HUBPAGES TERMS OF USE

The effective date of these Terms of Use is November 19, 2009. See the bottom of this page for recent changes to these Terms of Use.

1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS

These terms and conditions ("Terms") govern the use of the HubPages website (the "Website") and all related services provided by YieldBuild, Inc. DBA HubPages (the "Service") and constitute an agreement between you ("You") and YieldBuild, Inc. ("HubPages"). Your use of the Website, and any new services or functionalities that may be made available by HubPages from time to time, is conditioned upon Your acceptance of and continued adherence to these Terms. HubPages reserves the right to alter or revise these Terms at any time by notifying you as provided in these Terms, provided that no notice shall be required for non-substantive changes to the Terms. If we substantively amend this Agreement, we will give you at least seven (7) days notice before the changes take effect, during which period of time you may reject the changes by terminating your account. Your continued use of the Service indicates Your acceptance of any and all revised Terms. HubPages reserves the right to suspend or terminate Your account at any time or discontinue Your access to the Website or the Service or remove your Hubs for any reason.

2. DEFINITIONS AND SERVICE DESCRIPTION

  • "Author": A person that creates an account on the Service.
  • “Author Content”: Any content, including without limitation questions, answers, forum posts, ratings, votes, and Hub comments, that Authors post on the Service other than on the Author's Hub.
  • "Hub": A webpage created via the Website and Service.
  • "Hub Content": Any content, including without limitation text, data, images, video, and links, that an Author posts on the Author's Hub.
  • "HubScore": Scoring system to determine the quality of a Hub and used in programming the Website.
  • "HubTool": Tool for creating a Hub or Hubs.
  • "Service": The services provided by HubPages and via the HubPages Website.

HubPages makes available a HubTool to create Hubs. The Service hosts and serves the Hubs, including the Hub Content, to users of the Service ("Users"). HubPages will program portions of the Hubs created by Authors with information related to other Hubs on the Website. Users can read, rate, send Hubs via email, subscribe to RSS feeds of Hubs, and search for Hubs, as may be permitted by the features and functions of the Service.

The Website is automatically programmed by the HubScore system. Low quality Hubs will not be programmed in the Website. Hubs and Author Content that are determined to be low quality will be removed from the Website.

3. PERMITTED USES

You must register with HubPages and create an Author account in order to create a Hub . Only adults (18 years and over) may register for an Author account. Your Author account gives You access to the services and functionality that we may establish and maintain from time to time and in our sole discretion. You are responsible for any and all activities occurring or content that is posted under Your account. If You discover any unauthorized activity under Your account, please alert HubPages immediately, by sending an email alert to team@HubPages.com.

  • You must do Your best to create high quality Hubs [http://hubpages.com/faq/#what_is_allowed].
  • You are solely responsible for Your Hub Content.
  • You must follow specific guidelines for publishing forum posts, comments, questions and answers, and other content services that are posted on the Service.
  • You may only use Hub Content to which You have the necessary rights, including (but not limited to) intellectual property rights regarding copyright, trademark, and trade secrets. This means, among other things, that You must have permission to use third party content from the content owners.

By giving us Your email address, You grant us permission to send communications from HubPages, such as account creation confirmations, service announcements, administrative messages, and any of the opt-in HubPages newsletters you select to that address. You may opt out of certain email communications from HubPages by following the instructions on the email. You may not opt out of Service-related messages. If You do not want to receive such messages from HubPages, you must cancel Your account.

4. RESTRICTIONS AND PROHIBITIONS ON USE

In Your use of the Website and Service You must abide by the following restrictions and prohibitions on use. As a Website user or Author, You may Not:

