Terms of Use - Ballard & Tighe Forums

Welcome to the Ballard & Tighe Online Community ("Online Community").  Interaction in the Online Community is governed by these Terms of Use and the Usage Guidelines found at http://www.bt-onlinecommunity.com/forums as well as Ballard & Tighe's privacy policy found at http://www.bt-community.com/privacy_policy.php ("Agreement").  Ballard & Tighe reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of this Agreement at any time.

1. Online Community Use

The Online Community is designed to enable you to communicate with experienced colleagues and give feedback and ideas regarding Ballard & Tighe products and services.  You agree to use the Online Community only to post, send, and receive messages and material that are appropriate and related to the purpose of the Online Community.  You agree that you will not use or attempt to use the Online Community for any fraudulent, unlawful, harassing, or abusive purpose, or so as to damage or cause risk to our business, reputation, employees, subscribers, facilities, or to any person.

Improper uses include, but are not limited to: (a) Violating any applicable law or regulation; (b) Posting or transmitting content you do not have the right to post or transmit; (c) Posting or transmitting content that infringes a third party's trademark, patent, trade secret, copyright, publicity, privacy, or other right; (d) Posting or transmitting content that is unlawful, untrue, stalking, harassing, libelous, defamatory, abusive, tortuous, threatening, obscene, hateful, harmful or otherwise objectionable as determined in our sole discretion; (e) Attempting to intercept, collect or store data about third parties without their knowledge or consent; (f) Deleting, tampering with or revising any material posted by any other person or entity; (g) Accessing, tampering with or using non-public areas of the Online Community, Ballard & Tighe's computer systems and network or any Ballard & Tighe web site; (h) Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures; (i) Attempting to access or search the Online Community, the Ballard & Tighe network or any Ballard & Tighe web site with any engine, software, tool, agent, device, or mechanism other than the software and/or search agents provided by us or other generally available third party web browser; (j) Sending or attempting to send unsolicited messages, including without limitation, promotions or advertisements for products or services, "spam," "chain mail," or "junk mail"; (k) Using or attempting to use the Online Community, the Ballard & Tighe network or any Ballard & Tighe web site to send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information; (l) Attempting to decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any of the software comprising or in any way making up a part of the Online Community, the Ballard & Tighe network or any Ballard & Tighe web site; (m) Interfering or attempting to interfere with the access of any user, host, or network, including without limitation, sending a "virus" to the Online Community, the Ballard & Tighe network, or any Ballard & Tighe web site, overloading, "flooding," "spamming," "crashing," or "mail bombing" the Online Community, the Ballard & Tighe network, or any Ballard & Tighe web site; (n) Impersonating or misrepresenting your affiliation with any person or entity; (o) Using the Online Community to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items, or services or to advance any type of financial scam such as "pyramid schemes," "Ponzi schemes," unregistered sales of securities, and securities fraud; or (p) Excessively high volume data transfers or bandwidth consumption, hosting of a web server, internet relay chat server or any other server, and non-traditional end user activities.

If we suspect violations of any of the above, we may discontinue your access to the Online Community, or any Ballard & Tighe web site, institute legal action, and/or cooperate with law enforcement authorities in bringing legal proceedings against violators.  You agree to reasonably cooperate with us in investigating suspected violations.

Ballard & Tighe reserves the right to install, implement, manage, and/or operate one or more software, monitor or other solutions designed to assist us in identifying and/or tracking activities that we consider to be illegal or violations of this Agreement, including but not limited to any of the activities described in this Section 1. We may, but are not obligated to, at our sole discretion, and without notice, remove, block, filter, or restrict by any means any materials or information (including but not limited to e-mails) that we consider to be actual or potential violations of the restrictions set forth in this Agreement, including but not limited to those activities described in this Section 1 and any other activities that may subject Ballard & Tighe or its customers to harm or liability. Ballard & Tighe disclaims any and all liability for any failure on its part to prevent such materials or information from being transmitted through the Online Community.

2. Content

By posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you are granting Ballard & Tighe, its affiliated companies, and necessary sub licensees, permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of the Online Community and their businesses including, without limitation, the rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate, reformat, and publish the content of your Submission in products being developed;.  No compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Submission, as provided herein. Ballard & Tighe is under no obligation to post or use any Submission you may provide and may remove any Submission at any time at Ballard & Tighe's sole discretion.

By posting, uploading, inputting, providing, or submitting your Submission you warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your Submission as described in this Section 2 including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input, or submit the Submissions. You further agree that Submissions shall not be considered confidential.

If posting, uploading, or submitting work that is not originated by you, (for example, research papers or articles, text or excerpts from published works or websites), you will, to the best of your ability, identify the source or copyright holder of such work.

3. Non Disclosure Agreement

Since the work of the Online Committee guides new product development, the work is highly confidential. You agree to hold the nature of the product discussions, all framework documents and program drafts reviewed, obtained, or otherwise witnessed within the Online Community as confidential. You may not distribute or share information or any part thereof with anyone. All work will become the sole intellectual property of Ballard & Tighe, Publishers, a division of Educational IDEAS, Inc.

4. Content Disclaimer: Cautions and Restrictions

Ballard & Tighe does not control, nor are we responsible or liable for, data, content, information services, or products (including software) that you access, download, or receive via the Online Community. We may, but do not have to, block Submissions or other information, transmissions or access to certain information, services, products or domains to protect us, the public or our users. Ballard & Tighe reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, at Ballard & Tighe's sole discretion. 

Ballard & Tighe does not control or endorse the content, messages, or information found in any Submissions and, therefore, Ballard & Tighe specifically disclaims any liability with regard to the Submissions and any actions resulting from your participation in the Online Community.  We are not a publisher of third party content accessed through the Online Community and are not responsible for the content, accuracy, timeliness or delivery of any Submissions, opinions, advice, statements, messages, services, graphics, data or any other information provided to or by third parties as accessible through the Online Community. 

5. Governing Law, Jurisdiction and Venue

These Terms of Use are governed by, construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of California, as they are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed in California.  Any action you, any third party, or Ballard & Tighe may bring to enforce these Terms of Use in connection with any matters related to this Online Community will be brought only in the State and Federal courts located in Orange County, California, and you expressly consent to the jurisdiction and venue of such courts.