VocaTales Terms of Use

Last modified: January 1, 2020

VocaTales.com (the "Website") is owned and operated by VocaTales, Inc ("VocaTales," "we" or "us").

Please read these Terms of Use (these "Terms of Use") carefully before you start to use the Website. These Terms of Use are a binding agreement between you and us and govern your use of the Website. By using this Website, you represent and warrant that you have read and understand these Terms of Use and agree to be legally bound by these Terms of Use.

Changes to the Terms of Use

From time to time we may update these Terms of Use. The changes will be effective immediately when we post them. Your continued use of the Website after we make changes is deemed acceptance of those changes, so please check these Terms of Use periodically for updates, noting the "Last Modified: date at the top.

Information About You and Your Visits to the Website

You may be required to register or provide certain information about yourself prior to using certain features of the Website, and the Website may provide you with additional opportunities to share information about yourself with others. All information we collect on the Website is subject to our Privacy Policy. Please refer to the Privacy Policy for information about how we collect, use and disclose information about you.

The Services we Provide

The Website offers a platform to our users that allows you to create and share stories developed from segments of vocabulary words to help learn and remember new vocabulary. The Website allows users to interact with the VocaTales community, including liking, sharing, following, saving, and commenting on other users’ stories. We provide a platform for sharing stories only and disclaim all liability, to the extent allowed by law, with respect to the content and information shared by our users (collectively, "User Content").

VocaTales does not endorse any User Content, and VocaTales makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any information provided by any user is accurate or will lead to or further any specific educational outcome.

You agree that you are solely responsible for your interactions with any other users through the Website, and that VocaTales will have no liability or responsibility with respect thereto.

User Content

The Website is intended to share unique user-developed stories. This Website may contain profiles, content feeds, photos, and other interactive features (collectively, "Interactive Services") that allow users to post, submit, publish, display (hereinafter, "post") User Content provided by themselves or other Website users through the Website.

All User Content must comply with the Content Standards set out in these Terms of Use.

Any User Content you post to the Website will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. By providing any User Content, you grant us and our service providers the right to use, reproduce, modify, perform, display, distribute and otherwise disclose to third parties any such material for any purpose, including advertising and promotional activities and/or any other commercial purpose, and without any right of compensation to you or any third party.

You represent and warrant that:

  • You own or control all rights in and to all User Content and have the right to grant the license granted above to us and our service providers.
  • All of your User Content complies with these Terms of Use.

You understand and acknowledge that you are responsible for what you post on the Website. We are not responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any User Content posted by you or any other user of the Website.

Content Standards and Prohibited Uses

You are only permitted to use the Website for personal and non-commercial purposes and only for its intended purpose as described in these Terms of Use and any other applicable policy we may post from time to time.

You may use the Website only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms of Use. Without limiting that general statement or any other restrictions in these Terms of Use, you agree not to use the Website:

  • In any way that violates any applicable federal, state, local or international law or regulation (including any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the US or other countries).
  • To post any User Content that is, or otherwise engage in any behavior that is, discriminatory, defamatory, hateful, harassing, abusive, obscene, suggestive, threatening, violent, hateful, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, inflammatory, fraudulent, misleading, or otherwise objectionable.
  • To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with the standards set out in these Terms of Use.
  • To promote any illegal activity, or to advocate, promote, or assist any unlawful activity.
  • To transmit, or procure the sending of, any advertising or promotional material without our prior written consent, including any "junk mail", "chain letter", "spam" or any other similar solicitation.
  • To impersonate or attempt to impersonate VocaTales, a VocaTales employee, another user, or any other person or entity (including by using e-mail addresses, screen names or profile picture associated with any of the foregoing).
  • To use or attempt to use another user’s account without authorization.
  • To impersonate any person or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or organization, including VocaTales.
  • To otherwise attempt to, or engage in activity that is likely to, deceive any person.
  • In any manner that may violate the legal rights of others, or that could give rise to any liability under applicable laws and regulations, or that otherwise may conflict with these Terms of Use and our other posted policies.
  • To engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone's use or enjoyment of the Website, or which, as determined by us, may harm us or users of the Website, or expose us or them to liability.

