Brainstorming | Terms and Conditions

The Brainstorming platform’s Terms of Service

Effective date: April 6, 2020

We welcome you to the Brainstorming platform and invite you to participate in the sharing and advancement of ideas with fellow thinkers. The Brainstorming platform is a set of related websites, mobile apps, widgets, and other online products and services (collectively, the “Services”) provided by Brainstorming d.o.o. (“Brainstorming”, “Platform”, “we”, “our”, or “us”), a Slovenian - European corporation. This User Agreement (“Terms”) applies to your access to and use of the Services. By accessing or using our Services, you (the “User”) acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use our Services.

Your Access to the Services

You must be at least [18] years old to use the Service. By agreeing to these Terms, you represent and warrant to us that: (a) you are at least [18] years old; (b) you have not previously been suspended or removed from the Service; and (c) your registration and your use of the Service is in compliance with any and all applicable laws and regulations. If you are an entity, organization, or company, the individual accepting these Terms on your behalf represents and warrants that they have authority to bind you to these Terms and references to you herein (and all of your obligations hereunder) will refer to such entity and any individual using the Service on such entity’s behalf.

Your Use of the Services

We grant you a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive, revocable, limited license to use and access the Services solely as permitted by these Terms. We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you by these Terms. Except as permitted through the Services or as otherwise permitted by us in writing, your license does not include the right to:

license, sell, transfer, assign, distribute, host, or otherwise commercially exploit the Services or Content
modify, prepare derivative works of, disassemble, decompile, or reverse engineer any part of the Services or Content
access the Services or Content in order to build a similar or competitive website, product, or service

Modifications

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Services (in whole or in part) at any time, with or without notice to you. Any future release, update, or other addition to functionality of the Services will be subject to these Terms, which may be updated from time to time. You agree that we will not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation of the Services or any part thereof.

Your Account and Account Security

To use certain features of our Services, you must register for an account. When you register for an account, you may be required to provide us with some information about yourself, such as your name, email address, or other contact information. You agree that the information you provide to us is accurate and that you will keep it accurate and up-to-date at all times. When you register, you will be asked to provide a password. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password, and you accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account. If you believe that your account is no longer secure, then you must immediately notify us. You will not license, sell, or transfer Your Account without our prior written approval.

Your Content

The Brainstorming platform applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license to all the content published on the Platform. If you submit content to Brainstorming, you agree to have the CC BY license applied to your work. Under this Open Access license, you as the author agree that anyone can reuse your content in whole or part for any purpose, for free, even for commercial purposes. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse the content as long as the author and original source are cited. This facilitates freedom in re-use and also ensures that Brainstorming content can be mined without barriers for the needs of research and development.

When modifying or making additions to content on the Brainstorming Platform, you agree to license the modified or added content under CC BY. You agree that any and all content, including without limitation any and all text, graphics, logos, tools, photographs, images, illustrations, software or source code, audio and video, animations, and product feedback (collectively, “Content”) that you provide to the Services (collectively, “Your Content”), is perpetually and irrevocably licensed to Brainstorming on a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive basis pursuant to Creative Commons licensing terms (CC-BY 4.0), and you grant Brainstorming the perpetual and irrevocable right and license to access, use, process, copy, distribute, export, display and to commercially exploit Your Content, even if Your Content has been contributed and subsequently removed by you as reasonably necessary to, for example (without limitation):

Provide, maintain, and update the Services
Process lawful requests from law enforcement agencies and government agencies
Prevent and address security incidents and data security features, support features, and to provide technical assistance as it may be required
Aggregate data to provide product optimization

This means that you cannot revoke permission for Brainstorming to publish, distribute, store and use such content and to allow others to have derivative rights to publish, distribute, store, modify and use such content. The CC-BY Creative Commons license terms are explained in further detail by Creative Commons, but you should be aware that all Public Content you contribute is available for public copy and redistribution, and all such Public Content must have appropriate attribution. As stated above, by agreeing to these Terms you also agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of the Acceptable Use Policy incorporated herein, and hereby acknowledge and agree that any and all Public Content you provide to the Services is governed by the Acceptable Use Policy.

