Sefaria, Inc. Terms of Use – Last Updated On: January 29th, 2014

1. Welcome

Sefaria, Inc. (“Sefaria,” “we,” “us,” etc.), is a nonprofit charitable organization whose mission is to foster Jewish learning by empowering and engaging people around the world to collect and develop Jewish texts under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate them effectively and globally, free of charge, with engaging, interactive interfaces.

To support our community, we provide the essential infrastructure and organizational framework for the development of structured primary texts, translations, annotations, and other learning materials. We strive to make and keep educational and informational content related to Jewish texts available on the internet free of charge, in perpetuity.

We welcome you (“you,” “your,” or the “user”) as a reader, editor, translator, author, or contributor to Sefaria and we encourage you to join the Sefaria community.

2. Your Acceptance

This website – http://www.sefaria.org/ -- is being made available to you free of charge under the terms and conditions stated herein (the “Terms of Use”). These Terms of Use, the Account Registration Form, and our Privacy Policy (collectively, this “Agreement”) contains the entire agreement between you and Sefaria concerning your use of the Sefaria website (“Website”). Sefaria shall not be responsible or liable for services, information, or other materials displayed, purchased, or obtained as a result of any information or offer of any kind obtained in connection with the Website. By accessing or using the Website, or by using the goods, facilities or services offered in or through the Website or through the Website’s alternative methods (such as telephone, U.S. postal mail, or e-mail), you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use.

Sefaria reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use at any time and without notice. It is your responsibility to review these Terms of Use for any changes. Your continued use of the Website following any amendment of them will signify your assent to and acceptance of its revised terms. Your accessing, viewing, browsing and/or using the Website after we post changes to these Terms and Conditions constitutes your acceptance and agreement to those changes, whether or not you actually reviewed them. At the top of this page, we will notify you of the date these Terms and Conditions were last updated. We will also endeavor to post notification of any updates to these Terms and Conditions on the Website.

Entering the Website will constitute your acceptance of these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions contained in the Terms of Use, you should not access or use the Website.

Sefaria owns and operates the Website and shall have the right at any time to change or discontinue any aspect or feature of it and the right to modify the terms and conditions, including these Terms of Use. Such changes, modifications, additions or deletions shall be effective upon posting on the Website. Any use by you of the Website or the goods, facilities, or services offered in or through the Website, shall be deemed to constitute acceptance of such changes.

3. Use of Website and Content

The Sefaria Project is a free culture project and our intention is to grant broad permission to reuse and develop upon content we create or distribute. All uses of the Website, including all its content (including user-generated content), trademarks, materials, information, indicia, features, functionality, platform, software (including any binary or source code), and graphic images, unless expressly stated otherwise (“Content”), are permitted subject to restrictions articulated in these Terms of Use, corresponding Privacy Policy (see below), and any relevant licenses.

Despite this intention, the Website and its Content are protected by copyright, trademark and all other laws protecting such property. The Website, including all rights, title, and interest in it, belongs to Sefaria or its licensors or to the Public Domain. Content and features are subject to change or termination without notice in the editorial discretion of Sefaria. Other company names, trademarks, materials, indicia, and graphic images that appear on the Website may be trademarks or intellectual property of their respective owners, and they are used on this Website with the permission of the owners. Please note that any use of the Content not expressly permitted by these Terms of Use is a breach of these Terms of Use and may violate certain laws.

You may download our data directly from the Sefaria Data Github Repository at https://github.com/blockspeiser/Sefaria-Data or by accessing our API via http://www.sefaria.org/developers. However, any exploitation of the Website or its Content for any commercial use is strictly prohibited without our express, prior written consent. Any use of data mining, screen-scraping, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction systems, techniques, or code bases whose primary purpose is simply to crawl the Website for its manual or automated Content is strictly prohibited. Any use of our trademarks and logos without our express, prior written consent is strictly prohibited, including but not limited to any use of any meta tags or any other "hidden text" utilizing our name or trademarks.

