Watchdog City User Agreement
1 Introduction & Scope
Welcome to Watchdog CityTM. We appreciate your participation in Watchdog City and we have developed this User Agreement and the policies referenced and contained herein to make Watchdog City a quality experience for creators, buyers and sellers of content.
Please read this User Agreement carefully before using the Watchdog City web site and any services available on it. Watchdog City, LLC ("Company") provides the Watchdog City web site and the web site-related tools and services (the "Site") subject to your compliance with the terms and conditions set forth in this User Agreement. By accepting this User Agreement, you agree to abide by all Watchdog City terms, conditions, restrictions, policies, rules, guidelines, fee schedules, and registration provisions (if applicable), including the terms and conditions in the Policies described below. In consideration of your use of the Site, you represent that you are of legal age to form a binding contract and are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States or other applicable jurisdiction.
Watchdog City is built upon a proprietary system of standards and a credibility rating system that is designed to allow market participants to identify independent journalists practicing bona fide journalism as opposed to the "anything goes" attitude in the noisy morass of the blogosphere and on some user submission sites. Watchdog City Bloggers also can build their credibility and reputation in Watchdog City.
Watchdog CityTM provides tools and a marketplace where content creators can sell their work directly to the public through our proprietary market system.
By using the Site or registering to become a member of Watchdog City, you agree that you have read and consented to being bound by the terms of this User Agreement and each of the following policies (collectively, the "Policies"), as relevant for your account type:
■ Watchdog City Content Listing/Prohibited Content Policy
■ Watchdog City Copyright Patrol Policy
■ Watchdog City
Credentialing
■ Watchdog City's Oath for Journalists & Journalist's Code of Ethics
■ Watchdog City's Credibility Ratings
■ Watchdog City's Fee Schedule
■ Watchdog City's Privacy Statement
If this User Agreement conflicts with any of the Policies, the User Agreement will control.
If you do not agree to the User Agreement and the Policies, you should not register or use the Site, services or tools in any way. If you do use the Site, then such use will be deemed an acceptance of this User Agreement.
2 Changes to this User Agreement and Policies
If we make a change to this User Agreement, the Privacy Statement or any of the other Policies applicable to your use of the Site, we will place a notice about the change on the Site's home page and at the top of the relevant agreement/policy for 30 days. In general, we will use reasonable efforts to post such changes before they become effective and to specify the date they will become effective. In the absence of any specific date being provided, such changes are effective immediately. We may also notify you of any changes through the Watchdog City newsletter, and for registered users, you may also be notified when you login to your account. We will provide notice of changes to our Fee Schedule at least 21 days before such change will become effective. Unless otherwise specified in the notice or as permissible by law, changes to the Privacy Statement will apply retroactively to all personal information collected by Company. After the notice of the changes has been posted for 30 days, the notice will be removed and the change will be recorded in the Historical Changes table provided at the end of this User Agreement. If you have not visited the Site for at least 30 days, you should check the Historical Changes table to determine whether any changes have been made to relevant terms of this User Agreement or any Policies. Your access to or use of this Site after any such change becomes effective represents your agreement to such changed term(s).
In addition to the foregoing, if we make a change to this User Agreement or our Policies that relates to our agreement with you regarding the sale of content you have posted, we will send an email to the email address associated with your account. As more fully set forth below in Section 5, you are responsible for maintaining an accurate email address for your account. Company is not responsible for your failure to receive an email due to the actions of your ISP, any e-mail filtering service, or an old or inaccurate email address; therefore, you should add WatchdogCity.com to the list of domains approved to send you email (commonly known as your "whitelist").
You agree that the methods described in this Section 2 constitute sufficient notice of any change.
