Terms of Use

Last Updated: August 30, 2026

Agreement to Terms

By accessing or using this dictionary website (the "Website"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this Website.

This Website is operated by Fo Guang Shan (“we,” “us,” or “our”). The Fo Guang Dictionary of Buddhism is referred to in these Terms as “FGDB.”

These Terms of Use apply generally throughout the Website. Where specific content or services are subject to separate terms, licenses, or notices, those specific terms shall govern with respect to that content or service to the extent of any inconsistency.

Description of Service

This Website provides access to Buddhist dictionary entries and related reference information, including terms, definitions, names, places, texts, concepts, and other materials relevant to Buddhism and Buddhist studies. Our content is intended for general reference, educational, and informational purposes. The dictionary database is continuously updated and expanded, and content may be updated, modified, or removed from time to time.

Standard Terms of Use

You agree to use this Website only for lawful purposes and in full accordance with these Terms. You may not:

• Use the Website in any way that violates applicable laws or regulations
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Website or its servers
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability or security of the Website or any related system or network without authorization; bypass or attempt to bypass authentication, security, or access-control measures; or introduce viruses, malware, malicious code, or other harmful technologies
• Use automated tools, systems, services, agents, or processes to access or use Website content except as expressly permitted under the section “Restrictions on Automated Access, Text and Data Mining, and Artificial Intelligence” or otherwise authorized in writing by us
• Submit false, misleading, or inappropriate content if user submission features are available
• Interfere with or disrupt the Website's functionality or other users' access
• Use the content for spam, phishing, or other malicious distribution, or any other malicious, harmful, or unlawful activity

Violation of these Terms may result in suspension or permanent termination of your access to the Website. We also reserve the right to take appropriate legal action when necessary.

Content Accuracy and Disclaimer

We strive to provide accurate, reliable, and comprehensive dictionary content. However, dictionary entries and related information may be revised as scholarship, editorial research, and available sources develop. Our content is intended for general reference, educational, and informational purposes only.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or availability of the materials provided on this Website. The materials are provided as work in progress and may be updated, modified, or removed from time to time. We shall not be liable for any loss, damage, or inconvenience arising from your use of, or reliance upon, the materials provided.

Copyright and Intellectual Property

The content and materials made available on this Website, including but not limited to dictionary entries, definitions, names, places, texts, concepts, editorial content, compilations, database organization, and other materials, may be protected by copyright, database rights, trademark rights, and other applicable intellectual property laws.

Except where otherwise indicated, we reserve all rights in content for which we own or control the applicable rights and reserve the right to determine the terms under which such content may be used or released.

Permitted Usage

Individuals may:

• View and use the Website for personal, educational, or non-commercial purposes
• Use content in accordance with applicable fair use or fair dealing provisions
• Quote brief excerpts for academic, journalistic, or educational purposes with proper attribution

Attribution requirements:

When citing or quoting FGDB content, where attribution is appropriate or required, please include:

• The word or term being defined
• The source name: "Fo Guang Dictionary of Buddhism" (or a substantially similar attribution)
• The URL of the specific entry (if applicable)
• The date accessed (for academic citations)

Restricted Content Usage

For content not specifically released under a Creative Commons license, and except as otherwise permitted by applicable law, you must obtain prior written permission from us before:

• Reproducing substantial portions of our dictionary content
• Using content for commercial purposes
• Creating derivative works based on our content
• Distributing content through any medium or platform

Where specific content is made available under a Creative Commons license or another express license, use of that content is governed by the applicable license terms to the extent of any inconsistency with these Terms.

To request permission, contact us with details about the material you wish to use, your intended purpose, target audience, and distribution method. Please follow the attribution requirements for any approved usage.

Restrictions on Automated Access, Text and Data Mining, and Artificial Intelligence

Unless expressly authorized in writing by us or otherwise permitted by applicable law, you may not, directly or indirectly, use or cause others to use any automated means, tools, systems, services, agents, or processes to access, retrieve, collect, extract, scrape, crawl, harvest, download, index, analyze, process, reproduce, store, or otherwise use content from this Website.

