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Welcome to the JEDI website, a place dedicated to help guide you through your spiritual journey. I hope you are are here because you wish to know of some vital disclaimers we apply to our organization here. This is quite understandable if you have questions about copying a text from this website, learning who owns what, or wanting to know who is responsible around here. For you to fully understand these disclaimers, we will attempt to present them clearer than other common disclaimers on the web. This is very important to us. The clearer it is, the better you know how we function around here. The disclaimers we have here are pretty basic. You probably should be aware of when visiting this site for the first time. We will go into the more detailed disclaimers as you read on. As always, thank you for taking the time and effort into learning more about JEDI. We hope you get something out of it.
The materials at this website are only used (and only will be used) for private, non-commercial viewing purposes. Because we attempt to act as a non-profit organization, we do not make any money or revenue from our website. No money has been collected or received from any type of adds, such as banners or pop-ups, as you may find other Star Wars or Jedi websites do. We are totally against this. We like things as free as possible and as add free as possible. It is tuff as it is on the Internet to view adds all over the place. This is why we will do our best to make sure this website is clean and legal. Also, note that generally all content on this website was contributed by our visitors, members, and staff. We do our best to work with others. Realize this doesn't mean that you can't contribute any type of funding for this website. If you wish to help us teach others about the world around them, by all means, please help our cause with any resource you have, even if that resource is yourself. We need all the help we can get. You can send donations any time. It really helps us out. To donate, click here. The owner of this website (Jonathan Raimer) is also the one who is paying for the website from his own pocket for your benefit. Sometimes people help pay for the forums, and we appreciate this. Yet, as all people, we must note that he has other bills to pay, and his real life job is not the best paying job ever given. All the people part of JEDI have come here to dedicate their time and effort towards helping others, being that we are indeed a service to the community at large. We do not pay anyone to run this website. Our true reward comes from the gratitude of helping those in need. Just remember to note we can't do everything (such as form an offline group) because, believe it or not, some things take money.
The materials created by the JEDI website, such as the images, HTML, text, content, and so forth, unless individually noted, are all owned by the staff, members, visitors, the people that run this place. Realize that this is a copyrighted website. For any material that was not created by us, such as those contributed by visitors outside of JEDI, there is a clear notice on the bottom of each page which holds that particular piece of work. This notice clearly states who the author of the material is, as well as a form of contact in which he or she uses. All authors and contributors outside the JEDI website have full rights to their own material, which means that JEDI does not own them entirely. We do our best to make sure most content come from those associated with JEDI. Sometimes it is impossible to do this fully. Please understand this. This is a very important note. All individual persons who write original works for this website will have full rights to their work including work in forum posts or chat conversations, texts given to the website, music, book recommendations, etc. If any author, whether it be an outside contributor, a member, a visitor, or a staffer, wants to publish their material somewhere else, JEDI will take no legal actions to stop them. We stress the right and freedom for every individual to own his or her materials, without any intervention whatsoever. This is the way it should be.
There are particular pieces of music which will be randomly played on this site, whether it is in MIDI or MP3 format. Those who own these music pieces have all rights to their work, and we have attempted not to alter them. All of these pieces are owned by individuals who are associated at JEDI. There is a belief out there of one being allowed one download of a particular piece of music, as long as it isn't use it for commercial purposes, as well as alter the piece. Realize many of these pieces, although owned by people who are associated with JEDI, still have rights to this work. We still encourage people to download these materials. If you advertise these pieces somewhere else, make sure you give the authors' name and location. They are free for you to use unless otherwise noted by respected authors. No profit is being made from these music pieces. If we are expressly told from an affiliated author we are not permitted to allow the download of their musical piece at JEDI, we will comply.
This website is owned by an independent community, which content is the sole responsibility of the owner (Jonathan Raimer), who, of all people, is not connected with Lucasfilm Limited in any way. He hasn't asked for Lucasfilm's concent for anything. There is really no need to do so, since he is complying with their copyright laws. This doesn't mean the owner owns all the content and material on this website. The owner, though, is responsible for all legal action dealing with this website and organization. If there is any fault of this website, you blame this person and he will fully accept it, as he accepts full responsibility for everything done here.
There are some very important copyright resolutions worth noting, such as Copyleft, the Berne Copyright agreement, and the Copyright Act of 1978. We personally don't know which one to follow, if any of them. Still, they are worth noting. Also, note we actually permit you to use any of our graphics or HTML the JEDI website (not contributors outside JEDI) created for this website, as long as you give us the necessary credit, such as who made it and so forth. Again, this is free for you to use. Just give us credit where credit is due. Unlike other sites, we believe that if we spread our knowledge, instead of keeping hold of it all the time, others will be more likely to learn what we are all about. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. People are born to imitate, and people copy from each other as they always have. If we refuse to allow others to share, we realize we will pay for it in the long run. Of course, this doesn't mean we recommend people stealing stuff. We are simply saying we realize people are born to imitate and we need to be aware of the obvious. If you want to gain, you have to give. That's just how it works. Anyways, besides graphics and HTML, all the written texts that are posted on the JEDI website is covered by what is known as Copyleft. Copyleft is a license that allows text to be distributed to other communities as long as the author information is disclaimed with the text. This is good for people who wish to create their own guidebook or manual. Others who don't come to JEDI can learn from these valid pieces of knowledge. In other words, you can "creatively borrow" our texts so that you can help people from your neck of the woods, just as long as you, again, give credit to where credit is due. Very simple. This is what the Copyleft License states in its Preamble: "The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other written document 'free' in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or non commercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others." As you can see, this means that if you want to use any text located here for personal or public usage, go ahead. You have the freedom to copy and redistribute it if you like. Just keep the author's name, and, if you can, their form of contact (such as their E-mail) with the document. You must display this wherever you post or print the text. If you post or print any content of this website at our forum and/or chat room, you probably should follow this license. All of the authors that are part of JEDI, as well as those that contribute material to this site, should be aware that they agree to this license as well. Unless an author gives precise wording that they forbid such, we will assume that they wish to have their material under the Copyleft license agreement. This can be a fine line for us, but we'll do our best to play the legal game. If an author clearly states that they do not want their material part of the Copyleft license, a notice on the bottom of the text will be clearly noted. Please, do not copy or redistribute this work. Eventually, JEDI will start a movement which will have all the Jedi Websites agree to this license, so that all of our material can be shared with each other. It will make it easier for you, the viewer, to learn more about our ways of life. Makes it easier for all of us.
There is one concept in which with the JEDI website doesn't agree with. It is when someone steals a work and gains full recognition for it, when the recognition should go to the authors that originally published it. Even though our site agrees with the Copyleft License, we do not, of course, agree with taking someone else's credit for personal gain. To assure any contributor is safe from having their works stolen, we wish to show you some information to help you realize how wrong it is to steal someone's work. There are laws which can effect you here, so. Something you might have heard about is the Berne Copyright Agreement, or in other words, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. This convention effects everyone on an international level, which requires its members, being nations, to provide copyright protection to authors of certain work that is published. This website was created in the United States, which is a member of the Berne Convention, but authors come from other countries, primarily United Kingdom and Canada, nations who are also members of this Convention. Berne has certain standards that every nation is required to follow in order to be a member. One of these agreements being the fact one does not need to put a copyright symbol for a certain work to be protected. In other words, you are not required to place a copyright notice to every work that is copyrighted. Notice though that even though this is true, we have placed a copyright symbol and note throughout our whole website concerning thejedi.org, just in case someone doesn't understand this concept. Another thing you should notice is that statutory damages can be great for anyone that infringes on any copyrighted work. The United States has the maximum amount of statutory damages to about $100,000. This means you can be liable for up to $100,000 for each infringing act you cause. Personally, we think this is silly, but, I am sure there is always someone who can really take advantage of the systems out there. We don't strive to. This is a bad thing to happen, which will hurt all of us, including you. Personally, we don't want to get into any of this mess, because we am not money hungry or anything like this. We do though want to advise people not to steal. Realize the consequences of your actions. For those of you who will get away with stealing, think about the example you are teaching. If you like certain texts that you read, you should follow them, not just steal them.
