The American Critic Terms of Use
We want to thank you for visiting The American Critic, hereafter referred to as TAC, and would like you to know that we value your involvement with and contributions to TAC a great deal. The following Terms of Use set forth the legal terms all TAC users, guests, and registered members are bound by upon use of TAC and its affiliated services. Guests are defined as persons that visit the site with or without intention that have not registered for a member account. Only persons that have read and agree to abide by all of the terms and conditions within this agreement are authorized to use TAC. If you do not agree with or refuse to read these Terms of Use, you should leave the TAC Web site immediately and discontinue all forms of use concerning or associated with TAC and its affiliates. Acceptance of these Terms of Use, in conjunction with our Privacy Policy, is required in order to complete registration and obtain TAC membership.
The Terms of Use presented below outline TAC's requirements for acceptable use of its services. These Terms of Use do not reflect terms of use regarding any third-party entity or service that you may encounter through your TAC experience, and we strongly recommend contacting any third party that you may encounter with regards to their policies and terms of use.
Be sure to revisit this document regularly to be informed of any changes to TAC's Terms of Use. This document was last updated on 28 March 2009.
Eligibility
In order to be eligible for use of TAC services, you MUST (1) be 18 years of age or older, (2) provide accurate and truthful information as requested by TAC for registration and other voluntarily elected services, (3) refrain from using TAC services in support of any illegal or unauthorized activities, (4) agree not to transfer or temporarily allow another person to control your account for any reason, and (5) accept, agree with, and abide by the following warning:
WARNING: TAC contains user-contributed content, which may at times be explicit or offensive in nature. As a consenting adult, you agree to use TAC at your own risk and affirm that TAC, its affiliates and owners, shall not be held responsible for any damages suffered through your voluntary use of TAC.
TAC's eligibility requirements remain in effect indefinitely. Violation of these requirements may result in deletion of your account and previously submitted content.
Account Deactivation
If TAC deems that your account has violated its user eligibility requirements, your account may be deleted without notice; however, if such occurs, you are welcome to inquire regarding your violation of the Terms of Use. To voluntarily deactivate a TAC account, please send us a message using the "Contact Us" link located on TAC's Home page. TAC may request additional information to verify the authenticity of the request.
Profile Maintenance
Members are solely responsible for their profiles and the information publicly offered through such. Passwords should be kept confidential, and any unlawful or unauthorized use of a member account, or suspicion of such, should be immediately reported to TAC.
Treatment of Unsolicited Ideas
For any ideas to be considered by TAC, they must be solicited through the appropriate channels which begin with you inquiring about the process of doing such via the TAC Contact Us page or through e-mail at info@theamericancritic.com. Neither TAC nor any of its employees or affiliates accept or consider unsolicited ideas pertaining to processes, advertising, or any other matters relevant to TAC. Do not send any ideas, images, documents or anything else offering suggestions to TAC. If a submission is received, then you agree to the following terms: 1. Your ideas will automatically become TAC's property without compensation or acknowledgement to you, and 2. TAC may use the submission contents in any way or dispose of or solicit such as desired.
User-Submitted Content Rights and Usage
We greatly value your intellectual property contributions to TAC. TAC does not own or claim to own rights of user-submitted content, and content found on TAC does not reflect the opinions or policies of TAC. As a TAC user, you retain the rights to any content you choose to submit. By submitting user-submitted content in any form, not limited to articles, critiques, and other supported media, you hereby grant TAC the rights, through a non-exclusive, fully-paid, royalty-free license, to present and distribute your content in any way, shape, or form desired by TAC, not limited to the form of Web content, printed content, television and other media types. As a part of this agreement, TAC's license to use your content also permits TAC to copyedit and format your content as TAC deems necessary in order to best support the presentation media and distribution of your content. TAC is not required to pay you for the use your content in TAC services and as a condition of the license reserves the right to include your content in for-profit, TAC media publications. When publishing user content in TAC media publications outside of the TAC Web site, such within the TAC circular which is distributed via U.S. Mail, an attempt will be made to contact the content owner. However if consent cannot be obtained with 15 days of initial efforts, it is assumed that TAC may include your content within such media publications. Users may retract the license granted to TAC through content submission by requesting such through either the TAC "Contact Us" link located on the Home page or by sending an e-mail to info@theamericancritic.com. In reply, further information may be requested to verify the authenticity of the request.
