Terms and Conditions

These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) apply when you visit or use a website, service, mobile application, or other content (collectively, the “Site”) provided by The Simons Foundation, Inc. and any of our subsidiaries, partners or affiliates (“Simons Foundation ”, “Foundation”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) that link or refer to these Terms.

Please read the Terms carefully before you start to use the Site. By using the Site, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by these Terms and our Privacy Policy, found at https://www.simonsfoundation.org/privacy-policy-online-publications/, incorporated herein by reference. If you do not want to agree to these Terms or the Privacy Policy, you must not access or use the Site.

Future Changes To These Terms

These Terms may change at any time in our sole discretion, and you should review them regularly.  Amendments to these Terms will become effective immediately when posted to the Site unless otherwise specified and apply to all access to and use of the Site thereafter.  Your use of the Site after the effective date of any updated Terms posted on the Site constitutes your consent to the updated Terms.

Accessing the Site

We reserve the right to withdraw or amend this Site, and any service or material we provide on the Site, in our sole discretion without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason if any part of the Site is unavailable at any time or for any period. From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of the Site, or the entire Site, to users, including registered users.

Copyright

All content included on this Site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, videos, data compilations, and software, is owned by us or our content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws (“IP Laws”). The compilation of all content on this Site is our exclusive property unless otherwise noted and is protected by United States and international IP Laws. All software used on this Site is owned by us or our software suppliers and is protected by United States and international IP Laws.

These Terms permit you to use the Site for your personal, non-commercial use only. You must not reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store, or transmit any of the material on our Site, other than as permitted by law.

You must not access or use for any commercial purposes any part of the Site or any services or materials available through the Site. If you print, copy, modify, download, or otherwise use or provide any other person with access to any part of the Site in breach of the Terms, your right to use the Site will stop immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. No right, title, or interest in or to the Site or any content on the Site is transferred to you, and all rights not expressly granted are reserved by Simons Foundation. Any use of the Site not expressly permitted by these Terms is a breach of these Terms and may violate United States and international IP Laws.

Trademark

The trademarks, logos, and service marks (“Marks”) displayed on the Site are our registered trademarks or registered trademarks of our affiliates, licensors or third-party content providers (“collectively, the “Mark Holders”), are our property or the property of Mark Holders, and are protected by United States and international IP Laws. Their uses are restricted to this Site and those publication, programs and events sponsored by us, and our Marks may not be used for personal financial gain.

Use of the Marks is prohibited without our express written consent, except as permitted by applicable laws. Nothing contained on the Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use the Marks without our express written consent.

At times, we may grant limited-use licensing agreements to individuals or groups who wish to help further our mission. Solely at our discretion, limited permission for use of our Marks may be granted for particular projects that provide a substantial benefit to us.

Content Posted By Users

“Content” is content or information (including text, images, video, and audio) submitted or posted by users of the Site to the public areas of the Site. Any Content you post to the Site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. By submitting Content, you grant to us, subject to our Privacy Policy, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free right to store, host, reproduce, create derivate works of, publish, publicly perform, display, use and distribute such Content. You also grant us the right to sub-license these rights and the right to sue for infringement of these rights. All these intellectual property rights are reserved. (This license only applies to Content you publicly post to the Site — it does not apply to any personally identifiable information you supply when you, for example, create an account, or sign up for an event, which is used and protected in accordance with our Privacy Policy.)

You understand and acknowledge that you are responsible for any Content you submit or contribute, and you have full responsibility for such Content, including its legality, reliability, accuracy, and appropriateness. We are not responsible or liable to any third party for the content or accuracy of any Content posted by you or any other user of the Site.

Discussion Policy For Content Posted For Users

Our digital community channels provide a place where ideas and content can be shared, and conversation can flow freely and respectfully. We encourage you to join the conversation. Below are our guidelines for communicating on these channels.

In general, we do not control, pre-approve, or monitor content submitted by our community members. Nevertheless, we nonetheless retain the right (but not the obligation) to monitor, refuse to post, or delete any Content available through the Site.

Posts or discussions by community members in no way reflect our views.

By posting any Content, you are agreeing that you will follow these guidelines, as well as the rest of these Terms, and that we may use your Content to promote our work and as described further herein.

