Posted 15 February 2009 - 12:11pm by Fleet Admiral Andrew “Wolfe”
Robinson (President) (Andrew Robinson)
Edict #45
“If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin to the
hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips.”
This one has been a while in the coming and with the discussion period
lapsing, I present to you your new Terms Of Service. The Internet
Department is directed to implement them immediately. This will require
that each member agree to them once more upon their next sign in. A
small inconvenience but this sets the limits on age that have been
discussed repeatedly.
INTRODUCTION TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE
Star-Fleet (“STF”) is a membership based role play game hosted at
www.star-fleet.com and related resources maintained by STF. Your use of
this service and continued membership is subject to your agreement to
the following terms and conditions. STF (“we”) wants each visitor to STF
(“you”) and members of STF (“members”) to have a safe and enjoyable
experience, so we have established the following terms and conditions so
that all parties know what to expect from each other. By using STF you
agree to and are bound by the terms set forth herein. We may make
changes to STF, these Terms of Service, or the policies and conditions
that govern the use of STF at any time. We encourage you to review these
terms periodically for any updates or changes. Your continued access to
STF shall be deemed your acceptance of these changes and the
reasonableness of these standards for notice of changes.
YOUR CONDUCT
i) General
Any conduct by you that in our sole discretion restricts or inhibits any
other party from using or enjoying STF will not be permitted. You agree
to use STF only for lawful purposes. You are prohibited from posting on
or transmitting through STF any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive,
harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, profane,
hateful, fraudulent, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable
material of any kind, including but not limited to any material that
encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise
to civil liability, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state,
national, or international law. You are also prohibited from posting or
transmitting through STF any advertisements of other role-playing game
services without the express permission of the Club President or
Vice-President. These terms also apply to all STF controlled resources,
including but not limited to our official STF chat channel.
ii) Reproduction of Material
You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for
any commercial purposes, any portion of STF, use of STF, or access to
STF (including but not limited to use of graphics, CGI code, Perl,
JavaScript, PHP, HTML, text, or data contained within STF) without the
permission of the material’s copyright holder.
iii) Membership Account Requirements and Restrictions
Holding more than one (1) membership account for any reason is strictly
forbidden. The minimum requirements for a membership account are: a)
either a first name initial and full surname (for example, J Smith) or a
full first name and last name initial (for example, John S) in the
Personal Information section, and b) a valid email address. BY AGREEING
TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE THIRTEEN (13)
YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AND DEMONSTRATE YOUR UNDERSTANDING THAT NO ONE MAY
BECOME A MEMBER OF STF UNLESS THEY MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF THESE TERMS.
Should it be found that you are not thirteen (13) years of age or older
after agreeing to these Terms of Service, you understand that your
membership will be terminated, and all personal information STF received
from you will be deleted. STF accepts no legal liability in determining
and affirming the age of its members except by agreement to these Terms
Of Service, and specifically warrants that STF is not directed to people
under the age of thirteen (13).
iv) Contact
By holding a position in STF, including a general membership position,
you agree to receive messages from other members relating to your
position or positions. Members may request to not receive communication
from other members that is not related to a position they hold. All
members are expected to honor such requests. Harassment of any STF
members or former members is strictly forbidden.
v) Failure to Comply
Violation of any or all of these policies can lead to penalties,
including but not limited to removal from STF and banning from its
servers and related resources. STF is, furthermore, at liberty to
contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) with complaints regarding
the violation of these guidelines if such action is determined to be
necessary. Any illegal activity will be reported to appropriate law
enforcement officials.
STF CONTENT
i) Copyright of STF Content
You acknowledge that STF contains or may contain information, data,
software, photographs, graphics, videos, text, images, typefaces,
sounds, and other material (collectively “Content”) that are protected
by copyrights, trademarks, or other proprietary rights, and that these
rights are valid and protected in all forms, media and technologies
existing now or hereinafter developed. All Content is copyrighted as a
collective work under the U.S. copyright laws, and we own a copyright in
the selection, coordination, arrangement, and enhancement of such
Content. You may not modify, remove, delete, participate in the sale of,
create derivative works from, or in any way exploit any of the Content,
in whole or in part, without the permission of the material’s copyright
holder. If no specific restrictions are displayed, you may make copies
of select portions of the Content, provided that the copies are made
only for your personal information and non-commercial use and that you
do not alter or modify the Content in any way, and maintain any notices
contained in the Content, such as all copyright notices, trademark
legends, or other proprietary rights notices.
