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 BiggerPockets ® Terms of Service (TOS)
Updated: 1/27/13
Thank you for visiting BiggerPockets, the premiere real estate community portal and social networking site. BiggerPockets is owned and operated by BiggerPockets, Inc. ("BiggerPockets.com," "we,"BP," "BiggerPockets" or "us").
It is of vital importance to BiggerPockets that our membership is protected. In order to accomplish this, we have created this Terms of Service (TOS) document as well as our Privacy Policy.
- Acceptance of Terms of Service
By visiting and accessing www.BiggerPockets.com or any other subdomain of the site, you signify that you have read and agree to be bound to these Terms of Use, regardless of whether or not you are a member of the site.
These Terms of Service (TOS) may at any time, and at our discretion, be modified. You can review the most current version of the TOS at any time at: http://www.biggerpockets.com/terms.html. It is your responsibility to read these Terms and comply with them. If this page is altered and you continue using the site (whether or not you are aware of the changes), this means that you are continuing to accept these new Terms of Use. Additionally, when you use a particular service of BiggerPockets, you are subject to any and all guidelines posted and applicable rules (including but not limited to our forum/site rules) and regulations regarding such services which we may post from time to time. The TOS incorporates all such rules, regulations and guidelines.
Whether you agree with the current TOS or any future revisions or not, your use of the site means you have accepted responsibility to complying with the TOS. If you do not agree with any provision of the TOS, then you should not use this site.
- Your obligations as a member of BiggerPockets with a Personal Profile
In order to use the BiggerPockets service you agree to a number of things:
a) that you will provide true, accurate and complete information about yourself as required by the Service's registration form--the "Registration Data."
b) that you will promptly update the Registration Data in order to keep all the information it contains, true, accurate and complete.
c) that should you knowingly or unknowingly provide any information that is not in keeping with your agreement to keep all your Registration Data true, accurate and complete, as well as current, BiggerPockets will have the right to suspend or terminate your account at any time, and without advanced notice, as well as refuse you the use of all current of future BiggerPocket services, or any portion thereof.
d) that you will use a personal image for your profile pic. The use of company logos, advertisements, web addresses, contact information, pics of celebrities OR the use of copyright protected images for a personal profile pic, is prohibited.
Note: You are required, as a member of BiggerPockets, to use your REAL legal name in your registration and on your account. Your name will appear on your personal rofile and in areas of the site that you participate on, unless you use our privacy options to hide your full last name; only your last initial would appear in this case.
- Your obligations as a member of BiggerPockets with a Company Profile
In order to use the BiggerPockets service you agree to a number of things:
a) that you will provide true, accurate and complete information about company as required by the Service's registration form--the "Registration Data."
b) that you will promptly update the Registration Data in order to keep all the information it contains, true, accurate and complete.
c) that should you knowingly or unknowingly provide any information that is not in keeping with your agreement to keep all your Registration Data true, accurate and complete, as well as current, BiggerPockets will have the right to suspend or terminate your account at any time, and without advanced notice, as well as refuse you the use of all current of future BiggerPocket services, or any portion thereof.
d) that you will use a company logo ONLY for your company profile pic.
- Member account, password, and security
Once you complete the Services registration process, you will be prompted to select a username and password. You and you alone are responsible for anything that occurs under that password, whether you had knowledge or not of the activity conducted using your password.
In the event you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or account, or any breach of security, you agree: a) that you will immediately notify BiggerPockets of such unauthorized use of breach of security. To minimize the chance that any unauthorized use is made of your password, or that there be a breach of security, you agree: i) that you exit your account at the termination of each session ii) that you will take special care to exit your account when using any public computer or computer that is part of any network.
Should you fail to perform any of the stipulated rules and regulations as regards the use of your password or breach of security, you agree: a)that BiggerPockets cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage that should arise from your failure to comply.
- User Conduct
When you use BiggerPockets and any of its services that exist now or that shall exist in the future, you agree: a) that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, files, messages or other material ("Content") are the sole responsibility of the person from which the Content originated, whether publicly posted or transmitted privately; b) that you and not BiggerPockets are entirely responsible for all Content you upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available using the Service; c) that BiggerPockets has limited control of the Content posted via the Service; d) that BiggerPockets does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of any such Content; e) you represent and warrant that all User Content that you post to the Website shall be your wholly original material (except for material that you are using with the permission of its owner), and will not infringe any copyright, trademark or other rights of any third party including without limitation any rights of privacy or publicity; f) You shall be solely responsible for retaining duplicate copies of any User Content that you post to the Website and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for the loss of your User Content.
