terms and conditions

general

The sciphile.org website is owned and operated by the limited liability company SCIPHILEDOTORG LLC, hereafter referred to as "sciphile.org".

Sciphile.org serves a community of folks interested in science, who share a belief that science education is important. Our primary goal is to facilitate that education by providing high-quality free materials for learning and teaching, in or out of the classroom. 

To achieve that goal, we rely on users like you who collaborate to write, edit, test, and teach the content. We welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be respectful and polite in your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and to make contributions in keeping with the mission of informed and accurate science teaching.

By using or accessing our services, viewing or browsing the sciphile.org site, or adding your own content to the site, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions (“Terms”), which are a legal contract between a user (“you”) and sciphile.org regarding your use of the sciphile.org website (“Website”). Sciphile.org reserves the right to change or replace the Terms at any time, at its sole discretion. Your continued use of the Website after the posting of changes constitutes your binding acceptance of such changes. Nothing in these Terms confers any third-party rights or benefits.

using the site

You agree to use the services and materials on the Website only for purposes that are permitted both by the Terms and by all applicable laws, regulations, and generally accepted practices in relevant local, national, and international jurisdictions. You agree that you are solely responsible for any breach of your obligations under these laws, regulations, or practices and for breaches of your obligations under the Terms, and for any consequences of such breaches.

Whenever contributors submit original materials to the Website, they agree to allow use of their work under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 license, which specifies that the material can be freely copied or modified, but appropriate attribution must be paid to the original author, and any modified form of the work can be distributed only under the same license and must indicate that changes were made. Furthermore, contributors will sometimes include materials from other sources (such as images or other media files), where the materials are the subject of one or more other Creative Commons licenses. Those materials may come with different constraints on how they can be used. For example, an image listed as available under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial license (CC BY-NC) is available for copy and redistribution, with attribution, in any format, except that it cannot be used for commercial purposes. It is your responsibility to verify and comply with any copyright regulations on materials obtained through sciphile.org. You also agree not to delete any copyright or other proprietary rights notices on the Website or its content.

Often, sciphile.org web pages will reference third-party materials or content. You are solely responsible for your use of any third-party websites or resources. Although our web pages contain links to third-party websites and resources, we do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for their availability, accuracy, or the related content, products, or services (including, without limitation, any viruses or other disabling features), nor do we have any obligation to monitor such third-party content.

By submitting postings or content to the Website, you hereby grant each user of the Website license to access your postings or content under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 license. This license is in addition to any other license you may decide to grant.

You are solely responsible for any content you post and the consequences of posting or publishing it. By uploading, submitting, creating, or publishing your content to or through the Website, you affirm that you are the creator and owner or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and to authorize sciphile.org and its users to use and distribute your content in the manner contemplated by sciphile.org and these Terms. You also affirm that your user content does not and will not infringe or violate any third-party right, including any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right. Violators of these third-party rights may be subject to criminal and civil liability. Sciphile.org reserves all rights and remedies against any user who violates these Terms.

You understand that in order for sciphile.org to provide the services to our users, sciphile.org may transmit your content over various public networks and in various media and may make changes to your content to meet the technological requirements of such networks and media. You understand that sciphile.org does not guarantee any confidentiality with respect to any content that you submit.

You also agree not to defame, harass, abuse, threaten, or defraud users of the Website, or collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about users without their consent.

You agree to access and use the Website only through interfaces provided by sciphile.org or its partners. You shall not access (or try to access) or use any of the sciphile.org services through any automated means, including, but not limited to, scripts, robots, or web crawlers.

To access some features of the Website, you will have to register an account. You shall not use another’s account without permission. You must provide accurate and complete information when registering your account. You are solely responsible for the activity that occurs on your account, and you must keep your account password secure. You must notify sciphile.org immediately of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your account. Sciphile.org will not be liable for your losses caused by any unauthorized use of your account, but you may be liable for the losses of sciphile.org or others due to such unauthorized use.

