Terms of Use

 

NOTICE: The Chainlink Community, LLC a/k/a www.thechainlink.org “Chainlink” may change this policyfrom time to time by updating this page. It is your responsibility to check for any amendments made to thispolicy. Chainlink will give notice for any amendments. This current policy is effective as of January 1, 2011.

 

By using our Site as defined below, you signify your agreement to these Terms of Use. We reserve the right, at our discretion, to modify, add, or remove portions of these terms at any time. Please check these terms periodically forchanges. Your continued use of this site now or following the posting of any changes to these terms will signify that you accept these Terms and/or changes. Your violation of these Terms, at a minimum, will result in your loss of the right to use our Website, as we may decide in our absolute discretion.

 

The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:

 

Chainlink Community, LLC a/k/a www.thechainlink.org (referred to herein as “Chainlink” "We," "Us", "Website","Our", "Site" or collectively, as "Company").

 

This page states the "Terms of Use" or “TOU” of Chainlink under which You, (the "User", the "Customer"), mayuse and any good, service or information available on the Website (“Content”).

 

The terms "You," "Visitor" and “User” as used herein refer to all individuals and/or the entities they represent(jointly and severally) accessing this Website for any reason.

 

1. WEBSITE CONTENT

We provide a forum for visitors to post comments, stories and other content and submit suggestions, ideas,comments or other information. You understand that any message posted by a Visitor of our website expresses onlythe views of the Visitor and does not necessarily reflect Our views.

 

We may use moderators and administrators ("Administrators") to monitor the content and appearance of posted messages. However, because of the volume and real-time nature of the services, it is impossible for us to monitor or review every message.

 

We are under no obligation to monitor the Content posted on the Website, but We may monitor Content at random. Content found to violate the Posting Rules may be removed at our sole discretion.

 

2. ONLINE CONDUCT

We reserve the right to prohibit conduct, communication, or content that we deem in our sole discretion to violateany law or be harmful to the rights of any user, our Company, or any third party. Provided, however, neither We norour provider(s) can ensure the prompt removal of questionable content after online posting. Accordingly, neither our Company, nor any of its officers, employees, or representatives shall assume liability for any action or inactiontaken with respect to removing such material from our Web site.

 

Our Website shall only be used for personal uses consistent with our Site's operations. You shall not distribute orotherwise publish any commercial material soliciting or promoting any goods or services. You specificallyacknowledge that soliciting any Users of this Website to become Visitors of any commercial online service or otherorganization is expressly prohibited.

 

3. LICENSE TO THE CHAINLINK COMMUNITY, LLC

Upon your submission of any material to the Site, you grant Us and We thereby accept, a worldwide, perpetual, nonterminable, irrevocable, transferable, license to access, use, distribute, perform, reproduce, display, and sublicense,and to permit others to access, use, distribute, perform, reproduce and display, the Content, all without anycompensation to you whatsoever. We may remove material from the Site that is libelous, incorrect, spiteful, or otherwise inappropriate, in Our sole discretion. We shall not be responsible for changes, modifications, or removalof any material that you submit to the Site.

 

4. CONDUCT RULES

You are responsible for all Content that you upload, submit, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit using the Website orServices. Likewise, You are responsible for respecting our and any third parties' rights with respect to Content that appears on the Website and not to download, e-mail or otherwise transmit such Content in violation of our and third parties' rights.

 

Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Website, including, without limitation:

• accessing data not intended for such User or logging into a server or account which the User is not authorized to access;
• attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization;
• attempting to interfere with service to any User, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of submitting a virus to the Website, overloading, "flooding", "mail-bombing" or "crashing";
• sending unsolicited e-mail, including promotions and/or advertising of products or services;forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting.

 

Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability.

 

You agree not to use the Website to:

• upload, download, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content that endorses,demonstrates, suggests, or otherwise promotes riding a bike while under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
• upload, download, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content, including through any attachments thereto, that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar,obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
• upload, download, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content, including through any attachments thereto, that you do not have a right to make available 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 agreements);
• upload, download, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content, including through any attachments thereto, that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
• upload, download, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available, including through any attachments thereto, any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation;
• upload, download, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available, including through any attachments thereto, any material that 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; and
• respond to postings by other Users in any manner or for any purpose other than that which is expected. Communications soliciting the Company’s business by our competitors are prohibited.
• collect or store personal data with respect to third parties except as contemplated by the Terms of Use and then only for the express purpose of providing lawful communication that may reasonably be anticipated by such third parties.
• directly or indirectly, intentionally disrupt or interfere with the Website or Services in any manner that may materially adversely affect Us, You or any third party.
• submit, upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit without authorization any material that contains personal or private information concerning any third party person or entity, including without limitation, phone number(s) or addresses, credit/debit cards, calling cards, account numbers, social security numbers, passwords or other similar information.
• delete or revise any material posted by any other person or entity.
• use the Website for any purpose or in any manner that violates any local, state, or federal law or regulation or the law or regulation of any foreign government including but not limited to scripts, bots and other software, to try to collect information from the Website or to break into any of its servers.

