Effective date: July 1, 2026
Please read and review these Terms of Service carefully before using this website.
Who we are and how to contact us
These Terms of Service apply to the website at theopenlore.net and its subdomains, together with the related online offerings we provide under the Open Lore Network brand (collectively, the "Services"). The Services are operated by The Open Lore Network ("OLN"), a project of the OLN Foundation.
The Open Lore Network is an openly-licensed, community-governed encyclopedia of fictional canon. These Terms of Service tell you the rules for using our Services.
To contact us, please email [email protected].
By using our Services you accept these Terms
By accessing or using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understand, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (the "Terms" or this "Agreement"), whether or not you are a registered user. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use our Services. We recommend that you keep a copy of these Terms for future reference.
These Terms refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of the Services:
- Our Privacy Policy;
- Our Licensing terms (the license under which contributions to OLN are published);
- Our Content and Community Policy;
- Our Child Safety Policy; and
- Our community governance documents, including the OLN Constitution and any franchise-level guidelines.
We may make changes to our Services
We may update and change our Services from time to time to reflect changes to our product, our community's needs, and our priorities. We will try to give reasonable notice of any major changes.
We may make changes to this Agreement
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Agreement at any time. Please check this page periodically to review any changes. Your continued use of the Services after revised Terms take effect constitutes your acceptance of them.
Please read these Terms carefully as they contain important information regarding your legal rights, remedies, and obligations, including limitations and exclusions of liability.
When these Terms apply
These Terms apply to registered and non-registered users alike. To use the Services you must accept these Terms, which you do by (a) registering for an account or (b) using any of the Services. You confirm that you are of legal age to form a binding contract, or that you have parental or legal-guardian consent, and that you are able to comply with these Terms. You confirm that you are 16 or older (if you are located in California or the European Economic Area ("EEA"), excluding the U.K.) or 13 or older (if you are located in the rest of the world, including the U.K.), and you acknowledge that the Services are not intended for children under those ages. You may not use the Services if you are barred from doing so by applicable law.
Membership
Certain features of the Services require you to register an account. By registering, you represent and warrant that you meet the age requirement above and that you will abide by all terms of this Agreement. You must not register where you are prohibited by law from doing so.
Keep your account details safe
If you create an account, you are responsible for keeping your password and credentials confidential and for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account. We may suspend or terminate your account, and remove content you have posted, at our discretion where we reasonably consider it necessary — for example, where your use of the Services violates these Terms or applicable law.
Advertising
The Services are supported in part by advertising, and we may display advertisements on the Services. Your use of the Services may be subject to the display of such advertising. How we handle personal information in connection with advertising is described in our Privacy Policy.
Trademarks
"The Open Lore Network," "Open Lore Network," "OLN," the OLN logos, and the look and feel of the Services are marks of the OLN Foundation and may not be used without our prior written permission in any manner likely to cause confusion, or that disparages or discredits OLN. All other trademarks referenced in the Services are the property of their respective owners; reference to any product, service, or franchise does not imply endorsement or affiliation.
Fictional franchises, characters, and works catalogued on OLN are the intellectual property of their respective rights holders. OLN is an independent reference project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by those rights holders.
Submitting content to the Services
You are solely responsible for all content — including facts, corrections, timelines, articles, images, comments, and other material — that you submit, upload, or display on or through the Services. You may not submit content that you did not create or that you do not have the right to submit, or content that is not compatible with the license used by the part of the Services to which you are contributing.
Open licensing of contributions. Contributions to the OLN knowledge base are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0) so that the encyclopedia remains free to read, reuse, and build upon. By contributing, you agree to license any text you change or contribute under CC BY-SA 4.0, and you represent that you have the rights necessary to grant this. Full details are in our Licensing terms.
Community review and governance. OLN is community-governed. Contributions may be reviewed, edited, moderated, retired, or reverted by the community and its stewards in accordance with the OLN Constitution, the Content and Community Policy, and franchise guidelines. You understand and agree that others may edit or remove content you submit, and that change history is retained for transparency.
No archive; keep your own backups. The Services are not an archive. We have no liability for loss, damage, or destruction of your content, and you are responsible for keeping your own backup copies of anything you submit.
User conduct
You agree not to:
- Abuse, harass, threaten, or intimidate other users;
- Post or transmit any content that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, hateful, or that infringes the intellectual property or other rights of a third party, or that incites violence or criminal conduct;
- Impersonate another user or person;
- Solicit passwords, account details, or private information from other users, or personal information from any minor;
- Post unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, or "spam";
- Remove, circumvent, disable, or interfere with security-related features of the Services, or delete copyright or proprietary-rights notices;
- Introduce viruses or any other harmful code, or take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
- Interfere with the proper working of the Services, or bypass measures we use to prevent or restrict access to them (including robot-exclusion headers); or
- Except as expressly permitted by the applicable content license, scrape, harvest, or use automated means to extract or index content, or use OLN content to develop software or to train a machine-learning or artificial- intelligence system, without our express prior written consent.
You further agree to use the Services only in a manner consistent with these Terms and applicable law, to maintain the confidentiality of your credentials, and to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account.
Respecting copyright and claims of infringement
OLN respects the intellectual property of others and responds to notices of alleged infringement in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") and other applicable laws. If you are a copyright owner or agent and believe content on the Services infringes your copyright, please contact our designated OLN Copyright Agent at [email protected], with "Claim of copyright infringement" in the subject line. A valid notice must include the elements required by the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)). Only DMCA notices should be sent to this address.
Idea submission
By submitting ideas, suggestions, or proposals to OLN, you agree that we may use or disclose them for any purpose without compensation or credit to you.
Termination
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we reserve the right, without notice and at our discretion, to terminate your license to use the Services and to block your future access, including where we reasonably consider that your use violates these Terms or applicable law, that you have misused the Services, or that we are unable to continue providing the Services for technical or legitimate business reasons. Your only remedy for dissatisfaction with the Services or these Terms is to stop using the Services and, if applicable, deactivate your account.
Disclaimers; no warranties
OLN is not responsible for the content or conduct of any user, or of any other site or service referenced or linked from the Services. You understand that by using the Services you may be exposed to content you find objectionable, and that you use the Services at your own risk.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Services and all content and materials are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that content is accurate, complete, reliable, or error-free, or that the Services or our servers are free of viruses or other harmful components.
Limitation on liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will OLN, the OLN Foundation, or their officers, directors, employees, volunteers, agents, licensors, or suppliers be liable for any indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages, or any loss of use, profits, or data, arising out of or in any way connected with your use of or inability to use the Services. Our aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Services will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us, if any, in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim, or one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).
We do not exclude or limit our liability where it would be unlawful to do so.
Indemnity
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless OLN, the OLN Foundation, and their volunteers, contractors, employees, and agents from any claims, losses, damages, and liabilities (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your use or misuse of the Services, any content you submit, your violation of the rights of any third party, or your breach of these Terms.
Governing law, venue, and jurisdiction
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, these Terms and any dispute arising out of them or your use of the Services are governed by the laws of the State of California, U.S.A., without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, and you agree to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in California for any such dispute.
Other terms and conditions
To the extent any translation of these Terms differs from the English version, the English version controls. If we do not enforce any right or provision of these Terms, that is not a waiver of it. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will stay in effect. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them without restriction. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and OLN relating to the Services.