PRI.org Complete Terms of Service and User Agreement

PRI.org is owned and operated by Public Radio International (“Public Radio International,” "Website," "PRI," "PRI.org," “we,” or “us”). PRI provides a powerful new way to consume, share and engage with news, content and ideas happening around the world. These terms of use (this “Agreement”) govern your access to and use of our mobile services, websites including without limitation any website displaying or linking to this Agreement, live stream, RSS feeds, APIs and any software provided on or in connection with the PRI service (collectively the “Service”), so please read the Agreement carefully before using the Service.

By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by this Agreement and by our Privacy Policy, whether or not you are a registered user of our Service. This Agreement applies to all visitors, users and others who access the Service, whether by visiting a website, subscribing to our RSS feeds, using our APIs, or downloading, installing, or using our software our mobile applications, or otherwise (collectively “Users”). PRI encourages an open exchange of information and ideas and believes it is absolutely possible for people with varied points of view to discuss issues in a civil manner.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICE INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE PRI.ORG WEBSITE. PRI MAY TERMINATE YOUR ACCESS TO THE SERVICE AT ANY TIME, FOR ANY REASON, WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. THIS AGREEMENT CONTAINS A MANDATORY ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES PROVISION THAT REQUIRES THE USE OF ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS TO RESOLVE DISPUTES, RATHER THAN JURY TRIALS OR CLASS ACTIONS, AND ALSO LIMITS THE REMEDIES AVAILABLE TO YOU IN THE EVENT OF A DISPUTE.

In General

Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, all materials displayed by the Service, including but not limited to text, photographs, images, illustrations, data, graphics or other content (“Materials”) are owned by PRI or its licensors or other affiliates, and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. When you view or use these Materials, they are provided to you by PRI under a revocable, non-commercial, non-exclusive, personal license to view the displayed Material. PRI or its licensors or other affiliates retain full right to and title in the Materials. You may not copy, publish, redistribute or sell any of the Materials, nor may you reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise convert such Materials to any other form. You acquire no rights or license whatsoever in the Materials except as expressly set forth in this Agreement.

As a condition of your use of the Service, you agree that you will not use the Service for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices, including without limitation, you may not (and may not authorize any party to):  (i) co-brand, (ii) frame (iii) cache, (iv)  stream, (v) parse, (vi) scrape (or use bots, spiders, or other automated tools to collect or index) (vii) re-display (viii) rebroadcast, (ix) embed, (x) display advertisements (whether banner ads, interspatial ads, native ads, or otherwise) in conjunction with or in relation to, or (xi) otherwise store, reproduce, or distribute, the Service or Material without the express prior written permission of an authorized representative of PRI. For purposes of this Agreement, “co-branding” means to display a name, logo, advertisement, trademark, or other means of attribution or identification of any party in such a manner as is reasonably likely to give a user the impression that such other party has the right to display, publish, or distribute the Service or Material accessible within the Service.  You also may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials, content, or information through any means not intentionally made available or provided for through the website(s).  

You agree to cooperate with PRI in causing any prohibited act to cease. In addition, you may not use PRI Service in any manner which could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Service or any part thereof, or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the Service. 

Access and Use of the Website

To gain access to any non-public areas of the Service and/or to use certain social networking tools available on the Service, you must register for an account (“Account”) and obtain a user name (“User Name”). You agree to register only a single User Name in connection with the Service, unless granted written permission by Service staff or as required by the Service. Each Account and User Name are for a single user only. You are not allowed to share your Account and User Name or give your login credentials to anyone else. PRI may cancel or suspend your access to the Service if you share your Account and/or User Name.

Once PRI has issued a User Name for your Account, you may, to the extent allowed on the Service, set up a member profile (“Profile”). User Names and Profiles may not contain inappropriate or obscene words, phrases, or combinations of graphics, or any other content that reasonably would be construed as offensive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, racist, inappropriate or objectionable. PRI is the sole judge of whether a User Name or Profile information is inappropriate or objectionable. “Inappropriate” and “objectionable” language includes, but is not limited to obscene, defamatory, racial or profane words, phrases or combinations of characters. Your User Name and Profile may not contain words, phrases, or combinations of characters that are likely to confuse or mislead others into believing that you are affiliated with any third party with which you are not, in fact, affiliated. Although your User Name need not reveal your identity, you are required to provide truthful and complete disclosure of your name, the entity you represent (if applicable) and the address and phone number where you can be reached, if requested. Failure to provide this information or providing false information may result in termination of your Account and right to access the non-public areas of the Service. You must use a password in conjunction with your User Name to access the non-public areas of the , including your Account, and to use certain social networking tools available on the Service. You may select the password yourself. You must provide accurate identification to retrieve a password you have forgotten. PRI will not be responsible or liable for any damage caused by disclosure of your password or your inability to remember your password.

