TERMS & CONDITIONS

Last modified on December, 2023.

These terms and conditions (collectively, “Terms”) apply to your use of the Our Story community, any related mobile device software applications, the Our Story website at [ourstoryconnection.com], and any other product or service that links to these Terms (the “Website”, and together with the related mobile software applications, the “Service” or “Services”), owned and operated by Our Story Connection (“we”, “us” or “our”).

Accepting these Terms

Our offer of the Service, including all information, tools and services available from the Service to you is conditioned upon your acceptance of all the terms, conditions, policies and notices stated herein. Your use of the Service or any part thereof constitutes your agreement and is subject to these Terms and all applicable laws, rules and regulations. If you do not agree to these Terms you may not and should not use the Service or any part thereof.

Certain of our Services may also be subject to additional specific terms, which will be linked to or otherwise incorporated into the applicable Services. Your use of those Services will be subject to those terms, and unless otherwise specified by us, these Terms as well. If there are any conflicts between the applicable Services’ specific terms and these Terms, the specific Services’ terms will prevail, but only to the extent of the conflict.

Changes and Amendments to Terms

We reserve the right to amend, add or delete portions of these Terms at any time and at our sole discretion. While we may and may not post notices on the Service informing of changes in these Terms, you are solely responsible for reviewing these Terms periodically to ensure you are aware of any changes. The last revision of these Terms shall be reflected in the “Last modified” heading above. Your continuing use of the Service following any change or amendment to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of such change or update. If you do not agree or wish to be bound by these Terms as currently drafted and as may be amended from time to time, you should not use the Service or cease your use of the Service immediately. The Service may contain certain historical information, which is not current and is provided for your reference only.

Privacy Policy

We understand that you want to keep your information private, and that you value our emphasis on keeping your information safe and discrete. As a result we have drafted a privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) which details the ways in which we collect, use and disclose personal information from users of the Service. The Privacy Policy is incorporated into, subject to and a part of the Service’s Terms. Your use of the Service signifies your acknowledgement of, and agreement to, the Service’s Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the Privacy Policy, you may not and should not use the Service.

Limitation on Use

You may not register or use the Service if you are under 18 [confirm with age verification system/app/ad on] years of age and/or if you are legally unable to enter into a legally binding agreement without the consent of your parents or legal guardian. The following uses of the Service or any part thereof are prohibited: Commercial use, unless specifically and explicitly allowed by us in a prior written consent; Damaging or infringing the rights of third parties in any way, including, without limitation, infringing on any third party’s intellectual property or privacy rights; Illegal use, including without limitation fraud, pornography trafficking, drug dealing, sports betting and gambling; Distributing SPAM; Using users contact information for marketing purposes; Bullying, intimidating, stalking or harassing any person; Duplicating, downloading, copying, reproducing, modifying, transmitting, performing, broadcasting, rebroadcasting, publishing, selling, creating derivatives of, translating, distributing or redistributing the Service, the Service-related intellectual property, third parties User Content (defined below) or any part thereof or their products, unless specifically and explicitly allowed by us in a prior written consent; Altering, modifying, decompiling, disassembling, reverse engineering or otherwise attempting to discover or to learn information regarding the Service’s (including its content’s) source code and structure; Any automatic use which is intended or designed to gather information about or from the Service, including without limitation Bots, Crawlers, Spiders, Robots, Sifters and Load Testers; Uploading of any sort of malware, spyware or other malicious code; Circumventing or bypassing any measure designed to limit access to the Service or any part thereof; Damaging, disabling, impairing or flooding the Service; Competing with the Service.

Securing your password

You are responsible for protecting the confidentiality of the password associated with your use of the Service, including (if applicable) also of your Facebook account, and for restricting access to your computer while logged into the Service. You agree that you will be responsible for any and all statements, acts or omissions made during any use of the Service through your account. If you have any reason to believe or become aware of any loss, theft or unauthorized use of your password, notify us immediately to help@ourstoryconnection.com. We may assume that any communications we receive via your account or the email associated with your account have been made by you unless we receive notice otherwise, and we may also require you to provide proof of identification. Our employees will never ask you for your password, neither personally nor by email, but we may ask for and require other information to verify your account and/or your authority to act on behalf of or control the account. Where necessary, you promise to provide us with accurate, complete, and updated registration information about yourself. You may not select as your user ID, a name that you don’t have the right to use, or another person’s name with the intent to impersonate that person. You may not transfer your account to anyone else without our prior written permission.

