BizBrag Legal Termz
First, BizBrag's common-sense statement and termz:
Please do not abuse this site. BizBrag is a site that is used for the benefit of improving life for small businesses throughout the world - so, don't ruin it for anyone. You are responsible for anything you post. You are not allowed to:
- Post under someone else's identity
- Use someone else's registered information
- Post negative, malice or harmful content about individuals, businesses, ideas or intellectual property
- Steal copyrighted, trademarked, patented, licensed or registered ideas belonging to someone else
- Spam this site
In turn, BizBrag is not responsible for:
- Any claims, information, products, services or behavior related to registered users, or registered businesses as well as persons, or businesses that postings refer to.
- Any, and all website (and/or links) that appear or are linked to BizBrag pages (either directly or indirectly), content, users, registered individuals, or registered businesses.
Now, The heavy legal stuff:
User Content
You retain all copyright to all original User Content you submit to the Site. By transmitting or submitting User Content to the Site, you hereby grant BizBrag, and its Affiliates: (a) a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual and fully sublicensable and transferable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, distribute, publish, create derivative works from and publicly display and perform such User Content in any media, now known or hereafter devised; and (b) the right to use the name, identifier, or any portion thereof, submitted in connection with such User Content, if they so choose. Please note that BizBrag and its Affiliates, as a policy, do not actively edit User Content. We either leave the User Content posted as is or take it down entirely. However, in some situations, certain modifications may occur without our active participation, such as due to our obscenity filtering software, which may automatically change profane language to characters such as '@#!%'. For purposes of the User Agreement, "Affiliate" means any person, partnership, joint venture, corporation or other form of enterprise, domestic or foreign, including but not limited to subsidiaries, that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with BizBrag.
You acknowledge and agree that you will not post on the Site any content for which you do not have the clear right to do so and to grant the rights granted above. You acknowledge and agree not to post any false, malice or inaccurate information regarding or about any business that you, either, are or are not affiliated with, in any way. You may generally publish a link to ("seed") such content on the Site, provided that such link does not otherwise violate any third party agreements or rights. [Please note that content licensed under a Creative Commons license may not be posted on the Site because such licenses do not permit you to grant the necessary rights and may not be applicable to such use in some cases. Therefore, such content may only be seeded to the Site.] You further acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible and liable for any content that you post or seed on the Site and for any infringement or other liability that may result.
You represent and warrant that (i) all User Content is either wholly original to you, or all third party rights therein have been fully cleared for use as contemplated by this Agreement, and that you have the right to grant the rights granted herein without violating the rights of any third party; (ii) the User Content and the posting thereof on the Site does and will not, in any way, violate or breach any of the terms of this Agreement or the Conduct Policy or violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, and (iii) BizBrag shall not in any circumstance be required to pay or incur any sums to any person or entity as a result of its use or exploitation of the User Content unless otherwise agreed by BizBrag.
Without limiting the foregoing, BizBrag and its Affiliates reserve the right to use the User Content as it deems appropriate, including, without limitation, deleting, rejecting, or refusing to post it. Your submission of User Content is subject to the terms our Conduct Policy. BizBrag and its Affiliates may, but are under no obligation to, offer you any payment for User Content that you submit or the opportunity to edit, delete or otherwise modify User Content once it has been submitted to BizBrag. BizBrag and its Affiliates shall not be obligated to enforce any form of attribution by third parties and shall not be responsible for any third party use of User Content.
If it is determined that you possess any moral rights (including rights of attribution or integrity) in the User Content, you hereby declare that (a) you have no objection to the publication, use, modification, or deletion and exploitation of the User Content by BizBrag or its Affiliates, licensees, successors and assigns; (b) you forever waive and agree not to claim or assert any entitlement to any and all moral rights of an author in any of the User Content; and (c) you forever release BizBrag, and its Affiliates, licensees, successors and assigns, from any claims that you could otherwise assert against BizBrag by virtue of any such moral rights.
BizBrag is for collaborative discovery and discussion of the news, not self-promotion. You agree not to post to the Site any links or other User Content which is intended to or may result in any monetary compensation or other benefit to you, including without limitation any affiliate links. In addition, while posting full articles which also appear on your blog is acceptable, you agree not to seed your own blog or other content created by you.
