1) User’s Acknowledgment and Acceptance of Terms
HotJokes.net (“We” or “Us”) provides the HotJokes web site, various related content, features and services (collectively, the “Site”) to you, the user, subject to your agreement to and compliance with all the terms, conditions, and notices contained or referenced herein (the “Terms of Use”). For the avoidance of doubt, all references to “you” include all Site users unless expressly made in connection with a Site account, in which cases such references to “you” include all Site account holders.
BY USING THIS SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF USE. YOUR AGREEMENT WITH US REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH THESE TERMS OF USE BECOMES EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UPON COMMENCEMENT OF YOUR USE OF THIS SITE.
These Terms of Use are effective as of March 12, 2013. We expressly reserve the right to amend these Terms of Use at any time without notice to you, although we shall endeavor to give notice of any such amendment by adjusting the date as of which the Terms of Use are indicated to be effective, at the bottom of the Site home-page. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Site and these Terms of Use from time to time and in any case upon a change in the indicated effective date, to familiarize yourself with any modifications. Your continued use of this Site after such modifications will constitute your acknowledgement of, and agreement to abide and be bound by, the modified Terms of Use.
2) Description of Services
We may provide various services on or by means of this Site, including but not limited to the aggregation and display of news, entertainment and trivia articles, a virtual forum, e-mail news bulletins, e-mail marketing and other like services.
We reserve the right at our sole discretion to modify, suspend, resume, disable, discontinue and/or remove the Site – including but not limited to any and all of its contents, features, services, your Account, its username and password, your membership and/or any other affiliation with the Site – at any time, for any or no reason, without notice, explanation or recourse. We will not be liable to you or any third party should we exercise such right. Any modified or new Site content, features and/or services shall also be subject to these Terms of Use.
3) Site Account, Registration, Data Privacy and Site Security
In order to access some of the services on this Site, you will be required to use a Site account (“Account”) and password that may be obtained by completing our online registration form, which requests certain personal information and data about you (“Registration Data”), and by maintaining and updating your Registration Data as required.
If and when you submit an e-mail address as part of the Registration Data to create an Account, your submission will constitute the following:
Your express warranty that the e-mail address you submit is your bona fide e-mail address over which you rightfully exercise dominion and control;
Your express consent to the following: the population and storage of your e-mail address, other Registration Data, any other personal data and/or metadata in our opt-in database of willing marketing e-mail recipients; our disclosure of such personal data to our agents, subsidiaries, affiliates and/or other third parties; your willing receipt of marketing e-mails from us, our agents, subsidiaries, affiliates and/or other third parties to the submitted e-mail address.
You acknowledge and agree to the SITE Privacy Policy, which
a) is viewable via the link at the bottom of our SITE home-page: [URL link to HotJokes Privacy Policy;
b) is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety into these Terms of Use;
sets out the types of personal data about you, including your Registration Data, that we may obtain through and about your use of the Site; and
c) governs the manner and extent in which we may collect, process, use and disclose such personal data.
By registering for an Account, you also undertake to verify, and do represent and warrant, that all information provided in the Registration Data is true and accurate and that you undertake to maintain and update this information as required in order to keep it current, complete, and accurate.
You shall securely maintain and keep confidential your Account and password, and you shall exit from your Account at the end of each session. Our personnel will never ask you for your password. You shall not transfer or share your account with anyone.
If you are aware, or it is reasonable to suspect, that your Account username and password or other details have become known to a third party, you shall inform us promptly by email at office @ hotjokes.net
You assume full responsibility for your Account and for any liability or damages arising in connection with any activity, acts or omissions associated with it, including any arising in connection with any failure on your part to adhere to the provisions of the immediately preceding paragraph.
We reserve the right at our sole discretion to restrict access to any and all areas of the Site in its entirety, at any time, for any or no reason, without notice, explanation or recourse.
You shall not use your Account to breach security of another Account or attempt to gain unauthorized access to another network or server. You shall not interfere with anyone else’s use and enjoyment of the Site or other similar services. You shall not use the Site in any way that involves material, conduct and/or potential consequences of the type(s) described in sections 4a to 4g of these Terms of Use. Users who violate systems or network security may incur criminal or civil liability.
