Terms & License

License Summary

You Are Free To:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use

Under These Terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit to The Community AI Project, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests we endorse you or your use.
• ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
• No Additional Restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Acceptable Use

Our tools are designed for civic purposes: helping communities engage with their local government, making public information more accessible, and supporting democratic participation. We encourage use that aligns with these goals.

Please Do:

• Use our tools to increase civic engagement in your community
• Adapt and improve the tools to meet local needs
• Share your improvements with other communities
• Use the tools for education and research
• Build complementary tools that serve the public good

Please Don't:

• Use the tools to spread misinformation about civic processes
• Attempt to overwhelm or disrupt public services
• Use the tools for surveillance or to violate privacy
• Remove attribution when sharing or building on our work
• Use our name to imply endorsement of unrelated projects

Privacy & Data

We take privacy seriously. Here's how we handle data:

What We Collect

• Minimal Analytics — We may collect anonymous usage statistics to improve our tools. This never includes personal information.
• User-Provided Content — When you use tools like Community Highlighter, the content you submit (like YouTube URLs) is processed to provide the service. We don't store this content longer than necessary.
• No Tracking — We don't use advertising trackers, sell data, or build user profiles.

Third-Party Services

Some of our tools currently use third-party AI services (like OpenAI or Google's Gemini) to provide functionality. When you use these tools, your queries may be processed by those services according to their privacy policies. We're actively working to transition to local LLM alternatives to reduce this dependency.

Your Rights

• You can use our tools without creating accounts wherever possible
• You can request deletion of any data we may have collected
• You can self-host our tools to maintain complete control

Disclaimers

Not Legal or Professional Advice

Our tools provide information to help you engage with civic processes, but this is not legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult qualified professionals for important decisions.

AI-Generated Content

Many of our tools use AI to summarize, translate, or analyze content. AI can make mistakes. Always verify important information from original sources, especially for civic matters where accuracy is crucial.

Availability

We provide these tools as a public service, but we cannot guarantee uptime or availability. For mission-critical applications, consider self-hosting.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! By submitting code, documentation, or other content to our projects, you agree to license your contributions under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

How to Contribute

• Code — Submit pull requests on GitHub
• Bug Reports — Open issues on the relevant repository
• Ideas — Join discussions on GitHub or reach out directly
• Documentation — Help improve our guides and explanations

Contact

Last updated: December 2024