| Welcome to MouthShut.com™!
An environment that fosters interaction and participation among
its members. Members should thus feel free to express themselves.
However, members should keep comments and contributions within
the community values of the Service and must comply with applicable
laws and the terms of service of MouthShut.com. This User Agreement
(the "Agreement") describes the terms on which, MouthShut.com,
Inc (a Delaware corporation, incorporated in 2000) and its subsidiaries
or parents hereby referred to as ("MouthShut.com") offers
you an account on the MouthShut.com web site ("MouthShut.com").
BY PRESSING THE "CREATE MY ACCOUNT" BUTTON, YOU ACCEPT
THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. If you have any questions
about this Agreement, email at .
Any opinions expressed by a Member are of those of the Member
alone, and are not to be attributed to MouthShut.com. MouthShut.com
cannot and does not assume responsibility for the accuracy, completeness,
safety, timeliness, legality or applicability of anything said
or written by any Member.
1. Amendment
and Addenda: MouthShut.com
may amend this Agreement at any time by informing you of the amended
terms via email to your email address. Such amendments will be
effective when MouthShut.com emails a notice of the revisions
to you. Alternatively or additionally, MouthShut.com may display
amended terms to you when you log in to the site, in which case
such terms shall be effective when posted by MouthShut.com.
In addition, MouthShut.com may offer you additional rights or
services via addenda to this Agreement, which shall amend this
Agreement if you choose to click through such terms.
2. Submission
and ownership of Content:
a. Definition:
MouthShut.com allows you to provide your content (including without
limitation text, data, photos, graphics, music, sounds and videos)
to MouthShut.com in a number of forms, such as reviews and opinions
about products, services or other decisions ("Opinions"),
comments to other people's Opinions ("Comments") and
information about yourself (your "Profile") for your
profile page. Collectively, the Opinions, Reviews, Comments, Profiles
and other content you provide to MouthShut.com (by uploading such
Content to the site or otherwise) is defined as your "Content."
b. License: You
retain all ownership rights to your Content. However, by submitting
Content to MouthShut.com, you automatically grant to MouthShut.com
an exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide
license (a) to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate,
create derivative works from, distribute, perform, transmit and
display such Content (in whole or part) and/or to incorporate
it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known
or later developed for the full term of any Rights that may exist
in such Content. (b) display your Content online and offline and
permit others (including without limitation MouthShut.com' co-brand
partners) to do the same, and (c) display portions of your
Content online or offline and permit others to do the same. The
MS-Points™ program, to the extent it exists and whether
or not you are eligible to participate, constitutes your only
right to compensation for the foregoing licenses. You are free
to use your Content offline in any manner you choose. However,
MouthShut.com gets users to come to MouthShut.com and your Opinions
by promising users high quality content they cannot get anywhere
else. In order to sustain this traffic draw, by submitting Opinions
to MouthShut.com, you grant to MouthShut.com (and its sublicensees)
the exclusive right to display your Opinions anywhere online,
except the following circumstances:
· You may not post your Opinions
on any USENET newsgroups or any other web site, besides MouthShut.com.
However, you may do so any time after one year of originally posting that Opinion on MouthShut.com, but you
must include the following attribution in the post: "You
can read this review at [URL of the review page on MouthShut.com]
and other reviews on the same topic at [URL of the product page
on MouthShut.com]. Check out my profile page at [URL of your MouthShut.com
profile page].
· You may also display your Opinions on any site which
contains content contributed from 5 individual contributors or
less, but you must include the following attribution in the display:
"You can read this review at [URL of the review page on MouthShut.com]
and other reviews on the same topic at [URL of the product page
on MouthShut.com]. Check out my profile page at [URL of your MouthShut.com
profile page]."
In all other cases, MouthShut.com's exclusive display rights
apply even if you initially post the Opinion somewhere else online
and then desire to post it to MouthShut.com and then re-post it
on MouthShut.com. If you desire other online rights to your Opinions,
you may request permission at ,
which permission may be granted or withheld in MouthShut.com'
sole discretion on a case-by-case basis.