3 License and Site Access
Company grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of the Site and the Service, this license is subject to your compliance with all the terms and conditions set forth in this User Agreement. Failure to comply with this User Agreement constitutes a violation of and exceeds the scope of the license granted herein. This license does not include an authorization for you to: (a) download or copy account information for the benefit of another vendor or any other third party; (b) cache or create or use unauthorized hypertext links to the Site; (c) frame of any content available through the Site or create or provide any alternate means to the Site or any Journalist or Blogger content thereon; (d) upload, post, or transmit any content that you do not have a right to make available (such as the intellectual property of another party); (e) upload, post, or transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; (f) use the "invite a friend" or other Communications Services (defined in Section 8 below) to send multiple messages to an individual or otherwise violate the CAN-SPAM Act or any other relevant local legislation or regulation related to unsolicited commercial email; (g) use data mining, robots, spiders, scrapers, or other automated means or similar data gathering and extraction tools to extract data from or obtain access to the Site; (h) modify or cause to be modified any files that are part of the Site; (i) remove, alter or conceal any copyright, trademark, patent or other proprietary rights notices contained on or in the Site; or (j) use the Site in any manner that is: (1) is unlawful; (2) could or does damage, disable, overburden, or impair any Company server or the network(s) connected to any Company server, including instigating a denial of service attack either on or from Company's server; (3) could or does interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the Site; (4) reduces the number of users accessing or using or able to access or use the Site; (5) gains or attempts to gain unauthorized access to any portion of the Site, unpublished information or material, other users' accounts, or computer systems and/or networks connected to any Company server, through hacking, password mining or any other means; (6) that collects or aggregates information regarding other users' actions relating to the Site; (7) that reverse engineers, decompiles, disassembles or attempts to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the Company content or the Site, including but not limited to any proprietary communications protocol or ratings system that may used by Company. You may not bypass any measures used by Company to prevent or restrict access to the Site or interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site, or any activities conducted on or with the Site. Access to and use of password protected and/or secure areas of the Site is restricted to authorized users only. Unauthorized individuals attempting to access these restricted areas of the Site may be subject to prosecution. Any violation of this Section and the license granted herein shall result in an immediate termination of your account, including access to and use of the Site, forfeiting any credits or positive balance in your account, and removal of blockage of your Postings.
You may not, under and circumstances, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, adapt, translate, transfer, buy, auction, rent, lease, loan or sell any Company content on or used in the Site without the express written consent of Company. You may not, under any circumstances, exploit any Company content for any purpose whatsoever.
4 Eligibility
Participation in or use of the Site is not available to minors under the age of 18 or to any users suspended, terminated or removed from the system by Company for any reason. Users may not have more than one active account. Additionally, users are prohibited from selling, trading, or otherwise transferring your account to another party. If you do not qualify, you may not use the Site.
5 Your Account
To use the Site, you may be required to create a user account. If you create an account, you agree to provide Company current, complete, true and accurate information, and to update this information should it change. Company may suspend, terminate, modify, or delete your account with or without notice to you, at any time for any reason or for no reason, including but not limited to for violation of the terms set forth in this Section, any other terms of this User Agreement or any of the Policies. By way of example, if you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete (or becomes untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete), including, for Journalists, as part of the employment history you provide, or Company has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, Company has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Site (or any portion thereof) and remove any content you have posted on the Site, including content made available for sale to users.
Some portions of the Site may require payment of fees to Company; if you purchase any goods or services that require payment of fees to Company, you agree to provide Company with current, complete, true and accurate billing information, such as your credit card or other payment system number and expiration date.
If you create an account, you will be asked to choose a password and a user name. You agree that, in the sole discretion of Company, that your user name will not:
- (a) substantially infringe the legal rights of others, including, but not limited to, by comprising or being substantially similar to a trademark or service mark;
- (b) be offensive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
- (c) in any way infringe the User Agreement or any of the Policies;
- (d) be otherwise inappropriate, regardless of Company's ability to disallow such user names; or
- (e) be a name that is associated with another person, including but not limited to a celebrity or other well-known person or a Company representative.
You agree that you will not take any actions for the purpose of circumventing the foregoing restrictions. You understand and agree that Company reserves the right to change, remove, alter or delete any user name at any time and for any reason in Company's sole discretion.
YOU ARE ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING THE CONFIDENTIALITY OF YOUR PASSWORD AND FOR ANY AND ALL ACTIVITIES THAT OCCUR IN ASSOCIATION WITH YOUR ACCOUNT, WHETHER OR NOT AUTHORIZED BY YOU. You agree to notify Company immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security and to provide properly documented evidence as requested by Company. You may not use anyone else's account at any time and you may not allow anyone else to use your account at any time. You agree that Company will not be liable for any loss you may incur as a result of someone else using your password or account, either with or without your knowledge, and you further agree that you will be liable for losses incurred by Company or another party due to someone else using your account or password. Because of this, we strongly recommend that you exit from your account at the end of each session.
