PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SPARKENGINE.CO SITE OR SERVICES. BY USING, VISITING OR BROWSING THE SPARKENGINE.CO SITE OR SERVICES, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAINED IN THESE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAINED IN THESE TERMS OF USE, YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY RIGHT TO USE THE SPARKENGINE.CO SITE OR SERVICES.
The Web pages available at www.sparkengine.co, and all linked pages (“Site”), are owned and operated by Spark Engine, LLC (“Company”), a Virginia limited liability company, and are accessed by you (“User”) under the following terms and conditions:
1. SERVICES. Subject to the terms and conditions of these Terms of Use, Company may offer to provide certain services, as described more fully on the Site, which are selected by User through the functionalities provided on the Site (“Services”), solely for User’s own use, and not for the use or benefit of any third party.
TERMS OF USE. Company reserves the right, at its discretion, to modify these Terms of Use at any time without notice by posting a new version on the Site under the “Terms of Use” hyperlink or elsewhere. Use of the Site or Services by User following such change constitutes User’s acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Terms of Use as modified and the most current version of the Terms of Use will supersede all previous versions.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SERVICES. Company offers consulting, coaching, and training services in variety of topics mostly related to digital innovation, process improvement, and organization transformation. Company also publishes books, articles, and templates in the same set of topics. The information available on the website is provided for promotional and marketing purposes. Some content may be downloaded and used for projects by the Users. Company may change, suspend or discontinue the Services at any time, including the availability of any feature, database, or content. Company may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict User’s access to parts or all of the Services without notice or liability.
REGISTRATION AND SECURITY. As a condition to using the Services, User may be required to register an account (“User ID”) with Company, to provide a mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, and a password. User shall provide Company with accurate, complete, and updated registration information. Failure to do so shall constitute a breach of these Terms of Use, which may result in immediate termination of User’s account. Company reserves the right to refuse registration of, or to cancel a User ID in its discretion. User shall be responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of User’s Company password. Company, in its discretion, may refuse to permit a User to register on Company’s Site if the email address or the mailing address provided by said User has already been registered on the Site, by User or any other User. Users may register only one User ID per household. Details of the User’s account are available on the User’s Account page of the Site when the User is registered on the Site. A User ID cannot contain the words “Spark” or “5D” in any combination.
MINIMUM AGE REQUIREMENT. User certifies to Company that if User is an individual (i.e., not a corporation) User is at least 18 years of age. User also certifies that User is legally permitted to use the Services and access the Site, and takes full responsibility for accessing the Site and Content, and for the selection and use of the Services. These Terms of Use are void where prohibited by law, and the right to access the Site is revoked in such jurisdictions.
USER MAILING ADDRESS. User understands and acknowledges that in order to receive merchandise or other services, User may be required to provide its mailing address to Company. The Company reserves the right to verify any User’s mailing address.
MAINTAINING YOUR CONNECTION TO THE SITE. User shall be responsible for obtaining and maintaining any equipment or ancillary services needed to connect to and access the Site or otherwise use the Services, including, without limitation, modems, hardware, software, and long distance or local telephone service. User shall be solely responsible for ensuring that such equipment or ancillary services are compatible with the Services.
2. SITE CONTENT. All materials displayed or performed on the Site, including, but not limited to text, graphics, news articles, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips and video clips (collectively, the “Content”) are protected by copyright. The Site and all Content is intended solely for use by Company’s Users and may only be used in accordance with these Terms of Use. User shall abide by all copyright notices, information, and restrictions contained in any Content accessed through the Services. When the copyright on the Content belongs to another person or organization, such copyright is properly indicate on the Site.
RESTRICTIONS ON USE. The Site is protected by copyright as a collective work and/or compilation, pursuant to U.S. copyright laws, international conventions, and other copyright laws. User may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce (except as provided in this Section of the Terms of Use), create derivative works based on, distribute, perform, publicly display, or in any way exploit, the Site, any of the Content or Services offered therein, or any software or other materials incorporated therein, in whole or in part. User may not download or copy any Content displayed on the Site without the express written consent of Company or from the copyright holder identified in such Content’s copyright notice.
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE. Some Content is provided under the Creative Commons license, and is properly indicated as such. This Content can be downloaded, linked from another site, and re-used as long as i) the Content is not modified, ii) the Content is properly attributed with a link to the original page on the Site, and iii) the name, logo, and url of Spark Engine are not modified, altered or covered. The terms of the Creative Commons license apply to any content properly marked as such.