You shall 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 website without our express written consent.
You acknowledge that we may cooperate fully with any investigation of system or network security violation(s) at our or other Web sites, including cooperating with law enforcement authorities in investigating suspected criminal violations. You consent to our cooperation in this manner, and to our disclosure of any data arising in connection with your use of the Site that is relevant to such investigation, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
4) General Site and User-generated Content and Conduct
The Site may provide Account holders with the functionality to post their own and interact with others’ comments on the stories featured on the site, related text and other content, in comments sections, chat rooms, message boards, news groups, communications and interactive services and/or other public Site areas (collectively, the “Virtual Forum”).
We disclaim and you assume full and sole responsibility and liability for the content, substance and nature of all your submissions, postings, other User-generated Content (as defined below), communication, participation, interaction and/or any other activity on, with or within any and all sections, areas and aspects of the Site, including but not limited to your Account and the Virtual Forum.
Without limitation to the generality of the foregoing, your access and use of the Virtual Forum is also specifically subject to the following provisions to which you agree.
You shall not write, post, upload, share or otherwise distribute, disseminate or facilitate the distribution or dissemination of any content – including but not limited to text; still or moving images; audio; video; hypertext and/or hyperlinks linking to other content; data, code and/or software constituting and/or manifesting other content (collectively, “User-generated Content”) – that:
a) is, and/or encourages conduct that is, unlawful, likely to give rise to civil liability, inflammatory, seditious, menacing, threatening, offensive, abusive, harmful, discriminatory, harassing, racist, defamatory, libelous, scandalous, deceptive, fraudulent, tortious, vulgar, indecent, obscene, pornographic, contains explicit or graphic descriptions or accounts of sexual acts (including but not limited to sexual language of a violent or threatening nature directed at another individual or group of individuals), or otherwise violates our rules, policies, the rights of other users or any other third parties;
b) is or has been the subject of any reasonably foreseeable, threatened or actual legal proceedings, regulatory or governmental investigation, public inquiry or other similar proceedings.
c) victimizes, harasses, degrades, or intimidates or is liable to incite hatred toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, disability, any other immutable and/or protected characteristic;
d) is invasive or in breach of another’s privacy, confidence and/or privilege;
e) infringes on any right of publicity, patent, trade secret, trademark, copyright, any other intellectual property and/or other proprietary right of any party;
f) consists of or contains advertising, promotional or other marketing material, junk or bulk e-mail (also known as “spamming”), chain letters, any other form of unauthorized solicitation, or any form of lottery or gambling;
g) consists of or contains any adware, malware, spyware, computer virus, logic bomb, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit, corrupted data, malicious software or any other computer code, data, file or program that may, or is designed and/or intended to,
i) disrupt, corrupt, damage, or limit the functioning of any software, hardware, IT system, web site or network, or telecommunications equipment; or
ii) corrupt, damage or obtain unauthorized access to any data or other information of any third party; or
iii) be otherwise technically harmful; or
h) impersonates any person or entity, including any of our employees or representatives.
You hereby agree to indemnify us against any and all loss, liability, damage or expense of whatever nature which we or any third party may suffer that arises directly or indirectly in connection with your use of the Site, including but not limited to posting User-generated Content in the Virtual Forum.
We provide and/or host the Site, including but not limited to THE content OF ARTICLES, the Virtual Forum, User-generated Content, advertising and other content, features and services strictly on an “as is” basis.
With regard to the Site in its entirety – including but not limited to all aspects thereof set out in the immediately preceding sentence, and the substance or nature of any content or conduct therein – we make no endorsements, representations or warranties (whether express, implied in law or residual) about, assume no and disclaim all liability and responsibility for, the accuracy, reliability, completeness, objectivity, sequence, timeliness, appropriateness, integrity, functionality, any other aspects, qualities and/or characteristics of the Site in its entirety.
Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the Site content is provided for general information and entertainment only and not for trading, investing or any other purposes.
