<%inherit file="marketing.html" /> <section class="tos"> <div> <h1><i>MITx</i> Terms of Service</h1> <p>Welcome to <i>MITx</i>. You must read and agree to these Terms of Service ("TOS"), <i>MITx</i>’s <a href="/t/privacy.html">Privacy Policy</a>, and <a href="/t/honor.html">Honor Code</a> prior to registering for this site or using any portion of this site (“Site”), including accessing any course materials, chat room, mailing list, or other electronic service. These TOS, the Privacy Policy and the Honor Code are agreements (the “Agreements”) between you and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MIT”). If you do not understand or do not agree to be bound by the terms of the Agreements, please immediately exit this site. </p> <p><i>MITx</i> reserves the right to modify these TOS at any time and will publish notice of any such modifications online on this page for a reasonable period of time following such modifications, and by changing the effective date of these TOS. By continuing to access the Site after notice of such changes have been posted, you signify your agreement to be bound by them. Be sure to return to this page periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of these TOS. </p> <h2>Description of <i>MITx</i> </h2> <p><i>MITx</i> offers online courses that include opportunities for professor-to-student and student-to-student interactivity, individual assessment of a student's work, and for students who demonstrate their mastery of subjects, a certificate or credential. </p> <h2>Rules for Online Conduct</h2> <p>You agree that you are responsible for your own use of the Site and for your User Postings. “User Postings” include all content submitted, posted, published or distributed on the Site by you or other users of the Site, including but not limited to all forum posts, wiki edits, notes, questions, comments, videos, and file uploads. You agree that you will use the Site in compliance with these TOS, the <a href="/t/honor.html">Honor Code</a>, and all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules and regulations, including copyright laws and any laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from your country of residence and all United States export control laws. <p>As a condition of your use of the Services, you will not use the Site in any manner intended to damage, disable, overburden, or impair any <i>MITx</i> server, or the network(s) connected to any <i>MITx</i> server, or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the Site. You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to any <i>MITx</i> server through hacking, password mining or any other means. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information stored on the Site, its servers, or associated computers through any means not intentionally made available through the Site. </p> <h2>The following list of items is strictly prohibited on the Site:</h2> <ol> <li>Content that defames, harasses, or threatens others <li>Content that discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them. <li>Content that infringes another's intellectual property, including, but not limited to, copyrights, or trademarks <li>Any inappropriate, profane, pornographic, obscene, indecent, or unlawful content <li>Advertising or any form of commercial solicitation <li>Political content or content related to partisan political activities <li>Viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, corrupted files, malware, spyware, or any other similar software that may damage the operation of another’s computer or property <li>Content that contains intentional inaccurate information with the intent of misleading others. <li>You, furthermore, agree not to scrape, or otherwise download in bulk, user-contributed content, a list or directory of users on the system, or other material including but not limited to on-line textbooks, User Postings, or user information. <lu>You agree to not misrepresent or attempt to misrepresent your identity while using the Sites (although you are welcome and encouraged to use an anonymous username in the forums). </ol> <h2>User Accounts and Authority</h2> <p>In order to participate in Site activities, you must provide an email address ("Email Address") and a user password ("User Password") in order to create a user account (“User Account”). You agree that you will never divulge or share access or access information to your User Account with any third party for any reason. In setting up your User Account, you may be prompted or required to enter additional information, including your name. You understand and agree that all information provided by you is accurate and current. You agree to maintain and update your information to keep it accurate and current. </p> <p>We care about the confidentiality and security of your personal information. Please see our <a href="/t/privacy.html">Privacy Policy</a> for more information about what information about you <i>MITx</i> collects and how <i>MITx</i> uses that information.</p> <h2>Your Right to Use Content on the Site</h2> <p>Unless indicated as being in the public domain, all content on the Site is protected by United States copyright. The texts, exams and other instructional materials provided with the courses offered on this Site are for your personal use in connection with those courses only. MIT is planning to make <i>MITx</i> course content and software infrastructure available under open source licenses that will help create a vibrant ecosystem of contributors and further MIT’s goal of making education accessible and affordable to the world. </p> <p>Certain reference documents, digital textbooks, articles and other information on the Site are used with the permission of third parties and use of that information is subject to certain rules and conditions, which will be posted along with the information. By using this Site you agree to abide by all such rules and conditions. Due to privacy concerns, User Postings shall be licensed to <i>MITx</i> with the terms discussed below. Please see <a href="/t/copyright.html"><i>MITx's Copyright Page</i></a> for more information.</p> <h2>User Postings</h2> <p><strong>User Postings Representations and Warranties.</strong> By submitting or distributing your User Postings, you affirm, represent, and warrant that you are the creator and owner of or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to reproduce and publish the posted information, and to authorize MIT and <i>MITx</i>'s Users to reproduce, modify, publish, and otherwise use that infomation and distribute your User Postings as necessary to exercise the licenses granted by you below. You, and not <i>MITx</i>, are solely responsible for your User Postings and the consequences of posting or publishing them.</p> <p><strong>Limited License Grant to MIT.</strong> By submitting or distributing User Postings to the Site, you hereby grant to MIT a worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, assignable, fully paid-up, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to host, transfer, display, perform, reproduce, modify, distribute and re-distribute, relicense, and otherwise exploit your User Postings, in whole or in part, in any form, and in any media formats and through any media channels (now known or hereafter developed).</p> <p><strong>Limited License Grant to <i>MITx</i> Users.