Legal

Copyright Notice

The following describes the Copyright Notice for our website.

The entire contents of our website are protected by intellectual property law, including international copyright and trademark laws.  The owner of the copyrights and/or trademarks are our website, and/or other third party licensors or related entities.

You do not own rights to any article, book, ebook, document, blog post, software, application, add-on, plugin, art, graphics, images, photos, video, webinar, recording or other materials viewed or listened to through or from our website or via email or by way of protected content in a membership site.  The posting of data on our website, such as a blog comment, does not change this fact and does not give you any right in the data.  You surrender any rights to your content once it becomes part of our website.

YOU MAY NOT MODIFY, COPY, REPRODUCE, REPUBLISH, UPLOAD, POST, TRANSMIT, OR DISTRIBUTE, IN ANY MANNER, THE CONTENT ON OUR WEBSITE, INCLUDING TEXT, GRAPHICS, CODE AND/OR SOFTWARE.  You must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the original content on any copy you make of the content.  You may not sell or modify the content or reproduce, display, publicly perform, distribute, or otherwise use the content in any way for any public or commercial purpose.  The use of paid content on any other website or in a networked computer environment for any purpose is prohibited.  If you violate any of the terms or conditions, your permission to use the content automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any copies you have made of the content.

You are granted a nonexclusive, nontransferable, revocable license to use our website only for private, personal, noncommercial reasons.  You may print and download portions of material from the different areas of the website solely for your own non-commercial use, provided that you agree not to change the content from its original form.  Moreover, you agree not to modify or delete any copyright or proprietary notices from the materials you print or download.  Also note that any notice on any portion of our website that forbids printing & downloading trumps all prior statements and controls.

As a user, you agree to use the products and services offered by our website in a manner consistent with all applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations.  No material shall be stored or transmitted which infringes or violates the rights of others, which is unlawful, obscene, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable, threatening, defamatory, or invasive of privacy or publicity rights.

Our website prohibits conduct that might constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any law.  Any activity that restricts or inhibits any other user from using the services of our website is also prohibited.  Unless allowed by a written agreement, you may not post or transmit advertising or commercial solicitation on our website.

CHANGE NOTICE: As with any of our administrative and legal notice pages, the contents of this page can and will change over time.  Accordingly, this page could read differently as of your very next visit.  These changes are necessitated, and carried out, in order to protect you and our website.  If this page is important to you, you should check back frequently as no other notice of changed content will be provided either before or after the change takes effect.

COPYRIGHT WARNING: The legal notices and administrative pages on this website, including this one, have been diligently drafted by an attorney.  We have paid to license the use of these legal notices and administrative pages for your protection and ours.  This material may not be used in any way for any reason and unauthorized use is policed via Copyscape to detect violators.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS: If you have any questions about the contents of this page, or simply wish to reach us for any other reason, you may do so by using our Contact information.

Anti-Spam Policy

The following describes the Anti-Spam Policy for our website.

What Is Spam?
Spam is unsolicited email, also known as junk mail (received via email), or UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email).  Virtually all of us have opened the inbox of an email account and found emails from an unknown sender.  By sending email only to those who have requested to receive it, we are following accepted permission-based email guidelines.

What About The Laws Against Spam?

They exist.  However, as with any body of laws, any individual State spam statutes can and will vary.  The spam laws of each State can not only vary, but also have different definitions of unsolicited commercial email.  Additionally, there may be various federal agencies keeping track of spam, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  At the Federal level, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 promulgates some attempt at a coherent and unified approach to unsolicited commercial email.  Ultimately, it would be difficult to enforce spam law violations on any consistent or pervasive basis, so your own vigilance is your own best first line of defense.  Beyond that, we protect you by ensuring that you are 100% in control of whether or not you ever hear from us by email initially or in the future, as detailed in our ìNo Toleranceî policy below.

Our No Tolerance Anti-Spam Policy

WE HAVE A NO TOLERANCE SPAM POLICY.  We do not email unless someone has filled out an “opt in” form or “webform” expressing an interest in our information or products and/or services, or otherwise directly and proactively requesting it.  News of the features and benefits of Membership is spread through advertising, joint venture marketing, and word of mouth, so we are only building relationship with folks who wish to learn more about what we have to offer and willingly subscribe to our content and contact through email.  You are always completely in control of whether you receive email communication from us, and can terminate at any time.

NOTE – Every auto-generated email contains a mandatory unsubscribe link that cannot be removed.  Therefore, each communication carries with it the option to “unsubscribe” and never receive another email communication.

