Parents Guild Terms of Use

Last Updated: February 28, 2011

Welcome to Parents Guild. We created this website to give everyone a chance to learn from and help each other figure out the ever-challenging world of parenting, free from the blind and confusing condescension and attacks that we found on some other parenting sites.

We ask that you treat our service and community with respect. Spam, personal attacks, and abusive language do not have a place on this site. If you ever stumble across anything on this site that looks like it violates our policies, please be sure to let us know.

Thanks!
-- andrea & steve

Accepting the Terms of Use

The following sets forth the terms and conditions under which you may access ParentsGuild.com (the "Site"). Please read these terms and conditions of use ("Terms") carefully before using this site or any services ("Services") available from the Site. This Site is owned and operated by Parents Guild.

By using this Site, using applications related to the Site, or clicking on a button indicating your consent, you agree to these Terms including but not limited to conducting this transaction electronically, and to disclaimers of warranties, damage and remedy exclusions and limitations, and a choice of California law. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Site.

Parents Guild reserves the right, at its discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of these Terms at any time. Notification of changes to these Terms will be posted on the Site or sent via e-mail at Parents Guild’s option. If any future changes to these Terms are unacceptable to you, you must discontinue use of the Site and leave immediately.

The Site is made available by Parents Guild as a forum for the exchange of information and opinion by its users. Consequently, this site contains postings by users of the Site that have not been reviewed or approved by Parents Guild. All information contained in those postings are the expressions of those who have posted them and are not endorsed by Parents Guild. Parents Guild takes no responsibility for the accuracy or legality of those postings; and Parents Guild disclaims any such responsibility and is not liable for any alleged damages resulting from any posting, including but not limited to libel, defamation, or disparagement.

The Services are accessed by You (“Subscriber” or “You”) under the following terms and conditions:

1. Site Content

The Site and its contents are intended solely for the use of the Site Subscribers and may only be used in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. All materials displayed or performed on the Site, including, but not limited to text, graphics, logos, tools, photographs, images, illustrations, software or source code, audio and video, and animations (collectively, “Content”) (other than Content posted by Subscriber (“Subscriber Content”)) are the property of Parents Guild and/or third parties and are protected by United States and international copyright laws.

All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are proprietary to Parents Guild and/or third parties. Subscriber shall abide by all copyright notices, information, and restrictions contained in any Content accessed through the Services.

The Site is protected by copyright as a collective work and/or compilation, pursuant to U.S. copyright laws, international conventions, and other copyright laws. Other than as expressly set forth in this Agreement, Subscriber may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, upload, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce (except as provided in this Section), create derivative works based on, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the Content, software, materials, or Services in whole or in part.

Subscriber may download or copy the Content, and other items displayed on the Site for download, for personal use, provided that Subscriber maintains all copyright and other notices contained in such Content.

From time to time, Parents Guild may make available compilations of all the Subscriber Content on the Site (the “Creative Commons Data Dump”). The Creative Commons Data Dump is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. By downloading The Creative Commons Data Dump, You agree to be bound by the terms of that license.

Any other downloading, copying, or storing any Content for other than personal, noncommercial use is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from Parents Guild, or from the copyright holder identified in such Content's copyright notice. In the event You download software from the Site, the software, including any files, images incorporated in or generated by the software, and the data accompanying the software (collectively, the “Software”) is licensed to You by Parents Guild or third party licensors for Your personal, noncommercial use, and no title to the Software shall be transferred to You. Parents Guild or third party licensors retain full and complete title to the Software and all intellectual property rights therein.

2. Subscriber Content

You agree that all Subscriber Content that You contribute to the Site will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. You grant Parents Guild the right and license to use, copy, cache, publish, display, distribute, modify, create derivative works and store such Subscriber Content and to allow others to do so (“Content License”) in order to provide the Services. Subscriber warrants, represents and agrees Subscriber has the right to grant Parents Guild and the Network the rights set forth above. Subscriber represents, warrants and agrees that it will not contribute any Subscriber Content that (a) infringes, violates or otherwise interferes with any copyright or trademark of another party, (b) reveals any trade secret, unless Subscriber owns the trade secret or has the owner’s permission to post it, (c) infringes any intellectual property right of another or the privacy or publicity rights of another, (d) is libelous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harassing, hateful, offensive or otherwise violates any law or right of any third party, (e) contains a virus, trojan horse, worm, time bomb or other computer programming routine or engine that is intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or information, or (f) remains posted after Subscriber has been notified that such Subscriber Content violates any of sections (a) to (e) of this sentence. Parents Guild reserves the right to remove any Subscriber Content from the Site, suspend or terminate Subscriber’s right to use the Services at any time, or pursue any other remedy or relief available to Parents Guild under equity or law, for any reason (including, but not limited to, upon receipt of claims or allegations from third parties or authorities relating to such Subscriber Content or if Parents Guild is concerned that Subscriber may have breached the immediately preceding sentence), or for no reason at all.

