also be preserved as special collections, resources permitting. Both kinds of projects may be featured on the Open Doors page.
ToS for Open Doors projects
The OTW will only preserve collections with the full consent of the maintainer of the collection. The current maintainer of the project must agree to the Open Doors ToS, agree to any other conditions of the import, and grant us access to a copy of the current contents of the collection. The maintainer must also transfer ownership of the domain name or follow Open Doors' instructions if they want URL redirects, and if such redirects are possible. (Domain name transfer is not necessary if the maintainer is merely backing up an Archive within the Archive of Our Own.)
When the Open Doors Committee and the current owner of the collection have decided to import an archive or a special collection under the Open Doors project, the current owner will provide a copy of the current contents and take any other steps necessary to carry out the transfer.
Typically, fanwork archives will be imported into the Archive of Our Own under a collection named after the original archive.
For collections not hosted on the Archive itself, the special collection or project may be available under subdirectories or subdomains of an OTW site.
We may also preserve the original project's domain name.
Archives that have been integrated into the Archive of Our Own will also be listed in the Open Doors gallery.
The original maintainer of an
archive that has been imported to the Archive of Our Own will be invited to
moderate their archive's collection within the Archive of Our Own with all the
powers that a collection owner in the Archive usually has; so, for instance, to
decide whether a new storywork
fulfills their collection's rules, or should be removed from the collection.
If the collection's maintainer no
longer wants to work on the collection, they can designate a new maintainer for
the collection, or close the collection to new submissions. Should asomeone
volunteer or request to maintain a closed
collection, Open Doors will attempt to contact the original maintainer to find
out if they are interested in transferring the collection. If the original
maintainer does not respond with approval, ownership of the collection will not
be transferred.
Where possible, the existing
policies of the collection will be preserved, even if they differ from the
policies of the Archive of Our Own. Specifically, collections (whether
integrated into the Archive of Our Own or preserved as special collections) can
have limits on fandom, subject matter, sexual content, etc. that do not apply
to Archive contentContent
generally. Open Doors collections may be mixed fan and non-fanworks; when we
accept a mixed collection, the entire collection can be added to the Archive,
and the standard prohibition on non-fanworks will not apply to the collection.
However, the OTW retains the right to remove contentContent
from its servers if the Board deems removal necessary for specific legal
reasons, or if the contentContent
violates the Content Policy (other than the prohibition on non-fanwork
content).
Control over individual fanworks
contained within a collection rests with their creators. If the verified
creator of any individual fanwork contained within a collection requests its
removal or alteration, the OTW will always comply with such a request in a
reasonable period of time. We will also provide mechanisms allowing creators to
claim their fanworks from such a collection and if desired to attach them to a
new or existing Archive of Our Own account, edit them, orphanOrphan
them, or delete them.
As noted in section 5, control over individual fanworks contained within a collection always rests with their creators. This section applies to collections as a whole. If the collection's original maintainer decides that they no longer want to be affiliated with the OTW, or the OTW board decides they no longer wish to work with the original maintainer, the following procedures for dissolution will apply:
The goal of these rules is to be clear about how special collections and other extant fannish projects might come under the OTW umbrella while still preserving the autonomy both of the original maintainer and of the OTW. We want to provide a permanent home to projects, and preserve the results of our efforts, without the original maintainer feeling like they are giving up all control.
Matters not specifically addressed
in this agreementOpen Doors Agreement
will be governed by the generalOTW Terms of
Service.
Material in this draft has been drawn from Slashcity, NearlyFreeSpeech.Net, Vox Populli, imeem.