Terms of Use

Last Updated: September 16, 2026
Contents

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern the use of the website located at policyfutures.net (“Website”) and managed by Policy Futures Network (“PFN,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). These Terms apply to all users of the website, including public users, visitors, registered and unregistered users (i.e., those with and without a Website account), PFN staff, and PFN Participants (Members and Collaborators).

By accessing or using the Website, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Website.

See the Related Content section below for additional content relating to using the Website, including Privacy Policy, Use of Generative AI Policy, Code of Conduct, Content License, … [HARRY]

About Policy Futures Network

PFN is a collaborative network of experts and practitioners who work together to analyze, discuss, and develop solutions relating to important United States policy topics. Among other things, the Website summarizes and publishes articles, reports, discussions, research, analysis, and commentary by third parties, PFN, and PFN Participants, including certain content, comment areas, and discussion forums that are accessible only to certain groups of PFN Participants.

PFN does not take positions on policy ideas or solutions. Accordingly, Content does not reflect the views of PFN as a network or organization.

The collaborative network and website of PFN are managed by the single-person, non-profit limited liability company recognized under Washington DC (Policy Futures Network LLC). Experts and practitioners who participate with PFN as PFN Participants and use the Website are not legal “members” of the limited liability company under District of Columbia law governing such companies.  

Click here [URL] for more about Policy Futures Network.

Definitions

As used in these Terms:

  • “Content” means all text, data, articles, analyses, commentary, images, graphics, multimedia, forum posts, and other materials published on or through the Website, including PFN content and third-party content.
  • “User” includes any and all users of the Website, including Public Users, visitors, Registered Users, unregistered users, PFN staff, and PFN Participants (Members and Collaborators).
  • “User Content” means any Content submitted, posted, or contributed to the Website by a User, such as text, images, files, comments, discussions, blog posts, and articles authored by the User.
  • “Registered User” refers to a User who maintains a Website account and is a PFN Participant or PFN Staff.
  • “PFN Staff” includes the PFN Leader and other persons working for or with PFN under the direction of the PFN Leader as an employee, contractor, service provider, or in a similar capacity. It does not include persons participating with PFN only as PFN Participants.
  • “Public User” means any person who accesses the Website without a registered Website account and who is not a PFN Participant.
  • “Participant” refers to Registered Users who also hold a “Basic Participant,” “Network Group Participant,” “PFN Collaborator,” “Basic Member,” or “Network Group Member” role with PFN.
  • “Member” refers to Registered Users who hold a Basic Member or Network Group Member role with PFN.
  • “Collaborator” refers to a Registered User who holds a PFN Collaborator role.
  •  “Public Area” refers to parts of the Website that any User may access without signing in.
  • “Restricted Area” refers to parts of the Website that we make available only to some or all PFN Participants.

[HARRY – GLOSSARY?]

Participant Tiers and Website Access

Public Users. Public Users have access to selected Content, comment areas, discussion forums, and other features of the Website. Public Users generally don’t have access to higher-value Content, comment areas, discussion forums, and features that are restricted to Basic Participants or Network Group Participants.

Basic Participants. Basic Participants (both Basic Members and PFN Collaborators) have access to Content, comment areas, discussion forums, and other features available to Public Users, plus additional Content, comment areas, discussion forums, and other features of the Website designated as available only to Basic Participants. The Basic Participant role is available only with approval by the PFN Leader. PFN reserves the right to apply fees to all or certain categories of Basic Participants.

Network Group Participants. Network Group Participants (both Network Group Members and PFN Collaborators) have access to all Content, comment areas, discussion forums, and other features available to Basic Participants, plus additional Content, comment areas, discussion forums, and other features of the Website designated as available only to Network Group Participants. (PFN recognizes multiple Network Groups, each with a separate group of Network Group Participants.) The Network Group Participant role is available only with approval by the PFN Leader. PFN reserves the right to apply fees to all or certain categories of Basic Participants.

Changes. PFN reserves the right to change the Content, comment areas, discussion forums, and other features available to Public Users, Basic Participants, and Network Group Participants, and with advance notice to apply or change fees and benefits to all or certain categories of PFN Participants. For fee and material benefit changes, PFN will provide at least 30 days’ advance notice to the affected Users by email or notice on the Website.