  • Publish Hubs or Hub or Author Content that include any content or links that are pornographic, defamatory, libelous, tortious, vulgar, obscene, invasive of privacy, racially or ethnically objectionable, hateful, promotes or provides instructional information about illegal activities, promotes any act of cruelty to animals, or is otherwise offensive.
  • Publish Hubs or Hub or Author Content targeted at children under the age of 13.
  • Use HubPages, the Website or Service to violate any Federal, state or local laws. Your Hubs must comply with all laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content.
  • Hack the Website or modify any Hubs that are not Your own.
  • Link to any worms or viruses or any code of a destructive nature.
  • Link to pages or sites that are unrelated to the topic and content of Your Hub.
  • Remove, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any HubPages Software (as defined below) or use any network monitoring or discovery software to determine the Website architecture.
  • Publish Hubs or Content in breach of a confidentiality or fiduciary obligation You may have.
  • Attempt to automatically redirect Website users to other domains, mislead users of the origins of the Hub Content contained in Your Hubs, or use Your Hubs as storage for remote loading or a door or signpost to a website outside of the Website.
  • Impersonate another Author or any representative or employee of HubPages.
  • Disrupt the HubPages Service, or any servers by embedding code in the Hubs or otherwise attacking the Service.
  • Publish Hubs or Content for any illegal activities or to promote or make solicitations for any illegal or unauthorized activity.
  • Spam any User or mass email any User in an automated fashion.
  • Collect personal identifiable information about the Users of Your Hubs and sell or transfer that information.
  • Use any automatic or manual process to harvest email addresses or other information from the Website.
  • Harass, threaten or intimidate Authors or others who use the Service.
  • Publish Hubs or Content written primarily in a language other than English.
  • Promote gambling or links to sites that promote/offer gambling for money.
  • Display misleading tags, categorizations, and/or titles that don't match the Hub's content, including irrelevant or excessive tagging.
  • Engage in behavior that is overly promotional, including excessive linking to any one site or domain.
  • Engage in behavior designed to manipulate HubScores.

5. DISCONTINUATION OR MODIFICATION OF THE SERVICE

HubPages reserves the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service or any portion thereof at any time, without liability to You or any third party. In addition, HubPages, in its sole discretion, may terminate Your password, account or use of or access to the Service (including Impression services as further described below), and remove and delete any Hubs or Content, for any reason.

6. PROPRIETARY RIGHTS; CONTENT OWNERSHIP

The Service and any software used in connection with the Service ("Software") contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws. Except as expressly authorized by HubPages or advertisers, You agree not to modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on the Service or the Software, in whole or in part. In addition, the content, organization, graphics, design, compilation, magnetic translation, digital conversion and other matters related to the Website and Service are protected under applicable copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary (including, but not limited to, intellectual property) rights. The copying, redistribution, use or publication by You of any such matters or any part of the Website, except as expressly allowed herein or via distribution tools HubPages makes available to Users, such as RSS feeds and widgets, is strictly prohibited. HubPages may at any point make additional software and tools available to Authors in connection with the Service ("Additional Software"). Authors who incorporate such Additional Software into their Hubs may have to agree to additional terms and conditions before using such software, and all rules and obligations outlined in these Terms apply to the ownership and use of such Additional Software.

HubPages does not claim ownership of Your Hub Content or Author Content. Such content will be owned by You or a third party from whom You got permission to post the content. By posting Hub Content on the Service, You grant HubPages a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license, for as long as Your Hub is displayed on HubPages and for a commercially reasonable time thereafter, to reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, modify, adapt and publish the Hub Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Your Hub on or in connection with the Service. By posting Author Content on the Service, You grant HubPages a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license to reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, modify, adapt and publish the Author Content on or in connection with the Service. You may remove Your Hub Content from the Service at your discretion. You may not remove your Author Content from the Service. HubPages may preserve and store Hub Content (including, for a commercially reasonable time, Hub Content you have removed from the Service) or Author Content, and may disclose such content if required to do so by law or if HubPages believes in good faith that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process (e.g., subpoenas); (b) enforce these Terms; (c) respond to claims that any Hub or Content violates the rights of third parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of HubPages, its users and the public.

The Author, and not HubPages, will be fully responsible for all Hub Content or Author Content that is uploaded, posted, transmitted or otherwise made available by the Author on the Service (collectively "User Content"). HubPages cannot guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of User Content. HubPages does not pre-screen User Content, but will have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to refuse or remove any User Content for any reason, including User Content that may violate these Terms, or that is otherwise objectionable. HubPages also cannot take responsibility for anything that Your Hub users may do in reliance on the Hub Content You post in Your Hubs.

7. TRADEMARKS AND SERVICE MARKS

"HubPages," "HubScore," and "Hub" are HubPages service marks or trademarks and protected by applicable laws. Other product and company names mentioned on the Website may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

8. LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

Your Hub and the Website may include links to other sites or resources over which HubPages has no control or responsibility. HubPages does not monitor, investigate or check these sites for accuracy or completeness. As a result, HubPages is not responsible for the content or advertising on such sites, products or other materials which they may provide, such sites' availability, or any damages caused or alleged to be caused in connection with such external websites. All such external websites included as links in Your Hub or accessed by You via the Website is done at Your own risk and with Your own liability.

