IdeaScale Terms of Use

I. User Accounts

1. Your login may only be used by one person – a single login shared by multiple people is not permitted.
2. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password. We cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage from your failure to comply with this security obligation.
3. You may not use the Service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose. You must not, in the use of the Service, violate any laws in your jurisdiction (including but not limited to copyright laws).

II. Anti SPAM Policy

1. IdeaScale expressly forbids SPAM (the term "SPAM" meaning the sending of unsolicited e-mail to parties unknown to the sender). IdeaScale has a zero tolerance SPAM policy. Any customer found to be using IdeaScale for SPAM will have their account subject to immediate termination.
2. IdeaScale may only be used in connection with e-mail lists for which recipients have voluntarily registered. Using IdeaScale to send e-mail to an address you obtain without the consent of such addressee is a violation of the IdeaScale Terms of Use. You may not import any e-mail addresses to your list that have not chosen to receive your mailings. You may only send e-mail to customers that have willingly signed up to receive your mailings. If IdeaScale receives complaints about your list, your account is subject to immediate termination. You may not send mail under any company or organization name other than your own and/or with fraudulent header or source information.
3. We cannot and do not, monitor, censor or edit the contents of email messages sent using our system. Users alone are responsible for the contents of their messages and the consequences of any such messages. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for messages or other content that is created by our users. You may not send, post, distribute or disseminate any defamatory, obscene, or otherwise unlawful messages, material or information, including another person's proprietary information (including trademarks, trade secrets, or copyrighted information) without express authorization from the rights holder.
4. We will cooperate with legal authorities in releasing names and IP addresses of users who are involved in SPAM or other illegal activities.

III. Free Account, Evaluation License, Recurring Charges, Payments, Refunds, Upgrading, Downgrading

1. You have the option of utilizing the Free Account to trial the software. The Free Account does not expire unless until it is expressly canceled. You can upgrade to any of the paid licenses at any point of time. An upgrade from the Free Account to any paying plan will end your Free Account. You will be billed for your first month immediately upon upgrading. Once the Free Account is upgraded to a paid license, it cannot be reverted to a free account.
2. You have the option of upgrading to IdeaScale's Evaluation license to try many of the premum features of IdeaScale's Annual license for 15 days from time of upgrade. At the conclusion of 15 days, an upgrade to the Annual license level is required for the continuance of your community. The Evaluation license cannot be reverted to IdeaScale's Free, Civic, Lite, or Monthly license types. There will be no exceptions.
3. When a license upgrade is paid for by credit card, Monthly or Annual charges will automatically be charged to the credit card on file on a recurring basis until the account is terminated. It is not possible to remove a credit card or recurring billing from an account that is being billed monthly. If the account owner chooses to remove the credit card from an account being billed annually, the account owner will receive an email and notification of invoice 30 days before the community's renewal date. Failure to pay this invoice will result in the community being blocked and potentially terminated.
4. After upgrading to any paid account, there is a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee. This guarantee is valid starting the day that you INITIALLY upgrade your account. If you are not satisfied with the service for any reason, you may submit a request to have your payment refunded.
5. There will be no refunds or credits for partial months of service, upgrade/downgrade refunds, or refunds for months unused with an open account. Unfortunately we cannot make any exceptions. For license upgrades at the Annual license level and above, prorated pricing will be honored. In an upgrade from one annual license type to another, a nominal amount based on the unused months of the license from which the customer is upgrading will be deducted from the cost of the license to which the customer is upgrading.
6. All fees are exclusive of all taxes, levies, or duties imposed by taxing authorities, and you shall be responsible for payment of all such taxes, levies, or duties, excluding only United States (federal or state) taxes.
7. For any upgrade in plan level, your credit card that you provided will automatically be charged the new rate on your next billing cycle.
8. Downgrading your Service is not permitted.

IV. Cancellations

1. You are solely responsible for properly cancelling your account. An email or phone request to cancel your account is not considered cancellation. You can cancel your account at any time by clicking on the My Account link in the global navigation bar at the top of the screen. The Account screen provides a simple cancellation link.
2. All of your Content will be immediately deleted from the Service upon cancellation. This information can not be recovered once your account is cancelled.
3. If you cancel the Service before the end of your current paid up month, your cancellation will take effect immediately and you will not be charged again.
4. IdeaScale, in its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service, or any other IdeaScale service, for any reason at any time. Such termination of the Service will result in the deactivation or deletion of your Account or your access to your Account, and the forfeiture and relinquishment of all Content in your Account. IdeaScale reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time.

V. Title and Intellectual Rights

1. So long as User is in compliance with the Terms of Use, including but not limited to, payment for the Service, all rights, title and interest to any and all work produced and created by user pursuant to or in connection with the use of the Service shall vest in the User.
2. If User is in breach of the Terms of Use, User is not entitled to any Intellectual Property Rights untill such breach is cured.

