Science 2.0 Terms of Service

Welcome to Science20.com ("Science 2.0", the "Site"), which is operated by ION Publications LLC ("ION Publications LLC"). The Site and any services provided by ION Publications LLC on or in connection with the Site (the "Services") are provided to you individually or, if you are subscribing to the Site on behalf of an organization, the entity on whose behalf you act ("You") subject to the following terms and conditions (the "Terms of Service"). By using or subscribing to the Site or the Services, You agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If You do not agree to these Terms of Service, do not use the Site or the Services.

BY CLICKING ON THE "I ACCEPT" BUTTON OR BY ACCESSING, BROWSING, OR OTHERWISE USING THE SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS USER AGREEMENT AND ANY OF THE RELATED POLICIES OR GUIDELINES, INCLUDING ANY SUBSEQUENT CHANGES OR MODIFICATIONS TO THEM. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS USER AGREEMENT OR ANY CHANGES, DO NOT ACCESS OR OTHERWISE CONTINUE TO USE THIS SITE.

Children

You affirm that you are either more than 18 years of age or possess legal parental or guardian consent and are fully able and competent to understand, enter into, and comply with these Terms of Service. You also affirm that you are over 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age, you may not use the Site or the Services.

Changes to these Terms of Service

ION Publications LLC reserves the right to make changes to these Terms of Service by advising You of the proposed change using a form of notice that is appropriate for the nature of the proposed change(s), including where appropriate by posting amended Terms of Service on the Site. The changes are effective on the earlier of (i) ION Publications LLC providing You with notice of such changes, or (ii) 14 days after the amended Terms of Service are posted on the Site. If You do not agree to the amended Terms of Service, do not use the Site or the Services after the effective date of the amendment.

Privacy Policy

ION Publications LLC collects, uses, and discloses Your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which is available at Privacy Policy By providing information to ION Publications LLC, You consent to the use of such information in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

Use of the Site

Effective upon ION Publications LLC's acceptance of your request to become a registered user of the Site and provided that You continue to comply with these Terms of Service, ION Publications LLC grants to You a personal, non-assignable, license to log into and access the Site and to place content on the Site ("Your Content").

Your Content

You are responsible for ensuring that you have the right to provide Your Content to Science20.com for hosting, transmission, and publication in connection with the Site and the Services and, notwithstanding any disclaimers or limitations otherwise applicable in respect of Your Content, you agree to hold harmless and indemnify ION Publications LLC for any liability arising from Your Content. By submitting Your Content to Science 2.0, you grant to ION Publications LLC and its licensees the right to publish and otherwise use and exploit Your Content in accordance with the applicable license terms. For more information regarding the available license terms, please see creativecommons.org. Unless otherwise stated for specific Services, You will retain ownership and all related rights in any original information or other content that you publish on the Site or through the Services. In the event of any inconsistency between the provisions of these Terms of Service and the applicable license terms, these Terms of Service shall prevail to the extent of such inconsistency and such license terms shall be deemed to have been modified, in writing, by ION Publications LLC and You.

Termination of Access

If You use the Site in any manner that is prohibited by these Terms of Service, ION Publications LLC may without notice terminate or suspend Your use of or access to the Site or the Services.

Changes to the Site

ION Publications LLC reserves the right to change any aspect of the Site or the Services including the right to refuse or remove any content, whatever the source, at any time without any notice or liability to You.

Prohibited Use of the Site

The Site is provided to You for your personal use. You may not use the Site to engage in any unlawful activity or to infringe the rights of ION Publications LLC, its affiliates, or its customers. You further agree that You will not and You will not allow Your employees or agents to: (i) interfere with the operation of the Site or the Services, in any way or interfere with anyone's use or enjoyment of the Site or the Services, or use the Site or the Services to gain unauthorized access to other computer systems; (ii) send chain letters, junk mail, or spam or use any distribution lists in respect of any person who has not given specific permission to be included in such a process or to distribute or publish advertisements or solicitations of business; (iii) transmit any unlawful, harassing, libellous, defamatory, abusive, threatening, or harmful material of any kind or nature or transmit any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any applicable local, provincial, state, national or international law or regulation; (iv) impersonate any person or entity on or through the Site; (v) post any content that may be considered threatening, abusive, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable; (vi) reverse assemble, reverse engineer, decompile, or otherwise attempt to derive source code from the software used in the Site or any component thereof (except as permitted under applicable local law after having given ION Publications LLC written notice of requiring such information or specifications for the good faith and reasonable purpose of interoperability); (vii) copy, reproduce, modify, sell, lease, scrape content from or aggregate, sublicense, market, or otherwise change or commercially exploit in any way the Site or the Services or any component thereof other than as may be expressly permitted in writing by ION Publications LLC or as permitted pursuant to any fair use, fair dealing, or similar provisions of applicable laws; (viii) post advertising in your content or publish content or teaser articles designed to redirect readers to other sites; or (ix) disclose Your password or otherwise grant access to the Site to any third party, other than Your authorized agent, without the prior written consent of ION Publications LLC. You agree to abide by all additional rules, policies, and restrictions of which You are provided with notice that apply to any portion of the Site or the Services.