Personal information is information that specifically identifies an individual, such as a user's name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, credit card or other account number, and information about that individual's activities when directly linked to that person such as information about his or her purchases or use of services. Personal information also includes demographic information such as date of birth, gender, geographic area and preferences when such information is linked to other personal information that identifies you.
Personal information does not include "aggregate" information. Aggregate information is data we collect about a group or category of products, services or users from which individual user identities have been removed. In other words, information about how you use a service may be collected and combined with information about how others use the same service, but no personal information will be included in the resulting data. Likewise, information about the products you purchase may be collected and combined with information about the products purchased by others. Aggregate data helps us understand trends and user needs so that we can better consider new products and services, and tailor existing products and services to user desires.
Links and Third Party Content
BizBrag or third parties may provide links on the Site to other sites or content. BizBrag has no control over such sites or content, and therefore makes no claim or representation regarding, and expressly disclaims responsibility for, the quality, content, nature or reliability of sites or content linked to by the Site. BizBrag provides links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link on the Site does not imply our affiliation, endorsement, or adoption of the linked site or any information therein. When you leave the Site, our terms and policies no longer govern. You should review applicable terms and policies, including the privacy and data gathering practices, of any third-party sites.
Personal Information We Collect
You provide personal information to us in a number of ways when you visit our Site or use the various services and activities available on our Site. For example, you provide us with personal information when you: (1)register on the Site; (2)participate in a survey, contest or sweepstakes on the Site; (3)participate or make postings in any forums, chat rooms or other interactive areas of the Site; (4)submit/post an article or comment to the Site and voluntarily include your name or other personal information (including, without limitation, any personally identifying photographs or images you submit/post); or (5)contact us by email for any reason (such as to request customer service or provide us with your comments/feedback). We collect your name and email address in this manner. If you request or apply for compensation from us for your articles, comments or other submissions to the Site, we will collect certain additional personal and demographic information from you (including, without limitation, your full legal name, address, date of birth and social security number).
We also collect personal information from you if you submit a job application or resume to us via email. Personal information collected in this regard includes your name and email address, as well as other employment related information that you provide to us in the resume and/or application.
When you visit our Site, some information is also automatically collected, such as your computer's Internet Protocol (IP) address, operating system and browser type and the time and date of your visit. This information is collected through the use of "cookies." Cookies are small files that are stored on your computer by a Web site to give you a unique identification. We also use cookies on our Site to keep track of services you have used, to record registration information regarding your login name and password, to ensure you do not repeatedly see advertisements, to record your user preferences and to keep you logged into the Site. We treat automatically collected information as personal information if we combine it with or link it to any of the personally identifying information mentioned above. Otherwise, it is used in the aggregate only.
Additionally, we use, and allow third parties to use, Web beacons on the Site to monitor the effectiveness of advertising or for other legitimate purposes. Web beacons are small, graphic images on Web pages or Web-based documents or in email messages that allow us or third parties to monitor who is visiting the Site or if the email has be read. Web beacons collect the IP address of the computer that the Web beacon is sent to, the URL of the page the Web beacon comes from and the time it was viewed. Web beacons may be linked to your personal information.
How We Use the Information We Collect
In general, we use personal information to process your requests or transactions, provide you with products and services, and inform you about other products or services we think will be of interest. For example, we use the information we collect to:
- contact you for administrative purposes or provide you with customer service;
- complete transactions requested by you or to verify that you have submitted an article or comment;
- respond to any questions, problems or complaints, or request feedback;
- organize the Site and its various services and activities to better serve you and customize or develop our products and services; and
- send you emails or other communications containing information about products and services that you might find of interest.
Personal information provided on our Site may be linked together or merged with other personal information we obtain about you so that we may better understand your needs and inform you about our products or services and those of our business partners. In addition, if we receive personal information from third parties with whom we have business relationships, we may combine this information with the other personal information we maintain about you. In either case, this Policy governs this information.
Disclosure of Information
We do not sell, rent or share personal information with third parties without your prior consent except in the limited circumstances described in this Policy. We share personal information with third-party vendors who assist us in performing internal functions necessary to operate our business. These functions may include, for example, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance and processing payment transactions. In all cases we limit the information shared with our third-party vendors to that which is necessary to carry out those functions. We are not responsible for any information you provide to these parties directly, and we encourage you to become familiar with their practices before disclosing information directly to them.
