Effective: July 7, 2020

Welcome to Pluralistic, a website created by Cory Doctorow, which lives at pluralistic.net (“Pluralistic,” “Website,” “Site”). This Terms of Service (“Terms”), which incorporates my Privacy Policy, is a contract between myself and you that articulates your rights and my rights relating to the Site.

By using the Site, you are agreeing to be bound by these Terms. You should know what they say, especially because if you do not agree to these Terms, you should not use the Site.

I grant you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive license to use Pluralistic in the manner described herein. This means that you can read, listen to, watch, and intellectually consume everything on the Site, plus participate in my Forums. In exchange, I ask that you use the Site in the manner and spirit for which it was created and that you adhere to the policies that govern the Site’s use.

So in case it is unclear, you are NOT permitted to interrupt the serving of my Site, introduce malicious code to my forum, assist anyone in misusing the Site in any way, or use the Site to violate the law or the safety or dignity of another person in any way.

ACCOUNT CREATION

You can browse the Site without logging in. However, to participate in my Discussion Forum, you need to create an account. I use the Discourse.org forum, which I host myself.

To participate in the forum, you may create a new account, or log-in using one of your social networking user name and passwords. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account information. You are solely responsible for all activity that occurs with your account, regardless of whether you have authorized such activities. If the security of your account has been compromised, contact me immediately at doctorow@craphound.com.

HOUSE RULES

I may, in my sole discretion and without any forewarning, suspend or terminate your account for any reason. I can remove your User Content without any forewarning, for any reason I choose. I do not assume any responsibility for, or endorse your User Content.

I can also remove the content I post on my site, without any forewarning, for any reason.

RATED PG-13

The United States government has put limits on my ability to accept users under a certain age through the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. Nobody under 13 may create an account or use any part of the Site that requires the submission of personally identifiable information, like email or name. Any account that is created by a person under 13 will be terminated and any content created will be removed from the Site.

CC: SHARING WITH ATTRIBUTION

This site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commerically, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

YOU ASSERT THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO PUBLISH WHAT YOU POST

Anything that you submit or make available on our discussion forum or elsewhere on our site is considered “User Content.” This includes comments that you write, as well as items that you upload or link to, like images, videos, graphics, audio files, text or other works. When you make User Content available on Pluralistic, you are asserting that you have all the relevant copyright, trademark and intellectual property rights to make that work available or have a well-reasoned belief that your republication of the work is a “fair use.”

YOU GRANT ME THE RIGHT TO USE YOUR STUFF

By submitting User Content, you grant me an unlimited license to use your content on my Website, forums, and elsewhere, and practical uses such as copying your content to make backups of it, displaying it on the website, and distributing and modifying it as needed to make the Site work.

Because my servers are located remotely, and because User Content is retained indefinitely, you grant us these rights worldwide and irrevocably, and agree that I don’t owe you royalties for any use of your content based on these rights.

YOU GRANT THE COMMUNITY THE RIGHT TO REUSE YOUR STUFF

Further, when you make User Content available on Pluralistic, you grant the world a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License to it. Be mindful of this when you post.

THIRD-PARTY LINKS

This Website contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by me. Please be aware that I am not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. This Terms of Service applies only to this Website.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK: INDEMNITIES AND WARRANTIES

When you create content, you are solely responsible for it and the opinions that you express are your own. You will not hold me responsible [you indemnify me] for any User Content that violates any law or infringes the rights of any third party.

In the legal world, indemnify means you agree to hold me harmless from and defend me against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including without limitation reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of the Site, Services, and all Pluralistic and User Content, your violation of these Terms of Service, your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any intellectual property right, publicity, confidentiality, property or privacy right; or (iv) or any claim that your User Content caused damage to a third party.

I WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, WHETHER IN TORT, CONTRACT, OR OTHER LEGAL THEORY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR USE OF THE PLURALISTIC WEBSITE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, OR DATA.

GOVERNING LAW

Any claim or dispute between you and me arising out of or relating to these Terms, in whole or in part, shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, without respect to its conflict of laws provisions. agree and you agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of a state court located in Los Angeles, California or the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

CHANGES TO THESE TERMS

I may modify my Terms at any time. If I make changes to this policy that materially alter its effect, I will make it clear to you in advance on the Pluralistic website.

DMCA TAKEDOWN NOTICE AND PROCEDURE

When I reproduce a copyrighted image, text, video or music, I do so only to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; or with permission from its copyright holder; and I always include a link to the original source when possible and appropriate.

I will, at my discretion, deactivate or terminate the account of any user that infringes the copyright of others.

If you believe that your copyrighted work has been copied and is accessible on Pluralistic in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please send a notice to my Copyright Agent providing the following information:

  1. The electronic or physical signature of the owner of the copyright or the person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf;

  2. A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;

  3. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located, such as the URL where it is posted;

  4. Your name, address, telephone number and email address;

  5. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and

  6. A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

Pluralistic’s Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement can be reached as follows:

By mail:

Cory Doctorow
3727 W Magnolia Blvd #715
Burbank CA 91505

By email: doctorow@craphound.com

Please be aware that misrepresentations of infringement can result in liability for monetary damages.

If you posted material that has been removed due to a takedown notice and you believe that the material in question is not infringing, you may file a counter notification with my Copyright Agent with the following information:

• Your 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 by you, 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 to be removed or disabled.

• Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of federal district court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if your address is outside of the united states, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under dmca 512 subsection ©(1)© or an agent of such person.