Terms of Use

Open COVID Pledge Website Terms of Use

August 27, 2020

  1. General Information Regarding These Terms of Use

Thank you for your interest in the Open COVID Pledge, operated by Creative Commons Corporation (“CC”, “OCP”, “we”, or “us”). These Terms of Use (“Terms”) apply to your use of all of the CC OPC websites that CC operates, which at present is https://opencovidpledge.org (the “Website”), currently hosted at Digital Ocean located in San Francisco. The Terms also apply to all products, information, and services provided through the Website, including without limitation the OCP licenses and any other legal tools we publish, information including summaries about the intellectual property rights pledged by Pledgors, and the scope of the patents and other intellectual property rights pledged as well as their applicable licenses (all collectively, together with the Website, the “Services”). CC assumes no responsibility for operation or content of the Website prior to August 27, 2020, the date on which CC first assumed operation of the Website.

Your use of the Services form a binding legal agreement between you and us in relation to your use of the Services.

  1. Your Agreement to the Terms

BY CLICKING “I ACCEPT” OR OTHERWISE ACCESSING OR USING ANY OF THE SERVICES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE LICENSES AND THE PATENTS AND OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DESCRIBED OR LISTED ON THE WEBSITE), YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREED TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS. By clicking “I ACCEPT” or otherwise accessing or using any Services you also represent that you have the legal authority to accept the Terms on behalf of yourself and any party you represent in connection with your use of any Services. If you do not agree to the Terms, you are not authorized to use any Services. If you are an individual who is entering into these Terms on behalf of an entity, you represent and warrant that you have the power to bind that entity, and you hereby agree on that entity’s behalf to be bound by these Terms, with the terms “you,” and “your” applying to you, that entity, and other users accessing the Services on behalf of that entity.

  1. Changes to the Terms

From time to time, CC may change, remove, or add to the Terms, and reserves the right to do so at our discretion. In that case, we will post updated Terms and indicate the date of revision if the changes are material. All new and/or revised Terms take effect immediately and apply to your use of the Services from that date on. Your continued use of any Services after new and/or revised Terms are effective indicates that you have read, understood, and agreed to the Terms.

  1. No Legal Advice

CC is not a law firm, does not provide legal advice, and is not a substitute for a law firm. Sending us an email or using any of the Services, including the Open COVID Pledge licenses (“OCP licenses”), or patents or other intellectual property that is pledged, does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. You are strongly encouraged to consult with your own lawyers before relying on any license or Pledge identified on our Website.

  1. Content Available through the Services

Provided as-is: You acknowledge that CC does not make any representations or warranties about the material, data, and information, such as patent and copyright information of Pledgors, data files, text, computer software, code, music, audio files or other sounds, photographs, videos, the OCP licenses or any OCL-Compatible or OCL-Alternative licenses, third party websites including patent search engines, or any images or audio files (collectively, the “Content”) which you may have access to as part of, or through your use of, the Services. Additionally, CC does not endorse any of the companies or the intellectual property they have pledged or licensed that are listed on the Website. Among other things, CC has made no evaluation of the intellectual property, its fitness for any purpose, whether it is suitable for your use, or if its use is subject to applicable laws or regulations. Under no circumstances is CC liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to: any infringing Content, any errors or omissions in Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted including patents, transmitted, linked from, or otherwise accessible through or made available via the Services. You understand that by using the Services, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, or objectionable.

You agree that you are solely responsible for your reuse of Content such as information about patents and copyrights pledged under the Open COVID Pledge or made available through the Services including any intellectual property that is featured on the Website or any third party website that you may visit that is linked from the Website. You should review the terms of the applicable license on any Content before you use the Content so that you know what you can and cannot do. You are encouraged to contact the Pledgor directly if you have any questions.

Licensing: CC-Owned Content: Other than the text of OCP licenses (which are made available under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication), CC’s trademarks (subject to the Trademark Policy, below), and the software code, all Content on the Website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license unless otherwise marked.

CC-Owned Code: All of CC’s software code is free software; please check our code repository for the specific license on software you want to reuse.