ii) Third-Party Copyrighted Material
Except as provided in the preceding sentence or as permitted by the fair
use privilege under the U.S. copyright laws (see e.g. 17 U.S.C. Section
107), you may not upload, post, reproduce, or distribute in any way
Content protected by copyright, or other proprietary right, without
obtaining permission of the owner of the copyright or other proprietary
right. STF does not presume ownership of images or material designated
as (copyright) Paramount and/or it’s parent company, Viacom.
iii) Restrictions on Using Copyrighted Characters
STF restricts the use by its members of any character from the Star Trek
franchise (including, but not limited to, The Original Series and its
subsidiary films, The Next Generation and its subsidiary films, Deep
Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise) in any context that would involve
the Member using the character beyond what is permitted by fair use.
That includes, but is not limited to, using copyrighted characters as
user controlled characters, user controlled characters being related to
copyrighted characters, or making any alterations or changes to
copyrighted characters.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL WE OR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN CREATING,
PRODUCING, OR DISTRIBUTING STF BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOOD
WILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED
OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES) THAT RESULT FROM (i) THE USE OF OR
INABILITY TO USE STF, (ii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR
TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iii) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY MEMBER OR
THIRD PARTY ON STF; OR (iv) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE.
YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS PARAGRAPH SHALL APPLY TO ALL CONTENT
AND SERVICES AVAILABLE THROUGH STF. BECAUSE SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE
EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL
DAMAGES, IN SUCH STATES LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT
PERMITTED BY LAW.
You agree to indemnify and hold us, and our subsidiaries, affiliates,
officers, directors, agents, co-branders or other partners, and
employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable
attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of
Content you submit, post to or transmit through STF, your use of STF,
your connection to STF, your violation of the Terms of Service, or your
violation of any rights of another.
OUR RIGHTS
i) Monitoring, Disclosure, and Investigation
We may elect to electronically monitor areas of STF and may disclose any
Content, records, or electronic communication of any kind (i) to satisfy
any law, regulation, or government request; (ii) if such disclosure is
necessary or appropriate to operate STF; or (iii) to protect our rights
or property or the rights of the users, Sponsors, Providers, Licensors,
or Merchants. We are not responsible for screening, policing, editing,
or monitoring such Content. If notified of allegedly infringing,
defamatory, damaging, illegal, or offensive Content, we may investigate
the allegation and determine in our sole discretion whether to remove or
request the removal of such Content from STF, and determine the
consequences to be applied to the individual or individuals who created
such content.
ii) Termination
We may terminate your access, or suspend or alter your access to all or
part of STF and related services such as chat channels, without notice,
for any conduct that we, in our sole discretion, believe is in violation
of any applicable law or is harmful to the interests of another user, a
third-party Provider, Merchant, Sponsor, Licensor, service provider, or
us, or is a violation of our terms of service (this document).
iii) Reproduction of Communications
Transcripts of private chat logs or private emails may be made public on
STF and STF controlled resources only if they relate to STF business.
Official STF real-time chat venues, such as IRC channels, are considered
public and therefore what is said there is not regarded as a private
conversation.
LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES
Occasionally, we may make available a link to a third party’s web site.
These links will let you leave the Site. The linked sites are not under
our control and we are not responsible for the contents of any linked
site or any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates
to such sites. We provide the links to you only as a convenience. We do
not endorse the site or its use or contents. It is highly likely that
any third party site we link to will have its’ own set of terms and
conditions and privacy policy which may differ from our own. You are
advised to familiarize yourself with their terms and conditions, before
entering into any business or other relationship with them.
SUBMISSIONS
If you send us comments, suggestions, ideas, materials, notes, drawings,
concepts, or other information, or post graphics, data, text, HTML or
code (collectively, “Submissions”), the Submissions shall remain your
property and you shall retain all rights, including copyright, to the
Submissions and STF shall be granted a perpetual non-exclusive license
to use the Submissions. None of the Submissions shall be subject to any
obligation of confidence on our part, and we shall not be liable for any
use or disclosure of any Submissions. Without limiting the foregoing,
you agree that we shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the
Submissions for any reasonable purpose whatsoever. Examples of
reasonable use include: Modification of executable submissions to
correct flaws is reasonable, while distribution to third parties is not
reasonable. Archival of textual and graphical submissions is reasonable,
while distribution to fan publications is not reasonable. In recognition
that not every case can be codified, the president of STF shall make the
final determination over what constitutes reasonable use. Other rights
may be granted by statute (for example, “Fair Use”). This clause does
not revoke rights already present under the law, whether stated
explicitly or not.