(For purposes of this section, the word "display" covers
all copyright and other intellectual property rights necessary
to effectuate the foregoing intent.)
c. Pursuit of Violators:
If MouthShut.com identifies someone who is displaying your Content
online in violation of this Agreement and MouthShut.com wishes
to take action against the infringer, MouthShut.com may contact
you to seek your help with the action. However, MouthShut.com
may also directly enforce your ownership rights in the Content
against the infringer, and you authorize MouthShut.com to take
any actions on your behalf that MouthShut.com reasonably deems
necessary or appropriate to protect the parties' respective rights.
If MouthShut.com decides to sue the infringer, (1) MouthShut.com
may join you as a co-plaintiff to the action, and (2) any resulting
damages or settlements attributable to online uses of your Opinions
shall be solely MouthShut.com's.
d. Removal of Opinions:
Currently, MouthShut.com allows you to edit your Opinions.
At any time, without further notice, MouthShut.com may restrict
your ability to edit or delete your Opinions.
e. Standards: You
agree not to provide any Content to MouthShut.com that (a) infringes
any third-party intellectual property or publicity/privacy rights,
(b) violates any applicable law or regulation, (c) is defamatory,
obscene, child pornographic or harmful to minors, (d) contains
any viruses, Trojan horses, automated computer scripts, worms,
time bombs, e-mail bombs, cancelbots or other computer programming
routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere
with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data
or personal information, or (e) is otherwise tortuous or criminal.
f. Content Filtering:
MouthShut.com believes that users should decide what
content should appear on the site and how it should be displayed.
Thus, users have a number of tools (such as the MS-Trust™
and rating and filtering mechanisms) to determine the order in
which opinions are presented to them. In general, MouthShut.com
does not make editorial determinations about what Content you
may or may not display on the site, and of course MouthShut.com
DOES NOT ENDORSE OR RECOMMEND any of the opinions or ideas or
comments contributed by its users. However, MouthShut.com permits
others to make judgments about your Content that may affect the
display of your Content. Further, MouthShut.com may choose to
use automated software filters that may prevent you from uploading
your Content or may affect its display. Finally, MouthShut.com
may take any actions that it deems necessary or appropriate to
minimize its liability from your Content or to preserve MouthShut.com'
relationships with its service providers (such as its Internet
access providers).
g. Other Filtering/ Protection
for Children: Parental control protections (such
as computer hardware, software and filtering services) are commercially
available that may assist you in limiting access to material that
is harmful to minors.
3. Your
Honest Identity: The successful functioning of
MouthShut.com (including the Trusted Circle™ system) depends,
in part, on users telling each other the truth and nothing but
the truth about who they are. Thus, you may not (a) establish
more than one account (even if the accounts are created using
different email addresses or established through co-branded sites),
(b) provide incomplete or inaccurate registration information,
(c) fail to update your registration information if it changes,
(d) select a Member ID deliberately intended to mislead others
about your identity or that infringes a third party's intellectual
property rights, (e) select a photo to identify yourself that
deliberately misleads others about your identity, or (f) You may
not share your account (or the associated password) with anyone
else. MouthShut.com may assume that all activities made using
your Member ID and password are authorized by you; thus, if for
any reason you suspect that your password has been compromised,
you should contact MouthShut.com at once at

4. Privacy:
Because your privacy is very important to MouthShut.com, the site
offers you a number of choices to facilitate decisions about how
you would like MouthShut.com to use and disclose your personal
information. By accepting this Agreement, you expressly consent
to MouthShut.com's disclosure and use of your personal information
(including using email to communicate with you) as described in
the then-current Privacy Statement, which is incorporated herein
by reference.
5. Termination:
MouthShut.com may terminate your use of the site immediately if
(a) you breach any element of this Agreement, (b) you infringe
upon the intellectual property rights of a third party, or (c)
MouthShut.com is unable to verify any registration information
you provide. Alternatively, in such circumstances, MouthShut.com
may take some lesser remedies, such as hiding the display of some
or all of your Content or suspending your account. If you want
to terminate your account, email at .