Restricted activities include, but are not limited to:

• Bulk or systematic automated downloading, retrieval, collection, extraction, or harvesting of Website content
• Scraping, crawling, harvesting, or otherwise systematically extracting Website content
• Automatically indexing, cataloging, aggregating, or organizing Website content
• Text and data mining or other automated analysis of Website content
• Creating, compiling, populating, or enriching datasets, corpora, databases, indexes, archives, repositories, or similar collections using Website content
• Using Website content to train, pre-train, fine-tune, test, benchmark, evaluate, validate, develop, or improve artificial intelligence or machine-learning models, including language models, or other computational models or systems
• Generating embeddings, vector representations, or other machine-readable representations of Website content, or storing or using such representations in vector databases or similar systems
• Incorporating Website content or representations derived from Website content into retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, automated knowledge bases, search or retrieval systems, or similar systems
• Extracting relationships, entities, concepts, or other structured information from Website content for the creation, population, enrichment, or operation of knowledge graphs, ontologies, semantic databases, or similar structured knowledge systems
• Using automated agents, artificial intelligence agents, bots, scripts, or other software systems to retrieve, query, interact with, collect, or process Website content
• Automatically translating, summarizing, paraphrasing, transforming, reproducing, redistributing, republishing, or otherwise making Website content or substantial portions thereof available
• Accessing or retrieving Website content through APIs, feeds, endpoints, search interfaces, or other technical means in an automated or systematic manner, except where such access is expressly made available and authorized by us
• Creating or maintaining unauthorized mirrors, caches, archives, repositories, or substantially complete copies of Website content through automated or systematic means
• Using Website content through automated or systematic means to create, operate, populate, or enhance a product, service, database, platform, or information system that reproduces, substitutes for, or materially replicates the content or functionality of the Website
• Circumventing, bypassing, disabling, or attempting to circumvent, bypass, or disable rate limits, robots directives, authentication mechanisms, technical measures, access controls, security measures, or other mechanisms used to regulate or prevent automated access to the Website

These restrictions apply to automated activities conducted for commercial, non-commercial, research, educational, or other purposes, unless such activities are expressly authorized in writing by us or otherwise permitted by applicable law.

The absence of a technical restriction, robots directive, rate limit, access control, or other automated-access prevention measure does not constitute permission or authorization to access, retrieve, process, or use Website content in a manner otherwise restricted by these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms grants any license, authorization, or permission to use Website content for automated extraction, text and data mining, dataset or corpus creation, artificial intelligence or machine-learning training, model development or evaluation, generation of embeddings or creation of vector databases, retrieval-augmented generation, knowledge-graph construction, or other automated or systematic processing.

Requests for permission to conduct automated access, text and data mining, artificial intelligence-related use, or other automated or systematic processing of Website content should be submitted to us in advance.

Third-Party Content and External Links

This Website may contain links to external websites or references to third-party sources. These links and references are provided for convenience only. We do not endorse, sponsor, or otherwise approve the content, information, products, services, or statements available through such third-party websites or sources. You access external websites at your own risk, and we are not responsible for their content, privacy practices, security, or availability.

Photographs, media, and other materials made available on this Website may be subject to third-party rights, including copyright, privacy, publicity, or other applicable rights. Users are responsible for determining whether any additional permissions or clearances are required for their intended use.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from or in connection with:

• Your use of, or inability to use, the Website
• Any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions in content provided
• Any decisions, actions, or reliance made based on information obtained from the Website
• Any interruption, suspension, or termination of the Website or its services

Service Availability and Modifications

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to:

• Modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Website or its services at any time
• Update, amend, or revise these Terms of Use from time to time
• Restrict or limit access to certain features, functions, or content of the Website
• Perform system maintenance or upgrades that may temporarily limit access to the Website

Any revised Terms will be posted on this Website with an updated “Last Updated” date. Where required by applicable law, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent.

Your continued use of the Website after the revised Terms become effective constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Termination of Use

We may terminate, suspend, or otherwise restrict your access to the Website at our discretion, particularly in the event of a violation of these Terms of Use. Upon termination, your right to use the Website ceases immediately. Any provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination, including provisions relating to intellectual property, restricted use of content, automated access and processing, disclaimers, and limitations of liability, shall remain in effect.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms of Use is found to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect to the fullest extent permitted by law.

No Waiver

Failure by us to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision, nor shall it prevent us from exercising or enforcing that right or provision at a later time.

Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. Please review our Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use this Website.