Forge.mil User Agreement

Welcome to Forge.mil, which is provided by the United States Department of Defense, Defense Information Systems Agency (herein referred to as "DISA"). These Terms of Use / Terms of Service govern your use of the websites, content, software and services offered through Forge.mil. By accessing and/or using Forge.mil you agree to the following terms of use and terms of service, consent to abide by the information practices disclosed on Forge.mil and consent to receive required notices and to transact with DISA electronically.

Forge.mil is a family of services provided to support the DoD's Information Technology Acquisition Community. Forge.mil currently consists of two services – SoftwareForge and ProjectForge. SoftwareForge enables the collaborative development and distribution of open source software and DoD community source software. For open source and community source development projects within the DoD, SoftwareForge provides software development tools such as software version control, bug tracking, requirements management, and release packaging along with collaboration tools such as wikis, discussion forums, and document repositories to enable collaborative development amongst distributed developers. ProjectForge provides the same application life cycle management tools to DoD projects and programs as SoftwareForge, but for programs and/or projects that are not doing DoD community source development and/or need to restrict access to specific project members. The following terms and conditions of this Forge.mil User Agreement apply to each of these provided services.

IN THESE TERMS, "WE," "US," "ITS" AND "OUR" REFER TO FORGE.MIL and its host Defense Agency, THE DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY (DISA); AND "YOU" AND "YOUR" REFER TO YOU. Before using Forge.mil, read these Terms relating to your use of this web site carefully.

1) USE OF SERVICES

DISA offers Forge.mil to you for U.S. Government (USG) authorized purposes. See paragraph 5 for the complete definition of government purpose per DFARS Clause reference 252.227-7014(a) (10).

Services are available only to registered users of Forge.mil and require you to sign in with a PKI certificate issued by the DoD, an accepted Federal Government Agency or Industry Partner or a recognized DoD External Certificate Authority. This applies to DoD employees and contractors supporting DoD efforts. All Forge.mil services are hosted within DISA milCloud

Your access and use of Forge.mil, constitutes your agreement with the Terms and the Forge.mil policies ("Policies") posted from time to time and the Privacy Notice, which are incorporated by this reference into the Terms. Your use of a particular Forge.mil service ("Service") may be subject to specific guidelines ("Service-Specific Rules") posted from time to time and incorporated by this reference into the Terms. Use of the Services constitutes full acceptance of and agreement to the Service-Specific Rules. See the www.forge.mil website to read the Privacy Notice. Service-Specific Rules are located on SoftwareForge at Criteria for SoftwareForge Projects, and in sections 7, 11 and 12 of the ProjectForge Support Agreement signed between DISA and the ProjectForge customer.

If you do not agree to these Terms, then you are not granted rights to use Forge.mil or any of its Services, and must refrain from accessing Forge.mil and its Services. If you violate any of these Terms, your permission to use Forge.mil automatically terminates.

DISA reserves the right to update and change the Terms, including without limitation the Privacy Statement, Policies and/or Service-Specific Rules, from time to time. DISA will alert users of any changes by email. Updates and changes to these Terms will be reflected in and accessible through the URL where such Terms first appeared. Users should periodically review the most recent version of the Terms, including without limitation the Privacy Statement, Policies and Service-Specific Rules. Use of Forge.mil after changes to the Terms constitutes acceptance of any changes. It is therefore important that you regularly review these Terms and keep your contact information current to ensure you receive any changes via email.

2) CONSENT TO MONITORING

FORGE.MIL IS A U.S. GOVERNMENT (USG) INFORMATION SYSTEM (IS) THAT IS PROVIDED FOR USG-AUTHORIZED USE ONLY. USE OF THIS SYSTEM CONSTITUTES CONSENT TO MONITORING FOR ALL LAWFUL PURPOSES.