You acknowledge and agree that you (and not Company) are responsible for obtaining and maintaining all telecommunications, broadband, and computer hardware, equipment, and services needed to access and use any service provided by Company, including the Site, and paying all charges related thereto. You also acknowledge that you are responsible for obtaining and maintaining your access to any web site through which you access Company products or services, including the Site.
Company reserves the right to change or discontinue any service or feature provided by Company, including, without limitation, the Site (or any portion thereof), at any time and without notice. You agree that Company shall not be liable for any loss or damage caused, directly or indirectly, by any such termination, suspension, change or discontinuance.
In the event that your account or a particular service or your account is terminated, suspended or canceled, no refund will be granted and no other credits will be credited to you or converted to cash or other form of reimbursement, and you will have no further access to your account or anything associated with it.
Company reserves the right to refuse service, suspend or terminate accounts, or remove content in its sole discretion.
6 User Posted Content
You agree and acknowledge that you are solely and legally responsible in all ways for any content you post on Watchdog CityTM and any messages you send outside of the Site using functionality provided by Watchdog City.
Your are solely responsible for all content you upload for sale, including content you post in headlines, subheads, story descriptions, profile areas, the Communications Services, or any other areas in which you engage in forms of communication on the Site.
You agree and acknowledge that Company is not responsible in any way for the truth, accuracy, ramifications, harm or damage to others, intellectual property rights, rights of publicity, or society that may be caused by the content you post on the Site. You represent and warrant that you will not post or submit any content that you know or should know contains statements that are materially factually incorrect or are intentionally deceptive or misleading.
Readers and any other consumer of content acknowledge and agree that Journalists and Bloggers who sell content or post communications of any kind on the Site are solely responsible for their own content and Company is not responsible for such content in any manner, including, without limitation, the truth, accuracy, ramifications, harm or damage to others, intellectual property rights, rights of publicity or society that may be caused by Journalist and/or Blogger posted content.
While Company provides a web marketplace and platform for users, it is not involved in the transaction between content creators (Journalists or Bloggers) and content consumers.
The Site provides users with the ability to post content on the Site, including secured content for sale, and may provide the ability to send email messages to other users and non-users. You acknowledge and agree that Company is under no obligation to review any messages (including any messages send by users to third parties using functionality provided by the Site), information or content posted on the website or made available for sale by users (collectively, "Postings") and assumes no responsibility or liability relating to any such messages or Postings. Notwithstanding the above, Company may from time to time monitor the messages or Postings on the website and may decline to accept and/or remove any messages or Postings, including but not limited to, messages or Postings or content that Company considers a violations of this User Agreement and/or any of the Policies.
ALL USE OF USER UPLOADED CONTENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND AT YOUR OWN RISK.
6.1 ►Selling Content
As a Journalist or Blogger, you represent that you own the copyright for the content you seek to sell on the Site or you are otherwise authorized by the owner of the content to sell that content. You also warrant that you have the rights to engage in the sales transaction. You agree that you will not infringe the copyrights of others, plagiarize or otherwise steal the work of another when you load or list content for sale on the Site. You further agree to abide by all the terms and conditions set forth in the Copyright Patrol Policy.
When you post content to the free areas of the Site, including but not limited to story description listings, headlines, subheads, thumbnails, profile, feedback areas, etc., you grant to Company (and its successors or affiliate businesses) a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, sublicense, display, perform or redistribute this content (and derivative works thereof) in any media or medium and for any purpose whatsoever.
Without giving up any ownership rights, when you post secured content for sale on the Site, for example secured stories, audio or video content, you agree that Company (and its successors or business affiliates) may retain database copies of your secure content in perpetuity for indexing and for use in a future archive which will be subject to Company's then current policies associated with the sale of user posted content. You can request that Company remove your content permanently from its legacy archive, but by doing so you forgo the opportunity to derive future income from this content. To request that a story be permanently removed from Company's legacy database, click here to send an email.