At any time, and in its sole discretion, PRI can remove any User Generated Content (as defined below) for any or no reason, including without limitation User Generated Content that it deems objectionable, including, but not limited to, User Generated Content that is racist, sexist, potentially libelous, defamatory, malicious, profane, copyright-protected or otherwise containing third-party intellectual property, off-topic, disrespectful to other users, consists of inflammatory attacks of a personal nature, factually incorrect, used to identify anonymous users, incendiary to violence or other criminal activity or commercial advertisements. In addition to removing your objectionable User Generated Content, PRI also may ban you from accessing the Service. If PRI bans you from the Service, for any reason, in PRI's sole discretion, you may not return to the Service under any circumstances and you may not register under a different User Name and/or Account. If you return to the Service or attempt to return to the Service after PRI has banned you from access, you will be deemed to have breached this Agreement, and PRI reserves the right to pursue all rights and remedies available to it at law or in equity with respect to such breach.

Notwithstanding these rights, you remain solely responsible for the content of your User Generated Content. You acknowledge and agree that neither PRI nor any third party that provides Materials to PRI will assume or have any liability for any action or inaction by PRI or such third party with respect to any User Generated Content. Although PRI may from time to time monitor or review any User Generated Content, PRI is under no obligation to do so and assumes no responsibility or liability arising from the posting of any User Generated Content, nor for any error, defamation, libel, slander, omission, falsehood, obscenity, pornography, profanity, danger or inaccuracy contained in any information contained within any User Generated Content. PRI does, however, reserve the right to remove any User Generated Content a user brings to PRI's attention.

PRI cautions you against giving out any personally identifying information about yourself or your children in any User Generated Content. PRI does not control or endorse the content, messages, or information found in any User Generated Content and, consequently, PRI specifically disclaims any liability with respect to the User Generated Content and any actions resulting from your participation in any User Generated Content. 

Sharing Content and Information on the Website

You hereby grant to PRI an irrevocable license to reproduce, distribute, display, publish, use and prepare derivatives of all remarks, comments, blog posts, suggestions, ideas or other information that you communicate through or on the Service (“User Generated Content”). You acknowledge and agree that PRI may edit, remove, modify, publish, transmit and/or display your User Generated Content in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed and you waive any rights you may have in such User Generated Content being removed, altered or changed in a manner not agreeable to you. PRI and its designees will be free to copy, publish, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use your User Generated Content for any and all commercial or noncommercial purposes, without any obligation to compensate you or others for the User Generated Content. You further agree that PRI may use your name, likeness,  pseudonym, avatar, or other information related to your identity and provided to PRI through the Service in conjunction and in relation to your User Generated Content.  PRI will not be required to treat any User Generated Content as confidential. If you delete your User Generated Content, you understand that it may still exist in backup copies and may still be otherwise used by PRI. When you publish User Generated Content on the Website, you understand that such User Generated Content may be publicly available on the Internet and that PRI has no responsibility for or control over any use or further dissemination thereof.

For all User Generated Content that you supply, you represent and warrant that: (i) you have all rights necessary to distribute and publish such User Generated Content; (ii) that if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, that you have either (a) received permission from your employer to post or make available the content under the terms of this Agreement, or (b) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the content; (iii) you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the content; (iv) that it does not contain or install any viruses, worms, Trojan horses or any other harmful or destructive code; (v) that it is not and does not contain spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing); (vi) that it is not libelous or defamatory, does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party; and (vii) that it does not contain any false statements. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless PRI from any liability that it may incur as a result of your User Generated Content including without limitation all investigation fees, attorneys’ fees, expert fees, losses, costs, judgments, awards, and settlements related thereto.

Any user who believes that any User Generated Content is in violation of this Agreement is encouraged to flag for removal the relevant post or posts. PRI has the ability to remove objectionable User Generated Content and may make reasonable efforts to do so.

Intellectual Property

Other than as expressly allowed herein, you may not modify, copy, distribute, reproduce, download, cache, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer or sell any information, User Generated Content (other than User Generated Content supplied by you) or Materials obtained from the Website. Provided that you do not modify or delete any copyright or other proprietary notices, you may display and electronically copy, download and print hard copy portions of the Materials and User Generated Content contained on the Website, but only for your own personal, noncommercial use. Any other use is strictly prohibited.  All rights not explicitly granted in this Agreement are reserved by PRI.

Except for your own User Generated Content, you acknowledge that all intellectual property rights and other legal means of ownership in the Materials and User Generated Content residing on the Website remain with PRI, its licensors, affiliates, other Service users and third party developers. The trademarks, logos, and service marks displayed on the Website, including but not limited to the marks “PRI” and “PRI's The World” (collectively, “Marks”), are owned by PRI or its affiliates. Nothing contained on the Service shall be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any Marks displayed on the Service without the express written permission of PRI. The misuse of Marks displayed on the Service, or any other content on the Service, is strictly prohibited.