By using this IS (which includes any device attached to this IS), you consent to the following conditions:

The USG routinely intercepts and monitors communications on this IS for purposes including, but not limited to, penetration testing, COMSEC monitoring, network operations and defense, personnel misconduct (PM), law enforcement (LE), and counterintelligence (CI) investigations,
At any time, the USG may inspect and seize data stored on this IS,
Communications using, or data stored on, this IS are not private, are subject to routine monitoring, interception, and search, and may be disclosed or used for any USG authorized purpose,
This IS includes security measures (e.g., authentication and access controls) to protect USG interests--not for your personal benefit or privacy
Notwithstanding the above, using an information system does not constitute consent to personnel misconduct, law enforcement, or counterintelligence investigative searching or monitoring of the content of privileged communications or data (including work product) that are related to personal representation or services by attorneys, psychotherapists, or clergy, and their assistants. Under these circumstances, such communications and work product are private and confidential, as further explained below:
1. Nothing in this User Agreement shall be interpreted to limit the user's consent to, or in any other way restrict or affect, any U.S. Government actions for purposes of network administration, operation, protection, or defense, or for communications security. This includes all communications and data on an information system, regardless of any applicable privilege or confidentiality.
2. The user consents to interception/capture and seizure of ALL communications and data for any authorized purpose (including personnel misconduct, law enforcement, or counterintelligence investigation). However, consent to interception/capture or seizure of communications and data is not consent to the use of privileged communications or data for personnel misconduct, law enforcement, or counterintelligence investigation against any party and does not negate any applicable privilege or confidentiality that otherwise applies.
3. Whether any particular communication or data qualifies for the protection of a privilege, or is covered by a duty of confidentiality, is determined in accordance with established legal standards and DoD policy. Users are strongly encouraged to seek legal counsel on such matters prior to using an information system if the user intends to rely on the protections of a privilege or confidentiality.
4. Users should take reasonable steps to identify such communications or data that the user asserts are protected by any such privilege or confidentiality. However, the user's identification or assertion of a privilege or confidentiality is not sufficient to create such protection where none exists under established legal standards and DoD policy.
5. A user's failure to take reasonable steps to identify such communications or data as privileged or confidential does not waive the privilege or confidentiality if such protections otherwise exist under established legal standards and DoD policy. However, in such cases the U.S. Government is authorized to take reasonable actions to identify such communication or data as being subject to a privilege or confidentiality, and such actions do not negate any applicable privilege or confidentiality.
6. These conditions preserve the confidentiality of the communication or data, and the legal protections regarding the use and disclosure of privileged information, and thus such communications and data are private and confidential. Further, the U.S. Government shall take all reasonable measures to protect the content of captured/seized privileged communications and data to ensure they are appropriately protected.
In cases when the user has consented to content searching or monitoring of communications or data for personnel misconduct, law enforcement, or counterintelligence investigative searching, (ie., for all communications and data other than privileged communications or data that are related to personal representation or services by attorneys, psychotherapists, or clergy, and their assistants), the U.S. Government may, solely at its discretion and in accordance with DoD policy, elect to apply a privilege or other restriction on the U.S. Government's otherwise-authorized use or disclosure of such information.
All of the above conditions apply regardless of whether the access or use of an information system includes the display of a Notice and Consent Banner ("banner"). When a banner is used, the banner functions to remind the user of the conditions that are set forth in this User Agreement, regardless of whether the banner describes these conditions in full detail or provides a summary of such conditions, and regardless of whether the banner expressly references this User Agreement.

3) APPROPRIATE CONDUCT AND RELATED USER REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES

As used throughout these Terms, "Content" means any text, data, software, music, sound, photograph, graphic, video, message, or material created, transmitted or stored using Forge.mil. You agree that you are responsible for your own conduct and any Content that you or anyone using your account creates, transmits or displays when on Forge.mil ("Your Content") and for any consequences thereof.

When you create or make available Your Content, you thereby represent and warrant that:

Your content has not been determined, pursuant to Executive Order 13526 (Classified National Security Information, December 29, 2009) available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-classified-national-security-information or any predecessor or derivative order, to require protection against unauthorized disclosure, and that is not designated as classified (i.e., Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret). USERS WHO POST CLASSIFIED CONTENT MAY BE SUBJECT TO THE SANCTIONS DESCRIBED IN SECTION 5.5 OF EO 13526;
You own or have sufficient rights to post and distribute Your Content posted by, on or through Forge.mil;
The posting of Your Content on or through Forge.mil does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, or other intellectual property, contract rights or any other rights of any person;
You have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the use and distribution of Your Content, agree to pay for all royalties, fees and any other monies owing any person by reason of any of Your Content that you posted to or through Forge.mil;
Your Content does not constitute, contain, install or attempt to install any viruses, worms, Trojan horses, malicious code or other harmful or destructive content that interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment, or otherwise permit the unauthorized use of a computer or computer network;
Your Content is not unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another's privacy, tortious, nor does it contain explicit or graphic descriptions or accounts of: sexual acts, bodily waste functions, criminal activity or the intent to commit any of the above;
If your employer has rights to Content or other intellectual property you create, you have either
1. received permission from your employer to make available Your Content, or
2. secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to Your Content;
Your Content does not inundate the Website with communications or other traffic suggesting no serious intent to use the Website for its stated purpose;
Your Content does not otherwise violate, or link to material that violates any provision of this Agreement, or any other local, state or federal law.
Your Content does not contain content that endorses, promotes or incites racism, bigotry, discrimination, harassment, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against another group or individual;
You do not share the account or contact information provided in the user profile and/or user details of other Forge.mil users with entities outside the Forge.mil user community for reasons other than government purposes;
You do not use the account or contact information provided in the user profile and/or user details of other Forge.mil users to sell your wares, company or product or to spam users; and

YOU AGREE TO USE FORGE.MIL ONLY FOR U.S. GOVERNMENT AUTHORIZED PURPOSES THAT ARE LEGAL, AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH THESE TERMS AND ANY APPLICABLE FORGE.MIL POLICIES.

4) PERMISSION TO USE FORGE.MIL

In consideration for your agreement to the terms and conditions contained here, DISA grants you access to and use of Forge.mil. You may use Forge.mil and the Content offered on Forge.mil only for purposes authorized by the United States Government. You may use Content offered for downloading, such as software, source code, and documents subject to the rules that accompany that particular Content.

You may not use the Content in a manner that exceeds the rights granted for your use of the Content. You may not circumvent any mechanisms included in the Content for preventing the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of the Content. You may not use any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools on the Content to frame any portion of Forge.mil or Content, or to reproduce, reprint, copy, store, publicly display, broadcast, transmit, modify, translate, port, publish, sublicense, assign, transfer, sell, loan, or otherwise distribute the Content without our prior written consent.

You agree not to access Forge.mil by any means other than through the interface that is provided by DISA. You also agree not to circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with security related features of the web site or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any Materials or enforce limitations on use of the web site or the Materials therein.

5) USE OF SPECIFIC FORGE.MIL SERVICES

Data stored on all Forge.mil sites is stored in an unencrypted format. Forge.mil services are accessible only to registered users of Forge.mil and require you to sign in with a PKI certificate issued by the DoD, an accepted Federal Government Agency or Industry Partner or a recognized DoD External Certificate Authority. These users constitute the 'authorized user' base.

Terms and conditions specific to each of these services are defined below.

DISA offers Forge.mil to you for U.S. Government (USG) authorized use. Government purpose, DFARS Clause reference 252.227-7013(a)(11), is defined as “Any activity in which the United States Government is a party, including cooperative agreements with international or multi-national defense organizations or sales or transfers by the United States Government to foreign governments or international organizations. Government purposes include competitive procurement, but do not include the rights to use, modify, reproduce, release, perform, display, or disclose computer software or computer software documentation for commercial purpose or authorize others to do so.”

5.1) USE OF SOFTWAREFORGE

DISA offers resources for open source and DoD community source software development and content creation on SoftwareForge, including communications tools, source code version control, project management tools, online forums, and personalized content.

5.1.1) LICENSING AND OTHER TERMS APPLYING TO CODE AND OTHER CONTENT POSTED ON SOFTWAREFORGE

SoftwareForge fosters software development and content creation under Open-Source Initiative ("OSI")-approved licenses or DoD Community Source Software usage agreements. For more information about OSI, and OSI-approved licenses, visit www.opensource.org. DoD Community Source software is software where rights to view, use, modify and distribute the software and source code are restricted based on specific authorizations or limitation made by the U.S. Government. DoD Community Software typically restricts the grants rights to view, use, modify and distribute the software and source code only to the Department of Defense and DoD Contractors only in support of DoD efforts. Software shared on SoftwareForge developed by vendors for the Government can only be posted if the Government has an Unlimited Rights or Government Purpose Rights license and are subject to Distribution Statements C or D defined below. Additionally, software shared and distributed on SoftwareForge may be subject to export control laws.