APPLICABLE LAW
We control STF from within the United States of America. We make no
representation that the Content in STF is appropriate or available for
use in other locations, and access to them from territories where their
content is illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access STF from
other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for
compliance with applicable local laws. You may not use or export the
Content in violation of U.S. export laws and regulations. Any claim
relating to STF, the services provided through STF or the Content shall
be governed by the internal laws of the State of Washington, without
reference to its choice of law provisions.
TERMINATION
These terms are effective until terminated by either party. If you no
longer agree to be bound by the Terms of Service, you must cease your
use of STF and inform STF of the same. Subject to applicable law, we
reserve the right to suspend or deny, in our sole discretion, your
access to all or any portion of STF with or without notice. You agree
that any termination of your access to STF may be effected without prior
notice or subsequent notification. Further, you agree that we shall not
be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of your access
to STF.
GENERAL INFORMATION
These Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between us (you
and STF) and govern the use of STF. You also may be subject to
additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use affiliate
services, third-party content or third-party software. Our failure to
exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Service shall
not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of
the Terms of Service is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be
invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor
to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision,
and the other provisions of the Terms of Service remain in full force
and effect. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the
contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use
of STF or the Terms of Service must be filed within one year after such
claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. The section titles
in the Terms of Service are for convenience only and have no legal or
contractual effect.
PRIVACY
We will store any information, including email addresses, which you
provide us with. Information you give us will be made available to other
members (some or all) on the understanding that they do not abuse this
information. Although we do not accept liability for the actions of
these members we will take action against them if we feel they have
violated our Terms of Service or the law. The severity of such action
will be decided by the club president or in his/her absence Vice
President and his/her decision will be final. Any or all email addresses
and instant messaging nicknames collected are given on a voluntary
basis. While STF will do everything in it’s power to protect the privacy
of instant messaging nicknames and email addresses, STF cannot be held
responsible for said information. Collection of email addresses for
unsolicited mailings (spam) is strictly forbidden. Such mailings include
but are not limited to: 1) advertising for other RPG services, 2) any
form of advertising, and 3) dissemination of patently obscene or illegal
material.
DISCLAIMERS
YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF STF IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. NEITHER WE,
NOR OUR AFFILIATES, NOR ANY OF OUR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, NOR EMPLOYEES,
AGENTS, THIRD-PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS (“PROVIDERS”), MERCHANTS
(“MERCHANTS”), SPONSORS (“SPONSORS”), LICENSORS (“LICENSORS”), MEMBERS
(“MEMBERS”) OR THE LIKE (COLLECTIVELY, “ASSOCIATES”), WARRANT THAT STF
WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE; NOR DO THEY MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO
THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF STF, OR AS TO THE
ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR CURRENCY OF ANY INFORMATION, CONTENT, OR
SERVICE, PROVIDED THROUGH STF.STF IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS,” “AS
AVAILABLE” BASIS AND WE SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND,
EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO ORAL ADVICE OR WRITTEN INFORMATION GIVEN BY US
NOR OUR AFFILIATES, NOR ANY OF OUR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES,
AGENTS, PROVIDERS, MERCHANTS, SPONSORS, LICENSORS, MEMBERS OR THE LIKE,
SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY.
Further, we explicitly disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy,
content, or availability of information found on sites that link to or
from STF from third parties not associated with us. We encourage
discretion when browsing the Internet using our or anyone else’s
service. Because some sites employ automated search results or otherwise
link you to sites containing information that may be deemed
inappropriate or offensive, we cannot be held responsible for the
accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, or decency of material
contained in third-party sites, and you hereby irrevocably waive any
claim against us with respect to such sites.
STF reserves the right to alter this agreement at any time without prior
notice, as well as the right to set and enforce penalties for violations
of these policies, which are to be determined solely by STF. In all
cases the decision of the current Club President will be final.
Where the circumstances require, the singular shall refer to the plural,
the plural the singular, and the use of any gender shall be applicable
to all genders. These Terms of Service are severable such that the
invalidity or unenforceability of any provision hereof shall not affect
or impair the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.
Fleet Admiral Andrew “Wolfe” Robinson
STF President
15th February 2009