Third-Party Content, Advertisements and Promotions

The Services may contain links to third-party websites, products, or services, which may be posted by advertisers, our affiliates, our partners, or other users (“Third-Party Content”). Third-Party Content is not under our control, and we are not responsible for any of their websites, products, or services. Your use of Third-Party Content is at your own risk and you should make any investigation you feel necessary before proceeding with any transaction in connection with such Third-Party Content. The Services may also contain sponsored Third-Party Content or advertisements. The type, degree, and targeting of advertisements are subject to change, and you acknowledge and agree that we may place advertisements in connection with the display of any Content or information on the Services, including Your Content.

If you choose to use the Services to conduct a promotion, including a contest or sweepstakes, you alone are responsible for conducting the promotion in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. The terms of your promotion must specifically state that the promotion is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or associated with Brainstorming and the rules for your promotion must require each entrant or participant to release Brainstorming from any liability related to the promotion.

If your contribution contains content such as text, photos, images, figures, tables, audio files, videos, etc., that you do not own, you have to obtain (a) the written permission by the author to use it, (b) the author’s approval of the CC BY license being applied to their content, and (c) give proper attribution to the author as per CC BY license guidelines. If you do not have the owner’s permission, we will ask you to remove that content and/or replace it with other content that you own or have such permission to use. Don't assume that you can use any content you find on the Internet, or that the content is fair game just because it isn't clear who the owner is or what license applies. It's up to you to ascertain what rights you have (if any) to use that content. If the content was published under a CC BY license or another license that allows free and unrestricted use, you may use the content in your Brainstorming contributions provided that you give proper attribution to the author(s). If the content was published under a more restrictive license, you must ascertain what rights you have under that license. At a minimum, review the license to make sure you can use the content. Contact that publisher if you have any questions about the license terms – Brainstorming cannot give you legal advice about your rights to use third-party content.

If the license does not permit you to use the content within our Platform where it will be covered by an unrestricted license, you must obtain written permission from the publisher to use the content in this manner. Please do not submit to Brainstorming any content which you do not have rights to use, and always give proper attribution. If any relevant accompanying data is submitted to Brainstorming with stated licensing policies, the policies should not be more restrictive than CC BY.

Attribution

This is giving credit where credit is due to contributors like yourself. When you contribute content, you agree to be attributed in any of the following fashions:

Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the page to which you contributed (since each page has a timeline that lists all contributors);
Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy that is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the contributors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on the Brainstorming Platform; or
Through a list of all contributors (but please note that any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions).

We hereby designate the Brainstorming Platform as the sole Attribution Party under Section 4(b) of the CC BY license for such Content. You will ensure that any such use of Content includes a visual display or otherwise indicates the source of the Content as originating from the Services supplying the Content. This indication may be through an unobtrusive text string and/or use of a logo with the name of the Brainstorming or some other unobtrusive but clear visual indication. You will include near to or as a part of any such internet use of the Content, a hyperlink to the location within the Brainstorming Platform that presents the Content.

Removal of content used without clear rights

Brainstorming reserves the right to remove any text, photos, captures, images, figures, tables, illustrations, audio, video files, etc, from the Platform, if there is reason to believe that the content was included without permission from the content owner. We do not allow content that infringes on anyone’s intellectual property rights and will respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. Repeated infringement of intellectual property rights, including copyright, will result in account termination.

Unwelcome content

By accessing the Brainstorming platform you agree and warrant not to submit or link to any Content which is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spam or spam-like, likely to offend, contains adult or objectionable content, contains personal information of others, risks copyright infringement, encourages unlawful activity, or otherwise violates any laws. You are entirely responsible for the content you submit to the Platform, and any harm resulting from that Content or your conduct.

