Terms of Use

Effective Date: February 6, 2018

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your use of The Center for Investigative Reporting’s (“CIR”) digital platforms, including this website, and any other sites, applications, and services that we operate and link to these Terms (collectively, our “Services”).

By using the Services, you acknowledge that you understand the information collection, use, and disclosure practices described in the Privacy Policy.

The Services are intended for use by residents of the United States.  We do not intentionally provide access to the Services to individuals located outside the United States.

Please review these Terms carefully before using the Services.  We may change these Terms or modify any features of the Services at any time and for any or no reason.  When we update the Terms, we will revise the “Effective Date” date above and post the new Terms.  We recommend that you review the Terms each time you visit the Services to stay informed of our privacy practices.  The most current version of the Terms can be viewed by clicking on the “Terms of Use” link posted through the Services.  You accept the Terms by using the Services, and you accept any changes to the Terms by continuing to use the Services after we post the changes.

PLEASE NOTE THAT SECTION IX CONTAINS A BINDING ARBITRATION CLAUSE AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER THAT AFFECTS YOUR RIGHTS FOR RESOLVING ANY DISPUTE WITH US.

• USER SUBMISSIONS

You remain fully responsible for the materials that you provide to us, including without limitation images, photographs, videos, comments, messages, story ideas, and other content and materials (“User Submissions”).

You agree not to provide User Submissions that:

• Infringe on the copyright, trademark, patent, or other intellectual property rights of any third party;
• Are false, misleading, libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, hateful, or sexually explicit;
• Violate a third party’s right to privacy or publicity;
• Degrade others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual preference, disability or other classification;
• Contain language or material intended to intimidate or to incite violence; or
• Violate any applicable local, state, national, or international laws.

You may only submit User Submissions that are original and that you have the right to submit.  You continue to own any User Submissions that you submit through the Services.  But by submitting a User Submission, you grant us and our news organization partners a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, fully sublicensable license to publish, reproduce, distribute, display, perform, edit, adapt, modify, and otherwise use your User Submissions (or any portion of them) in any way that we want and in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed.  You further grant CIR, its news organization partners, and their licensees the right to contact you in connection with your User Submissions and to use your name, city and state and other information that you have provided in connection with the User Submissions.  You represent that you have obtained the consent of all individuals who are identifiable in your User Submissions, or of the individual’s parent or legal guardian if the individual is under 18 years old, to include the individual’s likeness in your User Submissions and for us to enjoy all of the rights and privileges that you grant to us under these Terms, including without limitation the right to use the individual’s likeness in our advertising and marketing activities.

You understand and agree that we are not responsible for any User Submissions.  We are not obligated to publish or use your User Submissions.  We may monitor, review, edit, remove, delete, or disable access to your User Submissions at any time, without prior notice and in our sole discretion, for any or no reason.

• RSS FEEDS

CIR may provide RSS feeds and other content feeds on or through the Services and through other websites or services.  The feeds available through our Services are covered by these Terms.  You may use these feeds free of charge for your personal, noncommercial use only provided that you link and provide attribution to CIR, either in text or with an image, using the logo that we have included in the feed itself.  

• PROHIBITED CONDUCT

You may not access or use, or attempt to access or use, the Services to take any action that, in our sole discretion, could harm us or any third party, interfere with the operation of the Services, or use the Services in a manner that violates any laws.  For example, you may not:

• Impersonate any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation or the origin of materials you transmit;
• Engage in unauthorized spidering, “scraping,” or harvesting of content or personal information, or use any other unauthorized automated means to compile information;
• Take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our network or infrastructure;
• Use any device, software, or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Service or any activity conducted on the Services or attempt to probe, scan, test the vulnerability of, or breach the security of any system or network;
• Attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse-engineer any of the software comprising or in any way making up a part of the Services;
• Distribute any unauthorized materials or advertise or promote goods or services without our permission (including by sending spam); or
• Engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits any person from using or enjoying the Services, or that, in our sole judgment, exposes us or any of our users, affiliates, or any other third party to any liability, damages, or detriment of any type.

Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability.  We may investigate and work with law enforcement authorities to prosecute users who violate the Terms.  We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services for any or no reason at any time without notice.

