Tos

The gist

We (the folks at McCullaugh.com Network) run a service called Arkwood Pond Social and would love for you to use it. Our service is designed to give you as much control and ownership over what goes in your notice stream as possible and encourage you to express yourself freely. However, be responsible in what you post. In particular, make sure that none of the prohibited items listed below appear in your notice stream or get linked to from your notice stream (things like spam, viruses, or hate content).

You can review our Public Stream to get a sense of the types of notices that are welcome on our service (or not!). If you find a Arkwood Pond Social account that you believe violates our terms of service, please check our Contact documentation.

(Note: Automattic, Inc., original creators of the below Terms of Service, decided to make them available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license, which means you’re more than welcome to steal it and repurpose it for your own use. Just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you. They’d appreciate a link to WordPress.com somewhere on your site. They spent a lot of money and time on the below, and other people shouldn’t need to do the same. (We didn't!))

Terms of Service

The following terms and conditions govern all use of the Arkwood Pond Social website and all content, services and products available at or through the website (taken together, the Website). The Website is owned and operated by McCullaugh.com Network (“Operator”). The Website is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, Operator’s Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time on this Site by Operator (collectively, the “Agreement”).

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Website. By accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the Website or use any services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by Operator, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old.

1. Your Arkwood Pond Social Account and Site. If you create a notice stream on the Website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and notice stream, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the notice stream. You must not describe or assign keywords to your notice stream in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and Operator may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause Operator liability. You must immediately notify Operator of any unauthorized uses of your notice stream, your account or any other breaches of security. Operator will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.
2. Responsibility of Contributors. If you operate a notice stream, comment on a notice stream, post material to the Website, post links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Website (any such material, “Content”), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:
   • the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
   • if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
   • you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
   • the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
   • the Content is not spam, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
   • if the Content is machine- or randomly-generated, it is for purposes of direct entertainment, information and/or utility for you or other users, and not for spam,
   • the Content is not libelous or defamatory (more info on what that means), does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
   • your notice stream is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, other notice streams and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;
   • your notice stream is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your notice stream’s URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own; and
   • you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by Operator or otherwise.

   By submitting Content to Operator for inclusion on your Website, you grant Operator a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your notice stream.

   By submitting Content to Operator for inclusion on your Website, you grant all readers the right to use, re-use, modify and/or re-distribute the Content under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

   If you delete Content, Operator will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Website, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

   Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Operator has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Operator’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in Operator’s reasonable opinion, violates any Operator policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in Operator’s sole discretion.

3. Responsibility of Website Visitors. Operator has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Website, Operator does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Website may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. Operator disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.
4. Content Posted on Other Websites. We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which Arkwood Pond Social links, and that link to Arkwood Pond Social. Operator does not have any control over those external websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a external website or webpage, Operator does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Operator disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of external websites and webpages.
5. Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy. As Operator asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by Arkwood Pond Social violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Operator in accordance with Operator’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) Policy. Operator will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. In the case of a visitor who may infringe or repeatedly infringes the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Operator or others, Operator may, in its discretion, terminate or deny access to and use of the Website. In the case of such termination, Operator will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to Operator.
6. Intellectual Property. This Agreement does not transfer from Operator to you any Operator or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Operator. Arkwood Pond Social, the Arkwood Pond Social logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with Arkwood Pond Social, or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks of Operator or Operator’s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Website may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Website grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Operator or third-party trademarks.
7. Changes. Operator reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the Website following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. Operator may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Website (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
8. Termination. Operator may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your Arkwood Pond Social account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using the Website. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
9. Disclaimer of Warranties. The Website is provided “as is”. Operator and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither Operator nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Website will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. If you’re actually reading this, here’s a treat. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, the Website at your own discretion and risk.
10. Limitation of Liability. In no event will Operator, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement or substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to Operator under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. Operator shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.
11. General Representation and Warranty. You represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Website will be in strict accordance with the Operator Privacy Policy, with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Website will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.
12. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Operator, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of the Website, including but not limited to out of your violation this Agreement.
13. Miscellaneous. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Operator and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Operator, or by the posting by Operator of a revised version. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; Operator may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

Originally published by Automattic, Inc. as the WordPress.com Terms of Service and made available by them under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Modifications to remove reference to "VIP services", rename "blog" to "notice stream", remove the choice-of-venue clause, and add variables specific to instances of this software made by Control Yourself, Inc. and made available under the terms of the same license.