By using the Service, you understand: a) that you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable b) that BiggerPockets will not be liable for any Content in any way, including, but not limited to, errors or omissions. c) that BiggerPockets will not be liable for any loss or damage of any kind that might be incurred by your download or use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available by the Service.
You agree to not use the Service to:
- upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, pornographic, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
- harm members or non members in any way;
- impersonate any person, company or entity, including, but not limited to, a BiggerPockets staff member or forum moderator, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person, company or entity;
- forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Service;
- upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
- upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights ("Rights") of any party;
- transmit worms, viruses or any code of a destructive nature to BiggerPockets or its users.
- upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation;
- upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
- promote any form of affiliate program or engage in affiliate marketing;
- promote any kind of network marketing opportunity, MLM, MVM, or promote any product associated with such companies;
- interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
- intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law;
- "stalk" or otherwise harass another; or
- collect or store personal data about other users.
Be advised that by using BiggerPockets and its services in any way or form, you are acknowledging that BiggerPockets may not pre-screen Content, but that, nevertheless, BiggerPockets and its designees shall have the right but not obligation - in their sole discretion - to refuse or move any Content that is available via the Service.
Without limiting the foregoing, BiggerPockets and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates these Terms of Service or is otherwise objectionable in any way.
You further agree that you must evaluate and bear all risks associated with the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy,completeness, or usefulness of such Content. In this regards, you also acknowledge that you may not rely on any Content created by BiggerPockets or submitted to BiggerPockets.
You acknowledge and agree that BiggerPockets may preserve Content and may also disclose Content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce these terms of service; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third-parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of BiggerPockets, our members and the public.
- International Use
BiggerPockets recognizes that the Internet is global in nature . . . and, as such, you acknowledge the same and agree to: a) comply with all local rules regarding online conduct and acceptable Content b) specifically comply with all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical date exported from the United States or the country in which you reside.
- Materials submitted or made available for inclusion on the service
BiggerPockets does not and will not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on and use by the Service. BiggerPockets does not endorse any User Content or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein, and BiggerPockets expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with User Content. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant BiggerPockets the following world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive license as applicable:
With respect to Content (including text, photos, graphics, files, audio or video) you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, the perpetual, irrevocable and fully sub licensable license to use, distribute, store, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, reproduce, translate, transcode, syndicate, broadcast, exhibit, frame, package, re-package, publicly perform and publicly display, create derivative works, and otherwise use and reuse such Content in whole or in part and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed for any purpose. Additionally, you grant BiggerPockets the right to publish your name in connection with your Content and each of the foregoing activities, in all languages, via BiggerPockets, all distribution channels promoted by BiggerPockets through the Site, and all partnerships and/or other channels that BiggerPockets may from time to time take part in, promote or sponsor. You represent and warrant that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the foregoing license.
By submitting Content (including text, photos, graphics, files, audio or video) to BiggerPockets, you understand that third-party Search Engines may index that content. Any Content you do submit is done at your own risk, with the understanding that it may be distributed throughout search engine results, and search engine caches. If you do not want your Content to be crawled by the Search Engines, do not submit it to BiggerPockets.
BiggerPockets and its Partners reserve the right to display advertisements in connection with your Content and to use your Content for advertising and promotional purposes.
BiggerPockets offers a feature which allows users to make portions of their personal profile private to the public Internet. Users may opt-in or opt-out of this feature, however BiggerPockets does not warrant how third-party Search Engines will update their results or their cache.
BiggerPockets reserves the right to remove ANY content submitted to the site for any reason whatsoever. If you feel that the removal of your content might cause you harm, please do not submit it to the Service.
By uploading Content to the BiggerPockets Website, you hereby represent and warrant that:
- You own all right, title and interest (including all intellectual property rights) in your Content (including, without limitation, all rights to the audio, video, or digital recording, and the performance contained in your User Content) or, alternatively, you have acquired all necessary rights in your Content to enable you to grant the rights in your Content described herein;
- You have already paid, and you will be solely responsible for paying (to the extent any later become due) all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the Website and the Services.
It is expressly prohibited for third parties to post content to BiggerPockets or the BiggerPockets Marketplace on behalf of another party. Users must post content only on their own behalf, and may not permit, enable, induce or encourage any third party to post content for them.
