FairObserver.com is a web site (together with all tools, products and services provided on or related to the web site, the “Site”) owned by Fair Observer, a California nonprofit (“Fair Observer,” “we”, “us” or “our”). You are invited to submit articles, post comments, sign up to receive newsletters, RSS feeds and other information, and visit the Site. By using the Site, or by clicking on or pressing “I accept”, “I agree” or similar verbiage during any Site registration or signup progress, you expressly acknowledge and agree that any use of the Site will be in accordance with these Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and any other operating policies, disclaimers and community guidelines that may be posted on the Site from time to time, which together form a legally binding agreement between you and Fair Observer (the “Agreement”).

If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms of Use and the other terms of the Agreement, you may not use the Site. The Site reserves the right to modify these Terms of Use and the other terms of the Agreement at any time by posting amended versions on the Site. It is your responsibility to check the Agreement periodically for changes, and you should check the “Last Updated” dates at the top of these Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and other site documents to familiarize yourself with the latest version of this Agreement. By continuing to access the Site after such modifications have been posted, you signify your agreement to be bound by them.

If you are using the Site on behalf of an employer or another entity, you represent and warrant that you have the authority and capacity to bind such entity to the Agreement. The Site is intended to be used only by individuals who are at least 13 years old. If you are under 13 years of age, you may not use the Site.

Violations

If you believe that any content on the Site violates these Terms of Use, please notify the Site by sending us an email by clicking here. We do not guarantee that any action will be taken as a result of your email.

Our Facts, Opinions, Analyses, or Predictions May Be Wrong

The content of the Site is offered for general information, discussion, and entertainment purposes only. Some of the content is unmoderated by Fair Observer and reflects the personal opinions of the posters. You should be skeptical about any information on the Site because the information may be offensive, harmful, and/or wrong.

Do Not Violate Posting or Commenting Rules; Responsibility for Your Content; and Fair Observer Content Rights

You are responsible for your own postings and agree to access and use the Site at your own risk on an “AS-IS” basis. Your postings should be truthful and accurate. You represent, warrant and covenant that you will NOT make postings that involve the following:

• Securities for sale, barter, or exchange
• Harassment, defamation, threats, stalking, bullying, or violations of the legal rights of others
• Illegal activities
• Impersonation of any person or entity, or falsely stating or misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity
• Infringement of another’s intellectual property of any type, including, but not limited to, trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, patents and design rights
• Obscene, vulgar, bigoted, hateful, or racially offensive language or images
• Commercial advertising
• Gambling, contests, chain letters, “pyramid schemes,” or “multi-level marketing” schemes
• Violations of any applicable local, state, national, or international law, regulation, rule, ordinance, decree, directive or other governmental requirement in connection with your use of the Site. (This includes securities laws and regulations.)
• Comments personally attacking the author of a post.
• Images or other material that violate the privacy or publicity rights of a third party (for example, posting a photograph, video or recording of another individual, or using another individual’s name, likeness or voice, without his or her written consent)

Furthermore, you agree that, if a third party claims that any material you have contributed to the Site is unlawful or violates his or her rights in any way, you will bear the full burden of establishing that the material complies with all applicable laws.

You are solely responsible for any content attributable to your activities and for any harm resulting therefrom. We do not approve or endorse any of your content, and we do not control the quality of user content. We do not have any responsibility for the availability, accuracy, correctness, completeness, usefulness, reliability or timeliness of user content, and we may choose to post, refuse to post, delete, remove or modify user content at our sole discretion, without prior notice. IN ADDITION, WHILE WE MAY MONITOR AND/OR MODERATE POSTINGS AND OTHER USER CONTENT FROM TIME TO TIME, WE HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO DO SO.

WE DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF USER CONTENT. However, by providing content to the Site through any means, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully-paid, transferable and sublicensable right and license to use, copy, reproduce, display, publicly perform, edit, modify, adapt, publish, transmit, transfer, create hypertext links to, broadcast and distribute the content in any form, in all media (whether now or hereafter existing), for purposes of providing, operating, modifying, maintaining, referencing, featuring, advertising and/or promoting the Site and for our internal research purposes.

You represent and warrant to us that you either own all rights in, to and relating to all user content attributable to your activities or otherwise have the right and ability to use the content for your intended purposes and to grant the licenses in such content described above. You may not post, upload, import, submit, publish, export, distribute, display, store, share or otherwise disseminate on or through the Site any content where the foregoing representation and warranty is not true. This includes, without limitation, any content which is or contains the copyrighted material, trademarks, service marks or other intellectual property of another party, or which features an image or likeness of a person from whom you have not obtained the necessary consent in writing. If your employer or another third party has rights to content you create or make available using the Site, you represent and warrant that you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the content; or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the content.

Disclosure Policy; Content Removal

The Site reserves the right to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request. Fair Observer may also edit, refuse to post, or remove any posting or other user content at our sole discretion. We also reserve the right to restrict access by any users whom we believe, in our sole discretion, are engaged in inappropriate, unprofessional, or unlawful conduct.

