Terms of use
Plain terms for a public consultation. Nothing here takes rights away from you that the rest of the site promises you keep.
1 · Who these are with
This site is operated by the working group for the Manchester Principles. Until the summit appoints a custodian, that is the drafting group named in the privacy notice. Where these terms say "we", that is who is meant.
2 · Reading is open to everyone
The full text, every amendment, every objection and every vote count are public and need no account. You may quote, translate, reproduce and build on the Principles themselves under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, including commercially, provided you attribute the source and state whether you changed anything.
3 · Accounts
A place in the working group is granted at our discretion after a human checks your details. It is personal to you and must not be shared or transferred. Give accurate information about yourself and your organisation; an account obtained through misrepresentation may be removed.
You can delete your account yourself at any time from your data page, without giving a reason.
4 · What happens to what you post
You keep the copyright in everything you write. You are not signing your work over to anyone.
By posting, you grant an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence for your contribution to be published on this site, quoted in the consultation record, and — where an amendment carries — incorporated into future versions of the Principles under the same CC BY 4.0 licence the Principles themselves use.
That licence is what makes a crowd-written document possible: without it, a carried amendment could be withdrawn later and the text would unravel. It covers your contribution, not your other work.
You confirm that what you post is yours to post, and does not infringe anyone else's rights. Attribution travels with contributions in accordance with Pillar Three: if your wording is adopted, the record shows it was yours.
5 · Acceptable use
Follow the code of conduct. In addition, do not attempt to breach the site's security, scrape it at volume, use it to send unsolicited messages, or use automated means to create accounts or cast votes.
On scraping and AI training specifically: the Principles themselves are free to ingest under CC BY. Members' personal data and the discussion archive are not licensed for training generative systems, and doing so is a breach of these terms. It would also be a fairly complete misunderstanding of the document.
6 · How amendments carry
An amendment supported by twenty or more registered accounts across at least three role categories goes to the summit floor. Anything else is published with the record as recorded dissent. The working group may discount support that appears coordinated or inauthentic, and will say so publicly when it does. Final decisions on the text rest with the summit, and afterwards with whatever custodian it appoints.
7 · Availability
This is a free, volunteer-run consultation site. We will keep it up and correct, but we do not promise uninterrupted service, and we may change or withdraw features. Nothing here is legal advice, and adopting the Principles is a voluntary commitment, not a contract with us.
8 · Liability
To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for loss arising from your use of this site or from reliance on anything published on it. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
9 · Changes
If these terms change materially we will say so on the site and email registered members. Continuing to use the site after that means you accept the change; if you do not, delete your account.
10 · Law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. This does not remove any protection you have under the mandatory law of your own country of residence.