These T&C were last modified on February 1, 2018 and are effective immediately.

 [ARBITRATION PROVISION CONTAINED]

 

TECHNETHICS WEBSITE – TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE (“T&C”)

 

PLEASE READ THESE T&C CAREFULLY BECAUSE TOGETHER WITH OUR PRIVACY POLICY, OUR DISCLAIMER, AND PROPRIETARY RIGHTS, THEY EXPLAIN OUR SERVICE AND CONTAIN THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS THAT APPLY TO YOUR USE OF OUR WEBSITE.

THE T&C TOGETHER WITH OUR PRIVACY POLICY, DISCLAIMER, and PROPRIETY RIGHTS CONSTITUTE A LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND TECHNETHICS, LLC (“WE,” “US,” “SERVICE,” “WEBSITE”) FOR THE USE OF OUR WEBSITE as well as all of the associated Services, features and functions that we make and may make available to Users through the Website.

By using or attempting to use our Service you confirm that you have read, you understand and you agree to, shall abide by and comply with these T&C, our Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Proprietary Rights.

You, and anyone using our Service, whether you are a Registered User or a visitor, are referred to in these T&C as a “User”, even if you do not take advantage of all the features of our Service.

The words “use” or “using” means any time you, or any other individual on your behalf, directly or indirectly, with or without the aid of a machine or device, accesses or attempts to access, interact with, use, display, view, print or copy, transmit, receive or exchange messages, data or communicate with our Service or any other user, person, firm or enterprise on or through our Service, or in any way utilizes, benefits, takes advantage of or interacts with any feature, function or service of our Service, in any way and for any purpose whatsoever.

We may obtain certain information from Users and you should refer to our Privacy Policy that contains important information about our collection, maintenance and use of information.

These T&C apply to you as a User even if you have a special relationship with us (for example, a sponsorship or teaching relationship) but these T&C do not cover this other special  relationship or transaction that you might have.

These T&C also do not cover your rights or responsibilities with respect to third party content to which you may access when you follow a link redirecting you to an external website (i.e. any website which is not www.technethics.com). You should refer to the terms of use and privacy policies that apply to these third parties since they, not us, are responsible for them.

IMPORTANT: YOUR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND US DOES NOT FORM AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BECAUSE WE DO NOT PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE TO YOU.

WHAT IS TECHNETHICS

Technethics provides a suite of Internet-based services that we invite you to take advantage of, in whole or in part. In particular:

(A) DATA BASE – You can browse (currently free of charge) our continuously enriching database, which contains documents from many jurisdictions dealing with ethics and technology.

The data base is searchable in 3 ways:

(i) Using the general search engine on the home page.  This method allows you to search the entire site without regard to category.  You can search by single key word or by multiple key words linked by “and”, “or”, “+”. You can also search for phrases by including them in quotations.  You have the ability to limit your search by jurisdiction. The search feature is powered by Relevanssi.  See relevanssi.com for details about the search capabilities.

(ii) Searching “by boxes”, i.e. choosing a category from the home page. To search in this method, open a category from the home page (there are 8 categories) and select a subcategory (there are nine subcategories).  You can then browse all the entries in that subcategory presented in reverse chronological order or you can use the search feature with the capabilities described above:

Categories:

(1) General – includes miscellaneous material concerning the use of technology not covered in the other categories. It also includes the handling of clients’ files and the disposing of information;

(2) Transmission of Information – covers material concerning the sending of any material electronically, including by e-mail, cd or dvd;

(3) Cloud Computing & Outsourcing – covers cloud computing material (i.e. material about the storage of data on servers outside those of the organization) and material on outsourcing (i.e., contracts with third parties for various services, including document review oversees);

(4) E-Discovery & Other Issues in Litigation – covers material dealing with production and receiving of electronic data in discovery (but not use of social networks in discovery, which is in the category 6 on Social Networks). Waiver of attorney-client privilege and work product fall within this category;

(5) Advertising & Marketing – collects material dealing with the use of electronic media of all types to market legal services, including web sites, blogs, referral services, television and radio. Marketing through the use of social networks is included in this category;

(6) Social Networks – treats use of social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others.   This category includes material on firm policies for the use of these networks by employees.  It also deals with the use of social networks in investigation and litigation;

(7) Privacy – covers the legal protection afforded to information in the possession of or used by law firms and their clients and the responsibilities associated with the possession and use of such information. (including HIPAA);

(8) International– collects material on all the topic described above which does not refer to the United States and its territories.