We reserve the right to remove content which, in its sole discretion, violates any of the rules set forth in these Terms of Use or elsewhere in the Agreement of which we become aware, but we are under no obligation to do so. If you are offended by any content of the Site, stop using the Site.

Disclaimer; Site Provided from United States

The Site includes unmoderated information containing the personal opinions and other expressions of the persons who post entries on a wide range of topics. Such entries are the opinions of the specific authors and are not statements of advice, opinion, or information of the Site or any or any Fair Observer-affiliated person or entity.

Neither the content of the Site, nor the links to other websites contained therein, are routinely moderated, screened, approved, reviewed, or endorsed by the Site or any Fair Observer-affiliated person or entity.

THE SITE AND ANY INFORMATION, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES THEREIN ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR USE OF A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, SECURITY, FREEDOM FROM VIRUSES OR NONINFRINGEMENT.

FAIR OBSERVER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE WILL OPERATE IN AN UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE MANNER OR THAT THE SITE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. USE OF INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM OR THROUGH THE SITE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

FAIR OBSERVER IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, CLAIMS FOR DEFAMATION, ERRORS, LOSS OF DATA, OR INTERRUPTION IN AVAILABILITY OF DATA ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE OR ANY LINKS; YOUR PLACEMENT OF CONTENT ON THE SITE; OR YOUR RELIANCE UPON INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM OR THROUGH THE SITE OR THROUGH LINKS CONTAINED ON THE SITE.

THE SITE IS NOT AN INTERMEDIARY, BROKER/DEALER, INVESTMENT ADVISOR, OR EXCHANGE AND DOES NOT PROVIDE SERVICES AS SUCH.

The foregoing limitations of liability shall apply to the fullest extent permitted by law in the applicable jurisdiction.

The Site and the products and services offered thereon are controlled and offered by Fair Observer from its facilities in the United States of America. Fair Observer makes no representations that the Site or services are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who access or use the Site or services from other jurisdictions do so at their own volition and are responsible for compliance with all local laws, statutes, rules, regulations and codes.

Licenses and Intellectual Property Rights

In consideration for your agreement to these Terms of Use, Fair Observer grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Site. You may access the content and services on the Site only for your own personal, non-commercial use. The burden of determining that use of any information obtained from the Site is permissible rests with you.

The Site, including all software, Fair Observer content, Fair Observer inventions, technology, products, services and data provided or promoted on or through the Site, are protected under United States and international copyright, patent, trademark and/or other intellectual property laws and incorporate valuable confidential information and trade secrets of Fair Observer. Accordingly, except as expressly permitted in the Agreement, you may NOT (i) modify or create any derivative works based on the Site or our products or services, including customization, translation, or localization; (ii) except as expressly allowed in these Terms of Use, copy, reproduce, reuse in another product or service (or merge with another product or service), modify, alter, or display in any manner any software, content or files, or parts thereof, included as part of the Site or our products or services; (iii) decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code of the Site, or in any way ascertain, decipher, or obtain the communications protocols for accessing the Site, or the underlying ideas or algorithms of the Site; or (iv) attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site or to any account, application, platform, computer system or network associated with the Site. Your compliance with the requirements in this paragraph is a condition to, and material consideration for, our granting you the right to use the Site and our products and services.

This Agreement does not transfer from Fair Observer to you any Fair Observer or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Fair Observer or such third party, as applicable. All rights not expressly granted in this Agreement are reserved to Fair Observer. Fair Observer, FairObserver.com, the Fair Observer logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Site are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Observer or Fair Observer’s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Site may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Site grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Fair Observer or third-party trademarks.

Choice of Law and Forum; Attorneys’ Fees

You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to the Agreement or any content posted to the Site, including copies and/or republication thereof, whether based in contract, tort, statutory, or other law, will be governed by the laws of the United States of America and the State of California, excluding its conflicts of law provisions. You further consent to the personal jurisdiction of and exclusive venue in the federal and state courts located in and serving California, U.S.A. as the legal forum for any such dispute. If Fair Observer prevails in any action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement or arising out of this Agreement or your access to or use of the Site, it shall be entitled to recover, in addition to all other available legal and equitable relief, its legal costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees.

Copyright Policy

As Fair Observer asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others, and requires its users and customers to do so. If you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe that any user content infringes upon your copyrights, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) by providing our Copyright Agent with the following information in writing (see 17 U.S.C § 512(c)(3) for further detail):

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works on the Site or available through our services are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at those locations;
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled and information reasonably sufficient to permit Fair Observer to locate the material;
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address;
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
• A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Fair Observer’s designated Copyright Agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement is Copyright Agent, e-mail by clicking here, mailing address: Fair Observer, 237 Hamilton Ave, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. For clarity, only DMCA notices should go to the Copyright Agent; any other feedback, comments, requests for technical support, and other communications should be directed via email by clicking here. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section, your DMCA notice may not be valid.

