Terms of use

Effective date:  January 1, 2008

Introduction

Welcome to smallcause, an online community of volunteers and service projects. By using smallcause you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use.

Changes to the Terms of Use

smallcause reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, add, or delete portions of these Terms of Use at any time without notice. Any changes will be reflected in this Terms of Use page.  A new Effective Date posted at the top of this page will reflect changes and updates. Your continued use of smallcause after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms of Use. If you do not agree to abide by these or any future Terms of Use, do not use or continue to use smallcause. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms of Use so that you will be apprised of any changes.

Eligibility and Registration

You must provide true, accurate and complete registration information to smallcause to become a member. By registering on smallcause you represent and warrant that you are 13 years of age or older and that you have the capacity to understand, agree to and comply with these Terms of Use. As part of the registration process, you will be asked to select a password. You will be responsible for all of your account's activities and for keeping your password secure. With or without notice, smallcause, without liability, may terminate your member profile and/or account or prohibit you from using or accessing smallcause for any reason, at any time, with or without cause.

Member Conduct and Appropriate Content

smallcause is made available for personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use smallcause for any illegal or unauthorized purpose(s). International members agree to comply with all local rules regarding online conduct and acceptable content, including laws regulating the export of data from the United States or your country of residence. You are solely responsible for your conduct and any data, text, information, graphics, photos, videos, profiles, links and other content (“Materials”) that you submit, post, or display on smallcause. smallcause may, but shall have no obligation to, remove Materials that smallcause determines in its sole discretion are unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene or otherwise objectionable, or infringes or violates any party's intellectual property or other proprietary rights or these Terms of Use. Further, under no circumstances does smallcause have any obligation to check the accuracy or truthfulness of any Materials, nor to monitor any member's use of smallcause.

Conditions for Use

You agree to abide by all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations and are solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur or are made by you or others under your account including the content of your transmissions through smallcause. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree NOT to: defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.

Publish, distribute and/or disseminate any harmful, obscene, indecent, unlawful, libelous, profane, defamatory, infringing, inappropriate, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material or information.

Use other members' personal data for purposes other than establishing contact that could be reasonably expected to be welcomed by such other members.

Submit Materials that are unlawful or promote or encourage illegal activity or that would violate the property rights of others.

Submit Materials of any third party without such third party's prior written consent, or Materials that falsely express or imply that such Materials are sponsored or endorsed by smallcause.

Create a false or misleading identity of, including, but not limited to, a smallcause employee, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity, for the purpose of misleading others as to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message or to collect information about others.

Transmit, email or post any material that contains any form of software virus or any such programs as, but not limited to, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancel-bots, computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.

Use smallcause in any unlawful manner or in any other manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair smallcause.

Attempt to gain unauthorized access to smallcause, member accounts, or other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to smallcause, through password mining or any other means.

Modify, adapt, translate, or reverse engineer any portion of smallcause, or use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other device to retrieve or index any portion of smallcause.

Reformat or frame any portion of the web pages that are part of smallcause.

Disseminate content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, rights of privacy or publicity, or other proprietary right of any party or infringes upon any intellectual property law or any other applicable law.

Remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained in or on smallcause.

Disseminate any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, 'junk mail', 'spam', 'chain letters', 'pyramid schemes', or any other form of such solicitation.

Interfere with another member's use and enjoyment of smallcause.

Collect electronically (or by other automated means) email addresses, names or other information of members.

 

Proprietary Rights

smallcause does not claim any ownership rights to any Materials that you submit, post, or display on or through smallcause. After submitting, posting or displaying your Materials on or through smallcause, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Materials, and you continue to have the right to use your Materials in any way you choose. By submitting, posting or displaying any Materials on or through smallcause, you hereby grant to smallcause a non-expiring, limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and distribute such Materials solely on and through smallcause and its related marketing. The license you grant to smallcause is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Materials to anyone else in addition to smallcause), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that smallcause is not required to pay you for use of the Materials that you post), sub-licensable (so that smallcause is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide smallcause), and worldwide (because the Internet and smallcause are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Materials from smallcause, except that you agree that the license will continue solely with respect to other members' continued use of your Materials. smallcause reserves the right, but has no obligation, to remove all of your Materials from other member's pages. The license does not grant smallcause the right to sell your Materials. You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Materials posted by you on or through smallcause, or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of your Materials on or through smallcause does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Materials posted by you to or through smallcause. You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Materials posted by you on or through smallcause or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of your Materials on or through smallcause does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owed to any person by reason of any Materials posted by you to or through smallcause. smallcause and its affiliates and licensors own and retain all rights in smallcause, which contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws, including without limitation all text, software, photographs, media, video, graphics, page layout and design presented through and as part of smallcause. You may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, distribute, perform, display or sell any smallcause proprietary information. Privacy Policy

smallcause takes your privacy very seriously and encourages all members and members’ guardians, if applicable, to visit “OnGuard-Online, Federal Trade Commision Safety Tips” at http://www.onguardonline.gov/socialnetworking_youth.html. Use of personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy.

