Last Updated: 03.04.06

ALL Members of the Emperor's Hammer must adhere to and abide by the following in order to enjoy Active Membership:

I

As Members of the World Wide Web (WWW) community and Internet at large, no gross personal misconduct or other violations of online etiquette will be tolerated (i.e. no profanity/vulgarity on public message boards, sending or receiving illegal copies of commercial software, hacking, harassment, abusive conduct, prejudice with regards to race, religion, sex, sexual preference/affectional status, age, or gender.

Members who have been determined to have violated these Bylaws will be given ONE warning from the Fleet Commander (or Security Officer).  A second offense/violation or an initial gross violation could result in a "court marshal" by the High Court of the Inquisitors in accordance with the Articles of War, as supervised by the High Inquisitor.  It should be noted that most internet Service Providers (ISPs) reserve the right to take whatever action they deem necessary with the offender's accounts (if applicable).  This may include notating ISP accounts, suspension or account cancellations.

If a Member of the Emperor's Hammer violates these Bylaws, he/she runs the risk of having their Internet Service Provider (ISP) contacted if the problem(s) can not be resolved via email and/or online chat.

II

No persons may edit, redistribute for public posting, or in any other way modify the Emperor's Hammer Newsletters, WWW Domain Site or Manuals without the express written consent of the Fleet Commander or the document's applicable author.  These materials are considered protected under the US Copyright Act.   Any transgressions beyond "fair use", as detailed in the United States Copyright Code, may be aggressively pursued by the applicable author(s).  It should be noted that this copyright protection claim extends only to original EH Member submissions and does NOT extend to any previously copyrighted commercial materials in the public domain (i.e. Star Wars/LucasArts files, personal artwork, etc.).  Any EH materials used online in a fair use capacity MUST at a minimum credit the applicable author(s).  Please review the Emperor's Hammer Disclaimer/Copyrights Policies which are incorporated herein by reference.

III

No Member of the Emperor's Hammer shall profit by, charge monetary fees for, or solicit commercial services through the Emperor's Hammer organization,  WWW Domain, Membership emails, message boards, WWW sites, Newsletters or through their Position within said organization.   Not only does this endanger the entire Fleet with respect to relations with LucasArts, but it also tarnishes the high ethical and professional standards for which the club stands.

This prohibition does not extend to VOLUNTARY donations to the Ownership of the Emperor's Hammer (i.e. the Fleet Commander or Executive Officer) and the Fleet Commander's direct Emperor's Hammer related product sales efforts through cafepress.com to help defray costs of maintenance of the Emperor's Hammer and its WWW Domain.

IV

Only the Fleet Commander or Executive Officer are authorized to contact other online organizations regarding Emperor's Hammer business in an 'official capacity'.   Consequently, ALL such inquiries (i.e. on behalf of the Emperor's Hammer) MUST be channeled through the Fleet Commander or Executive Officer.  Of course, any Member may send independent emails, but they shall not be considered sanctioned or approved by the Emperor's Hammer Ownership unless the Fleet Commander or Executive Officer give their approval first.  This policy also extends to those Members who wish to contact other media as well (i.e. magazines, television shows, other Internet Organizations, independent WWW Sites, etc.) on behalf of the Fleet.

V

The Members shall follow the chain of command presented above when making general inquiries. There is a specific hierarchy to be utilized when asking general questions, making comments, submitting and distributing EH-related materials.  Members shall attempt to contact their immediate superior officers first (i.e. Flight Leaders or Squadron Commanders) and then proceed up the chain of command, as appropriate.  This is not requested with the intention of restricting communication in the Fleet, but mainly to minimizing extraneous email load between the Members.  The Fleet Commander and Executive Officer ALWAYS welcome independent communication with a Member's specific or confidential problems or comments.

A Member will typically receive important Fleet information from their superior officers.  Important Fleet events and communiqués will be transmitted to the SubGroup Commanders, BattleGroup Commanders, Commodores, Wing Commanders and Squadron Commanders by one of the Command Officers who will in turn email them to their Squadron Members. Otherwise, important messages will be individually distributed directly by the Fleet Commander via E-Mail or posted through the Emperor's Hammer Domain WWW Home Page.

Subgroup Members are advised to follow their SubGroup's own chain of command or contact their Subgroup Commander with specific problems or questions.

VI

ONLY those events, plotlines, missions, stories, rosters, etc., posted in the Newsletters or on the Emperor's Hammer Domain WWW Home Page will be considered officially "approved" by and for the Emperor's Hammer.  Postings in Command Supplements, Message Boards, third party (Member) WWW Home Page(s), Online Conferences, online chat, email, or Instant Messages (IMs) will be considered "proposed" or "pending" until officially posted in the Newsletters or posted on the Emperor's Hammer Domain WWW Home Page.

VII

No development idea, Battle Plotline, pivotal character, event or Roster structure revision affecting an entire Subgroup or the Fleet shall be released to the  Fleet unless the Fleet Commander, Executive Officer or another Command Officer has first approved them.   The Fleet Commander retains the right of final decision in these matters.  ANY unapproved or premature postings to the organization run the risk of being withdrawn without prior notice.  In addition, ALL Members submitting plotlines or articles for consideration MUST include their ID Line designation for later referral by the reviewing Command Officer.