6.2 ►Buying Content
As more fully described in the Copyright Patrol Policy, you agree that you will not attempt to break security protections on any content available on the Site, or copy, redistribute, print, broadcast, resell or share such content so that others can read, view or hear it without paying the appropriate fees to the content owner. Any violation of the Copyright Patrol Policy is cause for account termination.
7 Restrictions on Use
You understand and agree not to access or use any functionality provided by the Site to publish, post, upload, transmit, distribute, disseminate, or otherwise make available any material or information or initiate communications that violate the Content Listing/Prohibited Content Policy and/or:
(i) Contain any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law;
(ii) Contain advertisements or solicitations of any kind for any products or services provided by a third party;
(iii) Impersonate others or provide any kind of false information.
(iv) Contain non-public personal information for any person other than the author, such as messages or Postings that provide phone numbers, social security numbers, account numbers, addresses, or employer references (for example, a Posting that provides the office number or email address for a government official would generally be acceptable as long as it is relevant to the story, while the government official's home phone number or address would not generally be acceptable);
(v) Contain messages by non-spokesperson employees of Company purporting to speak on behalf of Company or containing confidential information of Company;
(vi) Contain messages that offer unauthorized downloads of any copyrighted or private information;
(vii) Are multiple messages placed within individual folders by the same user restating the same point;
- (viii) Contain copyright management information or digital rights management information that has been falsified, deleted or otherwise disabled;
- (ix) Are or contain surveys, contests, pyramid schemes, or chain letters of any kind;
- (x) Are identical (or substantially similar) messages to multiple recipients advertising any third party product or service, or any other type of unsolicited commercial message. This prohibition includes but is not limited to sending messages to distribution lists, newsgroup aliases, or group aliases; or
- (xi) Are offers to transfer, buy, sell auction, rent, lease, loan or sell access to your account.
You understand and agree not to use any functionality provided by the Site
(i) To attempt to circumvent fees owed to Company or fail to pay all account fees owed to Company including any and all listing fees and final value fees;
(ii) To commit credibility rating extortion, credibility rating fraud, organize credibility damage campaigns or scrape or harvest credibility rating information for use outside the Site in violation of our Credibility Ratings; or
(iii) To interfere with or manipulate another user's content listings or secure content.
8 Communication Services
The Site may contain email services, bulletin board services, chat areas (text and voice), news groups, forums, communities, and/or other message or communication facilities designed to enable you to communicate with others (collectively the "Communication Services").
You agree to use the Communication Services only to post, send, and receive messages and material that are in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth herein. Company reserves the right to terminate or suspend your access to any or all of the Communication Services at any time, without notice, for any reason or for no reason.
Company is not responsible for the communications of users via the Communications Services. You acknowledge that emails, chats, postings, conferences and other communications by users are not controlled or endorsed by Company, and that such communications shall not be considered reviewed, screened or approved by Company. Statements made in emails, forums, conferences, bulletin boards and chats reflect only the views of their authors. Company specifically disclaims any liability with regard to the Communication Services and any actions resulting from your participation in any Communication Services. Company has no obligation to monitor the Communication Services; however, Company reserves the right to remove any material from the Communication Services at any time, without notice, for any reason or for no reason.
You acknowledge and agree that your communications with other users via the Communications Services are public and not private communications, and that you have no expectation of privacy concerning your use of the Communications Services. You acknowledge that personal information that you communicate via the Communications Services may be seen and used by others and result in unsolicited communications; therefore, Company strongly encourages you not to disclose any personal information about yourself in your public communications via the Communications Services. Company is not responsible for information that you choose to communicate to other users via the Communications Services.
You acknowledge and agree that Company has the right (but not the obligation) to do any or all of the following, at its discretion: (i) monitor any information, message or material transmitted via the Communications Services; (ii) alter, remove, or refuse to post or allow to be posted or stored any such information, message or material for any reason, including violation of this User Agreement and/or any of the Policies; (iii) filter any of your communications through the Communications Services (including without limitation by means of blocking or replacing expletives or other language that may be deemed harmful or offensive); and/or (iv) disclose any information, message or material or any communication through the Communications Services, and the circumstances surrounding the transmission thereof, to any third party in order to operate the Site; to protect Company and its sponsors, employees, officers, directors, shareholders, agents, representatives and affiliates, and Company's users and visitors; to comply with legal obligations or governmental requests; to enforce this User Agreement; or for any other reason or purpose.
