1. Introduction
(i) This website, including the features and services available from the site (“Blottr” or “Site”), is a news service generated by the Site users and operated by Blottr Media Limited. ("Blottr"). These Terms of Service, along with any additional terms and conditions that are referenced herein or that are presented elsewhere on the Site in relation to a specific service or feature (collectively “Terms of Service”) and the Blottr Privacy Policy, set forth the terms and conditions that apply to your use of Blottr.com. By using Blottr.com, you agree to comply with all of the terms and conditions hereof. If you do not agree to these Terms of Service, you should not access or use Blottr.com.
(B) Changes to Terms of Service. Blottr may modify, remove or add to the Terms of Service, or any part thereof, at any time, and such modifications, additions or deletions will be effective immediately upon posting. Your use of Blottr.com after such posting shall be deemed to constitute acceptance by you of such modifications, additions or deletions.
(C) Changes to Site. Blottr may change or discontinue any feature or service of Blottr.com at any time, including, but not limited to, content, hours of availability and equipment needed for access or use.
(D) Registration. To engage on the Site, you will be required to register on the Site. Registration will automatically generate a user account (your “Account”) that will enable you to receive notifications and information from Blottr. Blottr will use the information you provide in accordance with the Blottr Privacy Policy. By registering you represent and agree that all information you provide on the registration form is current, complete and accurate to the best of your knowledge. You agree to maintain and promptly update your registration information on the Site so that it remains current, complete and accurate. During the registration process, you will be required to choose a password. You acknowledge and agree that Blottr may rely on this password to identify you but will not share passwords with 3rd parties unconnected to Blottr. You are responsible for all use of your Account, regardless if you authorised such access or use, and for ensuring that all use of your Account complies fully with the provisions of these Terms of Service.
2. Community Guidelines & User Content
(A) Interactivity. Content across Blottr.com is created by its users. You may post or upload content originated by you and comment on or edit content created by others. Such content includes news articles, video, photos, messages, or other materials or items (collectively, “User Content"). You are solely responsible for your use of the Site and you use the Site at your own risk. By submitting User Content to the Site, you represent that you are 13 years of age or older and, if you are under the age of 18, you either are an emancipated minor, or have obtained the legal consent of your parent or legal guardian to enter into these Terms of Service, submit content, participate on Blottr.com, and fulfill the obligations set out in these Terms of Service, which forms a binding contract between you and Blottr.
(B) Community Guidelines. If you submit any User Content or participate on Blottr.com, you agree to abide by the following rules of conduct:
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit any User Content that violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others, including any statements which may defame, harass, stalk or threaten others;
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit any User Content that is offensive to the online community, including blatant expressions of bigotry, racism, abusiveness, vulgarity or profanity.
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit any material that contains or advocates pornography, pedophilia, incest, bestiality, or that is otherwise obscene.
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit any User Content that violates any law or engage in activity that would constitute a criminal offense or give rise to a civil liability;
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit any User Content that advocates or provides instruction on illegal activity or discuss illegal activities with the intent to commit them;
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit, without Blottr's express prior approval, User Content which contains advertising or any solicitation with respect to products or services;
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit User Content that does not generally pertain to the designated topic or theme of Blottr’s purpose;
You agree not to impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, any Blottr employee, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
You agree not to interfere with any other user's right to privacy, including by harvesting or collecting personally-identifiable information about Blottr.com users or posting private information about a third party;
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit any User Content, software or other materials which contain a virus or other harmful or disruptive component;
You agree not to interfere with or disrupt Blottr.com or the servers or networks connected to the Site, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Site;
You agree not to upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam”, "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation;
You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for any commercial purpose, any portion of Blottr.com, use of Blottr.com, or access to Blottr.com without the prior written consent of Blottr;
You agree not to upload, post, or otherwise transmit any User Content protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity or other proprietary right without the express permission of the owner of such copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity or other proprietary right. The burden of determining that any User Content is not protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity or other proprietary right rests with you. You shall be solely liable for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, rights of publicity or other proprietary rights or any other harm resulting from such a submission. Any person determined by Blottr, in its sole discretion, to have violated the intellectual property or other rights of others shall be barred from submitting or posting any further material on Blottr.com;
You agree that if necessary, you have the consent of each and every identifiable natural person in any submission to use such persons name or likeness in the manner contemplated by Blottr.com;
Any conduct that in Blottr’s sole discretion restricts or inhibits anyone else from using or enjoying Blottr.com will not be permitted. Blottr reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove or edit User Content by you and to terminate your Account for any reason. Blottr is not responsible for User Content submitted to Blottr.com.
