Terms of Use

Acceptance of the Terms of Use

These terms of use are entered into by and between You and Muckraker Media, LLC (“Company,” “we,” “us” or “Muckraker Media, LLC”). The following terms and conditions, together with any documents they expressly incorporate by reference (collectively, “Terms of Use”), govern your access to and use of the website widgets, APIs, and other online products and services, including any content, functionality, and services offered on or through our Website (Muckraker.com) (collectively the “Services”) as a guest.

PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU EVEN START TO USE THE SERVICES.

By using the Services or by clicking to accept or agree to the Terms of Use when this option is made available to you, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy, each of which are incorporated herein by reference. If you do not want to agree to these Terms of Use or the Privacy Policy, you must not access or use the Services.

Changes to the Terms of Use

We are also iterating and improving, including these Services.

We may revise and update these Terms of Use from time to time in our sole discretion. All changes are effective immediately when we post them. However, any changes to the dispute provision set forth in the Governing Law and Jurisdiction provision herein will not apply to any disputes for which the parties have actual notice on or prior to the date the change is posted on the Services.

Your continued use of the Services following the posting of revised Terms of Use means that you accept and agree to the changes.

You are expected to check this page frequently so you are aware of any changes, as they are binding on you.

Your Access to the Services

No one under 13 is allowed to use or access the Services. We may offer additional Services that require you to be older to use them, so please read all notices and any additional terms carefully when you access the Services.

By using the Services, you state that:

• You are at least 13 years old and over the minimum age required by the laws of your country of residence to access and use the Services.
• You can form a binding contract with Muckraker Media, LLC, or, if you are over 13 but under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, that your legal guardian has reviewed and agrees to these Terms of Use.
• You are not barred from using the Services under all applicable laws; and
• You have not been permanently suspended or removed from the Services.
• If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of another legal entity, including a business or government entity, you represent that you have full legal authority to bind such entity to these Terms of Use.

Your Account, Accessing the Services, and Account Security

To access the Services or some of the resources offered by Services, you may be asked to create an account (“User Account”) and provide certain registration details or other information, including a username, password, and other information about yourself.

It is a condition of your use of the Services that all the information you provide on the Services is correct, current, and complete. You agree that all information you provide to register with the Services or otherwise, including, but not limited to, through the use of any interactive features on the Services, is governed by our Privacy Policy, and you consent to all actions we take with respect to your information consistent with our Privacy Policy.

If you choose, or are provided with, a username, password, or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any other person or entity. You also acknowledge that your account is personal to you and agree not to provide any other person with access to the Services or portions of it using your username, password, or other security information. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your username or password or any other breach of security. You also agree to ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session. You should use particular caution when accessing your account from a public or shared computer so that others are not able to view or record your password or other personal information. We have the right to disable any user name, password, or other identifier, whether chosen by you or provided by us, at any time in our sole discretion for any or no reason, including if, in our opinion, you have violated any provision of these Terms of Use.

We reserve the right at any time to charge fees for access to portions of the Services or the Services as a whole. You will not be charged for access to the Services unless we obtain your prior agreement to pay such charges. If we require a fee for any portion of the Services that are free at the time you began using the Services, we will give you advance notice of such fees. You shall pay all fees and charges incurred through your account at the rates in effect for the billing period in which such fees and charges are incurred. You shall pay all applicable taxes and fees relating to the use of the Services through your account.

You may cancel your subscription to the Services at any time by accessing the Manage Billing feature on the Website and canceling your plan. Your services will be available to you until the end of the billing cycle, at which point you will no longer be charged.

If you choose to cancel your account, use the email address your account is registered under and request to delete your account by sending an email to [email protected].

Prohibited Uses

You may use the Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms of use. You agree not use the Services:

• In any way that violates any applicable federal, state, local, or international law or regulation (including, without limitation, any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the US or other countries).
• To impersonate or attempt to impersonate the Company.
• To engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use or enjoyment of the Services, or which, as determined by us, may harm the Company or guests of the Services, or expose them to liability.

Additionally, you agree not to:

• Use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the site or interfere with any other party’s use of the Services, including their ability to engage in real time activities through the Services.
• Use any robot, spider or other automatic device, process, or means to access the Services for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Services.
• Use any manual process to monitor or copy any of the material on the Services, or for any other purpose not expressly authorized in these Terms of Use, without our prior written consent.
• Use any device, software, or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Services.
• Introduce any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs, or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage, or disrupt any parts of the Services, the server on which the Services is stored, or any server, computer, or database connected to the Services.
• Attack the Services via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.
• Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Services.