Termination, Changes to the Service and Removal of Content By Us

You understand, acknowledge and agree that we may terminate your access to the Service at our sole discretion, at any time, with or without reason or notice to you and without any liability on our part for such termination. Regardless of the aforementioned, we reserve the right to terminate your access to the Service if we reasonably determine that you have infringed these Terms, and where relevant you will remain liable for all amounts due up to and including the date of termination. We reserve the right to remove or make any changes to the Service, its features, contents, materials, accessibility or any part thereof we see fit at or sole discretion and without liability on our part for such removal or change. We have no obligation to store, distribute, publish, update, correct or use any information uploaded to the Service. Please also note, that account termination may result in destruction of any content associated with your account, so keep that in mind before you decide to terminate your account.

Content Creator Terms

The Service may allow you to upload content to the Service directly in various forms, including without limitation statuses, links, images, photos, artwork, comments, posts, articles, conversations. Videos and audio (collectively referred to herein as “User Content”). You affirm, represent and warrant that you own all required rights, licenses, titles and interests in the User Content, necessary to upload it to the Service and to grant us the rights as stated herein, and that the User Content is accurate where it might be reasonably relied upon. You shall be held liable to any damages or losses incurred by us as a result of intellectual property infringement through the User Content, including payment of damages and statutory damages resulting from contributory or direct (meaning, even in the event that the content was edited and re-published by us) infringement. We reserve the right to remove any and all of the User Content if we reasonably determine that it is infringing upon any third party’s rights, including, without limitation, intellectual property rights. We reserve the right to edit your content in any way we see fit and without any notice to you. We reserve the right to terminate your access to the Service, if we reasonably determine that you are an infringer. You acknowledge that you expect and shall receive no compensation, payment or interests as a result of uploading the User Content, other than agreed between us explicitly and in writing beforehand. You agree to allow any and all other users of the Service to access your User Content and to “follow” your profile and or comment on your User Content freely and without compensation to you of any sort on their behalf. You hereby grant us a world-wide, unlimited, non-revocable, non-terminable, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable license to use the User Content, including, without limitation, the corresponding copyrighted works, trademarks, trade secrets, ideas, inventions, utility models, designs, patents, software and other intellectual property, in any way we see fit at our sole discretion, including without limitation reproduction, distribution, making of derivatives, modification, adaptation, publication, translation and display. For the avoidance of doubt, we may include your User Content in our outgoing feed to third parties (e.g. RSS feed), which may publish said feed (including your User Content) outside of the Service. In addition to abiding by these Terms, your User Content must also abide by Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook’s Terms. You may not upload User Content which: May encourage acts of violence; Infringes third parties’ intellectual property; Contains or constitutes SPAM or chain mail; Infringes third parties’ right to privacy or publicity rights (including without limitation the unlawful use of an individuals’ full name); Contains confidential or proprietary information; Is defamatory, fraudulent, libelous, abusive, obscene, unlawful, threatening, hateful, harassing, racial, sexist or otherwise inappropriate by reasonable standards; Advertise or solicit third parties’ business or contains commercial content of any sort; Impersonate another person without proper notice; Contain any form of malware; Interfere with the Service in any way. We do not guarantee and we have no obligation to post, transmit, distribute, upload, publish or display any User Content and may refuse to do so at our sole discretion. You agree that we may, in our sole discretion, modify any User Content to, among other things, satisfy our current length, size, duration and other related content requirements. Contributors who have specific agreements with us, may be subject to additional terms, rules and codes of conducts, which shall prevail over these Terms only in case of inconsistency.

