Terms of Service
Welcome to Buddies Cafe – Connecting Buddies Together By using the Buddies Cafe community (the "Community") that Buddies Cafe Networks, Inc. ("Buddies Cafe", "us", or "we") operates on its sites (the "Sites"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (this "Agreement"), whether or not you register as a member of the Buddies Cafe Community ("Member"). The Buddies Cafe services (the "Services") consist of the Community and the Sites. If you wish to become a Member, communicate with other Members, and make use of the Service, read this Agreement and follow the instructions in the registration process. This Agreement sets out the legally binding terms for your membership and may be modified by Buddies Cafe from time to time. Buddies Cafe reserves the right to modify the Agreement from time to time. Buddies Cafe will post any modified version of the Agreement on the Sites and your continued use of the Services after such a modified version of the Agreement has been posted constitutes your acceptance to such modified version.You may also receive a copy of this Agreement by emailing us at: help@buddiescafe.net, Subject: "Terms of Service Agreement".If such additional functionalities and features are provided to us by any of our partners (such as, but not limited to, media players for content provided by our licensors) the additional terms that govern your use of such functionalities and features are not incorporated into this Agreement, but shall govern your use of such functionalities and features and you hereby agree to comply with and be bound by such terms as a condition to your access and use of such functionalities and features.1. ELIGIBILITY. THE SERVICES ARE INTENDED SOLELY FOR ACCESS AND USE BY INDIVIDUALS THAT ARE THIRTEEN (15) YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER. BY ACCESSING AND USING THE SERVICES, YOU ARE CERTIFYING THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST FIFTEEN (15) YEARS OLD. By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you have the right, authority, and capacity to enter into this Agreement and to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement. If you are merely surfing or browsing through the Sites and have not yet registered to become a Member, your use of the Sites is still subject to this Agreement; if you do not agree to this Agreement, do not use the Services.2. MEMBER ACCOUNT. When you sign up to become a Member and create a Buddies Cafe Member account ("Member Account"), you will also be asked to choose a username and a password for your Member Account. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. You agree not to use the Member Account, Member profile, username, or password of another Member at any time. You agree to notify us immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of your Member Account or Member profile or access to your password. You are solely responsible for any and all use of your Member Account and Member profile.3. TERM. This Agreement will remain in full force and effect while you use the Services and/or are a Member. You may terminate your membership at any time, for any reason by following the instructions on the "Help" pages, or upon receipt by Buddies Cafe of your written or email notice of termination. Buddies Cafe may terminate your access to the Sites. Buddies Cafe may terminate your membership for any reason effective upon sending notice to you at the email address you provide in your application for membership or such other email address as you may later provide to Buddies Cafe. If Buddies Cafe terminates your membership in the Community because you have breached the Agreement, you will not be entitled to a refund of any unused subscription fees, if any. Even after this Agreement is terminated, the following provisions of this Agreement will remain in effect: Sections 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 194. NON-COMMERCIAL USE BY MEMBERS. The Services are for the personal use of individual Members only, and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors. This includes providing links to other websites, whether deemed competitive to Buddies Cafe or otherwise. Organizations, companies, and/or businesses may not become Members of Buddies Cafe and should not use the Buddies Cafe Services for any purpose. Illegal and/or unauthorized uses of the Services, including unauthorized framing of or linking to the Sites will be investigated, and appropriate legal action may be taken. In addition, you may not register for more than one Member Account, register for a Member Account on behalf of an individual other than yourself or register a Member Account on behalf of any group or entity. Furthermore, you may not use or attempt to use another's Member Account without authorization from us or create a false identity on our Services.5. PROPRIETARY RIGHTS IN THE SERVICE. Buddies Cafe owns and retains all proprietary rights in the Services. The Services contain the copyrighted material, trademarks, and other proprietary information ("Intellectual Property") of Buddies Cafe, and its licensors, including other Buddies Cafe Members. Except for Intellectual Property which is in the public domain or for which you have been given written permission, you may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or sell any such Intellectual Property and the provision of such Intellectual Property to you through the Services does not transfer to you or any third party any rights, title or interest in or to such Intellectual Property, including, without limitation, any intellectual property rights in any Content (as defined below) and material included therein. 6. CONTENT POSTED ON THE SERVICES. You understand and agree that Buddies Cafe may (but is not obligated to) review any content, communication, information, Intellectual Property, material, messages, photos, videos, URLs, profiles and the like (collectively, "Content") that is uploaded, published or displayed (hereinafter, "posted") on the Services and delete or refuse to take online any such Content, including, without limitation, any Content that in the sole judgment of Buddies Cafe violates this Agreement or which might be offensive, inappropriate, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of other Members or third parties. You are solely responsible for the Content that you post on the Services, or transmit to other Members or third parties. By posting Content to any area of the Services, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to Buddies Cafe an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free and fully paid, worldwide license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display and perform (including by means of a digital audio transmission), and