Terms of Use

These Terms of Use were last updated on January 28, 2019.

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern and provide important information about your use of www.arnoldventures.org and related content, services, features, and applications (the “Website”). “AVLLC” means and refers to Arnold Ventures®.

Acceptance of terms

IMPORTANT: YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE IS SUBJECT TO THESE TERMS AS PRESENTED TO YOU HERE. BY USING THE WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS. NO CHANGES (ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS) TO THESE TERMS WILL BE ACCEPTED BY AVLLC. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE WEBSITE.

AVLLC may change, add, or remove any part of these Terms or any part of the Website. In such a case, AVLLC will post such changes on the Website.

IF ANY FUTURE CHANGES ARE UNACCEPTABLE TO YOU, YOU SHOULD DISCONTINUE USING THE WEBSITE. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE WEBSITE NOW, OR FOLLOWING THE POSTING OF NOTICE OF ANY SUCH CHANGES, WILL INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS AS MAY BE AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME.

Your use of the Website is also subject to the Website’s posted Privacy Policy.

Availability of the website

While AVLLC will make reasonable efforts to ensure that the Website is available at all times, AVLLC does not guarantee, represent, or warrant that provision of the Website will be uninterrupted or error-free, and AVLLC does not guarantee that users will be able to access or use all of the features at all times.

AVLLC may change, suspend, or discontinue any (or all) aspects of the Website at any time, including the availability of any related feature or project. AVLLC may also impose limits on the use of or access to certain features or portions of the Website, or restrict your access to any part, or all, of the Website, in all cases without notice or liability.

Service eligibility

To be eligible to use the Website, you must meet the following criteria and do hereby represent and warrant that you:

1) are 13 years of age or older;
2) are not currently restricted or prohibited from using the Website;
3) assent to and accept these Terms.
4) have full power and authority to agree to these Terms and in doing so do not and will not violate any other agreement to which you are a party;
5) understand that using the Website will expose you to content and commentary from a variety of sources and that AVLLC is not responsible for the accuracy, usefulness, safety, or intellectual property rights of or relating to such content and commentary;
6) understand that the Website is provided to you AS IS;
7) understand that AVLLC does not endorse, promote, or advocate a specific position with respect to the information and content set forth in and available on the Website; and
8) will not violate any rights of AVLLC or any third party, including intellectual property rights such as, but not limited to, patent, copyright, or trademark rights.

Content; intellectual property

By submitting or posting content through or in connection with the Website, you are representing that you are the owner of such material or have authorization to distribute it. To the fullest extent permissible, you hereby grant AVLLC a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, perform, display, distribute, and publish any such content for the purposes of promoting, expanding, or improving the Website.

The Website contains, and may contain, copyrighted material, trademarks, and other proprietary information of AVLLC including, but not limited to, software, photos, graphics, data, narrative content, audio, presentational materials, and images. The Website may also contain copyrighted material, trademarks, and other proprietary information licensed by, or otherwise made available to, AVLLC from third party content suppliers. You agree not to unlawfully modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, create derivative works of, or in any way exploit, in whole or in part, any copyrighted material or trademarks included on the Website. Except as otherwise expressly permitted by this Agreement, no posting, copying, downloading, uploading, transmission, retransmission, distribution, redistribution, publication, republication, decompilation, disassembling, reverse engineering, modification, or commercial exploitation of any copyrighted or proprietary material included on the Website is permitted without the express permission of the copyright owner. In the event of any copying, redistribution, or publication of copyrighted material as permitted by these Terms, no changes in or deletion of author attribution, trademark, legend, or copyright notice shall be made.

Nothing in these Terms shall be interpreted to limit in any way whatsoever, your rights under the fair use provisions of United States copyright law to make any fair use of the Website and any information available therein, or portions thereof, for non-commercial purposes. Further, nothing herein is intended to or shall limit you from using the Website for any non-commercial purpose otherwise permissible by applicable law.

Trademark information

ARNOLD VENTURES, the AVLLC logos, and other AVLLC trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with the Website are trademarks of AVLLC. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with the Website may be the trademarks of their respective owners. You are granted no right or license in any of the aforesaid trademarks, and you further agree that you shall not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notices (including trademark and copyright notices) that may be affixed to or contained within the Website (including materials that may be made available through the Website).

Acceptable use policy guidelines

Your use of the Website must conform to the requirements of the law, respect for the rights of other Website users and third parties, and current standards for online participation and usage — this includes (but is not limited to) following the rules of any Internet Service Provider, any other online services, these Terms, and all applicable laws.

AVLLC reserves the right to terminate or restrict your access to the Website at any time, with or without cause for any reason. Events that are likely to trigger such measures by AVLLC include, but are not limited to, any breach of these Terms by you, your infringement of AVLLC’s or others’ intellectual property, or any other circumstances which, in AVLLC’s sole discretion, merit such measures.