HubPages may provide pre-built modules that make it easy for You to find and add links to various sites. However, just because HubPages provides these modules does not mean HubPages is responsible for their accuracy. The Author is still responsible for what links he or she elects to put in his or her Hubs or Author Content.

9. EARNING MONEY THROUGH HUBPAGES - IMPRESSION PROGRAM PARTICIPATION

HubPages offers Authors the ability to share in impression ad revenue from third party websites ("Impressions") by assigning an affiliate ID for each third party account to your HubPages account (an "ID"). For example, you can input your Amazon.com (1), Google Adsense (2), eBay Affiliate (3) or Kontera (4) Services information into your HubPages account, and HubPages will share the Impressions with such services through that ID. You are solely responsible for verifying that you have entered a valid ID correctly.

HubPages will rotate Your third party IDs into 60% of the Impressions on the Hubs You create. In order to share in the Impressions, You must have a valid account from the third party provider. Impression sharing is available only for attributable Impressions – that is, Impressions that occur directly on Your Hub. These Impression-sharing services are provided subject generally to these Terms of Service, and in particular the terms in this section. There may also be additional terms imposed by the third parties with whom You choose to do business.

Your use of the Impressions program on the Service constitutes Your agreement to uphold and be subject to these additional terms and conditions, as well as those that may be imposed by third parties with whom You may engage in the course of Your participation in Impression sharing services. By registering with third parties that share ad revenue with Users and inputting that information into the Website, You hereby appoint HubPages as Your exclusive agent to handle all such third party ad-sharing transactions as well as to input your ID into the pages you create. Such third party will hold any revenues generated from the use of the third party services on Your Hubs. Such third party will track all earnings and deliver all payments to You in accordance with Your agreement with such third party.

You may also earn money through HubPages by registering as a user, tying Your IDs to Your HubPages account and then referring people to the Website. If they register, and create Hubs, HubPages will place Your IDs on 20% of the Hubs impressions from the HubPages share that the users You signup create.

All Hubs that are commercial in nature or that link to another site must be set to an ad level of “high.”

HubPages reserves the right to modify the Impression program, including without limitation the percentage share, at any time in its sole discretion. If HubPages changes any significant terms of the Impressions program, HubPages will notify You by email, if reasonably practicable, at least two weeks before any such change occurs. At that point, You will have the option of removing Your Hubs from the Service, or, if your Hub is non-commercial, setting your ad level to “zero,”if You choose to stop working with the Impression services under the new structure.

HubPages integrates with certain third party programs in order to provide the Impressions program. HubPages does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such integration or such third party's website.

By using the Impression services, You acknowledge and agree that HubPages will not be responsible for, and will not be obligated in any manner to repay You for, any lost earnings.

10. PRIVACY POLICY

We care about the privacy of our Users. Click here to view our Privacy Policy. By using the Service, you are consenting to have your personal data collected, used, transferred to and processed in the United States.

11. INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold HubPages and its partners, agents, officers, directors, employees, subcontractors, successors, assigns, third party suppliers of information, attorneys, advertisers and affiliates harmless from any liability, loss, claim and expense, including reasonable attorney's fees, related to your violation of these Terms or use of the Service.

12. DISCLAIMER

THE WEBSITE AND SERVICE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", "AS AVAILABLE", WITH "ALL FAULTS", AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE WEBSITE AND SERVICE MAY CONTAIN BUGS, ERRORS, PROBLEMS OR OTHER LIMITATIONS. HUBPAGES MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION, OR OTHER MATERIAL PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS, OR THAT ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED.

13. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, You expressly understand and agree that HubPages will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from the use or the inability to use the Service or Website, unauthorized access to or alteration of Your Hubs, Content transmissions or data, statements or conduct of any third party on the Service, or any other matter relating to the Service. HubPages also will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from Your failure to comply with the provisions of these Terms.

THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SECTION APPLIES WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER BASIS, EVEN IF HUBPAGES HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION.

The Service is controlled and operated from its facilities in the United States. HubPages makes no representations that the Service is appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who access or use the Service from other jurisdictions do so at their own volition and are entirely responsible for compliance with all applicable United States and local laws and regulations, including but not limited to export and import regulations. You may not use the Service if you are a resident of a country embargoed by the United States, or are a foreign person or entity blocked or denied by the United States government. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, all materials found on the Service are solely directed to individuals, companies, or other entities located in the United States.

