Welcome to Daily Kos. You are supposed to read these terms and conditions before using this site in any manner. By using the site, you’re agreeing to them.

Oh, and we can change them whenever we want, though we will try to let you know when we do. For reference, the site Terms and Conditions are below:

1. Accounts

 There are two tiers of accounts -- free accounts and subscriptions. Creating an account gives you full access to the free services, which includes the ability to read all content and most publishing features. Subscriptions provide an ad-free site experience as well as a handful of enhanced services.

Don’t open a Daily Kos account on behalf of a company, political campaign, organization, or other entity, unless you are authorized to do so. No exceptions.

You may never use another User’s account without permission.

You can only use one Account at a time, unless using a fully disclosed group account for an organization, campaign, or Daily Kos community group. And even in that limited exception, both accounts cannot interact with each other (such as uprating comments).

Don’t sockpuppet (the creation of multiple accounts); we will find out and terminate both accounts.

Don’t claim you are someone who you are not. We are perfectly happy with pseudonyms. If you want to protect your identity, use one of those.

Use real passwords, with upper and lower case letters and numbers, so no one can “guess” your genius “p-a-s-s-w-o-r-d” password. Because ultimately, you are responsible for all activity on your account. And similarly, we are not. And if someone breaches your account, let us know immediately.

We will use your signup email to send you occasional emails regarding site content or activism campaigns. We are trying to change the world, and email helps with that. But if you don’t like it, simply go into your user preferences and you can opt out. You can also opt out by clicking that link at the bottom of our emails.

We May Discontinue or Suspend Our Site or Terminate Your Use: Daily Kos features may be changed or removed at any time. We aren’t legally liable to anyone if we do so, because really, why would we be?

We also have a right to ban and block your from the site at our discretion, and will do so if your actions and/or behavior negatively impact the site or its community. So please behave. This applies to subscribers too.

2. Copyrights and trademarks

“Daily Kos” and “Kos” are registered trademarks of Kos Media. Don’t use them without permission or we have to send you a lawyerly letter. We don’t like having to do so, but the law requires us to do so.

All site content written by Daily Kos staff is published under an open content license. That is, anyone can republish it anywhere, for any purpose, without written permission. That’s not a typo. WITHOUT.

Photos, on the other hand, are owned by the photographers and you should assume that they are NOT in the public domain. Don’t steal them unless they are attributed to Wikicommons or other public domain sources.

Don’t try to rip off our site brand. We will pursue and shut down any site attempting to mimic our look and feel with sound-alike URLs or common misspellings. We have done it before, and we will do it again.

Site content written by community members belongs to the individual authors. Those authors are free to determine their own copyright. Currently, that copyright defaults to an open content (public domain) license. Authors are free to change that license at their own discretion.

Obviously, if you are posting on the site, you’ve given us permission to publish it. It’s kinda the point of the site. And by doing so, you also give us the right to further distribute that content in our affiliated outlets, like our Facebook page, email, etc. If you’ve got something worth reading, we’ll try and get more people to read it. Again, that’s kinda the point of the site.

Don’t plagiarize. We have a zero-tolerance policy toward stealing other people’s content or identity.

If you defame someone, it’s your ass on the line. Don’t.

Keep your behavior civil and within the confines of polite society. In other words, don’t be a dick.

Don’t steal content. Just because you attribute content to its rightful author doesn’t mean you can copy and paste whatever you want.

Don’t steal pictures. Either get the proper license or find your perfect image in the public domain.

As stated above, the site defaults to public domain content licensing. If you want to restrict such usage, make note of it at the bottom of your post/diary. If you want more information on licenses, you can’t beat Creative Commons.

We do not pre-screen, monitor, or review the content posted by users, but reserve the right to remove or not publish content without prior notice if warranted.

We are not responsible for any failure, non-failure or delay in removing any content.

Daily Kos is not kindergarten, no matter how much some people may want it to be. You may read things that hurt your feelings, but it’s the internet. Every once in a while, someone says something wrong! You’ll live. Trust us.

3. If your copyright is being infringed

If someone is stealing your content or photos, please let us know. We take this stuff seriously.

4. We are an Internet Service Provider, e.g., We are Not Responsible For and Do Not Necessarily Hold the Opinions Expressed by Our Content Contributors

It should go without saying that with hundreds of thousands of registered users, and tens of thousands of diarist/bloggers, there is great diversity in thoughts and opinions. So just because you read it on the site doesn’t mean “the site” said it or thinks it. That would make for a very schizophrenic site.

Content created by non-staff bloggers is the sole responsibility of those individuals and its accuracy and completeness is not endorsed or guaranteed. By enabling grassroots publishing on the site, Daily Kos is not adopting any obligation or liability from that content.

Daily Kos has no obligation to monitor the site for inappropriate or unlawful content.

Daily Kos has no responsibility or liability from community-produced content.

5. You Will Be Responsible for Any Harm We Suffer as a Result of Your Violation of These Terms and Conditions

Generally speaking, if you screw up and suffer harm from any violation of these Terms and Conditions, it’s your problem, not ours. We aren’t liable. However, at our discretion, we reserve the right to engage in the legal defense of any attacks on our community’s First Amendment rights or other such critical issues.

6. Your Use of Our Site is Subject to Certain Disclaimers

Our site is available “as is.” Sometimes, our servers go down. Sometimes, a site feature breaks. Sometimes, a reported “fact” turns out to be an error. Sometimes a candidate we endorsed turns out to be a dud. While we aspire to perfection, chances are we’ll occasionally come up short. You can’t send us back to the manufacturer for a full refund.

7. We are Not Responsible for Linked Sites

If it’s not under a Kos Media-owned site, it’s not our responsibility or problem. And linking to a site doesn’t change that pretty obvious fact.

Daily Kos allows users to connect their Facebook and Twitter logins with their Daily Kos logins. In doing so, we are only accessing Facebook’s and Twitter’s API to verify you are who you say you are. We do not have access to or store any private information.

8. We May be Legally Compelled to Disclose Certain Information

If we receive a subpoena issued by a court or from a law enforcement or government agency, we may comply with such subpoenas with or without your consent (depending on the facts of the situation) and provide whatever information we may have for your account. If we feel the subpoena is in error or overly broad, we may also decide to fight it.

9. Our Liability to You is Limited

Reiterating what’s been said before in plain English, but this time in legalese to make our lawyer happy:

DailyKos and its affiliates, and their respective members, directors, officers, managers, employees, shareholders, agents and licensors are not liable for incidental, indirect, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages of any kind, including, without limitation, lost revenues or profits, loss of business or loss of data, in any way related to this site or for any claim, loss or injury based on errors, omissions, interruptions or other inaccuracies in our site (including, without limitation, as a result of breach of any warranty or other term of these Terms and Conditions). Any claim against us shall be limited to the amount you paid, if any, for use of our site.

10. Any Dispute Between Us Will be Governed by California Law

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the laws of the United States and the State of California, applicable to agreements made and to be performed therein without regard to conflict of laws principles. BY CONTINUING TO USE OUR SITE, YOU AGREE TO ABIDE BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS.