Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Terms of service

1. Scope of service and application of these terms

ABAB Pedia provides a public encyclopedia, search, a public entry API and collaborative editing. These terms cover the site's operation in the United States and are governed by applicable U.S. federal law and applicable state law; they do not exclude rights that the law gives you and that cannot be waived. The governing law and court jurisdiction are determined by applicable law. These terms do not require mandatory arbitration or a waiver of class action rights.

Account features are governed by the terms in effect that are presented to you at registration and that you expressly accept. The privacy policy explains how information is handled; reading or accepting the terms of service is not to be read as unlimited permission for any use of information. This draft does not retroactively change the license of existing contributions.

2. Accounts and editing eligibility

Account and contribution features are not directed to children under 13. Users who have not reached the age of majority in their state should use them with the consent and supervision of a parent or legal guardian. Please provide accurate account information, keep your password safe, and do not impersonate others or use another person's account without authorization. Creating an account does not automatically grant editing, review or administrative permissions.

3. Contributions and limited license

Before submitting text, images or other material, you should hold the relevant rights or a clear lawful basis for its use, and accurately provide its source, attribution, license and any necessary restrictions. Administrators, editors and other contributors are all subject to this requirement; being able to download or screenshot something does not mean it may be republished.

For material that you own or are entitled to license, when submitted under the terms in effect, you keep your existing rights and grant the site a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, reproduce, convert, edit, publicly display and make the content available through the site's pages and API, as needed to operate the encyclopedia. Service providers may process the material only to the extent needed to support these uses. This license does not exceed what you are actually entitled to grant, does not change the conditions of third-party licenses, and does not grant visitors any right to use third-party images.

Public contributions may be edited, quoted and kept in version history. Ceasing to use your account does not automatically withdraw content that has been lawfully published; requests for correction, withdrawal or handling of personal information are handled based on the rights involved, applicable law and necessary audit records. This does not limit statutory deletion rights or remedies for infringement.

4. Nature of the content and third-party relationships

Encyclopedia content may be compiled with AI assistance and may contain errors, omissions or outdated information. Source citations and review do not guarantee truthfulness, completeness or fitness for any purpose. The content is for general information only; it is not investment advice, a securities recommendation, or legal, tax or medical advice, and it does not create a professional advisory relationship.

Including a person, organization, trademark or image does not mean that it has any partnership, sponsorship, authorization or endorsement relationship with the site. External links and source websites are operated by third parties; please review their terms and privacy policies before visiting.

5. Use of content and service limits

You may read and search content through the features the site provides. Being publicly accessible, open to search engine crawling or available through an API does not mean that all content is in the public domain or openly licensed. When reusing content, you must separately comply with the applicable content licenses and the law; citing the source does not replace any required permission. These terms do not limit fair use permitted by law.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, the service is provided as is and as available, without any guarantee of continuous availability or freedom from errors. We may restrict features, remove content or suspend accounts for maintenance, security, protection of rights or handling of violations; notices and remedies required by applicable law are preserved. These terms do not exclude liability for fraud, willful misconduct or other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

6. Changes to the policies

The final policies will state an effective date. Material changes will be explained through a prominent site notice or appropriate account notice; where the law or a contract requires renewed consent, consent will be obtained separately. Personal information already collected will not be put to an incompatible new use merely by updating this page.

Images, copyright and protection of rights

Image sources and ownership of rights

Rights in third-party photos, screenshots, logos and quotations belong to those who lawfully hold them. The copyright owner of a photo is not necessarily the person pictured or the account that posted it; the site does not acquire copyright in these works by including, downloading, screenshotting, cropping or hosting them.

Some images come from public accounts or posts on the X platform. The source account and the link to the original post show where an image was obtained; they do not mean that the poster holds the copyright, nor that the person, organization or X has authorized the site to use it. An administrator submission is an internal submission record; it does not mean that the image was provided by the person pictured, licensed by the rights holder or uploaded by a third-party user.

Using an image requires an appropriate license, a public-domain basis or an applicable legal exception. Public visibility, attribution, or notes such as “all rights reserved” or “will remove on request” cannot replace a lawful basis for use, and encyclopedic use is not automatically fair use under U.S. copyright law. Fair use must be assessed in light of the purpose of the use, the nature of the work, the amount and substantiality used, and the effect on the market.

