FAQ's

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The Franchise Openness Foundation staff will periodically update this FAQ page. Please contact us with your questions.

FAQ items that we are working on:

a. Why doesn't my PDF reader highlight the word or phrase that I'm looking for inside the document?
b. When I search for "xyz" franchise company it also displays files with other company names. Why?

How can I remove content from the project library?

The Franchise Openness Project is not interested in preserving or offering access to documents that are fraudulent, have been manipulated or violate the law.

OpenFran uses the exclusion policy intended for use by both academic and non-academic digital repositories and archivists. See our Archival Integrity policy.

How can I get documents included in the project library?

If you have a franchising related document, including disclosure filings, legal document, or advertisement, and you would like to ensure that it is saved for posterity in the Franchise Openness Project, and you've searched the archives and found no results, you can visit the "Document Submission" page at (This feature is not active in this version of Beta).

What types of things can I submit to the Franchise Openness Project?

Currently, Franchise Openness Project is accepting non-password protected PDF format documents, including documents containing graphics and scanned images.

In the future, we expect to accept other file formats and digital media, including franchising related video content for archiving.

The Franchise Openness Project is not interested in preserving or offering access to documents that are fraudulent, have been manipulated or violate the law. Please ensure that your submissions meet all of our copyright and terms of use policies before submitting them!

I would like to put a Franchise Openness Project link and logo on my web site, what do I need to do?

The Franchise Openness Project appreciates your assistance in "getting the word out." Please click HERE to tell us a little about your site for our reciprocal link page. We can also send you a few web friendly Franchise Openness Project logos and icons, along with a custom link address.

What is the Franchise Openness Project?

The Franchise Openness Project is a service that allows people to electronically search for and view franchise related content. Visitors to the Franchise Openness Project can type in keywords, filter by a date range or other variables, and then begin surfing an archived listing of results. Imagine typing in "Fred Jones" and seeing all publicly accessible franchise documents that contain the name "Fred Jones". The Franchise Openness Project can make all of this possible.

Why does the Franchise Openness Project charge a small fee for PDF documents and individual pages that are watermark free and text searchable?

All documents contained within the archive of the Franchise Openness Project are accessible and downloadable free of charge. However, some 'power' users require watermark free versions of these files or demand the ability to search for text within documents after downloading.

Since many archived documents can sometimes be hundreds of pages in size, the server overhead and bandwidth required to create these versions can be substantial and offering these variables costs money. Considering that previously these same documents cost hundreds of dollars to download and could tie up your computer for long periods while processing OCR, many users actually welcome the low fee and time savings provided by the Franchise Openness Project power and capabilities.

Finally, the Project's archive, storage, and web maintenance is made possible our founding benefactors and friends of franchise openness - whose donations will continue to provide unlimited search and downloads available at no charge, to everyone.

Can I link to documents on the Franchise Openness Project?

Yes! Franchise Openness Project is built so that it can be used and openly referenced. If you find an Project document that you would like to reference on your Web page or in an article, you can copy the URL. You can even use boolean searches and date specification to connect to documents in the library...but that's a bit more advanced.

Why isn't the document I'm looking for in the archive?

Some franchising related materials may not be included because the automated crawlers and converters were unaware of their existence at the time of the crawl. It's also possible that some documents were not archived because they were password protected, blocked, or otherwise inaccessible to our automated systems. Courts might have also requested that certain documents be excluded. When this has occurred, you will see a notice message. Certain franchisors are exempt from state filing, making their documents harder to archive - this is where you come in! The public is able to submit documents for archiving. You are encouraged to submit your documents to make the Project a better tool for everyone.

What does it mean when a document's data has been "updated"?

While our OCR technology is quite accurate, and our archiving systems are state-of-the-art, they are far from perfect. Users can report bugs and other errors found in documents to the archive staff. In certain cases, documents may be manually scanned, updated and reposted. If you don't see "*" next to an archived document, then the content is identical to the previously archived copy.

I want to lend support to the Franchise Openness Project, how can I help?

We'd appreciate an support that you can give! The Franchise Openness Project has relied on donations of documents, technology, and expertise from franchise community professionals and others. Franchise Openness Project is owned and operated by "The Franchise Openness Foundation", a 501(c)(3) corporation.

You can help by submitting documents, donating to help us keep up with server and storage demands, making suggestions on how to improve the service, and becoming a benefactor or friend of franchise openness.

Keep in mind that we only have ten Founding Benefactors seats available!

Click HERE to request more information.

Who was involved in the creation of the Franchise Openness Project?

The original idea for the Franchise Openness Project began in late 2007, when the Franchise Openness Project first began archiving tests. Now, seven months later, with thousands of pages already archived and the complete archiving of CALEASI expected to be completed by August 2008, the Franchise Openness Project has made franchise related content freely and readily accessible to the public. The Franchise Openness Project has relied on donations of documents, technology, and expertise from franchise community professionals and others. Franchise Openness Project is owned and operated by "The Franchise Openness Foundation", a 501(c)(3) corporation.

How was the Franchise Openness Project made?

Much of the process is a "work in progress" at this time as we are moving from the initial database population phase to ongoing automated updating and user submissions for future additions to the Project archive. We will update this question in the near future. Let's just say it is very cool.

How large is the Franchise Openness Project?

Currently, we estimate the CALEASI mirroring, archiving and indexing to be approximately 1TB. We will be sure to post monthly growth and usage statistics in the upcoming months. growth.

What type of machinery is used in this document archive?