We also disclose personal information when we believe it is appropriate to comply with the law (e.g., a lawful subpoena, warrant or court order); to enforce or apply this Policy or our other policies or agreements; to initiate, render, bill and collect for amounts owed to us; to protect our or our users' rights, property or safety; to protect our users from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of, our Site; or if we reasonably believe that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure of communications or justifies disclosure of records without delay.
In addition, information about our users, including personally identifiable information, may be disclosed as part of any merger, acquisition, debt financing or sale of company assets, as well as in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership in which personally identifiable information could be transferred to third parties as one of our business assets.
Your Liability
You are solely responsible for your activities on our Site, including all User Content that you submit or a third party submits on your behalf or using your account. You agree to indemnify BizBrag and its Affiliates, shareholders, directors, officers, employees, agents, successors and assigns against any and all third party claims, actions, demands, suits and all related losses, liabilities, damages, penalties, costs and expenses (including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys' fees) incurred by an indemnified party arising out of or related to: (a) any violation of law or regulation from your use of the Site, (b) any actual or alleged breach by you of any obligations, representations, warranties under this User Agreement, including violations of our Conduct Policy; and (c) any actual or alleged infringement or misappropriation of the intellectual property rights of any third party by all User Content that you submit or a third party submits on your behalf or using your account.
Links to Other Web Sites
Our Site contains links to other Web sites. Links from our Site to other sites or content are provided for your convenience only, and we do not have control over the content or privacy and security practices and policies of such third parties or other sites. Any personal information you provide on linked pages is provided directly to that third party and is subject to that third party's privacy policy. We encourage you to learn about their privacy and security practices and policies before providing them with personal information.
Children
We do not intend, and the Site is not designed, to collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, you should not register with or otherwise provide personal information to our Site.
Security
We use reasonable security measures in an effort to prevent loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control. We cannot, however, guarantee protection of all information against interception, misappropriation, misuse, or alteration, or that your information may be not be disclosed or accessed by accidental circumstances or by the unauthorized acts of others. Furthermore, we have no control over the security of other sites you might visit, interact with or do business with.
Information you provide through the Site is protected by an encryption technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to ensure privacy and security during transmission. Your registration information is accessible online only through the use of a password. To protect the confidentiality of personal information, you must keep your password confidential and not disclose it to any other person. You are responsible for all uses of the Site by any person using your password. Please advise us immediately if you believe your password has been misused or otherwise misappropriated.
Policy Changes
We will modify this Policy if our privacy practices materially change in the future. We will notify you of such changes only by posting the new policy on our Site and indicating at the top of the Policy the date it was last updated. We encourage you to review the Policy each time you visit our Site to see if it has been updated since your last visit to make sure you understand how personal information you provide will be used.
Questions / Additional Information
contact@BizBrag.com
Copyright, Trademark, Patent and License
All copyrighted, trademarked, patented, licensed and copyrightable materials on the Site, including but not limited to the text, design, manuals, product information, graphics, images, pictures, videos, sound and other files, and the selection, compilation and arrangement thereof (collectively, "Materials") are ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright © 2008 BizBrag.
BizBrag grants you a limited license to make personal use of the Site to access and review the Materials for your information purposes only. This license does not include the right to: (a)use the Site or Materials for other than for its intended purpose, including but not limited to any marketing, selling, or other commercial uses; (b) use framing techniques to enclose any portion of the Site, including any images found on the Site or any text or the layout or design of any page or form contained on a page; (c)publish, publicly perform or display, or distribute to any third party any Materials, including reproduction or hosting the Materials on any computer network or broadcast or publications media; (d)make derivative uses of the Site or the Materials; or (e) any systematic collection or extraction of data through the use of any data mining, robots or similar data gathering or extraction methods.
You are not conveyed any other right or license, by implication, in or under any patent, trademark, or proprietary right of BizBrag or any third party. Any unauthorized use of the Site will terminate the permission or license granted by BizBrag to you under this User Agreement and may violate applicable law, including but not limited to copyright laws, trademark laws (including trade dress), and communications regulations and statutes.
