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GeoCities Page Content Guidelines and Member Terms of Service
The purpose of the free Personal Home Page program is to give people the ability to create a home on the World Wide Web that reflects their interests, hobbies and background.

GeoCities is an amazing place. More than a million people from all over the world have taken up residence in one of our neighborhoods. The sites created by this group of GeoCitizens contain an incredible array of facts, opinions, entertainment and interesting information. We are very mindful of our role as stewards of these communities, and will do our best to ensure that GeoCities remains a positive contributor to the Internet community.

Within the guidelines stated below, we are committed to provide a forum for all points of view. If you disagree with some of the opinions expressed by certain members of our community, we encourage you to create your own free Personal Home Page and make your own views known. To us, this is the definition of community. We appreciate your interest in and support of GeoCities and pledge to you our continued support in building the Societies of the New Frontier.

David Bohnett and the Staff of GeoCities

Last modified January 8, 1997


A Word On Advertising And Homesteader Responsibility

We are very mindful that the success of GeoCities is based on the ongoing support and enthusiasm of our homesteaders, and that our growth is due to an unofficial "word of mouth" campaign that our members have initiated.

GeoCities has been fortunate to attract a growing list of impressive advertisers and sponsors. Right from the beginning, we've tried to integrate advertising into GeoCities and develop programs with sponsors that add value to our communities.

We rely on the support of our advertisers in order to provide free home pages and other services to millions of users on the web, and we ask that our homesteaders help create a positive and supportive environment for advertisers at GeoCities.

Two methods which GeoCities uses to support our community through advertising are the GeoGuide and the GeoPops programs.

Members are encouraged to put a GeoGuide on the top of all their pages in GeoCities. The GeoGuide is a cool, customizable navigation guide that helps visitors communicate with you about your page, and helps them navigate GeoCities to find other sites of interest. The GeoGuide also contains a built in ad banner, and as you are probably aware, GeoCities relies on the ongoing support of our advertisers and sponsors to help fund all the free programs we offer our homesteaders and visitors. GeoCities also serves ad banners in pop-up windows that may appear infrequently along side member pages that do not contain the GeoGuide. These pop-up windows also contain links to GeoCities as well as an ad banner. The pop-up window does not in any way interefere with the contents of the member's page, nor does it affect the loading of the member's page.

Pop-up windows appear infrequently, and are never served alongside pages that have a GeoGuide on them. Pop-up windows also do not appear for members of the GeoPlus program. Homesteaders who prefer not to have pop-up windows served periodically along with their pages are encouraged to put a GeoGuide on their pages. Members are prohibited from interfering with the design and operation of the GeoGuide and the pop-up windows, and violators may be subject to having their account terminated.

We always try, at GeoCities, to give a variety of options to our members, and the pop-up program and GeoGuide program were developed based on direct input and feedback from our homesteaders and Community Leaders.

Homesteaders who have any questions about advertising programs at GeoCities are encouraged to contact us directly, and we will ensure you receive a timely response to your question. Our Comments Submission Form is the correct place to address any question regarding our advertising programs.

Please help GeoCities and your fellow homesteaders in supporting the advertisers who help make all this possible.


Page Content Requirements

There's really only two requirements that we ask of our homesteaders in return for all the great free services we offer. First, we ask you to either place a customizable GeoGuide on top of your pages or to support the GeoPops Program. These forms of advertising make your free pages possible. If you would rather avoid banner advertising, then please take advantage of the GeoPlus Program for $4.95 a month.

Secondly, we ask that at the bottom of each page you place a link back to the GeoCities home page. Please see the FTP Procedures Page for the preferred source code. Many of our neighborhoods also have pages chock full of custom graphics designed for their own particular neighborhood. Feel free to integrate these images into your page.

Each person may have one GeoCities address per theme, even if that person has multiple email addresses. Each GeoCities address allows that particular individual to have 3 MB of disk space for his or her files, and an individual can earn even more by joining our Featured Page Program, or GeoPlus. We support many different filetypes to help you be creative, and offer you the choice of three different home page editors in the multi-purpose File Manager to update and create your pages. We also provide two methods for you to transfer your files to us, FTP, and the GeoCities EZ File Upload Utility which is also found in the File Manager.

GeoCities is not responsible for the delivery of any goods or services sold or advertised through its sponsors or Commercial Home Pages. Furthermore, GeoCities is not responsible for the content of any Personal Home Page. The opinions and views expressed in the Personal Home Pages do not reflect those of GeoCities. The contents of the Personal Home Pages are not reviewed in any way before they appear in GeoCities.

We reserve the right to remove any page from the system which is brought to our attention and which we find, in our sole discretion, violates these page content guidelines, or otherwise is in violation of the law. GeoCities does not actively monitor the content of Personal Home Pages, but will investigate complaints of violation of these guidelines. Please submit any such complaints using our Content Violation Reporting Form. GeoCities is also not responsible for any loss of data resulting from our deletion of Personal Home Pages, network or system outages, file corruption or any other reasons.


Page Content Guidelines

GeoCities has carefully developed the following page content guidelines to promote the free flowing exchange of ideas about your interests, activities and hobbies, and at the same time maintain standards consistent with the Internet community and the societies of the world at large. If you have any questions regarding these guidelines, please take a look at our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) regarding them.

GeoCities does not discriminate based on sex, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender orientation, ethnicity, culture, religion or socio-economic status.

