Terms of Service - Artblog Connect

Last updated 2 August 2023

Artblog Connect strongly believes in freedom of speech. We have a vast audience spread across many cultures, countries and backgrounds with varying values and our service is designed to let users freely express any ideas and opinions without us censoring or endorsing them. That being said, there are a few categories of content and behavior that we don’t permit because we consider them harmful to the community.

To be transparent about what is and isn’t allowed on your site, we’ve put together this set of guidelines. The following activity/material isn’t allowed on WordPress.com.

Illegal content and conduct.

Self-explanatory.

Intellectual property infringement.

Artblog Connect is a listing service, rather than a file sharing platform, so we recognize that copyrighted materials are often used in fair use context. We strongly support this and urge copyright holders to take this into consideration before submitting complaints. We make no claims to the content.

Sexually explicit material.

We know that there may be different definitions of this, but generally, we define sexually explicit material as visual depictions of sexually explicit acts. Nudity, in and of itself, is fine.

Gambling.

Discussing gambling on your site isn’t a problem. However, operating an online gambling service (including poker)? No dice. Please also be aware that if your site is primarily designed to link to other gambling sites, we consider this spam, and a breach of the user guidelines.

Technologically harmful content.

Please don’t upload or link to malware, spyware, adware, or other malicious or destructive code.

Impersonation.

Don’t claim to be a person or organization you’re not. (Parody and satire are ok though!)

Directly threatening material.

Do not post direct and realistic threats of violence. That is, you cannot post a genuine call for violence—or death—against an individual person, or groups of persons. This doesn’t mean that we’ll remove all hyperbole or offensive language.

Posting private information.

Don’t share someone’s personal information without their consent. This includes collecting sensitive information in Contact Forms such as account passwords and credit card numbers, to name a couple.

You may not upload your own advertising.

Spam or machine-generated content.

Bear in mind that these are just guidelines — interpretations are solely up to us. These guidelines are not exhaustive and are subject to change.

If you believe a WordPress.com site has violated our Terms of Service or any of these policies, please report the site. We aim to promptly review and investigate all complaints that we receive, but if and how we respond will depend on a variety of factors, such as the information available to us and the type of violation. We may also contact the site owner to inform him/her of the complaint.

If we’re not in a position to make a determination (for example, whether something is defamatory or not), we defer to the judgment of a court.

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) describe our commitments to you, and your rights and responsibilities when using our services. Please read them carefully and reach out to us if you have any questions. If you don’t agree to these Terms, don’t use our services.

If you are a user in countries located in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom (“European User”), some special terms apply to you as mentioned below.Service

These Terms govern your access to and use of artblogconnect.org and related site and entities.

Please read these Terms carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to be bound by all of the Terms and all other operating rules, policies, and procedures that we may publish via the Services from time to time (collectively, the “Agreement”). You also agree that we may automatically change, update, or add on to our Services as stated in the Terms, and the Agreement will apply to any changes.

1. Who’s Who

“You” means any individual or entity using our Services. If you use our Services on behalf of another person or entity, you represent and warrant that you’re authorized to accept the Agreement on that person’s or entity’s behalf, that by using our Services you’re accepting the Agreement on behalf of that person or entity, and that if you, or that person or entity, violates the Agreement, you and that person or entity agree to be responsible to us.

Please see below to determine which entity your Agreement is with, which depends on where you reside and which Services you use. We use the term “Designated Countries” to refer to Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, and all countries located in Europe.

3. Minimum Age Requirements

Our Services are not directed to children. You’re not allowed to access or use our Services if you’re under the age of 13 (or 16 in Europe). If you register as a user or otherwise use our Services, you represent that you’re at least 13 (or 16 in Europe). You may use our Services only if you can legally form a binding contract with us. In other words, if you’re under 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority where you live), you can only use our Services under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to the Agreement.