 

5. THIRD-PARTY SUBMISSIONS

Visitors may upload on our website only content that is not subject to any copyright or other proprietary rightsprotection, or content in which the author has given express authorization for Internet distribution. Any content distributed with the consent of a copyright owner should contain a phrase such as "Copyright, date, owned by[indicate name of owner]; used by permission." The unauthorized submission or distribution of copyrighted or otherproprietary content is illegal.

 

In compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, users and other persons can report any potential infringements and recommended corrections to use, in care of report@thechainlink.org. We will address those concerns in accordance with that Act. Neither our Company, its officers, nor its representatives will be liable for anydamage resulting from any infringement of copyrights or proprietary rights, or from any other harm that arises from user submissions.

 

6. REGISTRATION AND PASSWORD PROTECTION

You agree to provide as true, accurate, and complete information prompted by the Registration form and all forms you access on this site. You must update this information to maintain its truthfulness, accuracy, and completeness. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or We have reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, We may suspend, terminate your account, refuse any and all current or future use of its Services, and/or report You to the proper legal authorities when applicable.

 

Whenever you post any information on the Website or to the Website, You agree to provide true, accurate, and contemplate information.

 

You agree not to (1) use any account, sign in name, or password of another User of the Site that you are not authorized to use or (2) authorize others who are not authorized to do so to use the Account at any time. You agree to notify Us immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of the Account or access to your password or the password of any User of your Account.

 

You represent and warrant that: (1) You have full authority to enter into this TOU; (2) all obligations owed to third parties with respect to the activities contemplated to be undertaken by Customer pursuant to this TOU are or will be fully satisfied by Customer, so that We will not have any obligations with respect thereto; and (3) the data or information You have provided for use on our Site does not infringe or violate copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or any other proprietary rights of any third party.

 

You may receive a password and account designation upon completing the registration process. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the password and account and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account.

 

7. NO AGENCY, FIDUCIARY, THIRD-PARTY BENEFICIARY

We are not the agent, fiduciary, or other representative of You. Nothing expressed or mention in or implied from this TOU is intended or shall be construed to give to any person other than the parties hereto any legal or equitable right, remedy, or claim under or in respect to this TOU. Accordingly, We are not a party to any relationships entered into between any members of this Site.

 

Nothing on the Website shall be considered an endorsement, representation or warranty with respect to any User orthird party, whether in regards to its web Website, products, services, hiring, experience, employment or recruiting practices, or otherwise. This TOU and all of the representations, warranties, covenant, conditions, and provisions are intended to be and are for the sole and exclusive benefit of Us and You.

 

8. PRIVACY POLICY

It is Our policy to respect the privacy of our users. Our privacy policy is set forth on our homepage.

 

9. VIOLATIONS OF TERMS OF USE

Please report any violations of the Terms to our customer support group: report@thechainlink.org.

 

10. TERMINATION OF USE

We reserve the right to immediately refuse service, terminate accounts, suspend activity and/or cancel access in Our sole discretion. Cause for such measures shall include, but not be limited to: (a) breaches or violations of the TOU or other incorporated agreements or guidelines; (b) requests by law enforcement or other government agencies; (c) a request by You (self-initiated account deletions); (d) discontinuance or material modification to the Services; (e)unexpected technical or security issues or problems; (f) extended periods of inactivity; and/or (g) engagement by You in fraudulent or illegal activities (h) if We believe that any User's conduct violates applicable law, is harmful to another User's interest, or (i) is harmful to the Company’s, a third party's, or a service provider's interests.

 

To the maximum extent allowed by law, the Company may deny any company or person the right to use the Website.

 

You further agree that all such measures shall be made in Our sole discretion and that We shall not be liable to you or any third party for any measure taken concerning your account access and/or disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, if applicable.

 

11. LINKING FROM AND TO THIS WEBSITE

To the extent that this web site has links from and to other websites, We cannot endorse nor control their content, accuracy, integrity, compliance with laws, or accessibility. If you decide to access these linked sites, you do so at your own risk. Any concerns regarding such outside Internet sites, or any link thereto, should be directed to that particular website.

