The Harry Potter Lexicon ("HPLexicon" or the "Site")is provided for individuals to learn about and discuss the Harry Potter books, as well as the movies and ancillary merchandise (the "Services"). The Services are provided to you subject to the following Terms of Use ("ToU"), which may be updated by us from time to time without notice. You can review the most current version of the ToU at any time at http://www.hp-lexicon.info/tou.html.

The ToU constitute the entire agreement between you and HPLexicon and govern your use of the Service, superseding any prior agreements between you and HPLexicon. Additional terms and conditions may apply when you use affiliate services or third-party content, including but not limited to forums, blogs, RSS feeds. The ToU and the relationship between you and HPLexicon shall be governed by the laws of the State of Michigan without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and HPLexicon agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within Kent County, Michigan. The failure of HPLexicon to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the ToU shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision, and any waiver of a right or provision with regard to a specific instance shall not constitute a waiver of any other breaches of that right or provision, even with regard to the same user. If any provision of the ToU is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the ToU 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 Service or the ToU must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

By accessing any page hosted, controlled or otherwise managed by HPLexicon, or by posting on the forums hosted on and by HPLexicon, or by editing or revising any content on HPLexicon, you state that you agree with, and agree to comply with, the Terms of Use. If you send an email to any email address at any HPLexicon-owned or -controlled domain name, you agree with and agree to comply with these Terms of Use for the purposes of that email and with regard to your receipt of any email from HPLexicon which, in HPLexicon's sole discretion, regards same.
Further, by your registration for and participation in the Services, including but not limited to your receipt of emails sent by or through HPLexicon or its agents, you affirm that the email address that you include in your HPLexicon registration and any subsequent email address(es) you use on HPLexicon is not listed in the Child Protection registry in the state of Utah, the state of Michigan, or any other state, municipality or jurisdiction.
You agree to not use the Service (including the e-mail addresses and URLs of the Site):

1. to upload, post, e-mail, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, offensive or demeaning to the race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation of another, or otherwise objectionable;
2. to harm minors (defined under US law) in any way;
3. to impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a HPLexicon Team Member or Administrator, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
4. to forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted to or through the Service;
5. to upload, post, e-mail, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that has been deemed by a court to constitute patent, trademark, trade secret or copyright infringement;
6. to upload, post, e-mail, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation without obtaining prior consent from info@hp-lexicon.info;
7. to submit, upload, post, e-mail, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer or hardware or telecommunications equipment, including WAP-enabled phones and handheld internet access devices;
8. to interfere with or disrupt the Site or servers or networks connected to the Site, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Site
9. to intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including any regulations having the force of law;
10. to "stalk" another individual;
11. if you are under thirteen years of age;
12. if you are a resident or national of any country to which the U.S. has mandated a trade embargo.

You expressly understand and agree that:

1. your use of the Service is at your sole risk. The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. HPLexicon expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement;
2. HPLexicon makes no warranty that:
1. the Service will meet your requirements;
2. the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free;
3. the results that may be obtained from the use of the Service will be accurate or reliable;
4. the quality of any products, Services, information, or other material purchased or obtained by you through the service will meet your expectations.
3. any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of the Service is 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;
4. no advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from HPLexicon or through or from your use of the Service shall create any warranty not expressly stated in the ToU.

You expressly understand and agree that HPLexicon shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if HPLexicon has been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from:

1. your use of or your inability to use the Service;
2. unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data;
3. statements or conduct of any third party using the Service;
4. any other matter relating to the Service.

You agree to indemnify and hold HPLexicon, its subsidiaries, affiliates or other partners, and its volunteers, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content you submit, post, transmit or make available through the Service, your use of the Service, your connection to the Service, your use of the ToU, or your violation of any rights of another.
You agree that HPLexicon shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of or limitation on your access to the Service.

