Terms of Use

Last updated: March 11, 2008

TERMS OF USE

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY. THIS IS A CONTRACT. BY USING THIS WEB SITE, YOU ACCEPT ALL TERMS, CONDITIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THIS AGREEMENT. YOU MAY USE THIS WEB SITE FOR NON-COMMERCIAL, LAWFUL PURPOSE ONLY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY OF THESE TERMS OF USE, DO NOT US THIS WEB SITE.

1. Introduction

This web site ("Web Site") is operated by The Chicago Gay Men's Chorus, an Illinois not for profit corporation which is federally tax-exempt under IRC 501(c)(3) ("CGMC", "we" or "us"). In this agreement, the term Web Site includes all web sites and web pages within www.cgmc.org as well as any equivalent, mirror, replacement, substitute or backup web sites and web pages thereto and thereof. Please also review the terms of our Privacy Policy. Your use of this Web Site is subject to the following Terms of Use. You agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy by accessing this Web Site and/or by accepting any information from this Web Site. CGMC reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify, alter or otherwise change the Terms of Use at any time. Please check these Terms of Use periodically for changes. By using this Web Site after any changes to these Terms of Use are posted, you are indicating your acceptance of those changes.

This agreement does not cover your rights or responsibilities with respect to third party content or sites or any links that may direct your browser or your connection to third party sites or pages. This is the entire and exclusive agreement between you and us regarding use of the Web Site and it cannot be modified, except as specifically described herein.

If, for any reason, you do not agree with all of the terms and conditions contained herein, please discontinue using the Web Site immediately. The Web Site and the information contained in reference herein are for informational and entertainment purposes only. Despite our efforts to provide useful and accurate information, errors may appear from time to time. Before you act on information you've found on the Web Site, you should confirm any facts that are important to your decision. This Web Site and its information providers make no warranty as to the reliability, accuracy, timeliness, usefulness or completeness of the information on the Web Site. This Web Site and all information it contains are provided "AS IS". CGMC is not responsible for, and cannot guarantee the performance of, goods and services provided by any advertisers we host or others to whose web sites we link.

2. Ownership of Intellectual Property

All Web Site software, design, text, images, photographs, illustrations, audio and video material, artwork, graphic material, database, proprietary information and all copyrightable or otherwise legally protectible elements of the Web Site including, without limitation, the selection, sequence and "look and feel" and arrangement of items, (individually and/or collectively "Material"), are the property of CGMC, its subsidiaries, affiliates, licensors or suppliers and are legally protected, without limitation, under the U.S. federal and state, as well as applicable foreign, laws, regulations and treaties. CGMC may add, change, discontinue, remove or suspend any of the Material at any time, without notice and without liability. Any reproduction, copying or redistribution for commercial purposes of the Materials or design elements of the Web Site is strictly prohibited without the express written consent of CGMC or its owner if CGMC is not the owner. All rights in the product names, company names, trade names, logos, product packaging and designs of CGMC or third-party products or services whether or not appearing in large print or with the trademark symbol, belong exclusively to CGMC, as applicable, or their respective owners, and are protected from reproduction, imitation, dilution or confusing or misleading uses under national and international trademark and copyright laws, as applicable. The use or misuse of these trademarks or any materials, except as permitted herein, is expressly prohibited and nothing stated or implied on this Web Site confers on you any license or right under any patent, copyright or trademark of CGMC or any third party. Decompiling, reverse engineering, disassembling or otherwise reducing the code used in any software on this Web Site into a readable form in order to examine the construction of such software and/or to copy or create other products based (in whole or in part) on such software is prohibited. You may download, print and store selected portions of this Web Sit3 provided that you (i) only use copies of the material for your own personal, non-commercial use; (ii) do not copy or post the material on any network computer or transmit, distribute, publish or broadcast the material in any media including, without limitation, another web site; and (iii) do not delete or change any copyright to trademark notice. No right, title or interest in any copied or downloaded material from this Web Site is transferred to you as a result of any such copying or downloading. All rights are expressly reserved and retained by CGMC.

3. Copyright Agent

Pursuant to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, CGMC has designated a Copyright Agent to receive notice of claims of copyright infringement on the Web Site. CGMC's Copyright Agent may be reached by e-mail at privacy@cgmc.org.

If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement please promptly provide the Copyright Agent the following information:

(a) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;

(b) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;

(d) your address, telephone number and e-mail address;

(e) a 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; and

(f) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are either the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

4. Links

This Web Site may contain links to other web sites ("Linked Sites"). The Linked Sites are not under the control of CGMC and CGMC is not responsible for the contents of the Linked Sites. CGMC provides any Linked Sites to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any such Linked Sites is not an endorsement by CGMC in favor of any company offering Internet services, products or services on the Linked Sites. By use of this Web Site, you expressly relieve CGMC from any and all liability arising from your use of any third party web site.