otherwise use Content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. In addition, you represent and warrant that you have the right to post the Content and you will not post any illegal or prohibited Content and will not infringe, misappropriate, violate or contravene any third party rights (including, without limitation, any intellectual property rights). The following is a partial list of the kind of Content that is illegal or prohibited on the Sites ("Prohibited Content"). Buddies Cafe reserves the right (but is not obligated) to investigate and to take appropriate legal action in its sole discretion against anyone who violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending Content from the Service and terminating the membership of such violators. Prohibited Content includes Content that: (a) is patently offensive to the online community, such as Content that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual; (b) harasses or advocates harassment of another person; (c) involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing or "spamming"; (d) promotes information that you know is false, misleading or that promotes illegal activities or conduct that is illegal, abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous; (e) promotes an illegal and/or unauthorized ("pirated") copy of another person's copyrighted work (whether marked as such, or not), such as, but not limited to, providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent copy-protection mechanisms, or providing pirated music, video or other pirated Content, or links to such pirated music, video files, or files that contain such other pirated Content; (f) contains restricted or password only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page); (g) displays pornographic or sexually explicit material of any kind and in any form; (h) provides material that exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, or solicits personal information from anyone under 18; (i) provides instructional information about illegal activities such as, but not limited to, making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses; (j) solicits passwords or personal identifying information of any kind for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users; and engages in commercial activities and/or commercial sales without our prior written consent, including, without limitation, contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, and pyramid schemes; (k) constitutes, promotes, or is used primarily for the purpose of dealing in: counterfeit goods, items subject to US embargo, illegal drugs and paraphernalia, stolen products and items used for theft, unlicensed trade or dealing in stocks or securities, gambling items, professional services regulated by state licensing regimes or non-transferable items; or (l) otherwise violates the terms of this Agreement or creates liability for Buddies Cafe.You must use the Services in a manner consistent with any and all applicable laws and regulations. You may not engage in advertising to, or solicitation of, other Members to buy or sell any products or services through the Services, except as to the extent expressly allowed by Buddies Cafe in specific sections of the Services. You may not transmit any chain letters or junk email to other Members or other parties. You may not engage in any automated use of the Services, such as using scripts, bots, or the like, to add friends or send comments or messages. Although Buddies Cafe cannot monitor the conduct of its Members off the Services, it is also a violation of these rules to use any information obtained from the Services in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person, or in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any Member without their prior explicit consent. In order to protect our Members from such advertising or solicitation, Buddies Cafe reserves the right to restrict the number of emails and other communications (including sharing of Content) which a Member may send to other Members in any twenty-four (24) hour period to a number which Buddies Cafe deems appropriate in its sole discretion.7. YOUR MEMBER PROFILE. Any Content used for or photographs posted by you in your Member profile may not contain nudity, violence, sexually explicit, or offensive subject matter. You may not post a photograph of another person without that person's permission.8. MOBILE SERVICES. You may access and use the Services using certain mobile devices. Unless otherwise specifically stated herein, your access and use of the Services via a mobile device is subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and your full compliance with all your obligations hereunder, including, without limitation, the terms and conditions regarding the use and provision of Content. By accessing and using the Services with a mobile device you acknowledge and agree that you may receive certain communications from the Services (such as SMS, MMS, text messages, mobile emails, or other electronic communications means, collectively "Mobile Communications"). Please note that by accessing and using the Services via mobile devices, or by using certain mobile features, such as receiving or sending Mobile Communications via your mobile device, you may incur fees from the provider or carrier of the mobile services that you use ("Carrier") and you are solely responsible for the payment of such fees. If you choose to update your profile with information about your actual location (including location-related information provided by your Carrier or applications), you acknowledge and agree that (a) such information may be made available to every viewer of your Member profile and (b) Buddies Cafe does merely make this information available upon your request and is not responsible for the correctness of such information and any use of such information by third parties, including other Members. 9. COPYRIGHT POLICY. You may not post, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. Without limiting the foregoing, if you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the Services in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent with the following information: 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 Sites; your address, telephone number, and email address; a written 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; 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. Buddies Cafe's Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement can be reached by writing the following: copyrightagent@BuddiesCafe.net10. MEMBER DISPUTES. Your interactions with other Members in connection with the Services or with advertisers, including, without limitation, payment and delivery of goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and the other Members or the advertiser. You agree that Buddies Cafe will not be responsible for any loss or damage incurred as the result of any such dealings or with respect to any other Member's use or disclosure of your personally identifiable information. If there is a dispute between you and any third party (including, without limitation, any Member), Buddies Cafe is under no obligation to become involved; however, we reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other Members. 