Each category is divided into nine subcategories:

(1) Statutes, Rules & Regulations, which covers in general written law other than court-made law, including congressional, legislative, and administrative law;

(2) Case Law & Court Rules, which covers in general documents issued by courts (court decisions and court rules other than rules of ethics) and tribunals;

(3) Rules of Ethics provides ethics rules issued by US courts and codes of ethics however denominated in the several jurisdictions;

(4) Ethics Opinions, which covers opinion issued by local, state, and national bars (example ABA) on technological issues.

(5) Scholarly Articles & Institutional Publications, which covers law journal articles (also on-line journals) and reports from organizations (such as Sedona papers or bar committees reports);

(6) Blogs includes both blogs that are published on our website and blogs from other websites. It includes posts on social networks;

(7) Forms collects various forms, check lists, and practice pointers;

(8) Videos: our videos (some free of charge some premium) on topics of ethics and technology;

(9) Training: our training material for the general public (but not the training that we create for a specific law firm).

(iii) Searching by tags, which in our Website are traditional concepts of professional responsibility and legal ethics. For examples the following: ANCILLARY BUSINESS; ATTORNEY ADVERTISING; ATTORNEY WEBSITES; ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT; ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE; BIG DATA; BLOCKCHAIN;  CLAW BACK AGREEMENTS/ORDERS; CLIENT FILES; CLOUD COMPUTING; CREDIT CARD PAYMENT FOR LEGAL SERVICES; CYBERINSURANCE; DATA PROTECTION; DRONES; E-DISCOVERY; ENGAGEMENT AGREEMENTS; FRIVOLOUS CLAIMS OR DEFENSES; INADVERTENT DISCLOSURE; INFORMED CONSENT; INTERNATIONAL DATA PROTECTION; IOT; JUDGES’ USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS; LAW FIRM LETTERHEADS; LAW FIRM NAMES; LAW FIRM TRADE NAMES; LAWYER TRUST ACCOUNTS; LAWYERS’ CONFLICTS OF INTEREST; LAWYERS’ DUTY OF COMMUNICATION; LAWYERS’ DUTY OF COMPETENCY; LAWYERS’ DUTY OF CONFIDENTIALITY; LAWYERS’ ENCRYPTION OF INFORMATION; LAWYERS’ USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS; LEGAL FEES; LITIGATION HOLD; METADA; MISREPRESENTATION; MULTI JURISDICTIONAL PRACTICE; NO CONTACT RULE; PARALEGALS; PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS; PREDICTIVE CODING & TAR; SANCTIONS FOR LITIGATION MISCONDUCT; SOLICITATION OF CLIENTS; SPOLIATION OF EVIDENCE; SUPERVISION OF LAWYERS AND PARALEGALS; UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE OF LAW; US PRIVACY; WITHDRAWAL FROM REPRESENTATION.

You do not have to register or provide your information to search and browse our data base. However, if you want to send us a comment on one of the documents in our data base, you must provide your information.  (See at the end of every document – Send a comment/SUBMIT A COMMENT).  We may or may not publish your comment. We will consider your comment to take action on the document.

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT WE DO NOT MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION THAT OUR DATA BASE IS COMPLETE, UPDATED, OR THAT ANY DOCUMENT IS ACCURATE OR COMPLETE. THE SERVICE IS OFFERED “AS IS”. (SEE BELOW DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY paragraph). ALSO, YOUR USE OF DATA BASE DOES CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE (Refer to our Disclaimer for that).

Please refer to our Privacy Policy for our treatment of your data. Notice: Your comments are “Content” (see below the paragraph USER GENERATED CONTENT; RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS).

(B) COMMUNITY AND BLOG. (Free of charge). In our community, you can read and post comments on our blogs. Comments are moderated. While you do not have to join the community (JOIN THE COMMUNITY button) to read our blogs, you must register to post comments on the blogs.

Joining the Community allows you to post comments to blogs and to share you contacts with the other users of the community.

Both comments and submitted blogs are “Content” (see below the paragraph USER GENERATED CONTENT; RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS)

Joining the Community does NOT give you the right to post blogs, but if you are registered, you may submit blogs to us which we may consider for publication. This will be considered unsolicited submission (please refer to the relevant paragraph  UNSOLICITED SUBMISSIONS).

During registration or at other times when you use the Service, we may ask you to provide us with some additional information about yourself, which is optional, but which enables us to customize the Service experience according to the registered users. We will indicate what information is required and what information is optional.

If you register in our community, you may receive our newsletter, unless you opt out. Please read carefully our Privacy Policy to learn how we handle the data that you provide.