• COPYRIGHTS

The Services are protected under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries.  The copyright to all parts of the Services are owned by us or our licensors under the United States Copyright Act or international copyright laws.  Except for content that you have posted on the Services, you may not publish, reproduce, distribute, display, perform, edit, adapt, modify, or otherwise exploit any part of the Services without our written consent, except as provided in these Terms.

You may make personal, non-commercial copies of our content.  Unless CIR has consented otherwise, you may not use our content in a way that suggests CIR promotes or endorses your or any third party’s causes, ideas, products, sites, applications, platforms or services.  

• TRADEMARKS

CIR trademarks, service marks, and logos used in connection with the Services are trademarks or registered marks of CIR in the United States and other countries.  CIR reserves all rights to these marks.  You may not use any CIR marks or logos without CIR’s prior written consent.  All other trademarks and service marks appearing on the digital platforms are the property of their respective owners, and should be used only with prior written consent from the appropriate owner.

• LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY CONTENT

The Services may contain links to third-party content.  We do not control, endorse, sponsor, recommend, or otherwise accept responsibility for such content.  

• DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.  THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR OTHER VIOLATION OF RIGHTS.  WE DO NOT WARRANT THE ADEQUACY, CURRENCY, ACCURACY, LIKELY RESULTS, OR COMPLETENESS OF THE SERVICES OR ANY THIRD-PARTY SITES LINKED TO OR FROM THE SERVICES, OR THAT THE FUNCTIONS PROVIDED WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, VIRUS, OR ERROR-FREE.  WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THE CONTENT INCLUDED IN THE SERVICES OR ANY THIRD-PARTY SITES LINKED TO OR FROM THE SERVICES.  SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

IN NO EVENT WILL WE, OR OUR SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AND ASSIGNS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE SERVICES, ANY INTERRUPTION IN AVAILABILITY OF THE SERVICES, DELAY IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, COMPUTER VIRUS, LOSS OF DATA, OR USE, MISUSE, RELIANCE, REVIEW, MANIPULATION, OR OTHER UTILIZATION IN ANY MANNER WHATSOEVER OF THE SERVICES OR THE DATA COLLECTED THROUGH THE SERVICES, EVEN IF ONE OR MORE OF THEM HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR LOSS.  ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH THE SERVICES WILL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF $100 OR THE AMOUNT THAT YOU PAID TO ACCESS THE SERVICES.

• INDEMNIFICATION

YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, DEFEND AND HOLD US AND OUR SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS AND ASSIGNS HARMLESS FROM AND AGAINST ANY AND ALL LOSS, COSTS, EXPENSES (INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND EXPENSES), CLAIMS, DAMAGES AND LIABILITIES RELATED TO OR ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES AND ANY ALLEGED VIOLATION BY YOU OF THESE TERMS.  WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO ASSUME THE EXCLUSIVE DEFENSE OF ANY CLAIM FOR WHICH WE ARE ENTITLED TO INDEMNIFICATION UNDER THIS SECTION.  IN SUCH EVENT, YOU SHALL PROVIDE US WITH SUCH COOPERATION AS WE REASONABLY REQUEST.

• DISPUTE RESOLUTION

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY BECAUSE IT AFFECTS YOUR RIGHTS.  BY AGREEING TO BINDING ARBITRATION, YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO LITIGATE DISPUTES THROUGH A COURT AND TO HAVE A JUDGE OR JURY DECIDE YOUR CASE.

In order to expedite and control the cost of disputes, we and you agree that any legal or equitable claim, dispute, action or proceeding arising from or related to the Services (“Dispute”) will be resolved as follows to the fullest extent permitted by law:

• Notice of Dispute.  In the event of a Dispute, you or we must give the other a Notice of Dispute, which is a written statement that sets forth the name, address, and contact information of the party giving it, the facts giving rise to the Dispute, and a proposed solution.  You must send any Notice of Dispute by mail to us at privacy@revealnews.org.  We will send any Notice of Dispute to you by mail to your address if we have it, or otherwise to your email address.
• Small Claims Court.  You may choose to litigate any Dispute in small claims court (or the equivalent) in your home jurisdiction or in California, if the Dispute meets all the requirements to be heard in small claims court.
• Binding Arbitration.  If the Dispute is not resolved in small claims court, any other effort to resolve the Dispute will be conducted exclusively by binding arbitration as described in this section.  You are giving up the right to litigate (or participate in as a party or class member) all Disputes in court before a judge or jury.  Instead, all Disputes will be resolved before a neutral arbitrator, whose decision will be final except for a limited right of appeal under the Federal Arbitration Act.  Any court with jurisdiction over the parties may enforce the arbitrator’s award.
• Class Action Waiver.  Any proceedings to resolve or litigate any Dispute in any forum will be conducted solely on an individual basis.  Neither you nor we will seek to have any Dispute heard as a class action or in any other proceeding in which either party acts or proposes to act in a representative capacity.  No arbitration or proceeding will be combined with another without the prior written consent of all parties to all affected arbitrations or proceedings.
• Arbitration Procedures.  Any arbitration will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (the “AAA”) under the applicable Consumer or Commercial Arbitration Rules in effect at the time the Dispute is filed.  If the AAA is unavailable or unable to conduct an arbitration of the Dispute, an alternative arbitration service provider will be mutually agreed upon by both parties.  You may request a telephonic or in-person hearing by following the AAA rules.  In a dispute involving $10,000 or less, any hearing will be telephonic unless the arbitrator finds good cause to hold an in-person hearing instead.  The arbitrator may award the same damages to you individually as a court could.  The arbitrator may award declaratory or injunctive relief only to you individually, and only to the extent required to satisfy your individual claim.
• Arbitrator’s Jurisdiction.  The arbitrator shall have the power to rule on his or her own jurisdiction, including any objections with respect to the existence, scope, or validity of the arbitration agreement or to the arbitrability of any claim or counterclaim.
• Arbitration Fees.  Whoever files the arbitration pays the initial filing fee.  If we file, we pay.  If you file, you pay unless you get a fee waiver under the applicable arbitration rules.  All other fees will be allocated as provided by the rules of the arbitration firm and applicable law.  Each party will bear the expense of that party’s attorneys, experts, and witnesses, and other expenses, regardless of which party prevails, but a party may recover any or all expenses from another party if the arbitrator, applying applicable law, so determines.]
• Location of the Arbitration.  You agree that the arbitration will occur in a reasonable location in California, as agreed to by both parties, or, if necessary, as determined by the arbitrator.
• Disputes Must Be Filed Within One Year.  To the extent permitted by law, any Dispute under this agreement must be filed within one year in small claims court or in an arbitration proceeding.  The one-year period begins when the Dispute or Notice of Dispute first could be filed.  If a Dispute isn’t filed within one year, it’s permanently barred.
• Temporary Injunctive Relief.  Prior to the appointment of an arbitrator, either party may seek temporary injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction without waiving its right to arbitration.
• Governing Law.  Without regard to principles of conflicts of law, you agree that these Terms will be construed in accordance with the law of the State of California, and you agree that for purposes of this agreement, these Terms were entered into in the State of California.
• Severability.  If this agreement to arbitrate is found to be illegal or unenforceable, the parties agree to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law that any Dispute relating to your use of the Services or these Terms shall be commenced and heard in the appropriate state or federal district court in California.  To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within California, and to have the Dispute resolved under California law.

• MISCELLANEOUS

• Entire Agreement.  These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us, superseding any prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals (whether oral, written or electronic) between you and us.
• Relationship of the Parties.  You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and us as a result of these Terms or your access to and use of the Services.
• Severability.  In the event any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, it will not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions and will be replaced by an enforceable provision that comes closest to the intention underlying the unenforceable provision.
• Captions and Headings.  The captions and section and paragraph headings used in the Terms are inserted for convenience only and shall not affect the meaning or interpretation of the Terms.
• Waiver.  Our failure to enforce any provisions of these Terms or respond to a violation by any party does not waive our right to subsequently enforce any terms or conditions of the Terms or respond to any violations.  Nothing contained in these Terms is in derogation of our right to comply with governmental, court, and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the Services or information provided to or gathered by us with respect to such use.

• CONTACT US

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at privacy@revealnews.org.