Terms and Conditions of Use
IMPORTANT! These Terms and Conditions ("Terms and Conditions") govern your (the "User" or "You") use of the BestEfriend Web Site (the "Web Site") provided by BestEfriend, Inc. (the "Company"). These Terms and Conditions are subject to change by the Company at any time in its discretion. Your use of the Web Site after such changes are implemented constitutes your acceptance of the changes. Please consult these terms and conditions regularly.
These Terms and Conditions were last updated: July 10, 2009
1. Use of the Web Site.
User has a nonexclusive, nontransferable, limited, and revocable right to use the Web Site solely for User's personal educational, informational, and entertainment use. Except as permitted herein, User will not use the Web Site for any other purpose, including any non-commercial purpose, without the Company's express prior written consent.
For now the Web Site provides completely free and unlimited image reduced image resolution hosting, sharing and searching of your photographs. However, we reserve the right to change this fact in the future. Please always maintain your own personal backup of your photographs.
2. Rules of Conduct for Use of the Web Site.
Information posted on user pages, forums, bulletin boards, or similar portions of the Web Site ("User Pages") is supplied by third parties and other Users unless the Company or its authorized representative identifies itself as the content poster. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties or any other User are those of the respective author(s) and not of the Company. User agrees to not post any of the following material in any User Page:
* really bad photos, where your thumb covers half the photo or where it is almost totally washed out, except if you are trying to make an artistic point. Digital means you can easily discard those stinkers. Don't waste the space, dude;
* material which threatens or abuses others, or which is defamatory or libelous, or which is invasive of another's privacy. Stalkers, spammers and flamers will be dealt with accordingly;
* material which shows or advocates harm to minors in any way, including, but not limited to content that violates child pornography laws, child sexual exploitation laws and law prohibiting the depiction of minors engaged in sexual conduct;
* material for which User does not have the right to post, including the proprietary material of any third party [see DMCA];
* material which advocates illegal activity or discusses an intent to commit an illegal act;
* material for advertising or commercial solicitation;
* material which is legal adult content UNLESS it is tagged with the tag “adult content” or other appropriate tag as determined by the Company; or
* material which does not pertain directly to the subject matter of the particular User Page.
The Company may, but has no obligation to, remove material and user accounts containing material that, in our sole discretion, violates the terms of this Agreement. The Company reserves the right to monitor User Pages to determine compliance with these Terms and Conditions, as well the right to remove or refuse to post any posting, including any of the above postings upon discovery thereof. Notwithstanding these rights, Users remain solely responsible for the content of its postings. User acknowledges and agrees that neither the Company nor any third party content provider will assume or have any liability for any action or inaction by the Company or any third party content provider with respect to any posting on the User Pages. While Users are forbidden from posting such information to their User Pages, you understand that the Company cannot be responsible for the content posted by your fellow Users and that you may, through viewing User Pages, be exposed to items you may find offensive. Use of the Web Site is thus done at your own risk.
User will not: (i) select or use a member name or e-mail address of another person with the intent to impersonate that person; (ii) use a user name or e-mail address subject to the rights of any person without authorization; (iii) use a member name in violation of the intellectual property rights of any person; or (iv) use a member name that the Company, in its sole discretion, deems offensive. You are responsible for all use that takes place via your user id. You, and on you, are authorized to use your user id. You have a responsibility to protect your password and notify the Company if your user id/password should ever become compromised.
You also agree that you will not harvest or collect information about the members or users of the Web Site or use such information for the purpose of transmitting or facilitating transmission of unsolicited bulk electronic e-mail or communications.
Your Web Site account is intended for use in the hosting of photographs. Use of any the Web Site account and/or User Page for hosting other file content (icons, smilies, avatars, etc.) may result in the termination of a user's the Web Site account.
You must have broadband to enjoy the Web Site's services. Please recognize that the Web Site's services (displaying and sharing high quality photographs quickly to you, your friends and your family) was designed for use with broadband. If you still have dial up, your Web Site experience will not be ideal.
