Terms of Service and Rules

Terms of Service

Effective date: September 11, 2026

Open Arts Forum (“the Forum,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is operated by Open Arts Press, LLC, a Maryland limited liability company. These Terms of Service govern your use of the Forum, including pages and services hosted at openartsforum.com and openartsforum.com/forum.

By accessing or using the Forum, you agree to these terms.

1. User-Generated Content
Users are responsible for the content they create, post, upload, submit, or otherwise provide to the Forum, including forum posts, comments, literary and artistic works, listings, images, audio recordings, links, and other materials (“Content”). The views and opinions expressed in user-generated Content do not necessarily reflect those of Open Arts Press, LLC.

We generally do not pre-screen all user-generated Content. We reserve the right, but are not obligated, to remove, edit, restrict, relocate, decline to publish, or disable access to Content when we believe doing so is appropriate for moderation, legal, security, editorial, or operational reasons.

2. Content Standards
You agree not to submit Content that:

• Is unlawful, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harassing, or intentionally harmful
• Promotes unlawful violence, hatred, or discrimination
• Infringes copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights of another person
• Contains malware, malicious code, spam, deceptive links, or unauthorized advertising
• Discloses personal or private information about another person without appropriate permission
• Impersonates another person or misrepresents the source or ownership of Content
• Violates applicable laws, regulations, or Forum rules

Content and account activity may be processed by automated or third-party services used for spam prevention, security, email delivery, hosting, moderation, audio processing, transcription, or other site functions, as described in our Privacy Policy where applicable.

3. Ownership and License to Publish
You retain ownership of Content that you create and submit.

By posting or submitting Content for public display on the Forum, you grant Open Arts Press, LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, format, and otherwise use that Content as reasonably necessary to operate, maintain, promote, archive, and present the Forum and its related site features.

This license includes permission to display or feature Content elsewhere on Open Arts Forum, including the site's front page, indexes, archives, newsletters, feeds, promotional links, and similar Forum-related features, with appropriate attribution where customary.

Publication in a separate book, anthology, commercial publication, or other standalone project is not automatically authorized by merely posting Content to the Forum unless separate submission terms clearly provide otherwise or the contributor gives additional permission.

If Content is removed from the Forum, the license associated with ordinary public display of that Content will generally end when removal is reasonably completed, except to the extent that continued retention or use is reasonably necessary for backups, archives, legal records, moderation history, technical operation, or material already distributed with your authorization.

4. Audio Readings and Recordings
The Forum may allow or invite authors and contributors to submit audio recordings of their work. Participation is voluntary.

By submitting an audio recording for publication, you represent that the recording is yours or that you have authority to submit it. When you authorize publication, you grant Open Arts Press, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, stream, distribute, and publicly make the recording available in connection with the associated work and related Forum features.

You retain ownership of your recording unless a separate agreement states otherwise.

Published recordings are publicly accessible internet content. Public Content may be listened to, viewed, copied, downloaded, cached, indexed, archived, redistributed, or otherwise accessed by third parties. Although we may take reasonable measures to manage Content on systems under our control, we cannot control or prevent copying, redistribution, alteration, or other use by third parties once Content has been made publicly available.

You may request removal of a recording from Open Arts Forum. We will make reasonable efforts to remove it from systems under our control, subject to technical, backup, legal, administrative, and archival limitations. Removal from the Forum cannot remove copies that third parties may already have downloaded, cached, archived, indexed, or redistributed.

5. Authority to Submit Content
By submitting Content, you represent that you own the Content or have the rights and permissions necessary to submit and authorize its use under these terms.

You are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions relating to copyrighted material, recordings, photographs, artwork, trademarks, personal information, or contributions created by other people.

6. Public Nature of the Forum
Open Arts Forum is a public or semi-public website. Content posted in public areas may be viewed by visitors, search engines, archives, automated systems, and other third parties.

You should not submit Content or personal information for public display that you do not want to make publicly accessible.

We are not responsible for independent copies, archives, search-engine records, screenshots, downloads, quotations, or other reproductions made by third parties while Content is publicly available.

7. Accounts and Account Management
You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and for activity conducted through your account.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate accounts when reasonably necessary to enforce Forum rules, address abuse or security concerns, comply with legal obligations, protect the Forum or its users, or maintain the operation of the community.

You may request account deletion by contacting us. Account deletion does not necessarily require deletion of all Content previously posted, particularly where Content forms part of public discussions, quotations, moderation records, backups, or community archives. Additional information is provided in our Privacy Policy.

8. Copyright and Intellectual Property
Users may not knowingly post Content that infringes the copyright or other intellectual property rights of another person.

If you believe Content on the Forum infringes your rights, please contact us through our contact form with enough information for us to identify and review the material.

We may remove or restrict access to allegedly infringing Content and may take action against accounts involved in repeated or serious infringement.

9. Third-Party Services and Links
The Forum may use or link to third-party websites, hosting providers, email services, security services, embedded media, submission systems, or other external services.

We are not responsible for the availability, security, content, privacy practices, or actions of independent third-party services. Your use of those services may also be governed by their own terms and privacy policies.

10. Privacy
Our collection and use of personal information are described in our Privacy Policy. By using the Forum, you acknowledge that information may be collected, processed, stored, and disclosed as described there.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties
The Forum and its Content are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis to the fullest extent permitted by law.

We do not guarantee that the Forum will always be available, uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of harmful components, or that information posted by users will be accurate, complete, or reliable.

Your use of the Forum and reliance on Content found on the Forum are at your own risk.

12. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Open Arts Press, LLC and its owners, administrators, editors, volunteers, agents, and service providers shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from or relating to your use of the Forum.

This includes, without limitation, damages arising from site outages, loss of data, loss of access, account suspension or termination, unauthorized third-party use of publicly available Content, copying or redistribution of Content by third parties, security incidents, or reliance on user-generated Content.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot legally be excluded or limited under applicable law.

13. Responsibility for Your Content
You are responsible for claims arising from Content you submit when those claims result from your violation of these terms, your infringement of another person's rights, or your submission of material that you were not authorized to provide.

We reserve the right to cooperate with lawful investigations, court orders, subpoenas, and other legally valid requests relating to Content or activity on the Forum.

14. Changes to the Forum
We may modify, suspend, discontinue, replace, or add Forum features at any time. We do not guarantee that any particular feature, service, Content format, or method of access will remain available indefinitely.

15. Changes to These Terms
We may update these terms from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the effective date or by providing other notice when appropriate.

Your continued use of the Forum after updated terms become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised terms to the extent permitted by law.

16. Severability
If any provision of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in effect to the fullest extent permitted by law.

17. Legal Jurisdiction
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, United States, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

Any dispute arising from these terms or use of the Forum shall be brought in an appropriate state or federal court located in Maryland, except where applicable law requires a different forum.

18. Contact
Questions about these terms may be directed through our contact form.