Other sites may link without prior permission to the Web Site's home page only through a plain-text link. Permission must otherwise be granted by CGMC for any other type of link to the Web Site. To seek our permission, you may write to The Chicago Gay Men's Chorus, 2936 N. Southport, #210, Chicago, Illinois 60657 ATTN: General Manager. Any third party web site that links to the Web Site (a) shall not create a frame, browse or border environment around any of the content of the Web Site; (b) may link to, but not replicate, Web Site content; (c) shall not imply that CGMC is endorsing or sponsoring it or its products or services; (d) shall not present false information about CGMC or its products or services; (e) shall not use CGMC trademarks without the prior written permission of CGMC; and (f) shall not contain content that could be construed as distasteful, offensive, hateful, obscene or controversial.

5. No Solicitation

You agree not to use the Web Site to advertise or to solicit anyone to buy or sell products or services or to make donations of any kind without the express written approval of CGMC.

6. No Spamming

From time to time, users of this Web Site post their e-mail addresses in CGMC chat rooms, forums and other public-posting areas. You agree not to utilize these e-mail addresses for purposes of spamming (i.e., unsolicited e-mail).

7. Chat Rooms, Bulletin Boards, Other Forums

CGMC cannot and does not review every posting made in Web Site chat rooms, forums and bulletin boards. CGMC does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting regardless of whether the posting comes from a user, from a celebrity or "expert" guest or from a member of CGMC's staff. CGMC is not responsible for any material posted in any chat room or on any bulletin board or forum and is not responsible or liable to any person or entity for any loss, damage (whether actual, consequential, punitive or otherwise), injury, claim, liability or other cause of any kind or character based upon or resulting from any material provided through this Web Site.

CGMC shall have the right but not the obligation to monitor, from time to time, the content of the Web Site including, without limitation, any chat room, bulletin boards and forums to determine compliance with this Agreement and any operating rules established by CGMC and to satisfy any law, regulation or authorized government request. CGMC shall have the right in its sole and absolute discretion to edit, refuse to post or remove any material submitted to or posted on the Web Site.

By using the Web Site, you agree not to post any content which libels, defames, invades privacy or is indecent, obscene, pornographic, abusive, threatening, illegal, solicits gambling or engages in any gambling activity, contains a virus, trojan horse, software, cancelbot or other harmful component, pictures or communications that contain language or images deemed offensive by the operators of this Web Site, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any local, provincial, state, national or international law, infringes on the ability of others to enjoy the Web Site or that infringes on the rights of others including, without limitation, any intellectual property rights of any entity or person. CGMC reserves the right to refuse access to anyone who CGMC believes in its sole and absolute discretion has violated these terms or any other term of this Agreement. CGMC additionally reserves the right to terminate this Agreement against any further use of any person or entity who violates any term of this Agreement.

By submitting material to the Web Site, you are representing that you are the owner of the material or are making your submission with the express consent of the owner. Submitting material that is the property of another, without the consent of its owner, is not only a violation of this agreement but may also subject you to legal liability for copyright, trademark or other intellectual property infringement.

All material you submit to the Web Site becomes the sole and exclusive property of CGMC. CGMC may reproduce, distribute, display, exhibit and otherwise exploit that material in all markets and media now known or hereafter devised or discovered throughout the Universe in perpetuity without notice, review, approval, or payment of any compensation or other consideration to you. You hereby waive all moral rights you may have in and to that material. CGMC does not consider any material you submit to the Web Site to be confidential or proprietary.

8. Promotions and contests

The Web Site may contain sweepstakes and other contests and promotions that require you to send material or information about yourself. Those sweepstakes, contests or promotions may be governed by a separate set of rules that may have eligibility requirements. It is your responsibility to read such rules to determine whether your participation, registration and/or entry is valid. You agree to read and comply with such rules before entering any sweepstakes, contest or promotion on this Web Site.

9. Membership and registration

Certain areas of this Web Site may require you to register or ask you to provide information to participate in certain features or access certain content. Your decision to provide that information is purely optional. If you elect not to provide that information, however, you may not be able to access that area, feature or content. If you elect to provide that information, you agree to provide information that is true and accurate. You may also be required to choose a user name and password. It is your responsibility alone to ensure the confidentiality of that name and password. You agree not to register under the name of any other person. CGMC reserves the right to reject any user name that is, in CGMC's sole and absolute judgment, offensive. You agree to notify CGMC of any unauthorized use of your user name and/or password. You must be at least 18 years old to register on the Web Site.

10. Purchase of merchandise

In the event any merchandise or services are offered for sale via this Web Site which are listed at an incorrect price or contain other incorrect information, CGMC shall have the absolute right to refuse or cancel any order placed for such merchandise or services and CGMC is released from liability for same. Your only remedy is to return to CGMC or a third party offering that merchandise for a refund, at CGMC's or the third party's sole discretion.