You affirm that you are more than 18 years of age, or are an emancipated minor, or possess legal parental or guardian consent, and are fully able and competent to enter into the terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations, and warranties set forth in the Terms, and are able to comply with the Terms. You must be at least 13 years old to be allowed to register for Sciphile.org. If you are not at least 13 years old, you shall not attempt to register.

ownership and proprietary rights

The visual interfaces, graphics, designs, compilations, information, computer code (including source code and object code), products, software, services, and all other elements of the Website provided by sciphile.org are protected by United States copyright, trade dress, patent, and trademark laws, international agreements, and other intellectual property and proprietary rights. Except for content that is provided by users, all materials on the Website are the property of sciphile.org or third-party licensors. Unless expressly authorized by sciphile.org, you agree not to sell, license, transmit, or otherwise make unauthorized use of the materials. Sciphile.org reserves all rights to Website content that is not expressly granted in the Terms.

copyright protection

Sciphile.org wants to ensure that the content that we host can be re-used by other users in accordance with these Terms without fear of liability, and that sciphile.org is not infringing the proprietary rights of others. In fairness to our authors, as well as to other creators and copyright holders, our policy is to respond to notices of alleged infringement according to the process set out in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Pursuant to the DMCA, we will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, users and account holders of our system who are repeat infringers.

However, we also recognize that not every takedown notice is valid or in good faith. In such cases, we strongly encourage users to file counter-notifications when they appropriately believe a DMCA takedown demand is invalid or improper.

If you are the owner of content that is being improperly used on one of our pages without your permission, you may request that the content be removed under the DMCA. To make such a request, please use our contact form with a category of "DMCA takedown request".

privacy

Our privacy policy explains how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you use our services. By using our services, you agree that sciphile.org can use such data in accordance with our privacy policy.

liability for our services

At sciphile.org, we do our best to provide educational and informational content to a wide audience, and to ensure that content is scientifically correct. However, your use of our services is at your sole risk. We provide these services on an "as is" and "as available" basis, and we expressly disclaim all express or implied warranties of all kinds. We make no warranty that our services will meet your requirements, be safe, secure, uninterrupted, timely, accurate, or error-free, or that your information will be secure. You understand that when you use the Website, you may be exposed to content that is inaccurate, offensive, indecent, or objectionable, and you agree to waive, and hereby do waive, any legal or equitable rights or remedies you may have against sciphile.org with respect to your exposure to such content. You acknowledge and agree that sciphile.org may suspend or discontinue, without prior notice to you and at sciphile.org’s sole discretion, some or all of its services, making the services unavailable to you or other users. Sciphile.org may also remove any content or user accounts at any time and for any reason at the sole discretion of sciphile.org.

You also agree that material downloaded or otherwise obtained through your use of our services is done at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material. You agree that we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any content or communication maintained by our service. We retain the right to create limits on use and storage at our sole discretion at any time with or without notice.

Further, sciphile.org shall not be liable or responsible for any reliance you place on the completeness, accuracy, or existence of advertising or the outcomes of relationships and transactions you may have with advertisers.

Sciphile.org makes no representations that its Website is appropriate or available for use in locations outside of the United States. Those who access or use the Website from other jurisdictions do so at their own volition and are responsible for compliance with local law.

You further agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless sciphile.org, its owners, operators, affiliates, licensors, and licensees to the fullest extent allowed by law, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses, including but not limited to attorney’s fees and expenses, related to your use of the Website, violation of the Terms, violation of any third-party right (including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right), or any claim that your content caused damage to a third party.

miscellaneous

The failure of sciphile.org to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms will not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. A waiver is valid and effective only if it is in writing and signed by an authorized representative of sciphile.org.

If any provision in the Terms is held to be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision will be limited or eliminated from the Terms to the minimum extent necessary and will not affect the validity and enforceability of other provisions.

You agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to the Website must commence within one year after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise such cause of action is permanently barred.

The Terms, and your relationship with sciphile.org under the Terms, shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to the Terms will be filed only in the state or federal courts in and for Franklin County, Massachusetts, and you hereby consent and submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of such courts for the purposes of litigating any such action.

This agreement was last modified on 17 August, 2014.