TechChange, Inc.
(Last Updated: September 25, 2014)
ACCEPTANCE
You acknowledge that these Terms of Use govern your access and use of techchange.org, course.tc, and techchange-courses.org (the “Site“), as well as the TechChange courseware platform offered on the Site and on certain third-party sites (together with the Site, the “Services“”) provided by TechChange, Inc. (“TechChange,” “we” or “us“).
By accessing or using the Site or any feature, service, or data provided thereby (including the Services), or by otherwise using the Services, you acknowledge that you understand and agree to abide by these Terms of Use.
LIMITATIONS ON USE
You may use the Services only for purposes that are permitted by the Terms of Use and the laws and regulations in your state and country and any other laws and regulations that apply to your use of the Services (including any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the United States or other relevant countries).
You agree not to:
- engage in any activity that interferes with or disrupts the Services (or the servers and networks that are connected to the Services);
- knowingly use the Services to transmit any viruses, worms, time bombs, Trojan horses or any other harmful or malicious code;
- knowingly use the Services to create or transmit infringing, libelous or otherwise unlawful or tortious materials or any materials in violation of third-party privacy or intellectual property rights;
- trade or resell the Services for any purpose, unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in writing by TechChange;
- copy, frame, scrape, or mirror any part of the Services; or
- access (or attempt to access) the Services by any means other than those expressly permitted in these Terms of Use unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in writing by TechChange.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
You acknowledge and agree that TechChange has no responsibility for third-party course materials, websites, or software (together with any other third-party materials incorporated or linked to by the Services, the “Third Party Materials“) and that you are solely responsible for your use of them. You acknowledge and agree that:
- TechChange does not represent or imply that it endorses any Third Party Materials, or that it believes the operation of any Third Party Materials will be accurate, useful, or non-harmful.
- Third Party Materials may have technical inaccuracies, may cause mistakes or errors, and may transmit, store, or otherwise manipulate data in a manner that you find objectionable. You are responsible for taking precautions to protect yourself and your computer systems in connection with the use of Third Party Materials.
- Third Party Materials may be subject to additional terms and separate policies and practices. Neither these Terms of Use nor TechChange’s Privacy Policy shall apply with respect to data stored on, manipulated, or transmitted by means of your use of Third Party Materials.
You also acknowledge and agree that:
- TechChange has the right to manage the Services to protect the rights and property of TechChange and others and to facilitate the proper functioning of the Services, including disabling your account.
- TechChange may discontinue or change the Services at its discretion without liability. If we discontinue or materially change the Services, we will use our reasonable best efforts to announce such discontinuation or change on the Site or through other channels we customarily use to make announcements.
- The Services may be inaccessible from time to time due to planned or unplanned maintenance, or due to unavailability of third-party sites or services.
PROPRIETARY RIGHTS
Generally
TechChange does not grant you any intellectual property or proprietary rights in the Site or Services that are not specifically stated in these Terms of Use. Except as expressly stated herein, nothing in these Terms of Use grants you any right to use, distribute, copy or modify any TechChange intellectual property, including but not limited to any of TechChange’s copyrights, patents, trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names or other distinctive brand features.
TechChange will have, and you hereby grant TechChange, a royalty-free, worldwide, transferable, sublicensable, irrevocable, perpetual license to use or incorporate into the Services any suggestions, enhancement requests, recommendations or other feedback provided by you.
Copyright Matters
TechChange respects the intellectual property rights of others and prohibits users from uploading, posting, or otherwise transmitting on or to the Site or through the Services any information or materials that violate another party’s intellectual property rights.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA“) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. It is our policy to respond to notices and counter-notices that properly conform to the DMCA’s requirements. Accordingly, notices and counter-notices must meet the then-current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA. See the U.S. Copyright Office’s web page at www.copyright.gov for details of the current DMCA requirements.
Notification of Alleged Copyright Infringement
If you believe in good faith that materials hosted by TechChange infringe your copyright, you or your agent may send us a written notification pursuant to the DMCA, by providing our DMCA agent with the information listed below (and as further set forth in 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)) and requesting that the material be removed or access to it blocked:
- Identification in sufficient detail of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed. If multiple copyrighted works on the Site or Services are covered by a single notification, you may provide a representative list of such works on the Site or Services, but, the representative list must still contain sufficient detail of the copyrighted works so that we can identify them.
- Identification of the URL or other specific location on the Site or Services that contains the material that you claim to be infringing your copyright. You must provide us with reasonably sufficient information to enable us to locate the alleged infringing material(s) so that we can comply with your request to remove or deny access to it/them.
- Your name, address, telephone number, and email address.
- The electronic or physical signature of the owner of the copyright or an agent authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.
- A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement that you swear under penalty of perjury that the information contained in your notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this section, your DMCA notice will not be valid.
You must submit any notification of an alleged copyright infringement to TechChange’s DMCA agent by mail or email as set forth below:
DMCA Agent
2001 13th Street, NW
Third Floor
Washington, DC 20009
Email: dmca@techchange.org with the subject line “Terms of Use – DMCA Notification”
This contact information is for DMCA notifications and counter notifications only. Other inquiries directed to the DMCA agent may not be answered.
Please note that you may be liable for damages, including court costs and attorneys’ fees, if you make a material misrepresentation that materials on the Site or Services are infringing a copyright.
Counter Notification
If you believe in good faith that your own copyrighted material has been removed from the Site or Services as a result of mistake or misidentification, you may submit a written counter notification letter to our DMCA agent pursuant to Sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the DMCA. To be an effective counter notification under the DMCA, your written correspondence must include substantially the following:
- Identification of the material that has been removed or disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled.
- A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the district in which your primary residence is located, or in the District of Columbia if your address is outside the United States.