Those under the age of thirteen are permitted to read and download content posted and/or hosted on the Site; however, those under the age of thirteen are not permitted to submit content on, through, or to the Site, in compliance with the United States Federal Trade Commission regulations regarding online privacy and protection issues for children under thirteen. Accordingly, if you submit Content to HPLexicon, you thereby affirm that you are over thirteen years of age.
HPLexicon and its related sites are designed for adults and do not knowingly solicit or collect information from children who are twelve years old or younger. Any child under thirteen who submits content on, through, or to the site in any way will be banned until said child reaches the age of thirteen, and contacts the site administrators at the Help Desk to request reinstitution of access; asking a parent or guardian to upload content to HPLexicon does not constitute use of the Service.

You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes any portion of the Site or any Material on the Site, other than on and/or in the Site, or in the course of your use of or access to the Site without the prior consent of Steve Vander Ark. Commercial purposes include any use of HPLexicon content on sites that contain advertising for business or personal profit.

HPLexicon reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) at any time and from time to time with or without notice. You agree that HPLexicon shall not be liable to you for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Service.

The Site may provide, or third parties may provide as part of the Content, links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Because HPLexicon has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that HPLexicon is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, or other material on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that HPLexicon shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such external site or resource.

You are responsible for obtaining access to the Service and acknowledge that such access may involve third party fees (such as Internet service provider or airtime charges). You are responsible for applicable fees, including those fees associated with the display or delivery of advertisements, if applicable. In addition, you must provide and are responsible for all equipment necessary to access the Service.

The Internet is global in scope, and you may be able to access HPLexicon from outside the United States. You therefore agree to comply with all applicable rules regarding online conduct and acceptable subject matter. Specifically, and without limitation, you agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported to or from the United States and/or to or from the country from which you are accessing HPLexicon.

If you wish to register as a registered user at HPLexicon, you agree to provide a true, accurate, and current e-mail address to HPLexicon in your member profile and maintain such address to keep it true, accurate and current. If you provide an e-mail address that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or if HPLexicon has reasonable grounds to suspect that it is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, then HPLexicon has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof).

HPLexicon's guidelines for submissions are found here: Concordance
Those guidelines are incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use and have the force of Terms of Use on HPLexicon.

You understand that all Content, including but not limited to submissions, information, data, text, graphics, messages or other materials, is the sole responsibility of the persons from which such Content originated. This means that you, and not HPLexicon, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, post, e-mail, transmit or otherwise make available via the Service. You understand that by using the Service, you may be exposed to material that is offensive, indecent or objectionable.
Under no circumstances will HPLexicon be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to:

1. any errors or omissions in any Content;
2. any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, e-mailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Service;
3. any cause or action arising from material contained in the Content that violates the terms of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

You understand that the technical processing and transmission of the Site, including your Content contained therein, may involve transmissions over various networks, and may require changes to your Content in order to conform and adapt to the technical requirements of connecting networks or devices. 

You acknowledge that HPLexicon is not obligated to pre-screen Content and does not review Content for purposes of compliance with the ToU, and that, except as provided in Section 11 - Message and Review Boards herein, HPLexicon shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to refuse or move any Content and/or block access by the public to any Content that violates the ToU, the rules of any individual forum which have been posted in said forum, or is otherwise objectionable.

HPLexicon does not claim ownership of or copyright in your Content; however, you do grant HPLexicon a world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive license to use, compile, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Site for the purposes of providing and promoting the Service ("License"). This License exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate within a reasonable time after you remove or HPLexicon removes such Content from the Service, where such reasonable time shall be no more than seven business days.

HPLexicon grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of this site. You may not copy, reproduce, incorporate, download (other than page caching), modify or otherwise use any material or any portion of any material located on the Site, including any Content, without the express written consent of HPLexicon or the author, user or artist who holds the copyright in the relevant Content, except on HPLexicon and its partner sites, Accio Quote! and The Leaky Cauldron. You have the right to use Content provided by you as you see fit.

This License does not include or allow any resale or commercial use of this site or its contents.

HPLexicon respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. We follow the requirements of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act in terms of the information we request when copyright infringement, such as the copying of a fic or of art, is claimed. If you believe that a work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please send as much of the the following information ("Notice") as you have available to Help Desk.