Notice and Takedown Policy

We take copyright infringement very seriously, and we are committed to comply with the applicable copyright and intellectual property legislation. As a result, and in accordance with applicable laws, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have a Notice & Takedown mechanism, designed to enable copyright owners to report an infringement within the Service. We reserve the right to (1) block access to or remove content that we believe in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and distributed by any of our advertisers, affiliates, clients, content providers, contributors, members or users; and/or (2) remove and discontinue service to offenders.

If you believe that works, material or content residing on or accessible through our Service, infringes your copyright, or the copyright of someone whom you are authorized to act on behalf of (collectively, alleged “Infringing Content”), please send a notice of copyright infringement containing the following information to our designated agent (our “Designated Agent”, whose contact details are listed below): The identity (including registration/identification number) of the notifier; The identity of the copyright violator, e.g. username/name (if known); Date of notification; A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright that has been allegedly infringed (or of the owner himself); Identification of the works, material or content claimed to be infringed; Identification of the alleged Infringing Content, including information regarding its location, with sufficient details so that we can find and verify its existence (including screenshots and links); Contact information about the notifier, including email and physical address, and also related website/URL (if applicable) and jurisdiction; A statement that the notifier has a good faith belief that the alleged Infringing Content identified is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; And, a statement made under penalty of perjury that the information provided is accurate and the notifier is authorized to make the complaint as the owner of the relevant works, material or content claimed to be infringed, or on behalf of its copyright owner.

Upon receipt of a proper notice of copyright infringement, we reserve the right (at our sole discretion) to: Remove or disable access to the alleged Infringing Content; Notify the content provider who is accused of infringement that we have removed or disabled access to the alleged Infringing Content; And/or, terminate such content provider’s access to our Service, if we determine that he or she violated applicable law or these terms.

If we notified the content provider as aforesaid, and he or she believes that the alleged Infringing Content that was removed (or to which access was disabled) is not infringing, or the content provider believes that it has the right to post and use such content, then the content provider may promptly send a counter-notice containing the following information to the Designated Agent: Physical or electronic signature of the content provider; Identification of the alleged Infringing Content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the content appeared before it was removed or disabled (including screenshots and links); A statement that the content provider has a good faith belief that the alleged Infringing Content was unjustifiably removed or disabled, such as a result of mistake or misidentification of the content, and an explanation as to the aforesaid; And content provider’s name, physical address and email.

If a counter-notice is received by the Designated Agent, we may, at our discretion, send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that we may reinstate the removed content or cease disabling it in 10 business days. In such case, unless we are informed that the copyright owner filed an action seeking a court order against the content provider accused of committing infringement, the removed material may be reinstated or access to it restored in 10 to 14 business days or more after receipt of the counter-notice, at our discretion.

Please contact our Designated Agent at the following address:

Attn. Legal Department, Our Story _________ [insert rest of corp. name]
Email: claims@ourstoryconnection.com, or: _____________________________ [insert address]

Cross Platform Publication

When you upload User Content you agree and acknowledge that we may display the content in any part of the Service we see fit, regardless of the part of the Service to which you uploaded your User Content (“Cross Platform Publication”). For example, we may choose to publish User Content which you posted on the Website on the Facebook Application. You agree and acknowledge that you are not entitled to any notification of or compensation due to Cross Platform Publication of your User Content at any time. In addition we may choose to post information regarding your use of the Service on your social media profile wall (e.g. Facebook), including your User Content, statuses, comments and content you have read.  In the event that you elect to terminate your account or access to the Service and request that we remove your User Content (which we may do in our sole discretion), that such termination will not automatically terminate your User Content displayed on our Cross Platform Publications and you must specifically further notify us directly at help@ourstoryconnection.com that you want such User Content also removed from such Cross Platform Publications (which we may or may not do in our sole discretion).

Intellectual Property Rights; Affiliations

Subject to the below and unless stated otherwise in these Terms, we and our affiliates, subsidiaries, licensors and subcontractors reserve and retain any and all rights, claims, titles and interests in and to any and all intellectual property in the Service and the Service’s content, including without limitation, in copyrighted works, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, ideas, inventions, utility models, designs, patents, software and other intellectual property, all registered or not, contained in the Service. You do not acquire any right, title, interest or claim in any part of the Service or the Service’s content as a result of your use of the Service or any part thereof. Any transfer of rights shall be deemed null and void without our explicit prior written consent. 