We may remove or block Content and/or block users from our pages if we consider Content to be in any way inconsistent with or harmful to the purpose of the community, including:

  • Content that is profane, obscene, vulgar, defamatory, abusive, threatening, false, misleading, offensive, derogatory or discriminatory (including comments about sex, age, race, sexual orientation, political or religious affiliation), or otherwise inappropriate;
  • Spam;
  • Use of names or photographs of individuals without their permission or Content that otherwise invades confidentiality or privacy interests;
  • Promotion of any advertisement for products, services, or causes, or solicitation of funds;
  • Any Content that is an invasion of privacy, a breach of any data protection principle or legislation, a malicious falsehood or seditious libel, a contempt of court, or that is likely to incite or is capable of inciting violence, racial hatred, sadism or cruelty or that encourages any unlawful or illegal act or omission;
  • Impersonating anyone else, whether a public figure, a member of our staff, a forum moderator, administrator or host, or another visitor of this Site;
  • Content that infringes copyright or any other intellectual property rights; or
  • Any other content that we believe, in our sole discretion, violates the spirit or letter of these guidelines or any other provision in these Terms.

By posting Content, you further agree that:

  • We bear no responsibility for its accuracy, appropriateness, or quality;
  • You must evaluate and bear all risks associated with any Content you post, including the risks of any intellectual property or other legal claims related to the Content;
  • We will be in no way liable for any Content or any consequences of its inclusion or omission and that there is no implication that any Content posted by users on the Site is in any way endorsed or approved by us; and
  • You have no recourse against us if we, in our sole discretion, post, refuse to post, delete, or refuse to delete, any Content submitted by users.

Privacy and Protection of Personal Information

Please see our Privacy Policy which describes how we manage and protect personal information. Our Privacy Policy is incorporated into these Terms.

Links from This Website

We make no representation, warranty or endorsement, express or implied, as to any of the information, services, products or messages on any other websites which may be accessed through a hyperlink on this Site. In particular, these links are provided for convenience of reference only and are not intended as an endorsement by us of the organization or individual operating the website or a warranty or endorsement of any type regarding the website or the information, services, products or messages posted on or available from such website. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of the third-party websites linked to this Site, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such websites.

Linking from Other Websites

We may grant the owner of a website permission to use a hyperlink to this Site from its website, provided: (a) any such link must clearly be marked with a credit to us; (b) the appearance, position and other aspects of either the link or the host website may not be such as to damage or dilute the goodwill associated with our name and our Marks; (c) the appearance, position and other aspects of either the link or the host website may not create the false appearance that any other entity is associated with or sponsored by us; and (d) the link, when activated by a user, must display this website full-screen and not with a “frame” on the linked website. The owner of any website with a hyperlink to this Site agrees to the foregoing terms and agrees to delete any such link upon notice from us that such permission has been revoked, which notice may be given at any time and for any reason. If these Terms are inconsistent with any separate agreement between you and us with respect to syndication of content and/or other use of a hyperlink to this Site, the terms of that separate agreement will control.

Prohibited Uses

As a condition of using the Site, you agree that you will not use the Site in any way that is prohibited by law or these Terms. These prohibitions include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • You must not use our Site in any way that may damage, overburden, or impair the Site or its availability, including any denial-of-service or similar attacks;
  • You must not use the Site in any way that is illegal, fraudulent or harmful or related to any illegal, fraudulent or harmful activity (including, without limitation, any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the US or other countries);
  • You must not use the Site for the purpose of exploiting, harming, or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable information, or otherwise;
  • You must not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site, other accounts, or computers or networks associated with the Site, its users, or us, including but not limited to using another person’s login credentials;
  • You must not use our Site to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material that consists of (or is linked to) any malicious computer software;
  • You must not copy, modify, distribute, sell or lease any part of the Site or its content or its software, nor may you reverse engineer or attempt to extract the source code of that software;
  • You must not conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including, without limitation, scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to our Site;
  • You must not use our Site to send spam, surveys, or any unsolicited commercial communications;
  • You must not use our Site for any purposes related to marketing, research, or any other commercial or organizational purpose without our prior express written consent;
  • You must not engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use or enjoyment of the Site, or which, as determined by us, may harm Simons Foundation or users of the Site, or expose them to liability and
  • You are required to respect the confidentiality and trust of others participating in any community discussion portions of the Site or otherwise posting Content on the Site.