4. Responsibility of Visitors and Users

We haven’t reviewed, and can’t review, all of the content (like text, photo, video, audio, code, computer software, items for sale, and other materials) posted to or made available through our Services by users or anyone else (“Content”) or on websites that link to, or are linked from, our Services. We’re not responsible for any use or effects of Content or third-party websites. So, for example:

We don’t have any control over third-party websites.
A link to or from one of our Services does not represent or imply that we endorse any third-party website.
We don’t endorse any Content or represent that Content is accurate, useful, or not harmful. Content could be offensive, indecent, or objectionable; include technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, or other errors; or violate or infringe the privacy, publicity rights, intellectual property rights, or other proprietary rights of third parties.
You’re fully responsible for the Content available on your website, and any harm resulting from that Content. It’s your responsibility to ensure that your website’s Content abides by applicable laws and by the Agreement.
We aren’t responsible for any harm resulting from anyone’s access, use, purchase, or downloading of Content, or for any harm resulting from third-party websites. You’re responsible for taking the necessary precautions to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content.
Any Content that’s for sale through any of our Services is the seller’s sole responsibility, so you must look solely to the seller for any damages that result from your purchase or use of Content.
We are not a party to, and will have no responsibility or liability for, any communications, transactions, interactions, or disputes between you and the provider of any Content.

Please note that additional third-party terms and conditions may apply to Content you download, copy, purchase, or use.

5. Feedback

We love hearing from you and are always looking to improve our Services. When you share comments, ideas, or feedback with us, you agree that we’re free to use them without any restriction or compensation to you. We may use your suggestions

product improvements and promotional purposes.

6.Data Processing Agreement

As a free listing service we will store your data as needed and appropriate. We will only Process Personal Data for the purposes of listing your gallery, show, venue, or other similar event

7.General Representation and Warranty

Our mission is to make the web a better place, and our Services are designed to give you control and ownership over your websites. We encourage you to express yourself freely, subject to a few requirements. In particular, you represent and warrant that your use of our Services:

Will be in strict accordance with the Agreement;
Will comply with all applicable laws and regulations (including, without limitation, all applicable laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content, privacy, data protection, the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside, the use or provision of financial services, notification and consumer protection, unfair competition, and false advertising);
Will not be for any unlawful purposes, to publish illegal content, or in furtherance of illegal activities;
Will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of Artblogconnect.org its parent company theartblog.org or any third party;
Will not overburden or interfere with our systems or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure, as determined by us in our sole discretion;
Will not disclose the personal information of others;
Will not be used to send spam or bulk unsolicited messages;
Will not interfere with, disrupt, or attack any service or network;
Will not be used to create, distribute, or enable material that is, facilitates, or operates in conjunction with, malware, spyware, adware, or other malicious programs or code;
Will not involve reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, deciphering, or otherwise attempting to derive the source code for the Services or any related technology that is not open source; and
Will not involve renting, leasing, loaning, selling, or reselling the Services or related data without our consent.

8. Specific Service Terms

License. By uploading or sharing Content, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, adapt, publicly display, and publish the Content solely for the purpose of providing and improving our products and Services and promoting your website. This license also allows us to make any publicly-posted Content available to select third parties (through Firehose, for example) so that these third parties can analyze and distribute (but not publicly display) the Content through their services. You also give other WordPress.com users permission to share your Content on other WordPress.com websites and add their own Content to it (aka to “reblog” your Content), so long as they use only a portion of your post and they give you credit as the original author by linking back to your website, which the reblogging function on WordPress.com does automatically.

Removing Content. If you delete Content, we’ll use reasonable efforts to remove it from public view (or in the case of a private website, from view by the authorized visitors) on Artblogconnect.org, but you acknowledge that cached versions of the Content or references to the Content may not be immediately unavailable.

Web Traffic. We may use a third-party service to measure artblogconnect.org‘s audience and usage.

Prohibited Uses. Your Content and conduct must not violate the WordPress.com User Guidelines or the VideoPress Service Guidelines if you use our Services to upload videos.

Advertisements. We may display advertisements on our website and domain.

Attribution. We may display attribution text or links in your website footer or toolbar, noting that your website is powered by WordPress.com or attributing the creator of your theme, for example. For more details about these attributions, and under which circumstances (if any) you may alter or remove them.

You’re responsible for your Input, the use of any Output, and for complying with any applicable laws. AI may occasionally generate Output that’s inaccurate, irrelevant, offensive, harmful, or similar to others’ content. Please see our AI Guidelines for the policies you must comply with when you use AI features, details about the third-party providers we use to provide AI features, and helpful information about AI generally.