Copyright Policy

You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information belonging to others without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. smallcause respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement or are aware of any infringing material on smallcause, please contact us and provide us with the following information: an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on smallcause (including a URL and/or screen shot); your address, telephone number, and email address; a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Internet Access

smallcause shall not be responsible for any connection or access to smallcause by you or the quality of the transmission of any information passing between you and smallcause. You will be responsible for providing your own communications equipment to access smallcause via the Internet, and any access charges thereon. smallcause Termination

At any time, you may terminate your account, which will remove your personal information from view. Once your membership terminates, you will have no right to use smallcause. Our proprietary rights, disclaimer of warranties, indemnities, limitations of liability and miscellaneous provisions shall survive any termination of your membership. smallcause may also, in its sole discretion and at any time, discontinue smallcause temporarily or permanently with or without notice. You agree that any termination of access to smallcause under any provision of the Terms of Use may be effected without notice and acknowledge and agree that smallcause may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all related information and files in your account and/or bar any further access to such files or smallcause. Further, you agree that smallcause shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination or suspension of access to, or modification to, smallcause. Disclaimer of Warranties

smallcause and its affiliates, licensors, partners, members, suppliers, employees, consultants and agents disclaim any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, or operability or availability of information or Materials displayed on smallcause. smallcause further expressly disclaims (1) that smallcause will meet your requirements and will be uninterrupted, error-free, timely, or secure, (2) that defects or errors will be corrected, (3) that smallcause or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or other harmful components, and (4) that the use of or the results of the use of smallcause or the content made available as part of smallcause will be correct, accurate, timely, or otherwise reliable. smallcause expressly disclaims any and all responsibility and liability for the conduct of any other member, and expressly disclaims that the content and Materials of smallcause input by other members is correct or accurate. SMALLCAUSE, AND ALL MATERIALS, INFORMATION (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, TEXT, GRAPHICS,LINKS OR ANY INFORMATION OR MATERIALS OBTAINED OR ACCESSED THROUGH SMALLCAUSE), PRODUCTS AND SERVICES INCLUDED THEREIN ARE PROVIDED 'AS IS,' 'WITH ALL FAULTS', 'AS AVAILABLE', WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER. SMALLCAUSE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, AND STATUTORY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUS, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of implied warranties, so the above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you. YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF SMALLCAUSE IS ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. Hold Harmless and Indemnity

You agree to hold harmless and indemnify, and at smallcause's request defend, smallcause, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and their respective owners, officers, managers, members, agents, and employees, from and against any third party claim arising from or in any way related to your use of or conduct on smallcause, including any liability or expense arising from all claims, liabilities, losses, damages (actual and consequential), suits, judgments, litigation costs, expenses, and attorneys' fees, of every kind and nature. Limitation of Liability

YOUR USE OF SMALLCAUSE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL SMALLCAUSE, ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AND AFFILIATES, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS, OFFICERS, MANAGERS, MEMBERS, AGENTS, AND EMPLOYEES, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OR LOSSES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES), WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE SMALLCAUSE, WHETHER OR NOT SMALLCAUSE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR LOSS. SUCH LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY (I) WHETHER THE DAMAGES ARISE FROM USE OR MISUSE OF AND RELIANCE ON SMALLCAUSE, FROM INABILITY TO USE SMALLCAUSE, OR FROM THE INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, OR TERMINATION OF SMALLCAUSE (INCLUDING SUCH DAMAGES INCURRED BY THIRD PARTIES), AND (II) NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY AND TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH SMALLCAUSE OR ANY PART OF SMALLCAUSE YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING SMALLCAUSE. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT, SMALLCAUSE'S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO SMALLCAUSE FOR THE USE OF SMALLCAUSE DURING THE TERM OF MEMBERSHIP. Miscellaneous

These Terms of Use will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, without giving effect to its conflict of law provisions or your actual state or country of residence. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision or portion of the Terms of Use to be unenforceable, the remainder of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect. You shall not assign these Terms of Use or assign any rights or delegate any obligations hereunder, in whole or in part, whether voluntarily or by operation of law. Any such purported assignment or delegation will be null and void and of no force or effect. Without limiting the foregoing, under no circumstances shall smallcause be held liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from acts of nature, forces, or causes beyond its reasonable control, including, without limitation, Internet failures, computer equipment failures, telecommunication equipment failures, other equipment failures, electrical failures, strikes, labor disputes, riots, insurrections, civil disturbances, shortages of labor or materials, fires, floods, storms, explosions, acts of God, war, governmental actions, orders of domestic or foreign courts or tribunals, non-performance of third parties, or loss of or fluctuations in heat, light, or air conditioning. These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and smallcause with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes and replaces all prior or contemporaneous understandings or agreements, written or oral, regarding such subject matter. Any waiver of any provision of the Terms of Use by a party will be effective only if in writing and signed by a party.