Monitoring and Enforcement; Termination

We have the right to:

• Take appropriate legal action, including without limitation, referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Services.
• Terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Services for any or no reason, including without limitation, any violation of these Terms of Use.
• Take appropriate legal action, including without limitation, referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Services.
• Terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Services for any or no reason, including without limitation, any violation of these Terms of Use.

Without limiting the foregoing, we have the right to fully cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity or other information of anyone posting any materials on or through the Services. YOU WAIVE AND HOLD HARMLESS THE COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES, LICENSEES AND SERVICE PROVIDERS FROM ANY CLAIMS RESULTING FROM ANY ACTION TAKEN BY ANY OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES DURING OR AS A RESULT OF ITS INVESTIGATIONS AND FROM ANY ACTIONS TAKEN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF INVESTIGATIONS BY EITHER SUCH PARTIES OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Muckraker Media, LLC respects the intellectual property rights of others. Upon proper notice, Muckraker Media, LLC will remove content that violates copyright law. Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512, Muckraker.com has implemented procedures for receiving written notification of claimed copyright infringement and for processing such claims in accordance with such law. If you believe your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please send Muckraker.com’s copyright agent (listed below) a notification of claimed infringement with all of the following information: [email protected].

• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works.
• Identification of the claimed infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit Muckraker Media, LLC to locate the material on the Services.
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit Muckraker Media, LLC to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and an email address.
• 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.
• A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf; and
• Your physical or electronic signature.

Intellectual Property Rights

The Services and their entire contents, features, and functionality (including but not limited to all information, software, text, displays, images, video and audio, and the design, selection, and arrangement thereof), are owned by the Company, its licensors, or other providers of such material and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and other intellectual property or proprietary right laws.

You may republish an excerpt of the text of any article appearing on the Services without obtaining our prior written consent, provided that all of the following Republication Permission conditions are met:

• The excerpt must consist of no more than 125 words of any article.
• The excerpt must be republished in the same form as originally published on the Services (i.e. the first 125 or less words of the article), and may not be rearranged, reworded, paraphrased, edited, quoted in piecemeal, or otherwise republished out of context or in a manner that changes its meaning.
• You must include a prominent byline attributing the article’s author and indicating that it is published at www.muckraker.com (e.g., “Written by John Doe at www.muckraker.com”).
• The excerpt must come from an article on the Services that is credited to us or our contributors (i.e., the permission does not apply with respect to articles credited to the Associated Press or other third-party providers).
• You may not republish any article in its entirety on another website.
• You are not in violation of these Terms of Use and have not received a notice from us informing you that you may no longer publish excerpts of our articles pursuant to the Republication Permission.

We reserve the right to revoke our Republication Permission to all users by revising the Terms of Use, to inform you that you may no longer publish excerpts of our articles pursuant to the Republication Permission even though the Republication Permission process remains available to other users, require you to remove any or all of the excerpts which you republished based upon the Republication Permission, and change or discontinue any or all segments of the Services without notice. Please note that the foregoing permissions expressly exclude the right to republish any photographs, pictures or images taken from the Services. If you would like to request our written consent for any republication that does not meet all of the foregoing requirements, or if you have any questions about our permissions process, please contact us at [email protected].

Reliance on the Information Posted

The information presented on or through the Services is made available solely for general information purposes. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of this information. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. We disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by you or any other visitor to the Services, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

Changes to the Services

We may update the content on the Services from time to time, but its content is not necessarily complete or up-to-date. Any of the material on the Services may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

Information About You and Your Visits to the Services

All information we collect on the Services is subject to our Privacy Policy. By using the Services, you consent to all actions taken by us with respect to your information in compliance with the Privacy Policy.

Linking to the Services and Social Media Features

You may link to our homepage, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval, or endorsement on our part.

The Services may provide certain social media features that enable you to:

• Link from your own or certain third-party websites to certain content on the Services.
• Send e-mails or other communications with certain content, or links to certain content, on the Services.
• Cause limited portions of content on the Services to be displayed or appear to be displayed on your own or certain third-party websites.

You may use these features solely as they are provided by us, solely with respect to the content they are displayed with, and otherwise in accordance with any additional terms and conditions we provide with respect to such features.

You agree to cooperate with us in causing any unauthorized framing or linking immediately to cease. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

We may disable all or any social media features and any links at any time without notice in our discretion.

Links from the Services

If the Services contain links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your convenience only. This includes links contained in advertisements, including banner advertisements and sponsored links. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to the Services, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such websites.

Geographic Restrictions

The owner of the Services is based in the State of California in the United States. We provide the Services for use only by persons located in the United States. We make no claims that the Services or any of its content is accessible or appropriate outside of the United States. Access to the Services may not be legal by certain persons or in certain countries. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws.