By providing your email address to Company and subscribing to the Company newsletter(s), You understand you may receive periodic information regarding current and future services offered on the Site. You may unsubscribe at any time by following the directions contained in each newsletter.
9 Site Abuse
We encourage Watchdog City users to report other users who are not complying with the letter and spirit of our policies. We ask users to provide honest and transparent ratings in the Watchdog City Credibility Rating System in keeping with our Credibility Ratings.
Journalists who violate Watchdog City's Journalist's Oath and Journalist's Code of Ethics, may have their account, and all privileges therein, revoked and converted to a Blogger account, or suspended or terminated, in Company's sole discretion. Company may downgrade a Journalist's account for poor ratings in the Credibility Rating System and for repeated reports of abuse. Likewise, violations of Company Policies and rules by Bloggers will not be tolerated and may result in account suspension or termination, in Company's sole discretion. Abuse of the Credibility Rating System may also result in suspension or termination of a user's account.
Company may terminate or block your use of the Site in its sole discretion for any reason.
Company may limit, suspend, or terminate user accounts; prohibit access to our sites and their content, services, and tools(including the Site); delay or remove uploaded content (including content provided for sale by users); and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the site.
Company reserve the right to cancel inactive or unconfirmed accounts and to discontinue Company services or tools at any time and without notice.
10 Trademarks
The trademarks, logos and service marks ("Marks") displayed on the Site are the property of Company. Trademarks of other parties may also be displayed in content or Postings by Journalist or Bloggers, and such postings are subject to this User Agreement and the Policies. Users are prohibited from using any Marks for any purpose including, but not limited to use as metatags on other pages or sites on the World Wide Web without the written permission of Company.
You acknowledge that all Company content on the Site or which makes the Site work or available for use, including without limitation, all software, code, data, images, photographs, animations, video, audio, music, text, and applets, is the property of Company and that you have no intellectual property right or any other rights in any such content. You further acknowledge that all such Company content is protected by copyrights, trademarks, and other proprietary rights owned by Company, including rights to the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such content, and that these rights are valid and protected in all media existing now or later developed. Except as expressly provided herein, Company does not grant you any express or implied rights, and all right, title and interest that Company has in such content, including the Site, that is not expressly granted by Company to you in this User Agreement. All such rights not explicitly granted herein are retained by Company. None of this Company content may be modified, copied, distributed, framed, reproduced, republished, downloaded, scraped, displayed, posted, transmitted or sold in any form or by any means, in whole or in part, without Company's prior written permission.
11 Fees & Use of Watchdog City Services
To buy and read or view content on the Site, you must sign up for a Blogger/Reader account, even if you never plan to sell content yourself. Signing up for a Blogger/Reader account requires that you pay a nominal fee.
Journalists must pay a fee at sign up to cover various costs associated with the more rigorous account verification standards for Journalist account holders.
When you buy content on the Site, you pay the seller of that content directly using a valid payment method, such as PayPal, using either a credit card or your PayPal Account balance. Company is not involved in and has no responsibility whatsoever for transactions between content purchasers and content sellers.
Before you can post content for sale or list information in the calendar or on other Site features, you must provide a valid payment method to Company which will be stored in your account. You must add funds to your Watchdog City Account Balance, using PayPal, in order to obtain access Site features for which there is a fee. You will be charged fees in accordance with our Fee Schedule and will have the opportunity to review fees before they are deducted from your Account Balance.
You agree to pay all fees and applicable taxes associated with your access and use of the Site in a timely manner with a valid payment method. You also agree to pay all applicable sales taxes and other fees in your state.
You represent to Company that you are an authorized user or an authorized user of the chosen method of payment used to pay all fees you incur plus all applicable taxes. YOU ARE FULLY LIABLE FOR ALL CHARGES TO YOUR ACCOUNT. You agree to pay all amounts due to Company pursuant to this User Agreement and the billing terms that are in effect at the time that the fee or charge becomes payable. Unless otherwise indicated, all prices are in US Dollars.