Unless you enter into a separate written agreement with Parents Guild, Parents Guild does not claim ownership of Content you submit, however, by submitting Content in any form to Parents Guild, in addition to other provisions of the Terms, you automatically grant Parents Guild a royalty-free, world-wide, non-exclusive, and assignable right and license to use, copy, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, edit, translate, create derivative works from, transmit, distribute, publicly display and publicly perform such Content for the purpose of displaying and promoting the Content on any website operated by, and in any related marketing materials produced by, Parents Guild and its affiliates. You obtain no rights in any form, media, or technology incorporating the Content.

3. Restrictions

Subscriber is responsible for all of its activity in connection with the Services and accessing the Site. Any fraudulent, abusive, or otherwise illegal activity or any use of the Services or Content in violation of this Agreement may be grounds for termination of Subscriber’s right to Services or to access the Site. Subscriber may not post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, any communication or solicitation designed or intended to obtain password, account, or private information from any Site or Service user.

Use of the Site or Services to violate the security of any computer network, crack passwords or security encryption codes, transfer or store illegal material including that are deemed threatening or obscene, or engage in any kind of illegal activity is expressly prohibited. Under no circumstances will Subscriber use the Site or the Service to (a) send unsolicited e-mails, bulk mail, spam or other materials to users of the Network or any other individual, (b) harass, threaten, stalk or abuse any person or party, including other users of the Network, (c) create a false identity or to impersonate another person, or (d) post any false, inaccurate or incomplete material or delete or revise any material that was not posted by You.

No portion of this Site is targeted to children under the age of 13, and any minor should seek consent of his or her legal guardian before using this site.

The Site may allow users to upload, post, and/or distribute user submitted Content, and use of the Site for this purpose is subject to the following conditions:

You understand that all user feedback, data, comments, suggestions, information, text, data, software, sounds, photographs, audio, audiovisual, video, artwork, graphics, messages and other materials of any nature ("Subscriber Content") that are transmitted to or via the Site are the sole responsibility of the person from which the Content originated. This means you, and not Parents Guild, are entirely responsible for the Content you transmit through the Site. Further, you understand that by using the Site you may be exposed to Content that are offensive, objectionable or indecent.
You shall not create a user name or screen name or upload to, distribute through or otherwise publish through the Site any Content which are indecent, libelous, defamatory, obscene, harmful of minors in any way, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, illegal, harassing, contain expressions of hatred, bigotry, racism or pornography, or are otherwise objectionable, or that would constitute or encourage a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party or violate any law.
Your Content, user name and/or screen name will not disparage in any manner Parents Guild, its products or services and sites.
Your Content shall not infringe the copyright, trademark, publicity/privacy right or other intellectual property right of any third party.
You shall not upload to, distribute through or otherwise publish through the Site any Content that are directly or indirectly commercial in nature or contain any solicitation of funds, promotion, advertising or solicitation for goods or services. This includes any materials that constitute or contain "affiliate marketing," "link referral code," "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or unsolicited commercial advertisement.
You specifically acknowledge that soliciting other users to join or become users or members of any commercial online web site or other organization is expressly prohibited.
You shall not upload to, distribute through or otherwise publish through the Site any Content that contain viruses or any other computer code, corrupt files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality or disrupt any software, hardware, telecommunications, networks, servers or other equipment.
You shall not create multiple user accounts in connection with any violation of the Agreement or create user accounts by automated means or under false or fraudulent pretenses.
You shall not sell, trade, resell or otherwise exploit for any unauthorized commercial purpose or transfer any Parents Guild account.
You shall not impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Parents Guild employee, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity Parents Guild reserves the right, but is not obligated, to remove Content that it deems violate any of the foregoing prohibitions and to suspend or terminate your account if your activity in breach of any of the provisions of these Terms.
By posting, uploading or otherwise distributing your Content to the Site, you explicitly consent that other users of the Site may forward such Content to others who may or may not be members of Parents Guild.

