UPDATE:

Terms of Service are now finalized and located at https://www.drupal.org/terms.

Privacy Policy is now finalized and located at https://www.drupal.org/privacy

Almost half a year ago, with the help of the Drupal.org Content Working Group and lawyers, the Drupal Association started working on a Drupal.org Terms of Service (ToS) and Privacy Policy. After a number of drafts and rewrites, we are now ready to introduce both documents to Drupal.org users.

Why do we need a ToS?

Drupal.org has grown organically for many years. Currently the site has thousands of active users that generate lots of content every day. Our current Terms of Service are limited to a short line on the account creation form:

“Please note: All user accounts are for individuals. Accounts created for more than one user or those using anonymous mail services will be blocked when discovered.”

This line is an insufficient ToS for a website of our size. In fact, Drupal.org is probably the only website of this size which operates without a published Terms of Service. This situation is uncomfortable, and even dangerous, for both Drupal community and the Drupal Association, which is legally responsible for Drupal.org and its contents.

In the absence of a ToS, a lot of rules—“do’s and don’ts”—regarding the website are just “common knowledge” of users who have a long memory and accounts created in the early days of Drupal.org. This might result in new users making mistakes and misbehaving only because they do not know what the unwritten rules are. Website moderators often lack guidance on how to react in specific situations, because those policies are not written anywhere. Some policies, such as organization accounts policy or account deletion policy still need to be defined. Lastly, absence of clearly defined Terms of Service and Privacy Policy could lead to legal disputes regarding the site.

What’s next?

The new Drupal.org Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are published now for the community review. We'll continue refining them based on community feedback and announce the 'official' implementation day additionally. On that day all existing users will have to accept these ToS and Privacy Policy to continue using the website. All new users starting on that day will have to accept the ToS and Privacy Policy upon account creation.

Click to review Drupal.org Terms of Service

Click to review Drupal.org Privacy Policy

In the future, we will make sure to keep ToS and Privacy Policy up-to-date and update them every time policies or functionality of the website changes. We will proactively notify users of all modifications to both documents.

Thanks

We’d like to say thanks to the Drupal.org Content Working Group members and community members who already reviewed proposed documents and provided us with their valuable feedback.

: Edits to the original drafts were made on 21st of August, 2014, based on feedback in comments to this post.

UPDATE #2 (03.09.2014): We are postponing ToS/PP official launch and will come back with an updated draft shortly.