 

You acknowledge and agree that such links are provided for your convenience and do not reflect any endorsement by Us with respect to the provider of such linked Website or the quality, reliability or any other characteristic or feature of such linked Website and We are not responsible in any manner (including without limitation with respect to any loss or injury you suffer) for any matter associated with the linked Website, including without limitation, the content provided on or through any such linked Website or your reliance thereon.

 

Any link to Our Website is subject to our approval, conditions, and agreement, as We may decide in Our solediscretion. Additionally, any linking, whether it is a hyperlink, use of spiders or robots, or whatever applicable technology, of a commercial, competitive, or offensive nature is strictly prohibited.

 

12. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, EVEN IF THAT PARTY HAS BEEN MADE AWARE OF SUCH PURPOSE.

 

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, WE DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL SUCH WARRANTIES. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, WHICH YOU OBTAIN FROM US OR THROUGH THE USE OF SERVICES SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOTEXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT.

 

13. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE WILL OPERATE ERROR-FREE OR THAT THE WEBSITE AND ITS SERVER ARE FREE OF COMPUTER VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL MECHANISMS. IF YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE OR THE MATERIAL RESULTS IN THE NEED FOR SERVICING OR REPLACING EQUIPMENT OR DATA, THE COMPANY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THOSE COSTS.

 

THE WEBSITE AND MATERIAL ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

 

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANY FUNCTIONS OF OUR SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THIS SITE OR OUR SERVER(S) ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL MECHANISMS.

 

THE CHAINLINK COMMUNITY, LLC, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES DO NOT ENDORSE BIKE RIDING WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL OR ANY CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE. WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES THAT ARISE FROM A USER’S DECISION TO RIDE A BIKE WHILE INTOXICATED.

 

WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES ABOUT THE ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, RELIABILITY, COMPLETENESS,OR TIMELINESS OF THE MATERIAL, SERVICES, SOFTWARE, TEXT, GRAPHICS, AND LINKS. YOU (AND NOT US) ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY CORRECTIONS OR REPAIR.

 

(a) YOU ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK FOR YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE, THE INTERNET GENERALLY, AND THE DOCUMENTS YOU POST OR ACCESS AND FOR YOUR CONDUCT ON AND OFF THE WEBSITE.

 

(b) IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COMPANY (OR ANY OF ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, SHAREHOLDERS,EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS OR ADVERTISERS), BE LIABLE FOR ANY NON-DIRECTDAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, INCIDENTAL ANDCONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA, LOST EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) RESULTING FROM OR ARISING UNDER OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR ACCESS TO, OR THE INABILITY TO USE OR ACCESS,THE WEBSITE AND/OR ANY DOCUMENT, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE ARE ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

 

(c) BECAUSE SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF LIMITATION OR LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE LIMITATIONS SET FORTH IN THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IF ANY ARE HELD INAPPLICABLE OR UNENFORCEABLE FOR ANY REASON, THEN OUR MAXIMUM LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY NONDIRECT TYPE OF DAMAGES SHALL BE LIMITED TO U.S. $200.00 IN THE AGGREGATE.

 

(d) IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COMPANY (OR ANY OF ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, SHAREHOLDERS,EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS OR ADVERTISERS), BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT DAMAGES INEXCESS IN THE AGGREGATE OF US $200.00.

 

(e) DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS AGREEMENT, IN ADDITION TO MONEY DAMAGES, YOU AGREETHAT WE WILL BE ENTITLED TO EQUITABLE RELIEF UPON A BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT BY YOU.

 

14. INDEMNITY, HOLD HARMLESS AND RELEASE

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Us from and against any and all liability, claims, costs andexpenses (including, without limitation, reasonable legal fees and expenses), alleging or resulting from your use ofthis website in violation or breach of the Terms of Use or any dispute with another User.

 

15. OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to Us. The website and all owner-created content andthe right, title and interest in and to the website is the sole property of Us or its licensors, and is protected by U.S.copyright and international treaties. Except for the limited licenses expressly granted to you in the TOU, We reserve for Us and its licensors all other right, title and interest. Without limitation on the foregoing, you may not reproduce,modify, display, sell, or distribute the Content, or use it in any other way for public or commercial purpose.

 

This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with this TOU. This includes copying or adapting the HTML code used togenerate Web pages on the Website, the Website's design logo and certain other names or logos which are servicemarks or trademarks of Us, and all related product and service names, design marks and slogans which are theservice marks or trademarks of Us. In addition, the "look" and "feel" of the Website (including color combinations,button shapes, layout, design and all other graphical elements) are also protected by Chainlink trademarks, servicemarks and copyrights. All other product and service marks contained on the Website are the trademarks of theirrespective owners.