Company currently accepts payment only through PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal Account, You may set up a free account at Send Money, Pay Online or Set Up a Merchant Account with PayPal. Company is not affiliated with PayPal.
12 Digital Millennium Copyright Act
If you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe that any user content or other 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) requesting that such content or information be removed or access to it blocked:
■ 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 are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works on the Site;
■ Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or 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 Company to locate the material on the Site;
■ Your real name, address, telephone number and email address (if available);
■ 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.
Counter Notice
If you believe that your user content that was removed (or to which access was disabled) is not infringing, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner, the copyright owner's agent or pursuant to the law to post and use the content in your user content, you may send a counter-notice containing the following information to the Copyright Agent:
■ Your physical or electronic signature;
■ Identification of the content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the content appeared before it was removed or disabled;
■ A statement that you have a good faith belief that the content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the content; and
■ Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court in Fort Myers, Florida, and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.
If a counter-notice is received by the Copyright Agent, Company may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that it may replace the removed content or cease disabling it. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the content provider, member or user, the removed content may be replaced, or access to it restored by Company.
Notices and counter-notices must meet the then-current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA; see the Copyright Office's web page for details of the current requirements.
Notices and counter-notices must be sent to Company's designated Copyright Agent: Gina Edwards, 4760 Tamiami Trail North Suite 1A, Naples Florida 34103, email: copyrightpatrol@watchdogcity.com. Only DMCA notices should go to the Copyright Agent. ALL OTHER INQUIRIES DIRECTED TO THE COPYRIGHT AGENT WILL NOT BE ANSWERED.
Any other feedback, comments, requests for technical support and other communications should be directed to customer service through support@watchdogcity.com.
You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section, your DMCA notice will not be valid.
13 Links
The Site or third parties may provide links to other web sites or resources. Because Company has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that Company is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that Company shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource.
14 Warranty Disclaimer
We cannot guarantee continuous or secure access to our sites, services or tools, and operation of our sites, services or tools may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control. Accordingly, to the extent legally permitted, Company and its officers, directors, employees, and agents exclude and disclaim all express or implied warranties, terms and conditions.
We have no control over and do not guarantee the quality, truth or accuracy of users' content or listings. We do not guarantee that Journalist or Blogger account holders will be able to sell content, that buyers will be able to buy content from other Site users, or that buyers will pay for and complete transactions. You acknowledge and agree that Company is not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers.
YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE WATCHDOG CITY WEBSITE SHALL BE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. COMPANY PROVIDES THE SITE ON A COMMERCIALLY REASONABLE BASIS AND DOES NOT WARRANT THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS OR USE THE SITE AT TIMES OR LOCATIONS OF YOUR CHOOSING, OR THAT COMPANY WILL HAVE ADEQUATE CAPACITY FOR THE SITE AS A WHOLE OR IN ANY SPECIFIC GEOGRAPHIC AREA COMPANY DOES NOT WARRANT THAT YOUR USE OF THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE OR SECURE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE SITE (OR ANY PART THEREOF INCLUDING THE CONTENT), THE SERVER(S) ON WHICH THE SITE IS HOSTED, OR CONTENT ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. COMPANY AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY YOU, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA FROM DELAYS, NONDELIVERIES, ERRORS, SYSTEM DOWN TIME, MISDELIVERIES OR SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY COMPANY, OR BY YOUR OR OTHER USERS' ERRORS AND/OR OMISSIONS. COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE SITE'S CONTENT OR THE CONTENT OF ANY SITES LINKED TO THIS SITE. COMPANY DOES NOT WARRANT, ENDORSE, GUARANTEE OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE DESCRIBED BY A USER OR THIRD PARTY THROUGH THE SITE AND COMPANY WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO OR IN ANY WAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING ANY TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. AS WITH THE PURCHASE OF A PRODUCT OR SERVICE THROUGH ANY MEDIUM OR IN ANY ENVIRONMENT, YOU SHOULD USE YOUR BEST JUDGMENT AND EXERCISE CAUTION WHERE APPROPRIATE. YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND ANY CONTENT ARE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
15 Limit of Liability
You specifically acknowledge and agree that Company is in no way responsible or liable for: user-provided content that may include false, misleading or defamatory information or libel, illegal or offensive material that may cause harm or damage to individuals, groups or society; any invasion of privacy, copyright infringement or any other statutory or common law violations committed by you or other users; any loss of money, goodwill or reputation arising directly or indirectly out of your use of or your inability to use our sites, services and tools.
IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPANY, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM ANY (I) ERRORS, MISTAKES OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT, (II) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE, OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SITE, (III) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF COMPANY SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN, (IV) ANY INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM THE SITE, (IV) ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, AND/OR (V) ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF ANY CONTENT POSTED, EMAILED, TRANSMITTED OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE SITE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY AND WHETHER OR NOT COMPANY IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION.
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW COMPANY AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY ACT OR FAILURE TO ACT BY THEM OR ANY OTHER PERSON REGARDING CONDUCT, COMMUNICATION OR CONTENT ON THE SITE OR USE OF THE SITE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOUR EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR ANY DISPUTE WITH COMPANY IS TO STOP USING THE SITE, AND TO CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT(S). IN NO CASE SHALL THE LIABILITY OF COMPANY TO YOU EXCEED THE AMOUNT THAT YOU PAID TO COMPANY OR ITS DESIGNEES DURING THE PRIOR ONE (1) MONTH PERIOD FOR THE APPLICABLE SERVICES GIVING RISE TO ANY SUCH LIABILITY.
16 Indemnity
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Company, its parent corporation, officers, directors, employees and agents from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (i) your use of and access to the Site; (ii) your violation (or through the user of your user account or your user name) of any of the terms and conditions of this User Agreement or any Policies; (iii) your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right; or (iv) any claim that one of your stories or works of content caused damage to a third party including but not limited to libel, defamation, loss of or harm to reputation or any other damage whatsoever. This defense and indemnification obligation will survive this User Agreement and your use of the Site.
17 No Agency
No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this User Agreement. You acknowledge and agree that (unless you are already an employee or independent contractor of Watchdog City), you are not an employee or independent contractor of Watchdog City.
18 Dispute Resolution
This User Agreement and the relationship between you and Company will be governed by the laws of the State of Florida without regard to its conflict of law provisions.
Any disputes between you and Company relating to the Site that involve a claim of less than $10,000 shall be resolved exclusively through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. A party electing arbitration shall initiate proceedings by filing an arbitration demand with the American Arbitration Association (AAA). The arbitration proceedings shall be governed by the AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules, Consumer Due Process Protocol, and Supplementary Procedures for Resolution of Consumer-Related Disputes. In addition, you and Company agree that the following rules shall apply to the arbitration proceedings: (a) the arbitration shall be conducted, at the option of the party seeking relief, by telephone, online, or based solely on written submissions; (b) the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and (c) any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Any disputes between you and Company relating to the Site that involve a claim of more than $10,000 shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Collier County, Florida.
19 General
Company is located at the following address: Watchdog City, LLC, 4760 Tamiami Trail North, Suite 1A, Naples, Florida 34103, and any notice that you must provide to Company should be sent via certified mail, return receipt requested, to this address. All correspondence relating to this User Agreement or the Policies shall be written in the English language. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. Headings are for reference purposes only and do not limit the scope or extent of such section. Company's failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others doesn't waive its right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. Company does not guarantee it will take action against all breaches of this Agreement.
Company may assign this User Agreement, in whole or in part, at any time. You may not assign, transfer or sublicense this User Agreement or any or all of your rights or obligations under the User Agreement without Company's express prior written consent
When you use the Site or send e-mails to Company, you are communicating with Company electronically. You consent to receive communications from Company electronically. Notices to you may be made via posting to the Site, by email, or by regular mail, in Company's discretion. You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.
This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to the subject matter hereof. The following Sections survive any termination of this Agreement: Fees and Services (with respect to fees owed for our services), Release, Content, Liability, Indemnity and Resolution of Disputes.
WELCOME!
Finally, we look forward to your participation in Watchdog CityTM and serving you as a valued member of our marketplace community.
20 Historical Changes
|
Effective Date
|
Description of Change
|
|
|
User Agreement Posted
|
© 2010 Watchdog City, LLC -- All Rights Reserved.
Updated: June 9, 2010