1. a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed, including the URL, if available;
2. a description of the infringement that you claim has occurred, such as similarities between the two works;
3. a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site, including the URL thereof;
4. your address, telephone number, and e-mail address (an accurate e-mail address is mandatory);
5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf.
7. an electronic or physical signature of the owner or a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;

This site is periodically archived by the Library of Congress through their Minerva Web Preservation Project (www.loc.gov/minerva). Any Content posted on HPLexicon may, thus, be archived by the Library of Congress pursuant to this Project.

You recognize that all content on this site represents the opinions of the individual who has created such content, and is not endorsed by this site in any way, except when a post is made by a Moderator or Administrator acting in his or her capacity as a member of Team HPLexicon.

vi. Disclosure

You acknowledge and agree that HPLexicon may preserve Content and may disclose Content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

1. comply with legal process;
2. enforce the ToU;
3. respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third-parties;
4. protect the property of HPLexicon or the rights, property, or personal safety of the Site's users and the public.

HPLexicon enters into licenses and other agreements from time to time with third parties ("Associates"). HPLexicon's current Associates are CafePress, Google, and Amazon. You acknowledge that HPLexicon is not responsible for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, decency, or any other aspect of the products, services, and site content of the Associates. HPLexicon cannot ensure that you will be satisfied with any products or services that you purchase from any third-party site that links to or from HPLexicon since such shop channels are owned and operated by independent retailers. HPLexicon does not manufacture or distribute any of the merchandise provided by the Associates, nor has HPLexicon taken any steps to confirm the accuracy or reliability of any of the information contained in the Associates' sites. HPLexicon expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringment, on any products, services or site content of the Associates and their subsidiaries and affiliates.

HPLexicon does not make any representations or warranties as to the security of any information (including, without limitation, credit card and other personal information) you may be requested to give any Associate, and you hereby irrevocably waive any claim against us with respect to such sites. We strongly encourage you to make whatever investigation you feel necessary or appropriate before proceeding with any online transaction with any of these Associates.

For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically recognizes and archives the visitor's domain name, including IP address.

We collect the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail, user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, the IP address of each visitor to HPLexicon, and any information that a visitor posts on the Message and Review Boards or sends to any of our official e-mail addresses.

The information we collect is used to improve the content of our Web page and customize the content and/or layout of our page for each individual visitor, and is not shared with other organizations. Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on HPLexicon.

We may, from time to time, send emails or other messages to Users regarding changes to HPLexicon, or regarding events that HPLexicon is sponsoring or promoting. When such emails or Owls are sent, no personally identifying information is provided by HPLexicon to any third party.

• With respect to cookies: we use cookies to store visitors preferences, customize Web page content based on visitors' browser type or other information that the visitor sends, and record past activity at a site in order to provide better service when visitors return to our site.

• With respect to Ad Servers: HPLexicon is including advertisements served by Google's AdSense program on certain pages of the site. HPLexicon does not provide any personally identifying information to Google, although Google may collect certain information from a user if that user clicks on one of the advertisements.

We may, at a future time, use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes to our Web site to notify you of these changes, and such changes will only be used for information provided by those who have used the Site after the effective date of such policy changes. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our Web site periodically.

We cannot delete accounts; it has the potential to cause problems with our back-end software. However, you can advise us that you do not wish to be contacted by HPLexicon. If you do not want to receive e-mail from us in the future, please send a request to the Help Desk . Regardless of your notification status, we reserve the right to send you notice of ToU violations or suspensions, as well as reply to any e-mail message you send to HPLexicon, even if you make this request.

Upon request, HPLexicon will provide you with a description of the information that we maintain about you. You can request this description by e-mailing us at help-privacy@hp-lexicon.info

The terms in this section apply to all use of the Pensieves, comments, forums and Portkey at HPLexicon.

i. Registration

You do not have to be a registered user to visit HPLexicon, but you must be a registered user to post messages on the HPLexicon forums and use the personal features on the Portkey.