Search Tools: On its Website, CC may provide its own search tools that identify Content based on license and/or other information our search tools are able to locate and interpret. Those search tools may return Content that is not licensed under an OCL-Standard, OCL-Compatible, or OCL-Alternative license. The OCL-Compatible and OCL-Alternative licenses were not prepared by OCP or CC but by their respective Pledgors, and CC makes no representations or warranties about their accuracy or enforceability. You should independently verify the terms of these licenses and other patent and copyright information attached to any Content you intend to use in advance of use. 

Additionally, CC may provide information about third party search tools that identify Content and patents provided based on license terms, patent number, descriptions, and/or other information. CC may provide links to those tools hosted on third party websites. CC does make any representation or warranty whatsoever about the accuracy, usability, or completeness of those third party tools, and disclaims full responsibility for your use of those tools. You alone are responsible for reviewing and complying with the terms and conditions of such third party websites, including any privacy policy, and agreeing to those terms before using the services provided on those websites. See Sections 8, 9 and 10 below for additional disclaimer and indemnification terms.

  1. Content Supplied by You

Your responsibility: You represent, warrant, and agree that no Content posted or otherwise shared by you on or through any of the Services including through email (“Your Content”), violates or infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights, breaches or conflicts with any obligation, such as a confidentiality obligation, or contains libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful material.

Licensing Your Content: You retain any copyright that you may have in Your Content. You hereby agree that Your Content: (a) is hereby licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and may be used under the terms of that license or any later version of a Creative Commons Attribution License, or (b) is in the public domain (such as Content that is not copyrightable or Content you make available under CC0), or (c) if not owned by you, (i) is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License or (ii) is available under any other version of a Creative Commons Attribution license or that you are authorized by law to post or share through any of the Services, such as under the fair use doctrine, and that is prominently marked as being subject to third party copyright. All of Your Content must be appropriately marked with licensing (or other permission status such as fair use) and attribution information.

Removal: CC may, but is not obligated to, review Your Content and may delete or remove Your Content (without notice) from any of the Services in its sole discretion. Removal of any of Your Content from the Services (by you or CC) does not impact any rights you granted in Your Content under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

  1. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to engage in any of the following activities:

  1. Violating laws and rights:
  • You may not (a) use any Service for any illegal purpose or in violation of any local, state, national, or international laws,  or (b) violate or encourage others to violate any right of or obligation to a third party, including by infringing, misappropriating, or violating intellectual property, confidentiality, or privacy rights.
  1. Solicitation:
  • You may not use the Services or any information provided through the Services for the transmission of advertising or promotional materials, including junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unsolicited or unwelcome solicitation.
  1. Disruption:
  • You may not use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Services, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Services; including by (a) uploading or otherwise disseminating any virus, adware, spyware, worm or other malicious code, or (b) interfering with or disrupting any network, equipment, or server connected to or used to provide any of the Services, or violating any regulation, policy, or procedure of any network, equipment, or server.
  1. Harming others:
  • You may not post or transmit Content on or through the Services that is harmful, offensive, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, defamatory, hateful or otherwise discriminatory, false or misleading, or incites an illegal act; and
  • You may not intimidate or harass another through the Services; and, you may not post or transmit any personally identifiable information about persons under 13 years of age on or through the Services.
  1. Impersonation or unauthorized access:
  • You may not impersonate another person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity when using the Services;
  • You may not use or attempt to use another’s account or personal information without authorization; and
  • You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services, or the computer systems or networks connected to the Services, through hacking password mining or any other means.
  1. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CC OFFERS THE SERVICES (INCLUDING ALL CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES) AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE SERVICES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. CC DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL BE ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY SERVERS USED BY CC ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. CC DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION REGARDING USE OF THE CONTENT AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES IN TERMS OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE.