In 1978, Automatic Copyright protection began in the United States, and because this website was created in the United States, we probably fall under this Act. We are not sure but this could be the case. Even though this website will have a notice of copyright at times, it is not required to secure a notice if it is created by JEDI. The work, though, must be an original. All our works, besides those which have already been created not by us, are not are covered by this Act. United States Congress recogizes literary (which falls under this website), musical, dramatic, pantomimes, choreographic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, audiovisual, sound (recorded), and architectual works. Even though Copyright law does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases, as mentioned by the US Copyright Office, they can still be trademarked. Titles, such as "Lightsaber" or other Star Wars terminology, are trademarked by Lucasfilm Limited. Even similar titles (such as Lightsabre in plase of Lightsaber), can be subjected to liability. We will not scrutinize any type of Star Wars Material, such as its terminology, if we are to use it. One of the interesting situations we are in is our use of the term Jedi. We realize that this is now a common used word, which means it is placed in dictionaries, such as the Oxford dictionary. This also means, due to its common usage, we are pretty sure we are safe using it for our website. Sure, if there are problems with using this term, we probably could get away with the term Gedi, with the same pronouncation. Still, we don't want to mess around with things. If we are required/forced to alter our name, we will happily do so. In exchange for using such trademarks from Lucasfilm, we allow them to use any of our terminology involving certain concepts which relate to a Star Wars setting for their own demise and expansion of the Star Wars Universe. We personally don't care if they use our new terms or ideas in Star Wars books or any such media. We are hinted of this being done already, so no problem. The owner of the website has no problem with this. We, of course, will not attempt to challenge them. If there comes to a point where we are required to as for permission of particular terms, we will do so, willingly. Even if we are not able to recieve permission for terms, that's fine. We still will not alter our allowance for them to use our creativity and original works. This is fine with us.
Due to the Copyleft Act, we will be collecting various links and discriptions from Jedi Websites (whether RPG, Realist, etc.) so we can construct a lecture Library for people to use. For every piece of work we use, we will place the author of the text, any forms of contact if possible, and a link to the website in which we inherited from if possible. Again we will not gain credit or profit from these individual texts. This is all done to ensure convenience to the entire Jedi community as a whole, whether they are a Jedi Realist, Jediist, or just a RPG player. If you maintain a Jedi website and see a text here that is also shown at your website, or if you are an individual author of a certain text and see your text here at JEDI, you can, if you wish, request to the JEDI website you do not want your texts shown at our website. Beware of the consequences of doing so. The people who visit our site will notice it and its work. It will be referenced to your site created by the author. This is basically a free service. It will help strengthen our community as a whole if we are able to share our knowledge to those who wish to learn about it. In the meantime, we here at JEDI will be creating our own texts for this lecture database. This way, we don't have to always mess with hunting down for certain texts from other websites. As our number of texts grows, we will have less and less worry of seeking out certain pieces of information that we do not have. Many problems will be solved by doing this. We will also be analyzing the websites ran by Jedi Realists, providing certain types of ratings, critiques, names of authors and people that run the staff, information about the website, and so forth. Not only that, we will also be profiling the entire Jedi community as a whole, by person if need be. There will be certain logos from other sites that will be shown at the JEDI website, giving a clear reference to the site that maintains the logo, as well as particular terms the website uses. This is all to help better clarify what content is out there on the web. If any website wishes us not to have these materials on our website, we will clearly post a statement here, stating clearly that the website does not want our viewers, or the Jedi community that visits our site, to read their material. Personally, we think this will hurt more than help.