CHANGE NOTICE: As with any of our administrative and legal notice pages, the contents of this page can and will change over time.  Accordingly, this page could read differently as of your very next visit.  These changes are necessitated, and carried out, in order to protect you and our website.  If this page is important to you, you should check back frequently as no other notice of changed content will be provided either before or after the change takes effect.

COPYRIGHT WARNING: The legal notices and administrative pages on this website, including this one, have been diligently drafted by an attorney.  We have paid to license the use of these legal notices and administrative pages for your protection and ours.  This material may not be used in any way for any reason and unauthorized use is policed via Copyscape to detect violators.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS: If you have any questions about the contents of this page, or simply wish to reach us for any other reason, you may do so by using our Contact information.

The following describes the Social Media Disclosure for our website.

Social Media Issue

We live in an interesting time when privacy rights are championed alongside an unprecedented voluntary willingness of people to share their most intimate and superfluous life details with the world, even in places such as our website.  While apparently benign on the surface, the dangers of unrestrained public disclosure of sensitive information is beginning to surface.

Key social media players are being sued for unauthorized or abusive use/misuse of personal information.  Failure to protect and warn are likely going to be focal factors.  Lawsuits are filed seeking damages for statements held to be responsible for people’s death or suicide.  Bloggers presuming to operate under an unfettered freedom of speech or greater latitude offered to members of the press are losing civil cases for defamation, slander, libel, and so on.

As social media rapidly advances to allow more technologically sophisticated and easy dissemination, the simultaneous fallout of revelation without boundaries is mounting.  Thus, a sober approach to the benefits of social media, while sidestepping the perils of imprudent disclosure, can facilitate an enjoyable online experience, without the consequences of excess, in settings such as our own website.

Presence/Scope of Social Media

You should assume that social media is in use on our website.  A simple click of a button to endorse a person, product, or service is building a cumulative profile about you, which you should always assume can be discovered by others.  Attempting to share a website with someone, whether by direct press of a button or else by email forwarding facilitated on a website, you should assume that this may not stop with the intended recipient, and that this can generate information about you that could be seen by a veritable infinite number of people.  Such a domino effect could initiate right here on our website.

Something as simple as a blog comment provides the opportunity for knee-jerk reactions that can become public and may not truly represent a position (at least in strength or severity) that you might hold after a period of more reasoned contemplation.  You should also note that the ease of accessing one site through the login credentials of another, or the use of a global login for access to multiple sites can accumulate  a dossier on you and your online behavior that may reveal more information to unintended parties than you might realize or want.  Any or all of these features could exist on our website at one time or another.

These few examples illustrate some possible ways that social media can exist, though it is not an exhaustive list and new technologies will render this list outdated quickly.  The objective is to realize the reach of social media, its widespread presence on websites in various forms (including this website), and develop a responsible approach to using it.

Protecting Others

You should recognize the fact that divulgences made in and on social media platforms on this website and others are rarely constrained just to you.  Disclosures are commonly made about group matters that necessarily affect and impact other people.  Other disclosures are expressly about third parties, sometimes with little discretion.  What can appear funny in one moment can be tragic in the next.  And a subtle “public” retaliation can have lifetime repercussions.

Ideal use of social media on our website would confine your disclosures primarily to matters pertaining to you, not others.  If in doubt, it’s best to err on the side of non-disclosure.  It’s doubtful the disclosure is so meaningful that it cannot be offset by the precaution of acting to protect the best interests of someone who is involuntarily being exposed by your decision to disclose something on our website (or another).

Protecting Yourself

You should likewise pause to consider the long-term effects of a split-second decision to publicly share private information about yourself on our website.  Opinions, likes, dislikes, preferences, and otherwise can change.  Openly divulging perspectives that you hold today, may conflict with your developing views into the futures.  Yet, the “new you” will always stand juxtaposed against the prior declarations you made that are now concretized as part of your public profile.  While the contents of your breakfast may hold little long-term impact, other data likewise readily shared can have consequences that could conceivably impact your ability to obtain certain employment or hinder other life experiences and ambitions.

As with sharing information about other people, extreme caution should be used before revealing information about yourself.  If in doubt, it’s likely best not to do it.  The short term gain, if any, could readily be outweighed by later consequences.  Finally, you should note that we are not responsible for removing content once shared, and we may not be able to do so.