  1. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL CC OR ITS ADVISORS, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS,AFFILIATES, GLOBAL NETWORK MEMBERS AND AGENTS, BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, ACTUAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF REVENUE OR INCOME, LOST PROFITS, PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, COST OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR SIMILAR DAMAGES SUFFERED OR INCURRED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY THAT ARISE IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES (OR THE TERMINATION THEREOF FOR ANY REASON), EVEN IF CC HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CC IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE WHATSOEVER IN ANY MANNER FOR ANY CONTENT POSTED ON OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES (INCLUDING CLAIMS OF INFRINGEMENT RELATING TO THAT CONTENT), FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, FOR YOUR USE OF THIRD PARTY WEBSITE SERVICES THAT MAY BE DESCRIBED ON THE WEBSITE OR LINKED TO FROM THE WEBSITE, OR FOR THE CONDUCT OF THIRD PARTIES ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES.

Certain jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply to you. IN THESE JURISDICTIONS, THE FOREGOING EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS WILL BE ENFORCED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

  1. Indemnification

To the extent authorized by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless CC or its advisors, officers, directors, affiliates, and agents, from and against any and all claims, losses, expenses, damages, and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting directly or indirectly from or arising out of (a) your violation of the Terms, (b) your failure to verify the patent and/or copyright license(s), and other information associated with Content resulting from your use of the Services and/or (d) the Content you make available on any of the Services.

  1. Privacy Policy

CC is committed to responsibly handling the information and data we collect through our Services in compliance with our Privacy Policy [link], which is incorporated by reference into these Terms. Please review the Privacy Policy so you are aware of how we collect and use your personal information.

  1. Trademarks

CC uses its OCP trademarks noted below for purposes of indicating that companies and organizations are Supporters, or that a Pledgor has adopted the Pledge and has adopted an OCP license or has used a license that is otherwise acceptable to CC and compatible with the Open COVID Pledge. Our OCP trademarks and logos consist of the following, regardless of stylization, translation, capitalization, spacing or other presentation.

Word mark: Our OCP trademarks are not licensed under an open license. However, if you are a Pledgor or Supporter and are listed on the Website, you are authorized to use our trademarks to indicate that you are a Pledgor or Supporter so long as you include a URL or a hyperlink to the OpenCovidPledge.org website. 

Other permitted uses:  You do not need our permission to use our OCP trademarks for referential use (e.g., to refer to the Open COVID Pledge), provided you do not imply endorsement. Additionally, you do not need our permission to use the trademark for descriptive use (e.g., to describe the Open COVID Pledge in explanatory materials), provided that such use does not imply endorsement. All uses of our OCP trademarks and logos must be of the exact images reproduced above, including the colors reproduced above (with the exception that you may reproduce our trademarks and logos using black and white or grayscale in printed materials). You are not authorized to modify these images in any way, nor to make any derivatives or combination marks using our trademarks or logos. Please contact [email protected] with any questions or if you wish to use our OCP trademarks in other ways.

For the avoidance of doubt, CC holds other trademarks and logos in addition to the OCP trademarks. For more information about how you may and may not use those other CC trademarks, visit https://www.creativecommons.org/policies/.

Other trademarks used on the site are the registered trademarks of their respective owners. Those marks are used for referential purposes only and are not intended to suggest or imply any affiliation with or endorsement by their respective owners. 

  1. Copyright Complaints: CC DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure

CC respects copyright, and we prohibit users of the Services from submitting, uploading, posting, or otherwise transmitting any Content on the Services that violates another person’s proprietary rights.

CC abides by the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by responding to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the DMCA and other applicable laws. As part of our response, we may remove or disable access to material residing on a site that is controlled or operated by CC that is claimed to be infringing, in which case we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the person who submitted the affected material so that they may make a counter notification, also in accordance with the DMCA.

CC does not control content hosted on third party websites, and cannot remove content from sites it does not own or control. If you are the copyright owner of content hosted on a third party site, and you have not authorized the use of your content, please contact the administrator of that website directly to have the content removed.

Before serving either a Notice of Infringing Material or Counter-Notification, you may wish to contact a lawyer to better understand your rights and obligations under the DMCA and other applicable laws. The following notice requirements are intended to comply with CC’s rights and obligations under the DMCA and, in particular, section 512(c), and do not constitute legal advice.