The JEDI website is not owned by Lucasfilm Limited. We did not give written consent to Lucasfilm, though we have attempted very carefully not to break any of their copyright laws. Therefore, this website is not connected with Lucasfilm Limited in any way. Here are some registered trademarks we probably should place down. Realize STAR WARS®, STARWARS.COM®, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK®, RETURN OF THE JEDI®, STAR WARS: EPISODE I-THE PHANTOM MENACE®, STAR WARS: EPISODE II-ATTACK OF THE CLONES®, STAR WARS: EPISODE III-REVENGE OF THE SITH®, THX®, and all logos, characters, artwork, stories, information, names, and other elements associated thereto, as you all should be quite aware of, are the sole and exclusive property of Lucasfilm Limited. Please, don't think we are here to challenge any of Lucasfilm Limited's copyrights or trademarks, okay. This is simply a place for us to learn and explore different ways of life. If Lucasfilm believes we are causing them to take action against us, they can let us know first so we can resolve any problems. We are sure we can reach a compromise easily. We respect their interests, we really do, as I am sure they respect ours. We are not attempting to copy them as Battlestar Galatica was charged for doing. We mainly creating things for ourselves to use.
There is something though that has been ignored by many unofficial Star Wars websites. Even though many sites have followed the disclaimer expressing that any use of any of the materials on the official Star Wars website (http://www.starwars.com) other than for private, non-commercial viewing purposes, is strictly prohibited, there are other disclaimers which have been ignored. We don't wish to ignore them. We, as an organization, have realized it states very clear, in the Lucasfilm terms of use page at the official Star Wars website, these sentences... "The sale, auction, lease, loan, gift, trade or barter, or use of any of the text, graphics, photographs, audio and/or video material or stills from audiovisual material or any other materials contained herein, for any other purpose [than for private, non-commerical viewing purposes], in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed, including the use of any of the aforementioned materials on any other Web site or networked computer environment, without a prior written consent from Lucasfilm, is expressly prohibited." It also states... "The creation of derivative works based on the materials contained herein including, but not limited to, products, services, fonts, icons, link buttons, wallpaper, desktop themes, on-line postcards and greeting cards and unlicensed merchandise (whether sold, bartered or given away) is expressly prohibited. You may download one copy of the materials on any single computer for your personal, non-commercial home use only, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. Modification of the materials or use of the materials for any other purpose is a violation of Lucasfilm's copyright and other proprietary rights." This means to us that any modification by materials (such as graphics or fonts) created by Lucasfilm or the official Star Wars website, even though it is done for private, non-commercial viewing purposes, is strictly prohibited and is against their policies, which we personally find interesting. We are allowed to download one copy of the materials for personal view, yet we are not actually allowed to alter it. Something to be aware of. The JEDI website will do all it can to comply with this disclaimer. As you probably know by now - these days, it is almost impossible to follow it. We may have something and not even know it was owned by them. Hardly any pictures will be used (if so, they will have the Copyright symbol), and a extremely limited amount of terminology or titles that are trademarked. We are doing all we can to comply with the rules of law, as well as the disclaimers brought forth to us by Lucasfilm Limited. If we do it, we will give advertisement, wether it is a book, the Star Wars website, whatever. We will do our best to make sure we don't alter things.
Very, very rare at the JEDI website will you find pictures that are the property of Lucasfilm Limited. If so, you will see that a disclaimer has been clearly marked with each graphic, explaining it is the property of Lucasfilm Limited. We will continue to mark a copyright statement with any other graphic we used that is the property of Lucasfilm Limited, just in case we run into any problems. If there comes a time in which even this is against their policy, we will take their graphics down altogether. You also will notice that the terms created by the paraphernalia and materials from Lucasfilm's Star Wars is used at a minimum. Many of the terms used here have been invented and reinvented by the Jedi Organization to avoid any breaking of copyright laws. There are particular terms though, such as Jedi and the Force, which has been incorporated into our material here at JEDI. This is something we can't really help being who we are. Besides, we find it interesting George Lucas himself has borrowed all kinds terminology from other movies, philosophies, and religious histories even if given permission to do so (The phrase "Klaatu Barada Nikto," for instance). We don't find anything wrong with doing just a little bit of the same thing he has and is doing now as we speak. Again, like we said before, we are all immitators.
