“Araunah said to David, ‘Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, ‘May the Lord your God accept you.’

But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’ “
[1 Sam. 24:22-24, Bible, NIV]

Our way of stating the above is: “Give the LORD what is RIGHT, not what is LEFT.”

1. Procedure to formally obtain an account and join

Our Member Agreement, Form #01.001, Section 1 identifies the precise conditions under which you express your consent to become a member.  Mere membership does not grant access to Basic Member or Member Subscription content.  For that, you need an account.  To obtain an Account and officially join, please follow the process below.

1. Read our Member Agreement, Form #01.001 fully and make sure you agree with it.  Use of any part of this site constitutes consent to that agreement, even if you never request a Basic Member or Member Subscription account.
2. Do ONE of the following two options:
   2.1  Click on Participate->Account Signup on the top menus above.
   2.2  Click on “Account Signup (free)” in the pink box on the opening page (https://sedm.org).Make sure you satisfy the requirements for membership listed on the Account Signup page before selecting an option.
3. Read the first two paragraphs on the Account Signup page.
4. If you believe in God, select one of the two Membership options presented at the end of the table at the bottom of the page (in “Link to Join” row 17 of the table).  Each item begins with “CLICK HERE..” in big blue letters.  Only those who believe in God may obtain a Basis Member or Member Subscription account.  
5. WARNING: You can sign in to the site with EITHER your USERNAME or your EMAIL ADDRESS. We DO NOT recommend using your EMAIL ADDRESS as your USERNAME because it will compromise your privacy and eventually force us to later change it to something else when you realize this.
6. If you clicked on “BASIC MEMBER” at the top or “CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR BASIC MEMBER ACCOUNT” at the bottom of the Account Signup Page, complete your registration information on the “Account Signup” page.
   6.1  Fill in your personal information on the New User Registration Page.  
   6.2  Click on “Register” button.
7. If you clicked on “MEMBER SUBSCRIBER” at the top or “CLICK HERE TO SIGN ME UP FOR MEMBER SUBSCRIPTIONS!” at the bottom of the Account Signup Page, complete your registration information on the “New User Registration” page.
   7.1  Click on “View Cart” button in the upper right corner
   7.2  Click on “Proceed to Checkout” blue button on the right.
   7.3  On the Checkout Page, enter your payment and contact information and select the payment method on the right
   7.4  Check “I have read and agree to the website terms and conditions” in the lower right corner.
   7.5  Click on the “PLACE ORDER” blue button in the lower right corner.
8. Go to the opening page:
   http://sedm.org
9. Click on “ START HERE” and download the Path to Freedom, Form #09.015.
10. Download, print, and read the Member Agreement, Form #01.001.
11. Sign the first and last page of the Member Agreement, Form #01.001, scan it in.
12. Go to the Contact Us Page and submit the two scanned images as attachments. (Preferred)
    All submissions are confidential and can ONLY be read by us and no other member. Note that this email is NOT for any use OTHER than member agreement submission. We will not respond to any inquiries at this address. All inquiries should be directed instead through our Contact Us page:
    http://sedm.org/about/contact-form/

Beyond that, you may use any lawfully obtained (not stolen or obtained in violation of the copyright) information or service available through this website as you wish EXCEPT our tax information and services. Our tax information and services have the additional constraint that they may not be used to interact with third parties until you first:

1. Consent to and comply with our Member Agreement for any tax year you seek help. You may not seek help retroactively for tax years in which you were not already a member.
2. Complete section 2 of the Path to Freedom above up to at least step 5.
3. Submit the first and last page of the PDF version of our Member Agreement as indicated above before we can talk to you or help you with your tax problem. If your problem does not relate to taxation, then you need not complete the Path to Freedom process but must still consent to our Member Agreement.

You may visit the links below to read our Member Agreement, print it, and sign it:

• PDF Version
• HTML Version

2. Use of this site or materials posted on it constitutes constructive/implied consent to become a member

MEMBERSHIP AND BASIC MEMBERSHIP IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN ABSOLUTELY FREE!

We encourage anyone to do any of the following, and by doing so, they implicitly consent to become a Member and are subject to the terms of the SEDM Member Agreement, Form #01.001:

1. Contacting us for help with their problems or questions either via email or using our Contact Us Page.
2. Requesting our services through the Ministry Bookstore, such as IMF Decoding, paralegal help, etc.
3. Obtaining ministry materials offered through the Ministry Bookstore.
4. Participating in the Ministry as a volunteer or agent.
5. Signing our Member Agreement and submitting it to the Ministry through mail, email, fax, in person, or our forums.
6. Joining our Member Subscriptions service or availing yourself of any of its benefits.
7. Downloading any of the free materials or information available on the SEDM website at http://sedm.org. This provision EXCLUDES the Member Agreement, Form #01.001 itself.
8. Requesting or receiving any information, materials, or services off this site from ANYONE in either electronic or printed physical form.
9. Making a donation to the ministry.
10. Joining our Member Forums
11. Submitting or sending any of the materials appearing on this website to any third party in any administrative or legal matter, and especially one involving any Member or Officer of this ministry.
12. Using any of the materials or output of services available through this website as evidence in any legal or administrative enforcement proceeding.
13. Making any commercial use whatsoever of the materials or services available through this ministry so as to benefit anyone OTHER than the ministry. This includes:
    13.1. Trying to legally enjoin the materials or services available through this site, all of which are NON-commercial, NON-factual religious beliefs and political opinions and NOT facts or legal evidence ;
    13.2. Slandering the authors as a way to maximize revenues to a corrupted de facto government from ILLEGAL enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code;
    13.3. Selling the materials available through this website in violation of the copyright and without the express written consent of the copyright holder.
14. Signing up for Basic Membership.

All of the items above specify that the USE of our privileged and protected services, materials, or information in the manner specified constitutes actual, constructive, or implied consent to become a member of our ministry. We do this to:

1. Prevent illegal, injurious, or abusive use or abuse of our materials or services that might make us the target of law enforcement activity or civil injunctions.
2. Prevent injuries to our credibility or that of the God we serve. This would happen because most of our materials have our name and/or URL included and would be discredited when used to effect an injurious or illegal result. We cannot and will not condone, aid, or abet any injurious, illegal, or malicious activities and especially those associated with our name, likeness, or our work product.
3. Protect governments and the legal profession from ignorant and needless abuse by people who don’t know what they are doing and refuse to read or obey the law. This is the same treatment we expect from a corrupted government, so we have to sow what we want to reap. That’s the Golden Rule.
4. Prevent any of our materials from commercially benefitting, directly or indirectly, any government and thereby subsidizing, condoning, or encouraging the illegal activities we expose. This separation is the foundation of “separation of church and state“, in fact.
   

   “And have no fellowship [or association] with the unfruitful works of [government] darkness, but rather reprove [rebuke and expose] them.”
   [Eph. 5:11, Bible, NKJV]

5. Prevent our ministry from being infiltrated or politically or legally persecuted by governments or moles working for governments.
6. Prevent you from blaming us for any of your choices or actions or transfer any responsibility to us for any aspect of those choices or actions. You can’t be sovereign if you have anyone to blame for your own choices or actions.
7. Ensure that we meet God’s standards for those who would act in His name, which is what all those who claim to be “sovereign” must do or they aren’t sovereign:

   “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.”
   [2 Tim. 2:1-7, Bible, NKJV]

You need not be a BELIEVER to order from our bookstore, but you must AT LEAST be a member, with our without an account on the site.  Membership is free and you need not have an account in order to be a member.  The main purpose of the Member Agreement is to protect our materials and our ministry from damage or abuse.  Those who won’t at least agree not to be anarchists (Form #12.020) who should not be using any part of this site or the materials or services available through or on it.  The best example of people who would want to avoid membership and damage us or our materials are government moles, and they are the main reason we must require membership for ALL who use, read, or consume this site, our materials, or our services directly or indirectly, as property that has value.  These same constraints apply to those who receive our materials from third parties other than us.  No matter where you get it from, you must be a member to use or read or consume our site, our materials, or the output of our services.  If you don’t like this approach, then blame the government.  This is the same approach governments take in delivering their “civil services” (as defined in our Disclaimer Section 4) to the public under the “social compact”, and we are using this approach mainly to DEFEND ourself from government abuse.  Fight fire with fire.  Click here (Form #12.044) for a detailed description of government’s identical approach to the same subject.

Those who wish to disingenuously claim that they receive no consideration, value, “benefit”, advantage, or privileged access to intellectual property by virtue of visiting our site as a justification for saying that they should not be subject to our Member Agreement, Form #01.001 are simply asked:  “Then why are you here?”.  Your ACTIONS by being here speak much louder than your vain and deceptive words.  At least have some integrity by taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions and behavior by visiting us and making your actions and your words consistent.  Personal responsibility for your choices and actions, after all, is the STARTING point for being “sovereign”.  Your actions speak so loudly that we can’t hear a word you say anyway. “Therefore by their fruits [BEHAVIOR] you will know them.” is what our King (Jesus) said on this subject in Matt. 7:20.

