IMPORTANT
This is a legal agreement between you and the Romance Writers of America® (RWA®) Historical Online Chapter #189: Hearts Through History. Before accessing or using any part of this website, you should read carefully the following terms and conditions contained in this Terms of Service agreement (TOS) as they govern your access to and use of this website and any programs, services, tools, materials, or information available through the RWA website or used in connection therewith. The Hearts Through History Romance Writers (HHRW) are willing to license and allow the use of this website on the condition that you accept and agree to all the terms and conditions contained in this TOS. If you do not agree with this TOS, you are not granted permission to access or otherwise use www.heartsthroughhistory.com as well as www.rwa.org and are instructed to exit the website immediately.
TERMS OF SERVICE
HHRW may, in its sole discretion, modify or revise these Terms of Services and policies at any time, and you agree to be bound by such modifications or revisions. If you do not accept and abide by this Agreement, you may not use the HHRW’s website or interactive services. Nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to confer any third-party rights or benefits. Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to HHRW’s Terms of Service, you should review the most up-to-date version by periodically visiting this page.
1. Description of Services. HeartsThroughHistory.com and RWA.org host various blogs, wikis, forums, and resource library materials (collectively the “Services”). You will be responsible for all activities occurring under your username and for keeping your password secure.
You understand and agree that the Services are provided to you on an AS IS and AS AVAILABLE basis. HHRW disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Services. HHRW also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Services with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you.
In accordance with HHRW’s Bylaws, you must be at least eighteen (18) years of age or have attained the legal age of majority in your state to use the Services. HHRW reserves the right to refuse service to anyone at any time without notice for any reason.
2. User Name Handling Policy. Registration as an authorized user for access to certain areas of www.rwa.org, namely, the “members-only” area requires both a user name and a password. Only one Authorized User can use one user name and password and, thus, one account. By limiting access, it helps avoid unauthorized usage by other persons or entities because anyone with knowledge of both your user name and password can gain entry to www.rwa.org and to your account.
Accordingly, by using www.rwa.org, you agree to consider your user name and password as confidential information and to keep your user name and password confidential. You also agree not to use another Authorized User’s user name and password. You will immediately notify RWA if you become aware of any loss or theft of your password or any unauthorized use of your user name and password. RWA cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with these obligations. RWA reserves the right to delete or change a user name or password at any time and for any reason.
3. Proper Use. You agree that you are responsible for your own use of the Services, for any posts you make, and for any consequences thereof.
You agree that you will use the Services in compliance with all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules and regulations, including any laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from your country of residence and all United States export control laws.
You agree to abide by the RWA and HHRW Forum Rules and the rules and restrictions therein. Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to the RWA/HHRW Content Policy, you should periodically review the most up-to-date version. RWA/HHRW may, in its sole discretion, modify or revise the RWA/HHRW Content Policy at any time, and you agree to be bound by such modifications or revisions.
Violation of any of the foregoing, including the RWA/HHRW Forum rules may result in immediate termination of this Agreement, and may subject you to state and federal penalties and other legal consequences. RWA/HHRW reserves the right, but shall have no obligation, to investigate your use of the Services in order to (a) determine whether a violation of the Agreement has occurred or (b) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.
Much of the content of HeartsThroughHistory.com — including the contents of specific postings — is provided by and is the responsibility of the person or people who made such postings. HHRW does not monitor the content of HeartsThroughHistory.com, and takes no responsibility for such content. Instead, HHRW merely provides access to such content as a service to you. HHRW does not endorse, support, represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any communications posted via the Services or endorse any opinions expressed via the Services. You acknowledge that any reliance on material posted via the Services will be at your own risk.
4. General Practices Regarding Use and Storage. You agree that HHRW has no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any Content and other communications maintained by the Services. HHRW retains the right to create limits on use and storage at our sole discretion at any time with or without notice.
5. Content of the Services. HHRW takes no responsibility for third-party content (including, without limitation, any viruses or other disabling features), nor does HHRW have any obligation to monitor such third-party content. HHRW reserves the right at all times to remove or refuse to distribute any content on the Services, such as content which violates the terms of this Agreement. HHRW also reserves the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as it reasonably believes is necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (b) enforce this Agreement, including investigation of potential violations hereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (d) respond to user support requests, or (e) protect the rights, property or safety of HHRW, its users and the public. HHRW will not be responsible or liable for the exercise or non-exercise of its rights under this Agreement.