 

All trademarks reproduced in this website, which are not the property of, or licensed to the operator, areacknowledged on the website.

 

Unauthorized use of this website may give to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence.

 

16. GOVERNING LAW AND VENUE

The TOU are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois. Any dispute arising out of this TOU shall have as its sole,exclusive venue the courts located in Cook County, Illinois.

 

17. COMPLETE AGREEMENT

This TOU constitutes the entire agreement between Us and You and governs Your use of the services provided byUs. This TOU supersedes and cancels all prior and contemporaneous agreements, claims, representations, andunderstandings of the parties in connection with the subject matter hereof.

 

18. AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE

The following Terms of Service apply to your use of this Network. You are solely responsible for your conduct and your content on the Network and compliance with these terms. By registering with us or using or browsing this Network, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these terms. This Network is not directed to anyone younger than 16 and is offered only to users 16 years of age or older. Any person who provides their personal information through this Network represents that they are 16 years of age or older.

You agree that you will not post, email or make available any content or use this Network:

• In a manner that infringes, violates or misappropriates any third party's intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights or contractual rights;
• in a manner that 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;
• to engage in spamming, "chain letters," "pyramid schemes", advertisement of illegal or controlled products or services, or other advertising or marketing activities that violate these Terms of Service, any applicable laws, regulations or generally-accepted advertising industry guidelines;
• in a manner that is misleading, deceptive or fraudulent or otherwise illegal or promotes illegal activities, including engaging in phishing or otherwise obtaining financial or other personal information in a misleading manner or for fraudulent or misleading purposes;
• in a manner that is libelous or defamatory, or in a way that is otherwise threatening, abusive, violent, harassing, malicious or harmful to any person or entity, or invasive of another's privacy;
• in a manner that is harmful to minors in any way;
• in a manner that is hateful or discriminatory based on race, color, sex, religion, nationality, ethnic or national origin, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or age or is otherwise objectionable;
• to impersonate any other person, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity, or to obtain access to this Network without authorization;
• to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of this Network or prevent others from using this Network, or in a manner that disrupts the normal flow of dialogue with an excessive number of messages (flooding attack) to this Network, or that otherwise negatively affects other persons' ability to use this Network;
• to use any manual or automated means, including agents, robots, scripts, or spiders, to access or manage any user's account or to monitor or copy this Network or the content contained therein;
• to facilitate the unlawful distribution of copyrighted content;
• in a manner that includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person's explicit consent;
• in a manner that employs misleading email or IP addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of content transmitted through this Network or to users; and
• in a manner that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation if emailed to users who have requested not to be contacted about other services, products or commercial interests.

Additionally, you agree not to:

• "Stalk" or otherwise harass anyone;
• Collect, use or disclose data, including personal information, about other users without their consent or for unlawful purposes or in violation of applicable law or regulations;
• Request, solicit or otherwise obtain access to usernames, passwords or other authentication credentials from any member of this Network or to proxy authentication credentials for any member of this Network for the purposes of automating logins to this Network;
• Post any content containing child pornography to this Network;
• Post any content that depicts or contains rape, extreme violence, murder, bestiality, incest, or other similar content;
• Post any content that constitutes pornography, contains nudity, or is adult in nature.
• Use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from this Network - except for Internet search engines (e.g. Google) and non-commercial public archives (e.g. archive.org) that comply with our robots.txt file, or "well-behaved" web services/RSS/Atom clients. We reserve the right to define what we mean by "well-behaved";
• Post irrelevant content, repeatedly post the same or similar content or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the Network's infrastructure;
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, this Network;
• Use this Network as a generic file hosting service;
• Take any action that may undermine the feedback or ratings systems (such as displaying, importing or exporting feedback information off of this Network or for using it for purposes unrelated to this Network); and
• Develop, invoke, or utilize any code to disrupt, diminish the quality of, interfere with the performance of, or impair the functionality of this Network.

To provide notice of alleged copyright infringement on this Network, please see the DMCA Notification Guidelines.

You agree not to authorize or encourage any third party to use this Network to facilitate any of the foregoing prohibited conduct. You also agree that these Network Terms of Service inure to the benefit of our service providers (including our Network platform provider) and that they may take action (including the removal of your content and disabling of your account) in order to maintain compliance with these Network Terms of Service. Technology and hosting for aspects of this Network are provided by this Network's online service provider. However, the Network Creator of this Network controls the content, membership and policy of this Network, including those pages served by such service provider on behalf of this Network. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, by participating on this Network you agree to indemnify and hold harmless such service provider on all matters related to your interaction with others using this Network and participation with this Network.