VI. General Conditions

1. We provide space for hosting communities, but make no implied or express warranties about the reliability of this space or related services. We are not responsible for any deletion, alteration, or loss of communities or results due to network or system outages, file corruption, accidental deletion, incompatibilities or any other reasons. We makes no guarantees as to server reliability, speed, or consistency, and cannot be held liable for such.
2. We make no guarantee of the accuracy, correctness, or completeness of any information on these web pages, communities, databases, or results and are not responsible for any errors or omissions arising from the use of such information; any failures, delays, or interruptions in the delivery of any content or services contained on our servers; or losses or damages arising from the use of the content or services provided by us.
3. You agree to indemnify us against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising from the use of this service. This expressly includes your responsibility for any and all liability arising from the violation or infringement of proprietary rights or copyrights and any libelous or unlawful material contained within your community.
4. Verbal, physical, written or other abuse (including threats of abuse or retribution) of any IdeaScale customer, employee, member, or officer will result in immediate account termination.
5. For communities created, you acknowledge and agree that IdeaScale may add an identifying footer stating "Powered by IdeaScale" or a similar message.
6. Unless you are a user of IdeaScale's custom URL feature, any explicit attempt to remove "ideascale" from our identifying URL (ex, mycompany.ideascale.com) in masked links (ex, mycompany.com) is not permitted. In addition, explicit attempts to remove this branding via html, javascript, CSS, DNS redirects, and URL masking is a violation of the Terms of Service.
7. Regardless of your license level, any modification of IdeaScale's black top navigation bar via Custom CSS or other means is strictly prohibited. Modifications include (but are not limited to) resizing, moving, and removing the menu bar.
8. In your use of the Products, you agree to represent you or your organization accurately and will not impersonate any other person, whether actual or fictitious.
9. In using the varied features of the Products, you may provide information about yourself or your employer (such as name, contact information, or other registration information) to Us. We may use this information and any technical information about your use of the Products to tailor its presentations to you, facilitate your movement through the Product, communicate separately with you or publish the fact that your are a user of our services.
10. All correspondence with The Company should be addressed to 93 S Jackson St #14277, Seattle, WA, 98104. This agreement is subject to the laws of the State of Washington. User agrees to waive questions of jurisdiction and venue and agrees that all disputes brought by User shall be in the courts of King County, Washington.
11. All inquiries related to billing and credit card charges should be made in writing to ATTN: Billing/Invoices, 93 S Jackson St #14277, Seattle, WA 98104
12. The Terms of Use constitutes the entire agreement between you and IdeaScale and govern your use of the Service, superceding any prior agreements between you and IdeaScale (including, but not limited to, any prior versions of the Terms of Use).
13. We reserve the right to amend or change these guidelines at any time, without notice.

VII. Prohibited Uses

1. Illegal Activities - Any activity which violates local, state, federal or international law. Examples include: Posting or disseminating illegal material (such as child pornography or obscene material.)
2. Security - Attempting to gain unauthorized access to any network; attempting to disrupt network services or services of external networks using the Service; attempting to gather third party personal information without consent. Examples include: DoS attacks, computer virus distribution or the transmission of any other software or application that contains features harmful to any network.
3. Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other limitation - Use of the network infrastructure and service in a manner that puts an excessive burden on the limitations of the network.

VIII. Reseller and/or Channel Policy

1. IdeaScale reserves the right to refuse anyone access to the reseller and/or channel program.

IX. Service Commitment (Enterprise License Only)

1. IdeaScale will use commercially reasonable efforts to make IdeaScale available with an annual uptime percentage (defined below) of at least 99.99% during the course of the license duration. This guarantee only applies to Enterprise license holders. In the event IdeaScale does not meet the commitment, you will be eligible to receive a credit for an additional month of service.
2. “License Duration” is the preceding 365 days from the date of an SLA claim or the length of time from the license start date to license end date.
3. “Annual Uptime Percentage” is calculated by subtracting from 100% the percentage of 5 minute periods during the license period was in an unavailable state. If you have been using IdeaScale for less than 365 days, your license duration is still the preceding 365 days but any days prior to your use of the service will be deemed to have had 100% availability.
4. Any downtime occurring prior to a successful service credit claim cannot be used for future claims. Annual Uptime Percentage measurements exclude downtime resulting directly or indirectly from any IdeaScale SLA Exclusion (defined below).
5. “Unavailable” means that your IdeaScale community has no external connectivity during a five minute period.
6. “IdeaScale SLA Exclusions” are defined as the following: a. Downtime caused by factors outside of our reasonable control, including any force majeure event or Internet access or related problems beyond the demarcation point of IdeaScale servers. b. Downtime that result from any actions or inactions of you or any third party. c. Downtime as a result of regular maintenance/patch builds that occur daily at 2 AM PST. d. Downtime arising from our suspension and termination of your right to use IdeaScale in accordance with the IdeaScale Terms of Service.

X. Termination

1. Any violation of the Terms of Use constitutes grounds for immediate termination of a user account without notice or refund. Upon such termination, We shall have no liability or responsibility to you or any third-party.