1 <!-- Copyright 2008-2010 StatusNet Inc. and contributors. -->
2 <!-- Document licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. See -->
3 <!-- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for details. -->
8 We (the folks at [%%site.broughtby%%](%%site.broughtbyurl%%)) run a
9 service called %%site.name%% and would love for you to use it. Our
10 service is designed to give you as much control and ownership over
11 what goes in your notice stream as possible and encourage you to
12 express yourself freely. However, be responsible in what you post. In
13 particular, make sure that none of the prohibited items listed below
14 appear in your notice stream or get linked to from your notice stream (things
15 like spam, viruses, or hate content).
17 You can review our [Public Stream](%%action.public%%) to get a sense
18 of the types of notices that are welcome on our service (or not!). If
19 you find a %%site.name%% account that you believe violates our terms
20 of service, please check our [Contact](%%doc.contact%%) documentation.
22 (Note: Automattic, Inc., original creators of the below Terms of
23 Service, decided to make them available under a Creative Commons
24 Sharealike license, which means you’re more than welcome to steal it
25 and repurpose it for your own use. Just make sure to replace
26 references to us with ones to you. They’d appreciate a link to
27 [WordPress.com](http://www.wordpress.com/) somewhere on your site.
28 They spent a lot of money and time on the below, and other people
29 shouldn’t need to do the same. (We didn't!))
34 The following terms and conditions govern all use of the %%site.name%%
35 website and all content, services and products available at or through
36 the website (taken together, the Website). The Website is owned and
37 operated by %%site.broughtby%% (“Operator”). The Website is offered
38 subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms
39 and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules,
40 policies (including, without limitation, Operator’s [Privacy
41 Policy](%%doc.privacy%%))
42 and procedures that may be published from time to time on this Site by
43 Operator (collectively, the “Agreement”).
45 Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the
46 Website. By accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to
47 become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do
48 not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you
49 may not access the Website or use any services. If these terms and
50 conditions are considered an offer by Operator, acceptance is
51 expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to
52 individuals who are at least 13 years old.
56 <li><strong>Your %%site.name%% Account and Site.</strong> If you
57 create a notice stream on the Website, you are responsible for
58 maintaining the security of your account and notice stream, and you
59 are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account
60 and any other actions taken in connection with the notice stream. You
61 must not describe or assign keywords to your notice stream in a
62 misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade
63 on the name or reputation of others, and Operator may change or remove
64 any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or
65 unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause Operator liability. You must
66 immediately notify Operator of any unauthorized uses of your notice
67 stream, your account or any other breaches of security. Operator will
68 not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages
69 of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.</li>
71 <li><strong>Responsibility of Contributors.</strong> If you operate a
72 notice stream, comment on a notice stream, post material to the
73 Website, post links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any
74 third party to make) material available by means of the Website (any
75 such material, “Content”), You are entirely responsible for the
76 content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the
77 case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text,
78 graphics, an audio file, or computer software. By making Content
79 available, you represent and warrant that:
83 <li>the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe
84 the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright,
85 patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;</li>
87 <li>if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create,
88 you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or
89 make available the Content, including but not limited to any software,
90 or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to
93 <li>you have fully complied with any third-party licenses
94 relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to
95 successfully pass through to end users any required terms;</li>
97 <li>the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware,
98 Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;</li>
100 <li>the Content is not spam, and does not contain unethical or
101 unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party
102 sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to
103 further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to
104 the source of the material (such as spoofing);</li>
106 <li>if the Content is machine- or randomly-generated, it is for
107 purposes of direct entertainment, information and/or utility for you
108 or other users, and not for spam,</li>
110 <li>the Content is not libelous or defamatory (more info on
111 what that means), does not contain threats or incite violence towards
112 individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity
113 rights of any third party;</li>
115 <li>your notice stream is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic
116 messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, other notice streams
117 and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;</li>
119 <li>your notice stream is not named in a manner that misleads your
120 readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For
121 example, your notice stream’s URL or name is not the name of a person other
122 than yourself or company other than your own; and</li>
124 <li>you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code,
125 accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and
126 effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by Operator or
131 <p>By submitting Content to Operator for inclusion on your Website, you
132 grant Operator a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license
133 to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the
134 purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your notice
137 <p>By submitting Content to Operator for inclusion on your Website,
138 you grant all readers the right to use, re-use, modify and/or
139 re-distribute the Content under the terms of the <a
140 href="%%license.url%%">%%license.title%%</a>.</p>
142 <p>If you delete Content, Operator will use reasonable efforts to remove it from
143 the Website, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the
144 Content may not be made immediately unavailable.</p>
146 <p>Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Operator
147 has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Operator’s sole
148 discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in Operator’s
149 reasonable opinion, violates any Operator policy or is in any way
150 harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use
151 of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in
152 Operator’s sole discretion.</p>
155 <li><strong>Responsibility of Website Visitors.</strong> Operator has not reviewed,
156 and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software,
157 posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that
158 material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Website,
159 Operator does not represent or imply that it endorses the material
160 there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful
161 or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as
162 necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses,
163 worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The
164 Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise
165 objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies,