Becoming PFN Participants

A User must submit a PFN Participant Application to be considered for a PFN Participant role or designation. The PFN Leader makes all final decisions relating to the Application. In some cases, the PFN Leader may initiate contact with Users about become PFN Participants. Click here [URL].

A User must be at least 18 years old to submit an Application and, if approved by the PFN Leader as a Participant, create a Website account. Also, a User must provide accurate and complete information on the Application and in all related communications and, if approved as a Participant, must maintain accurate and complete information in the Website account.

By submitting a Participant Application and accepting a PFN Participant role or designation, you represent and warrant that you meet this requirement.

Click here [URL] for more about Becoming a PFN Participant, here [URL] for the Participant Application, and here [URL] for the Participant Agreement.

Intellectual Property Rights

PFN Content. The Website and all PFN-owned or licensed Content—including text, design, layout, graphics, software, and trademarks—are protected by United States copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works from, or publicly display PFN Content without PFN’s prior written consent, except for incidental personal reference use. [HARRY]

Limited License to Users. PFN grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Website and PFN Content for personal or professional, non-commercial purposes consistent with the purposes of PFN and the Website and subject to these Terms. [HARRY]

PFN Name and Marks. You may not use the name “Policy Futures Network” or any PFN mark, logo, or trade dress without PFN’s prior written consent.

Click here [URL] for more on the ownership and copyright license issues.

User Content

By submitting User Content, you represent and warrant that (a) you own or have the necessary rights to submit and license the Content; (b) the Content does not infringe any third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or other legal rights; (c) you have identified and credited any third-party material in it, and you have cleared that material or it is used lawfully; and (d) the Content does not violate any applicable law or regulation. [HARRY – WHAT ABOUT AI USE?]

Users own the copyright and retain ownership of User Content submitted to the Website. Nothing in these Terms transfers your copyright to PFN.

By submitting User Content, a User grants PFN a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, and sublicensable license to host, store, use, reproduce, display, distribute, index, archive, back up, moderate, modify, quote, adapt, publish, remove, translate, and create derivative works from that User Content in connection with operating, promoting, preserving, and improving the Website and PFN’s work and activities. This license includes the right to sublicense to our service providers for those purposes. It survives the end of your PFN Participant role, Website account, and any removal of your User Content.

If your User Content is posted to a Public Area, you also license it to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, on the same terms as the rest of our public content. You cannot withdraw that license once it is given. Do not post material in a Public Area unless you are content for anyone to reuse it, including commercially. See here [URL] for more on the CC license. [HARRY] [WHAT IF A USER POSTS A REPORT FROM A THINK TANK THAT HAS A TIGHT COPYRIGHT ON IT? THIS SHOULDN’T OVERRIDE THAT, OR WOULD IT?]

If your User Content is posted to a Restricted Area, it is not licensed to the public and is not published under a Creative Commons license. If you have access to a Restricted Area, you may read, quote, and build on what you find there for the purposes of the work of that area. You may not copy, republish, quote publicly, adapt, distribute, or otherwise make available any part of it outside that area, and you may not permit anyone else to do so. This restriction applies to your User Contents and to the User Contents made by other people in the Restricted Area. It does not restrict what you do with your own User Content.

If your User Content is posted to a Restricted Area, you grant PFN an exclusive license to reproduce, distribute, and publicly display that User Content outside the Website, reserving to you the right to use your own User Content as you wish. PFN takes this license so that it can act directly against a person who republishes Restricted Area material without permission, rather than asking you to act. PFN will not exercise this license to publish your User Content ourselves, except PFN decides to shift Content from a Restricted Area in a Public Area, such as when the ideas, analyses, discussions, and other materials in Content are incorporated into Content that is available in a Public Area, such as a PFN Solution Report. In this situation, PFN will acknowledge the contribution in the Content’s Acknowledgements section. And if PFN wants to distribute or publish your User Content publicly in substantially the form you wrote it, PFN will ask you first and will not do it without your agreement. In all cases, PFN will credit you by the name on your Website account profile profile unless you ask us to publish without attribution or under another name. If you later ask PFN to remove your name from Content, PFN will do so on the Website and will ask others to do the same, but PFN cannot remove it from copies already made by other people.

