Terms of Use
This is a Version 1 draft, written in plain language. By creating a FOTA account or submitting content to the site, you agree to these terms.
Account Responsibility
You are responsible for the security of your account credentials and for activity submitted under your account. Provide accurate account information, and keep your callsign claim accurate — callsign changes reset verification and are reviewed before they are shown as verified again.
User Generated Content
You retain ownership of the content you submit (photos, bios, fair descriptions). By submitting it, you grant FOTA a license to display, distribute, and reformat it as part of the program — on the website, in program statistics, and through the FOTA API — for as long as it remains part of the public record.
Public Callsign Information
Amateur radio callsigns are, by the nature of the hobby, public information. Your callsign, once added to your account, is shown on your public profile and on any activation or spot you submit.
Fair Submissions
A FOTA reference identifies a jurisdiction, not a person or organization. Submitting a fair does not grant ownership of its listing; an administrator reviews and approves new fair submissions before they are attached to a permanent reference. Submit fairs that genuinely exist — see the Rules page.
Activation Submissions
Log activations you actually performed, from the fairgrounds or the location the Rules page describes as eligible. Deliberately false activation logs undermine the program for everyone and may result in content removal, callsign disputes, or account suspension.
Spot Submissions
Post spots you believe to be accurate — correct callsign, frequency, and mode. See the Rules page for what qualifies as a valid contact.
Moderation
Fair submissions and callsign claims are reviewed by FOTA administrators before they are treated as approved or verified. Administrators may edit, reject, or remove content that violates these terms or the Rules page, and may resolve jurisdiction disputes over a fair reference.
Prohibited Abuse
Automated scraping or submission abuse against the site or its API, attempts to bypass rate limiting or capability checks, and impersonating another operator's callsign are all prohibited and may result in account suspension and, where relevant, removal of the affected content.
External Services
Where FOTA links to or integrates with a third-party service — for example, the store's payment processor, or a QRZ link you add to your own profile — that service's own terms apply to your use of it. FOTA is not responsible for the content or availability of external services it links to.
Future APIs
Where a FOTA API is available for third-party use, it may only be used to read or submit data consistent with these terms and with any published rate limits — not to republish FOTA data as if it were your own program's original data, or to bulk-harvest user account information beyond what is already public.
Service Availability
FOTA is provided on an as-available basis. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access, and features may change as the program develops.
Content Correction
If you find inaccurate information in a fair record, activation log, or your own profile, use the Contact page to request a correction. Administrators may also correct content directly where an error is clear (a misspelled fair name, an obviously wrong location).
Suspension
We may suspend or terminate an account that violates these terms, the Rules page, or applicable law, and may remove content submitted in violation of them. Where practical we will explain why.
Liability
FOTA is a volunteer-run activation program. It is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, and its organizers are not liable for losses arising from your use of the site, participation in activations, or reliance on fair or spot data submitted by other users.
Changes to Terms
These terms may be revised as the program grows. Material changes will be reflected by a new version of this page; continued use of FOTA after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.
Contact Information
Questions about these terms can be sent through the Contact page.