Additionally, you agree not to:

  • Use any robot, spider or other automatic device, process or means to access the Website for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Website.
  • Use any manual process to monitor or copy any of the material on the Website or for any other unauthorized purpose without our prior written consent.
  • Develop any third party website or application that interacts with the Website without prior written permission from VocaTales.
  • Attempt to reverse engineer any aspect of the Website, or do anything that might discover source cod or bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to the Website.
  • Use the Website in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying the Website or our servers, or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of the Website or our servers in any manner.
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage or disrupt any parts of the Website, the server on which the Website is stored, or any server computer or database connected to the Website.
  • Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website.

Accessing the Website and Account Security

We reserve the right to withdraw or amend the Website and any service or materials we provide on the Website in our sole discretion and without notice. We will not be liable if, for any reason, all or any part of the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period. From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of the Website, or the entire Website, to users, including registered users.

You are responsible for:

  • Making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Website.
  • Ensuring that all persons who access the Website through your internet connection are aware of these Terms of Use and comply with them.

To access the Website or some of the resources it offers, you may be asked to provide certain registration details or other information. It is a condition of your use of the Website that all the information you provide on the Website is correct, current and complete. You agree that all information you provide to register with the Website or otherwise, including through the use of any interactive features on the Website, is governed by these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy, and you consent to all actions we take with respect to your information consistent with these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.

If you choose, or are provided with, a user name, 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 Website or portions of it using your user name, password or other security information. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your user name or password or any other breach of security.

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.

You are responsible for all activities conducted by any person accessing the Website on your behalf or using your account, even if you are not the individual who undertakes such activities. This includes any unauthorized access and/or use of your account or your computer or devices.

You may not use or otherwise export or re-export the App except as authorized by applicable law. Without limiting that statement, the App may not be exported or re-exported (a) into any U.S.-embargoed countries or (b) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals List or the U.S. Department of Commerce Denied Persons List or Entity List. By using the App, you represent and warrant that you are not located in any such country or on any such list. You also agree that you will not use our services for any purposes prohibited by applicable law.

Intellectual Property Rights

The Website and its entire content, features and functionality (including all information, software, text, displays, images, video and audio, and the design, selection and arrangement thereof), are owned by VocaTales, our licensors or other providers of such material and are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws.

You must not reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store or transmit any of the material on our Website, except as follows:

  • Your computer or device may temporarily store copies of such materials in RAM incidental to your accessing and viewing those materials.
  • You may store files that are automatically cached by your Web browser for display enhancement purposes.

You must not delete or alter any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices from copies of materials from the Website.

If you print, copy, modify, download or otherwise use or provide any other person with access to any part of the Website in breach of the Terms of Use, your right to use the Website will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. No right, title or interest in or to the Website or any content on the Website is transferred to you, and all rights not expressly granted are reserved by VocaTales. Any use of the Website not expressly permitted by these Terms of Use is a breach of these Terms of Use and may violate copyright, trademark and other laws and may subject you to liability to the fullest extent provided under applicable law, including intellectual property law, for infringement and other legal actions.

Monitoring and Enforcement; Termination

We have the right to:

  • Monitor any User Content for compliance with these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
  • Remove or refuse to post any User Content for any or no reason in our sole discretion.
  • Take any action with respect to any User Content that we deem necessary or appropriate in our sole discretion, including if we believe that such User Content violates the Terms of Use, including the Content Standards, infringes any intellectual property right or other right of any person or entity, threatens the personal safety of users of the Website or the public or could create liability for VocaTales.
  • Take appropriate legal action, including referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Website.
  • Terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Website for any reason or no reason, including any violation of these Terms of Use.

VocaTales reserves the right to remove from the Website any and all User Content that violates these Terms of Use without notice and at our absolute discretion. 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 Website.

However, we cannot/do not undertake to review all material before it is posted on the Website and cannot ensure prompt removal of objectionable material after it has been posted. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications or content provided by any user or third party. We have no liability or responsibility to anyone for performance or nonperformance of the activities described in this section.