(C) NEWSLETTER. (Free of charge) You may register to receive our periodic newsletter. If you register for our community, you also register to receive our newsletter (unless you opt out) but the contrary is not true. If you register to receive our newsletter, you do not automatically register to our community. Please read carefully our Privacy Policy to learn how we handle the data that you provide.

(D) TRAINING AREA (Partially free of charge and partially fee based) The Website offers may offer two types of training: general and customized.

(1) General training – consists of videos, power point presentations, outlines, and other materials that may be accessed through the Website.  Some of the materials are free of charge, while some are for a fee as set forth in connection with the relevant material.  Some materials may qualify for continuing legal education credit.  See CLE Credit in the Training Area.

(2) Customized training to law firms and other organizations. Customized training may be offered in a variety of formats (personal and on line) and through a number of instructors. For further information contact Nathan Crystal (info@technethics.com).

FUTURE ADDITIONAL SERVICE: Our Website may in the future offer additional features, functions, or services. Every time you participate or engage in these additional features, functions or services, these T&C will cover those services unless differently provided and you confirm your agreement to be bound by and comply with these T&C and any and all additional terms and conditions that we indicate apply to you in doing or attempting to participate or engage in features, functions, or services

 

FORBIDDEN USE OF THE WEBSITE

You may not use, allow or enable others to use our Service or knowingly allow use by others, in any manner that is, attempts or is likely to: (a) be libelous, defamatory, indecent, vulgar or obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit or sexually suggestive, racially, culturally, or ethnically offensive, harmful, harassing, intimidating, threatening, hateful, objectionable, discriminatory, or abusive which may or may appear to impersonate anyone else; (b) affect adversely or reflect negatively on us, our Service or on our goodwill, name or reputation or cause duress, distress or discomfort to us or anyone else, or discourage any person, firm or enterprise from using all or any portion of our Service, from becoming a Registered User, from advertising, linking or becoming a supplier or licensor to us; (c)  send or result in the transmission of junk email, chain letters, duplicative or unsolicited messages, “spamming” (i.e., SPAM) or “phishing”; (d)  posting of USER GENERATED CONTENT for commercial or business purposes, including, without limitation, advertising, marketing or offering goods or services, whether or not for compensation or through links with any other web site or web pages; (e)  transmit, distribute or upload programs or material that contain malicious code, such as viruses, time bombs, cancel bots, worms, Trojan horses, spyware or other potentially harmful programs, material, code or information; (f)  forge any TCP/IP packet header or part of the header information in any message, email, chat or posting for any reason; (g)  violate any laws, regulations (including, without limitation, laws regarding the transmission of technical data or software exported from the United States), judicial or governmental order, any treaties or violate or infringe upon any intellectual property rights, rights of publicity or privacy or any other rights of ours or of any other person, firm or enterprise; (h) gain unauthorized access to our Service, Users’ information, other computers, web sites or web pages connected or linked to our Service or to use our Service in any manner which violates or is inconsistent with these T&C; (i)  modify, disrupt, impair, alter or interfere with the use, features, functions, operation or maintenance of our Service or the rights or use and enjoyment of our Service by others; or (j)  collect, obtain, compile, gather, transmit, reproduce, delete, revise, view or display any material or information, posted by or concerning any other person, firm or enterprise, in connection with their or your use of our Service.

 

MODIFICATIONS OF T&C AND OTHER LEGAL DOCUMENTS AND SUSPENSION/DISCONTINUATION OF THE SERVICE

We have the right, any time and from time to time, for any reason in our discretion, to change these T&C, the Privacy Policy, the Disclaimer, and the Proprietary Rights document. Once we have posted an updated document, these changes become effective immediately. If you use our Service after we update the document, you will be bound by the change. Please review these T&C, the Privacy Policy, the Disclaimer, and the Proprietary Rights document frequently so you are aware of the most current terms and conditions of your agreement with us.

We also reserve the right, any time and from time to time, in our discretion, to modify, suspend or discontinue, all or any portions of our Service without notice and without liability to you or any other party.

 

OUR CONTENT

Please read carefully our Proprietary Rights for the definition of what it is our “Content,” the terms of your use of our Content and your obligations with reference to that. Your lawful use of our Service is subject to the compliance with the terms of our Proprietary Rights.