Disclaimer of Warranties

You understand that we cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that files available for download from the internet or the Services will be free of viruses or other destructive code. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and safeguards to satisfy your particular requirements for anti-virus protection and accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to our site for any reconstruction of any lost data. WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY A DISTRIBUTED DENIAL-OF- SERVICE ATTACK, VIRUSES, OR OTHER TECHNOLOGICALLY HARMFUL MATERIAL THAT MAY INFECT YOUR COMPUTER EQUIPMENT, COMPUTER PROGRAMS, DATA, OR OTHER PROPRIETARY MATERIAL DUE TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICES OR TO YOUR DOWNLOADING OF ANY MATERIAL POSTED ON IT, OR ON ANY SERVICES LINKED TO IT.

YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, ITS CONTENT, AND ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SERVICES, ITS CONTENT AND ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. NEITHER THE COMPANY NOR ANY PERSON ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPANY MAKES ANY WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION WITH RESPECT TO THE COMPLETENESS, SECURITY, RELIABILITY, QUALITY, ACCURACY, OR AVAILABILITY OF THE SERVICES. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER THE COMPANY NOR ANYONE ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMPANY REPRESENTS OR WARRANTS THAT THE SERVICES, ITS CONTENT, OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, ERROR-FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, THAT OUR SITE OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES IT AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT THE SERVICES OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL OTHERWISE MEET YOUR NEEDS OR EXPECTATIONS.

THE COMPANY HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT AND FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

THE FOREGOING DOES NOT AFFECT ANY WARRANTIES WHICH CANNOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.

Limitation on Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE COMPANY, ITS AFFILIATES OR THEIR LICENSORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OFFICERS OR DIRECTORS BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, UNDER ANY LEGAL THEORY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SERVICES, ANY WEBSITES LINKED TO IT, ANY CONTENT ON THE SERVICES OR SUCH OTHER WEBSITES OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICES OR SUCH OTHER WEBSITES, INCLUDING ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PERSONAL INJURY, PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, LOSS OF REVENUE, LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF BUSINESS OR ANTICIPATED SAVINGS, LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF GOODWILL, LOSS OF DATA, AND WHETHER CAUSED BY TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), BREACH OF CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF FORESEEABLE.

THE FOREGOING DOES NOT AFFECT ANY LIABILITY WHICH CANNOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its affiliates, licensors, and service providers, and its and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors, and assigns from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses, or fees (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to your violation of these Terms of Use or your use of the Services, including, but not limited to, your User Contributions, any use of the Services’ content, services, and products other than as expressly authorized in these Terms of Use, or your use of any information obtained from the Services.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

All matters relating to the Services and these Terms of Use, and any dispute or claim arising therefrom or related thereto (in each case, including non- contractual disputes or claims), shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule (whether of the State of California or any other jurisdiction).

Any legal suit, action, or proceeding arising out of, or related to, these Terms of Use or the Services, if not submitted to arbitration as set forth below, shall be instituted exclusively in the federal courts of the United States or the courts of the State of Florida, in each case located in the City of Miami and County of Miami-Dade, although we retain the right to bring any suit, action or proceeding against you for breach of these Terms of Use in your country of residence or any other relevant country. You waive any and all objections to the exercise of jurisdiction over you by such courts and to venue in such courts.

Arbitration

At Company’s sole discretion, the Company may submit or require You to submit any disputes arising from these Terms of Use or use of the Services, including disputes arising from or concerning their interpretation, violation, invalidity, non-performance, or termination, to final and binding arbitration under the Consumer Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association applying California law.

Limitation on Time to File Claims

ANY CAUSE OF ACTION OR CLAIM YOU MAY HAVE ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OF USE OR THE SERVICES MUST BE COMMENCED WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER THE CAUSE OF ACTION ACCRUES; OTHERWISE, SUCH CAUSE OF ACTION OR CLAIM IS PERMANENTLY BARRED, NOTWITHSTANDING ANY STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS, STATUTE OF REPOSE, OR OTHER LAW PROVIDING A LONGER PERIOD.

Waiver and Severability

No waiver by the Company of any term or condition set forth in these Terms of Use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or a waiver of any other term or condition, and any failure of the Company to assert a right or provision under these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

If any provision of these Terms of Use is held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect.

Entire Agreement

The Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy constitute the sole and entire agreement between You and Muckraker Media, LLC with respect to the Services and supersede all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations, and warranties, both written and oral, with respect to the Services.

All notices of copyright infringement should be sent to the copyright agent in the manner and means set forth above.

All other feedback, comments, requests for technical support and other communications relating to the Services should be directed to: [email protected].