Website Terms of Use
(Effective March 13, 2013)

The Center for the Protection of Athletes’ Rights, Inc. (CPAR) welcomes you to its web site.  Your use of our web site tells us that you have read and agreed to these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.  If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, you should not access or otherwise use the CPAR web site – www.athletesrights.org (the “Site”).
Amendments to these Terms of Use will be posted on the Site and will be effective when posted.  Your continued use of the Site following the posting of any amendment will constitute your acceptance of that amendment.  See the “Changes to the Terms of Use” section below for further information.
If you have questions about these Terms of Use, please contact CPAR by e-mail at info@athletesrights.org.

CPAR’s content and intellectual property rights

Material created by CPAR staff, volunteers, agents or independent contractors and published on the Site, including for example, reports, editorials, text, photographs, images, and illustrations, as well as the selection and arrangement of this material (collectively, the “Content”), is owned by CPAR, and/or other persons or entities who may have commissioner or licensed Content to CPAR, except to the extent limited by law or authenticated third party ownership rights.  For avoidance of doubt, CPAR disclaims ownership of any of your personal information provided to it on the Site, as further detailed below. In addition, The Center for the Protection of Athletes’ Rights, Inc. and the CPAR logo depicted above are service marks of CPAR.

The following use of Content found on the Site is expressly permitted:

• Other blogs, articles, editorials, reports, or other similar written material:  You may copy an individual blog entry, article, editorial, report, or other similar text, or a portion thereof, so long as you credit The Center for the Protection of Athletes’ Rights, Inc. together with the copied text, or if the text originates with a third party you must credit that original third party source and not CPAR.  In addition, wholesale copying of multiple blog entries, articles, editorials, reports or other similar text is not permitted.

• Links and RSS Feeds:  We invite you to link to the Site, and to make use of CPAR’s RSS Feeds on your web site, provided such link or feed does not state or imply any sponsorship of your site by CPAR.  We reserve the right to terminate any use of feeds on this or any other grounds that we deem appropriate.

Other than as expressly allowed herein, you may not copy, sell, distribute, republish, display, perform, or create derivative works from the Content in a manner that would violate the Content owner’s copyright in the Content, or violate their other intellectual property or proprietary rights in the Content.  You may make fair use of the Content on the Site pursuant to applicable intellectual property laws.

The permitted uses described in this section are contingent on your compliance at all times with these Terms of Use.  No other use of the Content is permitted without prior written permission of CPAR.  Please contact us at info@athletesrights.org if you wish to use the Content in any manner not permitted by these Terms of Use, or if you have any questions about whether your contemplated use of the Content is permitted by these Terms of Use?

User content

CPAR’s discussion forums, if any, and other forums for user commentary as may be offered on the Site may be provided by CPAR to give users the opportunity to post appropriate and relevant information or commentary.  You are not required to post anything on or through the Site.  CPAR does not claim any ownership rights in any data, text, photographs, video, or other material (“User Content”) that you display, publish, submit, email, or post on or through the Site.

By posting any User Content on or through the Site, you are (1) representing that you are either the owner of all intellectual property rights to such User Content or have the consent of the owner to post the User Content on or through the Site subject to these Terms of Use; (2) granting to CPAR a non-exclusive perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and fully sub-licensable license granting us permission to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, distribute, and create derivative works from such User Content in connection with the Site; (3) acknowledging that the posted information may be viewed by other users of the Site; (4) waiving any claim that the User Content violates any of your legal rights, including but not limited to any rights of privacy and/or publicity; and (5) agreeing that you are solely responsible for such User Content and that you, and not CPAR, are entirely responsible for the accuracy, completeness and ownership of all User Content.

Any User Content must conform to the guidelines set forth in the section below entitled “User Conduct.”  CPAR reserves the right to remove User Content, and/or to terminate or restrict your posting of User Content to the Site for any reason, with or without notice.

User conduct

By using the Site for any purpose, you agree that you:

• Will only use the Site for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms of Use.

• Accept the terms of our Privacy Policy. (See below)

Without limitation of the foregoing, you agree you will not use the Site to:

• Post any User Content that is false, misleading, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another’s privacy and/or right of publicity, hateful, or sexually explicit;

• Post User Content that is patently offensive and promotes racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;

• Post any User Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any party;

• Post any User Content that contains a computer virus or other similar computer contaminant, including but not limited to worms, spyware, and trojan horses.

