Terms of Use
A. OVERVIEW
Welcome to the website for Herald-Dispatch newspaper, herald-dispatch.com (the ƵSiteƵ). The Site is an online service owned by HD Media Company, LLC (ƵHDƵ or ƵusƵ). HD has created this Site for your personal enjoyment, education and entertainment. This Terms of Use agreement (the ƵAgreementƵ) describes the terms and conditions under which HD permits your use of the Site, online and mobile applications owned by HD related to the Site or to Herald-Dispatch newspaper, and any other services of HD that display this Agreement (collectively with the Site and the applications, the ƵServicesƵ). This Agreement constitutes a legal agreement between you and HD. Use of this Site or any of the other Services is also governed by HDƵs Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into this Agreement by reference.
By viewing, interacting with, submitting information to, or otherwise using the Services, you agree to be bound by this Agreement. If you do not wish to be bound by this Agreement, you must not use the Services.
We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to modify, update, or otherwise change this Agreement at any time. By using this Services after such changes are posted, you agree to be bound by the changes. This Agreement was last modified on August 19, 2019.
B. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
All content included in this Site or in or through the other Services, such as text, photos, logos, video, graphics, sound, computer code, and the arrangement and selection of such content, is protected by copyrights, trademarks, and/or other intellectual property rights of HD and/or its third-party content providers. The trademarks ƵHerald-Dispatch,Ƶ as well as the business names, logos, slogans, trade dress and all other marks on this Site or in the Services are trademarks of HD or its third-party content providers.
You may use material from this Site or the Services only for your own personal, non-commercial use. No portion of this Site or the other Services may be republished, reproduced, duplicated, copied, uploaded, downloaded, posted, transmitted, modified, sold, or otherwise exploited for any purpose that is not expressly permitted by HD or under copyright law. In the event of any permitted copying, redistribution, or publication of copyrighted material, no changes in or deletion of trademarks, author attribution or copyright notices may be made. You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading material from this Site or the Services.
If you believe in good faith that your copyrighted work has been reproduced on this Site or through the Services without authorization in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify our designated copyright agent by postal mail or email at the following address: HD Media Company, LLC, 5192 Braley Road, Huntington, WV 25705, email: copyright@hdmediallc.com. This contact information is only for suspected copyright infringement. Contact information for other matters is provided elsewhere on this Site or in the Services.
C. SUBMISSION OF CONTENT BY USERS
In certain places, this Site or the Services may allow users to submit comments, forum or chat room entries, blog entries, letters, ideas, photos, videos, emails or other content Ƶ either directly to the Site or the Services (including to us through the Site or the Services) or through third party service providers. While we generally would like to permit you to provide content to or through the Site or other Services, there are certain restrictions on your providing content. They are as follows:
- License: By submitting content, you grant HD a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, fully and freely assignable and sub-licensable license to any rights you have in the content submitted Ƶ including, but not limited to, the rights to use, display, publish, translate, reproduce, distribute, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, and perform publicly your content (or any part thereof) online and offline in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter devised. You further agree that HD and its licensees have the right to use your name and likeness in connection with HDƵs publication, display, modification, distribution or other use of such content. HD is free to use any ideas, techniques, inventions, concepts, know-how, or other information that you provide to HD (whether directly or through its third party service providers) for any purpose whatsoever without compensation or remuneration.
- Standards: You agree not to submit any content that: (a) infringes on any third-party intellectual property, publicity, privacy, moral (droit moral) or other legal rights; (b) violates any applicable law or regulation; (c) is defamatory, threatening, harassing, obscene, harmful to minors, or child pornographic; (d) is false or misleading; (e) promotes physical or emotional harm in any way; (f) contains any viruses, Trojan horses, worms or other harmful components (including, but not limited to, computer programming routines that may damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information); (g) is commercial in nature, other than as specifically solicited by this Site; (h) constitutes unsolicited junk or bulk email (ƵspamƵ); or (i) is tortious or criminal.
- Warranty / Indemnity: You warrant and guarantee that you own all intellectual property, proprietary, privacy, publicity, moral (droit moral) and other rights to any content that you submit. You further agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless against: (a) any and all claims to the rights to content that you provide to us, (b) any and all claims that someoneƵs rights were violated by our display or other use of the content that you provide to us.
- Monitoring of Content / Removal: You agree that HD has no responsibility to monitor, review, edit, remove or control any content or other information that you or others submit to us and/or the Site and/or the Services. You further agree that HD may, in its sole discretion, modify, remove or refuse to accept any content for any reason. We may also decline to modify or remove content that you submitted, despite your request. In addition, please be aware that we may not be able to modify or remove certain content, including without limitation content that has been distributed to or relied on by third parties.
