User Agreement

Votepages Terms and Conditions

Votepages is a collaborative creative writing community where you can read, write and work collaboratively with other members of the community. This is the Votepages User Agreement (the “Agreement”) that governs Votepages.com (the “Site”).. We hope you find these terms to be both clear and acceptable. By your use of the Site you signify your acceptance of this Agreement.
This Agreement applies to all users accessing the Site, is legally binding on you, and will affect your rights regarding information and material you post. If you upload or otherwise add any proprietary material to the Site, the terms applying to writers apply to you. The terms “you” and “your” refer to you, the writer/user. The terms “Votepages”, “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to Votepages.com which is an entity of Emerging Standard, LLC a State of Illinois limited liability company.

1. Your account
To contribute to Votepages, you must join and create an account (”Account”). By creating an Account, you agree the information you provide is accurate, current, and complete, and that you will keep it up-to-date. You agree not to share or transfer your password or other Account access information with any other party, temporarily or permanently. You shall bear sole responsibility for all use of your Account and for the confidentiality of any passwords you create to access this Site.
All activities under your Account are your responsibility, and you agree not to share or transfer your Account in violation of this Agreement. Should you notice any unauthorized use of your Account, contact Votepages immediately at help@Votepages.com. Votepages will not be responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of someone else using your Account. Each person may only open one (1) Account. To contribute to the Site, you must be at least 13 years of age or older.
Once you have created your Account, we encourage you to fill out your “About Me” page with your background information and links to your favorite sites, including your blog or website. We also encourage you to include information about other publications or articles you have written, such as books you have authored, including information about how visitors can purchase your works, whether literary or non-literary. Included information must comply with this Agreement and applicable law.
In order to maintain Votepages as a trusted platform, we reserve the right to cancel the Account of members who engage in fraudulent behavior or other unacceptable activities contrary to this Agreement. In the event that Votepages cancels your Account or your access to this Site because of fraudulent or other unacceptable activities (as defined by Votepages) contrary to this Agreement (including but not limited to registration with multiple accounts, posting copyright violations, attempted manipulation of the Votepages rating system, generation of artificial traffic, or other violations of this Agreement, the law, or the legal rights of a third party), you agree that the license granted herein to content submitted by you shall not terminate, but you will agree to forfeit all rights you may have to your Account and to any then accrued or future earnings from the Site or by Votepages with respect to any material you previously submitted. If Votepages cancels your account, and you feel this was done in error, please contact us at help@Votepages.com.

2. Your privacy on Votepages
Our Privacy Policy can be found here. The Privacy Policy sets forth the standards for the way we handle your personal information. By using Votepages, you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of the information you give to us in accordance with the Privacy Policy. Please read our Privacy Policy for more information about our information collection and use practices.