Existing author attributions and license conditions of images should be respected. Open licenses apply only to material that is clearly marked and within the scope of that license. A source credit does not mean authorization or endorsement. The site does not grant licenses to use third-party images.

Copyright objections and how they are handled

A copyright objection should, as far as possible, include: the work whose rights are claimed, the relevant page and image address on the site, your identity and contact information, the basis of your rights or agency, and the specific objection. Ordinary corrections or privacy requests do not require a copyright declaration; please do not submit sensitive identity documents unrelated to the request.

A formal notice of infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 512 usually also requires the signature of the rights holder or agent, a statement of good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the rights holder, its agent or the law, and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that the sender is authorized to act on behalf of the rights holder. Where to send it is described under “Contact and rights requests” below; this draft does not designate, or claim to have registered, a DMCA agent.

After receiving a notice that meets the applicable requirements, the material should be promptly assessed, removed or disabled, and the submitter notified where applicable. An applicable counter-notice must include a signature, identification of the removed material and its original location, a statement under penalty of perjury of good-faith belief that the material was removed by mistake or misidentification, the sender's name, address and telephone number, and the statutory consent to federal court jurisdiction and acceptance of service. After a qualifying counter-notice is forwarded to the complainant, the applicable restoration window is 10 to 14 business days after receipt of the counter-notice, unless notice of a corresponding court action is received first. Handling must meet the applicable statutory conditions.

We may, in appropriate circumstances, terminate the accounts of repeat infringers, and we do not interfere with applicable standard technical measures. A notice does not by itself prove infringement, and knowingly materially false notices or counter-notices may create legal liability. The DMCA process does not automatically shield content that the site publishes itself.

Privacy policy

1. Scope and sources of information

This policy explains how information is handled when you visit, register for, edit and administer ABAB Pedia, and it also covers information about people in entries that we compile from public sources. It does not apply to the handling of information by external websites.

• Account information: the email address, display name and password submitted at registration, and the account and session identifiers created by the identity service. Passwords are handled by the authentication service and are never shown as entry content or public profile information.
• Profile information: the avatar, bio, website, areas of expertise, editing languages and public profile settings that you choose to provide.
• Collaboration records: contributions, sources, revisions, reviews, publications, and necessary records of permission and security operations.
• Access information: request addresses, search terms, IP addresses, browser and device information, timestamps and error records processed to deliver pages and search, for security and for troubleshooting. Specific technical records are processed by the site and its hosting and authentication services according to their actual configuration.
• Information from public sources: public information about people's careers, positions, works and related source material used to write the encyclopedia. Being from a public source does not remove applicable privacy, copyright or other rights protections.
• Correspondence records: contact details and related material you provide when you raise a question, rights objection or other request.

2. How information is used

The information above is used to provide pages and search, create and verify accounts, manage permissions, keep profiles and editing records, display published encyclopedia content and public contributions, maintain security, troubleshoot problems, and handle rights requests and the requirements of applicable law. Please do not include passwords, identity documents, private home addresses or unrelated private contact details in public contributions.

3. What is public and service providers

If you turn on your public editor profile, the profile page can show your display name, avatar, bio, website, areas of expertise, editing languages, join date and contribution information; if you turn the setting off, that public profile page is no longer provided. Published entries, citations, and revisions or attributions kept as required by law are not automatically deleted as a result. Your sign-in email and authentication secrets are not shown in your public editor profile.

The site uses Supabase for authentication, database and file storage; hosting, content delivery and security services may also process necessary technical data to provide the service. Staff with the relevant permissions may access necessary records for operations and security. Service providers may process data in the United States or in other regions where their facilities are located; the site does not promise that all data stays only in the United States.

Where necessary, information may be disclosed in response to valid legal process, rights disputes or security incidents, or in a lawful business transfer. Necessary information in a complaint or counter-notice may be passed on to the parties concerned and their agents; such material should not include unrelated sensitive information. Public pages and the public API can be accessed, indexed or copied by others, and the site cannot guarantee that third-party copies will be deleted at the same time.