You acknowledge and consent that such information may contain inaccuracies and/or errors. The Site, its Virtual Forum, advertising and content are not, and shall not be construed as, advice in any professional, specialist, fiduciary, legal, medical, economic, financial, geo-political or other form, manner or capacity. Any opinions expressed in the Site features, its Virtual Forum or advertising are those of the original sources providing such content and not those of HotJokes.net website.
You shall not rely on the SITE or its content in any manner. In the event that you nevertheless chose to rely on the SITE and/or its content in any manner, you do so entirely at your own risk. We disclaim any and all liability for any and all damages arising out of or in connection with your access, viewing, use of and/or reliance upon the SITE and/or its content.
We assume no and disclaim all responsibility to pre-screen, assess, verify, monitor, edit or control any conduct or content (including User-generated Content) on or within any portion of the Site (including the Virtual Forum).
However, with respect to anything stored on our servers, submitted to, hosted and/or published on the Site, we, our agents and affiliates reserve the right at our sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse, restrict, suspend, disable, remove and/or terminate any content, feature, service, Account or Site access, at any time, for any or no reason, without notice, explanation or recourse. Without limitation to the generality of the foregoing, we may specifically remove any content, restrict, suspend or terminate any Account use or Site access that, in our sole judgment, does not comply with these Terms and Conditions of Use and/or any other rules of user conduct for our Site, or is otherwise harmful, objectionable or inaccurate.
Any suspected fraudulent, abusive or illegal activity may be grounds for content removal, Account or Site access restriction, suspension or termination, referral to law enforcement authorities and/or any other appropriate measures (collectively, “Enforcement Options”). However, we assume no and disclaim all responsibility for any failure or delay in exercising any Enforcement Options.
Upon suspension or termination of your Account and/or Site access, your rights to use the Site and its services cease immediately and entirely, and we may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all related information, data and files in and/or associated with your account, and/or bar any further access to such files or this Site. We shall not be liable to you or any third party for, and you hereby waive, any claims or damages arising out of any such restrictions, suspension, termination, exercise or non-exercise of any Enforcement Options.
Section 7 below determines the procedures to be followed in the event that any party believes that content posted on this Site infringes on any right of publicity, patent, trade secret, trademark, copyright, any other intellectual property and/or other proprietary right(s) of any party.
5) External Links
This Site may include links to other external third party web sites, information and/or resources (“Linked Material”). We do not control any Linked Material, nor are we responsible for any error or omission in any reference to Linked Material, other parties, their products and/or services.
We imply no association with, make no endorsements, representations or warranties (whether express, implied in law or residual) about, assume no and disclaim all liability and responsibility for, the merit, reliability, accuracy, completeness, objectivity, sequence, timeliness, appropriateness, decency, integrity, availability, functionality, legality, regulatory or intellectual property compliance, any other aspects, qualities and/or characteristics of any Linked Material.
Use of or reliance on any Linked Material is entirely at your own risk. When visiting Linked Material links you must refer to that external websites terms and conditions of use.
6) Intellectual Property
The Site may display news, entertainment, advertising and other information content (“Third Party Content”) from external third party sources and providers, whose web sites, terms of use, copyright and/or other policies may provide information, terms and/or conditions governing, licensing, limiting, restricting or otherwise pertaining to your copying, distribution, dissemination, publishing, reproduction or other use of such content.
While you retain any and all rights accruing to you with respect to your User-generated Content, you grant us, our agents and affiliates a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully sub-licensable, royalty-free license to copy, reproduce, edit, adapt, modify, (publicly) display, publish, translate, distribute and otherwise use such content for any purpose in any existing or future form(s) or media.
Without limitation to the generality of the foregoing, we may also preserve and/or disclose any and all User-generated Content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation and/or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce this Agreement; (c) respond to claims that any User-generated Content violates the rights of third-parties; and/or (d) protect the rights, property, and/or personal safety of HotJokes.net, our agents, affiliates, Account holders, other end users and/or the public.