Restrictions on Use of Social Media Data

You, as a visitor to our website, are not permitted to “mine” social media or other platforms contained herein for personal information related to others.  Even where people have publicly displayed data, you should not construe that as though you have the liberty to capture, reproduce, or reuse that information.  Any use of social media or related platforms on our website are for interactive use only, relevant only during the website visit.

Accuracy of Social Media Data

As any social media platform is built on user-generated content, you should consider this fact in seeking to determine the authenticity of anything you read.  We are not responsible for verifying any user-generated content for accuracy.  A best practices policy would be to view all such content as strictly opinion, not fact.

Potential Issues of Liability

You should also be mindful of the fact that your words could trigger liability for harm caused to others.  While you have the right to free speech, you do not have the right to damage other people.  Under basic principles of tort law, you are always responsible, personally, for situations where either:

1. you were required to act, but did not (i.e. – some “duty of care”)
2. your were required to refrain from acting, but did not (i.e. – slander, defamation, etc.)

These “sins of omission and commission” could cause problems for you, irrespective of whether you assert you are conducting business under the guise of one or more business entities.  Illegal and unethical conduct, when done in the name of a corporation or LLC, is still illegal and unethical conduct.  As it is rarely part of a business plan to engage in illegal and unethical conduct, you are doubtfully operating in any official capacity, but rather, perhaps, leveraging that capacity to effectuate personal wrongdoing.  You should consult a licensed attorney if you wish legal advice as to the (potential) ramification of your situation or legal problems stemming from this website or another.

CHANGE NOTICE: As with any of our administrative and legal notice pages, the contents of this page can and will change over time.  Accordingly, this page could read differently as of your very next visit.  These changes are necessitated, and carried out, in order to protect you and our website.  If this page is important to you, you should check back frequently as no other notice of changed content will be provided either before or after the change takes effect.

COPYRIGHT WARNING: The legal notices and administrative pages on this website, including this one, have been diligently drafted by an attorney.  We have paid to license the use of these legal notices and administrative pages for your protection and ours.  This material may not be used in any way for any reason and unauthorized use is policed via Copyscape to detect violators.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS: If you have any questions about the contents of this page, or simply wish to reach us for any other reason, you may do so by using our Contact information.

Governing Law
This Agreement shall treated as though executed, set in force, and performed in the State of our address on record (ìHome Stateî).  Accordingly, it shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the Home State in terms of those applicable to agreements, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Disputes

Any cause of action by you with respect to our website must be instituted within one (1) year after the cause of action arose or be forever waived and barred. All actions shall be subject to the limitations set forth in these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use.  Any legal claim arising out of or relating to these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use or our website, excluding intellectual property right infringement and other claims by us, shall be settled confidentially through mandatory binding arbitration per the American Arbitration Association commercial arbitration rules.  The arbitration shall be conducted in the Home State.  Each party shall bear one half of the arbitration fees and costs incurred, and each party shall bear its own lawyer fees.  All claims shall be arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party.

Modification

Neither the course of conduct between the parties nor industry trade practice shall act to modify any provision of this Agreement.

Assignability

Our website may assign its rights and duties under this Agreement to any party at any time without notice to you.

Contra Preferentum

The language in these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use shall be interpreted as to its fair meaning and not strictly for or against any party.  Any rule of construction to the effect that ambiguities are to be resolved against the drafting party (i.e. ñ ìcontra preferentumî) shall not apply in interpreting these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use, as the Agreement shall be construed as having been co-authored by the parties.

Severability

Should any part of these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use be held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed as much as possible consistent with applicable law and severability shall apply to the remaining portions, so that they remain in full force and effect.

This Agreement Prevails

To the extent that anything in or associated with our website is in conflict or inconsistent with these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use, these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use shall take precedence.

Waiver

Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use shall not be deemed a waiver of the provision nor of the right to enforce the provision.

Our rights under these Terms of Service and Conditions of Use shall survive any termination of this agreement.

Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.

CHANGE NOTICE: As with any of our administrative and legal notice pages, the contents of this page can and will change over time.  Accordingly, this page could read differently as of your very next visit.  These changes are necessitated, and carried out, in order to protect you and our website.  If this page is important to you, you should check back frequently as no other notice of changed content will be provided either before or after the change takes effect.

COPYRIGHT WARNING: The legal notices and administrative pages on this website, including this one, have been diligently drafted by an attorney.  We have paid to license the use of these legal notices and administrative pages for your protection and ours.  This material may not be used in any way for any reason and unauthorized use is policed via Copyscape to detect violators.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS: If you have any questions about the contents of this page, or simply wish to reach us for any other reason, you may do so by using our Contact information.