# DVMProject Usage & Support Guidelines

This document outlines official DVMProject policies regarding project usage, support boundaries, and community participation expectations.

DVMProject is licensed under [GPL-2.0](LICENSE). Nothing in this document restricts or overrides the rights granted by that license. You are free to use, modify, and distribute the software in accordance with the GPL.

However, this document defines:

- Use cases that the DVMProject team does not endorse
- Scenarios for which official support will not be provided
- Expectations for participation within official DVMProject communities and infrastructure

These guidelines exist to ensure clarity, protect the project and its contributors, and set consistent expectations for users and integrators.

Additional policies may be added to this document over time, with or without notice.

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## DVMProject Public Safety & Life Safety Use Policy

### Purpose

This policy formally clarifies the DVMProject stance regarding the use of DVMProject software, firmware, hardware designs, and any affiliated services in public safety or life safety environments.

This policy applies to all users, contributors, integrators, and community members.


### 1. Not for Public Safety or Life Safety Use

DVMProject and any affiliated DVM projects, services, or infrastructure **are not designed, tested, certified, or supported for mission-critical use.**

Under no circumstances may DVMProject components be used for:

- Public safety communications
- Fire, EMS, law enforcement, or emergency management operations
- Life safety systems
- Critical infrastructure communications
- Any environment where failure could result in injury, loss of life, or significant property damage
- Even in a “support,” “backup,” “interoperability,” or “auxiliary” capacity

DVMProject does not endorse, approve, or support such use cases.

#### Receive-Only / Hobby Monitoring Clarification

This policy does not prohibit passive, receive-only hobbyist monitoring of publicly available radio traffic, including streaming or ingesting external audio into a hobby or research system.

This does **not** permit operational use, dispatch integration, field communications, or any scenario where public safety personnel rely on DVMProject systems for situational awareness or response.

DVMProject remains unsupported and non-endorsed for any public safety or life safety role.


### 2. No Warranty of Reliability or Fitness

DVMProject is an open-source research and hobbyist project.

It:
- Has not undergone mission-critical validation
- Has not been certified for regulatory or public safety compliance
- Does not guarantee uptime, redundancy, failover, or fault tolerance
- May change, break, or behave unpredictably at any time

No representation is made regarding fitness for any specific operational purpose.


### 3. Community Enforcement

Use of DVMProject in violation of this policy may result in:

- Immediate removal from official DVMProject Discord servers
- Revocation of community access
- Refusal of support
- Removal of related infrastructure from shared services (if applicable)

Administrative action may occur without warning.


### 4. Open Source Clarification

DVMProject is open-source software.

While we cannot control what individuals do outside official channels, we:

- Explicitly prohibit public safety or life safety use within official DVM communities
- Will not provide support for such use
- Will not assist in configuring or deploying DVMProject in those environments

Responsibility for unauthorized use rests solely with the deploying party.


### 5. Acknowledgment

By participating in DVMProject communities or utilizing DVMProject software, you acknowledge and agree to this policy.

If your intended use case involves public safety, emergency response, or life safety communications, you must pursue solutions specifically engineered, validated, and certified for that purpose.


**This policy is effective immediately upon publication and is subject to change at anytime.**