Screen Names and Author Names must be unique to the user and distinguishable from any other user. Screen Names and Author Names must not contain unacceptable language or allusions, including but not limited to lewd, discriminatory, or R, NC-17 or X-rated allusions or words. HPLexicon reserves the right to contact you about changing your Screen Name or Author Names if said name is deemed unacceptable for one or more of these reasons, and if you do not respond within three calendar days, HPLexicon reserves the right to change your Screen Name to one that does not violate these Terms of Use.

ii. Rules

All posts made in HPLexicon forums must conform to the rules posted there. All posts are to comply with the rules laid out in the ToU, the Philosophy of the Forum, and any additional rules that are laid out in any ADMIN announcement thread in any HPLexicon forum.

The Hosts on the forums, and Mods and Admins are the people to deal with violations of these rules. If you believe a post or other content violates these rules, follow the procedure outlined on the forum for reporting posts. In the Portkey or Pensieves, send and email to Help Desk. Posting to inform others that they have violated the ToU is not allowed and is only likely to make the situation worse. Violating the ToU is not acceptable, even in response to someone else's having done so.

LANGUAGE:

• All posts on HPLexicon must be made substantially in English.
• The following things are not allowed on any review or discussion boards on HPLexicon:

• L33T (such as "ph34r" or "hax0r") or the use of alphanumerics like "U" in place of "you", "UR" in place of "your", "4" in place of "for", or "R" in place of "are");

• cryptic abbreviations that are not explained elsewhere in the thread  or in the post itself;
• erratic capitalisation, such as "tHiNgS wRiTTen Like thIs".
• We also require sentences, proper names and the word "I" (and related contractions, like "I'm" and "I've") to begin with capital letters, and end with punctuation marks (ideally one mark, and no more than 10). Please note that while smilies are allowed in posts, they are not considered punctuation marks.
• The above are to aid the accessibility of the site to those who have learned English as a foreign language and those with reading-related issues (e.g. dyslexia or those using a text reader).

FLAMES:

Flaming another user will not be tolerated. Flames are defined as:

• any post, or portion of a post, containing defamatory statements aimed toward other individuals, whether singly or as members of any group;
• any post, or portion of a post, where the stated primary intent or the clearly implied primary intent of the poster is to insult, to engender hostility or to incite terror in any other individual;
• any post, or portion of a post, where the stated or clearly implied intent of the poster is to incite a flame war.

SPAM:

Spamming is not allowed. Spam is defined as:

• repetitive postings of the same message across numerous forums; or Pensieves
• posting an advertisement for an auction, sale, or some other commercial venture that benefits the poster, the family of the poster or an organisation connected with the poster (without obtaining prior permission from HPLexicon);
• posting multiple brief messages in a short time period;
• posting multiple messages to a single thread in a short period of time without said posts being interspersed with other users' posts to the thread
• If you wish to advertise or publicize a website, a role-playing game, or a fic or art, or if you wish to publicize and promote a "real-life" event such as a conference or a charity event, please contact the HelpDesk.

x. Permanent Bans

HPLexicon will permanently ban those users attempting to sabotage the smooth running of the Site (i.e., those sending viruses to the Site's staff, those attempting to hack the Site, etc.) or those who continue to break the ToU after multiple warnings and posting rights suspensions.

xi. Disciplinary Procedure

Hosts, Mods and Admins are moderators of all forums and may take action as applicable.
If a Host, Mod or Admin takes action regarding an offence, he/she will:

• advise the user who has violated the ToU, pursuant to Section 11(ix) herein, either to warn or to limit posting abilities;
• suspend users' posting rights where applicable;

• permanently close threads that are mere factual questions, once the question has been answered;
• merge threads that are duplicative;
• close and delete threads if the contents of the thread violate the terms of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

HPLexicon will delete posts or threads for violations of the Terms of Use or any post which contains a threat against any member of HPLexicon or any other living person, contains a virus or a link thereto, or is otherwise detrimental to the safe operation of the Site.

xii. Moderator Behaviour

Mods and Admins should set an example for the rest of HPLexicon. They should never flame or spam, and always try to keep their tempers. They should not respond to flames or taunts in kind.

A mod or admin posting the same or similar message to several threads when acting as a moderator will not have such messages considered as spam.

This ToU contains language created by HPLexicon.org, TrustE, DMA and TrekToday. all of which is used with permission.