4. Licensing of Content

To make the entirety of the Jewish textual tradition available as free Content, all users contributing to Sefaria are required to grant broad permissions to the general public to re-distribute and re-use their contributions freely. In keeping with our goal of providing free Jewish texts to the widest possible audience, we require that when necessary all submitted Content be licensed so that it is freely reusable by anyone who cares to 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 Zero License (“CC0”) when no indication of a license is present.
One of the Creative Commons licenses compatible with Sefaria’s mission – Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (“CC BY-SA”) or Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (“CC BY”) -- when an option of license choice is given.
CC BY-SA if the submission is a source sheet.
Please note that the above licenses do allow commercial uses of your contributions, as long as such uses are compliant with the terms.

Attribution: Attribution is an important part of the CC BY-SA and CC BY licenses. When you contribute text, you agree to be attributed in any of the following fashions:

Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the text to which you contributed (since each text has a history page that lists all 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 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 warrant that the text is available under terms that are compatible with the CC BY-SA license. Content available only under the GNU Free Documentation License is not permissible.

You agree that, if you import text under a CC BY-SA or CC BY license that requires attribution, you must credit the author(s) in a reasonable fashion by submitting a URL or citation. In some cases, in particular with online copies, reasonable diligence may need to be taken to find the correct attribution for a text.

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 Sefaria, even if you terminate use of our services, and even substantially thereafter.

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. 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: Re-use of content that we host is welcome, though exceptions exist (1) for content contributed under "fair use" or similar exemptions under copyright law and (2) per these Terms of Use. Any re-use must comply with the underlying license(s).

When you re-use or re-distribute a text hosted by Sefaria with a CC BY or CC BY-SA license, 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 re-using (since each page has a history page that lists all 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 Sefaria Website; or
Through a list of all known authors (but please note that any list of authors may be reasonably limited to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions).

You may not re-use or re-distribute a text hosted by Sefaria with a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License (“CC BY-NC-SA”) in a source sheet.

Modifications or additions to material that you re-use: When modifying or making additions to text that you have obtained from Sefaria which is licensed under a CC BY-SA license, you agree to license the modified or added content under CC BY-SA 3.0 or later.

5. Refraining from Certain Activities

The texts and annotations hosted by the Sefaria are open to the Sefaria community to develop and improve by means of editing, translating and annotating. 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 Sefaria’s mission.

Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, 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 our sites.

These activities include:

Harassing and Abusing Others

Engaging in harassment, bullying, threats, stalking, hate speech, spamming, or vandalism; and
Transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users.

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 purposes of harassment, exploitation, or violation of privacy; and
Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.

Please Note – Privacy Policy

The Sefaria Privacy Policy is available by clicking here: http://www.sefaria.org/privacy-policy. The Privacy Policy explains how we collect certain information, who we share that information with, and how we secure that information. It also provides you the right to opt out of us sharing certain information with others, except as provided by law.

Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud

Intentionally or knowingly posting content that constitutes libel or defamation;
With the intent to deceive, posting content that is false or inaccurate;
Attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, or using the username of another user with the intent to deceive; and
Engaging in fraud.

Committing Infringement

Infringing copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights under applicable law.

Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes

Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law concerning child pornography;
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 our users;
Engaging in automated uses of the site that are abusive or disruptive of the services;
Disrupting the services by placing a burden on the Website or the networks or servers connected with the Website;
Disrupting the services by inundating the Website with communications or other traffic that suggests no serious intent to use the 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:

you email hello@sefaria.org requesting advance permission to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any of our technical systems or networks;
you receive said written permission from our representative through such process;
such actions do not 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 Sefaria developers (or fix it yourself);
you reword problematic code offline via GitHub;
you submit such code to hello@sefaria.org and;
you do not undertake such actions with malicious or destructive intent.

We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to the above terms.