• Interfere with or disrupt any of the Site or servers connected to the Site, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies, or regulations related to any feature offered by the Site.

• Copy, sell, distribute, display, perform, or create derivative works from any portion of the Site in a manner that would violate the copyright or other intellectual property or proprietary rights of the owners of the Content and/or the User Content.

• Impersonate any person or entity, misrepresent any affiliation with another person or entity, or otherwise misrepresent your identity for any purpose.

• Harvest, collect, or store information about the users of our Site or User Content posted by others on the Site or use such information for any purpose, including without limitation, for the purpose of transmitting or facilitating transmission of unsolicited bulk electronic mail or communications.

• Violate or encourage violation of any local, state, federal, or international law.

Monitoring, editing, removal and disclosure of User Content

You agree that CPAR has the right, but not the obligation, to monitor User Content posted by you at any time for any reason.  Notwithstanding this right, CPAR does not review all User Content and is not responsible for any User Content.  Any User Content on the Site may be edited or removed by CPAR, for any reason or no reason.

To the extent that we have such technical capability, CPAR may use and/or disclose User Content where it is necessary to enforce these Terms of Use, or to otherwise enforce or protect CPAR’s rights under applicable law, including, without limitation, CPAR’s intellectual property rights.  We may also use and/or disclose User Content when we have a reasonable and good-faith belief that such use or disclosure is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order, or legal process served on CPAR.

Changes to the Site; termination of access privileges

CPAR shall have the right for any reason, in its sole discretion and with or without notice, to terminate, change, suspend, or discontinue any feature, service, or other aspect of the Site.  CPAR may also restrict your access to all or part of the Site in its sole discretion and with or without notice.  You acknowledge and agree that CPAR will not be liable to you or to any third party in the event that CPAR exercises its right to terminate, change, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of its Site, or to terminate your access to any Site or portions of the Site, for any reason.

Links to other web site

The Site may contain links to a third party site and resources (the “Linked Site”).  CPAR provides these links as a convenience, but is not responsible for their content.  You should direct any concerns regarding any Linked Site to such Linked Site’s site administrator or webmaster.  CPAR does not guarantee or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information displayed or distributed through any Linked Site.  You acknowledge that any reliance upon any opinion, advice, or information displayed on or otherwise available through any Linked Site shall be at your sole risk.

Registration for CPAR Membership or as CPAR Volunteer

Registration is not mandatory to access the public areas of the Site.  However, completion of an on-line application available on the Site is required for those wishing to volunteer with CPAR or to avail themselves of the legal services offered by CPAR volunteers. Registration will be required to access certain areas of the Site or the products and services that are exclusively for CPAR members and provided through password protected areas of the Site.  The areas of the Site requiring registration are clearly noted, and you are under no obligation to register.  When registering, users may be provided with a user name and password or membership number.  CPAR is not responsible for any loss or misuse of your user name, password or membership number.  Always remember that in order to protect your privacy you should not share your user name, password or membership number with others. You should notify CPAR immediately if you suspect or know of any unauthorized use of your user name, password or membership number.  CPAR cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your user name or password or membership number.  You are responsible for all activities that occur through your user name, password or membership number.  CPAR reserves the right to terminate or restrict your registration at any time, for any purpose, with or without notice.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless CPAR and its officers, directors, employees, volunteers, agents, sponsors, advertisers, licensors, and licensees (the “CPAR Indemnified Parties”), from and against any and all third party claims, demands, liabilities, costs, or expenses, including reasonable attorneys fees, incurred by CPAR Indemnified Parties that arise from (1) any violation by you, or any user of your user name or password, of these Terms of Use.  CPAR reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you.

Disclaimers and warranties

CPAR reports on, among other things, civil litigation and arbitration.  Accordingly, many of its reports are based on court orders, judgments, and other documents filed with a court, as well as the allegations of parties or other persons connected with a court case.  To a large extent, these are allegations only and may not be taken as settled fact.  CPAR does not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of any statement made in a court filing or other court document, or any allegation of a party or other persons connected with a court or arbitration case, which may be displayed, uploaded, distributed, or reported on or through the Site.

Similarly, CPAR does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or usefulness of any User Content as may be found on the Site.  You should not rely on any User Content appearing on any of our Site.  The views expressed in User Content do not necessarily reflect the views of CPAR, and CPAR does not endorse the information or views expressed in any User Content, blog or other opinion piece.