CONTRIBUTION AND ASSIGNMENT OF CONTENT. User acknowledges and agrees that if User uses any of the Services to contribute Content to the Site, such Content shall become Company property and shall be deemed to be Content hereunder. User hereby assigns all rights, title and interests in and to such contributions to Company and, to the extent such rights are not fully assignable, hereby grants to Company a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable right to fully exploit such Content (including all related intellectual property rights) and to allow others to do so. To the fullest extent allowed by law, the foregoing includes all rights of paternity, integrity, disclosure and withdrawal and any other rights that may be known as or referred to as “Moral Rights.” To the extent User retains any such Moral Rights under applicable law, User hereby ratifies and consents to any action deemed necessary or advisable by the Company to perfect its interest in all such Content and Moral Rights, and agrees not to assert any Moral Rights with respect thereto except as may be requested by the Company to perfect its interest.
COMPANY RIGHT TO REMOVE CONTENT. Company reserves the right to remove any Content from the Site at any time, for any reason (including, but not limited to, upon receipt of claims or allegations from third parties or authorities relating to such Content or if Company is concerned that User may have breached any of its obligations), or for no reason at all.
CONTENT DISCLAIMER. The Company’s Services enable Users to post Content, to access Content posted by other Users and advertisers, and to exchange information for purposes of sharing learning and experience. Company has no special relationship with or fiduciary duty to User. Company makes no representations whatsoever concerning, and shall not be responsible or liable for, the accuracy, completeness, copyright compliance, legality, or appropriateness of material contained in or accessed through the Site. User acknowledges that the Site may contain, or direct User to sites containing, information that some persons may find offensive or inappropriate.
3. USER RESPONSIBILITIES IN USING THE SITE. User is responsible for all of its activity in connection with the Services and in accessing the Site, including, without limitation, all of User’s activities in accessing Content and any activity by User that is fraudulent, abusive, or otherwise illegal (for examples of fraudulent activity, see Section 5 below). Without limiting any of User’s responsibilities, User acknowledges and agrees to the following restrictions:
COMPLIANCE WITH LAW. User shall be solely responsible for compliance with all laws, regulations and ordinances connected with the User’s access to the Site and utilization of Services.
COMPLIANCE WITH PRIVACY POLICY. User shall comply with all of the provisions contained in the Company’s Privacy Policy.
COMPLIANCE WITH TERMS OF USE. User shall comply with all of the provisions of these Terms of Use.
PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES. User warrants, represents and agrees that it will not contribute any Content that is infringing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, offensive or otherwise violates any law or right of any third party. Use of the Site or Services to violate the security of any computer network, crack passwords or security encryption codes, transfer or store illegal material including those that are deemed threatening or obscene, perform cross-site scripting attacks or other attacks directed at other Users, or engage in any kind of illegal activity is expressly prohibited. User will not run Maillist, Listserv, any form of auto-responder, or “spam” on the Site, or any processes that run or are activated while the User is not logged in. User may not transfer User’s Company account to any third party, or transfer the User’s account for any commercial purposes or for the benefit of any third party. User will not distribute or post spam, advertisements, chain letters, or pyramid schemes.
NO VIRUSES. User shall not distribute viruses, worms, or other technologies that seek to injure or adversely affect Company property or interests, or the property or interests of other Users.
NO SOLICITING ACCOUNT INFORMATION FROM OTHER USERS. User shall not post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, any communication or solicitation designed or intended to obtain password, account, or other private information regarding the account of any User.
4. RELEASE OF COMPANY FROM USER DISPUTES. In the event that User has a dispute with one or more other Users, User releases Company, its officers, directors, employees, agents, subsidiaries, joint venturers, and other related parties from claims, demands and damages of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code §1542, which says: “A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor.”
5. FRAUDULENT ACTS. User agrees not to commit fraud using the Site or Services. Examples of fraud include, but are not limited to, committing to deliver a service but not actually sending it, or delivering it after an unreasonable delay, claiming a service was never received when in fact it was, deliver a service at a cost different than what agreed upon by the parties, claiming to own a product that User does not own the rights to, creating a different User ID to avoid adverse action by the Company, and other similar actions. In addition, the following related policies apply.
WHEN PROVIDING SERVICES. In the event a User is reported providing an unsatisfactory service to another User, Company may, in its sole and absolute discretion, determine that the User is not eligible to use the Services. In addition to suspending or terminating a User’s account or access to the Site or Services, Company may pursue any remedies available at law.
USER ID FRAUD. User may not (i) select or use as a User ID a name of another person with the intent to impersonate that person; or (ii) use as a User ID a name subject to any rights of a person other than User without appropriate authorization; or (iii) create multiple User IDs within a single household; or (iv) create multiple User IDs in two or more households for the purpose of defrauding the Company or avoiding adverse action by the Company with respect to User’s account.
6. THIRD PARTY LINKS. The Company Site or Services may contain links to or references to third party websites. User acknowledges that the Company is not responsible for these websites, has not reviewed such websites, has no control over such websites, and is not in any way liable for Content that appears on these third party websites.