To the extent that we create, disseminate, broadcast, display, distribute and or publish any content on the Service ourselves (“Our Story Content”), we retain any and all rights, claims, titles and interests in and to any and all intellectual property in the Our Story Content, including without limitation, in copyrighted works, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, ideas, inventions, utility models, designs, patents, software and other intellectual property, all registered or not, contained in the Our Story Content. You do not acquire any right, title, interest or claim in any part of the Our Story Content as a result of your use of the Service or any part thereof.  If the Our Story Content includes User Content in any manner, the Content Creator Terms set forth above (and all of these Terms), shall apply to such Our Story Content.

Please note that the Service is owned and operated by us, and does not constitute as the official website or app for the third parties mentioned in our content, and generally the Service is not officially sponsored or endorsed by such third parties (excluding, regarding affiliation: certain direct campaigns that may appear in our Services, Affiliate Links, sponsored ads or content added by contributors that we work with). As such, all of such third parties’ intellectual property, including trademarks, names, logos and designs, used on the Services belong to their respective owners, and no claims are made to the intellectual property rights belonging to them. One example may be where a trademark or brand name is referred to in an editorial article or post, where it is used solely to describe or identify the subject matter of the article or post, without an assertion that such subject matter is endorsed by or affiliated with us.

Please also note that some of our content may feature links to third party products and/or services offered on third party sites via business partners we are or have affiliated with (“3rd Party Affiliates”). The 3rd Party Affiliates are connected to many retailers and publishers, which offer their products and/or services via the Affiliate Links, and we may earn a certain commission when a user clicks on such a link and/or purchases such a product and/or uses such services (“Affiliate Link/s”). 

Third Party Sites

During your use of the Service you will encounter pages which contain, content stored or products and tools offered, on or via third party sites, embedded or framed into the Service, as well as links to third party websites (collectively “Third Party Material”). We are not responsible for third party sites or Third-Party Material. These Terms apply only to your use of the Service alone. We have no control over nor do we take any responsibility for third party websites’ content, policies and practices or data collection, including without limitation third party websites to which hyperlinks are contained in the Service. By using the Service you hereby agree that we shall not be responsible for any damage, claim or liability in connection with your use of any third party sites and Third-Party Material, including without limitation third party sites to which you have arrived via the Service. You acknowledge and agree that we provide access to such Third-Party Material ”as is” and “as available” without any warranties, representations or conditions of any kind. Any use by you of optional Third-Party Material is entirely at your own risk and discretion and you should ensure that you are familiar with and approve of the terms of the relevant third-party provider(s).

Disconnecting from the Service

If you wish to disconnect from and terminate your access to the Service, please email help@ourstoryconnection.com

Disclaimers

You hereby agree that the Service is given automatically by our systems and with no explicit knowledge of yours or anyone else’s use of the Service. The Service is provided ‘AS-IS’ and ‘AS-AVAILABLE’, and your use of the Service is at your own risk. We explicitly and expressly disclaim and you waive all warranties, guarantees and representations of any kind, whether express or implied, including without limitation warranties given in the course of dealing with us and are not stated herein and warranties regarding fitness for any particular purpose and promises of specific results, all to the fullest extent of the law. We explicitly and expressly disclaim and you waive all warranties, guarantees and representations regarding the Service, its content or any part thereof being available, uninterrupted, correct, error-free, accurate, copyright compliant, legal, decent, complete, reliable, current, malware-free, continual and secure. Any reliance you make on the Service, its content or any part thereof is at your own risk. We explicitly and expressly disclaim and you waive all warranties, guarantees and representations regarding other users’ User Content including without limitation its accuracy, usefulness and safety. User Content does not represent us in any way and you access and use it at your own risk.