As to all other Content found on the Site, although CPAR strives for accuracy, it does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any content found on the Site.  Any reliance on the Content or the User Content found on the Site is at your own risk.

CPAR takes reasonable steps to ensure – through its Internet Service Provider – that its Site is free of viruses and other similar computer contaminants.  However, it cannot guarantee that its Site will be free of these contaminants.  CPAR uses reasonable security measures – through its Internet Service Provider – on the Site to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under its control.  However, there is no such thing as perfect security on the Internet or World Wide Web, and CPAR makes no guarantee that such loss, misuse and/or alteration will not occur.  CPAR similarly cannot guarantee that access to its Site will be uninterrupted.

YOUR USE OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.  THE SITE, INCLUDING ALL CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE SITE, ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS.  CPAR EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  CPAR MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT (1) THE SITE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; OR (2) THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES AND OTHER COMPUTER CONTAMINANTS.   ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SITE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.  IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THE SITE, YOUR SOLE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE SITE.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL CPAR OR ANY OF ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, VOLUNTEERS, SPONSORS, ADVERTISERS OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF REVENUE OR ANTICIPATED PROFITS OR LOST BUSINESS, THAT ARE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY RELATED TO THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, THE CONTENT, MATERIALS AND FUNCTIONS OF OUR SITE.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR LIMITATION OF OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.  IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS YOU SPECIFICALLY AGREE THAT, THE LIABILITY OF CPAR SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW.

Copyright complaints

Just as CPAR requires the users of its Site to respect its intellectual property rights, we respect the intellectual property rights of others to their own material.

If you have a good faith belief that your material has been posted, transmitted, displayed, copied or distributed on our Site in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify CPAR’s designated Copyright Agent of that fact, whose contact information is as follows:

Jill Pilgrim, Esq.
301 West 110th Street, Ste 6U
New York, NY 10026
jpilgrim@athletesrights.org

To be an effective written notification of claimed infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512 (“DMCA”), your written notification must include substantially the following:

(1) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works;

(2) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit CPAR to locate the material;

(3) Information reasonably sufficient to permit CPAR to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which you may be contacted;

(4) A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, his or her agents, or the law; and

(5) 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.

(6)  Your physical or electronic signature.

Upon receipt of a proper notification of claimed copyright infringement, we will evaluate the notification to determine if removal of the material claimed to be infringing is warranted.  We also reserve the right to remove or disable access to material alleged to be infringing without written notice.  CPAR will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the access of any user of its Site who repeatedly posts, transmits, displays, copies, or distributes infringing material.

In the event we remove or disable access to User Content that is claimed to be infringing, we may notify the person who provided such User Content that the material has been removed, or access disabled.  If you receive such a notice, you may submit a counter-notification to our Copyright Agent pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512(g).  Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3), to be an effective counter-notification under that subsection, your counter-notification must be in writing and must include substantially the following:

(1) Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.

(2) A statement penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.

(3)  Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court of New York, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of infringement or an agent of such person.

(4) Your physical or electronic signature.

Upon receipt of a counter-notification, we may, at our election, replace or re-enable access to the User Content at issue.

Jurisdiction and choice of law

The Site is created, operated, and controlled by CPAR – through its Internet Service Provider – from multiple locations throughout the United States of America.  These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflicts of laws provisions.  Any dispute arising out of or relating to your use of the Site, and any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms of use, shall be brought in the Superior Court for the State of New York in and for the County of New York, or in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  You hereby irrevocably consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purposes of litigating any such action.

Changes to Terms of Use

These Terms of Use are subject to change at any time.  CPAR reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to change, modify, add or remove any portion of these Terms of Use, in whole or in part, at any time.  Changes in these Terms of Use will be effective when posted.  Your continued use of the Site following the posting of any amendment to the Terms of Use will constitute your acceptance of that amendment.

Miscellaneous

This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between CPAR and you regarding your use of the Site.  If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of these Terms of Use, or portion thereof, to be unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to give effect to the intent of these Terms of Use, and the remainder of these Terms of Use shall continue in full force and effect.  A printed version of this agreement shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings.

I HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL OF THE PROVISIONS CONTAINED HEREIN.
Effective date:  March 13, 2013