7. COOKIES. The Company may place a cookie or other small text file on any computer from which a User accesses the Site or Services.
8. FEES, PAYMENT, CREDIT CARD PROCESSING. Some Company Services require payment of fees. User hereby agrees to pay all applicable fees, as described on the Site in connection with such Services selected by User. User hereby authorizes Company automatically to charge User’s credit card account for any and all fees incurred by User in using the Site or Services, without the need to provide any further notice to User of the fees so incurred. Company reserves the right to change its price list and to institute new charges at any time. Use of the Services by User following such changes constitutes User’s acceptance of any new or increased charges. User acknowledges that all payments for Services and Products offered by the Company are managed by an online payment platform serviced by a third-party payment processor. Credit card information is entered by Users directly on the online payment provider’s secure website. The Company does not collect credit card information and is not permitted to access this information during payment. User agrees that the Company shall not be liable in the event of error, fraud, identity theft, or other problems with credit card processing or online payment processing.
9. PRIVACY POLICY. Usage of the Site or Services and any information submitted therein is subject to the Company’s Privacy Policy, the terms of which are incorporated herein. Users are advised to review this Privacy Policy. The Company shall maintain the privacy of User’s personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy. The Company shall not be liable for the privacy of any information published by any User on the Site or transmitted by any User to any other User, including, without limitation, e-mail addresses, registration and identification information, personal information, confidential or trade-secret information, or any Content.
10. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT NOTICE (18 USC §§2701-2711): COMPANY MAKES NO GUARANTY OF CONFIDENTIALITY OR PRIVACY OF ANY COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TRANSMITTED ON THE SITE OR ANY WEB-SITE LINKED TO THE SITE. The Company reserves the right to monitor transmissions over its network for maintenance, service quality assurance, or any other purpose permitted by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
11. WARRANTY DISCLAIMER. THE SERVICES, CONTENT, SITE AND ANY SOFTWARE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.
12. INDEMNITY. User will indemnify and hold Company, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, and agents harmless from and against all damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees), incurred in connection with any claim or demand made by any third party arising from (i) User’s use of or access to the Site or Services, (ii) User’s violation of these Terms of Use, or (iii) the infringement by User, or by any third party using User’s account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity. User hereby releases Company from any and all liability arising in connection with the acts or omissions of other Users or of any other third parties, including, without limitation, any liability relating in any way to the Content or to any Transaction.
13. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPANY BE LIABLE TO A USER WITH RESPECT TO THE SITE OR THE SERVICES (i) FOR ANY AMOUNT IN THE AGGREGATE IN EXCESS OF THE FEES PAID BY USER DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE CLAIM OR TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS ($25), WHICHEVER IS LESS; OR (ii) FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER; OR (iii) FOR ANY DAMAGES AWARDED IN A DISPUTE BETWEEN USER AND ONE OR MORE OTHER USERS.
14. COMPANY RIGHT TO TERMINATE USER ACCOUNT. Notwithstanding anything in these Terms and Conditions to the contrary, the Company reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to suspend or terminate a User’s account or a User’s access to the Site or Services at any time, with or without notice, for any reason or for no reason. Upon termination of the User’s account, User’s right to access the Site and any Content, and to use Company Services, will immediately cease.
15. OTHER COMPANY REMEDIES. Without limiting other remedies available hereunder or at law or equity, Company may limit User’s activity, warn other Users of User’s actions, issue a warning, temporarily suspend, or indefinitely suspend User’s account and refuse to provide access to the Site or Services to User if: (a) User breaches these Terms of Use or the documents it incorporates by reference; (b) Company is unable to verify or authenticate information that User provides; or (c) Company believes that User’s actions may cause financial loss or legal liability for the User, for other Users, or for the Company.
16. MISCELLANEOUS. The failure of Company to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein shall not be deemed a waiver of that or any further rights hereunder. Company shall not be liable for any failure to perform its obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond Company’s reasonable control, including, but not limited to, mechanical, electronic, or communications failure or degradation (including “line-noise” interference). If any provision of these Terms of Use is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that these Terms of Use shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable. These Terms of Use are not assignable, transferable or sub-licensable by User except with Company’s prior written consent. These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Virgina without regard to the conflict of laws provisions thereof. User agrees that should a dispute arise between User and the Company regarding these Terms of Use, any litigation or arbitration will take place in the State of Virgina, USA. User agrees that these Terms of Use are the complete and exclusive statement of the mutual understanding of User and the Company, and supersede all previous written and oral agreements, communications and other understandings relating to the subject matter of these Terms of Use. No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment is created as a result of these Terms of Use and User does not have any authority of any kind to bind Company in any respect whatsoever.
(last updated: April 23, 2019)