Third Party Materials

The Website may display, include, or make available third party content, or provide links to sites and resources provided by third parties, including links contained in advertisements, banner advertisements and sponsored links and images from Tenor ("Third Party Materials"). These Third Party Materials are provided for your convenience only. We have no control over any Third Party Materials 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 Materials, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such Third Party Materials. Under no circumstances will VocaTales be liable to you or any person in respect of any content, advertising, products, services or other tools or features available on or derived from any third party site.

Linking to Social Media Features

In addition, the Website may provide certain social media features that enable you to:

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

You may use these features solely as they are provided by us and solely with respect to the specific content they are displayed with and otherwise in accordance with any additional terms and conditions we provide with respect to such features. Some of these features may require you to log into one of your social media accounts or otherwise access your social media account information. This may result in obtaining information about you from your social media provider, and vice versa. Our collection and use of this information will be subject to our Privacy Policy. However, VocaTales is not in control of your social media account or how the social media site providers use your information, which remains governed by the settings and privacy policy of such social media site.

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

Disclaimer of Warranties

You understand that we cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that files available for downloading from the internet or the Website will be free of viruses or other destructive code. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your particular requirements for anti-virus protection and accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to the Website 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, DEVICE, DEVICE OR COMPUTER PROGRAMS, DATA OR OTHER PROPRIETARY MATERIAL DUE TO YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE WEBSITE OR TO YOUR DOWNLOADING OF ANY MATERIAL POSTED ON IT, OR ON ANY WEBSITE LINKED TO IT.

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

VOCATALES HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING 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

IN NO EVENT WILL VOCATALES, OUR AFFILIATES OR OUR LICENSORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OFFICERS OR DIRECTORS BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, UNDER ANY LEGAL THEORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE WEBSITE, ANY WEBSITES LINKED TO IT, ANY CONTENT ON THE WEBSITE OR SUCH OTHER WEBSITES OR ANY SERVICES OR ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE WEBSITE OR SUCH OTHER WEBSITES, INCLUDING ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING 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, WARRANTY CLAIM, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF FORESEEABLE. THAT SAID, VOCATALES’ TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR LOSSES, DAMAGES AND CAUSES OF ACTION RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) $100.00, OR (B) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO VOCATALES IN THE ONE-MONTH PERIOD IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE DATE ON WHICH YOUR CLAIM AROSE.

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

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold VocaTales, our 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 Website, including your User Content, any use of the Website’s content, services and products other than as expressly authorized in these Terms of Use or your use of any information obtained from the Website.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

All matters relating to the Website 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 internal laws of the State of Illinois without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule.

Any legal suit, action or proceeding arising out of, or related to, these Terms of Use or the Website shall be instituted exclusively in the federal courts of the United States or the courts of the State of Illinois 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.

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 WEBSITE MUST BE COMMENCED WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER THE CAUSE OF ACTION ACCRUES, OTHERWISE, SUCH CAUSE OF ACTION OR CLAIM IS PERMANENTLY BARRED.

Waiver of Trial by Jury; Class Actions

YOU AND VOCATALES HEREBY WAIVE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW ANY RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION, SUIT OR RELATED PROCEEDING BROUGHT TO ENFORCE, DEFEND OR INTERPRET ANY RIGHTS OR REMEDIES ARISING UNDER, RELATING TO OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS. FURTHER, YOU AGREE THAT YOU MAY ONLY RESOLVE DISPUTES IN YOUR INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND MAY NOT BRING A CLAIM AS A PLAINTIFF OR AS CLASS MEMBER IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. CLASS ARBITRATIONS, CLASS ACTIONS, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTIONS, AND CONSOLIDATION WITH OTHER ACTIONS ARE NOT PERMITTED.

Your Comments and Concerns

This Website is operated by VocaTales, Inc. All feedback, comments, requests for technical support and other communications relating to the Website should be directed to: support@vocatales.com.