We do not claim ownership of, or intellectual property rights (other than applicable licenses) in, Third Party Content or User-generated Content (collectively, “Excluded Content”).
We do assert and you do acknowledge our ownership of, and any and all intellectual property rights in, all Site content except Excluded Content. Without limitation to the generality of the foregoing, we specifically assert and you do specifically acknowledge our following rights:
a) trademark rights in the HotJokes.net name and logo and all components thereof, all other Site custom graphics, icons and logos;
b) copyright in the Site design, layout, look & feel, appearance, graphics, buttons, icons, logos.
Except to the extent strictly necessary for, and for the purposes of, accessing the Site for personal use only, you may not copy, download, reproduce, modify, republish, upload, post, transmit, or distribute any content or services from this Site (except your own User-generated Content) in any form or by any means without prior written permission from us or the respective content provider, and you are solely responsible for obtaining permission before reusing any copyrighted material that is available on this Site. Nothing in these Terms of Use grants you any right to use any trademark, service mark, logo, and/or the name of HotJokes.net website.
We do not warrant or represent that your use of materials displayed on, or obtained through, this Site will not infringe the rights of third parties.
7) Unauthorized Use of Materials
If you believe your or another’s copyright, trademark or other property rights have been infringed by one or more postings on this Site, you shall promptly send us written notification of the alleged infringement. To be effective, the notification must be made in the following manner:
a) Identify in sufficient detail the work that you believe has been infringed upon or other information sufficient to specify the work being infringed).
b) Identify the material that you claim is infringing the work listed in item #1 above.
c) Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you (email address is preferred).
d) Provide information, if possible, sufficient to permit us to notify the owner/administrator of the allegedly infringing webpage or other content (email address is preferred).
e) Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the [copyrighted or other proprietary right-protected] materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.”
f) Include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the [copyright or other proprietary right] owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.”
g) Sign the paper.
h) Send the written communication for the attention of the Compliance Officer to the following email address: office @ hotjokes.net
You acknowledge and agree that upon receipt of a notice of a claim of copyright infringement, we may immediately remove the identified materials from our Site without liability to you or any other party and that the claims of the complaining party and the party that originally posted the materials will be referred to the United States Copyright Office for adjudication as provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
8) Disclaimer of Warranties
ALL MATERIALS AND SERVICES ON THIS SITE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR THE WARRANTY OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, WE MAKE NO WARRANTY THAT (A) THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (B) THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (C) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICES OR MATERIALS WILL BE EFFECTIVE, ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, OR (D) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, OR INFORMATION PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU FROM THIRD PARTIES APPEARING OR IDENTIFIED ON THE SITE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS OR BE FREE FROM MISTAKES, ERRORS OR DEFECTS.
THIS SITE COULD INCLUDE TECHNICAL OR OTHER MISTAKES, INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. WE MAY MAKE CHANGES TO THE MATERIALS AND SERVICES AT THIS SITE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. THE MATERIALS OR SERVICES AT THIS SITE MAY BE OUT OF DATE, AND WE MAKE NO COMMITMENT TO UPDATE SUCH MATERIALS OR SERVICES.
THE USE OF THE SERVICES OR THE DOWNLOADING OR OTHER ACQUISITION OF ANY MATERIALS THROUGH THIS SITE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND WITH YOUR AGREEMENT THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM SUCH ACTIVITIES.
You may have the opportunities to engage in commercial transactions with other users and vendors appearing or identified on the Site. You acknowledge that all interactions, negotiations and transactions relating to any products or services offered by any party, including but not limited to the purchase terms, payment terms, warranties, guarantees, representations, maintenance terms, delivery terms and any other terms and conditions relating to such transactions, are conducted and/or agreed to solely between the seller or purchaser of such products or services and you. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY REGARDING ANY TRANSACTIONS EXECUTED THROUGH, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS SITE, AND YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT SUCH TRANSACTIONS ARE CONDUCTED ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. ANY WARRANTY THAT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, MATERIALS, OR INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THIS SITE FROM A THIRD PARTY IS PROVIDED SOLELY BY SUCH THIRD PARTY, AND NOT BY US OR ANY OTHER OF OUR AGENTS OR AFFILIATES.