No Warranties

WE DO NOT MAKE ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS OR ENDORSEMENTS WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE) WITH REGARD TO THE SITE, ANY OF THE SITE’S CONTENT, OR ANY MERCHANDISE PROVIDED THROUGH THE SITE OR ON THE INTERNET GENERALLY, AND THE FOUNDATION SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY COST OR DAMAGE ARISING EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FROM ANY SUCH TRANSACTION. IT IS SOLELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO EVALUATE THE RELIABILITY, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS OR USEFULNESS OF ALL SERVICES AND CONTENT PROVIDED THROUGH THE SITE OR ON THE INTERNET GENERALLY. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE SITE WILL BE CORRECTED. THE SITE AND THE CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON THE SITE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES.

YOU ASSUME TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK FOR YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND THE INTERNET. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ANY UPLOADS OR TRANSMISSIONS YOU MAKE MAY BE INTERCEPTED AND USED BY AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD-PARTY AND THAT ALL OF THE RISK ASSOCIATED THEREWITH IS SOLELY YOURS.

You understand that we cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that files available for downloading from the internet or the Site will be free of viruses or other destructive code. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your particular requirements for anti-virus protection and accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to our site for any reconstruction of any lost data. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY A DISTRIBUTED DENIAL-OF-SERVICE ATTACK, VIRUSES, OR OTHER TECHNOLOGICALLY HARMFUL MATERIAL THAT MAY INFECT YOUR COMPUTER EQUIPMENT, COMPUTER PROGRAMS, DATA, OR OTHER PROPRIETARY MATERIAL DUE TO YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SITE OR TO YOUR DOWNLOADING OF ANY MATERIAL POSTED ON IT, OR ON ANY WEBSITE LINKED TO IT.

We shall also have no liability whatsoever for any unavailability of the Site or for any loss of data or transactions caused by planned or unplanned system outages or the resultant delay or non-delivery of information caused by such system outages, or any third-party acts or any other outages of web host providers or the Internet infrastructure and network external to the Site.

Limitation of Liability

Under no circumstances shall we or any other party involved in creating, producing, or distributing the Site be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential damages for loss of profits, good will, use, data or other intangible losses and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract, or otherwise (even if foreseeable and even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages) that result from (i) the use of or inability to use the Site; (ii) the cost of procurement of substitute merchandise and services resulting from any merchandise, data, content or services purchased or obtained or transactions entered into through or from the Site; (iii) unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use or disclosure of your transmissions or data; (iv) statements or conduct of any third-party on the Site; or (v) any other matter relating to the Site. By using the Site, you hereby acknowledge that this paragraph shall apply to all content, merchandise, and services available through the Site.  Some states may not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages.  In such states, liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law. Your sole remedy for any dissatisfaction with the Site or its contents is to stop using the Site or any such content.  This limitation of liability is a part of the bargain between the user and us.

Indemnification for Consequences of User Violations

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold us and our officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors and assigns harmless from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, costs, expenses, liabilities, losses and damages of any kind (including attorney’s fees) resulting from (i) your use, misuse or abuse of the Site, or (ii) your breach of these Terms. You will cooperate as fully as reasonably required in our defense of any claim. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, and you shall not in any event settle any matter without our prior written consent.

Violation of These Terms

You agree that we may, at our sole discretion and without prior notice, terminate your access to the Site if you violate these Terms or for any other reason. You also agree that we may disclose any information we have about you, including your identity, if we determine that such disclosure is needed in connection with any investigation or complaint about your use of the Site or to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you or someone who may be injuring or interfering with our rights or property or the rights of users of the Site.

Governing Law

These Terms and your use of the Site shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the substantive laws of New York, without any reference to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute, controversy or difference which may arise between the parties out of, in relation to or in connection with these Terms is hereby irrevocably submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New York, to the exclusion of any other courts without giving effect to its conflict of laws provisions or your actual state or country of residence. If any of these Terms is (for any reason) held to be unenforceable, illegal or in some other way invalid, the unenforceable, illegal or invalid provision will not affect the remainder of these Terms and they will continue in full force and effect.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms will continue in full force and effect.