Government rights as defined by the DFARS:
1. Unlimited Rights: DFARS Clause reference 252.227-7013(a)(15) and 252.227-7014(a)(15). The Government has the right to use, modify, reproduce, perform, display, release or disclose this technical data or computer software in whole or in part, in any manner, and for any purpose whatsoever, and to have or authorize others to do so.
2. Government Purpose Rights: DFARS Clause reference 252.227-7013(a)(12) and 252.227-7014(a)(11). Use, modify, reproduce, release, perform, display, or disclose technical data or computer software within the Government without restriction; and release or disclose technical data outside the Government and authorize persons to whom release or disclosure has been made to use, modify, reproduce, release, perform, display, or disclose that data for United States government purposes.
Distribution Statements as defined by DoD Directive 5230.24. The distribution statement denotes the extent of the software, source code or technical data's availability for distribution, release, and disclosure without additional approvals or authorizations. Distribution Statements use for DoD Community Source Software include (see DoDD 5230.24 for further information)
1. Distribution Statement C: Distribution authorized to U.S. Government Agencies and their contractors
2. Distribution Statement D: Distribution authorized to the Department of Defense and U.S. DoD contractors only
Export Control. You shall comply with all applicable United States laws and regulations governing the export, re-export, diversion or transfer of software, related technical data and other data, thereof, including without limitation, the International Traffic In Arms Regulations (ITAR), (Title 22 C.F.R. Parts 120-130) and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), 22 U.S.C. Section 2778-2780). VIOLATIONS OF EXPORT LAWS AND REGULATIONS ARE SUBJECT TO SEVERE CRIMINAL PENALTIES. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR DETERMINING WHETHER POSTING SOFTWARE, TECHNICAL AND OTHER DATA ON FORGE.MIL WOULD VIOLATE THE EXPORT LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. Questions regarding licensing requirements, policies and procedures regarding software, technical and other data that may raise export control concerns should be addressed to community@forge.mil. All software, technical and other data posted on Forge.mil shall be disseminated in accordance with the provisions of DoD Directive 5230.24.

Usage rights and intellectual property rights to data stored in the SoftwareForge version control library or as a file release and posted by any user on SoftwareForge ("Source Code") shall be governed by and subject to the OSI-approved license or to the specific DoD Community Source usage rights.

5.2) USE OF PROJECTFORGE

DISA offers resources for software development and content creation for programs and/or projects that are not doing DoD community source development and/or need to restrict access to specific project members on ProjectForge, including communications tools, source code version control, project management tools, online forums, and personalized content.

You maintain and administer project membership permissions. You are responsible for determining whether your Content is shared within the DoD Community (made public in ProjectForge) or if that Content is to remain private and shared only among project members. You are responsible for ensuring the correct permissions are applied to your Content to ensure Content that is private within a ProjectForge project is not exposed to the DoD Community unless authorized by you.

6) COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT PROCEDURES

You retain all intellectual property rights to any Content and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate. You may not post, modify, distribute or reproduce in any way any copyrighted materials, trademarks or other intellectual property or proprietary information belonging to others without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner.

The Forge.mil Project Office has filed with the Copyright Office a Designation of Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement and is listed in the Directory of Designated Agents. If you believe that your work has been copied and is accessible on Forge.mil in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, send a notification of claimed infringement to the DISA, Forge.mil designated agent and the Forge.mil Help Desk (support@forge.mil). See US Code Title 17 Subsection 512(c)(3) for the required elements of notification.

DISA complies with the notice and takedown provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Upon receipt of a complaint notification, the Forge.mil Support team will remove the content and notify the user who posted the content why it was removed. Users in violation of copyright infringement will have their permission to use Forge.mil Services terminated.

7) MARKING REQUIREMENTS

You are responsible for appropriately labeling and documenting any content that you submit, post or display that is to be withheld from the public domain; exempt from Freedom of Information Act; subject to controls such as Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), For Official Use Only (FOUO), and other special handling caveats; or limited by Government Purpose Rights (GPR) as defined by the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFAR). With respect to Public Content, the submitting user retains ownership of such Public Content, except that statistical content which is generated by DISA to monitor and display Forge.mil Community group activity is owned by DISA.

8) LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEB SITES

Links to third party web sites on Forge.mil are provided solely as a convenience to the user consistent with the stated purpose of this DoD web site. The appearance of hyperlinks within Forge.mil does not constitute endorsement (by the Federal Government, Department of Defense, the Defense Information Systems Agency) of linked web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. Forge.mil does not endorse or make any representations about the third party sites, or any information, services, or products found on the sites. If a user decides to access any of the linked sites, the user does so at their own risk.

9) DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

DISA cannot control the nature of the content available on the web site. By operating the web site, DISA does not represent or imply that DISA endorses any content or any other materials or items available on or linked to by the web site, including without limitation content hosted on third party web sites, or that DISA believes content or any other materials or items to be accurate, useful or non-harmful.

DISA claims no ownership or control over any user provided content. You agree that we are not liable for Content that is provided by others. Forge.mil may include unmediated forums containing the personal opinions and other expressions of the persons who post entries on a wide range of topics. Neither the content of these Sites, nor the references to other web sites made in these forums are screened, approved, reviewed or endorsed by the DISA.

We have no duty to pre-screen Content, but we have the right to refuse to post or to edit submitted Content. We reserve the right to remove Content for any reason, but we are not responsible for any failure or delay in removing such material. The text and other material of Content provided by others may represent the opinion of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or information of the DISA, DoD or the United States Government.

DISA cannot guarantee and does not promise any specific results from use of the web site. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from DISA or the web site shall create any warranty not expressly stated herein.

All products, services, information, content or any other materials or items provided through Forge.mil are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranty or conditions of any kind, including but not limited to, express or implied warranties, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. DISA does not warrant, endorse, guarantee or assume responsibility for any products, services or information offered by a third party through the web site or any hyperlinked web site, and DISA will not be a party to or in any way be responsible for monitoring any transaction between you and third-party providers of content, products, services or information.

10) LIMITED LIABILITY

To the extent permitted by applicable law, DISA will not be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages of any kind, or any other damages whatsoever (including without limitation, damages resulting from: (a) reliance on the web site materials, (b) loss of use, data, profits, goodwill and/or other intangible losses (including without limitation the inability to use Forge.mil services, unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data, statements or conduct of any third party on Forge.mil), or (c) delays or business interruptions arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the web site).

You agree that your use of the web site and services will be at your sole risk. You agree to indemnify, hold harmless, and defend DISA and each of their employees, suppliers, service providers and other contractors (collectively, "DISA indemnified parties") from any and all third party claims, causes of actions, proceedings, liabilities, damages, or other demands ("claims"), arising from or related to (a) your access to or use of Forge.mil and services, including, without limitation, your or others' access of content or other materials available by means of the web site or third-party web sites, (b) your violation of these terms or breach of these terms , including, without limitation, any representation or warranty contained in this agreement; or (c) your content or provision to Forge.mil of information or any other products, postings, data or materials.

11) TERM AND SURVIVAL

These Terms shall remain in full force and effect while you use the Forge.mil Services or are a user of Forge.mil. You may terminate your use or participation at any time, for any reason. DISA may terminate your use or participation at any time for violation of these Terms or any laws or to protect the integrity of the web site, the networks or services connected to the web site or other users. DISA reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, Forge.mil or any Service. DISA shall not be liable to any user or other third party for any such modification, suspension or discontinuance. Even after your use or participation is terminated, the material terms of these Terms will remain in effect.

DISA may change these Terms of Use at any time. You can review the most current version of these terms by clicking on the "Forge.mil User Agreement" hypertext link located on all Forge.mil Sites. You are responsible for checking these terms periodically for changes. If you continue to use Forge.mil after DISA posts changes to these Terms of Use, you are signifying your acceptance of the new terms. These terms are in addition to all applicable DoD regulations. If a conflict between these terms of use and a DoD regulation arises, the DoD regulation supersedes. The invalidation of a specific clause of these terms does not affect the rule and force of all remaining terms.

Contact webmaster@forge.mil with any questions or comments on this user agreement.

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