 

USER GENERATED CONTENT; RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS

Users can generate “Content” (“User Generated Content”) in the ways explained above or by sending to us unsolicited submissions of text, videos, or other content (see below UNSOLICTED SUBMISSION.). User Generated Content refers to all text, audio, video, audio-visual, text, graphics, in electronic or any other form, illustrations, images, photographs, animations, data, information, databases, designs, and other information that you submit to be posted in the Website. We do not claim ownership of (or any responsibility for) User Generated Content.

With respect to User Generated Content that is Posted on any publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free right and non-exclusive license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such User Generated Content on the Service, in any and all of the areas of our Service until you ask in writing the removal of that content (write to info@technethics.com). We have the right, at any time, without notice — and without limiting any and all other rights we may have, at law or in equity — to remove your User Generated Content, for example because the User Generated Content violates the copyright of a third party.

You understand and agree, that we have no control over what other Users or any other third party or parties visiting the Website do with your User Generated Content, and we have and shall have no liability or responsibility for their acts or omissions, even if they obtained the User Generated Content from or through our Website or any of our Services.

When you submit to us Content to post, you represent that you have the right to post it and that, to the best of your knowledge, it does not violate the copyright of a third party. You are solely responsible and liable for Content submitted for posting.

 

UNSOLICITED SUBMISSIONS

If you want to send us any original creative ideas, suggestions, content or materials (including possible blogs and videos) intending or requesting that we review or evaluate them for use by us or any other party, PLEASE READ CAREFULLY the following:

Unless clearly stated the contrary, you represent to us that you have the right to that Content.

We have no obligation or responsibility for unsolicited submissions and if you send us any such submissions, it will automatically become User Generated Content.   Please refer to the paragraph on USER GENERATED CONTENT for the license you grant to us with regard to such content.

 

NO GUARANTEES WITH REGARD TO CONTENT

POSTINGS OF DOCUMENTS IN THE DATA BASE, BLOGS WRITTEN BY OTHERS IN THE BLOGS SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY AND OTHER PEOPLE’S VIDEOS IN THE VIDEO SECTION DO NOT REFLECT OUR VIEWS AND WE DO NOT REPRESENT OR GUARANTEE THE TRUTHFULNESS, ACCURACY, OR RELIABILITY OF ANY POSTING, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER WE HAVE REVIEWED SUCH SUBMISSION, NOR DO WE ENDORSE OR SUPPORT ANY OPINIONS OR IDEAS EXPRESSED IN ANY POSTING. IN NO EVENT SHALL WE HAVE OR BE CONSTRUED TO HAVE ANY RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR OR IN CONNECTION WITH ANY POSTING.

 

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES; ADVERTISEMENT

The display of URLs, hypertext links on our Service (including within material of our data base) or any other form of re-direction of your connection to, with or through our Service (“Links”) is not an endorsement, nor do we have any obligation, responsibility or liability resulting from any links. We do not verify or have any responsibility for any Link to other parties’ websites, including the possible malfunctioning of their website or the absence of the content. If a third party obtains information from or about you, we have no responsibility or liability for their conduct or activities.

From time to time, you may communicate with, receive communications from, be re-directed to, interact with, or participate in or use the services or obtain goods and services of or from, third parties such as our advertisers, sponsors, or promotional partners as a result of or in connection with your use of our Service. For example, we may permit advertisers to display marketing and promotional material on our Service. All such communication, interaction and participation is strictly and solely between you and the third parties involved and we shall not be responsible or liable to you in any way in connection with these activities or transactions (including, without limitation, any representations, warranties, covenants, contracts or other terms or conditions that may exist between you and the third party or any goods or services you may purchase or obtain from any such third party or for any of their goods or services even if we have a marketing, advertising or other arrangement with them.)

 

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

OUR SERVICE IS MADE AVAILABLE “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND OR ANY GUARANTY OR ASSURANCE THE SERVICE WILL BE AVAILABLE OR PERFORM AS DESCRIBED.

WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AS WELL AS ALL WARRANTIES OF TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS.

We are also not liable for any malicious code, delays, inaccuracies, errors, or omissions arising out of your use of our Service. You understand, acknowledge and agree that you are assuming the entire risk as to the quality, accuracy, performance, timeliness, adequacy, completeness, correctness, authenticity, security and validity of any and all features and functions of our Service.

ALSO, THE SERVICE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE (see our Disclaimer).

YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, NEITHER WE NOR – IF ANY – OUR PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, SUCCESSORS OR ASSIGNS NOR OUR OR ANY OF THEIR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, REPRESENTATIVES, ADVERTISERS, SPONSORS, BUSINESS OR PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS, WIRELESS OR MOBILE CARRIERS, OPERATIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS OR SUPPLIERS, SHALL, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, LOSS OR DAMAGE, DIRECT OR INDIRECT, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, COMPENSATORY, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ATTORNEYS’ FEES) WHATSOEVER IN CONNECTION WITH, AS A RESULT OF OR ARISING FROM OUR SERVICE, AS RESULTING FOR EXAMPLE FROM THE USE (OR INABILITY TO USE) THIS WEBSITE, THE CONTENT, THE POSTINGS, ANY FACTS OR OPINIONS APPEARING ON OR THROUGH THE WEBSITE, OR ANY THIRD PARTY COMMUNICATIONS, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION, THE LEGAL THEORY OR BASIS OF THE CLAIM AND WHETHER OR NOT ANY PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES. IF ANY LIMITATION ON REMEDIES, DAMAGES OR LIABILITY IS PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW, WE SHALL REMAIN ENTITLED TO THE MAXIMUM DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATIONS AVAILABLE UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, AT LAW AND/OR IN EQUITY, HOWEVER, IN NO EVENT SHALL WE HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO A GRATUITOUS USER AND OUR LIABILITY TO A USER WHO PAYS FOR THE SERVICE SHALL IN NO EVENT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS (US $100), NOTWITHSTANDING ANY CLAIM THAT SUCH REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW FOR THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR CERTAIN LIMITATIONS ON DAMAGES AND REMEDIES, ACCORDINGLY SOME OF THE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS DESCRIBED IN THIS AGREEMENT MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

 

INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to defend and indemnify us, and if any, our parent, subsidiaries and affiliates, as well as our and their officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, representatives, advertisers, sponsors, business and promotional partners, wireless or mobile carriers, operational service providers and suppliers against any and all demands, claims and actions (including, without limitation, any claim you have improperly downloaded, used, encoded, decoded, compressed, copied, displayed, broadcast, adapted, accessed, exported or transmitted any Content) (“Claims”) and you will hold us harmless from and against all losses, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) resulting from your breach or violation of these T&C, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Proprietary Rights document, or any material, Content or that you Post, or otherwise make available, or your alteration, or unauthorized use or export of Content or messages, your violation of any law or regulation, or your infringement, misappropriation or violation of the rights of any other party. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any such Claims and all negotiations for their settlement or compromise and you agree to fully cooperate with us.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

These T&C, including our Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Proprietary Rights document, are legally binding and constitute your agreement with us regarding the Use of this Website.  All together they represent the complete and exclusive statement of terms and conditions between you and us regarding the use of the Website superseding any and all prior or inconsistent agreements, understandings, discussions, communications, written, oral or otherwise. To be sure, these T&C do not supersede a sponsorship agreement, a teaching agreement or other type of agreement different from the use of this Website that you might have with us.

They cannot be changed orally, by course of dealing or conduct or otherwise, but only as set forth in these T&C.

If any term or condition is held illegal, invalid or unenforceable, this will not affect any other provision each of which will continue in effect.

Any term or condition which must survive to allow us to enforce its meaning shall survive; however, no action arising out of these T&C or your use of our Service, regardless of the form of action or basis of the claim, may be brought by you more than 1 year after the cause of action has arisen (or if multiple causes, the date the first cause arose). You may not transfer your claim again us and any attempt to do so shall be void ab initio.

Our delay or failure to take any action shall not be or be construed as a waiver of that or any other term, condition or right we may have.

If you breach (or we believe you may breach) these T&C or we are notified, determine or have reason to believe you have or are engaging in conduct that violates any terms and conditions of these T&C, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Proprietary Rights document, we may prevent you from accessing the Service and terminate your enrollment to the Community and your registration to receive the newsletter.

 

CHOICE OF LAW

Your use of our Service, these T&C, our Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Proprietary Rights document, shall be governed, construed and enforced under the substantive laws of the State of New York applicable to contracts made, executed and wholly performed in New York without regard to New York’s choice of law rules. This choice of law also covers the rules of ethics applicable to lawyers involved in the arbitration.

To be sure, these T&C, our Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Proprietary Rights document shall not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, which is expressly excluded and you also expressly agree to exclude the applicability of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act.

A printed copy of these T&C, our Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Proprietary Rights document and of any notice in electronic form shall be admissible in any judicial or administrative proceedings to the same extent and under the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.

 

 

ARBITRATION

You agree that any dispute arising out of or related to the Service (except as provided in the last paragraph) shall be subject to binding arbitration and that arbitration shall be the exclusive means for dispute resolution. Therefore you WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY. The duty to arbitrate extends to any of your employees, offices, agents or affiliates.