166 typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Website may also contain
167 material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes
168 the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third
169 parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to
170 additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. Operator
171 disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by
172 visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of
173 content there posted.</li>
175 <li><strong>Content Posted on Other Websites.</strong> We have not reviewed, and
176 cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made
177 available through the websites and webpages to which %%site.name%%
178 links, and that link to %%site.name%%. Operator does not have any
179 control over those external websites and webpages, and is not
180 responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a
181 external website or webpage, Operator does not represent or
182 imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible
183 for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your
184 computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful
185 or destructive content. Operator disclaims any responsibility for
186 any harm resulting from your use of external websites and
189 <li><strong>Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy.</strong> As Operator asks
190 others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the
191 intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material
192 located on or linked to by %%site.name%% violates your copyright, you
193 are encouraged to notify Operator in accordance with Operator’s
194 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) Policy. Operator will
195 respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by
196 removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the
197 infringing material. In the case of a visitor who may infringe or
198 repeatedly infringes the copyrights or other intellectual property
199 rights of Operator or others, Operator may, in its discretion,
200 terminate or deny access to and use of the Website. In the case of
201 such termination, Operator will have no obligation to provide a
202 refund of any amounts previously paid to Operator.</li>
204 <li><strong>Intellectual Property.</strong> This Agreement does not
205 transfer from Operator to you any Operator or third party intellectual
206 property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property
207 will remain (as between the parties) solely with Operator.
208 %%site.name%%, the %%site.name%% logo, and all other trademarks,
209 service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with
210 %%site.name%%, or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks
211 of Operator or Operator’s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks,
212 graphics and logos used in connection with the Website may be the
213 trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Website grants you
214 no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Operator or
215 third-party trademarks.</li>
217 <li><strong>Changes.</strong> Operator reserves the right, at its sole
218 discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is
219 your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes.
220 Your continued use of or access to the Website following the posting
221 of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those
222 changes. Operator may also, in the future, offer new services and/or
223 features through the Website (including, the release of new tools and
224 resources). Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the
225 terms and conditions of this Agreement.</li>
227 <li><strong>Termination.</strong> Operator may terminate your access
228 to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause,
229 with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to
230 terminate this Agreement or your %%site.name%% account (if you have
231 one), you may simply discontinue using the Website. All provisions of
232 this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall
233 survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership
234 provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of
237 <li><strong>Disclaimer of Warranties.</strong> The Website is provided
238 “as is”. Operator and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all
239 warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without
240 limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a
241 particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither Operator nor its
242 suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Website will be
243 error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted.
244 If you’re actually reading this, here’s a treat. You understand that
245 you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through,
246 the Website at your own discretion and risk.</li>
248 <li><strong>Limitation of Liability.</strong> In no event will
249 Operator, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any
250 subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence,
251 strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any
252 special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of
253 procurement or substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption
254 of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that
255 exceed the fees paid by you to Operator under this agreement during
256 the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. Operator
257 shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond
258 their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent
259 prohibited by applicable law.</li>
261 <li><strong>General Representation and Warranty.</strong> You
262 represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Website will be in
263 strict accordance with the Operator Privacy Policy, with this
264 Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including
265 without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country,
266 state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and
267 acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the
268 transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the
269 country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Website will not
270 infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any
273 <li><strong>Indemnification.</strong> You agree to indemnify and hold
274 harmless Operator, its contractors, and its licensors, and their
275 respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against
276 any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising
277 out of your use of the Website, including but not limited to out of
278 your violation this Agreement.</li>
280 <li><strong>Miscellaneous.</strong> This Agreement constitutes the
281 entire agreement between Operator and you concerning the subject
282 matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment
283 signed by an authorized executive of Operator, or by the posting by
284 Operator of a revised version. If any part of this Agreement is held
285 invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the
286 parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in
287 full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or
288 condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one
289 instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent
290 breach thereof. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any
291 party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and
292 conditions; Operator may assign its rights under this Agreement
293 without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure
294 to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted
297 *Originally published by Automattic, Inc. as the [WordPress.com Terms
298 of Service](http://en.wordpress.com/tos/) and made available by them
299 under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
300 License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
301 Modifications to remove reference to "VIP services", rename "blog" to
302 "notice stream", remove the choice-of-venue clause, and add variables
303 specific to instances of this software made by Control Yourself, Inc.
304 and made available under the terms of the same license.*