Please refrain from using your free Personal Home Page for the following activities:

  • Displaying material containing nudity or pornographic material of any kind;
  • Providing material that is grossly offensive to the online community, including blatant expressions of bigotry, prejudice, racism, hatred, or profanity;
  • Promoting or providing instructional information about illegal activities, or promoting physical harm or injury against any group or individual;
  • Defaming any person or group;
  • Using your free Personal Home Pages for commercial purposes, including but not limited to the following:

    • Offering for sale any products or services;
    • Soliciting for advertisers or sponsors;
    • Displaying a sponsorship banner of any kind, including those that are generated by banner or link exchange services, with the sole exception of the GeoGuide Banner Exchange program and the Internet Link Exchange;
    • Displaying banners for services that provide cash or cash-equivalent prizes to users in exchange for hyperlinks to their web site;
    • Promoting or soliciting for participation in multi-level marketing or pyramid schemes. Please visit the FTC web page for more information regarding money making schemes: http://www.ftc.gov;
    • Conducting raffles or contests that require any type of entry fee;

  • Displaying material that exploits children under 18 years of age;
  • Developing restricted or password-only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to from another accessible page);
  • Using your page (or directory) as storage for remote loading or as a door or signpost to another homepage, whether inside or beyond GeoCities;
  • Using your page for acts of copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property infringement, including but not limited to offering pirated computer programs or links to such programs, information used to circumvent manufacturer-installed copy-protect devices, including serial or registration numbers for software programs, or any type of cracker utilities (this also includes files which are solely intended for game emulation);
  • Violating Internet standards for the purpose of promoting your home page;
  • Developing pages that consist of hyperlinks to content not allowed in GeoCities;
  • Having multiple GeoCities addresses which are within the same GeoCities neighborhood or which have the same theme.

For copyright information, please read the Copyright FAQ Page.

EnchantedForest residents: We created a childrens neighborhood for the sole purpose of allowing children their own little dimension within the adult world in which they reside. To pursue that purpose, we created guidelines to keep our "Enchanted Forest" child oriented. Please read the special content guidelines developed especially for that neighborhood.


Member Email Guidelines

GeoCities encourages you to use your free member email account as often as you like. Always remember to stay within the accepted use policies that govern Internet Email, and do not use it for the purpose of "spamming" newsgroups or individuals, conducting unwanted solicitations of groups or individuals, harassing or threatening anyone, or for the purpose of conducting any illegal activities.


Members who are in violation of these policies may be deleted and their pages, or portions of their pages, removed without warning.
GeoCities Member Terms of Service

Members are solely responsible for everything contained in their own Personal Home Pages. GeoCities does not verify, endorse or otherwise vouch for the contents of any Personal Home Page. Members can be held legally liable for the contents of their Personal Home Pages, and may be held legally accountable if their Personal Home Pages include, for example, material protected by copyright, trademark, patent or trade secret law without the permission of the author or owner or defamatory comments.

The member agrees to indemnify and hold harmless GeoCities for any loss, liability, claim, damage, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from or in connection with the contents of the member's Personal Home Page, or use of the member's GeoCities Email account.

In the event that GeoCities receives a complaint that the contents of a personal home page infringe intellectual property rights or otherwise is unlawful, GeoCities shall request written substantiation of the complaint from the complaining party, for example, substantiation of proof of ownership in the form of a trademark, service mark, patent or copyright registration and will take such steps that it believes to be appropriate under the circumstances, including, for example:

  1. Suspend the site, or a portion of the site, immediately until the dispute is resolved;
  2. Provide the member with contact information for the complaining party;
  3. Instruct the member to contact the complaining party to resolve the dispute;
  4. Inform the complaining party of our actions and ask that party to work directly with the member;
    Note: All correspondence between the parties must also be sent to GeoCities (address provided).
  5. Take the following action based on the progress of the dispute:
    • If the member has not pursued resolution within 14 days of notification, the site, or portions of the site, will be deleted;
    • If complaining party has not pursued resolution within 14 days of member's response, the site, or portions of the site, will be re-activated;
    • If legal action is pending or the dispute is not settled, the site, or portions of the site, may remain suspended until resolution is reached and GeoCities is notified by both parties as to the outcome;
    • If a resolution is reached between the parties, the site, or portions of the site, will be reactivated with any mutually agreed upon modifications.
If a copyright, trademark, patent, or other infringement is obvious (such as when pirated computer programs or information used to circumvent manufacturer-installed copy-protect devices, including serial or registration numbers for software programs or any type of cracker utility, is being distributed), GeoCities also reserves the right, instead of following the above stated procedures, to delete all files and remove the homesteader without any warning.

GeoCities also reserves the following rights:

  • To release current or past member information in the event GeoCities believes that accounts are in violation of the terms of service or page content guidelines, used to commit unlawful acts, if the information is subpoenaed and/or if GeoCities deems it necessary and/or appropriate;
  • To deny membership to offenders of these guidelines or terms of service;
  • To amend or change these guidelines at any time and without notice;
  • To remove members who interfere with the design and operation of the GeoGuide and the pop-up windows, without warning;
  • To use images of homesteader pages for promotional and other commercial purposes.

For copyright information, please read the Copyright FAQ Page.


In closing, we appreciate your interest and support of GeoCities and we welcome you to our community.


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Introduction By Our CEO
Advertising & Homesteader Responsibility
Page Content Requirements
Page Content Guidelines
EnchantedForest Guidelines
Eureka Guidelines
PicketFence Guidelines
Email Use Guidelines
Terms Of Service
Copyright Dispute Policy
FAQ For The Page Content Guidelines
FAQ Regarding Copyright Laws And The Internet
Sponsorship Banners
How To Properly Promote Your Page
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