Trademarks and Service Marks
"BizBrag," "BizBrag.com" and Bizbrag's logos are trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks of BizBrag or its suppliers and licensors, and may not be copied, used or imitated, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of BizBrag or its suppliers or licensors. You may not use meta tags or any other "hidden text" using any of the above-referenced marks without Bizbrag's permission. Additionally, all page headers, graphics, icons, and scripts are service marks, trademarks, and/or trade dress of BizBrag, and may not be copied, imitated, or used, in whole or in part, without BizBrag's prior written permission. All other BizBrag names or logos mentioned on the Site, or any other trademarks, registered or otherwise, are the property of their respective owners. Reference to any products, services, processes or other information, by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, supplier or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by BizBrag.
No Warranties
THE SITE AND THE MATERIALS CONTAINED THEREIN ARE PROVIDED ON AN "ASIS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE SITE, INCLUDING ALL CONTENT OR DATA DISTRIBUTED BY OR DOWNLOADED OR ACCESSED FROM OR THROUGH THE SITE, IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. BIZBRAG DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT AS TO THE INFORMATION, MATERIALS, AND CONTENT ON THE SITE. BIZBRAG DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT MATERIALS IN THE SITE ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, CURRENT, RELIABLE OR ERROR-FREE.
BIZBRAG IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS OR OMISSIONS RELATING TO PRICING, TEXT OR PHOTOGRAPHY. WE CANNOT AND DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE SITE OR ITS SERVER(S) ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, INCLUDING CONTENT THAT IS POSTED BY THIRD PARTIES. YOU SHOULD USE INDUSTRY-RECOGNIZED SOFTWARE TO DETECT AND DISINFECT VIRUSES FROM ANY DOWNLOAD.
Limited Liability
IN NO EVENT SHALL WE BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF PROFITS, OR LOSS OF DATA) WHETHER IN AN ACTION IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO NEGLIGENCE), EQUITY OR OTHERWISE, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SITE OR THE MATERIALS THEREIN OR RESULTING FROM UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF DATA.
YOU AGREE THAT BIZBRAG'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY ACTUAL AND DIRECT DAMAGES HEREUNDER SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNTS PAID BY BIZBRAG TO YOU UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS IS A REASONABLE ALLOCATION OF RISK FOR YOUR USE OF THE SITE.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS OR DAMAGES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
Applicable Law and Venue
This User Agreement and any transactions on this Site shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Maryland applicable to agreements made and entirely to be performed within the State of Maryland, without resort to its conflict of law provisions. You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these terms and conditions shall be filed only in state or federal court located in Baltimore County, Maryland, and you hereby irrevocably and unconditionally consent and submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts over any suit, action or proceeding arising out of this User Agreement.
Changes to This User Agreement
BizBrag reserves the right to change or modify any of the terms and conditions contained in this User Agreement, or any policy of the Site, at any time and in its sole discretion. If BizBrag decides to change this User Agreement, it will post a new version on the Site and update the effective date set forth above. Any changes or modifications to this User Agreement or policy will be effective upon posting of the revisions. Your continued use of the Site following posting of any changes or modifications constitutes your acceptance of such changes or modifications. You should frequently review this User Agreement and any other applicable policies, including their dates, to understand the terms and conditions that apply.
Conduct Policy
Please read this Conduct Policy carefully. It governs your conduct while using various services on this Web site, located at www.BizBrag.com (the "Site") and operated by BizBrag ("BizBrag"). By using our Site, you agree to be bound the terms of this Conduct Policy.
ANY VIOLATION OF THIS POLICY MAY RESULT IN THE SUSPENSION OR TERMINATION OF YOUR ACCESS TO THE SITE OR USE OF OUR SERVICE AND SUCH ACTION AS WE DEEM APPROPRIATE. INDIRECT OR ATTEMPTED VIOLATIONS OF THIS POLICY, AND ACTUAL OR ATTEMPTED VIOLATIONS BY A THIRD PARTY ON YOUR BEHALF, SHALL BE CONSIDERED VIOLATIONS OF THE POLICY BY YOU.
Other Applicable Terms
Your use of the Site is also governed by the BizBrag User Agreement. Please review BizBrag's Privacy Policy to understand BizBrag's practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information on the Site.