- Release: You agree that you are at least 18 years of age. You agree to release HD (including without limitation, for purposes of this Section C.5 of the Agreement, the officers, directors, employees, shareholders, owners (including without limitation, HD Media Company, LLC), members, affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, assigns, licensors, licensees, third party contractors, agents, attorneys and representatives of HD Media Company, LLC) from any and all liability and obligations whatsoever in connection with or arising from HDƵs use or non-use of content submitted by you or any third party.
- Privacy: Other than as set forth in the Privacy Policy, HD may treat any submission and/or communication between you and HD as non-confidential and non-proprietary. In particular, emails, comments concerning stories, letters, blog entries, social media correspondence from you, information from sources, and similar submissions will not be considered confidential.
- No Endorsement / Recommendation: HD does not endorse, recommend, or take any responsibility for any content submitted to the Services by any advertiser, service provider, vendor, or other third-party, even if HD displays such content.
D. DISCLAIMER WITH RESPECT TO ADVERTISERS, CONTRACTORS AND OTHER THIRD PARTIES
HD specifically disclaims all responsibility for the actions or inactions of advertisers, contractors, subcontractors, Web site developers and hosts, licensors, licensees and other third parties that may contract with HD or its affiliates or may otherwise provide information or services to this Site or the Services, even if such third parties provide content to or linked to this Site or the Services Ƶ including, without limitation, the providers and third party users of any blogs, forums, chat rooms, personals, classifieds, and other features of this Site or the Services that are powered or provided by third parties. You agree that your sole course of action with respect to such third parties will be against them directly. You further agree that you will abide by the terms of use and privacy statements, if any, that they have provided for their sections of the Site or the Services, but that in the event of a conflict between their terms of use and this Agreement, this Agreement applies.
E. DISCLAIMER WITH RESPECT TO OTHER INTERNET SITES
HD has not reviewed all of the sites, or content of sites, that may be accessed from or linked to this Site or the Services. HD is not responsible for the content of any pages or Internet images, information, or data, which are not contained on this Site or the Services. Viewing of any and all other Web sites shall be at your own risk.
F. PROHIBITION ON USE / ENFORCEMENT OF TERMS
HD may at any time, for any reason, prohibit your further use in whole or in part of this Site or the Services. We may also take any action that we deem necessary to enforce this Agreement, and to protect against unlawful or improper use of this Site or the Services. You hereby expressly agree to waive any and all claims you may have (whether currently in existence and/or arising hereafter) against HD for any failure by us to enforce this Agreement, whether against you or a third party. HDƵs failure to act in a particular circumstance does not waive its right to act with respect to that circumstance or other circumstances.
G. ACCESS LIMITS
Without HDƵs express consent, you may not frame any pages from the Site or the Services, place pop-up windows over pages of the Site or the Services, or otherwise affect the display of the SiteƵs pages or of the Services. Moreover, under no circumstances may you: (i) derive or attempt to derive the source or object code, source files or structure of this Site, the Services, or their content by reverse engineering, disassembly, decompilation or any other means; (ii) attempt to access the accounts of others, or attempt to penetrate security measures of the systems of HD or its affiliates or contractors (ƵhackingƵ), whether or not the intrusion results in corruption or loss of data; or (iii) transmit to HD or by means of this Site or the Services any unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, junk or bulk e-mail, or any other form of unauthorized or unsolicited transmission. HD grants you permission to link to this Site (without framing it) or the Services, but may revoke this permission at any time for any reason.
H. YOUR ACCOUNT
In order to obtain certain products or services through this Site or the Services, you may be required to set up an account. In such a case, you will be required to provide certain information about yourself when setting up the account. You may not provide inaccurate or incomplete information. You are responsible for any use of your account, this Site or the Services by anyone using your account password, email address, or other personal identifier. Thus, if for any reason you suspect that your account password or other identifying information has been compromised, you should contact HD at once.
I. PARENTAL CONTROL PROVISIONS
Pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 230(d), as amended, we hereby notify you that parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that may assist you in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors. Information identifying current providers of such protections is available at Get Net Wise, .
J. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
YOUR USE OF THIS SITE AND THE OTHER SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS SITE AND THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN ƵAS ISƵ AND ƵAS AVAILABLEƵ BASIS. HD (including without limitation, for purposes of this Section J of the Agreement, HD Media Company, LLC. and its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, owners, members, agents, affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, assigns, licensors, licensees, third party contractors, attorneys and representatives and any other parties involved in creating, producing or delivering this Site, the Services or any of the content, products or services available on or through this Site or the Services) HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS AND/OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, HD MAKES NO AND DISCLAIMS ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED: (i) AS TO THE OPERATION OF THIS SITE OR THE SERVICES, AND/OR THE INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, SERVICES OR PRODUCTS INCLUDED ON OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE OR THE SERVICES; (ii) THAT THE SITE OR THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE; (iii) AS TO THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR CURRENCY OF ANY INFORMATION, CONTENT, SERVICE, OR MERCHANDISE PROVIDED ON OR THROUGH THIS SITE OR THE SERVICES; (iv) THAT THE CONTENT OF THIS SITE AND THE SERVICES DOES NOT INFRINGE ON THE RIGHTS OF YOU OR THIRD PARTIES; AND/OR (v) THAT THE SITE, THE SERVICES, THEIR SERVERS, OR E-MAIL SENT FROM OR ON BEHALF OF HD ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.