In the event that you believe Fair Observer removed any of your user content in response to a false notice of copyright infringement, you should notify Fair Observer promptly pursuant to the DMCA at the e-mail address or mailing address provided above. Such notification should include:

• Your physical or electronic signature;
• Identification of the user content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the user content appeared before it was removed or disabled;
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the user content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the user content; and
• Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.

Furthermore, you should include a clear statement of your acceptance of process pertaining to the notifying party or the agent of the party as defined in DMCA § 512(c)(1)(C). If a counter-notice is received by the Copyright Agent, Fair Observer may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that it may replace the removed user content or cease disabling it in ten (10) business days. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the user content provider or user, the removed user content may be replaced, or access to it restored, in ten (10) to fourteen (14) business days or more after receipt of the counter-notice, at our sole and absolute discretion.

Fair Observer has a policy of terminating the account of, or denying access or use of the Site to, in its sole and absolute discretion, any user who repeatedly infringes the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of others.

If you believe that any of your intellectual property rights other than copyrights (for example, trademarks) have been infringed, please e-mail Fair Observer by clicking here. Fair Observer reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to suspend or terminate the account of any user who infringes the intellectual property rights of Fair Observer or others, and/or to remove, delete, edit or disable access to such person’s user content. Fair Observer shall have no liability for any action taken pursuant to this Section.

Unauthorized Use

You may NOT: (i) solicit for commercial purposes other users of the Site; (ii) use the Site to distribute or post solicitations, promotional materials, spam, junk mail or chain letters; (iii) use metatags or any other “hidden text” utilizing any of our or any third party’s product names or trademarks; (iv) distribute or upload viruses, spyware, adware or any other code, programs or technologies that may harm the Site, or the interests, data or property of users of the Site or any other website or Internet property; (v) harvest or otherwise collect personal information about users, including e-mail addresses, without their consent; (vi) use any robot, spider, crawler, scraper or other automated means to access the Site for any purpose without our express written permission; (vii) take any action that imposes or may impose (in our sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our technical infrastructure; or (viii) bypass any measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Site or certain areas of the Site.

Termination

Fair Observer may terminate your access to all or any part of the Site at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination, including, without limitation, intellectual property ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, limitations of liability, and miscellaneous terms, shall do so. If your Site or account access is cancelled or terminated for any reason, you may no longer be able to access any profile or other user content you have posted to the Site.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Fair Observer and any Fair Observer-affiliated person or entity harmless from any claims, losses or damages, including legal fees, resulting from your violation of these Terms of Use or any other provisions of the Agreement, your use of the Site or your user content, and to fully cooperate in Fair Observer’s or any Site-affiliated person’s or entity’s defense against any such claims.

Limitation of Liability

Fair Observer will not be liable to you for any damages that arise from your using the Site or any of the services of the Site. This includes the damages that arise from the hacking or unavailability of the Site. Damages include all types such as indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary. And liability includes all kinds of legal claims, such as breach of contract, breach of warranty, tort and any other loss.

Miscellaneous

We shall not be responsible for any errors, failure to perform or delay in performance of any obligation hereunder due to labor disturbances, accidents, fires, floods, telecommunications or Internet failures, strikes, wars, riots, rebellions, blockades, acts of government, governmental requirements and regulations or restrictions imposed by law, acts or failures of third-party service providers or other third parties, or any other similar conditions beyond our reasonable control. You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment or agency relationship exists between you and us or any of our affiliates as a result of this Agreement or your use of the Site. Neither the course of conduct between the parties nor trade practice shall act to modify any provision of this Agreement.

This Agreement (including these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy) constitutes the entire agreement between Fair Observer and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Fair Observer, or by the posting by Fair Observer of a revised version on the Site. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be reformed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. The provisions of the Agreement are severable, and if any portion is adjudged invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remaining portions will remain valid, enforceable and in effect. Any waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof shall be in writing, executed by the party to be charged, and any such waiver, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition in any other instance or any subsequent breach thereof. This Agreement is not assignable by you, except by operation of law; Fair Observer may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

All notices, demands and other communications hereunder shall be in writing and shall be effective upon receipt, provided that we may provide notice to you by posting announcements on the Site or sending an e-mail to you at any e-mail address that you provide to us when you register on the Site. Any such e-mail notice to you will be deemed given one (1) day after the e-mail is sent. Except as specified in the next sentence, all notices to us of a legal nature shall be in writing and shall be sent by certified first-class U.S. mail, return receipt requested, or by internationally recognized overnight courier service, to: Fair Observer, 237 Hamilton Ave Mountain View CA 94043 USA. All notices regarding copyright or other intellectual property infringement issues shall be sent in accordance with our intellectual property policy described above. If you have any questions about the Agreement, or if you need to notify us about a non-legal matter, then contact us via email by clicking here or by post at the mailing address provided above.