Notice of Infringing Material

To file a notice of infringing material on a site owned or controlled by CC, please provide a notification to [email protected] containing the following details, and including “DMCA Notice” in the subject line:

  1. Reasonably sufficient details to enable us to identify the work claimed to be infringed or, if multiple works are claimed to be infringed, a representative list of such works (for example: title, author, any registration or tracking number, URL);
  2. Reasonably sufficient detail to enable us to identify and locate the material that is claimed to be infringing (for example a link to the page that contains the material);
  3. Your contact information so that we can contact you (for example, your address, telephone number, email address);
  4. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material identified in (2) is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  5. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is alleged to be infringed.
  6. Your physical or electronic signature.

Then send this notice to:

By Mail:

Attn: Open COVID Pledge DMCA Agent

P.O. Box 1866

Mountain View, CA 94042

By Email:

Email: [email protected]; please note “DMCA Notice” in the subject line

Counter-Notification

If material that you have posted to a site controlled or operated by CC has been taken down, you may file a counter-notification that contains the following details:

  1. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled;
  2. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material in question;
  3. Your name, address and telephone number;
  4. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for judicial district in which your address is located or, if your address is outside of the USA, for any judicial district in which CC may be found and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted a notice in compliance with the section (c)(1)(C) of the DMCA, as generally described above;
  5. Your physical or electronic signature.

Then send this notice to:

By Mail:

Attn: Open COVID Pledge DMCA Agent

P.O. Box 1866

Mountain View, CA 94042

Email: [email protected]; please note “DMCA Notice” in the subject line

You may be able to find examples of counter-notifications at www.chillingeffects.org/dmca/counter512.pdf. Please note, however, that this is no substitute for legal advice and you should obtain legal advice to better understand your rights and obligations under the DMCA and applicable laws.

Please note that CC does not host the Content made available through any third party search provider’s website or any other website that is linked to from the Website. You should contact the web site or service hosting the Content to have it removed.

  1. Termination

By CC: We may modify, suspend, or terminate the operation of, or access to, all or any portion of the Services at any time for any reason. Additionally, your individual access to, and use of, the Services may be terminated by CC at any time and for any reason.

By you: If you wish to terminate this agreement, you may immediately stop accessing or using the Services at any time.

Automatic upon breach: Your right to access and use the Services automatically terminates upon your breach of any of the Terms. For the avoidance of doubt, termination of the Terms does not require you to remove or delete any reference to previously-applied OCP legal tools from your own Content.

Survival: The disclaimer of warranties, the limitation of liability, and the jurisdiction and applicable law provisions will survive any termination. The license grants applicable to Your Content are not impacted by the termination of the Terms and shall continue in effect subject to the terms of the applicable license. Your warranties and indemnification obligations will survive for one year after termination.

  1. Miscellaneous Terms

Choice of law: The Terms are governed by and construed by the laws of the State of California in the United States, not including its choice of law rules.

Dispute resolution: The parties agree that any disputes between CC and you concerning these Terms, and/or any of the Services may only brought in a federal or state court of competent jurisdiction sitting in the Northern District of California, and you hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of such court.

  • If you are an authorized agent of a government or intergovernmental entity using the Services in your official capacity, including an authorized agent of the federal, state, or local government in the United States, and you are legally restricted from accepting the controlling law, jurisdiction, or venue clauses above, then those clauses do not apply to you. For any such U.S. federal government entities, these Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the laws of the United States of America (without reference to conflict of laws) and, in the absence of federal law and to the extent permitted under federal law, the laws of the State of California (excluding its choice of law rules).

No waiver: Either party’s failure to insist on or enforce strict performance of any of the Terms will not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right.

Severability: If any part of the Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by any law or regulation or final determination of a competent court or tribunal, that provision will be deemed severable and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.

No agency relationship: The parties agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and CC as a result of the Terms or from your use of any of the Services.

 

Prior version: April 7, 2020 [link]