(C) Moderation. Blottr shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor User Content posted or uploaded to Blottr.com to determine compliance with these Terms of Service and any operating rules established by Blottr and to satisfy any law, regulation or authorised government request. Although Blottr has no obligation to monitor, screen, edit or remove any of the User Content posted or uploaded to Blottr.com, Blottr reserves the right, and has absolute discretion, to screen, edit, refuse to post or remove without notice any User Content posted or uploaded to Blottr.com at any time and for any reason, and you are solely responsible for creating backup copies of and replacing any User Content posted to the Site at your sole cost and expense.
Blottr.com is moderated, largely, by its users. Should you decide that content on the Site is inappropriate, offensive, malicious or libelous, or irrelevant to the section it has been posted in, you may flag this content for removal. By doing so you understand that any such content, in its entirety, will be removed immediately from the Site to await human moderation by Blottr.
Blottr hold the unreserved right and final decision on what content constitutes acceptable for permanent removal from the Site.
Should Blottr decide to permanently remove content from the Site, for whatever reason, such content will be deleted, not backed up or stored and will become unretrivable.
Should Blottr decide to reinstate content that has been removed by a user for any of the reasons stated in this clause, such content will remain on the Site and will not be eligible for future removal by users.
To view our editorial review policy click here.
(D) License to User Content. By submitting User Content to Blottr.com, you automatically grant Blottr the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, publish, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, translate, create derivative works from, incorporate into other works, distribute, sub-license and otherwise exploit such User Content (in whole or in part) worldwide in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed for the full term of any copyright that may exist in such User Content. You warrant that such User Content is accurate and not misleading, and that use and posting or other transmission of such User Content does not violate these Terms of Service and will not violate any rights of or cause injury to any person or entity. You further grant Blottr the right to pursue at law any person or entity that violates your or Blottr's rights in the User Content by a breach of these Terms of Service.
You agree, without exception and in all cases, by submitting content to the Site you allow and accept other users can edit and add to your news story or post by any means, including but not limited to text, photos, video and tags.
(E) Moral Rights. If it is determined that you retain moral rights (including rights of attribution or integrity) in the User Content, you hereby declare that (a) you do not require that any personally identifying information be used in connection with the User Content, or any derivative works of or upgrades or updates thereto; (b) you have no objection to the publication, use, modification, deletion and exploitation of the User Content by Blottr or its users, licensees, successors and assigns; (c) you forever waive and agree not to claim or assert any entitlement to any and all moral rights of an author in any of the User Content; and (d) you forever release Blottr, and its users, licensees, successors and assigns, from any claims that you could otherwise assert against Blottr by virtue of any such moral rights. You also permit any other user to access, view, store, share or reproduce the User Content for that user's personal use.
You agree and allow, without exception and in all cases, content created by you to be shared on Blottr and across the web. Such content may appear on other sites not related or affiliated to Blottr for the purpose of sharing information that others will be deemed to find useful.
(F) User Content submitted by you will be considered non-confidential and Blottr is under no obligation to treat such User Content as proprietary information except pursuant to the Blottr Privacy Policy. Without limiting the foregoing, Blottr reserves the right to use any User Content as it deems appropriate, including, without limitation, deleting, editing, modifying, rejecting, or refusing to post it. Blottr is under no obligation to offer you any payment for User Content that you submit or the opportunity to edit, delete or otherwise modify User Content once it has been submitted to Blottr. Blottr shall have no duty to attribute authorship of User Content to you, and shall not be obligated to enforce any form of attribution by third parties.
3.Copyright Ownership
Blottr.com contains copyrighted material, trademarks and other proprietary information, including, but not limited to, text, software, photos, video, graphics, music and sound, and the entire contents of Blottr.com are copyrighted as a collective work under the United Kingdom copyright laws. Blottr owns copyright in the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such content, as well as in the content original to it. You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit, any of the copyright content, in whole or in part. You may download copyrighted material for your personal use only.