Now, disclaimers about the services we use on the website. The Discussion Forum we have at our website is ran by a company called Ezboard Incorporated. Generally, they are known to be a free provider of forums which provide certain services to their individual communities. The JEDI website though has joined their Community Supporting Communities (CSC) program and has become a CSC gold member. You can find more information about this program at the Ezboard website (http://www.ezboard.com). This membership includes a personal no ad service, which means that you will not be seeing any banners or pop ups at that section of the website. In order to have this service, the owner of this website and others have paid a certain amount of money to keep it in this fashion. This of course means that our service ran by Ezboard is not exactly free anymore. We intend to keep our website add free for your convenience as well as ours. If we simply had a free service, it would mean that there would be adds and pop-ups at our website. As we have stated clearly above, we want to make sure, as best as we can, no one is gaining profit from people that come to this site. It is realized by JEDI many Jedi websites, which have adds clearly placed on their main pages, are breaking copyright laws created by groups such as Lucasfilm Limited.
The HTML chat room we have at our website is ran by a website called Project JJ. We personally want to thank the creator of Project JJ (who goes by the name Jezral) for providing a service which fits are needs. To find more about Jezral's chat rooms or his service, go to his website (http://www.projectjj.com). We are also proud to disclaim that we run our chat room without any banners or adds. Due to the realization of keeping our website profit free and in recognition of Lucasfilm's copyright laws, we will contantly maintain chat rooms which meets your needs and conviences as much as possible.
Bravenet Web Services Inc. is a company in which we have registered our Newsletter and Guestmap with. The Newsletter is E-mail based and the Guestmap is accessed on a totally different website, including a different layout and website. Visit the website for more tools and information (http://www.bravenet.com). Due to the realization of keeping our website profit free and in recognition of Lucasfilm's copyright laws, we make sure this service will meet your needs and conviences as much as possible.
The Search Engine we have at our website is ran by a website called FreeFind, which is a free service. To find more about FreeFind and their offers, you can go to the website (http://www.freefind.com). Due to the fact this is a free service, their search engine may have text links which one may click on relating to the word they wanted to search. There are no banner or pop-up adds. Due to the realization of keeping our website profit free and in recognition of Lucasfilm's copyright laws, we will contantly maintain this service to meet your needs and conviences as much as possible.
The PHP Secure Pages service is a service we may use for a future login feature. This is a free service. To find more about PHP SP, you can go to the website (http://www.phpsecurepages.com/). We are also proud to disclaim that we run our login feature without any banners or adds. Due to the realization of keeping our website profit free and in recognition of Lucasfilm's copyright laws, we will contantly maintain services which meets your needs and conviences as much as possible.
The Whiz Mail service is a service we may use as cgi-bin to execute our forms, such as our JEDI Membership form. This is a free service. To find more about Whiz Mail, you can go to the website (http://www.whiz-mail.cc). We are also proud to disclaim that we run our login feature without any banners or adds. Due to the realization of keeping our website profit free and in recognition of Lucasfilm's copyright laws, we will contantly maintain services which meets your needs and conviences as much as possible.
Translation of the JEDI Website, if any, into Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese is brought to you by SYSTRAN, Internet translation technologies. SYSTRAN provides Babelfish Translation at AltaVista. You can check out the Babelfish Translation link at AltaVista by visiting http://world.altavista.com. Realize there may, in the future, be other translations not used by this service. Also note that the website is offically translated into English, due to its functionality and usage as a global language.
We have provided both a Website Policy and a Private Policy, so you will be more aware of any specific concerns regarding your rights and privacy on this website. If you haven't checked them out yet, you probably should. They are both located in the Website section. If there is any violation that is not detected by us, or a notice that should be disclaimed, please contact us at staff@thejedi.org to let us know. Thank you very much for your time and effort into reading the disclaimers above. It was a long read, we know, yet we hope it was worth your while. |
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