6. Intellectual Property Rights. HHRW‘s Intellectual Property Rights. You acknowledge that HHRW owns all right, title and interest in and to the Services, including all intellectual property rights (“HHRW Rights”). HHRW Rights are protected by U.S. and international intellectual property laws. Accordingly, you agree that you will not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, or create derivative works from the Services. You also agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automated device, or manual process to monitor or copy any content from the Services. As described immediately below, HHRW Rights do not include third-party content used as part of the Services, including the content of communications appearing on the Services.
Your Intellectual Property Rights. HHRW claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through HHRW services. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any Content you submit, post or display on or through HHRW services and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through HHRW services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant HHRW a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, publish and distribute such Content on HHRW services for the purpose of displaying and distributing HHRW services. HHRW furthermore reserves the right to refuse to accept, post, display or transmit any Content in its sole discretion.
You represent and warrant that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the rights granted herein to any Content submitted.
7. No Resale of the Services. Unless expressly authorized in writing by HHRW, you agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes (a) any portion of the Services, (b) use of the Services, or (c) access to the Services.
8. Representations and Warranties. You represent and warrant that (a) all of the information provided by you to HHRW to participate in the Services is correct and current; and (b) you have all necessary right, power and authority to enter into this Agreement and to perform the acts required of you hereunder.
9. Termination; Suspension. In the case of a violation of the RWA Code of Ethics or in its sole discretion, at any time and for any reason, RWA/HHRW may terminate the Services, terminate this Agreement, or suspend or terminate your account. In the event of termination, your account will be disabled and you may not be granted access to your account or any files or other content contained in your account although residual copies of information may remain in our system for some time for back-up purposes. Sections 2, 4-6, and 9 – 13 of the Agreement, along with applicable provisions of the general Terms of Services (including the section regarding limitation of liability), shall survive expiration or termination.
10. Indemnification. You agree to hold harmless, indemnify and defend RWA/HHRW, and its officers, agents, and employees from and against any third-party claim arising from or in any way related to your use of the Services, including any liability or expense arising from all claims, losses, damages (actual and consequential), suits, judgments, litigation costs and attorneys’ fees, of every kind and nature. In such a case, RWA/HHRW will provide you with written notice of such claim, suit or action.
11. Entire Agreement. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and RWA/HHRW and governs your use of the Services, superseding any prior agreements between you and RWA/HHRW. You also may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use or purchase certain other HHRW services, affiliate services, third-party content or third-party software.
12. Waiver and Severability of Terms. The failure of HHRW to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Services shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Terms of Services 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 Terms of Services remain in full force and effect.
13. Statute of Limitations. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising of or related to use of HHRW services or the Terms of Services must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.
14. Choice of Law; Jurisdiction; Forum. These Terms of Services will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, without giving effect to its conflict of laws provisions or your actual state or country of residence. Any claims, legal proceeding or litigation arising in connection with the Services will be brought solely in Texas and you consent to the jurisdiction of such courts.
15. Copyright Information. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you believe that your copyright has been infringed, please contact the Executive Director of RWA by emailing copyright@rwa.org or calling 832-717-5200 or writing Romance Writers of America, 14615 Benfer Road, Houston, Texas 77069.
Romance Writers of America (“RWA”) and HHRW respect the intellectual property of others. Users who believe that their intellectual property rights have been infringed through the on-line services provided by RWA may contact RWA through their authorized agent and request that the infringing material be removed or access to it blocked.
RWA’s designated “Agent for Notice” of claims of copyright infringement can be reached as follows:
copyright@rwa.org
832.717.5200
14615 Benfer Rd., Houston, TX 77069
Proper notification of copyright infringement must be sent to RWA’s Agent for Notice (as designated above) and must include the following information:
- A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
- Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material;
- Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;
- A statement that the complaining party has 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 the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Please place the following label, “Notice of Infringement,” in the subject line of all such communications to RWA.
RWA will promptly remove or disable access to materials that are the subject of a proper DMCA notification and notify the user responsible for the material about said removal.
Users who believe that their material has been removed by mistake or are not in violation of copyright should provide RWA with a counter-notification that contains the following information:
- A physical or electronic signature.
- 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 access to it was disabled.
- A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
- The subscribers’ name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriber’s address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification or above, or an agent of such person.
Upon receipt of such material, RWA will restore the material and provide the counternotification to the party who issued the notification.
RWA reserves the right to terminate the accounts of, or access to specific services offered by RWA to, users who infringe the intellectual property rights of others.
Questions. If you have questions regarding the terms and policies in this document or the terms of use of HHRW services, please contact:
webmaster@heartsthroughhistory.com
If you have questions regarding the terms and policies in this document or the terms of use of RWA services, please contact:
Romance Writers of America
14615 Benfer Road
Houston, Texas 77069
(832) 717-5200