3. Rights to submitted articles and other content
Votepages does not claim ownership of the content you publish on the Site. After publishing content on the Site, you (or a third party who permitted you to publish their content on the Site) continue to retain all ownership to the content, subject to the license terms described herein, and you continue to have the right to use the content in any way you choose. In exchange for your services and granting Votepages a license to use your content, Votepages provides you with recognition as defined herein.
a. Grant of license: By submitting your content to Votepages, you grant Votepages (and any Votepages successors-in-interest, subsidiaries, or parent companies), a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, non-exclusive, sub-licensable right and license to, in whole or in part, with or without attribution to you, use, copy, modify, edit, adapt, publish, publicly display/perform, translate, display, create derivative works from and/or license (or sell with your authorization) and/or distribute content posted to the Site. Votepages’s rights to content you submit include the right to make editorial revisions to your content; to use in any way the materials you submit on the Votepages website or in other Votepages media, whether now or hereafter created; to use for our own internal business purposes; and/or to reproduce and distribute the materials for Votepages’s marketing and publicity purposes.
b. Your representations and warranties regarding content: You represent that the content you provide to Votepages does not contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, or expropriate any system, data, or personal information in or connected to Votepages.
4. Site usage requirements
When you read or in any other way use the content (that is not of your own creation) on Votepages, you agree to the following site usage requirements:
a, Non-commercial use/no distribution: You may display the materials contained on the Site on your own personal computer and you may copy and download such materials solely for your personal and non-commercial use, provided that all copyright notices on the materials are included in all uses and copies. Except as otherwise authorized in this Agreement, you agree not to post any content from the Site to newsgroups, mail lists, electronic bulletin boards, or other forums on third-party websites. In addition, except as otherwise expressly authorized by Votepages, you agree not to redistribute, sell, publish, broadcast, or create derivative works of any materials downloaded or copied from the Votepages site to anyone (other than your own), including to persons in your same company or organization. Although you may not copy, post or re-publish entire works from Votepages, you are allowed and encouraged to link to any content that exists on the site.
b. Restrictions on modifying content: You agree not to modify, edit, or enhance any Votepages or third-party content in any way, or to do any other act that would infringe upon the rights of the copyright owner. You agree not to remove or modify any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices that have been placed on the materials on the site by Votepages.
c. Agreement to view potentially controversial content: You understand and agree that by using the Site, you may be exposed to materials that you find offensive, indecent, or objectionable, and that the content may not be in accordance with the laws of your jurisdiction. You understand and acknowledge Votepages is not responsible for the information, data, text or other materials that may appear in content submitted by third parties on the Site. Opinions expressed in such content do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Votepages. Votepages does not necessarily review the content prior to posting, and does not endorse or edit such content.
d. Acknowledgement of liability waiver: You understand and agree that neither Votepages nor any other user makes any warranty as to the value or quality of the content you read. Information posted on Votepages is intended solely for educational and entertainment purposes, and is not intended to be used as or substituted for medical, legal, or other professional advice or counsel. You understand and agree that this Site and the information contained herein does not constitute the practice or provision of any health care, medical, legal or other professional services. You specifically agree that Votepages is not responsible or liable for any threatening, defamatory, obscene, offensive or illegal content of any other party or any infringement by any other party of another’s rights, including intellectual property rights.
e. Agreement not to manipulate Votepages rating system: Votepages is designed to be a trusted platform for knowledge sharing with a fair peer-review of content. We do our utmost to construct the rating system to eliminate any kind of cheating and manipulation. Any misconduct by you, including attempts to manipulate the rating of content on Votepages will result in your immediate exclusion from Votepages and the cancellation of your Account, at Votepages’s sole discretion.
f. Agreement not to generate artificial traffic: Any attempt by you to generate higher traffic to articles or other submitted content (whether submitted by you or by a third party) by using automated means like “pay to surf” websites, robots, spiders, auto-spawning of browsers, automatic redirecting of visitors, blind text links, misleading links, forced clicks etc. will also result in the immediate cancellation of your Account by Votepages. In case of the cancellation of your Account, any rights you may have to your Account and any non-paid or future revenue streams you may have otherwise been entitled to earn will be terminated.
g. Allowed and encouraged site and article linking and marketing: Although using automated robots, spiders, or “pay to surf” techniques to increase traffic to Votepages and your articles is strictly prohibited, Votepages does actively encourage its members to link to Votepages and your articles directly from your blog, discussion forums, groups, chat rooms, and other websites. The more we all link to Votepages and the more we all market Votepages and our content, the faster Votepages will grow.

5. Content submission requirements and terms
The following list outlines the rules for content submissions on this Site. Please follow these rules; if you don’t, Votepages will likely be forced to cancel your Account.
a. Right to content: You must have all necessary rights to publish the content you provide to the Site. You represent and warrant that the works you submit are works of your own original authorship. If the content is not a work of your own original authorship, for example if you are submitting work as an agent or if your work contains third-party materials, you must have explicit written permission from the copyright owner before submitting the content to Votepages. You are responsible for making sure your submission of the content, and the use as outlined herein by Votepages, does not violate any copyright, trademark, trade secret or other rights or the privacy of others, including the right to transmit the content you provide to the Votepages site and for Votepages to publicly display such content.
b. Compliance with the law: In submitting articles and other content on this Site, you agree to comply with all laws, statutes and regulations of your jurisdiction, all contracts to which you are a party, and all fiduciary obligations you may have (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements).
c. Adherence to Votepages review process: You accept that Votepages and any other user of the Site can review and use the content you provide in accordance with these terms, including the terms of the Site Usage Requirements above.
d. Anonymity of postings: To ensure an anonymous and fair rating process, you may not include your name in the content of any article you submit. Nor may you include any other information or references that may enable any individual rating your article to identify you as the author. Outside of the rating process, your articles are automatically displayed with your pen name as a byline. Your pen name links to your “About Me” page, which we encourage you to complete and keep updated.
e. Non-harassing/non-violation of third-party rights policy: You agree to keep a respectful manner and conduct, and in particular you agree not to post or hyperlink to content that contains libelous or unlawful material, obscenity or any form of pornography, or information that may be used to cause harm or injury; harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, or obscene communications; or information that is invasive of another’s privacy, such as including a person’s name or recognizable description of a real person in an article. You further agree not to use the Site to “stalk” or otherwise harass any person, and not to impersonate any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
f. Your promotion of the Site and Votepages’s name: You may not create or distribute information, including but not limited to advertisements, press releases or other marketing materials, or include links to any sites which contain or suggest an endorsement by Votepages without the prior review and written approval of Votepages; however, you may accurately disclose and describe your participation in this Site and content you submit (for example, describing and promoting your content on this site on a personal blog, in emails, in newsgroups and forums, or via RSS feeds and similar technologies).
g. Non-spamming policy: You may not encourage the sending of “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes” etc., either within the content you post, on the Site or otherwise.
h. Votepages’s disclaimer of obligation to police for legal infringements/waiver of certain liabilities: Votepages shall make commercially reasonable efforts to provide security for its website, but will have no liability, vicarious, contributory, or otherwise, for any infringement of any of your intellectual property rights. You acknowledge that we do not control other users’ actions, including but not limited to their use of your content. We will have no liability to you for any user’s violation of these terms and no responsibility to you to enforce this Agreement for your benefit. You further understand and agree that Votepages is not responsible for unauthorized access to or alternation of your transmissions or data, any material or data sent or received or not sent or received by you or Votepages.

6. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold Votepages, Inc., and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and employees, harmless from any claim, damage, expense or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of: (a) materials that you submit, post, or upload to the Site, (b) your use of the Site, (c) your connection to the Site, (d) your violation of this Agreement, (e) your violation of any rights of another party, or (f) violations to this Agreement or the rights of a third party by your dependents.

7. Votepages intellectual property and proprietary rights
You acknowledge and agree that the materials available on the Site, including art work, graphics, photographs, images, screen shots, text, music, digitally downloadable files, video clips, trademarks, logos, product and character names, slogans, the software used in connection with the Site, and any compilations of the foregoing (”Votepages Content”) contain proprietary and confidential information that is the property of Votepages and its licensors, and is protected by applicable U.S. and international intellectual property and other laws. Third-party content, including site user-posted content (including graphics, video clips, images, trademarks, trade names, characters), trademarks and copyrights is the property of the third parties that market or license that content, and is used by Votepages subject to license, or subject to the fair use provisions of U.S. copyright or trademark law or such use is made permissible under other applicable law.
Unless expressly authorized in this Agreement or otherwise by Votepages, you agree not to download, display, use, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works of the Votepages content in whole or in part, in any publications, in public performances, on websites other than this site, for any commercial purpose, in connection with products or services that are not those of Votepages, in any other manner that is likely to cause confusion among consumers, that disparages or discredits Votepages and/or its licensors, that dilutes the strength of Votepages’s or its licensor’s property, or that otherwise infringes Votepages’s or its licensor’s intellectual property rights. You further agree to in no other way misuse any content which you do not own that appears on this Site.
Except as expressly provided in this Agreement, you are not granted any rights or license to any intellectual property with respect to the Votepages Site or its contents. Votepages reserves all rights not expressly granted to you under the terms of this Agreement and Votepages retains exclusive ownership of the Votepages Site, the software used in connection with Votepages and all intellectual property associated therewith, including the name “Votepages,” the Votepages logos.
If you are a trademark or copyright owner and you believe that your trademark or copyright rights have been violated, please go to our Help Section to read about reporting infringements of intellectual rights and follow the instructions at that area. Users who believe that user-posted content includes infringing materials should report it to Votepages.

8. Applicable law
This Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts without application of its principles of conflicts of laws. By using this Site, you hereby agree that any and all disputes regarding this Agreement will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal, state and local courts for Boston, Massachusetts. This Agreement operates to the fullest extent permissible by law. If any provision of this Agreement is found unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision is deemed severable from the remaining provisions of the Agreement and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Different countries have different regulations. Votepages makes no representations that the materials on this site are appropriate or legally available for use in locations outside the United States. If you are accessing this Site from jurisdictions where the contents of this site may be illegal, you are solely responsible for complying with all local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content. By submitting information to this site, you understand and agree that by submitting your information you are transferring it from your country and submitting it to Votepages’s servers in the United States.
BY ACCEPTING THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY AND YOU EXPLICITLY WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT. YOU AGREE THAT REGARDLESS OF ANY STATUTE OR LAW TO THE CONTRARY, ANY CLAIM OR CAUSE OF ACTION ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO USE OF THE SITE OR THIS AGREEMENT MUST BE FILED WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER SUCH CLAIM OR CAUSE OF ACTION AROSE OR BE FOREVER BARRED.