All user generated content holds no copyright, not to Blottr nor the originator of such content.
4. Third Party Content
Blottr is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and users. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including information providers or users of Blottr.com, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of Blottr. Neither Blottr nor any third-party provider of information guarantees the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content, nor its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. (Refer to Section 6 below for the complete provisions governing limitation of liabilities and disclaimers of warranty.)
In many instances, the content available through Blottr.com represents the opinions and judgments of the respective user or information provider not under contract with Blottr. Blottr neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on Blottr.com by any third party. Under no circumstances will Blottr be liable for any loss or damage caused by your use, sharing or reliance on information obtained through Blottr.com. Blottr is not responsible for any actions or inaction on your part based on the information that is presented on Blottr.com. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through Blottr.com.
5. Advertisements and Promotions
Blottr may run advertisements and promotions from third parties on the Site. Your business dealings or correspondence with, or participation in promotions of, advertisers other than Blottr, and any terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such third party. Blottr is not responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of third-party advertisers on the Site.
6. Disclaimer of Warranty; Limitation of Liability
(A) You expressly agree that use of Blottr.com is at your own risk. Neither Blottr, subsidiaries, its affiliates nor any of their respective employees, agents or third party content providers warrant that Blottr.com will be uninterrupted or error free; nor do they make any warranty as to the results that may be obtained from use of Blottr.com, or as to the accuracy, reliability or content of any information or service provided through Blottr.com.
(B) Blottr.com, including without limitation, any downloadable software, is provided on an “as is” basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of title or implied warranties of fitness for purpose, other than those warranties which are implied by and incapable of exclusion, restriction or modification under the laws applicable to these terms of service.
(C) NEITHER Blottr, subsidiaries, its affiliates nor any of their respective employees, agents, third party content providers or licensors are liable for the defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of other users or third parties posted on the Site.
(D) In no event will Blottr, subsidiaries, its affiliates nor any of their respective employees, agents, third party content providers or licensors or any person or entity involved in creating, producing or distributing Blottr.com or the Blottr.com software, be liable for any damages, including, without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages arising out of the use of Blottr.com
(E) In no event will Blottr, subsidiaries, its affiliates nor any of their respective employees, agents, third party content providers or licensors be liable regardless of the cause or duration, for any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, unauthenticity or other defects, in the information contained and made public by Blottr.com. None of the foregoing parties shall be liable for any third party claims or losses of any nature, including but not limited to, lost profits, punitive or consequential damages or damaged reputations.
(F) Blottr disclaims any and all liability of any kind for any unauthorised access to or use of your personally identifiable information. By accessing Blottr.com, you acknowledge and agree to Blottr’s disclaimer of any such liability. If you do not agree, you should not access or use Blottr.com.
7. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Blottr, its affiliates and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against all claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising out of the use of Blottr.com by you or your Account.
8. Termination
Blottr may terminate or suspend these Terms of Service at any time without notice to You. Without limiting the foregoing, Blottr shall have the right to immediately terminate your Account in the event of any conduct by you which Blottr, in its sole discretion, considers to be unacceptable, or in the event of any breach by you of these Terms of Service. The provisions of Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 shall survive termination of these Terms of Service.
9. Trademarks
Blottr own all rights to their logos and trademarks used in connection with the Site. All other logos and trademarks appearing on Blottr.com are the property of their respective owners.
10. Miscellaneous
These Terms of Service and any operating rules for Blottr.com established by Blottr constitute the entire agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof, and supersede all previous written or oral agreements between the parties with respect to such subject matter. The provisions of these Terms of Service are for the benefit of Blottr, its parent, subsidiaries, other affiliates and its third party content providers and licensors and each shall have the right to assert and enforce such provisions directly or on its own behalf. No waiver by either party of any breach or default hereunder shall be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default.
11. Copyright and Copyright Agent
Blottr respects the rights of all copyright holders and in this regard, Blottr has adopted a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of users and account holders who infringe the rights of copyright holders. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide Blottr the following information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 512:
A physical or electronic signature of a person authorised to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
Identification of the copyright work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
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 us to locate the material;
Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact the complaining party;
A statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorised to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
These Terms of Service were last updated on January 28, 2010.