Additionally, you agree not to:

"stalk" or otherwise harass anyone;
collect personal data about other users for commercial or unlawful purposes;
use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from the Service - unless expressly permitted by Parents Guild;
post non-local or otherwise irrelevant Content, repeatedly post the same or similar Content or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
post the same message or request in more than one topical category, or in more than one metropolitan area;
attempt to gain unauthorized access to Parents Guild’s computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, the Service or the Parents Guild website; or
use any form of automated device or computer program that enables the submission of postings on Parents Guild without each posting being manually entered by the author thereof (an "automated posting device"), including without limitation, the use of any such automated posting device to submit postings in bulk, or for automatic submission of postings at regular intervals.

You acknowledge that Parents Guild does not pre-screen any Content posted by you or other users, but that Parents Guild and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or remove any Content. Without limitation, Parents Guild and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violate the Terms or is otherwise objectionable, as well as terminate your access to the Site. Parents Guild may establish practices and limits concerning the use of the Site and Services, including the maximum disk space that will be allotted to your use. You agree that Parents Guild has no liability or responsibility for the storage or deletion of any Content that you submit or post. Parents Guild reserves the right to change these general practices and limits at any time in its sole discretion, with or without notice.

4. Registration

As a condition to using Services, Subscriber may be required to register with Parents Guild and select a password and profile name. Subscriber shall provide Parents Guild with accurate, complete, and updated registration information, including Subscriber’s e-mail address. Failure to do so shall constitute a breach of this Agreement, which may result in immediate termination of Subscriber's account. Subscriber may not (a) select or use as a profile name a name of another person with the intent to impersonate that person; or (b) use as a profile name a name subject to any rights of a person other than Subscriber without appropriate authorization. Parents Guild reserves the right to refuse registration of, or cancel a profile name in its discretion. Subscriber shall be responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of Subscriber's password. Subscriber is solely responsible for any use of or action taken under Subscriber’s password and accepts full responsibility for all activity conducted through Subscriber’s account and agrees to and hereby releases Parents Guild from any and all liability concerning such activity. Subscriber agrees to notify Parents Guild immediately of any actual or suspected loss, theft, or unauthorized use of Subscriber’s account or password. The Site will take reasonable security precautions when using the internet, telephone or other means to transport data or other communications, but expressly disclaims any and all liability for the accessing of any such data communications by unauthorized persons or entities.

5. Copyrights and Trademarks

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED HEREIN BY THESE TERMS, NEITHER PARENTS GUILD, ITS AFFILIATES, NOR ANY THIRD PARTY HAS CONFERRED UPON YOU BY IMPLICATION, ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, ANY LICENSE OR RIGHT UNDER ANY PATENT, TRADEMARK, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER PROPRIETARY RIGHTS TO USE THE SITE OFFERED ON THE SITE. NO OWNERSHIP RIGHTS ARE OR WILL BE ASSIGNED TO YOU. Parents Guild will not tolerate copyright infringement and reserves the right to block, disable, or otherwise remove any Content uploaded to the Site as well as terminate access to the Site if you engage in copyright or other intellectual property infringement. The law provides for civil and criminal penalties for copyright and other intellectual property law infringements.

If you believe that any Content on the Site infringes your copyrights, please contact Parents Guild’s copyright agent, who can be reached as follows:

By mail:

Attn: Copyright Agent
Parents Guild
320 Velarde Street
Mountain View, CA 94041

By e-mail: copyright@parentsguild.com

Please be sure to include the following information: (a) a description of the copyrighted work you allege is being infringed upon (and registration information if such work is registered with the copyright office); (b) the location of the allegedly infringing material on the Site, (c) your signature (digital or hard-copy), (d) your address, telephone number, and e-mail address, and (e) a statement (notarized if possible and made under penalty of perjury that): (i) you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf; (ii) you believe in good faith that the rights of the copyright owner are being infringed, and that the uses of the allegedly infringing material are not authorized (either by the copyright owner, its agents, or applicable law).

