Wikipedia makes no guarantee of validity

Wikipedia is an online open-content collaborative encyclopedia; that is, a voluntary association of individuals and groups working to develop a common resource of human knowledge. The structure of the project allows anyone with an Internet connection to alter its content. Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate, or reliable information.

That is not to say that you will not find valuable and accurate information in Wikipedia; much of the time you will. However, Wikipedia cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here. The content of any given article may recently have been changed, vandalized, or altered by someone whose opinion does not correspond with the state of knowledge in the relevant fields. Note that most other encyclopedias and reference works also have disclaimers.

No formal peer review

Our active community of editors uses tools such as the Special:RecentChanges and Special:NewPages feeds to monitor new and changing content. However, Wikipedia is not uniformly peer reviewed; while readers may correct errors or engage in casual peer review, they have no legal duty to do so and thus all information read here is without any implied warranty of fitness for any purpose or use whatsoever. Even articles that have been vetted by informal peer review or featured article processes may later have been edited inappropriately, just before you view them.

None of the contributors, sponsors, administrators, or anyone else connected with Wikipedia in any way whatsoever can be responsible for the appearance of any inaccurate or libelous information or for your use of the information contained in or linked from these web pages.

No contract; limited license

Please make sure that you understand that the information provided here is being provided freely, and that no kind of agreement or contract is created between you and the owners or users of this site, the owners of the servers upon which it is housed, the individual Wikipedia contributors, any project administrators, sysops, or anyone else who is in any way connected with this project or sister projects subject to your claims against them directly. You are being granted a limited license to copy anything from this site; it does not create or imply any contractual or extracontractual liability on the part of Wikipedia or any of its agents, members, organizers, or other users.

There is no agreement or understanding between you and Wikipedia regarding your use or modification of this information beyond the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA) and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL); neither is anyone at Wikipedia responsible should someone change, edit, modify, or remove any information that you may post on Wikipedia or any of its associated projects.

Trademarks

Any of the trademarks, service marks, collective marks, design rights, or similar rights that are mentioned, used, or cited in the articles of the Wikipedia encyclopedia are the property of their respective owners. Their use here does not imply that you may use them for any purpose other than for the same or a similar informational use as contemplated by the original authors of these Wikipedia articles under the CC BY-SA and GFDL licensing schemes. Unless otherwise stated, Wikipedia and Wikimedia sites are neither endorsed by, nor affiliated with, any of the holders of any such rights, and as such, Wikipedia cannot grant any rights to use any otherwise protected materials. Your use of any such or similar incorporeal property is at your own risk.

Personality rights

Wikipedia contains material which may portray an identifiable person who is alive or recently-deceased. The use of images of living or recently-deceased individuals is, in some jurisdictions, restricted by laws pertaining to personality rights, independent from their copyright status. Before using these types of content, please ensure that you have the right to use it under the laws which apply in the circumstances of your intended use. You are solely responsible for ensuring that you do not infringe someone else's personality rights.

Jurisdiction and legality of content

Publication of information found in Wikipedia may be in violation of the laws of the country or jurisdiction from where you are viewing this information. The Wikipedia database is stored on servers in the United States of America, and is maintained in reference to the protections afforded under local and federal law. Laws in your country or jurisdiction may not protect or allow the same kinds of speech or distribution. Wikipedia does not encourage the violation of any laws, and cannot be responsible for any violations of such laws, should you link to this domain, or use, reproduce, or republish the information contained herein.

Not professional advice

If you need specific advice (for example, medical, legal, financial, or risk management), please seek a professional who is licensed or knowledgeable in that area.

See also