HouseTipster.com Terms and Conditions.
1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS
HouseTipster.com provides a collection of online resources, including visitor-provided reviews of hired contractors (referred to hereafter as "the
Service") subject to the following Terms of Service ("TOS"). By using the Service in any way, you are agreeing to comply with the TOS. In addition,
when using particular HouseTipster.com services, you agree to abide by any applicable posted guidelines for all HouseTipster.com services, which may change
from time to time.Ý Should you object to any term or condition of the TOS, any guidelines, or any subsequent modifications thereto or become dissatisfied with HouseTipster.com in any way, your only recourse is to immediately discontinue use of HouseTipster.com.
2. MODIFICATIONS TO THIS AGREEMENT
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify or otherwise
alter these terms and conditions at any time.Ý Such modifications shall
become effective immediately upon the posting thereof. You must review this
agreement on a regular basis to keep yourself apprised of any changes. You
can find the most recent version of the TOS at:
http://www.HouseTipster.com/terms.html
3. CONTENT
You understand that all postings, messages, text, files, images, photos,
video, sounds, or other materials ("Content") posted on, transmitted
through, or linked from the Service, are the sole responsibility of the
person from whom such Content originated. More specifically, you are
entirely responsible for each individual item ("Item") of Content that you
post, email or otherwise make available via the Service. You understand that
HouseTipster.com does not control, and is not responsible for Content made
available through the Service, and that by using the Service, you may be
exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, inaccurate, misleading, or
otherwise objectionable. Furthermore, the HouseTipster.com site and Content
available through the Service may contain links to other websites, which are
completely independent of HouseTipster.com.Ý HouseTipster.com makes no representation or
warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information
contained in any such site.Ý Your linking to any other webites is at your
own risk. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated
with, the use of any Content, that you may not rely on said Content, and
that under no circumstances will HouseTipster.com be liable in any way for any
Content or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the
use of any Content posted, emailed or otherwise made available via the
Service. You acknowledge that HouseTipster.com does not pre-screen or approve
Content, but that HouseTipster.com shall have the right (but not the obligation)
in its sole discretion to refuse, delete or move any Content that is
available via the Service, for violating the letter or spirit of the TOS or
for any other reason.
4. THIRD PARTY CONTENT, SITES, AND SERVICES
The HouseTipster.com site and Content available through the Service may contain
features and functionalities that may link you or provide you with access to
third party content which is completely independent of HouseTipster.com, including
web sites, directories, servers, networks, systems, information and
databases, applications, software, programs, products or services, and the
Internet as a whole.
Your interactions with organizations and/or individuals found on or through
the Service, including payment and delivery of goods or services, and any
other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such
dealings, are solely between you and such organizations and/or individuals.
You should make whatever investigation you feel necessary or appropriate
before proceeding with any online or offline transaction with any of these
third parties.Ý
You agree that HouseTipster.com shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or
damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings. If there is
a dispute between participants on this site, or between users and any third
party, you understand and agree that HouseTipster.com is under no obligation to
become involved. In the event that you have a dispute with one or more other
users, you hereby release HouseTipster.com, its officers, employees, agents and
successors in rights from claims, demands and damages (actual and
consequential) of every kind or nature, known or unknown, suspected and
unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related
to such disputes and / or our service. If you are a California resident, you
waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which says: "A general release
does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to
exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which, if known by
him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
5. NOTIFICATION OF CLAIMS OF INFRINGEMENT
If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes
copyright infringement, or your intellectual property rights have been
otherwise violated, please notify HouseTipster.com's agent for notice of claims of
copyright or other intellectual property infringement ("Agent"), at
webmaster@housetipster.com
Please provide our Agent with the following Notice:
a) Identify the material on the HouseTipster.com site that you claim is
infringing, with enough detail so that we may locate it on the website;
b) A 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;
c) A statement by you declaring under penalty of perjury that (1) the above
information in your Notice is accurate, and (2) that you are the owner of
the copyright interest involved or that you are authorized to act on behalf
of that owner;
d) Your address, telephone number, and email address; and
e) Your physical or electronic signature.
HouseTipster.com will remove the infringing posting(s), subject to the the
procedures outlined in the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).