Use of User Content
You are solely responsible for all content that you upload, post, email or otherwise transmit via or to the Site, including the submission of articles, commentary and all other data, documents, text, software, applications, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages, ratings, forum postings, comments or other materials (collectively, "User Content"). By posting any type of media under a business name/idea, you acknowledge that you are legally authorized to pst such information. As a provider of interactive services, BizBrag enables users to post such User Content in a public forum. BizBrag is not liable for any User Content provided by its users. User Content is displayed for entertainment and informational purposes only and is not controlled by BizBrag. BizBrag cannot guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such User Content. You understand that by using the Site, you may be exposed to User Content that may be offensive, indecent or objectionable. Under no circumstances will BizBrag be liable in any way for any User Content, including, but not limited to, for any errors or omissions in any User Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any User Content posted, emailed or otherwise transmitted via the Site.
Prohibited Conduct
The following non-exhaustive list describes the kinds of illegal or harmful conduct that are prohibited on our Site. You agree not to:
- upload, post or otherwise transmit any User Content that:
- is not relevant to the subject matter of the article, commentary, product, service, person or entity;
- is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, known to be false and presented as truth, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
- you do not have a right to transmit under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as, but not limited to, inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure Codes)
- contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
- potentially infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any person or entity; or
- is unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation.
- use an account name, file or directory name, or third level domain (i.e., aaa.BizBrag.com), or other identifier that infringes or misappropriates any trademark, service mark or other indicia of origin or that is otherwise likely to cause confusion as to the source, affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement of a third party's products or services;
- attempt to disguise the origin of any User Content transmitted to the Site;
- act in any manner that negatively affects other users' ability to use the Site;
- use or authorize the use of any means to artificially or falsely drive user traffic to User Content that you or another user posts to the Site, including the use of automated, fraudulent or deceptive processes;
- impersonate any person, business or entity, including, without limitation, a Site moderator or a manufacturer or owner of any product, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person, business or entity;
- use this site to present malice or negative information, opinions or evidences that is damaging to any person, business or entity;
- interfere with the Site, or servers or networks connected to the Site, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Site;
- post User Content that would be harmful to minors in any manner;
- create and/or log in with multiple accounts;
- access the site using a distributed network or other anonymizing service for the purposes of cloaking your identity, creating multiple accounts, or gaining admittance to the Site after you've had another account disabled;
- post User Content in a language other than English, with the exception of ancillary phrases which may be necessary or illustrative in the middle of larger passages;
System and Network Security
You are prohibited from violating the security of any system or network comprising the Site. Such violations may result in criminal and civil liability. Examples of system or network security violations include, without limitation, the following:
- Unauthorized access to or use of data, systems or networks, including any attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Site or to breach security or authentication measures.
- Unauthorized monitoring of data or traffic on the Site.
- Interference with the Site including, without limitation, any type of flooding technique or deliberate attempt to overload a system such as denial of service attacks.
- Forging of any packet header, e-mail header or any part of a message header. This prohibition does not include the use of aliases or anonymous remailers.
- Using manual or electronic means to avoid any use or access limitations placed on this Site.
Enforcement
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Conduct Policy, BizBrag reserves the right, but does not assume the obligation, to investigate any violation of this Conduct Policy or any other misuse of the Site or its systems, equipment or network. BizBrag further reserves the right (each in its sole discretion) to screen, edit, modify, remove or disable access to any User Content that violates these provisions or that BizBrag deems objectionable. Without imitating the foregoing, and notwithstanding anything contrary in our Privacy Policy, BizBrag reserves the right to report any activity, data or persons (including the disclosure of relevant user information) to appropriate law enforcement officials, regulators, or other appropriate third parties if BizBrag suspects you have violated this Conduct Policy or any law or regulation. BizBrag also may cooperate with appropriate law enforcement agencies to assist in the investigation and prosecution of any illegal conduct.
If you want to report any violations of this Conduct Policy, please contact us at: contact@BizBrag.com.
General Termz
We reserve the right, without notice and in our sole discretion, to terminate your account and your license to use the Site and to block or prevent future access to and use of the Site. Without limiting the foregoing, and in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it is BizBrag's policy to terminate, in appropriate circumstances as determined in our sole discretion, subscribers or account holders who we determine are repeat infringers. If any provision of this User Agreement shall be deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this User Agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. The following provisions will survive any termination of this User Agreement: "User Content", "Your Liability", "Trademarks", "No Warranties", "Limited Liability", "Applicable Law and Venue", and "General Termz".