</strong> By submitting or distributing User Postings to the Site, you hereby grant to each User of the Site a non-exclusive license to access and use your User Postings in connection with their use of the Site for their own personal purposes. </p> <h2>Use of <i>MITx</i> and MIT Names, Trademarks and Service Marks</h2> <p>“<i>MITx</i>,” "MIT", "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", and its logos and seal are trademarks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You may not use MIT’s names or logos, or any variations thereof, without prior written consent of MIT. You may not use the MIT name in any of its forms nor MIT seals or logos for promotional purposes, or in any way that deliberately or inadvertently claims, suggests, or in MIT's sole judgment gives the appearance or impression of a relationship with or endorsement by MIT. <p>All Trademarks not owned by MIT that appear on the Site or on or through the services made available on or through the Site, if any, are the property of their respective owners. Nothing contained on the Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any such Trademark displayed on the Site without the written permission of the third party that may own the applicable Trademark.</a> <h2>Digital Millennium Copyright Act</h2> <p> Copyright owners who believe their material has been infringed on the Site should contact MITx's designated copyright agent at dcma-agent@mit.edu or at 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-4307 Attention: MIT DCMA Agent, W92-263A. <p> Notification must include: <ul> <li> Identification of the copyrighted work, or, in the case of multiple works at the same location, a representative list of such works at that site. <li> Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity. You must include sufficient information for us to locate the material (e.g., url, ip address, computer name). <li> Information for us to be able to contact the complaining party (e.g., email address, phone number). <li> A statement that the complaining party believes that the use of the material has not been authorized by the copyright owner or an authorized agent. <li> A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner. </ul> <h2>Disclaimer of Warranty / Indemnification/Limitation of Liabilities</h2> <p>THE SITE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR USE FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. MIT does not warrant the Site will operate in an uninterrupted or error-free manner or that the Site is free of viruses or other harmful components. Use of information obtained from or through this Site is at your own risk. Your access to or download of information, materials, or data through the Site or any reference sites is at your own discretion and risk and that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your property (including your computer system) or loss of data that results from the download or use of such material or data. We may close or limit enrollment for pedagogical or technological reasons.</p> <p><strong>User Postings Disclaimer.</strong> You understand that when using the Site you will be exposed to User Postings from a variety of sources, and that MIT is not responsible for the accuracy, usefulness, reliability, or intellectual property rights of or relating to such User Postings. You further understand and acknowledge that you may be exposed to User Postings that are inaccurate, offensive, defamatory, indecent or objectionable, and you agree to waive, and hereby do waive, any legal or equitable rights or remedies you have or may have against MIT with respect thereto. MIT does not endorse any User Postings or any opinion, recommendation or advice expressed therein. <i>MITx</i> has no obligation to monitor any User Postings or any other user communications through the Site. However, <i>MITx</i> reserves the right to review User Postings and to edit or remove, in whole or in part, such User Postings in its sole discretion. If notified by a User or a content owner of a User Posting that allegedly does not conform to the TOS, MIT may investigate the allegation and determine in its sole discretion whether to remove the User Posting, which it reserves the right to do at any time and without notice. </p> <p><strong>Links to Other Sites.</strong> The Site may include hyperlinks to sites maintained or controlled by others. MIT is not responsible for and does not routinely screen, approve, review or endorse the contents of or use of any of the products or services that may be offered at these sites. If you decide to access linked third party web sites, you do so at your own risk.</p> <strong> <p>YOU AGREE THAT MIT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGES, EITHER ACTUAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, OR TO YOUR (OR ANY THIRD PARTY'S) USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE, OR TO YOUR PLACEMENT OF CONTENT ON THE SITE, OR TO YOUR RELIANCE UPON INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM OR THROUGH THE SITE WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, STATUTORY OR OTHER LAW, EXCEPT ONLY IN THE CASE OF DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY WHERE AND ONLY TO THE EXTENT THAT APPLICABLE LAW REQUIRES SUCH LIABILITY. </p> <p>IN PARTICULAR, MIT WILL HAVE NO LIABILTY FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, WHETHER FORESEEABLE OR UNFORESEEABLE, (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, CLAIMS FOR DEFAMATION, ERRORS, LOSS OF DATA, OR INTERRUPTION IN AVAILABILITY OF DATA).</p> </strong> <h2>Indemnification</h2> <p>You agree to defend, hold harmless and indemnify MIT, and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and employees from and against any third-party claims, actions or demands arising out of, resulting from or in any way related to your use of the Site, including any liability or expense arising from any and all claims, losses, damages (actual and consequential), suits, judgments, litigation costs and attorneys' fees, of every kind and nature. In such a case, MIT will provide you with written notice of such claim, suit or action.</p> <h2>Miscellaneous</h2> <p><strong>Termination Rights.</strong> You agree that MIT, in its sole discretion, may terminate your use of the Site or your participation in it thereof, for any reason or no reason. If you no longer desire to participate in the Site, you may terminate your participation therein upon notice to MIT.</p> <p><strong>Entire Agreement.</strong> This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and MIT with respect to your use of the Site, superseding any prior agreements between you and MIT regarding your use of the Site. </p> <p><strong>Waiver and Severability of TOS.</strong> The failure of MIT to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the TOS of Site shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the TOS is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the TOS remain in full force and effect.</p> <p><strong>Choice of Law/Forum Selection.</strong> You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or any content posted to a Site will be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, excluding its conflicts of law provisions. You further consent to the personal jurisdiction of and exclusive venue in the federal and state courts located in and serving Boston, Massachusetts as the legal forum for any such dispute.</p> <p><strong>Effective Date:</strong> February 20, 2012</p><div> </div> </section>