Terms of Service Agreement
Welcome to Crowd.News site and mobile service of Crowd.News, (“Crowd.News,” “we,” or “us”). This page explains the terms by which you may use our online and/or mobile services, website, and software provided on or in connection with the service (collectively the “Service”). By accessing or using the Service, you signify that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by this Terms of Service Agreement (“Agreement”) and to the collection and use of your information as set forth in the Crowd.News Privacy Policy, whether or not you are a registered user of our Service. This Agreement applies to all visitors, users, and others who access the Service (“Users”).
PLEASE READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY TO ENSURE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND EACH PROVISION. THIS AGREEMENT CONTAINS A MANDATORY ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES PROVISION THAT REQUIRES THE USE OF ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS TO RESOLVE DISPUTES, RATHER THAN JURY TRIALS OR CLASS ACTIONS.
1. Use of Our Service
A. ELIGIBILITY
You may use the Service only if you can form a binding contract with Crowd.News, and only in compliance with this Agreement and all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules and regulations. Any use or access to the Service by anyone under 13 is strictly prohibited and in violation of this Agreement. The Service is not available to any Users previously removed from the Service by Crowd.News.
B. CROWD.NEWS SERVICE.
Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you are hereby granted a non-exclusive, limited, non-transferable, freely revocable license to use the Service as permitted by the features of the Service. Crowd.News reserves all rights not expressly granted herein in the Service and the Crowd.News Content (as defined below). Crowd.News may terminate this license at any time for any reason or no reason.
C. CROWD.NEWS ACCOUNTS
Your Crowd.News account gives you access to the services and functionality that we may establish and maintain from time to time and in our sole discretion. We may maintain different types of accounts for different types of Users. If you open a Crowd.News account on behalf of a company, organization, or other entity, then (a) “you” includes you and that entity, and (b) you represent and warrant that you are an authorized representative of the entity with the authority to bind the entity to this Agreement, and that you agree to this Agreement on the entity’s behalf. By connecting to Crowd.News with a third-party service, you give us permission to access and use your information from that service as permitted by that service, and to store your log-in credentials for that service.
You may never use another User’s account without permission. When creating your account, you must provide accurate and complete information. You are solely responsible for the activity that occurs on your account, and you must keep your account password secure.
We encourage you to use “strong” passwords (passwords that use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols) with your account. You must notify Crowd.News immediately of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your account. Crowd.News will not be liable for any losses caused by any unauthorized use of your account.
You may control your User profile and how you interact with the Service by changing the settings in your settings page. By providing Crowd.News your email address you consent to our using the email address to send you Service-related notices, including any notices required by law, in lieu of communication by postal mail. We may also use your email address to send you other messages, such as changes to features of the Service and special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you may opt out or change your preferences in your settings page. Opting out may prevent you from receiving email messages regarding updates, improvements, or offers.
D. SERVICE RULES
You agree not to engage in any of the following prohibited activities: (i) copying, distributing, or disclosing any part of the Service in any medium, including without limitation by any automated or non-automated “scraping”; (ii) using any automated system, including without limitation “robots,” “spiders,” “offline readers,” etc., to access the Service in a manner that sends more request messages to the Crowd.News servers than a human can reasonably produce in the same period of time by using a conventional on-line web browser; (iii) transmitting spam, chain letters, or other unsolicited email; (iv) attempting to interfere with, compromise the system integrity or security or decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running the Service; (v) taking any action that imposes, or may impose at our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure; (vi) uploading invalid data, viruses, worms, or other software agents through the Service; (vii) collecting or harvesting any personally identifiable information, including account names, from the Service; (viii) using the Service for any commercial solicitation purposes; (ix) impersonating another person or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity, conducting fraud, hiding or attempting to hide your identity; (x) interfering with the proper working of the Service; (xi) accessing any content on the Service through any technology or means other than those provided or authorized by the Service; or (xii) bypassing the measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Service, including without limitation features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any content or enforce limitations on use of the Service or the content therein.