6. POSTING AGENTS
A "Posting Agent" is a third-party agent, service, or intermediary
that offers to post Content to the Service on behalf of others. To moderate
demands on HouseTipster.com's resources, you may not use a Posting Agent to post
Content to the Service without express permission or license from
HouseTipster.com.Ý Correspondingly, Posting Agents are not permitted to post
Content on behalf of others, to cause Content to be so posted, or otherwise
access the Service to
facilitate posting Content on behalf of others, except with express
permission or license from HouseTipster.com.
7. NO SPAM POLICY
You understand and agree that sending unsolicited email advertisements to
HouseTipster.com email addresses or through HouseTipster.com computer systems, which is
expressly prohibited by these Terms, will use or cause to be used servers
located in California.Ý Any unauthorized use of HouseTipster.com computer systems
is a violation of these Terms and certain federal and state laws, including
without limitation the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. ß 1030 et
seq.), Section 502 of the California Penal Code and Section 17538.45 of the
California Business and Professions Code.Ý Such violations may subject the
sender and his or her agents to civil and criminal penalties.
8. PAID POSTINGS
We may charge a fee to post Content in some areas of the Service. The fee
is an access fee permitting Content to be posted in a designated area.
Each party posting Content to the Service is responsible for said Content
and compliance with the TOS. All fees paid will be non-refundable in the
event that Content is removed from the Service for violating the TOS.
9. LIMITATIONS ON SERVICE
You acknowledge that HouseTipster.com may establish limits concerning use of the
Service, including the maximum number of days that Content will be retained
by the Service, the maximum number and size of postings, email messages, or
other Content that may be transmitted or stored by the Service, and the
frequency with which you may access the Service. You agree that HouseTipster.com
has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any
Content maintained or transmitted by the Service. You acknowledge that
HouseTipster.com reserves the right at any time to modify or discontinue the
Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice, and that HouseTipster.com
shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification,
suspension or discontinuance of the Service.
10. ACCESS TO THE SERVICE
HouseTipster.com grants you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive license to access
the Service for your own personal use.Ý This license does not include: (a)
access to the Service by Posting Agents; or (b) any collection, aggregation,
copying, duplication, display or derivative use of the Service nor any use
of data mining, robots, spiders, or similar data gathering and extraction
tools for any purpose unless expressly permitted by HouseTipster.com. A limited
exception to (b) is provided to general purpose internet search engines and
non-commercial public archives that use such tools to gather information for
the sole purpose of displaying hyperlinks to the Service, provided they each
do so from a stable IP address or range of IP addresses using an easily
identifiable agent and comply with our robots.txt file. "General purpose
internet search engine" does not include a website or search engine or other
service that specializes in classified listings or in any subset of
classifieds listings such as jobs, housing, for sale, services, or
personals, or which is in the business of providing classified ad listing
services.
HouseTipster.com permits you to display on your website, or create a hyperlink on
your website to, individual postings on the Service so long as such use is
for noncommercial and/or news reporting purposes only (e.g., for use in
personal web blogs or personal online media).Ý If the total number of such
postings displayed or linked to on your website exceeds one hundred (100)
postings, your use will be presumed to be in violation of the TOS, absent
express permission granted by HouseTipster.com to do so.Ý You may also create a
hyperlink to the home page of HouseTipster.com sites so long as the link does not
portray HouseTipster.com, its employees, or its affiliates in a false, misleading,
derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter.
HouseTipster.com offers various parts of the Service in RSS format so that users
can embed individual feeds into a personal website or blog, or view postings
through third party software news aggregators.Ý HouseTipster.com permits you to
display, excerpt from, and link to the RSS feeds on your personal website or
personal web blog, provided that (a) your use of the RSS feed is for
personal, non-commercial purposes only, (b) each title is correctly linked
back to the original post on the Service and redirects the user to the post
when the user clicks on it, (c) you provide, adjacent to the RSS feed,
proper attribution to 'HouseTipster.com' as the source, (d) your use or display
does not suggest that HouseTipster.com promotes or endorses any third party
causes, ideas, web sites, products or services, (e) you do not redistribute
the RSS feed, and (f) your use does not overburden HouseTipster.com's systems.
HouseTipster.com reserves all rights in the content of the RSS feeds and may
terminate any RSS feed at any time.
Use of the Service beyond the scope of authorized access granted to you by
HouseTipster.com immediately terminates said permission or license.Ý In order to
collect, aggregate, copy, duplicate, display or make derivative use of the
the Service or any Content made available via the Service for other purposes
(including commercial purposes) not stated herein, you must first obtain a
license from HouseTipster.com.