Avatars

PRI operates certain portions of the Service that allow users to upload an avatar image to their Profile. The user must hold the copyright or have the express permission of the copyright holder to use the relevant avatar image. Avatar images must not contain any graphic images and/or otherwise be objectionable. PRI may remove such avatar image without notice to the user for any or no reason, including without limitation if the avatar image does not meet those standards or is otherwise a violation of copyright or any term of this Agreement, as determined solely by PRI. Further, if a user wishes to upload a new avatar image after such an image has been removed, the user must contact PRI and request that avatar privileges be restored. 

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY

PRI MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE SERVICE OR MATERIALS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ABOUT ANY USER GENERATED CONTENT, ALERTS, RSS FEEDS, LIVE STREAM, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OF PRI OR ITS VENDORS, AFFILIATES, LICENSORS OR USERS. THE SERVICE AND THE MATERIALS, USER GENERATED CONTENT, ALERTS, RSS FEEDS, LIVE STREAM, INFORMATION, AND PRODUCTS ON THE SERVICES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, AUDIO, VIDEO, DATA, TEXT, GRAPHICS AND LINKS, ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW, PRI DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE, FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUS, AND WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR COURSE OF PERFORMANCE. PRI DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED ON THE WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE WEBSITE OR THE SERVERS THAT MAKE THE WEBSITE AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. PRI DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OF THE MATERIALS, USER GENERATED CONTENT, ALERTS, RSS FEEDS, PRODUCTS, INFORMATION, AND LIVE STREAM ON THE SERVICE IN TERMS OF THEIR COMPLETENESS, CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, ADEQUACY, USEFULNESS, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY OR OTHERWISE. IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE, YOU (AND NOT PRI) ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION RELATED TO OR CAUSED BY THE SERVICE. IN CERTAIN STATES, THE LAW MAY NOT PERMIT THE DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL PRI BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, EVEN IF PRI HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, WHETHER IN AN ACTION UNDER CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE, INABILITY TO USE, OR PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICE AND ANY INFORMATION, SERVICES, PRODUCTS, MATERIALS, USER GENERATED CONTENT, ALERTS, LIVE STREAM OR RSS FEEDS AVAILABLE FROM THE WEBSITE. THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, OR THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless PRI, its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors and suppliers from and against all losses, expenses, damages, judgments, awards, settlements and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, expert fees, investigative fees, and court costs, resulting from any violation of this Agreement, your User Generated Content or any activity related to your Account or your use of the Service (including, but not limited to, negligent or wrongful conduct), by you or any other person accessing the Service using your Account.

Links to Third Party Content

The Services may provide access to other websites, applications, software, services, or content (collectively “Third Party Content”). PRI does not control any such Third Party Content, and you access them solely at your own risk. PRI also does not endorse or approve any products or information offered in Third Party Content you reach through the Service. Check the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address provided in your Internet browser to determine if you are still on the PRI website or have moved to another website, and whether you remain in PRI’s application, software or service or have moved to Third Party Content.

Purchases and donations

Certain aspects of the Service may allow you to make a donation or purchase merchandise for a fee.

All information that you provide in connection with a purchase or transaction or other monetary transaction interaction with the Service must be accurate, complete and current. You agree to pay all charges incurred by users of your credit card, debit card or other payment method used in connection with a purchase or transaction or other monetary transaction interaction with the Service at the prices in effect when such charges are incurred. You will pay any applicable taxes, if any, relating to any such purchases, transactions or other monetary transaction interactions.

Jurisdiction

PRI controls and operates the Serviced from its headquarters in Minnesota. PRI does not warrant that the Service is appropriate for use outside of the United States. You may not export the Materials or Service in violation of U.S. export laws. Any claim relating to the Service or Materials shall be governed by the substantive laws of the State of Minnesota, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions, and you agree that jurisdiction and venue in any legal proceeding arising out of or relating to any of the foregoing shall be exclusive in the state court located in Hennepin County, Minnesota or the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota located in Minneapolis.