You also understand and agree that content provided on the Services, including without limitation the Out Story Content, are provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized advice.  Our content is based on writers’ opinions and could contain errors.  You should not make any therapy decisions or actions based solely on what you read on the Services. It is your responsibility to seek your own professional advice with respect to your own personalized needs and story.  You further acknowledge and agree that we shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through the Services.

Limitation on Warranties

We do not warrant, endorse, guarantee or responsible for any third party or third party services and products, including of advertisers or other users, even if accessed or offered via the Service, all to the fullest extent permitted by law, including without limitation for conduct or actions which are defamatory, offensive, illegal or infringing these Terms in any way. Downloading materials from the Service is not permitted and is at your risk, and we shall not be responsible for any damage to your computer or loss of data as a result. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU SHALL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT WE, OUR AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, EMPLOYEES, OFFICERS, REPRESENTATIVES AND THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, STATUTORY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES, LOSS OR INJURIES SUFFERED BY YOU OR BY ANY THIRD PARTY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THE SERVICE, ACTIONS, OMISSIONS, ERRORS, FAILURE TO PERFORM, INTERRUPTION, DELETION, DEFECTS, DELAYS, MALWARE, FILE CORRUPTION, COMMUNICATION FAILURE, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS, LOSS OF DATA, DENIAL OF SERVICE, CHANGES TO THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT (INCLUDING THESE TERMS), TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE BEFOREHAND OR AFTERWARDS. Your sole and exclusive remedy for any of the above claims or any dispute with us is to discontinue your use of the Service, or, if such limitation of liability is deemed null or invalid by the applicable jurisdiction (determined below), our liability to damages or losses caused to you or to any third party due to any of the aforementioned claims in connection with the Service, its content or any part thereof is limited to greater of: (a) one hundred (100) USD; or (b) the amounts paid by you to us in connection with the Services in the six (6) month period preceding this applicable claim (these limitations of liability shall also apply with respect to our affiliates, officers, employees, directors, contractors, agents and service providers). Notwithstanding the aforementioned any cause of action arising in relation to the Service must be commenced and brought before the applicable jurisdiction within one (1) year of its accrual or it is permanently barred. You also agree that by using the Service and entering into this Agreement, you and us, waive the right to participate in a class action claim against one another with respect to the Service.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless us, our affiliates, officers, employees, directors, contractors, agents and service providers from against any losses, liabilities, expenses and damages, including reasonable attorney’s fees resulting from your use of the Service and any violation of these Terms.

Governing Law; Jurisdiction

These Terms, your relationship with us and any related disputes, are and shall be exclusively governed by and will be construed under the laws of the State of California, without regard to the conflicts of laws provisions thereof. The applicable courts of Santa Barbara, California shall have sole jurisdiction over any disputes between you and us.

Abuse Report

If you believe that anyone is abusing the Service or using the Service in contradictions or violation with the terms stated herein, you may report this via e-mail to: help@ourstoryconnection.com.

General

We may assign our rights according to this Agreement to any third party at our sole discretion. The Sections: Intellectual Property Rights, Disclaimers, Indemnification, Governing Law; Jurisdiction and General, and any licenses granted to us herein, shall survive any termination or expiration of these Terms. You will be responsible for paying, withholding, filing, and reporting all taxes, duties, and other governmental assessments associated with your activity in connection with the Service, provided that we may, in our sole discretion, do any of the foregoing on your behalf or for ourselves if and as we see fit. You may not assign your rights according to this Agreement, without our prior written consent. If any part of these Terms is deemed invalid for any reason, such invalidity will not affect the validity of the rest of these Terms. Failure to assert any right in regard to these Terms on our behalf shall not constitute concession, yield or relinquishment of any sort. You consent to receive electronic communications from us, including promotional material, and agree that email communication to the email address via which you communicated with us and/or email address associated with your social media account or direct messages therein, notices posted on the Service or messages displayed when you enter the Service, all satisfy any legal requirement that such communication be in writing. If you have any question, requests or comments regarding these Terms or the Service, please contact us at: help@ourstoryconnection.com.