11. TERMINATION OF SERVICE
You agree that HouseTipster.com, in its sole discretion, has the right (but not
the obligation) to delete or deactivate your account, block your email or IP
address, or otherwise terminate your access to or use of the Service (or any
part thereof), immediately and without notice, and remove and discard any
Content within the Service, for any reason, including, without limitation,
if HouseTipster.com believes that you have acted inconsistently with the letter or
spirit of the TOS. Further, you agree that HouseTipster.com shall not be liable to
you or any third-party for any termination of your access to the Service.
Further, you agree not to attempt to use the Service after said termination.
Sections 2, 4, 6 and 10-16 shall survive termination of the TOS.
12. PROPRIETARY RIGHTS
The Service is protected to the maximum extent permitted by copyright laws
and international treaties. Content displayed on or through the Service is
protected by copyright as a collective work and/or compilation, pursuant to
copyrights laws, and international conventions. Any reproduction,
modification, creation of derivative works from or redistribution of the
site or the collective work, and/or copying or reproducing the sites or any
portion thereof to any other server or location for further reproduction or
redistribution is prohibited without the express written consent of
HouseTipster.com. You further agree not to reproduce, duplicate or copy Content
from the Service without the express written consent of HouseTipster.com, and
agree to abide by any and all copyright notices displayed on the Service.
You may not decompile or disassemble, reverse engineer or otherwise attempt
to discover any source code contained in the Service. Without limiting the
foregoing, you agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or
exploit for any commercial purposes, any aspect of the Service. HouseTipster.com
is a registered mark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Although HouseTipster.com does not claim ownership of content that its users post,
by posting Content to any public area of the Service, you automatically
grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to
HouseTipster.com an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid, worldwide
license to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute said Content and to
prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, said Content,
and to grant and authorize sublicenses (through multiple tiers) of the
foregoing. Furthermore, by posting Content to any public area of the
Service, you automatically grant HouseTipster.com all rights necessary to prohibit
any subsequent aggregation, display, copying, duplication, reproduction, or
exploitation of the Content on the Service by any party for any purpose.
13. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
YOU AGREE THAT USE OF THE HouseTipster.com SITE AND THE SERVICE IS ENTIRELY AT
YOUR OWN RISK. THE HouseTipster.com SITE AND THE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS
IS" OR "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.Ý ALL
EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND
NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED TO THE
FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.Ý TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW,
HouseTipster.com DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES FOR THE SECURITY, RELIABILITY,
TIMELINESS, ACCURACY, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE HouseTipster.com SITE AND THE
SERVICE.Ý TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HouseTipster.com DISCLAIMS ANY
WARRANTIES FOR OTHER SERVICES OR GOODS RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE
HouseTipster.com SITE OR THE SITES OR SERVICE, OR ACCESSED THROUGH ANY LINKS ON
THE HouseTipster.com SITE.Ý TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HouseTipster.com
DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES FOR VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS IN
CONNECTION WITH THE HouseTipster.com SITE OR THE SERVICE.Ý Some jurisdictions do
not allow the disclaimer of implied warranties.Ý In such jurisdictions, some
of the foregoing disclaimers may not apply to you insofar as they relate to
implied warranties.
14. LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL HouseTipster.com BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES (EVEN IF HouseTipster.com
HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM ANY
ASPECT OF YOUR USE OF THE HouseTipster.com SITE OR THE SERVICE, WHETHER THE
DAMAGES ARISE FROM USE OR MISUSE OF THE HouseTipster.com SITE OR THE SERVICE, FROM
INABILITY TO USE THE HouseTipster.com SITE OR THE SERVICE, OR THE INTERRUPTION,
SUSPENSION, MODIFICATION, ALTERATION, OR TERMINATION OF THE HouseTipster.com SITE
OR THE SERVICE.Ý SUCH LIMITATION SHALL ALSO APPLY WITH RESPECT TO DAMAGES
INCURRED BY REASON OF OTHER SERVICES OR PRODUCTS RECEIVED THROUGH OR
ADVERTISED IN CONNECTION WITH THE HouseTipster.com SITE OR THE SERVICE OR ANY
LINKS ON THE HouseTipster.com SITE, AS WELL AS BY REASON OF ANY INFORMATION OR
ADVICE RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED IN CONNECTION WITH THE HouseTipster.com SITE
OR THE SERVICE OR ANY LINKS ON THE HouseTipster.com SITE.Ý THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL
APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. In some jurisdictions,
limitations of liability are not permitted.Ý In such jurisdictions, some of
the foregoing limitation may not apply to you.