6. Password Security

If you use the Website, you are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the information you submit through your Account Profile and the corresponding password and for restricting access to your computer. You should never disclose this information or the corresponding password to any third party. In addition, you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your Account Profile or password. We reserve the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, and to remove or edit Content submitted by you in the your Account Profile area of the Website.

7. Third-Party Websites and Resources

The Website may link you to the websites and resources of products or services of third parties. You are solely responsible for your access or use of any third-party websites or resources; Sefaria is not liable in any way for your access or use of such websites or resources. Unless otherwise noted, Sefaria does not own or control such third-party websites or resources, 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. In addition, a link to any other website or resource does not imply that we endorse or accept any responsibility for the content or use of such other website or resource. You use of any third party website or resource, as well as your use of products or services that they provide, shall be subject to the terms and conditions provided by such websites or resources.

8. Management of Websites

The need may arise to address a problematic user because of significant disturbance or dangerous or abusive behavior. In such cases, we reserve the right, but do not have the obligation to:

Investigate your use of the service (a) to determine whether a violation of these Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, or other applicable law or policy has occurred, or (b) to comply with any applicable law, legal process, or appropriate governmental request;

Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues or respond to user support requests;
Refuse, disable, or restrict access to the contribution 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 copyright infringement;
Take legal action against users who violate these Terms of Use (including reports to law enforcement authorities); and
Manage otherwise the Website in a manner designed to facilitate its proper functioning and protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and our users, licensors, partners, and the public.

In the interests of our users and the Website, in the circumstance that any individual has had his or her account or access blocked under this provision, he or she is prohibited from creating or using another account on or seeking access to Sefaria, unless we provide explicit permission. Sefaria 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 blocking of an account or access or the banning of a user under this provision shall be in accordance with Section of these Terms of Use titled Termination.

9. Appropriate Content

Sefaria is dedicated to texts of the Jewish tradition. Many texts, while worthwhile in other contexts, may be inappropriate in the context of Sefaria. We, together with designated community members, reserve the right to remove texts which we deem inappropriate for Sefaria’s mission. Users who have submitted inappropriate content will be notified via email.

Repeated instances of users submitting inappropriate content may constitute a violation of these Terms of Use and may result in the measures outlined above.

10. Protecting Children’s Privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. You should be aware that this Website is not intended or designed to attract children under the age of 13. We do not collect personally identifiable information from any person we actually know is a child under the age of 13.

11. Termination

Though we hope you will stay and continue to contribute to Sefaria, you can stop using our services any time. In certain circumstances, it may be necessary for us 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 will remain publicly available (subject to applicable policies), and, unless we notify you otherwise, you may still access our public pages for the sole purpose of reading publicly available Content on Sefaria. In such circumstances, however, you may not be able to access your account or settings. 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.

12. Disputes, Venue, and Jurisdiction

This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, and, to the extent applicable, the laws of the United States of America, without respect to conflict of laws principles. Any claim or dispute between you and Sefaria that arises in whole or in part from Sefaria’s services shall be decided exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction in San Francisco County, California. 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.

13. Warranty Disclaimer

WHILE SEFARIA DOES ITS BEST TO PROVIDE TEXTS, TRANSLATION, AND ANNOTATION TO A VERY WIDE AUDIENCE, YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE OR THE CONTENT SHALL BE AT YOUR OWN RISK TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW. THE WEBSITE AND CONTENT ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS. SEFARIA AND ITS RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AFFILIATES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTIES’ RIGHTS AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSES. SEFARIA DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES THAT OUR SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, BE SAFE, SECURE, UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, ACCURATE, OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE SECURE.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER SEFARIA NOR ITS LICENSORS MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES IN CONNECTION WITH (I) THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENT ON THE WEBSITE OR THE CONTENT OF ANY SITES LINKED TO THE WEBSITE; (II) ANY ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT; (III) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE WEBSITE; (IV) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN; (V) ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE WHICH MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH OUR WEBSITE THROUGH ANY THIRD PARTY, AND/OR (VI) ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USER OF ANY CONTENT POSTED, EMAILED, TRANSMITTED OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE BY OR THROUGH SEFARIA. 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.