Who is responsible for the content

Any information or Content publicly posted or privately transmitted through the Brainstorming platform is the sole responsibility of the person from whom such content originated, and you access all such information and content at your own risk, and we aren’t liable for any errors or omissions in that information or content or for any damages or loss you might suffer in connection with it. We cannot control and have no duty to take any action regarding how you may interpret and use the Content or what actions you may take as a result of having been exposed to the Content, and you hereby release us from all liability for you having acquired or not acquired Content through the Services. We can’t guarantee the identity of any users with whom you interact in using the Services and are not responsible for which users gain access to the Services.

Common sense and judgement

You may find some material objectionable or erroneous: Because we provide a wide array of content that is produced or gathered by fellow users, you may encounter material that you find offensive, erroneous, misleading, mislabeled, or otherwise objectionable. We therefore ask that you use common sense and proper judgment when using our Services. Our content is for general informational purposes only: Although we host a great deal of information that pertains to professional topics, including medical, legal, or financial issues, this content is presented for general informational purposes only. It should not be taken as professional advice. Please seek independent professional counseling from someone who is licensed or qualified in the applicable area in lieu of acting on any information, opinion, or advice contained within the content hosted on the Brainstorming platform.

Guidelines for Trademarks

Ensure that any reference to a trademark (such as a brand name) is used as an adjective, and not a noun or verb. The trademark should be immediately followed by the generic term for the object that it modifies. Note that because a trademark cannot be used as a noun, it cannot be presented in the possessive or plural form. Please see the following example for reference:

INCORRECT: The stimuli were presented on 12 MacBook Pros®.
CORRECT: The stimuli were presented on 12 Macbook Pro® computers.

Public domain content

Content that is in the public domain is welcome! It is important however that you confirm the public domain status of the content under the law of the United States of America as well as the laws of any other countries. When you contribute content that is in the public domain, you warrant that the material is actually in the public domain, and you agree to label it appropriately.

No revocation of license

Except as consistent with your license, you agree that you will not unilaterally revoke or seek invalidation of any license that you have granted under these Terms of Service for text content or non-text media contributed to the Brainstorming Platform or features, even if you terminate use of our Services.

Acceptable Use Policy

When accessing or using the Services, you must respect others and their rights, including by following these Terms, so that we all may continue to use and enjoy the Services. We support the responsible reporting of security vulnerabilities. To report a security issue, please contact us.

If you are found to be in violation of any of the policies listed within these Terms, you will receive a notice via email. Unless you explain or correct your behavior within 72 hours, your account will be suspended. We will do our best to work with you and ensure a fair outcome in all cases. We reserve the right to immediately suspend, without notice, any content, account, or IP address which we determine to be submitting spam or other potentially damaging or disruptive content to the Services. When your account is suspended, public access to content contributed under that account may be blocked or removed, and your account may be suspended or deleted at our discretion. Access to other functionality or information within the Services may also be blocked or disabled.

When accessing or using our Services, you will not:

Use, or encourage, promote, facilitate, instruct or induce others to use, the Services for any activities that violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation; for any other illegal or fraudulent purpose or any purpose that is harmful to others; or to transmit, store, display, distribute or otherwise make available content that is illegal, fraudulent or harmful to others.
Create or submit Content that violates our Terms of Service or attempt to circumvent any content-filtering techniques we use;
Use the Services to violate applicable law or infringe any person or entity’s intellectual property or any other proprietary rights;
Attempt to gain unauthorized access to another user’s Account or to the Services (or to other computer systems or networks connected to or used together with the Services);
Upload, transmit, or distribute to or through the Services any computer viruses, worms, or other software intended to interfere with the intended operation of a computer system or data;
Use the Services to harvest, collect, gather or assemble information or data regarding the Services or users of the Services except as permitted in these Terms or in a separate agreement with Brainstorming;
Use the Services in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect, or inhibit other users from fully enjoying the Services or that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the functioning of the Services in any manner;
Intentionally negate any user’s actions to delete or edit their Content on the Services; or
Access, query, or search the Services with any automated system, other than through our published interfaces and pursuant to their applicable terms. However, we conditionally grant permission to crawl the Services for the sole purpose of and solely to the extent necessary for creating publicly available searchable indices of the materials subject to the parameters set forth in our robots.txt file.
Misleadingly appropriate the identity of another person.
Post other people’s personally identifying (doxing) or confidential information, including but not limited to credit card numbers, social security numbers, and driver’s and other license numbers. Users may not post information such as other people’s passwords, usernames, phone numbers, addresses and e-mail addresses unless already publicly accessible on the Web.
Post spam and/or use deceptive means to generate revenue or traffic whose primary purpose is marketing.
Post sexually explicit or pornographic material, or links to it.