Accessing the audiovisual content available on the Service for any purpose or in any manner other than Streaming (as defined below) is expressly prohibited. “Streaming” means a contemporaneous digital transmission of an audiovisual work via the Internet from the Crowd.News Service to a User’s device in such a manner that the data is intended for real-time viewing and not intended to be copied, stored, permanently downloaded, or redistributed by the User.
We may, without prior notice, change the Service; stop providing the Service or features of the Service, to you or to users generally; or create usage limits for the Service. We may permanently or temporarily terminate or suspend your access to the Service without notice and liability for any reason, including if in our sole determination you violate any provision of this Agreement, or for no reason. Upon termination for any reason or no reason, you continue to be bound by this Agreement.
You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Crowd.News Users. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other Users. Crowd.News shall have no liability for your interactions with other Users, or for any User’s action or inaction.
2. User Content
Some areas of the Service allow Users to post content such as profile information, comments, questions, and other content or information (any such materials a User submits, posts, displays, or otherwise makes available on the Service “User Content”). We claim no ownership rights over User Content created by you. The User Content you create remains yours; however, by sharing User Content through the Service, you agree to allow others to view, edit, and/or share your User Content in accordance with your settings and this Agreement. Crowd.News has the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to remove any User Content that is shared via the Service.
You agree not to post User Content that: (i) may create a risk of harm, loss, physical or mental injury, emotional distress, death, disability, disfigurement, or physical or mental illness to you, to any other person, or to any animal; (ii) may create a risk of any other loss or damage to any person or property; (iii) seeks to harm or exploit children by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable details or otherwise; (iv) may constitute or contribute to a crime or tort; (v) contains any information or content that we deem to be unlawful, harmful, abusive, racially or ethnically offensive, defamatory, infringing, invasive of personal privacy or publicity rights, harassing, humiliating to other people (publicly or otherwise), libelous, threatening, profane, or otherwise objectionable; (vi) contains any information or content that is illegal (including, without limitation, the disclosure of insider information under securities law or of another party’s trade secrets); (vii) contains any information or content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships; or (viii) contains any information or content that you know is not correct and current. You agree that any User Content that you post does not and will not violate third-party rights of any kind, including without limitation any Intellectual Property Rights (as defined below) or rights of privacy. To the extent that your User Content contains music, you hereby represent that you are the owner of all the copyright rights, including without limitation the performance, mechanical, and sound recordings rights, with respect to each and every musical composition (including lyrics) and sound recording contained in such User Content and have the power to grant the license granted below. Crowd.News reserves the right, but is not obligated, to reject and/or remove any User Content that Crowd.News believes, in its sole discretion, violates these provisions.
You understand that publishing your User Content on the Service is not a substitute for registering it with the Australian and international Copyright Office or any other rights organization.
For the purposes of this Agreement, “Intellectual Property Rights” means all patent rights, copyright rights, mask work rights, moral rights, rights of publicity, trademark, trade dress and service mark rights, goodwill, trade secret rights and other intellectual property rights as may now exist or hereafter come into existence, and all applications therefore and registrations, renewals and extensions thereof, under the laws of any state, country, territory or other jurisdiction.
In connection with your User Content, you affirm, represent and warrant the following:
I. You have the written consent of each and every identifiable natural person in the User Content to use such person’s name or likeness in the manner contemplated by the Service and this Agreement, and each such person has released you from any liability that may arise in relation to such use.
II. Your User Content and Crowd.News’s use thereof as contemplated by this Agreement and the Service will not violate any law or infringe any rights of any third party, including but not limited to any Intellectual Property Rights and privacy rights.
III. Crowd.News may exercise the rights to your User Content granted under this Agreement without liability for payment of any guild fees, residuals, payments, fees, or royalties payable under any collective bargaining agreement or otherwise.
IV. To the best of your knowledge, all your User Content and other information that you provide to us is truthful and accurate. Crowd.News takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any User Content that you or any other User or third party posts or sends over the Service. You shall be solely responsible for your User Content and the consequences of posting or publishing it, and you agree that we are only acting as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of your User Content. You understand and agree that you may be exposed to User Content that is inaccurate, objectionable, inappropriate for children, or otherwise unsuited to your purpose, and you agree that Crowd.News shall not be liable for any damages you allege to incur as a result of User Content.