Lastly, our authority to make the rules for those using this website, our materials, or our services originates from the fact that you, the User, are making use of our absolutely owned private intellectual property and services.  Like Congress in Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, we have the right to “make all needful rules respecting the Territory and other property” that belongs to us.  Most government civil statutes, in fact, are a fulfillment of this power (Form #05.037), as are our Member Agreement and our Disclaimer.  If you are going to try to hold us responsible for alleged abuses of this property that we own, then we have a IMPLIED right to control HOW it is used and by whom to ensure that it is not abused to hurt others.  If you actively interfere with or refuse to recognize but NOT GRANT us this right, then you are undermining the very thing that you say you want us to do, which is completely hypocritical, irrational, and self-defeating because the ability to regulate uses of our materials is the ONLY way to ensure the outcome you say you want.  And if you DON’T want to be as responsible to us and we are to you for ensuring our site doesn’t hurt you, then the only thing we can rationally conclude is that YOU intend to do us harm, in which case the only choice you leave us is to disassociate and ostracize you and terminate your account and stop rendering services to you.  Equality of rights and treatment are the foundation of freedom (Form #12.021) and we demand equality of ACCOUNTABILITY and RESPONSIBILITY by all parties concerned.

We and you have a duty to govern ourselves internally to the maximum extent possible and to not burden outsiders with protecting us from EACH OTHER.  That is the only way, in fact, that we can earn or deserve the right to be left alone by non-members and governments.  The right to be left alone is the definition of “justice”, and being self-governing within our group and not injuring each other is the only way to ensure that end.  These realities are the origin of the need to have a member agreement and to make rules governing this ministry and the use of our services and property

3. Benefits of Basic Membership

Basic Members may:

1. Download or read any of the free materials on our website. The password protected Member Subscriptions content, however, is not accessible unless you also sign up for Member Subscriptions AFTER becoming a Basic Member. See section 3 for further details.
2. Join and participate in our Member Forums.
3. Access Compliant Member Only content on this site AFTER they register for our site as a Basic Member.
4. Obtain anything through our Member Bookstore. You will need to create an account on the Member Bookstore to place an order, however.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You MUST be in full compliance with every aspect of our Member Agreement for any tax period you seek help with before you may: “use” our “tax information”, meaning to use them in litigation against or send them to any third party within the government, the legal profession, or the courts. Being a “Member” means you can READ any of our materials but may not USE them to dispute a tax liability until you bring yourself into compliance with the Member Agreement by completing at least up to step 14 of section 2 of our Path to Freedom, Form #09.015. Employ our “tax services” in helping you personally with any tax problem you have. This means you must be in full compliance not only now, but also during the entire tax year or periods in which you seek related help or seek to “use” our materials. You cannot join at the last minute and then seek help for earlier periods in which you were not in compliance with the Member Agreement. The above constraints only apply to “tax information and services” and not to ALL information or services available through this website. “Tax information and services” is defined in the Important Note page, Section 3 and Terms of Use and Service, Section 2. We do this to ensure that: Our materials or services are not abused to violate any law, injure anyone, or bring reproach on us. Some content on this site is designated as Compliant Member Only content. All such content may only be “used” by those satisfying the above criteria. Our services and materials are not abused as an insurance company or mop up crew for the endless idiotic or flawed approaches of anyone not connected to this site such as those mentioned in Liberty University, Sections 8 or 9 .   This would bring undeserved shame and reproach upon us and our credibility.  We therefore do NOT support any legal approach originating from anywhere OTHER than on this site, and certainly not in regard to “tax information and services”.  We only support those MEMBERS who have read and followed materials and approaches found ONLY on this site and not others.  We wouldn’t have a life if we took any other approach, and if we violated this approach, we would be rewarding and protecting irresponsibility, stupidity, and even criminality.  God, by the way, takes the SAME approach so if you don’t like it, complain to THE MAN, not us.  See Prov. 1:24-33, Bible, NKJV. Click here for further details.

We caution that downloading or reading our materials automatically makes you a Member, because they are all protected by a copyright/software/user license agreement. Faxing or emailing or submitting to us a signed Member Agreement is simply a way to document and prove that you are already a Member, which may be required if you request technical support or help from us.

4. Member Subscription Premium Content

Becoming a Basic Member by submitting the signed Member Agreement to us (via email) and going through our signup process does not provide access to Member Subscriptions content on this website. You must join our Member Subscriptions in order to access premium content. Premium content includes:

1. Member Subscriptions portions of our Member Forums (sections 4, 6, and 7).
2. Content that requires a password on our Forms/Pubs Page and our Litigation Tools Page. This type of content indicates “Member Subscriptions” in the Source column.
3. Member Subscription Library. Contains hundreds of online books in searchable, copyable PDF form relating to law, sovereignty, freedom, and taxation.
4. The privilege of seeking help with your problems through our Contact Us page.

5. Use of the Bookstore Requires Basic Member or Member Subscription Membership

Guest checkout is disabled in our Bookstore. This means that in order to order anything from our Member Bookstore, you will need to either:

1. Login to the site first or
2. Join as a Basic Member (free).

The Bookstore checkout screen therefore provides a place to login or to join as a Basic Member in order to to complete the checkout process.

We used to provide Guest checkout, but it overcomplicated site administration because people using the Bookstore would complain about being able to view Basic Member content on the site and having to later also manually join as a Basis Member. Either way isn’t optimal, and disabling Guest Checkout represents the best compromise to minimize your inconvenience in the use of our site.