You may use the Web Site to quickly search through all 23,452 of your photos labeled DSC###.jpg to find that perfect photograph of your daughter with Grandma. If you would rather spend all weekend doing it manually, we won't stop you. You may also use the Web Site to auto-tag and search all of your photographs, the photographs of your friends and family (if they give you permission), photographs in the Web Site's public area and photographs on the Internet (watch for this future development).
You may use the Web Site to add unlimited lower resolution versions of your photographs for searching, searching by friends and family (if you allow them to), and searching by all visitors to the Web Site if you mark your photographs “Public.” Please do not use BestEfriend as an image hosting Web Site.
You may use photographs from the Web Site?s public collection for non-commercial purposes on your own website. However, these images must contain: a credit and link back to the Web Site, the original watermark, as well as [future feature] the Web Site tags that are displayed when the photo is rolled over.
Your own photos are, of course, your own. However, once you add your photos to the public search, you agree to allow BestEfriend to use them and their metadata for commercial purposes. This includes, but is not limited to, using advertising around your photos, using your photos for the promotion of BestEfriend and monetizing the public visual search.
As well, the metadata in privately marked photos is searchable. Your private photos will not be viewable without your explicit consent, however, the metadata is searchable and will be added to the results of the public search. The metadata is hidden to the party searching, but is indexed in the search results.
The Web Site won't restrict your right to easily retrieve your own photographs for archiving on your computer, or on a hosting service or for whatever use you desire. Company personally believes that your data is your data and we will never restrict this sort of export from the Web Site, but other websites may not recognize that right.
You may use the Web Site tools to import versions of your photographs from other websites and online services for search purposes. However, please review any and all user agreements (terms of service) you agreed to with other Web Sites to ensure that they permit you to automatically retrieve your own photographs using our tools BEFORE you use our importing tools to access other websites. Do not import any photo into the Web Site which you do not have the right to do so.
You must be at least 13 years old to use the Web Site and at least 18 years old to view photos that have been tagged as being “adult content.”
Violation of this Agreement or any of the provisions herein will result in the termination of your Web Site account.
3. Grant of License.
The Company claims all rights to every photograph you have ever taken, even if you have not yet uploaded it to the Web Site. We even claim rights to future photographs you may take or even think about taking. Mwaaaaahahahahahaha...
Just kidding - this is not the evil empire. We don't approve of the large scale theft of intellectual property by corporations on the web today who claim ownership to everything you do on their site. Our ACTUAL policy is that you keep all copyright rights you have to all of your photographs that you, through use of the Web Site, upload to the Web Site.
However, for the Company to search your photographs for you and those you approve, the Company must use, reproduce (in electronic format), create derivative works of (thumbnails, etc.), distribute, publicly perform/display, transfer, transmit, distribute and publish your public photographs. By using the Web Site, you give Company, its affiliates and partners worldwide an irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable license to do exactly that.
All comments and tags (collectively “data”) placed with or upon your photographs by our automated system, by you and/or by other users becomes the property of the Company.
4. Disclaimer of Warranty and Limitation of Liability
The Company expressly disclaims any and all warranties with respect to any Content accessible within or through the Web Site, express or implied, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, or non-infringement. You are solely responsible for creating and maintaining your own personal backup of any of your digital content hosted at the Web Site.
Users will have access to a variety of sources of content through the Company's service. The Company has made no effort to verify the accuracy or suitability of any information contained in any such sources. Accordingly, the Company will have no liability or responsibility whatsoever for any content contained within any such sources. User accesses, uses, and relies upon such content at User's own risk. User understands further that the Internet contains unedited materials, some of which are sexually explicit or may be offensive. User accesses such materials at User's risk. Company has no control over and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for such materials.
User understands that, except for information, products or services clearly identified as being supplied by the Company, the Company does not operate, control or endorse any information, products or services on the Internet in any way. User also understands that the Company cannot and does not guarantee or warrant that files available for downloading from the Internet will be free of infection or viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other code that manifest contaminating or destructive properties. Each User is responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy User's particular requirements for accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to the Web Site for the reconstruction of any lost data. The Company does not assume any responsibility or risk for User's use of the Internet.