Inappropriate conduct falls into a number of categories. The more commonly understood categories are discussed below, although this list is not exclusive.

Illegal, Tortious, and Prohibited Conduct

The Website may be used only for lawful and proper purposes. Posting, transmitting, promoting, using, distributing, or storing content that could subject AVLLC or other Website users to any legal liability, whether in tort or otherwise, or that is in violation of any applicable law or regulation, or is otherwise contrary to commonly accepted community standards, is prohibited, including information and material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements, or other intellectual property rights, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes a threat, or violates export control laws.

Examples of prohibited conduct are:

Pretending to be anyone you are not — you may not impersonate or misrepresent yourself as another person (including celebrities), another user, an AVLLC employee, or a civic or government leader;
Using false statements to get, or to attempt to get, private information from other Website or Internet users;
Engaging in copyright infringement or other intellectual property infringement, or disclosing trade secret or confidential information in violation of a confidentiality or nondisclosure agreement;
Posting or communicating obscene content;
Planning illegal activity, such as building a bomb or counterfeiting money;
Advertising a lottery, ammunition, firearms, tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, or drug-related paraphernalia;
Using any “deep-link,” “page-scrape,” “robot,” “spider,” or other automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology, or any similar or equivalent manual process, to access, acquire, copy or monitor any portion of the Website;
Probing, scanning, or testing the vulnerability of the Website or any network connected to the Website;
Reverse look-up or tracing (including attempted tracing) of any information on any other user of or visitor to the Website;
Taking any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the infrastructure of the Website;
Exploiting the Website, or any service or information made available or offered by or through the Website, in any way where the purpose or effect is to reveal any information, including but not limited to personal identification or information, other than your own information.

AVLLC reserves the right to cooperate with law enforcement authorities, including complying with warrants, court orders, and subpoenas. In addition, AVLLC reserves the right to comply with any civil court orders and/or subpoenas. If AVLLC decides to investigate or resolve possible misuse involving you or anything you do on or with the Website, AVLLC is entitled, except to the extent prohibited by applicable law, to disclose any information about you in AVLLC’s possession in connection with your use of the Website and anything you do with the Website to law enforcement or other government officials, as AVLLC in its sole discretion believes to be necessary or appropriate. By your acceptance of these Terms and your use of the Website, you authorize AVLLC to take any such actions.

Objectionable Conduct and Content

To the extent the Website may allow a user to in any way supply or post content to the Website, AVLLC reserves the right to remove content if AVLLC becomes aware of any content that, in AVLLC’s judgment, does not conform to these Terms. AVLLC may warn you about the violation of these Terms, but we reserve the right not to do so. At all times, AVLLC reserves the right to terminate or restrict, with or without notice, access to or use of the Website for violation of these Terms.

Examples of objectionable conduct and content that violate AVLLC’s acceptable use policy are:

Harassing, threatening, or embarrassing another Website user, including unsolicited commercial communications;
Stalking another Website user (“cyberstalking”);
Transmitting, storing, or facilitating distribution of content that is harmful, abusive, violent, racially or ethnically offensive, lewd, vulgar or (in a reasonable person’s view) objectionable;
If you are an adult, requesting personal or other information from a minor (any person under the age of 18 or such other age as local law defines as a minor) who is not personally known to you, including but not limited to any of the following: full name or last name, home address, zip/postal code, telephone number, picture, or the names of the minor’s school, church, athletic team, or friends;
Posting content that defames, abuses, or threatens physical harm to others or yourself.

Please remember that these are only guidelines and the above examples are non-exclusive and in no way limit AVLLC’s discretion.

Investigations

AVLLC RESERVES THE RIGHT (SUBJECT TO APPLICABLE LAW), IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, TO MONITOR ALL WEBSITE FEATURES, PROJECTS, AND CONTENT FOR THE PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATING VIOLATIONS OF THESE TERMS.

When AVLLC becomes aware of possible violations, AVLLC may initiate an investigation, which may include gathering information from any user involved, any third party, and any complaining party.

During the investigation, AVLLC may suspend or terminate any or all of a user’s access to or use of the Website and/or remove involved or related content. If AVLLC believes, in its sole discretion, that a violation of these Terms has occurred, it may take responsive action, including but not limited to permanent removal of illegal or inappropriate content, warnings, and the suspension or termination of Website use or access.

If, as a result of any such investigation, AVLLC believes that any criminal activity has occurred, AVLLC reserves the right to refer the matter to, and to cooperate with, any and all appropriate law enforcement authorities.