6. Privacy

Please review our Privacy Policy, which governs the use of personal information on the Site and to which Subscriber agrees to be bound as a user of the Site.

7. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold Parents Guild, its affiliates, officers, agents, partners and employees harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys fees, arising out of your Content, your use of the Site, your violation of these Terms or your violation of any third party’s rights including such party’s copyrights and trademarks.

8. Warranty Disclaimer

Parents Guild has no special relationsh with or fiduciary duty to you, the user of the Site. You acknowledge that Parents Guild has no control over, and no duty to take any action regarding: which user gains access to the Site; which Content or materials you access via the Site, what effects the Content or materials may have on you; how you may interpret or use the Content or materials, or what actions you may take as a result of having been exposed to the Content or materials. Much of the Content of the Site is provided by and is the responsibility of the user or subscriber who posted the Content. Parents Guild does not monitor the Content of the Site and takes no responsibility for such Content. You release Parents Guild from all liability for having acquired or not acquired Content from this Site. The Site may contain, or direct you to sites containing, information that some people may find offensive or inappropriate. Parents Guild makes no representations concerning any content contained in or accessed through the Site, and Parents Guild will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, or decency of material contained in or accessed through the Site.

Although Parents Guild will make reasonable efforts to store and preserve the material residing on the Site, Parents Guild is not responsible or liable in any way for the failure to store, preserve or access Subscriber Content or other materials you transmit or archive on the Site. You are strongly urged to take measures to preserve copies of any data, material, content or information you post or upload to the Site.

The Services, Content and any Software provided are provided on an "as is" basis, without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Parents Guild makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the Site, the Services, including any representation or warranty that the use of the Site or Services will (a) be timely, uninterrupted or error-free or operate in combination with any other hardware, software, system or data, (b) meet your requirements or expectations, (c) be free from errors or that defects will be corrected, (d) be free of viruses or other harmful components.

To the fullest extent allowed by law, Parents Guild disclaims any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, reliability, availability, completeness, legality or operability of the material or services provided on this Network. By using this Network, you acknowledge that Parents Guild is not responsible or liable for any harm resulting from (1) use of the Network; (2) downloading information contained on the Network including but not limited to downloads of content posted by subscribers; (3) unauthorized disclosure of images, information or data that results from the upload, download or storage of content posted by subscribers; (4) the temporary or permanent inability to access or retrieve any Subscriber Content from the Network, including, without limitation, harm caused by viruses, worms, trojan horses, or any similar contamination or destructive program.

Some states do not allow limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts, so the above limitations may not apply to Subscriber.

9. Assumption of Risks

You agree to assume all risks that the Site and Content are suitable or accurate for your needs and will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free. You may be exposed to rude, crude, indecent, misleading, inaccurate, or other offensive language or links. You agree that Parents Guild is not responsible for any loss or damage of any sort.

Your interactions with are solely between you and such individuals.

You should make whatever investigation you feel necessary or appropriate before proceeding with any online or offline transaction with any third parties or other Subscribers. You agree that Parents Guild shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings. If there is a dispute between participants on this Site, or between users and any third party, you understand and agree that Parents Guild is under no obligation to become involved.

Information Disclaimer. The information (including without limitation, advice and recommendations) posted on the site is intended solely as general information and is neither medical nor healthcare advice for any individual problem nor a substitute for medical or other professional advice. Always seek the advice of your physician regarding any medical condition and before starting any new treatment. The information on the Site is provided with the understanding that neither Parents Guild nor its suppliers or users are engaged in rendering medical, legal, counseling, or other professional services or advice. Your use of the Site is subject to this disclaimer. Parents Guild and its agents assume no responsibility for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction you take based on the Content on the site.

10. Limitation of Liability

In no event shall Parents Guild, its directors, officers, shareholders, employees or members be liable with respect to the Site or the Services for (a) any indirect, incidental, punitive, or consequential damages of any kind whatsoever; (b) damages for loss of use, profits, data, images, Subscriber Content or other intangibles; (c) damages for unauthorized use, non-performance of the Network, errors or omissions; or (d) damages related to downloading or posting Content. Parents Guild's and the Site's collective liability under this agreement shall be limited to three hundred United States Dollars. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations and exclusions may not apply to Subscriber.

