Hi everyone,

I am emailing to give you advance notice that this February, 2023 the Foundation legal department is planning to host a consultation about updating the Wikimedia Terms of Use.[1] We have not settled on the exact date to start, but are aiming for mid-February, probably around the 14th. We’ve started a meta page where we’ll be posting some information and which we’ll use for consultation when we go live.[2] So please watch that space.

The Terms of Use (ToU) are the legal terms that govern the use of websites hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. We will be gathering your feedback on a draft proposal from February through April. The draft will be translated into several languages, still to be determined, with feedback accepted in any language.

This update comes in response to several things:

1. Implementing the Universal Code of Conduct

2. Updating project text to the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license[3]

3. Bringing our terms in line with current and recently passed laws affecting the Foundation including the European Digital Services Act

Regarding the Universal Code of Conduct, pending the upcoming vote on enforcement paths, we are instructed to ensure that the ToU include it in some form.[4] We are starting to prepare for that now, though we will modify the final proposed language depending on the result of the vote. 

Regarding CC 4.0, the communities had determined as the result of a 2016 consultation[5] that the projects should upgrade the main license for hosted text from the current CC BY-SA 3.0 to CC BY-SA 4.0. We’re excited to be able to put that into effect, which will open up the projects to receiving a great deal of already existing CC BY-SA 4.0 text and improve reuse and remixing of project content going forward. 

Finally, regarding new laws, the last ToU update was in 2015, and that update was a single item regarding paid editing. The last thorough revision was 2012. While the law affecting hosting providers has held steady for some time, with the recent passage of the EU’s Digital Services Act[6], we are seeing more significant changes in the legal obligations for companies like the Foundation that host large websites. So with a decade behind us and the laws affecting website hosts soon changing, we think it’s a good time to revisit the ToU and update them to bring them up to current legal precedents and standards. 

You can expect to hear more from the Foundation Legal Team in mid-February as we get the proposed legal changes drafted for public discussion. 

Best,

Jacob

[1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use/en

[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Legal_department/2023_ToU_updates

[3] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ 

[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Revised_enforcement_guidelines#2.1_Notification_and_confirmation_of_the_UCoC 

[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use/Creative_Commons_4.0 

[6] https://wikimedia.brussels/dsa-political-deal-done/