Moderators

Content moderation is an unofficial, voluntary activity via functionality that may be available to users of the Services. We are not responsible for actions taken by the moderators. We recognize that moderation can take some work, so we may change the features or abilities associated with moderating from time to time without prior notice. We reserve the right to revoke or limit a user’s ability to moderate at any time and for any reason or no reason, including for a breach of these Terms.

If you choose to be a moderator:

You agree to follow the Moderator Guidelines
You agree that when you receive reports related to your community, that you will take action to moderate by removing content and/or escalating to the admins for review;
You agree that when you receive reports related to your community, that you will take action to moderate by removing content and/or escalating to the admins for review;
You agree that when you receive reports related to your community, that you will take action to moderate by removing content and/or escalating to the admins for review;
You may not perform moderation actions in return for any form of compensation or favor from third parties;
If you have access to non-public information as a result of moderating content, you will use such information only in connection with your performance as a moderator; and
You may create and enforce rules for the content you moderate, provided that such rules do not conflict with these Terms, and the Moderator Guidelines.
We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to overturn any action or decision of a moderator if we believe that such action or decision is not in the interest of Brainstorming or the Brainstorming community.

Copyright, the DMCA & Takedowns

Brainstorming respects the intellectual property of others and requires that users of our Services do the same. We have a policy that includes the removal of any infringing materials from the Services and for the termination, in appropriate circumstances, of users of our Services who are repeat infringers. If you believe that anything on our Services infringes a copyright that you own or control, you may notify Brainstorming’s Designated Agent by filling out our DMCA Report Form, by email [email protected] or by contacting:

Brainstorming d.o.o.
Copyright Agent
Kamniska ulica 2
Maribor, 2000
Slovenia

Also, please note that if you knowingly misrepresent that any activity or material on our Service is infringing, you may be liable to Brainstorming for certain costs and damages. If we remove Your Content in response to a copyright or trademark notice, we will notify you via our private messaging system. If you believe Your Content was wrongly removed due to a mistake or misidentification, you can send a counter notification to our Copyright Agent (contact information provided above).
Please see 17 U.S.C. §512(g)(3) for the requirements of a proper counter notification.

Indemnity

Except to the extent prohibited by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us, our licensors, our third party service providers and our officers, employees, licensors, and agents (the “Brainstorming Entities”) harmless, including costs and attorneys’ fees, from any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of (a) your use of the Services, (b) your violation of these Terms, (c) your violation of applicable laws or regulations, or (d) Your Content. We reserve the right to control the defense of any matter for which you are required to indemnify us, and you agree to cooperate with our defense of these claims.