The Company, its Licensors, service providers, content providers, employees, agents, officers and directors will not be liable for any incidental, indirect, consequential, or special damages, including loss of revenue or income, pain and suffering, emotional distress or similar damages, even if the Company has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event will the collective liability of the Company and its Licensors, service providers, content providers, employees, agents, officers and directors to any party (regardless of the form of action, whether in contract, tort or otherwise) exceed the amount User has paid to the Company for the applicable Content or service out of which liability arose.
5. Indemnity
User will indemnify and hold the Company, its Licensors, content providers, service providers and contractors (the "Indemnified Parties") harmless from any breach of these Terms and Conditions by User, including any use of Content other than as expressly authorized in these Terms and Conditions. User agrees that the Indemnified Parties will have no liability in connection with any such breach or unauthorized use, and agrees to indemnify any and all resulting loss, damages, judgments, awards, costs, expenses, and attorneys' fees of the Indemnified Parties in connection therewith. User will also indemnify and hold the Indemnified Parties harmless from and against any claims brought by third parties arising out of User's use of the information accessed from the Web Site.
6. Proprietary Information
User acknowledges and agrees that the content accessible within the Web Site is the proprietary information of the Company and its content providers (including other Users). Unless otherwise indicated, the Company and its content providers (including other Users) retain all right, title, and interest in the Content. Accordingly, User will not reproduce, transmit, publish or distribute such Content to any third party without the express written consent of the Company or the applicable content provider except that User may print out a copy of Content solely for User's personal use. In doing so, User will not remove or alter, or cause to be removed or altered, any copyright, trademark, trade name, service mark, or any other proprietary notice or legend appearing on any of the Content. User further agrees not to hack into the Web Site but to only access the Web Site content as provided by the Company.
7. Reporting Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Violations.
Company undertakes to obey all relevant copyright laws, however misguided we may all judge them to be. We will review all claims of copyright infringement, as well as other intellectual property violations, we receive. We will remove all content deemed to have been posted or distributed in violation of any such laws.
To report such a violation, please provide Company with as much detail as possible, including the following:
Information about the copyrighted work: description, information about where the work is protected, information about the current owner of the work, the physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized by the copyright owner to act on its behalf;
Information about the allegedly infringing work: description of the infringing material and any other information necessary to assist the Company in locating the allegedly infringing work;
Information about yourself: contact information (including your address, telephone number, and email), a statement signed by you that you have a good faith believe that the allegedly infringing work is being used in a manner not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law, said statement further including a provision that under the penalty of perjury, that the information you have provided is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
Such copyright and other intellectual property claims can be sent to support@bestefriend.com or bestfriendyahoo@gmail.com
8. Miscellaneous.
Headings. The headings of Sections of this Agreement are for ease of reference only and shall not be admissible in any action to alter, modify or interpret the contents of any Section hereof.
Severability. If any Section or provision of this Agreement be held illegal, unenforceable or in conflict with any law by a court of competent jurisdiction or arbitral tribunal, such Section or provision of this Agreement shall be deemed severed from this Agreement and the validity of the remainder of this Agreement shall not be affected thereby.
Governing Law. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of California applicable to contracts made and to be enforced wholly within such state.
Submission to Jurisdiction. The parties to this Agreement each specifically consent to jurisdiction in California in connection with any dispute between the parties arising out of this Agreement or pertaining to the subject matter hereof.
Venue. The parties to this Agreement each agree that venue for any dispute between the parties arising out of this Agreement or pertaining to the subject matter hereof may be had in the state courts of California sitting in Santa Clara County, California.
Notices. All notices or other written communications required or permitted under this Agreement shall be given in writing by courier or reputable overnight delivery services, or by certified mail, return receipt requested to either party at its address set forth below:
Claims can be sent to support@bestefriend.com or bestfriendyahoo@gmail.com
Waivers and Amendments. The waiver by either party of any provision of this Agreement on any occasion and upon any particular circumstances shall not operate as a waiver of such provision of this Agreement on any other occasion or upon any other circumstances. This Agreement may be waived or amended only in writing and signed by both parties.
Complete Agreement/Incorporation. This Agreement contains the complete understanding of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes all other agreements, understandings, communications and promises of any kind, whether oral or written, between such parties with respect to such subject matter.