9. Modification to site or content
If we want to change the Site, our related services and functionalities, fees, payment structures, the terms of this Agreement, our selection of content, or the way we present content, we are free to do so at any time without any prior notice. Votepages is a conduit for content you submit, and as such we have the right but not the obligation to screen or otherwise control any content posted on Votepages. Votepages retains the right, in its sole discretion, to refuse to post or remove any material submitted or posted on the Site for any reason, including if we believe it is in violation of this Agreement.
Notices to you regarding changes to the Site ad this Agreement may, but will not necessarily, be made via email, regular mail, links to notices on the Site, in a splash or other format upon the Site, depending on the character of message. We recommend you keep your eye on the Community Section (http://www.Votepages.com/community), where changes may be posted and discussed. Your input is also welcome! Your continued use of the Site indicates your acceptance of any changes to this Agreement.

10. Modification or cancellation of your account
Votepages has the right to cancel your account (or any part thereof), or to exclude you from the Site, if due to fraudulent or other unacceptable activities, at any time in our sole reasonable discretion, with or without prior notice. In case of cancellation, you agree that the license granted herein to content submitted by you shall not terminate, but you will agree to forfeit all rights you may have to your Account and to any then accrued or future earnings from the Site or by Votepages with respect to any material you previously submitted. If we decide to cancel your account, the cancellation will not affect your remaining responsibilities to Votepages according to this Agreement. If we cancel your account, you may not open a new one under your own or an alternate name/email address.

11. Disclaimer of warranties/limitation of liability
Votepages makes no representations about the suitability, reliability, availability, timeliness, or lack of viruses or other harmful components of this Site, its content (whether Votepages or user-submitted content), or its features, and disclaims all liability in the event of any service failure. You acknowledge that any reliance on such material and/or systems will be at your own risk, and Votepages makes no warranties regarding any transactions entered into through the Site or any service. Votepages also makes no representations regarding the amount of time that any content will be preserved.
THIS SITE IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THOSE OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE MADE WITH RESPECT TO THIS SITE OR ANY INFORMATION OR SOFTWARE THEREIN. YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL VOTEPAGES OR ITS AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE. THIS INCLUDES A SPECIFIC WAIVER BY VOTEPAGES OF ANY LIABILITY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL, OR ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR CONTENT. DAMAGES AS USED HEREIN INCLUDE WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE VOTEPAGES OR ANY MATERIALS THAT HAVE BEEN POSTED TO THE SITE, INCLUDING STATEMENTS OR CONTENT OF ANY THIRD PARTY. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

12. The entire agreement/no partnership
This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and Votepages and governs your use of the Site and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals whether electronic, oral or written, between you and Votepages with respect to the site and services. Both you and Votepages acknowledge and agree that no partnership is formed and neither you nor Votepages has the power or the authority to obligate or bind the other.

13. Waiver
The failure of Votepages to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

14. Links to third-party websites
This Site may hyperlink to sites not maintained or related to Votepages. Hyperlinks are provided as a service to users and are not sponsored by or affiliated with this Site or Votepages, and Votepages makes no representations or warranties about the content, completeness, or accuracy of those third-party sites. Information you submit at a third-party site accessible from this Site is subject to the terms of that site’s privacy policy, and Votepages has no control over how your information is collected, used, or otherwise handled.

15. Software downloads and export controls
Software that may be available in connection with this Site is further subject to United States export controls. No software may be downloaded from this Site or otherwise exported or re-exported in violation of United States export laws. Downloading or using the software is at your sole risk.

16. Act of God
The failure of Votepages to comply with this Agreement because of an act of God, war, fire, riot, terrorism, earthquake, actions of federal, state or local governmental authorities or for any other reason beyond the reasonable control of Votepages, shall not be deemed a breach of this Agreement.

17. Headings
The headings in this Agreement are for your convenience and reference. These headings do not limit or affect this Agreement.
This Agreement constitutes a binding agreement between you and Votepages, and is accepted by you upon your use of the Site. By clicking “I agree” you represent that you are capable of entering into a binding agreement, and that you have reviewed this Agreement and agree to be bound by its terms.