The arbitration will be conducted by a sole arbitrator chosen by the Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts of New York State among attorneys who are knowledgeable with respect to the electronic information services industry.

The arbitration will be conducted in English and will be held in New York, NY. However, you may choose to participate in person, by telephone or document submission.

The parties recognize that this agreement involves interstate commerce and therefore is subject to the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §1. Even if the FAA is not strictly applicable to our dispute, the FAA will be applicable by agreement of the parties, subject to the specific provisions that follow:

(1)  The arbitrator shall have the power to decide all substantive and procedural issues arising out of or related to the Service, including the power to rule upon any challenge to his or her jurisdiction.

(2)  The arbitrator shall act according to the following principles: (i) the parties desire that any matter shall be decided quickly, confidentially and with as little expense as possible; (ii) pre-hearing discovery and disclosures shall be limited to documents that each side will present in support of its case, and non-privileged documents essential to a matter of import in the proceeding for which a party has demonstrated a substantial need. To be sure no interrogatory, deposition, and request of production will be allowed.

(3)  The arbitrator will be obligated to apply and follow the substantive law of the state of New York.

(4)  The arbitrator is authorized to include in his or her award an allocation to any party of such costs and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, as the arbitrator shall deem reasonable.

(5)   There shall be no right or authority for any claims to be arbitrated on a class action basis. YOU WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO CLASS ACTIONS.

(6)  The arbitrator is not empowered to award punitive or exemplary damages, and YOU HEREBY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO SEEK OR RECOVER PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES with respect to any dispute resolved by arbitration.

(7)  In order to facilitate resolutions of disputes, the parties and arbitrators shall keep negotiations, arbitration proceedings, award, and settlement terms confidential.

Disputes involving the following will not be subject to arbitration and the parties unconditionally and irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the State and Federal Courts situated in the State and County of New; and hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction of NY courts and shall not object to such jurisdiction or venue on the grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction, inconvenient forum or otherwise: (a) violation of any of our proprietary rights, including claims in equity or law to protect our intellectual property rights; (b) your failure to comply with restriction on use of the Service.

 

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND THESE TERMS OF USE, AGREE TO BE BOUND BY AND FULLY COMPLY WITH ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS DESCRIBED HEREIN.

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SUBJECT TO THE ARBITRATION PROVISION OF THIS T&C: NOTICE AND PROCEDURE FOR MAKING CLAIMS OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT Pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2), for USER GENERATED CONTENT, all notifications of claimed copyright infringement on our Service should be sent ONLY to our Designated Agent.

FOR A FASTER SOLUTION OF CLAIMS FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WE ASK THAT ALSO CLAIMS RELATED TO OUR CONTENT BE SENT WITH THE SAME METHOD.

NOTE: The following information is provided solely for notifying the service providers referenced below that your copyrighted material may have been infringed.

DO NOT SEND ANY INQUIRIES UNRELATED TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT TO THE CONTACT LISTED BELOW. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A RESPONSE IF SENT TO THAT CONTACT.

WE CAUTION YOU THAT UNDER FEDERAL LAW, IF YOU KNOWINGLY MISREPRESENT THAT ONLINE CONTENT IS INFRINGING, YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO HEAVY CIVIL PENALTIES. THESE INCLUDE MONETARY DAMAGES, COURT COSTS, AND ATTORNEYS FEES INCURRED BY US, BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER, OR BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER’S LICENSEE THAT IS INJURED AS A RESULT OF OUR RELYING UPON YOUR MISREPRESENTATION. YOU MAY ALSO BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR PERJURY.

Written notification must be submitted to the following Designated Agent: Francesca Giannoni-Crystal

Service Provider(s): TECHNETHICS, LLC

Name of Agent Designated to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement: Francesca Giannoni-Crystal

E-mail Address of Designated Agent: info@technethics.com

Under Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(3)(A), the Notification of Claimed Infringement must include the following:

(1) An electronic or physical signature of the owner or of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (2) Identification of the copyrighted work (or works) that you claim has been infringed; (3) A description of the material that you claim is infringing, and the location where the original or an authorized copy of the copyrighted work exists (for example, the URL of the page of the website where it is lawfully found; the name, edition and pages of a book from which an excerpt was copied, etc.); (4) A clear description of where the infringing material is located on our website, including as applicable its URL, so that we can locate the material; (5) Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address; (6) A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (7) 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.