VIII

The Fleet Commander is solely responsible for appointing promotions for the Command Officer Positions and SubGroup Commanders and the Ranks of Fleet Admiral and above.  The Executive Officer may also appoint Command Officer Positions and SubGroup Commanders and promote to the Rank of Admiral. The other Command Officers and Flag Officers have the authority to appoint BattleGroup Commanders, Commodores, Wing Commanders, Squadron Commanders, Flight Leaders, Flight Members and the other Ranks/Positions, as appropriate and as detailed in Emperor's Hammer Training Manual.  However, the Fleet Commander (or Flight Officer) reserves the right to modify and/or revise the Flight Roster, as appropriate, to maintain consistency and balance within the Fleet.

IX

The Emperor's Hammer will not discriminate in its acceptance, promotion or evaluation of Members based on race, religion, sex, sexual preference/affectional status, age, or gender.   Appointments, Promotions and Medal Awards will be made solely on the basis of performance and activity within the Hammer, as determined by the Member's "Commanding Officer" as per Article V detailed above.

X

New Applicants accepted to the Emperor's Hammer may be placed as Trainees on "detached duty" , pending completion of the minimum Entrance Requirements. The Flight Officer of the EH is solely responsible for the approval and placement of new Members.  The Training Officer is available to assist new Members and Recruits.  New SubGroup Members will be directly referred to the appropriate Subgroup Commander for Position appointments.

XI

Membership in any organization or association generally will NOT affect a Member's position or rank within the Emperor's Hammer, however membership in or association with "enemies" of the Emperor's Hammer may rise to the level of violation of the Articles of War and subject such to prosecution before the High Court of Inquisitors.

XII

All Member or User submissions to the Emperor's Hammer become the property of the Emperor's Hammer organization.  However, individual Member WWW sites remain the property of individual Members (provided their content is not a copy or plagiarism of existing Emperor's Hammer materials).  Although the Fleet Commander makes every effort to properly and legally cite the source and/or author of a submission to the Emperor's Hammer, the free, unencumbered and unrestricted use of these submissions may be required in order to promote the club, post these items freely on the Internet or in negotiations with other parties concerning the Emperor's Hammer.

XIII

To be considered an "Active" Member of the Emperor's Hammer, a Member must answer email approximately once per week.  If communications are ignored for a period of one month or more, that Member may be named Absent With Out Leave ("AWOL") and removed from the Fleet Roster, at the discretion of the Flight Officer.  Members of Command Rank (i.e. those at the Position of CMDR and above) are REQUIRED to be more active, in accordance with the Position Descriptions posted in the latest version of the Emperor's Hammer Training Manual.

XIV

Leadership positions within the Emperor's Hammer and its Subgroups are integral to the on-line experience of all Members and the voluntary application and assumption of such duties is welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.  However, because of the importance of continuity in leadership in maintaining the organization, if a Member accepts such a position, receives a related Rank promotion and then resigns (or is removed) within an inappropriately short time (e.g. less than 6 months for Command Staff positions), the Member may be demoted to the Rank they were before application for the command position.

In particular, the Command Staff positions require the utmost dedication and serious commitment. These volunteer officers, through their hard work and organization, hold the Emperor's Hammer together. Members frivolously applying for and then resigning from these Positions (i.e. to get a quick jump in Rank) may be subject to inquiry by the High Court of the Inquisitors for violation of the various rules and regulations of this club.  This policy shall be effective for all leadership appointments posted after July 1, 2001.

XV

No Member of the Emperor's Hammer or outside agents may use the Rosters of the club as a "mailing list" for emailing our Membership for commercial or non-commercial reasons.  These lists contain the private email addresses of our Members and the Emperor's Hammer intends to honor their right to privacy as posted in the Privacy Policy.  Consequently, cases of harassment or mass emails may be aggressively pursued by the Security officer (SO) with an offender's Internet Service Provider (ISP) and may also result in the "blocking" of a particular host domain/email address.

XVI

By reference in these Bylaws, the Emperor's Hammer Copyrights/Disclaimers, Privacy Policy, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Code of Conduct and Articles of War are incorporated herein.  The regulations establish general rules of online behavior that Emperor's Hammer Members MUST also adhere to when representing the club online (i.e. IRC Channels, online chat rooms, emails between Members, etc.) and present methods and procedures for addressing violations of these Bylaws.

XVII

ALL "front end" WWW Sites to be incorporated into the Emperor's Hammer system of websites shall PROMINENTLY display links to the Emperor's Hammer Copyrights/Disclaimers and Privacy Policy on their front end/welcome/splash pages.  Webmasters electing not to so update their Emperor's Hammer related sites will be summarily removed from the Emperor's Hammer Domain and all related pages and will not be considered "official Emperor's Hammer related WWW sites."

XVIII

The Fleet Commander and Executive Officer are considered co-owners of the Emperor's Hammer organization. The Fleet Commander owns a 75% majority and the Executive Officer holds 25%.  The Fleet Commander is sole owner and manager of the Emperor's Hammer Domain including all sub-pages and materials posted therein.

XIX

The Fleet Commander reserves the right to modify or revise these Bylaws, as appropriate and without prior notice.

Any EH Members found to have violated the above will be given ONE email warning by the EH Security Officer.  A second offense/violation or an initial gross Bylaws violation could result in a "court marshal" by the High Court of the Inquisitors in accordance with the following Emperor's Hammer Articles of War, as supervised by the High Inquisitor.

Post Mail to the Security Officer, to register security complaints, Disclaimer/Copyright issues, Privacy Policy violations, Bylaws or IRC Code of Conduct violations, or to report other Security-related issues.