11. Your Representations and Warranties

You represent and warrant for the benefit of Parents Guild, Parents Guild’s suppliers, and any third parties mentioned on the Site, in addition to other representations and obligations contained in these Terms, that: (a) you possess the legal right and ability to enter into and make the representations and warranties contained in these Terms; (b) all information submitted by you to the Site is true and accurate; (c) you will keep your registration information current; (d) you will be responsible for all use of your password even if such use was conducted without your authority or permission; (e) you will not use the Site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms; (f) you are the owner of the Content and they are original to you; (g) the Content do not infringe any third party right, such as copyright, trademark, and publicity/privacy right; (h) the Content do not constitute defamation or libel or otherwise violate the law, and (i) you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Parents Guild (and its employees, representative, agents, and assigns) harmless from breaches of (a) through (h).

12. Third Party Websites

Users of the Site may gain access from the Site to third party sites on the Internet through hypertext or other computer links on the Site. Third party sites are not within the supervision or control of Parents Guild or the Site. Unless explicitly otherwise provided, Parents Guild does not make any representation or warranty whatsoever about any third party site that is linked to the Site, or endorse the products or services offered on such site. Parents Guild and the Site disclaim: (a) all responsibility and liability for content on third party websites and (b) any representations or warranties as to the security of any information (including, without limitation, credit card and other personal information) You might be requested to give any third party, and You hereby irrevocably waive any claim against the Site or Parents Guild with respect to such sites and third party content.

13. International

This Site is controlled and operated by Parents Guild from its offices within the United States of America. Parents Guild makes no representation that the Site or related information offered by Parents Guild are appropriate or available in other locations. Those who choose to access the Site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

14. Ownership

The Site is the exclusive property of Parents Guild or its suppliers. All rights not licensed herein are hereby reserved to Parents Guild or its suppliers.

15. Termination

Either party may terminate the Services at any time by notifying the other party by any means. If you violate these Terms, Parents Guild may terminate or cancel your access rights to the Site immediately without notice. Parents Guild may also block your use of the Site or direct you to cease using it. Parents Guild reserves the right at any time to modify or discontinue the Site or any part thereof and you agree that Parents Guild shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension, or discontinuance of the Site or any part thereof, except you may receive a pro-rata refund in the event such modification, suspension, or discontinuance materially affects your access to those parts of the Site that you have paid for.

16. No Spam

You understand and agree that sending unsolicited email advertisements to Parents Guild email addresses or through Parents Guild computer systems is expressly prohibited by these Terms. Any unauthorized use of Parents Guild computer systems is a violation of these Terms and certain federal and state laws, including without limitation the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. § 1030 et seq.), Section 502 of the California Penal Code and Section 17538.45 of the California Business and Professions Code. Such violations may subject the sender and his or her agents to civil and criminal penalties.

17. Exclusive Jurisdiction

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising under or related in any way to these Terms, the Site shall be litigated or otherwise heard in the appropriate forum in Santa Clara County, California. The parties hereto hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts sitting in the County of Santa Clara, California, and hereby waive any claim or defense that such forum is not convenient or proper, and consent to service of process by any means authorized by California law.

18. Entire Agreement

These Terms, as amended, your registration forms, and the disclosures provided by Parents Guild and the consents provided by you, constitute the entire agreement between you and Parents Guild. If any provision of these Terms shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. Parents Guild’s failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive Parents Guild’s right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

19. Ammendments

You agree that Parents Guild may amend or modify these Terms or impose new conditions at any time by updating these Terms on the Site or upon notice from Parents Guild to you as published through the Site or by email. Any use of the Site or order by you after such updating shall be deemed to constitute acceptance of such amendments, modifications, or new conditions. If you do not want to be bound by an amendment, you will need to terminate your registration, if any, and refrain from using the Site after that date. No other amendments will be valid unless they are in a paper writing signed by Parents Guild and by you.

20. Notices

Except as expressly stated otherwise, any notices required or allowed under these Terms shall be given to Parents Guild by postal mail to:

Parents Guild
320 Velarde Street
Mountain View, CA 94041

or as to a successor address that Parents Guild makes available on the Site or through other reasonable manner. If applicable law requires that Parents Guild accepts email notices (but not otherwise), then you may send Parents Guild email notice (support@parentsguild.com).

Contact Information Disclosure

Parents Guild’s name and street address is