Welcome to StopBadware. StopBadware.org, BadwareBusters.org, and AdsIntegrityAlliance.org (the “Sites”) are operated by StopBadware, Inc. (“StopBadware”), an organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The mission of StopBadware is to cultivate a network of individuals and organizations that share a common goal of eliminating viruses, spyware, and other bad software (“badware”). The term “badware” as used herein refers broadly to software that fundamentally disregards a user’s choice about how his or her computer or network connection will be used. For more information, see our detailed explanation about badwareor our Badware Guidelines.

StopBadware seeks to connect the members of its network with actionable knowledge they can use to fight badware effectively. Access to this knowledge, and other content and tools provided or hosted by the Sites, are in this agreement referred to as the “Services”.

To provide the Services, we have to set out some ground rules in this document (the “Terms”). By accessing, using, or contributing to the Services, and in consideration for the Services we provide to you, you agree to abide by the Terms.

StopBadware may change the Terms from time to time, at our sole discretion. Your continued use of the Sites following the posting of such changes will constitute your assent to all such changes. Please periodically visit this section of the site to review the current version of the Terms.

Some of the content available on the Sites is provided by StopBadware “Data Providers”. Data providers are organizations that contribute data to our Badware Website Clearinghouse (the “Clearinghouse”) and participate in our independent review process. The Clearinghouse is a collaborative effort to build a dynamic and comprehensive list of websites that host, link to, or otherwise distribute badware.

Although the Clearinghouse is hosted by StopBadware, the list of badware-distributing sites has been generated by our Data Providers and other members of the StopBadware community. The Clearinghouse may contain content or status information related to StopBadware's independent review process. This information does not, under any circumstances, cause a site to be blacklisted by StopBadware's Data Providers. 

Content on the Sites may include information that is out of date, specific to particular types of situations, or applicable only based on a specific set of facts. It is your responsibility to evaluate the information you obtain by using the Sites, and to make your own informed decision before taking any action based on information or recommendations obtained through the Sites. You are using the information obtained on the Sites at your own risk. If you do not feel comfortable taking such a risk, you are advised to obtain professional assistance for your badware-related problems.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY and LIMITATION OF LIABILITIES

THIS WEBSITE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. STOPBADWARE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OF WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE SITE'S OPERATION OR THE INFORMATION, CONTENT OR MATERIALS INCLUDED ON THIS SITE. TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY APPLICABLE LAW, STOPBADWARE HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

STOPBADWARE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SITE. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOU USE THIS SITE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL STOPBADWARE OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, ECONOMIC OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA OR LOSS OF USE DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS) ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH THE SITE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ITS OPERATION, ITS CONTENTS OR THE INFORMATION OR MATERIALS CONTAINED THEREIN, OR THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE ANY OTHER SITE LINKED TO THE SITE, OR ANY CONTENT CONTAINED IN ANY SUCH SITE, OR THESE TERMS, OR THE PRIVACY POLICY APPLICABLE TO THIS SITE) EVEN IF STOPBADWARE, ITS SUPPLIERS, OR LICENSORS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APLY TO YOU IN SUCH STATES. THE RESPECTIVE LIABILITY OF STOPBADWARE, ITS SUPPLIERS AND LCENSORS SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

OTHER TERMS

Account

Registration

To utilize the Services, or certain portions thereof, you may be required to complete a registration process and establish an account (“Account”) with the Sites. The account registration process is currently available through BadwareBusters.org. You represent and warrant that all information provided by you in establishing an Account is current, accurate, and complete, and that you will maintain the accuracy and completeness of this information on a prompt, timely basis.

Password and Security

As a registered Account holder and user of the Services, you may receive or establish one or more passwords. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your password(s) and Account(s). You understand and agree that you a fully responsible for all actions and postings made from your Account(s). Any accounts you may create are not transferrable. You agree to notify StopBadware and/or the Sites immediately if you become aware of any unauthorized use of your Account(s).