11. THIRD PARTY CONTENT. Content from other Members, advertisers, and other third parties may be made available to you through the Services. Because we do not control such Content, (a) you agree that we are not responsible for any such Content and (b) we make no guarantees about the accuracy, currency, suitability, or quality of the information in such Content, and we assume no responsibility for unintended, objectionable, inaccurate, misleading, or unlawful Content made available by other Members, advertisers, and other third parties.12. RELEASE. To the extent permitted under applicable laws, you hereby release Buddies Cafe from any liability related to: (a) any incorrect or inaccurate Content posted on the Services, whether caused by any user of the Services or Member, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Services; (b) the conduct, whether online or offline, of any user of the Services or Member; (c) any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of email or Content players on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any Sites, or combination thereof, including injury or damage to user's and/or Member's or to any other person's computer related to or resulting from participating or downloading materials in connection with the Services; (d) any loss or damage caused by Content posted on the Services or transmitted by and to Members, or any interactions between users of the Sites and/or Members, whether online or offline; and (e) any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, Sites user or Member communications.If you are a California resident, you hereby waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which states: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which, if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."13. DISCLAIMER. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAWS, THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND AS AVAILABLE AND BUDDIES CAFE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, ACCURACY, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT AND BUDDIES CAFE DOES NOT GUARANTEE AND DOES NOT PROMISE (A) ANY SPECIFIC RESULTS FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICES; (B) THAT THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; (C) THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE AVAILABLE ON AN UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE BASIS; OR (D) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE. BUDDIES CAFE DOES NOT ASSUME ANY OBLIGATION TO MONITOR ACTIVITIES ON THE SERVICE.SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY MAY LAST, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.14. LIMITATION ON LIABILITY. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAWS, BUDDIES CAFE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU, OR ANY THIRD PARTY, FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES (INCLUDING ALSO LOST PROFITS) ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, EVEN IF BUDDIES CAFE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, BUDDIES CAFE'S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (1) ANY AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO BUDDIES CAFE FOR THE SERVICES; AND (2) FIFTY U.S.DOLLARS (US$50). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.15. U.S. EXPORT CONTROLS. Any software provided by Buddies Cafe through the Services (the "Software") is further subject to United States export controls. No Software may be downloaded from the Services or otherwise exported or re-exported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan, or any other Country to which the U.S. has embargoed goods; or (ii) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Commerce Department's Table of Deny Orders. By downloading or using the Software, you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list. 16. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS. The communications between you and Buddies Cafe use electronic means, whether you visit the Sites or send us emails, or whether Buddies Cafe posts notices on the Services or communicates with you via email. For contractual purposes, you (a) consent to receive communications from Buddies Cafe in an electronic form; and (b) agree that all terms and conditions, agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that Buddies Cafe provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications would satisfy if it were be in writing. The foregoing does not affect your non-waivable rights.17. INDEMNITY. You agree to indemnify and hold Buddies Cafe, its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and other partners and employees, harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorney's fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Services in violation of this Agreement and/or arising from a breach of this Agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above.18. OTHER. This Agreement contains the entire agreement between you and Buddies Cafe regarding the use of the Services. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid, the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. Notwithstanding any other provisions herein, no party will be deemed as a third-party beneficiary to this Agreement and a third party (including another Member) who is not a party to this Agreement has no right to enforce any term of this Agreement. If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision will be changed and interpreted to accomplish the objectives to the greatest extent possible under any applicable law and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. The failure of Buddies Cafe to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. The section titles in this Agreement are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Please contact us with any questions regarding this Agreement.19. COPYRIGHT/TRADEMARK INFORMATION. Copyright © 2005 - 2008, Buddies Cafe. All rights reserved. The trademarks, logos and service marks ("Marks") displayed on the Services are our property or the property of other third parties. You are not permitted to use these Marks without our prior written consent or the consent of such third party which may own the Mark.