MouthShut.com may choose to assume that you intended to terminate
your account if you do not access it for more than 3 months. Following
termination, at its sole option, MouthShut.com may remove some
or all of your Content from the site or leave it available for
public review.
6. No Warranty:
THE MOUTHSHUT.COM SITE AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED
"AS IS," AND MOUTHSHUT.COM AND ITS SUPPLIERS AND CO-BRAND
PARTNERS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
KIND (EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY), INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Without limiting the foregoing,
MouthShut.com does not promise or warrant to you that any aspect
of the site and system will work properly or will be available
continuously.
7.
a. Liability
Limits:
IN NO EVENT SHALL MOUTHSHUT.COM OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR CO-BRAND PARTNERS
BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (HOWEVER ARISING, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) ARISING OUT OF
OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE MOUTHSHUT.COM SITE, ITS SERVICES OR
THIS AGREEMENT. FURTHER, IN NO EVENT SHALL MOUTHSHUT.COM OR ITS
SUPPLIERS OR CO-BRAND PARTNERS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR AN AMOUNT
GREATER THAN THAT OF FEES, IF ANY, PAID BY YOU TO MOUTHSHUT.COM.
b. Indemnity:
You release and indemnify MouthShut.com and/or any of its officers
and representatives from any cost, damage, liability or other
consequence of any of the actions of the users of MouthShut.com
and specifically waive any claims that you may have in this behalf
under any applicable law. Because user authentication on the Internet
is difficult, the Company cannot and does not confirm that each
user is who they claim to be. Because we do not and cannot be
involved in user-to-user dealings or control the behavior of participants
on any MouthShut.com Site, in the event that you have a dispute
with one or more users, you release the Company (and our agents
and employees) from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential,
direct and indirect) of every kind and nature, known and unknown,
suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising
out of or in any way connected with such disputes.
8. Access
Limits: Without MouthShut.com's CEO's express
written consent, you may not (a) use any automated means to access
the site or collect any information from the site (including without
limitation robots, spiders or scripts), or (b) frame the site,
place pop-up windows over its pages, or otherwise affect the display
of its pages.
9. General:
You shall comply with all laws and regulations applicable to your
access and use of the site and your publication of your Content.
If any portion of this Agreement is deemed unenforceable, that
portion shall be enforced to the maximum extent possible and the
remaining portions of the Agreement shall be given full effect.
MouthShut.com's failure to act in a particular circumstance does
not waive the ability to act with respect to that circumstance
or similar circumstances. MouthShut.com shall be excused for any
failure to perform to the extent that its performance is prevented
by any reason outside of its control. No agency, partnership,
joint venture, employment or franchise relationship is intended
or created by this Agreement. MouthShut.com may change, remove,
or require registration or payment to continue use of, any aspect
of the site and service at any time without further notice to
you. MouthShut.com's suppliers and co-brand partners are third-party
beneficiaries of this Agreement. Except as provided in Section
1, this Agreement may be amended only by writing, physically
signed by both MouthShut.com and you.
10. Entire
Agreement: This Agreement (and any addenda or
statements expressly incorporated into this Agreement that you
enter into) constitute the entire agreement, and supersede the
provisions of any other agreements or understandings (oral or
written), between the parties with respect to the subject matter
of such documents. In the event of any conflict between the terms
of this Agreement and an addendum, the provisions of the addendum
shall control.
11. Fees
and Taxes: At present, MouthShut.com does not
charge you any fees to use its services (although this may change
at any time). However, any expenses (such as hardware, software
and Internet access costs) or taxes you incur to access the site
shall be your sole responsibility.