3. User Content License Grant
By posting any User Content on the Service, you expressly grant, and you represent and warrant that you have all rights necessary to grant, to Crowd.News a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, list information regarding, edit, translate, distribute, syndicate, publicly perform, publicly display, and make derivative works of all such User Content and your name, voice, and/or likeness as contained in your User Content, in whole or in part, and in any form, media or technology, whether now known or hereafter developed, for use in connection with the Service and Crowd.News’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each User of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your User Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such User Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under this Agreement.
4. Our Proprietary Rights
Except for your User Content, the Service and all materials therein or transferred thereby, including, without limitation, software, images, text, graphics, illustrations, logos, patents, trademarks, service marks, copyrights, photographs, audio, videos, music, and User Content belonging to other Users (the “Crowd.News Content”), and all Intellectual Property Rights related thereto, are the exclusive property of Crowd.News and its licensors (including other Users who post User Content to the Service). Except as explicitly provided herein, nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to create a license in or under any such Intellectual Property Rights, and you agree not to sell, license, rent, modify, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, edit or create derivative works from any Crowd.News Content. Use of the Crowd.News Content for any purpose not expressly permitted by this Agreement is strictly prohibited.
You may choose to or we may invite you to submit comments or ideas about the Service, including without limitation about how to improve the Service or our products (“Ideas”). By submitting any Idea, you agree that your disclosure is gratuitous, unsolicited and without restriction and will not place Crowd.News under any fiduciary or other obligation, and that we are free to use the Idea without any additional compensation to you, and/or to disclose the Idea on a non-confidential basis or otherwise to anyone. You further acknowledge that, by acceptance of your submission, Crowd.News does not waive any rights to use similar or related ideas previously known to Crowd.News, or developed by its employees, or obtained from sources other than you.
5. Privacy
We care about the privacy of our Users. You understand that by using the Services you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personally identifiable information and aggregate data as set forth in our Privacy and to have your personally identifiable information collected, used, transferred to and processed in Australia.
6. Security
Crowd.News cares about the integrity and security of your personal information. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat our security measures or use your personal information for improper purposes. You acknowledge that you provide your personal information at your own risk.
7. Third-Party Links
The Service may contain links to third-party websites, advertisers, services, special offers, or other events or activities that are not owned or controlled by Crowd.News. Crowd.News does not endorse or assume any responsibility for any such third-party sites, information, materials, products, or services. If you access a third party website from the Service, you do so at your own risk, and you understand that this Agreement and Crowd.News’s Privacy Policy do not apply to your use of such sites. You expressly relieve Crowd.News from any and all liability arising from your use of any third-party website, service, or content. Additionally, your dealings with or participation in promotions of advertisers found on the Service, including payment and delivery of goods, and any other terms (such as warranties) are solely between you and such advertisers. You agree that Crowd.News shall not be responsible for any loss or damage of any sort relating to your dealings with such advertisers.
8. Indemnity
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Crowd.News and its subsidiaries, agents, licensors, managers, and other affiliated companies, and their employees, contractors, agents, officers and directors, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising out of or related to: (i) your use of and access to the Service, including any data or content transmitted or received by you; (ii) your violation of any term of this Agreement, including without limitation your breach of any of the representations and warranties above; (iii) your violation of any third-party right, including without limitation any right of privacy or Intellectual Property Rights; (iv) your violation of any applicable law, rule or regulation; (v) User Content or any other information or content that is submitted via your account including without limitation misleading, false or inaccurate information; (vi) negligent or willful misconduct; or (vii) any other party’s access and use of the Service with your unique username, password or other appropriate security code.
9. No Warranty
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM CROWD.NEWS OR THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED HEREIN. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, CROWD.NEWS, ITS SUBSIDIARIES, ITS AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE CONTENT IS ACCURATE, RELIABLE OR CORRECT; THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION, UNINTERRUPTED OR SECURE; THAT ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED; OR THAT THE SERVICE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. ANY CONTENT DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DOWNLOADED AT YOUR OWN RISK AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR MOBILE DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM SUCH DOWNLOAD OR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE.
SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS AGREEMENT GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS, AND YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. THE DISCLAIMERS AND EXCLUSIONS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT APPLY TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
CROWD.NEWS DOES NOT WARRANT, ENDORSE, GUARANTEE, OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE ADVERTISED OR OFFERED BY A THIRD PARTY THROUGH THE CROWD.NEWS SERVICE OR ANY HYPERLINKED WEBSITE OR SERVICE, AND CROWD.NEWS WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO OR IN ANY WAY MONITOR ANY TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.
10. Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL CROWD.NEWS, ITS AFFILIATES, AGENTS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS SERVICE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL CROWD.NEWS BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE, LOSS OR INJURY RESULTING FROM HACKING, TAMPERING OR OTHER UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS OR USE OF THE SERVICE OR YOUR ACCOUNT OR THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CROWD.NEWS ASSUMES NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY (I) ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT; (II) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE, OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SERVICE; (III) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN; (IV) ANY INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM THE SERVICE; (V) ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE THAT MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH OUR SERVICE BY ANY THIRD PARTY; (VI) ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF ANY CONTENT POSTED, EMAILED, TRANSMITTED, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICE; AND/OR (VII) USER CONTENT OR THE DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE, OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY. IN NO EVENT SHALL CROWD.NEWS, ITS AFFILIATES, AGENTS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, SUPPLIERS, OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIMS, PROCEEDINGS, LIABILITIES, OBLIGATIONS, DAMAGES, LOSSES OR COSTS IN AN AMOUNT EXCEEDING THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO CROWD.NEWS HEREUNDER OR $100.00, WHICHEVER IS GREATER.
THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SECTION APPLIES WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER BASIS, EVEN IF CROWD.NEWS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION.
SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS AGREEMENT GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS, AND YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. THE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT APPLY TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
The Service is controlled and operated from facilities in Australia. Crowd.News makes no representations that the Service is appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who access or use the Service from other jurisdictions do so at their own volition and are entirely responsible for compliance with all applicable United States and local laws and regulations, including but not limited to export and import regulations. You may not use the Service if you are a resident of a country embargoed by the United States, or are a foreign person or entity blocked or denied by the United States government. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, all materials found on the Service are solely directed to individuals, companies, or other entities located in Australia.
11. General
I. Assignment. This Agreement, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by you, but may be assigned by Crowd.News without restriction. Any attempted transfer or assignment in violation hereof shall be null and void.
II. Notification Procedures and Changes to the Agreement. Crowd.News may provide notifications, whether such notifications are required by law or are for marketing or other business related purposes, to you via email notice, written or hard copy notice, or through posting of such notice on our website, as determined by Crowd.News in our sole discretion. Crowd.News reserves the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to our Users, provided that you may opt out of certain means of notification as described in this Agreement. Crowd.News is not responsible for any automatic filtering you or your network provider may apply to email notifications we send to the email address you provide us. Crowd.News may, in its sole discretion, modify or update this Agreement from time to time, and so you should review this page periodically. When we change the Agreement in a material manner, we will update the ‘last modified’ date at the bottom of this page. Your continued use of the Service after any such change constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms of Service. If you do not agree to any of these terms or any future Terms of Service, do not use or access (or continue to access) the Service.
III. Entire Agreement/Severability. This Agreement, together with any amendments and any additional agreements you may enter into with Crowd.News in connection with the Service, shall constitute the entire agreement between you and Crowd.News concerning the Service. If any provision of this Agreement is deemed invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of this Agreement, which shall remain in full force and effect, except that in the event of unenforceability of the universal Class Action/Jury Trial Waiver, the entire arbitration agreement shall be unenforceable.
IV. No Waiver. No waiver of any term of this Agreement shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term, and Crowd.News’s failure to assert any right or provision under this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.
V. Contact. Please contact us at info@crowd.news with any questions regarding this Agreement.