Disclaimers

THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. BRAINSTORMING, ITS LICENSORS, AND ITS THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT, OR ERROR FREE. BRAINSTORMING DOES NOT CONTROL, ENDORSE, OR TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR LINKED TO THE SERVICES OR THE ACTIONS OF ANY THIRD PARTY OR USER, INCLUDING MODERATORS. WHILE BRAINSTORMING ATTEMPTS TO MAKE YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF OUR SERVICES SAFE, WE DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT OUR SERVICES OR SERVERS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT AND UNDER NO THEORY OF LIABILITY, INCLUDING CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, WARRANTY, OR OTHERWISE, WILL THE BRAINSTORMING ENTITIES BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES, INCLUDING THOSE ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON THE SERVICES THAT IS ALLEGED TO BE DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE, OR ILLEGAL. ACCESS TO, AND USE OF, THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK, AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR DEVICE OR COMPUTER SYSTEM, OR LOSS OF DATA RESULTING THEREFROM. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE BRAINSTORMING ENTITIES EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100) OR ANY AMOUNT YOU PAID BRAINSTORMING IN THE PREVIOUS SIX MONTHS FOR THE SERVICES GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS SECTION WILL APPLY TO ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, INCLUDING THOSE BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, STATUTE, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE, AND EVEN IF THE BRAINSTORMING ENTITIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF ANY REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY WILL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION.

Governing Law and Venue

We want you to enjoy Brainstorming, so if you have an issue or dispute, you agree to raise it and try to resolve it with us informally. You can contact us with feedback and concerns here or by emailing us at [email protected]. Except for the government entities listed below: any claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be governed by the laws of Slovenia, other than its conflict of laws rules; all disputes related to these Terms or the Services will be brought solely in the state courts located in Maribor, Slovenia; and you consent to personal jurisdiction in these courts.

Government Entities

If you are a U.S. federal government entity: any claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be governed by the laws of Slovenia without reference to conflict of laws. To the extent permitted by law, the laws of Slovenia (other than its conflict of law rules) will apply in the absence of applicable federal law. All disputes related to these Terms or the Services will be brought solely in the state courts located in Maribor, Slovenia.

Changes to these Terms

We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. If we make changes, we will post the amended Terms to our Services and update the Effective Date above. If the changes, in our sole discretion, are material, we may also notify you by sending an email to the address associated with your Account (if you have chosen to provide an email address) or by otherwise providing notice through our Services. By continuing to access or use the Services on or after the Effective Date of the revised Terms, you agree to be bound by the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you must stop accessing and using our Services before the changes become effective.

Additional Terms

Because we offer a variety of Services, you may be asked to agree to additional terms before using a specific product or service offered by Brainstorming (“Additional Terms”). To the extent any Additional Terms conflict with these Terms, the Additional Terms govern with respect to your use of the corresponding Service.

Termination

You may terminate these Terms at any time and for any reason by deleting your Account and discontinuing your use of all Services. If you stop using the Services without deactivating your Accounts, your Accounts may be deactivated due to prolonged inactivity. We may suspend or terminate your Accounts, status as a moderator, or ability to access or use the Services at any time for any or no reason, including for a violation of these Terms of Service.

Data Retention

You acknowledge that Brainstorming has no obligation to you to retain data relating to any account, brainstorming challenge or idea. You acknowledge that Brainstorming reserves the right to delete data or to terminate accounts, brainstorming challenges or ideas at any time and for any reason, with or without notice, and without any liability to you or to any third party for any claims, damages, costs or losses resulting therefrom.

Data Retention

Survival

The sections entitled “Your Content”, “Third-Party Content, Advertisements and Promotions”, “Your Use of the Services”, “Acceptable Use Policy”, “Indemnity”, “Disclaimers”, “Limitation of Liability”, “Governing Law and Venue”, “Termination”, “Data Retention”, and “Miscellaneous” shall survive any termination or expiration of these Terms.

Miscellaneous

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding your access to and use of the Services. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of these Terms is, for any reason, held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable, the rest of the Terms will remain in effect. You may not assign or transfer any of your rights or obligations under these Terms without our consent. We may freely assign these Terms.

Headings

The section and paragraph headings in these Terms are for convenience only and shall not affect their interpretation.

Brainstorming d.o.o.
Kamniska ulica 2
Maribor, 2000
Slovenia

Reservation of Rights

All rights not explicitly granted herein are reserved.

Questions

If you have questions or comments concerning these Terms of Use, you may email us at [email protected]. Support is provided in English only.