HD DOES NOT GUARANTY THE CONTINUOUS, UNINTERRUPTED OR SECURE ACCESS TO THIS SITE OR THE SERVICES. THE OPERATION OF THIS SITE AND THE SERVICES MAY BE INTERFERED WITH BY NUMEROUS FACTORS OUTSIDE THE CONTROL OF HD.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL HD BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES (OTHER THAN DIRECT DAMAGES) THAT RESULT FROM THE CONTENT OF, USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS SITE OR THE SERVICES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO RELIANCE BY A USER ON ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THIS SITE OR THE SERVICES AND/OR DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM MISTAKES, OMISSIONS, INTERRUPTIONS, DELETION OF FILES OR EMAIL, ERRORS, DEFECTS, VIRUSES, DELAYS IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, OR ANY FAILURE OF PERFORMANCE, WHETHER OR NOT RESULTING FROM ACTS OF GOD, COMMUNICATIONS FAILURE, THEFT, DESTRUCTION, OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO HDƵS RECORDS, PROGRAMS, OR SERVICES. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NEGLIGENCE), INFRINGEMENT, OR ANY OTHER BASIS Ƶ EVEN IF HD HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LIABILITY. WITH RESPECT TO DIRECT DAMAGES, YOUR REMEDY IS LIMITED TO A MAXIMUM OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100) AND DISCONTINUANCE OF USE OF (AND ANY MEMBERSHIP IN) THIS SITE AND THE SERVICES. YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS PARAGRAPH SHALL APPLY TO ALL CONTENT, MERCHANDISE, AND/OR SERVICES AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THIS SITE OR THE SERVICES.
THESE DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATIONS APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
K. INDEMNIFICATION
You agree to defend, indemnify, release and hold harmless HD (including without limitation, for purposes of this Section K of the Agreement, HD Media Company, LLC and its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, owners, members, agents, affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, assigns, licensors, licensees, third party contractors, attorneys and representatives and any other parties involved in creating, producing or delivering this Site, the Services or any of the content, products or services available on or through this Site or the Services) from all liabilities, claims and expenses, including attorneyƵs fees and costs, that arise from, concern, or are connected with your use or misuse of this Site, the Services or their content. HD reserves the right to assume the defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will cooperate with HD in asserting any available defenses and will pay all of HDƵs attorneysƵ fees and costs in such defense.
L. SEVERABILITY
The provisions of this Agreement are intended to be severable. If for any reason any provision of this Agreement shall be held invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part in any jurisdiction, such provision shall, as to such jurisdiction, be ineffective to the extent of such invalidity or unenforceability without in any manner affecting the validity or enforceability thereof in any other jurisdiction or the remaining provisions hereof in any jurisdiction.
M. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION
You agree that the laws of the State of West Virginia will govern this Agreement and your use of this Site and the Services. The state and federal courts of Charleston, West Virginia, shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any litigation that may arise out of, or be related to, this Agreement and/or your use of the Site or the Services. You agree to waive any objection based on forum non conveniens or any objection to venue in Charleston, West Virginia, of any such action.
N. INTERNATIONAL USE
HD makes no representation that this Site or the Services (including the content, services or products provided on or through them) are appropriate for or available to locations outside the United States of America; and using this Site or the Services from territories where it is illegal to do so is prohibited. Any offer for a product or service through this Site or the Services is void where prohibited. Use of this Site or the Services is done at your own risk and you are responsible for compliance with all local laws.
O. ASSIGNMENT
You agree that this Agreement and all rights and licenses provided to HD under this Agreement are fully and freely assignable and sub-licensable by HD without further compensation to you.
P. INTEGRATION AND MODIFICATION
Except as otherwise specified herein, this Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and HD with respect to this Site, and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications or proposals between you and HD with respect to this Site and the Services. You may not modify this Agreement other than by obtaining HDƵs signed, written consent to such a modification.
Q. NOTICE / CONTACT
Herald-Dispatch can be contacted at the address listed in the ƵContact UsƵ section of this Site.
Legal notices shall be sent to HD at the following address: Herald-Dispatch, Attention: Legal Department, 5192 Braley Road, Huntington, West Virginia 25705. Notice will be considered given upon receipt.
HD is entitled to assume that any address information that you provide to us is correct, and HD may contact you at such address. Notice will be considered given when sent.