Acceptable Use Policy

Users agree not to use the Website to:

  • violate any applicable federal, state, or local law or regulation;
  • post or transmit content that is defamatory, harassing, threatening, abusive, hateful, or discriminatory on the basis of any protected characteristic;
  • impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
  • upload or transmit malware, viruses, or other harmful or disruptive code;
  • attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion of the Website, any user account, or any PFN system;
  • circumvent or attempt to circumvent access controls or membership tier restrictions;
  • use automated tools, scripts, bots, or crawlers to scrape, index, or collect data from the Website without PFN’s prior written consent;
  • interfere with or disrupt the operation of the Website or PFN’s servers or networks;
  • send unsolicited commercial messages, spam, or chain letters through or in connection with the Website;
  • post private information about any other person without that person’s express written consent;
  • engage in any conduct that PFN, in its reasonable discretion, determines to be harmful to users, third parties, or the Website; or
  • engage in any conduct that PFN, in its reasonable discretion, determines to be inconsistent with the PFN Code of Conduct.

The Website also hosts comment areas and discussion forums for the exchange of ideas and analysis on content and policy topics. In addition to the Acceptable Use Policy, Users agree to the following when participating in comment areas and forums:

  • Maintain substantive, on-topic discussion relevant to the policy focus of the forum.
  • Engage respectfully with other members. Personal attacks, harassment, and inflammatory language are prohibited.
  • Distinguish clearly between opinion and factual claims. Do not present speculative or contested analysis as established fact.
  • Disclose any material conflict of interest relevant to the subject matter of your post.
  • Do not share confidential, privileged, or proprietary information belonging to any third party.
  • Do not engage in any conduct that PFN, in its reasonable discretion, determines to be inconsistent with the PFN Code of Conduct.

PFN reserves the right to moderate, remove, or restrict forum content and to suspend or terminate the Participation and Website accounts of users who violate these rules, at PFN’s sole discretion. [HARRY]

Click here [URL] for the Code of Conduct.  Others?  [HARRY]

PFN respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects all Users to do the same. The PFN Participant role and Website accounts of Users who infringe copyright are subject to suspension or termination.

If you believe that Content on the Website infringes your copyright, you may submit a written notice to PFN’s designated DMCA agent under 17 U.S.C. § 512. Your notice must include:

  • an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
  • identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed;
  • the URL or other specific identification of the location of the allegedly infringing material on the Website;
  • your name, address, telephone number, and email address;
  • a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or applicable law; and
  • a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.

Designated agent: Harry Conaway, Policy Futures Network LLC, 2021 L ST NW, Suite 101-274, Washington DC 20036. Email: policy.futures@policyfutures.net. Phone: 202 495 8500.

Counter-Notices. If you believe that your Content was removed or restricted by mistake or misidentification, you may submit a counter-notice to PFN’s designated agent (see above) in accordance with 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3). It must include:

  • your physical or electronic signature;
  • identification of the material and the address where it appeared before removal;
  • a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe in good faith that the material was removed as a result of a mistake or a misidentification;
  • your name, address, and telephone number; and
  • a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the district where you live, or, if you live outside the United States, of any district where we may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original notice or their agent.

We will send a copy of the counter-notice to the person who sent the original notice. Unless they tell us within ten business days that they have gone to court to stop you using the material, we may restore it. We will normally do so between ten and fourteen business days after we receive your counter-notice.

Infringers. PFN will terminate the PFN Participant role and Website account of anyone who repeatedly infringes copyright. PFN maintains a record of all infringement claims and counter-notices and all resulting decisions and actions. In addition, PFN may suspend or terminate a person’s Participant role immediately, without notice or warning and even if the Participant has not been sued, where the infringement is deliberate, large in scale, or commercial.

Republishing material from a Restricted Area breaches these Terms whether or not it also infringes copyright. Thus, in such a situation, PFN may suspend or terminate a person’s Participant role and Website account immediately without notice or warning.

The Website and Content may contain links to third-party websites and services. These links are provided for convenience only. PFN does not control, endorse, or assume responsibility for third-party content, products, or services. Your use of any third-party website is at your own risk and governed by that site’s own terms and privacy policy.

