gnu-social/doc-src/tos

The gist
--------

We (the folks at Automattic) run a service called WordPress.com and
would love for you to use it. Our basic service is free, and we offer
paid upgrades for advanced features such as domain hosting and extra
storage. Our service is designed to give you as much control and
ownership over what goes on your blog as possible and encourage you to
express yourself freely. However, be responsible in what you blog. In
particular, make sure that none of the prohibited items listed below
appear on your blog or get linked to from your blog (things like spam,
viruses, or hate content).

You can check our page on types of blogs to get a sense of the types
of sites that are welcome on our service (or not!). If you find a
WordPress.com blog that you believe violates our terms of service,
please check our complaints page.

(Note, we’ve decided to make the below Terms of Service 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, and if you want
we’d appreciate a link to WordPress.com somewhere on your site. We
spent a lot of money and time on the below, and other people shouldn’t
need to do the same.)
Terms of Service:

The following terms and conditions govern all use of the WordPress.com
website and all content, services and products available at or through
the website, including, but not limited to, the WordPress.com VIP
hosting service (“VIP Service”), (taken together, the Website). The
Website is owned and operated by Automattic, Inc. (“Automattic”). 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, Automattic’s
Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time
on this Site by Automattic (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 Automattic, acceptance is
expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to
individuals who are at least 13 years old.

   1. Your WordPress.com Account and Site. If you create a blog on the
Website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your
account and blog, and you are fully responsible for all activities
that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection
with the blog. You must not describe or assign keywords to your blog
in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to
trade on the name or reputation of others, and Automattic may change
or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate
or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause Automattic liability. You
must immediately notify Automattic of any unauthorized uses of your
blog, your account or any other breaches of security. Automattic 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 blog, comment
on a blog, 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, is not machine- or
randomly-generated, 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);
          * 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 blog is not getting advertised via unwanted
electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists,
other blogs and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;
          * your blog is not named in a manner that misleads your
readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For
example, your blog’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 Automattic
or otherwise.

      By submitting Content to Automattic for inclusion on your
Website, you grant Automattic 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 blog. If you delete Content, Automattic 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,
Automattic has the right (though not the obligation) to, in
Automattic’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in
Automattic’s reasonable opinion, violates any Automattic 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 Automattic’s sole discretion. Automattic will have no obligation to
provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.
   3. Fees and Payment. Optional premium paid services such as extra
storage, domain purchases or VIP hosting are available on the Website.
By selecting a premium service you agree to pay Automattic the monthly
or annual subscription fees indicated for that service (the payment
terms for VIP hosting are described below). Payments will be charged
on the day you sign up for a premium service and will cover the use of
that service for a monthly or annual period as indicated. Premium
service fees are not refundable.
   4. VIP Services.
             * Fees; Payment. By signing up for a VIP Services account
you agree to pay Automattic the setup fees and monthly hosting fees
indicated at http://wordpress.com/vip-hosting/ in exchange for the
services listed at http://wordpress.com/vip-hosting/. Applicable fees
will be invoiced starting from the day your VIP Services are
established and in advance of using such services. Automattic reserves
the right to change the payment terms and fees upon thirty (30) days
prior written notice to you. VIP Services can be canceled by you at
anytime on 30 days written notice to Automattic.
          * Support. VIP Services include access to priority email
support. “Email support” means the ability to make requests for
technical support assistance by email at any time (with reasonable
efforts by Automattic to respond within one business day) concerning
the use of the VIP Services. “Priority” means that support for VIP
Services customers takes priority over support for users of the
standard, free WordPress.com blogging services. All VIP Services
support will be provided in accordance with Automattic standard VIP
Services practices, procedures and policies.
   5. Responsibility of Website Visitors. Automattic 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,
Automattic 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. Automattic
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.
   6. 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 WordPress.com
links, and that link to WordPress.com. Automattic does not have any
control over those non-WordPress websites and webpages, and is not
responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a
non-WordPress website or webpage, Automattic 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. Automattic disclaims any responsibility for
any harm resulting from your use of non-WordPress websites and webpages.
   7. Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy. As Automattic 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 WordPress.com violates your copyright, you
are encouraged to notify Automattic in accordance with Automattic’s
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) Policy. Automattic 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 Automattic or others, Automattic may, in its discretion,
terminate or deny access to and use of the Website. In the case of
such termination, Automattic will have no obligation to provide a
refund of any amounts previously paid to Automattic.
   8. Intellectual Property. This Agreement does not transfer from
Automattic to you any Automattic or third party intellectual property,
and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain
(as between the parties) solely with Automattic. Automattic,
WordPress, WordPress.com, the WordPress.com logo, and all other
trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with
WordPress.com, or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Automattic or Automattic’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 Automattic
or third-party trademarks.
   9. Changes. Automattic 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.
Automattic 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.
  10. Termination. Automattic 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 WordPress.com account (if you have one), you may
simply discontinue using the Website. Notwithstanding the foregoing,
if you have a VIP Services account, such account can only be
terminated by Automattic if you materially breach this Agreement and
fail to cure such breach within thirty (30) days from Automattic’s
notice to you thereof; provided that, Automattic can terminate the
Website immediately as part of a general shut down of our service. 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.
  11. Disclaimer of Warranties. The Website is provided “as is”.
Automattic 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 Automattic 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.
  12. Limitation of Liability. In no event will Automattic, 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 Automattic under this agreement during the twelve (12) month
period prior to the cause of action. Automattic 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.
  13. General Representation and Warranty. You represent and warrant
that (i) your use of the Website will be in strict accordance with the
Automattic 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.
  14. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless
Automattic, 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.
  15. Miscellaneous. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement
between Automattic and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and
they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an
authorized executive of Automattic, or by the posting by Automattic of
a revised version. Except to the extent applicable law, if any,
provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of the
Website will be governed by the laws of the state of California,
U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue
for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be
the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County,
California. Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or
claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in
any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute
arising under this Agreement shall be finally settled in accordance
with the Comprehensive Arbitration Rules of the Judicial Arbitration
and Mediation Service, Inc. (“JAMS”) by three arbitrators appointed in
accordance with such Rules. The arbitration shall take place in San
Francisco, California, in the English language and the arbitral
decision may be enforced in any court. The prevailing party in any
action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement shall be entitled to
costs and attorneys’ fees. 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; Automattic 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](http://en.wordpress.com/tos/) and made available by them
under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).*