11. Removal of Information

CGMC reserves the right, without limitation, to move, delete or edit any and all advertisements, information, pictures or communications posted on the Web Site that CGMC determines, in its sole discretion, is in violation of the terms and conditions stated herein or is otherwise unacceptable.

12. Submissions

CGMC does not accept unsolicited submissions of any kind. and we cannot review your submissions. CGMC has adopted this policy to avoid misunderstandings about projects CGMC develops which may appear to be similar to someone else's idea, suggestion or material. Any submission will become the sole property of CGMC and will not be returned to you and CGMC shall not be required to respond to any submission received. You agree that you are not entitled to any compensation by reason of CGMC's use of similar or identical material.

13. Disclaimer and release of liability

YOU AGREE THAT USE OF THIS WEB SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. NEITHER CGMC, ITS AFFILIATES OR PARENT COMPANIES NOR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS OR LICENSORS WARRANT THAT THE WEB SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE; NOR DO THEY MAKE ANY WARRANT AS TO THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM USE OF THE WEB SITE OR AS TO THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY OR CONTENT OF ANY INFORMATION, SERVICE OR MERCHANDISE PROVIDED THROUGH THE WEB SITE. CGMC DOES NOT REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT THE WEB SITE WILL BE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. YOU ARE SOLELY RESONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM ANY MATERIAL AND/OR DATA DOWNLOADED FROM OR OTHERWISE PROVIDED THORUGH THE WEB SITE.

CGMC DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTAIBLITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTCIUILAR PURPOSE FOR ANY INFORMATION, PRODUCT OR SERVICE OFFERED ON THIS WEB SITE.

CGMC IS NOT LIABILE FOR ANY INJURY ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS WEB SITE INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR SIMILAR DAMAGES EVEN IF WE ARE ADVISED BEFOREHAND OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. CGMC IS NOT LIABILE FOR THE DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF OTHER USERS OR THIRD PARTIES AND THAT THE RISK OF INJURY FROM THE FOREGOING RESTS ENTIRELY WITH YOU. YOU AGREE THAT CGMC'S LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF ANY KIND OF LEGAL CLAIM IN ANY WAY CONNECTED TO THIS WEB SITE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO CGMC FOR THE USE OF THE WEB SITE. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THIS WEB SITE OR ANY CONTENT ON THIS WEB SITE, OR WITH THE TERMS OF USE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE SITE.

14. Indemnification

You agree, at all times, to defend, indemnify and hold harmless CGMC, its respective affiliates and parent companies and each of their respective directors, officers, employees, shareholders and agents from and against any and all claims, losses, actions, liabilities, damages, injuries, costs (including, without limitation, direct, incidental, consequential, exemplary and indirect damages) and expenses including, without limitation, attorneys' fees and court costs, arising directly or indirectly out of any use you make of the Web Site or your use of material on the Web Site, any violation by you of these Terms of Use or any activity related to you account (including, without limitation, negligent or wrongful conduct) by you or any other person accessing the Web Site through your account..

You agree not to take any action that interferes with the proper working of this Web Site, imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the Web Site’s infrastructure, might compromise the security of the Web Site, render the Web Site inaccessible to others or otherwise cause damage to the Web Site or any content in the Web Site.

15. Governing Law

This Web Site originates from and is maintained in the United States of America. This Agreement has been made in and shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois without regard to choice of law or conflict of law principles. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Chicago, Illinois in all disputes arising out of or relating to this Agreement or use of this Web Site. Any action you, any third party or CGMC may bring to enforce these Terms of Use or in connection with any matters related to this Web Site shall be brought individually without resort to any form of class action and only in the courts located in Cook county, Illinois. You agree that this Web Site shall be deemed a passive web site that does not give rise to personal jurisdiction over CGMC, either specific or general, in jurisdictions other than Illinois. This Agreement shall not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Any cause of action you may have with respect to your use of this Web Site must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arises and you hereby expressly waive any right you may have under applicable federal, state or local statutes of limitations. CGMC makes no representations regarding the legality of access to or use of the Web Site or the materials contained herein from other countries. Access in countries where the materials contained herein are illegal is prohibited. Users who access the Web Site from outside the United States do so at their own risk.

16. Severability

If any portion of this Agreement is found to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other portion of this Agreement which shall remain in full force and affect.

17. Additional Policies

CGMC reserves the right to seek all remedies available at law and in equity for violations of these Terms, including the right to block access from a particular Internet address.

The Web Site may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance or malfunction of computer equipment.

18. Entire Agreement

This Agreement and any rules for the Web Site established by CGMC constitutes the entire agreement between the parties concerning the subject matter hereof and supersedes all previous written or oral agreement between the parties with respect to that subject matter.

19. Headings

The paragraph headings used herein are for convenience only and shall not be used to limit any portion of this Agreement.