12. Governing
Law and Arbitration: This Agreement is governed in all respects by the laws of the State of Delaware as such laws are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within Delaware between Delaware residents. Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement or the MouthShut.com site shall be settled by binding arbitration in accordance with the American Arbitration Association's commercial arbitration rules. Any such controversy or claim shall be arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The arbitration shall be conducted in Delaware and judgment on the arbitration award may be entered into any court having jurisdiction thereof. The award of the arbitrator shall be final and binding upon the parties without appeal or review. Notwithstanding the foregoing, MouthShut.com may seek any interim or preliminary relief from a court of competent jurisdiction in Delaware. MouthShut.com at its option, may bypass arbitration in cases of fraud or other crimes against itself, interference with its technical operations or violations of its rights or property. |
| 13.
Eligibility: The MS-Points program (the "Program"),
operated by MouthShut.com, rewards you for writing high-quality
Opinions. To participate in the Program, you must be (a) an individual
18 years old or older, (b) a registered member of the MouthShut.com
web site in good standing. MouthShut.com employees are encouraged
to submit Content. However, they are not eligible to participate
in the MS-Points Program, i.e. they cannot redeem their MS-Points.
14. How
to Accrue MS-Points Credits: You accrue MS-Points
credits by writing and submitting Opinions to the site and having
members and other users of MouthShut.com visit your Opinions.
The exact formula(s) for accruing MS-Points credits may change
from time to time, but conceptually, the more Opinions you write,
and the more other users like them and use them to make buying
decisions, the more MS-Points credits you will accrue. MS-Points
credits for a particular Opinion may, at MouthShut.com' discretion,
may cease to accrue 1 year following the last day of the calendar
year in which the Opinion was written (the "Expiration Date").
15. Fraud:
No compensation or reward system is immune from
manipulation by users who are intent on getting something for
nothing. Such behavior is detrimental to the entire community
and, in particular, MouthShut.com's most valued users who play
by the rules. MouthShut.com does not tolerate such fraudulent
behavior. Thus, you may not engage in any behavior that artificially
or fraudulently inflates your impression count or reputation on
the site. Without limiting the foregoing, you may not use robots,
scripts, or other automated processes to access any portion of
the site without MouthShut.com' express written permission.
16. MS-Points
Redemption Policy: [MouthShut.com has suspended redemption
of MS-Points from Jan 1, 2002 until further notice]
a. Your
account page displays the amount of MS-Points credits you have
accrued that have not yet been redeemed (although, depending on
the schedule for updating information, this information may not
always be current, and you may only redeem the amount listed on
the site even if it is temporarily behind). MouthShut.com may,
at any time, in its sole discretion: (1) establish a minimum threshold
for the amount of accrued MS-Points credits you can redeem at
a time, and (2) deduct redemption fee from your redemption points
to cover processing expenses in the form of points or cash.
b. You
may request to redeem your MS-Points credits after 6 months of
registering your account, by following the procedures on the site,
which include a request for your Member ID and password. If you
fail to provide information verifying your identity when we request,
MouthShut.com may disallow and refuse to redeem some or all of
your accrued MS-Points credits.
c.
Note that if your password has been compromised, someone may request
redemption on your behalf. Therefore, if your password has been
compromised, you should contact MouthShut.com at once. MouthShut.com
will not owe you any payments if it issues redemption to someone
who presents your Member ID and password, even if they did so
fraudulently. However, it is fraudulent to try to redeem someone
else's MS-Points credits, and MouthShut.com intends to refer such
cases to local authorities for criminal prosecution.
d.
It is fraudulent to try to redeem MS-Points credits you have accrued
through behavior described in Section 3. If MouthShut.com determines
or suspects, in its sole discretion, that you have engaged in
such behavior, MouthShut.com may decide to do any or all of the
following: (1) terminate or suspend your account, (2) disallow
and refuse to redeem some or all of your accrued MS-Points credits,
and (3) refer your case to local authorities for criminal prosecution.
MouthShut.com may delay payment to investigate if you have engaged
in fraud. Any decision MouthShut.com makes about the validity
of your accrual of MS-Points credits is final and binding on you.
e.
MouthShut.com may disallow and refuse to redeem some or all of
your accrued MS-Points if (1) you breach the Agreement or this
Addendum, or (2) it has terminated your account (for any reason,
including inactivity). Also, if all of your Opinions have reached
their Expiration Date, then you must redeem all accrued MS-Points
within 6 months following your last Expiration Date or you forfeit
all accrued but unredeemed MS-Points.
f.
