WikiFur:No legal threats


 * Do not make threats or claims of legal action against users or WikiFur itself on WikiFur. If you have a dispute with the WikiFur community or its members, use the established method of dispute resolution first.
 * A polite report of a legal problem such as defamation or copyright infringement is not threatening and will be acted on quickly.
 * If you do choose to take legal action, please refrain from editing until it is resolved and note that your user account may be blocked.

Do not make legal threats on WikiFur
You should always first attempt to resolve disputes using dispute resolution procedures. On WikiFur, the first thing to do is usually to discuss the matter on the talk page, stating what you would like to change and how you would like to change it. You may wish to actually edit the page to show how you would like it. If you do so, please use an appropriate edit summary which outlines what you are changing and why.

If you must take legal action, we cannot prevent you from doing so. However, we require that you do not edit WikiFur until the legal matter has been resolved – one way or the other – to ensure that all legal processes happen via proper legal channels. You should instead contact the person or people involved directly.

If you make legal threats, be forewarned that you may be blocked from editing so as not to exacerbate the matter through other than legal channels. Users who make legal threats will typically be blocked from editing indefinitely, while legal threats are outstanding.

Legal complaints
A polite, coherent complaint in cases of copyright infringement or attacks is not a "legal threat". Such complaints will be acted on with reasonable speed, usually within a day.

If you are the owner of copyrighted material which has been inappropriately added to WikiFur, a clear statement about whether it is licensed for such use is welcome and appropriate. You should contact an curator through email, instant messenger, or WikiFur's chat, or, failing that, our host, Timduru.

It is WikiFur policy to delete libelous material when it has been identified. If you believe that you are the subject of a libelous statement on WikiFur, please contact an curator immediately. Note that statements that are true - including both facts and accurate representations of other people's statements or opinions - are not libel, even if they make you look bad or are embarrassing to you (but see our personal information policy, and note that unreferenced opinion may usually be removed).

Rationale
Apart from being uncivil, making legal threats causes a number of serious problems:


 * It severely inhibits free editing of pages, a concept that is absolutely necessary to ensure that WikiFur remains neutral. Without this freedom, we risk one side of a dispute intimidating the other, thus causing a systematic bias in our articles.
 * It causes bad feelings and a lack of trust amongst the WikiFur community, damaging our ability to proceed quickly and efficiently with an assumption of mutual good faith.
 * By making legal threats, you may damage your reputation on WikiFur and in the furry community in general. Even if you make the threat in private, there is no guarantee that it will stay that way, and when they hear about it, other contributors may take it as a threat to them as well.

Attempting to resolve disputes using the dispute resolution procedures will often lead to a solution without resorting to the blunt tool of the law. If the dispute resolution procedures do not resolve your problem, then you can rest in the knowledge that you have taken all reasonable steps to resolve the situation amicably, if you should then choose to take legal action.