With respect to information submitted to our File Vault, if you wish to distribute files via the BiggerPockets site for commercial purposes, please contact us.
Scraping or reproducing any content, including that which is included in feed format, from BiggerPockets, without the expressed written consent of BiggerPockets, Inc., presents a direct violation of these Terms of Use and is prohibited. Additionally, Automated Data Collection of any kind without the express written permission of BiggerPockets, Inc. is prohibited.
- Links
BiggerPockets or third parties may provide links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Be advised that BiggerPockets has no control over such sites and resources and, as such, you acknowledge and agree that BiggerPockets is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources and does not endorse and it not responsible or liable for any Content, advertising, products, or other material on or in connection with use of or reliance on any such Content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource. You further acknowledge and agree that BiggerPockets shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such Content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource. Furthermore, BiggerPockets reserves the right to ban links to any website for any reason.
Additionally, there may be provided on BiggerPockets, links to other Web sites belonging to our advertisers, business partners, affiliates and other third parties. Such links do not constitute an endorsement by us of those Web sites, nor the products or services listed on those Web sites. We are not responsible for the activities or policies of those Web sites. We do not endorse or recommend the products of any particular advertiser, business partner, affiliate or other third party. Furthermore, we do not guarantee that the terms, pricing, or rates offered by any particular advertiser, business partner, affiliate or other third party on the Site are the best terms or lowest rates available in the market.
BiggerPockets has financial relationships with some of the companies, products, and services mentioned on our site, and may be compensated if users choose to follow the links pointing to those conpanies, products or services.
- Email
When you sign up for membership on BiggerPockets.com, you are asked to supply your email address. By registering for the site and providing your email address, or by signing up directly for our email list, you consent to BiggerPockets, Inc. sending you email communications.
By providing us with your email address through registration or our opt-in list, you consent to our use of the email address to send you periodic service-related notices, including those required by law. You may not opt out of these service-related e-mails. We do reserve the right to use your email address to send you other messages, including feature updates, auto-generated emails from various portions of the site (which you can opt-out of from your dashboard), periodic newsletters, and other opportunities. If you do not want to receive these email messages, you can opt out by emailing webmaster@biggerpockets.com.
Scraping or gathering email addresses from BiggerPockets (including member addresses and emails associated with the BiggerPockets website as well) for the purpose of sending commercial email is prohibited and will result in a) the removal of a member from the service, b) your email being reported to the FTC for violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, and c) your permanent ban from BiggerPockets of any IP associated.
- Indemnity
By using BiggerPockets or any of its services, you agree to indemnify and hold BiggerPockets and its affiliates, officers, agents, co-branders or other partners, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content you submit, post, transmit or make available through the Service, your use of the Service, your connection to the Service, your violation of these terms of service, or your violation of any rights of another.
BiggerPockets takes no responsibility for the accuracy or validity of any claims or statements contained in the documents uploaded to the BiggerPockets site. BiggerPockets makes no representations about the suitability of any of the information contained in software programs, documents and related graphics on the BiggerPockets Site for any purpose. All such software programs, documents and related graphics are provided without warranty of any kind. In no event shall BiggerPockets be liable for any damages whatsoever, including special, indirect or consequential damages, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of information available from the service.
BiggerPockets reserves the right to discontinue any aspect of the BiggerPockets Website or Service at any time, including discontinuing any linked or embedded User Content either generally or in specific cases.
Under federal law, as described by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (Wikipedia Entry) - Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code (47 USC § 230), BiggerPockets, Inc. is not legally responsible for the content YOU post on BiggerPockets, even if those posts contain defamatory statements; in addition Section 230 has been effectively used to protect intermediaries such as BiggerPockets, against claims of negligent misrepresentation, interference with business expectancy, breach of contract, intentional nuisance, violations of federal civil rights, and emotional distress.
That said, it is important to understand that the aforementioned statute does NOT protect those persons who make remarks that may be considered to be defamatory or otherwise. If you'd like to know more about these protections afforded BiggerPockets, limiting our liability for the statements, remarks, and content posted by our users and other third parties, please see the following caselaw:
For those who may want to sue BiggerPockets, Inc., they may want to consider that Section 230, as mentioned above, states that, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
NOTE: This immunity applies even if BiggerPockets.com deletes inappropriate comments. It also applies if we choose to moderate comments, provided this moderation does not alter the meaning/intent of said comments. Looking deeper at §230(c)(2)(A), "(2) Civil liability. - No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of -(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected."