- A statement that you will accept service of process from the party that filed the notification of alleged copyright infringement or the party’s agent.
- Your name, address, telephone number, and email address.
- A statement that you swear under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material in question was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled, or that the material identified by the complaining party has been removed or disabled at the URL or Site or Services location and will no longer be shown or accessible.
- Your physical or electronic signature.
You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this section, your DMCA counter notification will not be valid.
You may submit your counter notification to TechChange’s DMCA agent by mail or email as set forth below:
DMCA Agent
2001 13th Street, NW
Third Floor
Washington, DC 20009
Email: dmca@techchange.org with the subject line “Terms of Use – DMCA Counter Notification”
This contact information is for DMCA notifications and counter notifications only. Other inquiries directed to the DMCA agent may not be answered.
If a counter notice is received by our DMCA agent, we may send a copy of the counter notification to the original complaining party informing that person that TechChange may replace the removed content or cease disabling it. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against TechChange or the user, the removed content may be replaced or access to it restored by TechChange.
Please note that if you materially misrepresent that the disabled or removed content was removed by mistake or misidentification, you may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees.
Account Termination
Please be aware that it is TechChange’s policy to terminate the user accounts of repeat infringers. If you believe that a user is a repeat infringer, please follow the requirements above, but also include information or evidence that will reasonably prove to TechChange that the user is a repeat infringer. If you provide false information to us regarding any of the above notifications, counter notifications or repeat infringer notifications, TechChange may immediately terminate your user account and you may be subject to legal and equitable remedies. Please see the section entitled “TERMINATION” for additional information regarding our right to terminate users’ accounts.
SITE CONTENT
You acknowledge that TechChange does not have any access to content you or others protect using the Services, and does not monitor or have editorial control over content you or other users create or distribute using the Site. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold TechChange and its affiliates, officers, directors, agents and employees, harmless from any third party claims related to the content you submit through the Services.
You hereby grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, sublicenseable, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license, without compensation to you: to use, reproduce, distribute, adapt (including without limitation edit, modify, translate, and reformat), create derivative works of, transmit, publicly display and publicly perform any information and/or content you submit through the Site or account information or metadata generated through your use of the Service.
You acknowledge that TechChange has no responsibility (or related liability) for backing up any content that you create or distribute using the Services. After termination of your account, you may no longer have access to your content.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
The Services are provided “as-is” and “as-available” with all faults. To the extent permitted by law, TechChange hereby disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied, including without limitation warranties that the Services are free of defects, merchantable, fit for a particular purpose or non-infringing. You bear the entire risk as to selecting the Services for your purposes and as to the quality and performance of the Services, including without limitation the risk that your user data is deleted or corrupted or that someone else uses your username and password to access your account.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
Except as required by law, TechChange, its officers, directors or employees, or their respective affiliates, will not be liable for any damages arising out of or in any way relating to the Terms of Use or your accessing, use of or inability to use the Services, including without limitation damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, lost profits, loss of data, and computer failure or malfunction, even if advised of the possibility of such damages and regardless of the theory (contract, tort, or otherwise) upon which such claim is based.
TERMINATION
We may terminate or suspend the Services or any part of the Services, terminate or suspend or your use of the Services, block any IP address, or remove any of your user content at any time without cause without any liability to you.
Further, we may terminate or suspend your permission to use the Services immediately and without notice upon any violation of these Terms of Use, your failure to pay any fees when due, to comply with any legal requirements, for extended periods of inactivity, for unexpected technical issues or problems or for engagement by you in fraudulent or illegal activities. Upon any such termination we may delete your account, passwords and user content and we may bar you from further use of the Services. You understand that we may also continue to make your user content available on the Services even if your use of the Services is terminated or suspended. You agree that we will have no liability to you or any third party for termination of your account, user content or access to the Services.
ADDITIONAL TERMS
Portions of the Services may be accompanied by additional terms which apply to specific features or areas of the Services. Those additional terms supplement these Terms of Use with respect to your use of those features or areas.
UPDATES TO THE TERMS OF USE AND OTHER POLICIES
TechChange has issued a Privacy Policy and may issue other policies from time to time. TechChange may update these Terms of Use and such policies at any time. Please take a look at the “LAST UPDATED” legend at the top of this page to see when these Terms of Use were last revised. The current version of these Terms of Use and such policies will be posted on the Site. If the changes are substantive, we will use our reasonable best efforts to announce such changes on the Site or through other channels we customarily use to make announcements regarding the Services. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of such changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.
GENERAL TERMS
These Terms of Use do not create a partnership, joint venture, agency, fiduciary or employment relationship between you and us. No failure or delay by TechChange in exercising any right hereunder shall constitute a waiver of such right.
These Terms of Use are governed by laws of the State of Delaware, without respect to its conflict of laws principles. The sole jurisdiction and venue for any claim arising from the Services and these Terms of Use shall be the state and federal courts located in New Castle County, Delaware, and each party hereby consents to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of such courts. These Terms of Use, together with our Privacy Policy, Beta Software Agreement and any other legal notices we have published on the Service, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding this Service. If a court having proper authority decides that any portion of these Terms of Use is invalid, only the part that is invalid will not apply. The rest of these Terms of Use will still be in effect. If we waive any of our rights under these Terms of Use in any particular instance, it does not mean that we are waiving our rights generally or in the future. Furthermore, just because we may not enforce all our rights all of the time, it does not mean that we are waiving our rights. We may decide to enforce them at a later date. These Terms of Use, and any rights and licenses granted under these Terms of Use, may not be transferred or assigned by you (whether by operation of law or otherwise) without TechChange’s prior written consent, but may be assigned by us without restriction.