Termination

StopBadware reserves the right to terminate your Account or restrict access to your Account, or to delete any content posted through your Account, with or without notice, for any or for no reason, and without any liability to you.

Community Participation

Browsing

You understand that material made available by the Sites is a product of a community effort and does not necessarily represent the view of StopBadware. StopBadware assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, suitability, or completeness of any content provided.

Linking

You understand that StopBadware has not and cannot review all material made available through websites linked or linking to any part of the Sites. You also understand that no such linking implies in any way that the Sites endorse or are affiliated with any third-party website. You agree that StopBadware bears no responsibility or liability for any content accessed or harm caused from any third-party website.

Acts Against the Site/Services

You shall not attempt or engage in potentially harmful acts that are directed against the Sites or Services including, without limitation, the following: (a) Using the Sites or Services in contravention of any other agreement to which you are a party, including without limitation any employment agreement to which you may be a party; (b) causing, allowing, or assisting any other person to use your Account(s) or impersonate you; © sharing your password or login with any other person; (d) logging onto a server or Account(s) that you are not authorized to access; (e) forging user names, manipulating identifiers, or otherwise impersonating any other person or misrepresenting your identity or affiliation with any person or entity; (f) emulating or faking usage of the Sites or Services; (g) violating or attempting to violate any security features of the Site; (h) using manual or automated software, devices, scripts, robots, or other means or processes to access, “scrape,” “crawl,” or “spider” any pages contained in the Site; (i) introducing viruses, worms, software, Trojan horses, or other similar harmful code into the Site or Services; (j) interfering or attempting to interfere with the use of the Site by any other user, host, or network, including without limitation by means of submitting a virus, overloading, “flooding,” “spamming,” “mail bombing,” “pinging,” “hacking,” “phishing,” or “crashing” the Sites; (k) causing, allowing or assisting machines, bots, or automated services to access or use the Sites or Services without the express written permission of StopBadware; (l) tampering with the operation, functionality, or the security of the Sites or Services; (m) attempting to override or circumvent any security or usage rules embedded into the Sites or Services that permit digital materials to be protected; (n) attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Sites, or any associated system or network, or breach any security or authentication measures; (o) misusing, tricking, disrupting, or otherwise interfering with the functioning of the Sites or Services; (p) harvesting or collecting email addresses or other contact information of other users or clients from the Sites by electronic or other means; (q) reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, deciphering, or otherwise attempting to derive the source code for any underlying intellectual property used to provide the Sites or Services;® engaging in “framing,” “mirroring,” or otherwise simulating the appearance or function of the Sites; and (s) forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting.

Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. You agree that it is your responsibility to install anti-virus software and related protections against viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, or other computer programming routines or engines that are intended to damage, destroy, disrupt, or otherwise impair a computer’s functionality or operation.

Content

Contributed content should be relevant to the subject scope of the Sites. Content may not be illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing of intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy or otherwise injurious or objectionable.

StopBadware has the right (though not the obligation) to remove, without notice, any content posted which the Sites consider, for any reason, to violate these Terms or to be outside the subject scope of the Services. StopBadware may terminate any account, with or without notice, for posting such content.

License Applicable to Contributed Content

(a) Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License. Except where otherwise noted, any and all content contributed by you to the Service or the Sites is submitted under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

(b) By posting or contributing content using these Services, you are granting StopBadware and the Sites a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, and worldwide license to use your content in connection with the operation of the Services, including, without limitation, the license rights to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your content, and/or to incorporate it into a collective work. Specifically, the grant of rights specified in this paragraph includes, but is not limited to, the right to sell or otherwise provide user-submitted URL reports to third parties.