You understand and agree that temporary interruptions of the services available through this Site may occur as normal events. You further understand and agree that we have no control over third party networks you may access in the course of the use of this Site, and therefore, delays and disruption of other network transmissions are completely beyond our control.
You understand and agree that the services available on this Site are provided “AS IS” and that we assume no responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, mis-delivery or failure to store any user communications or personalization settings.
SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
9) Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT SHALL WE OR OUR AGENTS OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THIS SITE OR OF ANY WEB SITE REFERENCED OR LINKED TO FROM THIS SITE.
FURTHER, WE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE OR OBLIGED IN ANY WAY FOR THIRD PARTY GOODS AND SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH THIS SITE OR FOR ASSISTANCE IN CONDUCTING COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS THROUGH THIS SITE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE PROCESSING OF ORDERS.
SOME JURISDICTIONS PROHIBIT THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
10) Indemnification
Upon a request by us, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us and our agents and affiliates harmless from all liabilities, claims, and expenses, including legal fees, that arise from your use or misuse of this Site. We reserve the right, at our own expense and at our sole discretion, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will cooperate with us in asserting any available defenses.
11) Waiver
Any failure by us, to enforce or exercise any provision of these Terms of Use or related rights, shall not constitute, operate or be construed as a waiver of that right or provision. Any waiver by us, of breach of any of these Terms of Use by you or another party, shall not constitute, operate or be construed as a continuing waiver.
12) Force Majeure
We shall not be liable for delay or failure to perform any obligations under these Terms of Use if such delay or failure arises in connection with events or circumstances beyond our reasonable control, whether foreseeable or not, including but not limited to acts of God, fire, flood, earthquake, volcanic eruption, storm, hurricane or other natural disaster, war, invasion, act of foreign enemies, hostilities (regardless of whether war is declared), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection, military or usurped power or confiscation, terrorist activities, nationalization, government sanction, blockage, embargo, labor or industrial dispute, strike, lockout or interruption or failure of electricity or telephone service.
13) Unenforceability
To the extent that any provision, portion or extent of these Terms of Use is found invalid, illegal or unenforceable, then that provision, portion or extent shall be severed or deleted here from or limited, so as to give effect to the remainder of the Agreement, which shall remain binding upon the Parties in full force and effect.
14) Arbitration
Any and all controversies and disputes arising in connection with use of the Site, these Terms of Use and/or their interpretation shall be settled by arbitration in Stateline, Douglas County, Nevada, USA, in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association, and the judgment upon award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. You agree and submit to the personal jurisdiction and venue of any such court of competent jurisdiction.
15) Choice of Law
The law of the State of Nevada, without giving effect to its principles of conflicts of law or the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, shall govern use of the Site, the validity and construction of these Terms of Use, and the interpretation of the rights and duties arising hereunder.
16) Legal Action Costs and Time Limitation
In any action arising in connection with your Site use, these Terms of Use and/or their interpretation, the prevailing party shall be entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs. Any such cause of action brought by you against us must be instituted within one year after the cause of action arises or be deemed forever waived and barred.
18) Headings
The section headings used herein are for convenience only, shall have no legal or contractual effect, and are in no way to be used to construe, interpret, define, limit or extend the scope or intent of the language of the sections to which they pertain.
19) Entire Agreement
These Terms of Use constitute the entire understanding and agreement by and between us concerning your use of the Site and the subject matter of these Terms of Use. Any and all prior agreements, understandings and representations concerning such subject matter are hereby terminated and cancelled in their entirety and are of no further force and effect.
20) Miscellaneous
You may not assign your rights and obligations under these Terms of Use to any party, and any purported attempt to do so will be null and void. We may freely assign our rights and obligations under these Terms of Use.
21) Contact Information
Our contact email address is: office @ hotjokes.net
If you notice that any user is violating these Terms of Use, please contact Customer Service at this address.
Thank you.