Modification of the Website and this Agreement

By providing Service and Materials, PRI does not promise that the Materials and/or Services will remain available to you. PRI is entitled to terminate all or any portion of the Service or to modify or remove any or all of the Materials at any time, without notice to you. PRI also reserves the right to change the terms under which the Services and Materials are offered, and your use of the Services or Materials following any such changes shall be deemed to constitute your consent to this Agreement and its modifications.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY

PRI has adopted the following general policy for copyright and intellectual property infringement in accordance with general U.S. intellectual property laws and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). PRI will respond to notices of this form from jurisdictions outside the U.S. The address of PRI Designated Agent to Receive Notifications of Claimed Infringement ("Designated Agent") is listed below:

Executive Editor, PRI.org

Public Radio International

401 2nd Avenue N., Suite 500

Minneapolis, MN 55401

copyright@pri.org

PRI may respond to a proper notice by (i) removing or disabling access to any Materials or User Generated Content claimed to be the subject of infringing activity; and (ii) removing and discontinuing the Service to repeat offenders. If PRI removes or disables a Service user’s access in response to such a notice, PRI will make a good-faith attempt to contact the allegedly infringing user so that such user may submit a counter notification.

 A. Procedure for Reporting Copyright or Intellectual Property Infringements:

If you materially misrepresent that any Materials or User Generated Content on the Service is infringing your intellectual property, you may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees). If you are not sure whether the Materials or User Generated Content infringe upon your intellectual property, please contact an attorney before contacting PRI.

If you believe that any Materials or User Generated Content residing on or accessible through the Service infringes a copyright or other intellectual property right, to provide PRI of notice of such infringement, you must send a written notice of the infringement to the Designated Agent listed above 

B.  Infringement Notification. 

Your notice must specify the type of infringement and include the following information:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or intellectual property right that has been allegedly infringed (by email, fax or regular mail);

2. Identification in sufficient detail of the material being infringed, including any relevant patent, copyright or trademark registration number;

3. Identification of the Materials or User Generated Content that are claimed to be infringing the identified intellectual property. Include information regarding the location of the infringing Materials or User Generated Content with sufficient detail so that PRI is capable of finding and verifying its existence;

4. Contact information about the notifier including the name of the intellectual property owner, the name and title of the person contacting PRI on the owner's behalf, the address, telephone number and, if available, e-mail address;

5. A statement that the notifier has a good faith belief that the Materials or User Generated Content is not authorized by the intellectual property or copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and

6. A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information provided is accurate and the notifying party is authorized to make the complaint on behalf of the intellectual property or copyright owner.

When removing allegedly infringing Materials or User Generated Content from the Service, PRI will make reasonable attempts to inform the Service user of the removal, the reason for the removal, and may provide the Service user with a copy of the notice and the notifying party’s contact information.

C. Removal of Allegedly Infringing Material

Once a proper Infringement Notification is received by the Designated Agent, PRI may remove or disable access to the Materials or User Generated Content infringing the identified intellectual property. If PRI removes or disables access to any Materials or User Generated Content in response to an infringement notice, PRI will make reasonable attempts to notify the Service user that PRI has removed or disabled access to the Materials or User Generated Content. Repeat offenders may have all User Generated Content removed from the Service and PRI may terminate such users’ access to the Website.

D. Procedure to Submit a Copyright Counter-Notice to the Designated Agent

If you materially misrepresent that your User Generated Content is not infringing the intellectual property identified in the Infringement Notification, you may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees). Therefore, if you are not sure whether or not your User Generated Content infringes the identified intellectual property, please contact an attorney before contacting PRI.

If you believe that your User Generated Content that was removed or to which access was disabled is not infringing a third party’s intellectual property right, you must send a counter-notice, pursuant to §512(g)(2) and (3) of the DMCA. Please do not re-post the User Generated Content at issue yourself. The counter-notice must contain the following information to the Designated Agent listed below.

1. Your physical or electronic signature (by email, fax or regular mail);

2. Identification of the User Generated Content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the User Generated Content appeared before it was removed or disabled;

3. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the you have a good faith belief that the User Generated Content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the User Generated Content;

4. Your name, address, telephone number, and, if available, e-mail address and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal Court for the judicial district in which the complaining User’s address is located, or if your address is located outside the United States, for any judicial district in which PRI is located, and that you will accept service of process from the complaining User who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

If a counter-notice is received by the Designated Agent, PRI may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that PRI may replace the removed User Generated Content or cease disabling it in ten (10) business days. Unless the copyright or intellectual property owner files an action seeking a court order against the allegedly infringing Website user, the removed User Generated Content may be replaced or access to it restored in ten (10) to fourteen (14) business days after receipt of the counter-notice, at PRI's discretion.

Please contact PRI's Designated Agent to submit Infringement Notifications and Copyright Counter-Notices at the following address:

Executive Editor, PRI.org

Public Radio International

401 2nd Avenue N., Suite 500

Minneapolis, MN 55401

copyright@pri.org

PRI may revise this Agreement at any time by updating this posting.  You may be subject to additional terms and conditions for using the Service as presented to you in writing by PRI.

Last Modified:  September 3, 2014

Unless otherwise noted, all contents of PRI’s Service including this Agreement are Copyright © 2014 Public Radio International, All rights reserved.