Links

Certain content, components, or features of the Website may include materials from third parties and/or hyperlinks to other websites, resources, or content. Because AVLLC may have no control over such third party sites and/or materials, you acknowledge and agree that AVLLC is not responsible for the availability of such sites or resources, does not endorse or warrant the accuracy of any such sites or resources, and shall in no way be liable or responsible for any content, advertising, products, or materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that AVLLC shall not be responsible or liable in any way for any damages you incur or allege to have incurred, either directly or indirectly, as a result of your use and/or reliance upon any such content, advertising, products, or materials on or available from such sites or resources.

Indemnity and waiver

As a user of the Website, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless AVLLC, its directors, officers, employees, and agents, and each of their affiliates, from and against any and all claims, losses, liabilities, damages, expenses, and costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and court costs) made by any third party (“Claims”) due to or arising out of your acts or omissions, including Claims arising out of your use of the Website; your submission, posting, or transmission of content on the Website; or your violation of these Terms.

YOU FURTHER AGREE (TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW) TO WAIVE ANY CLAIMS YOU MAY HAVE AGAINST AVLLC, HOLD AVLLC HARMLESS, AND INDEMNIFY AVLLC WITH RESPECT TO ANY CLAIMS RELATING TO ANY ACTION TAKEN BY AVLLC AS PART OF ITS INVESTIGATION OF A SUSPECTED VIOLATION OF THESE TERMS OR AS A RESULT OF ITS FINDING OR DECISION THAT A VIOLATION OF THESE TERMS HAS OCCURRED. THIS MEANS THAT YOU CANNOT SUE AVLLC OR RECOVER ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER FROM AVLLC AS A RESULT OF ITS DECISION TO REMOVE MATERIAL FROM THE WEBSITE, TO WARN YOU, TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE YOUR ACCESS TO THE WEBSITE, OR TO TAKE ANY OTHER ACTION DURING THE INVESTIGATION OF A SUSPECTED VIOLATION OR AS A RESULT OF AVLLC’S CONCLUSION THAT A VIOLATION OF THESE TERMS HAS OCCURRED. THESE WAIVER AND INDEMNITY PROVISIONS APPLY TO ALL VIOLATIONS DESCRIBED IN OR CONTEMPLATED BY THESE TERMS.

Disclaimer of warranties; liabilities limitations

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. AS SUCH, TO THE EXTENT SUCH EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS ARE SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, SOME OF THE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS SET FORTH BELOW MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE WEBSITE IS AT UNDERTAKEN YOUR SOLE RISK. THE WEBSITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” FOR YOUR USE, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

AVLLC DOES NOT GUARANTEE THAT ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, OR OTHER MATERIAL ACCESSIBLE THROUGH THE WEBSITE WILL BE ERROR- FREE, COMPLETE OR ACCURATE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES, “WORMS,” “TROJAN HORSES,” OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

IN NO CASE SHALL AVLLC, ITS SUBSIDIARIES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS, PARTNERS, LICENSORS, OR CONTRACTORS 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, COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF AVLLC HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (I) THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE WEBSITE; (II) ANY CHANGES MADE TO THE WEBSITE OR ANY TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT CESSATION OF THE WEBSITE OR ANY PART THEREOF; (III) THE UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (IV) THE DELETION OF, CORRUPTION OF, OR FAILURE TO STORE AND/OR SEND OR RECEIVE YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA ON OR THROUGH THE WEBSITE; (V) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE WEBSITE; AND (VI) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE WEBSITE. AVLLC DOES NOT ENDORSE, WARRANT, OR GUARANTEE ANY THIRD- PARTY PROJECT OR SERVICE OFFERED THROUGH THE WEBSITE AND WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO OR IN ANY WAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING ANY TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND ANY THIRD PARTIES THROUGH THE WEBSITE. YOU HEREBY RELEASE AVLLC FROM ANY AND ALL OBLIGATIONS, LIABILITY, AND CLAIMS IN EXCESS OF THESE LIABILITY LIMITATIONS.

Legal principles

If any part of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as nearly as possible, the original intentions of the parties, and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect. Any claim or cause of action by you arising out of or related to use of the Website or these Terms must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. Except as required by applicable non‑U.S. local or national law, the laws of the State of Texas, United States of America, excluding its conflicts of law rules, govern these Terms and your use of the Website. Your conduct and use of the Website may be subject to other local, state, national (U.S. and non‑U.S.), and international laws. You expressly agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any claim or dispute with AVLLC regarding the Website or relating to the Terms shall be brought and/or reside exclusively in either the federal or state courts for Harris County, Texas. You further agree and expressly consent to the exercise of personal jurisdiction in the Texas courts in connection with any such dispute, including any claim involving AVLLC or its affiliates, subsidiaries, employees, contractors, officers, or directors.

Last update January 28, 2019