Much of the process is a "work in progress" at this time as we are moving from the initial database population phase to ongoing automated updating and user submissions for future additions to the Project archive. We will update this question in the near future.

Why are some documents harder to archive than others?

If you look at our collection, you will find some franchisors who are not listed or have limited information archived. The reasons vary. Some reasons are:

• Some franchisors are exempt from registering with a government entity.
• Some franchisors choose not to do business in states requiring franchise registration.
• The state of California is currently the only government entity that publishes disclosure related documents electronically.

How can I help the Franchise Openness Foundation and The Franchise Openness Project?

The Franchise Openness Project actively seeks donations of digital materials for preservation and indexing. If you have digital materials that may be of interest to the public, please submit them. The Franchise Openness Project is also seeking additional funding to continue this important mission. You can click the participate tab above or click here. Thank you for considering us in your charitable giving.

Can I search the archive?

It is possible to search for names, dates, facts and figures - every word recognized by the OCR engine is indexed. The Franchise Openness Project will* contain every franchise related disclosure document filed with the State of California since 9/2002. We hope to implement a full text search engine at some point in the future.

*Estimated to be completed by 9/2008

How do I contact the Franchise Openness Project?

All questions about OpenFran, or other Open Franchise Foundation projects, should be submitted HERE.

What is the Franchise Openness Project's Copyright Policy?

The Franchise Openness Project respects the intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights of others. The Franchise Openness Project may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, remove certain content or disable access to content that appears to infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that your copyright has been violated by material available through the The Franchise Openness Project, please provide the The Franchise Openness Project Agent with the following information:

• Identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
• An exact description of where the material about which you complain is located within the The Franchise Openness Project collections;
• Your address, telephone number, and email address;
• A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
• A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner of the copyright interest involved or are authorized to act on behalf of that owner;
• Your electronic or physical signature.

The Franchise Openness Project uses the exclusion policy intended for use by both academic and non-academic digital repositories and archivists. See our full exclusion policy.

The The Franchise Openness Project Agent can be reached as follows:

Project Copyright Agent
Franchise Openness Project
P.O. Box 25514
Scottsdale, AZ 85255

Phone: 480-264-0050

Email: copyright@openfran.org

Why is the Franchise Openness Project collecting documents from the Internet and the public? What makes the information useful?

Most societies place importance on preserving artifacts of their commerce, culture and heritage. Without such artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. Our culture now produces more and more artifacts in digital form. In the franchising domain, most disclosure related information is in graphic format and the ability to efficiently research public domain documents has been limited, time consuming and expensive. The Project's mission is to help preserve those artifacts and create an Internet library for researchers, historians, the public-at-large and scholars that is free and easy to access.

Do you archive email? Chat?

No, we do not collect or archive chat systems or personal email messages that have not been posted to publicly accessible online message boards. If a communication is included in a disclosure related or legal document, it may be included in the archive.

Do you collect all franchise related information on the Web?

No, we collect only public domain documents. If a document owner properly requests removal of a document and it meets the guidelines for exclusion, we will exclude that document from the Project.

Is there any personal information in these collections?

We collect documents that are publicly accessible. These may include pages with personal information.

Who has access to the collections? What about the public?

Anyone can access our collections through our website. The web archive can be searched using the Franchise Openness Project Search Engine.

The Project makes the collections available at no cost to researchers, historians, and scholars. At present, it takes someone with a certain level of technical knowledge to access collections in a way other than our website, but there is no requirement that a user be affiliated with any particular organization.

How do you protect my privacy if you archive my documents?

The Archive collects documents that are publicly available — the same ones that you might find as you surfed around the Web. We also provide information on removing a document from the collections. Those who use the collections must agree to certain terms of use.

Like a public library, the Archive provides free and open access to its collections to researchers, historians, and scholars. Our cultural norms have long promoted access to documents that were, but no longer are, publicly accessible.

What does 'failed connection' and other error messages mean?

Below is a list of the main error messages you will see while searching the Franchise Openness Project. If you see an error message that does not have the Franchise Openness Project in the upper left corner, you are most likely looking at an archived page or the live web.

Failed Connection: The server that the particular piece of information lives on is down. Generally these clear up within two weeks.

Blocked Document Error: Site owners, copyright holders and others who fit Franchise Openness Project exclusion policy have requested that the document be excluded from the Franchise Openness Project. For exclusion criteria, please see our exclusion policy (we use the same one used and developed by other digital repositories and archivists both academic and non-academic).

Path Index Error: A path index error message refers to a problem in our database wherein the information requested is not available (generally because of a machine or software issue, however each case can be different). We cannot always completely fix these errors in a timely manner.

Not in Archive: Generally this means that the document archived has a redirect on it and the document you are redirected to is not in the archive or cannot be found on the live web.

Why are there no recent documents in the Franchise Openness Project archives?

It generally takes 1 week or more for documents to appear in the Franchise Openness Project after they are collected, because of delays in transferring material to long-term storage and indexing. Since we utilize public/government sites for much of our information, the posting of new documents is dependent on their timelines. We do perform automated update checks on our source sites on a daily basis.

How does the Franchise Openness Project behave with Javascript turned off?

If you have Javascript turned off, images and links may not function properly. We do not recommend accessing the Franchise Openness Project with Javascript turned off.

I found an error in a document or the document I was looking for could not be found or did not open, what can I do?

Keeping in mind that The Openness Project is an archive/library search and retrieval service, we do not editorialize or modify any content, and the OCR process that converts images to searchable text is not 100% accurate, there is a process for reporting errors and corrupted and missing files. Click HERE to file an error or omission report.