9. Copyright Policy

As we ask others to respect our intellectual property rights, we respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe any Content violates your copyright, please send us a notice to editor@theartblog.org

12. Changes

We may modify the Terms from time to time, for example, to reflect changes to our Services (e.g., adding new features or benefits to our Services or retiring certain features of certain Services) or for legal, regulatory, or security reasons. If we do this, we’ll provide notice of the changes, such as by posting the amended Terms and updating the “Last Updated” date or, if the changes, in our sole discretion, are material, we may notify you through our Services or other communications. Any changes will apply on a going-forward basis, and, unless we say otherwise, the amended Terms will be effective immediately. By continuing to use our Services after we’ve notified you, you agree to be bound by the new Terms. You have the right to object to any changes at any time by ceasing your use of our Services and may cancel any subscription you have.

13. Termination

We may terminate your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause or notice, effective immediately, including if we believe, in our sole discretion, that you have violated this Agreement, any service guidelines, or other applicable terms. We will have no obligation to provide a refund of any fees previously paid. You can stop using our Services at any time.

14. Disclaimers

Our Services are provided “as is.” Artblogconnect.org its parent company theartblog.org and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the maximum extent allowed by applicable law, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither Artblogconnect.org, nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that our Services will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, our Services at your own discretion and risk.

15. Jurisdiction and Applicable Law.

Except to the extent any applicable law provides otherwise, the Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be governed by the laws of the state of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions and the application of the United Nations Convention of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to the Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be the state and federal courts located in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Nothing in this Agreement affects your rights as a consumer to rely on mandatory provisions in your country of residence.

16. Limitation of Liability

In no event will Artblogconnect.org its parent company theartblog.org, or its suppliers, partners, or licensors, be liable (including for any third-party products or services purchased or used through our Services) with respect to any subject matter of the Agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond its reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

European Users: If we cause damage to you and you are a consumer in Europe, we limit our liability to the maximum amount permissible in your country of residence. Liability will be limited to foreseeable damages arising due to a breach of material contractual obligations typical for this type of contract. Artblogconnect.org its parent company theartblog.org isn’t liable for damages that result from a non-material breach of any other applicable duty of care. This limitation of liability will not apply to any statutory liability that cannot be limited, to liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, liability caused by our willful misconduct or gross negligence, or our responsibility for something we have specifically promised to you. You and we agree that we and our affiliates’ total liability is limited to the greater of $50 or the amount paid by you to use our Services during the 12 months preceding the claim; To the extent that our liability is limited or excluded, the limitations or exclusions will also apply to the personal liability of our employees, legal representatives, and vicarious agents.

17. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Artblogconnect.org its parent company theartblog.org, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any and all losses, liabilities, demands, damages, costs, claims, and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of or related to your use of our Services, including but not limited to your violation of the Agreement or any agreement with a provider of third-party services used in connection with the Services, Content that you post, and any ecommerce activities conducted through your or another user’s website.

18. US Economic Sanctions

You agree that our ability to provide our Services to you is subject to compliance with US sanctions that restrict or prohibit who or from where our Services can be accessed. By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you (i) are not located or residing in any country or territory subject to comprehensive US sanctions (currently Cuba, Crimea, Iran, North Korea, Donetsk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, and Syria); (ii) are not listed on any United States list of prohibited or restricted parties, such as OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Persons List, or otherwise subject to US sanctions that would prohibit your access to or use of our Services; and (iii) shall not use or allow access by any of your customers or potential customers (if applicable) to the Services in any manner that may cause Artblogconnect.org its parent company theartblog.org to violate US export controls and sanctions. We reserve the right to restrict or block your access, or access by any of your customers or potential customers (if applicable), to the Services and/or to terminate the Agreement at any time without notice if we determine, at our sole discretion, that such access may cause a violation or create unacceptable risk to us under export controls or sanctions.

19. Data Processing Agreement

If you need a data processing agreement (DPA) with us for the GDPR requirements that apply to us as a data processor for your website, please follow these instructions.

20. Translation

These Terms were originally written in English (US). We may translate these terms into other languages, and in the event of a conflict between a translated version of these Terms and the English version, the English version will control.

21. Miscellaneous

The Agreement (together with any other terms we provide that apply to any specific Service) constitutes the entire agreement between Artblogconnect.org its parent company theartblog.org and you concerning our Services. If any part of the Agreement is unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that part is severable from the Agreement, and does not affect the validity or enforceability of the rest of the Agreement. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of the Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof.

Artblogconnect.org and its parent company theartblog.org may assign its rights under the Agreement without condition. You may only assign your rights under the Agreement with our prior written consent. Thank you to Automattic and WordPress for the use and modification of their example Terms of Service