4. Cookies, local storage and tracking

Signing in uses cookies to store and refresh your session. Choosing a reading language stores that preference in a cookie named abab-locale. The browser's local storage is used to remember your reading theme and, when you use the editor, to keep a backup of your draft. You can delete cookies and site data in your browser, but this may sign you out, reset your preferences or delete local drafts that have not been synchronized.

The application does not currently include ad targeting or cross-site behavioral analytics scripts, and it does not implement a specific behavioral switch for the traditional Do Not Track signal. That signal is different from opt-out preference signals that apply under law (such as Global Privacy Control); opt-out rights and signal-handling obligations required by applicable law are not limited by this statement. Before adding non-essential tracking, the disclosure should be updated and the applicable choice or consent mechanism put in place.

5. Retention and security

Retention periods should be set by what is necessary to provide the service, the account status, source traceability, security, backups and legal obligations; indefinite retention is not the default. Public contributions, audit records and dispute records may need to be handled separately from account information. Deletion requests may be subject to exceptions under applicable law and the need to keep necessary records, and cleanup of backups may not complete at the same time as online data.

The site reduces the risk of unauthorized processing through authentication, permission controls and restricted access to records. No internet service can promise absolute security. If a security incident occurs, it should be assessed and handled, and any required notices given, in accordance with applicable U.S. federal or state law.

6. Your choices and privacy rights

If your account has the relevant permissions, you can edit your profile and turn off your public editor page on the profile page. There is currently no self-service account deletion. For access, correction, deletion, a copy of your data or other privacy requests, email ababpedia@abablabs.com.

Depending on your state of residence, applicable law and its conditions, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or obtain a copy of your personal information, or to opt out of the sale of personal information, targeted advertising and certain profiling, and you may have the right to use an authorized agent, to appeal and not to be discriminated against. After a request is received, any identity verification should be proportionate to the risk of the request and should not ask for unnecessary information; response times, extensions and exceptions follow applicable law.

7. Children's information

Account and contribution features are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If such collection is discovered, the processing should be restricted and information that should not be kept deleted promptly, or processed only where the law allows and the applicable parental consent requirements have been met. Parents may make related inquiries or deletion requests. An age statement alone does not replace applicable COPPA obligations.

8. Policy updates

The final version of this policy will show its effective and updated dates. Material changes involving the use of data or what is made public should be explained with a prominent notice, and consent obtained where applicable law requires it. This privacy policy does not reduce your statutory rights.

Acceptable use

Do not publish infringing, defamatory, fraudulent, threatening or harassing content, unlawful disclosures of private information or other unlawful content; do not impersonate people or organizations, or falsify sources, licenses, reviews or ownership records.

Do not spread malicious code, steal accounts, bypass access permissions, defeat security measures or interfere with the service through unreasonable request load. Automated access must respect the actual access limits, and a public interface is not permission to access private data.

For suspected violations by content or accounts, we may verify, restrict, withdraw or take down, and we keep the records necessary to handle disputes. These measures do not affect appeals or other remedies that must be provided by law.

Contact and rights requests

One contact address: ababpedia@abablabs.com. It can be used for general questions, content corrections, image or copyright complaints, and privacy requests such as access, correction or deletion of personal information. No account is needed.

To help us check your request, we suggest putting “Content correction”, “Copyright complaint”, “Privacy request” or “General question” in the email subject, and including the relevant page link, a description of the issue and the action you would like taken. For copyright complaints, please also give the source of the original work and the basis of your rights or agency; general questions, corrections and privacy requests do not require a copyright declaration.

Please do not send passwords, verification codes or identity documents unrelated to your request. If we need to verify your identity or rights further, we will explain what information is needed and why. Sending an email does not automatically make your contact details or complaint public on the site.

This mailbox is the site's contact and complaint channel; it does not mean that a DMCA designated agent has been registered. The legal name of the operating entity and its business contact address will be added once confirmed.

If a DMCA designated agent is appointed, the registration will be verified and the agent's name, address, telephone number and email made public. Ordinary privacy, correction or image rights requests are handled separately from statutory DMCA notices, and not every request needs to include a copyright declaration.