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.

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.

14. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL SEFARIA OR ITS RESPECTIVE AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS, BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RELATING TO, ASSOCIATED WITH, OR BASED UPON YOUR OR ANY OTHER PARTY’S USE OF THE WEBSITE INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY SUCH DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM ANY: (I) ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT; (II) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE, OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM YOUR OR ANY OTHER PARTY’S ACCESS AND USE OF WEBSITE; (III) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN, (IV) ANY INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM THE WEBSITE; (V) ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF YOUR OR ANY OTHER PARTY’S USE OF ANY CONTENT POSTED, EMAILED, TRANSMITTED, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE WEBSITE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT SEFARIA IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

IN NO EVENT SHALL SEFARIA BE LIABLE FOR ANY DELAYS, INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR OMISSIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION OR THE TRANSMISSION OR DELIVERY OF ALL OR ANY PART THEREOF, FOR ANY DAMAGE ARISING FROM OR OCCASIONED THEREBY, OR FOR THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE INFORMATION. IN NO EVENT WILL SEFARIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE AVAILABILITY, USE, RELIANCE ON, OR INABILITY TO USE THE WEBSITE, AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, OR FOR ANY CLAIM ATTRIBUTABLE TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR OTHER INACCURACIES. SEFARIA SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIALS DISPLAYED, PURCHASED, OR OBTAINED AS A RESULT OF ANY INFORMATION OR OFFER IN OR RESULTS OF ANY KIND OBTAINED IN CONNECTION WITH THE WEBSITE.

15. Other Terms

These Terms of Use do not create an employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture relationship between you and Sefaria, regardless of the nature and quantum of your use and contribution to the website. If you have not signed a separate agreement with us, these Terms of Use, the Account Registration, together with the Privacy Policy at http://www.sefaria.org/privacy-policy shall constitute the entire agreement between you and Sefaria with respect to the use of the Website and Content. If there is any conflict between these Terms of Use and a signed written agreement between you and Sefaria, the signed agreement will control. If any provision of these Terms of Use is deemed invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions, which shall remain in full force and effect. No waiver of any term of these Terms of Use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term, and Sefaria’s failure to assert any right or provision under these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

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 Website.

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.

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in these Terms of Use, we (the Sefaria Project) and you agree not to modify the applicable terms and requirements of any free license that is employed on Sefaria when such free license is authorized by these Terms of Use.

16. Notice and Takedown Procedures; and Copyright Agent

If you believe any materials accessible on or from the Website infringe your copyright, you may request removal of those materials (or access thereto) from the Website by contacting Sefaria’s copyright agent (identified below) and providing the following information:

Identification of the copyrighted work that you believe to be infringed. Please describe the work, and where possible include a copy or the location (e.g., URL) of an authorized version of the work.
Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and its location. Please describe the material, and provide us with its URL or any other pertinent information that will allow us to locate the material.
Your name, address, telephone number and (if available) e-mail address.
A statement that you have a good faith belief that the complained of use of the materials is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
A statement that the information that you have supplied is accurate, and indicating that "under penalty of perjury," you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
A signature or the electronic equivalent from the copyright holder or authorized representative.

Sefaria’s agent for copyright issues relating to the Website is as follows:

By mail:

Sefaria

228 Park Ave S.

Suite 79262

New York, New York 10003-1502

By phone:

347-773-0077

By e-mail:

17. Thank You!

We are very happy to have you contributing to Sefaria and using our services. Through your contributions, you are helping to build something really big – a step forward for thousands of years of Jewish learning -- in an open and participatory way.

PLEASE PRINT OUT THESE TERMS OF USE AND RETAIN A COPY.