15. INDEMNITY
You agree to indemnify and hold HouseTipster.com, its officers, subsidiaries,
affiliates, successors, assigns, directors, officers, agents, service
providers, suppliers and employees, harmless from any claim or demand,
including reasonable attorney fees and court costs, made by any third party
due to or arising out of Content you submit, post or make available through
the Service, your use of the Service, your violation of the TOS, your breach
of any of the representations and warranties herein, or your violation of
any rights of another.
16. GENERAL INFORMATION
The TOS constitute the entire agreement between you and HouseTipster.com and
govern your use of the Service, superceding any prior agreements between you
and HouseTipster.com. The TOS and the relationship between you and HouseTipster.com
shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to
its conflict of law provisions. You and HouseTipster.com agree to submit to the
personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the county
of San Francisco, California. The failure of HouseTipster.com to exercise or
enforce any right or provision of the TOS shall not constitute a waiver of
such right or provision. If any provision of the TOS is found by a court of
competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that
the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as
reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the TOS remain in
full force and effect. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to
the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use
of the Service or the TOS must be filed within one (1) year after such claim
or cause of action arose or be forever barred.
17. VIOLATION OF TERMS AND LIQUIDATED DAMAGES
Please report any violations of the TOS, by flagging the posting(s) for
review, or by emailing to:
webmaster@housetipster.com
Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive
our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.
You understand and agree that, because damages are often difficult to
quantify, if it becomes necessary for HouseTipster.com to pursue legal action to
enforce these Terms, you will be liable to pay HouseTipster.com the following
amounts as liquidated damages, which you accept as reasonable estimates of
HouseTipster.coms' damages for the specified breaches of these Terms:
a. If you post a message that (1) impersonates any person or entity; (2)
falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or
entity; or (3) that includes personal or identifying information about
another person without that person's explicit consent, you agree to pay
HouseTipster.com one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each such message.Ý This
provision does not apply to Content that constitutes lawful non-deceptive
parody of public figures.
b. If HouseTipster.com establishes limits on the frequency with which you may
access the Service, or terminates your access to or use of the Service, you
agree to pay HouseTipster.com one hundred dollars ($100) for each message posted
in excess of such limits or for each day on which you access HouseTipster.com in
excess of such limits, whichever is higher.
c. If you send unsolicited email advertisements to HouseTipster.com email
addresses or through HouseTipster.com computer systems, you agree to pay
HouseTipster.com twenty five dollars ($25) for each such email.
d. If you post Content in violation of the TOS, other than as described
above, you agree to pay HouseTipster.com one hundred dollars ($100) for each Item
of Content posted.Ý In its sole discretion, HouseTipster.com may elect to issue a
warning before assessing damages.
e. If you are a Posting Agent that uses the Service in violation of the
TOS, in addition to any liquidated damages under clause (d), you agree to
pay HouseTipster.com one hundred dollars ($100) for each and every Item you post
in violation of the TOS.Ý A Posting Agent will also be deemed an agent of
the party engaging the Posting Agent to access the Service (the
"Principal"), and the Principal (by engaging the Posting Agent in
violation of the TOS) agrees to pay HouseTipster.com an additional one hundred
dollars ($100) for each Item posted by the Posting Agent on behalf of
the Principal in violation of the TOS.
f. If you aggregate, display, copy, duplicate, reproduce, or otherwise
exploit for any purpose any Content (except for your own Content) in
violation of these Terms without HouseTipster.com's express written permission,
you agree to pay HouseTipster.com three thousand dollars ($3,000) for each day on
which you engage in such conduct.
Otherwise, you agree to pay HouseTipster.com's actual damages, to the extent such
actual damages can be reasonably calculated. Notwithstanding any other
provision of these Terms, HouseTipster.com retains the right to seek the remedy of
specific performance of any term contained in these Terms, or a preliminary
or permanent injunction against the breach of any such term or in aid of the
exercise of any power granted in these Terms, or any combination thereof.
18. FEEDBACK
We welcome your questions and comments on this document. Please email webmaster@housetipster.com with all correspondence. |