MouthShut.com and its affiliates, agencies, co-brand partners and
sponsors may introduce fictional gifts ("Virtual Gifts") from
time-to-time on the MouthShut.com website or related sites. These
virtual gifts are mere graphical representation or photos or animation
of products or services or animate/inanimate objects.
MouthShut.com may allow you to "buy" virtual gifts using your MS-Points
and gift it to another MouthShut.com member. These virtual gifts or
MS-Points are not redeemable for any sum of money or monetary value from
MouthShut.com at anytime. You agree that MouthShut.com has the absolute right
to manage, regulate, control, modify and or eliminate such MS-Points and/or
Virtual Gifts as it sees fit in its sole discretion, in any general or
specific case and that MouthShut.com will have no liability to you
based on its exercise of such rights.
17. Taxes:
MS-Points rewards may be taxable. You are solely
responsible for reporting such payments on your tax returns and
paying any associated tax liability.
18. Non-transferability:
You may not assign or transfer your accrued MS-Points credits
or the right to redeem them. Accrued but unredeemed MS-Points
credits are not your property, and thus are not transferable:
(1) upon death; (2) as part of a domestic relations matter; or
(3) otherwise by operation of law.
19. Program Cessation:
MouthShut.com may terminate the overall Program or any specific
component of the Program (such as a bonus payment program) at
any time for any reason by notifying you (by email or otherwise).
If the overall Program is terminated, you will have 30 days from
the date of such notice to redeem any then-existing MS-Points
credits in your account pursuant to the terms of this Addendum
(including, without limitation, the requirement that redemptions
meet the minimum threshold amount).
|
| 20.
MouthShut.com may invite existing and new users/members to participate
in online and offline contests from time to time. By participating,
entrant (or his/her parent or legal guardian, if entrant is a
minor) agrees (a) to the Official Rules and the judges' decisions,
which are final and binding; (b) to release and hold harmless
MouthShut.com, its affiliates, co-MouthShut.com's and co-brand
partners and their respective parents, affiliates, subsidiaries,
agencies and the officers, directors, shareholders, representatives
and employees of any of the above organizations from any and all
liability whatsoever arising from his/her participation in such
contests or acceptance, receipt, possession or use/misuse of prize,
or anything related thereto.
21.
All unspecified expenses (including taxes) are the sole responsibility
of winner. Prize is not transferable. No prize substitution except
at MouthShut.com’s sole discretion. MouthShut.com reserves
the right to substitute a prize of equal value, due to prize unavailability.
One prize per email address/family/household. Prize will be awarded
provided properly claimed. All taxes on prizes are sole responsibility
of winner.
22.
MouthShut.com and its agencies, co-brand partners and sponsors
are not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information,
whether caused by web site users or by any of the equipment or
programming associated with or utilized in the contests and assume
no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion,
defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line
failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to the web
site. MouthShut.com and its agencies are not responsible for injury
or damage to entrants' or to any other person's computer related
to or resulting from participating in such contests or downloading
materials from or use of the web site. .
23. Governing Law and Arbitration:
This Agreement is governed in all respects by the laws of the State of Delaware as such laws are applied to agreements entered
into and to be performed entirely within Delaware between Delaware residents. Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating
to this Agreement or the MouthShut.com site shall be settled by
binding arbitration in accordance with the American Arbitration Association's commercial arbitration rules.
Any such controversy or claim shall be
arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated
in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other
party. The arbitration shall be conducted in Delaware and
judgment on the arbitration award may be entered into any court
having jurisdiction thereof. The award of the arbitrator shall
be final and binding upon the parties without appeal or review.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, MouthShut.com may seek any interim
or preliminary relief from a court of competent jurisdiction in
Delaware. MouthShut.com
at its option, may bypass arbitration in cases of fraud or other crimes against itself, interference with its technical operations or violations of its rights or property.
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