User Representations and Warranties

By posting any content, you represent and warrant that you have all right, title, and interest to such posted content, including but not limited to any consent, authorization, release, clearance or license from any third party (such as, but not limited to, any release related to rights of privacy or publicity) necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input or submit the content, and that posting such content does not violate or constitute the infringement of any patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of privacy, right of publicity, moral rights, or other intellectual property right recognized by any applicable jurisdiction of any person or entity, or otherwise constitute the breach of any agreement with any other person or entity. You further represent and warrant that you are who you say you are, that you have not submitted fictitious, false or inaccurate information about yourself, and that all information contained in the posted content is true and your own work or work you are authorized to submit, and that the posted content does not contain any threatening, harassing, libelous, false, defamatory, offensive, obscene, or pornographic, material, or other material that would violate any other applicable law or regulation. You agree that you will not knowingly and with intent to defraud provide material and misleading information. You represent and warrant that the content you supply does not violate the Terms.

User Reputation System

The Sites may use a variety of metrics to evaluate the value of your contribution to the StopBadware community, including, but not limited to, votes by other members and the frequency of your participation. User reputation information will be stored and may be displayed publicly.

Indemnities

You acknowledge and agree to indemnify and hold StopBadware and the Sites, their affiliates, officers, employees and agents, harmless, including costs and attorneys’ fees, from any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Site or Services, your violation of these Terms, or the infringement by you or made under your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

Our provision of a reputation system and moderation of messages in violation of our policies does not constitute an endorsement or vetting of any messages or users, or of any organizations, companies and products mentioned by users.

Copyright Complaints

If you are a copyright owner and you believe that your copyrighted materials have been used in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please see our DMCA Notice Policy.

Privacy

Please read our Privacy Statement, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Community Behavior Guidelines

StopBadware has a set of Community Behavior Guidelines to which users are expected to adhere. These guidelines are reproduced below:

With our goal of limiting the harmful impact of badware in mind, we hope to bring a diverse range of perspectives and voices into the Sites. While we do not want to limit the spirit of civil disagreement, we reserve the right to decline to publish unacceptable content and to remove it if we find it on the Sites. We also reserve the right to edit submitted content, as we deem necessary. These edits will typically consist of censoring obscene or inappropriate language and correcting bad code, and we will make every effort to preserve the intended meaning of the original message.

Unacceptable content includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Statements that are intended as a personal attack or are abusive, harassing, or threatening
• Defamatory or knowingly false statements
• Information about another user or another private individual of a private or personal nature that does not have news value
• Irrelevant statements, SPAM, or unsolicited advertising
• Materials that violate the copyright, trademark, or trade secret rights of others that are not otherwise authorized by law, such as fair use
• Statements that trick or attempt to entice users into visiting a potentially harmful external link or downloading a piece of badware

Site administrators and/or moderators will determine what is “unacceptable content” on a case-by-case basis. We reserve the right to change these standards at any time. We also reserve the right to remove links to unacceptable off-site content at any time.

Parental Control Protections

Pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Section 230 (d) as amended, StopBadware hereby notifies you that parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that may assist you in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors. Information identifying current providers of such protections is available on the internet (e.g.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content-control_software).

Modifications

StopBadware reserves the right to change, at any time, at our sole discretion, the Terms under which these Services are offered. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms. Your continued use of the Services constitutes your agreement to all such Terms.

Termination of Service

StopBadware disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Services or any software provided through the Services. StopBadware reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Services or access to the Services without any notice at any time and without any liability to you.

Extent of Terms

The Terms apply to use of and contribution to the the Sites and any account provided therefore. StopBadware and the Sites may operate additional projects or services which may require separate or additional terms. Such different terms are made available through the individual project or service and are not addressed further herein.

No Waiver of Terms

Failure of StopBadware to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision in that or any other instance.

Governing Law and Entire Agreement

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States of America, without regard to the rules of conflict of law that may cause the laws of another jurisdiction to apply. You agree to the sole and exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the federal or state courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the event of any dispute of any kind arising from or relating to the Site, or your use or review of it. The Terms constitute the entire agreement between the parties 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. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision or portion of these Terms to be unenforceable, the remainder of the Terms will continue in full force and effect.

Last updated on October 30, 2012