Effective Date: June 27, 2013
Welcome to Boing Boing, a Website created by Happy Mutants, LLC, (“Happy Mutants,” “We,” “Us”) which lives at boingboing.net (“Boing Boing,” “Website,” “Site”). This Terms of Service (“Terms”), which incorporates our Privacy Policy, is a contract between Us and you that articulates your rights and our rights relating to the Site.
Don’t stop reading, please. These rules are important! By using the Site, you are agreeing to be bound by these Terms. You should know what they say, especially because if you do not agree to these Terms, you should not use the Site.
FOR THOSE ASKING, “WHAT IS BOING BOING?”
BoingBoing.net is a Website devoted to technology and culture. We publish feature articles, links to things we find interesting online, podcasts, videos and comics created by the Boing Boing editorial team and other invited contributors. We also provide a discussion forum so you can participate in the conversation; and sell merchandise in the Boing Boing Shop.
AND NOW FOR THE LEGALESE
Happy Mutants grants you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive license to use Boing Boing in the manner described herein.
Tl;dr: This means that you can read, listen to, watch, and intellectually consume everything on the Site, plus participate in our Forums. In exchange, we ask that you use the Site in the manner and spirit for which it was created and that you adhere to the policies that govern the Site’s use.
So in case it is unclear, you are NOT permitted to interrupt the serving of our Site, introduce malicious code to our forum, assist anyone in misusing the Site in any way, or use the Site to violate the law or the safety or dignity of another person in any way. It takes a lot of work to make this site run. Be cool.
ACCOUNT CREATION
You can browse the Site without logging in. However, to participate in our Discussion Forum, you need to create an account. We use the Discourse.org forum platform and the creators CDCK host it on their servers and run it for us.
To participate in the forum, you may create a new account, use an existing Discourse.org user name and password or log-in using one of your social networking user name and passwords. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account information. You are solely responsible for all activity that occurs with your account, regardless of whether you have authorized such activities. If the security of your account has been compromised, contact CDCK immediately at privacy@cdck.org.
THIS IS OUR HOUSE
We may, in our sole discretion and without any forewarning, suspend or terminate your account for violating these Terms, or for any other reason we choose. We can remove your User Content without any forewarning, for any reason we choose. And even when we don’t terminate you or remove your stuff, we want to be clear that it does not imply that we assume any responsibility for, or endorse your User Content.
We can also remove the content we post on our site, without any forewarning, for any reason we choose.
RATED PG-13
We have kids. We love kids. Really we do. But the United States government has put limits on our ability to accept users under a certain age through the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. So to be clear, Boing Boing is not intended for users under the age of 13. Nobody under 13 may create an account or use any part of the Site that requires the submission of personally identifiable information, like email or name. Any account that is created by a person under 13 will be terminated and any content created will be removed from the Site.
CC: NON-COMMERCIAL SHARING WITH ATTRIBUTION
Except where indicated, Boing Boing editorial-created content is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. This means that you may link to it and otherwise share it, but if you do, you need to give us credit. You may not use our editorial-created content in any commercial capacity; we do this for a living. But if you have an idea for collaboration, it never hurts to ask us nicely.
YOU ASSERT THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO PUBLISH WHAT YOU POST
Anything that you submit or make available on our discussion forum or elsewhere on our site is considered “User Content.” This includes comments that you write, as well as items that you upload or link to, like images, videos, graphics, audio files, text or other works. When you make User Content available on Boing Boing, you are asserting that you have all the relevant copyright, trademark and intellectual property rights to make that work available or have a well-reasoned belief that your republication of the work is a “fair use.” We are creators and this is very important to us. Please do not post stuff that you do not have the right to post.
YOU GRANT US THE RIGHT TO USE YOUR STUFF
By submitting User Content, you grant us an unlimited license to use your content in any way we choose. This includes creative uses such as republishing the work on our ad-supported Website, forums, and elsewhere, and practical uses such as copying your content to make back ups of it, displaying it on the website, and distributing and modifying it as needed to make the Site work.
Because our servers are located remotely, and because User Content is retained indefinitely, you grant us these rights worldwide and irrevocably, and agree that we don't owe you royalties for any use of your content based on these rights.
YOU GRANT THE COMMUNITY THE RIGHT TO REUSE YOUR STUFF
Further, when you make User Content available on Boing Boing, you grant the world a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License to it. Be mindful of this when you post.
BOING BOING Store
StackCommerce is our partner for selling stuff via the Store. Here is StackCommerce's privacy policy, they do collect information when you buy from the store. We do not have access to user account information or any data provided during the checkout process. We also lament the frequently cheesy copy in the advertisements. If you have a problem with their customer service, please feel free to contact us! We want every transaction to be a happy one.
THIRD-PARTY LINKS
It should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway as some folks seem to miss it and drag us into Federal court: this Website contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by Happy Mutants. Please be aware that we, Happy Mutants, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. This Terms of Service applies only to this Website.
WE DO NOT ENDORSE SITE CONTENT
Happy Mutants takes no responsibility for, nor assumes any liability, and expressly does not endorse or share the opinion of your User Content.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK: INDEMNITIES AND WARRANTIES
When you create content, you are solely responsible for it and the opinions that you express are your own. You will not hold us responsible [you indemnify us] for any User Content that violates any law or infringes the rights of any third party.
In the legal world, indemnify means you agree to hold Happy Mutants, its officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and defend them against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including without limitation reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, arising out of or in any way arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of the Site, Services, and all Boing Boing and User Content, your violation of these Terms of Service, your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any intellectual property right, publicity, confidentiality, property or privacy right; or (iv) or any claim that your User Content caused damage to a third party.
HAPPY MUTANTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, WHETHER IN TORT, CONTRACT, OR OTHER LEGAL THEORY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR USE OF THE BOING BOING WEBSITE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, OR DATA.
GOVERNING LAW
Any claim or dispute between you and Happy Mutants arising out of or relating to these Terms, in whole or in part, shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, without respect to its conflict of laws provisions. We agree and you agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of a state court located in San Francisco, California or the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
CHANGES TO THESE TERMS
We may modify our Terms at any time. If we make changes to this policy that materially alter its effect, we will make it clear to you in advance on the Boing Boing website.
DMCA TAKEDOWN NOTICE AND PROCEDURE
Happy Mutants respects the copyrights of others, and we ask our users to do the same. When we reproduce a copyrighted image, text, video or music, we do so only to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; or with permission from its copyright holder; and we always include a link to the original source when possible and appropriate.
We will, at our discretion, deactivate or terminate the account of any user that infringes the copyright of others.
If you believe that your copyrighted work has been copied and is accessible on Boing Boing in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please send a notice to our Copyright Agent providing the following information:
1. The electronic or physical signature of the owner of the copyright or the person authorized to act on the owner's behalf;
2. A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
3. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located, such as the URL where it is posted;
4. Your name, address, telephone number and email address;
5. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
6. 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 are authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
Happy Mutant's Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement can be reached as follows:
By mail:
Boing Boing
Happy Mutants LLC
775 E. Blithedale Avenue #116
Mill Valley, California 94941-1554
USA
By email: pesco@boingboing.net
Please be aware that misrepresentations of infringement can result in liability for monetary damages.
If you posted material that has been removed due to a takedown notice and you believe that the material in question is not infringing, you may file a counter notification with our Copyright Agent with the following information:
• Your physical or electronic signature.
• Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
• A statement by you, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
• Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of federal district court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if your address is outside of the united states, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under dmca 512 subsection (c)(1)(c) or an agent of such person.