Be cautioned, we may disclose content if we believe it is appropriate for the purposes of cooperating with law enforcement to prevent fraudulent or illegal activity. Examples of predicaments warranting information disclosure include those involving, but not limited to, warrant, subpoena, court order, levy, attachment, as well as other legal processes, such as civil action from private parties. You agree to pay for all royalties, expenses, damages, and fees incurred by TAC and owed to other parties resultant from content that you submitted.
In addition, please be cautious of the content that you submit to TAC since it is a part of the World Wide Web and will become publicly available. TAC values your privacy and safety, so please be cautious of disclosing any personal information.
Copyright
All content on TAC, though not necessarily owned by TAC, is copyright protected on behalf of TAC services. No content may be modified, published, distributed, translated, broadcasted, or in any other way dispersed without legal consent from TAC.
Free Use of Content
All content available on TAC, excluding programming code, may be used in compliance with the Fair Use policy described by the U.S. Copyright Office, http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html, which allows material to be used within certain guidelines. Please research these guidelines before attempting to utilize the Fair Use policy. Violations of these guidelines may result in legal action.
Moderation
The American Critic wishes to foster an environment for maximizing discursive dialogue; however, there are some forms of dialogue that obstruct this kind of discussion. The following types of content are prohibited:
- Hate language: This includes racial slurs, sincere threats, and other types of behavior deemed illegal.
- Explicit content: This includes pornography, violence, and other content deemed inappropriate.
- Disclosure of private information: Information deemed private may include social security numbers, driver's license numbers, credit or bank information and more.
- Spam: Spam refers to solicitations of all types as well as other contributions unrelated and non tangible to the topic.
- Plagiarism: This is the result of presenting someone's words or ideas as if they were your own. Plagiarism may be avoided by using "quotations marks" and adding a citation to indicate where the quoted material was borrowed from.
Any user found responsible for submitting prohibited content may have his or her account and content deleted and may have legal action brought against him or her by TAC and other parties or individuals.
Member Conflicts
As a TAC user, you are 100% responsible for the conduct of your interactions with other members. TAC reserves the right to monitor or mediate a conflict, and such a request may be sent via the Contact Us link located on TAC's Home page. However, conflict monitoring and mediation is not a regular service or guaranteed, and in accordance with the principles of free speech in the USA, TAC believes in laissez-faire administration. If TAC discourse causes you discomfort, and has not constituted an illegal or critical activity which must be reported to site admin and the proper authorities, then the best way to avoid such discomfort is by discontinuing use of TAC, or walking away, as the old saying goes. Furthermore, when practicing free speech, be wise and choose your fights.
WARNING: TAC contains user-contributed content, which may at times be explicit or offensive in nature. As a consenting adult, you agree to use TAC at your own risk and affirm that TAC, its affiliates and owners, shall not be held responsible for any damages suffered through your voluntary use of TAC.
Commercial Use
TAC members may NOT use TAC services in anyway that bears a connection to commercial endeavors not endorsed or approved by TAC. Spam, data collection, and distribution of malicious programs are examples of violations of TAC's Term of Use that may result in legal action against the user.
Liability
At The American Critic, we value your use of our services. We shall not, however, be liable for to any member or third party for any damages resulting from your use of TAC's services. In addition, by accepting these Terms of Use, you grant TAC indemnity from any fees, debts, or other damageses resultant from your use of TAC's services.
Conclusion
This Terms of Use document outlines TAC's requirements for acceptable use of its services. Acceptance of these Terms of Use, in conjunction with our Privacy Policy, is required in order to complete registration and obtain TAC membership. In addition, these Terms of Use apply to guests and registered members alike.
Questions/Concerns
Please come back to this page often to see any changes that may occur regarding our Terms of Use. For questions or concerns, please contact: info@theamericancritic.com.