14. SECURITY

We have implemented commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration or disclosure. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat those measures or use your personal information for improper purposes. You acknowledge that you provide your personal information at your own risk.

15. THIRD-PARTY LINKS

The Service may contain links to third-party websites, advertisers, services, or other events or activities that are not owned or controlled by HubPages. HubPages does not endorse any such sites or the information, materials, products, or services contained on or accessible through such sites. HubPages has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party websites or services. If you access a third party website from the Service, you do so at your own risk, and you understand that this Agreement and HubPages’s Privacy Policy do not apply to your use of such sites. You expressly relieve HubPages from any and all liability arising from your use of any third-party website or services or third party owned content. Additionally, your dealings with or participation in promotions of advertisers found on the Service, including payment and delivery of goods, and any other terms (such as warranties) are solely between you and such advertisers. You agree that HubPages shall not be responsible for any loss or damage of any sort relating to your dealings with such advertisers.

We encourage you to be aware of when you leave the Service, and to read the terms and conditions and privacy policy of any third-party website or service that you visit.

16. COPYRIGHTS AND COPYRIGHT AGENTS

We respect the intellectual property of others, and we ask you to do the same. If you believe that your content or other work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent the following information in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act:

  • An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
  • A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
  • A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Website;
  • Your address, telephone number, and email address;
  • A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Our Copyright Agent for Notice of claims of copyright infringement via the Service can be reached by following the procedure at http://hubpages.com/help/copyright_infringement

17. GOVERNING LAW

These Terms will be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

18. ENTIRE AGREEMENT

These Terms, together with the HubPages Privacy Policy and any other agreements incorporated by reference in these Terms or entered into between You and HubPages in connection with Your registration as a Author, constitute the entire agreement between You and HubPages and govern Your use of the Service, superseding any prior agreements between You and HubPages. You also may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when You use affiliate or other HubPages services (such as Impression services), third-party content or third-party software.

19. WAIVER

The failure of HubPages to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms will not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

20. ASSIGNMENT

These Terms, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by you, but may be assigned by HubPages without restriction.

21. NOTICES

HubPages may provide notifications, whether such notifications are required by law or are for marketing or other business related purposes, to you via email notice, written or hard copy notice, or through conspicuous posting of such notice on our website, as determined by HubPages in our sole discretion. HubPages reserves the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to our Users, provided that you may opt out of certain means of notification as described in this Agreement. HubPages is not responsible for any automatic filtering you or your network provider may apply to email notifications we send to the email address you provide us. We recommend that you add team@hubpages.com to your email address book to help ensure you receive email notifications from us.

22. DISPUTE RESOLUTION

If a dispute arises during your use of the Service or Website or under these Terms, You agree to abide by the following dispute resolution process, only proceeding to the next step if the previous step has not resolved the issue satisfactorily.

  1. Read our FAQ file posted at http://www.HubPages.com/help to see if Your question has been previously answered.
  2. Send an email to HubPages at: team@HubPages.com describing the nature of the issue.
  3. Send HubPages a letter by registered mail, outlining in detail the problem, steps taken and matters remaining to be resolved to: 95 Minna Street, CA 94105

For any claim (excluding claims for injunctive or other equitable relief) arising in whole or in part from the Service or these Terms where the total amount of the award sought is less than $10,000, the party requesting relief may elect to resolve the dispute through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. The party electing such arbitration shall initiate the arbitration through an established alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") provider mutually agreed upon by the parties. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the following rules: a) the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or be solely based on written submissions, as selected by the party initiating the arbitration; b) the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and c) any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. You agree that all other claims arising in whole or in part from the Service or these Terms shall be decided exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Santa Clara County, California.

1 Amazon.com is the registered trademark of Amazon.com, Inc.

2 Google, and Adsense are the trademarks of Google, Inc.

3 eBay Affiliate is a trademark of eBay, Inc.

4 Kontera is a trademark of Kontera Technologies, Inc.

RECENT CHANGES

November 19, 2009: We made changes throughout the Terms. Please review the amended Terms carefully. Among other things, we clarified the licenses you grant to Hub Content and Author Content, changed the dispute resolution process, and added Sections 14, 15, 20, and 21.

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