- General Information
These Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between you and BiggerPockets, and govern your use of the Service, superceding any prior agreements between you and BiggerPockets. You also may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use affiliate services, third-party content or third-party software. The TOS and the relationship between you and BiggerPockets shall be governed by the laws of the United States and State of Colorado. You and BiggerPockets agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the City of Denver, Colorado. The failure of BiggerPockets to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the TOS shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the TOS is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the TOS remain in full force and effect. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Service or the TOS must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.
The section titles in the TOS are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.
- Modifications to Service
BiggerPockets reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice, including those services available only to our PRO and PRO Basic members. You agree that BiggerPockets shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Service.
- Fees and Payments
BiggerPockets members can elect to upgrade their account to a PRO Account, where they are charged a subscription fee for the use of certain Services. BiggerPockets reserves the right to change the Fees at any time, upon notice to you. By registering for a PRO Account, you agree to pay BiggerPockets the Fees for the Services applicable to the account level chosen. For any upgrade or downgrade in plan level, your credit card that you provided will automatically be charged the new rate immediately.
All Fees are paid in advance and are non-refundable. There will be no refunds or credits for partial months of service, upgrade/downgrade refunds, refunds for accounts that have had access to particular services restricted, refunds for accounts that have had upgrades cancelled for any reason including violations of these Terms, or refunds for months unused. However, if a user upgrades and cancels within 24 hours without using the upgraded services offered to PRO members, we will offer a full refund minus any applicable cancellation fees. We reserve the right to deactivate your access to the Services for your failure to pay applicable fees or for violations of these Terms. If you provide us with a credit card that expires during the term of these Terms of Service, we reserve the right to charge any renewal card issued to you as a replacement. You agree to promptly pay BiggerPockets in the event of any refusal of your credit card issuer to pay any amount to BiggerPockets for any reason. You agree to pay all costs of collection, including attorney's fees and costs, on any outstanding balance. In the event you fail to pay any amount when due, BiggerPockets may immediately suspend or terminate your access to any or all of our Services.
Your PRO subscription will renew automatically, unless you terminate it at http://www.biggerpockets.com/pro OR if we terminate it for a violation of these Terms. You must cancel your subscription before it renews in order to avoid billing of subscription fees for the renewal term to your credit card.
The only accepted method for you to cancel your paid subscription to the BiggerPockets is via the account settings available through your Pro Account as mentioned in the prior paragraph. An email or phone request to cancel your account is not considered cancellation. You can cancel your Pro Account at any time when you are logged into your BiggerPockets Pro Account by going to your account preferences and using the "Please cancel my BiggerPockets Pro account" link. If you cancel the Services before the end of your current paid up month, your cancellation will take effect immediately and you will not be charged again.
- Termination
You agree that BiggerPockets, in its sole discretion, may terminate your password, account (or any part thereof) or use of the Service, and remove and discard any Content within the Service, for any reason, including, without limitation, for lack of use or if BiggerPockets believes that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of the TOS. BiggerPockets may also in its sole discretion and at any time discontinue providing the Service, or any part thereof, with or without notice; this goes for all account types, including upgraded PRO Accounts. You agree that any termination of your access to the Service under any provision of this TOS may be effected without prior notice, and acknowledge and agree that BiggerPockets may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all related information in your account and/or bar any further access to the Service. Further, you agree that BiggerPockets shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of your access to the Service.
Additionally, your account shall be terminated if it is used for hosting video, audio, or graphic elements of web page designs, icons, buddy icons, forum avatars, badges and other elements outside of the BiggerPockets Website or Service.
- Copyright Notifications
BiggerPockets is committed to protecting the rights of copyright holders. If you are a copyright holder, or an agent of a copyright holder, and you believe that a BiggerPockets member posting, user submission or other Content infringes upon your copyright, please submit a DCMA notification to us. You may do so pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, by providing the following information to our copyright agent:
- DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT:
1. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. BIGGERPOCKETS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
2. BIGGERPOCKETS MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (ii) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, (iv) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION, OR OTHER MATERIAL PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS, AND (V) ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED.
3. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.
4. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM BIGGERPOCKETS OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE TOS.
- LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT BIGGERPOCKETS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF BIGGERPOCKETS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (ii) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE; (iii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iv) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; OR (v) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE.
- Violations of Terms
Please report any violations of these Terms to us by email or phone.
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