Privacy

Your use of the Website is also governed by PFN’s Privacy Policy, available at https://policyfutures.net/privacy-policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Please review the Privacy Policy to understand how PFN collects, uses, and protects your personal information.

Disclaimers

Website Provided “As Is.” The Website and all Content are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, PFN disclaims all warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and accuracy.

No Professional Advice. Content on the Website, including policy analyses, commentary, and forum discussions, is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing on the Website constitutes legal, regulatory, financial, investment, tax, medical, or other professional advice. Consult a qualified professional before taking action based on any information on the Website.

No Warranty of Accuracy. PFN does not warrant that the Website or any Content is accurate, complete, current, or error free. Policy analyses and other Content may become outdated. Reliance on any Content is at your own risk.

Service Availability. PFN does not guarantee that the Website will be available at all times or that access will be uninterrupted, timely, or error-free.

Limitation of Liability. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL PFN, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR:

  1. ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR
  2. ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE, EVEN IF PFN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

To the extent liability is not excluded, PFN’s total aggregate liability to you shall not exceed the greater of (i) the total fees paid by you to PFN for a PFN Participant role in the three (3) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim; or (ii) one hundred dollars ($100.00). These limitations may not apply to you to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

Indemnification. You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless PFN and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and affiliates from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to (a) your access to or use of the Website; (b) your User Content; (c) your violation of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any applicable law or third-party rights.

Term and Termination

Term. These Terms remain in effect for as long as you access or use the Website or maintain a Website account.

Cancellation by You. You may cancel or terminate your PFN Participant role and close your Website account by contacting PFN at policy.futures@policyfutures.net.

Termination by PFN. PFN may suspend or terminate your PFN Participant role and/or your access to the Website, or close your Website account, at any time and for any reason, including for actual or possible violation of these Terms. PFN will provide notice where reasonable but is not required to do so in all circumstances.

Effect of Termination. Upon termination of your PFN Participant role or designation, your right to access the Website ceases. The following sections survive termination of these Terms: Intellectual Property Rights, User-Submitted Content, Disclaimers, Limitation of Liability, Indemnification, Governing Law, Dispute Resolution, and General Provisions. [HARRY]

Governing Law and Jurisdiction. These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia, without regard to conflict of laws principles. Subject to the following section (Dispute Resolution), any dispute arising under or in connection with these Terms shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in the District of Columbia. You consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.

Dispute Resolution

Informal Resolution. Before initiating formal legal proceedings, you agree to contact PFN at policy.futures@policyfutures.net and attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days from the date of written notice.

Arbitration. To the extent permitted by applicable law, any claim or dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Website that is not resolved informally shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its applicable rules, rather than in court. The arbitration shall be conducted in the District of Columbia or by remote means. Judgment on the arbitral award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Either party may bring qualifying claims in small claims court.

Class Action Waiver. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU AGREE TO BRING ANY CLAIM AGAINST PFN IN YOUR INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY ONLY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION.

Modifications to These Terms. PFN may update these Terms at any time. PFN will notify Registered Users of material changes by email or prominent notice on the Website at least 30 days before the effective date. Continued use of the Website after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not accept the updated Terms, you must discontinue use of the Website and cancel your Participant role (if applicable).

General Provisions

Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Code of Conduct, PFN Participant Agreement, and any other PFN policies [HARRY] incorporated by reference, constitute the entire agreement between you and PFN regarding the Website, and supersede all prior agreements and understandings on that subject.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, it shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

No Waiver. PFN’s failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms on any occasion shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without PFN’s prior written consent. PFN may assign its rights and obligations under these Terms without restriction.

Force Majeure. PFN is not liable for failure or delay in performance caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, government actions, natural disasters, public health emergencies, or internet outages.

Electronic Communications. You consent to receive communications from PFN electronically, including by email, text message, and notices posted on the Website. Such electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that communications be in writing.

Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation of these Terms.

Contact PFN

Questions about this Terms of Use should be directed to:

Policy Futures Network
2021 L ST NW
Suite 101-274
Washington DC 20036
policy.futures@policyfutures.net

Related Content

  • Privacy Policy
  • AI Policy
  • Code of Conduct
  • PFN Participant Agreement
  • Content License
  • [HARRY]

Acknowledgements

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