Operation and Maintenance of the Site

ION Publications LLC operates the Site in a commercially reasonable manner and may from time to time interrupt the Site's services for regular and emergency maintenance. Where ION Publications LLC has advance knowledge of any interruption to the Site's services, ION Publications LLC will make reasonable efforts to provide advance notice to You of any such interruption.

Monitoring Use of the Site

ION Publications LLC may monitor the Site but is under no obligation to do so. You hereby waive any expectation of privacy in such information and activity. Your waiver of rights in all such monitoring does not apply to personally identifiable information, which is handled by ION Publications LLC in accordance with the Privacy Policy of the Site.

Intellectual Property of ION Publications LLC

The copyright to the Site, the design and appearance of the Site, and all of the materials and content on the Site (other than Your Content) are owned by or licensed to ION Publications LLC. These materials are protected by law against unauthorized copying and reproduction. Any use, reproduction, or distribution of material, including caching, framing, or similar means, from the Site (except as permitted herein) without written permission of ION Publications LLC is expressly prohibited. © Copyright 2006-2008 ION Publications LLC All rights reserved. "Science 2.0", "Scientific Blogging",”ION Publications LLC” and "The World’s Best Scientists. The Internet’s Smartest Readers" are registered or unregistered trade-marks of ION Publications LLC or its affiliates or associates in the USA or other countries. Other service and product marks that appear on the Site are the trade-marks of their respective owners. The display of any trade-marks on the Site does not imply that a license has been granted for any further use.

Claims of Infringement

ION Publications LLC respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that your work has been copied and is accessible on the Site in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please follow the instructions on how to contact ION Publications LLC to report possible copyright infringement. For directions and more information, read the Copyright Policy which is available at Copyright Policy

Dealing with Third Parties

Any correspondence or business dealings with any third parties found on or through the Site is solely between You and such parties. ION Publications LLC is not responsible for any damages You may suffer by entering into such transactions or communications. You and the third party, not ION Publications LLC, are responsible for compliance with all laws applicable in any such transaction or communication.

No Warranties and No Liability

You acknowledge and agree that the Site and the Services are provided to You on a "as is", "without any warranties" and "without any liability" basis. The parties to these Terms of Service acknowledge and agree that this limitation on liability is reasonable in the circumstances.

ION PUBLICATIONS LLC DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICES OR THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, WHICH MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. YOU SHOULD NOT ASSUME THAT YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICES WILL BE ERROR FREE OR THAT THE SITE WILL OPERATE WITHOUT INTERRUPTION.

ION PUBLICATIONS LLC DISCLAIMS AND EXCLUDES TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW ALL WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS, AND CONDITIONS REGARDING USE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICES, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED AND WHETHER ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE.

ION PUBLICATIONS LLC IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES WHATSOEVER ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR MISUSE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICES OR IN RELIANCE ON THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE SITE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF USE, LOST DATA, LOST PROFITS, FAILURE TO REALIZE EXPECTED SAVINGS, OR ANY PECUNIARY LOSS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, CIVIL LIABILITY, NEGLIGENCE, OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, EVEN IF ION PUBLICATIONS LLC HAS BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR SUCH DAMAGES ARE REASONABLY FORESEEABLE.

WHERE THE LIMITATION OR THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN TYPES OF DAMAGES IS NOT ALLOWED, THE LIMITATIONS, EXCLUSIONS, AND DISCLAIMERS IN THESE TERMS OF SERVICE SHALL NOT APPLY ONLY IF AND TO THE EXTENT THAT THE LAWS OF A COMPETENT JURISDICTION REQUIRES LIABILITIES BEYOND AND DESPITE THESE LIMITATIONS, EXCLUSIONS, AND DISCLAIMERS.

Limit on Damages and Claims

NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER PROVISIONS OF THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL THE AGGREGATE OF ION PUBLICATIONS LLC'S LIABILITY EXCEED THE FEES ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU IN RESPECT OF THE SITE OR, IN THE EVENT THAT YOU HAVE NOT PAID ANY FEES IN RESPECT OF THE SITE, US$500.

ANY CAUSE OF ACTION THAT YOU MAY HAVE ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SITE OR THE SERVICES MUST COMMENCE WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER THE CAUSE OF ACTION ACCRUES. OTHERWISE, SUCH CAUSE OF ACTION IS PERMANENTLY BARRED.

Indemnity

You hereby agree to hold harmless and indemnify ION Publications LLC and its officers, directors, employees, consultants, and agents from any and all third party claims, liability, damages, or costs they incur arising as a result of Your misuse of the Site, Your violation of these Terms of Service, or Your infringement of any intellectual property or other right of ION Publications LLC or any other person or entity, including such activities that are carried out by any individual using Your login or password information.

Jurisdiction

Any dispute relating to the Site or the Services shall be governed by California and United States law and shall be adjudicated by the courts of California, USA. Nothing in these Terms of Service shall prevent ION Publications LLC from seeking injunctive or other equitable relief, payment of amounts due, or enforcement of an award before any court having jurisdiction over You or otherwise over such subject matter. ION Publications LLC makes no representation that the Site or the Services are appropriate or available for use in all locations, and accessing the Site from territories where the Site or its content is illegal is prohibited. If you choose to access the Site from such a location, you do so on your own initiative and you are responsible for compliance with local laws.

© 2006-2012 ION Publications LLC