Yackit

Code of Conduct and Terms of Service

(Or, things we hold in common)

• We believe that people have common sense and common decency.
• We believe that people want to share in a commonwealth of ideas, of points of view and opinions.
• Serious or fun, world-changing or silly for silly's sake, we're richer for them all.
• We think that if people hear the other side and express their own, we just might make some common ground.
• If not that, we’ll at least have fun trying, playing, and pushing each other with new ideas.
• So play in the spirit of the common good:
  • Don’t deliberately offend.
  • No hate speech or personal threats.
  • No dirty words or dodgy behavior (you know exactly what we mean).
  • No crudeness, no lewdness, no rudeness. And no nudeness.
  • Respect the others’ point of view.
  • Respect the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
  • Behave just like your Mom told you to. You know she’s watching.

TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT

Welcome to the Yackit. Please read these Terms of Service (“TOS”) carefully as they contain important information regarding your legal rights and obligations and are a binding agreement between you, on the one hand, and Yackit and YourPOV.TV, LLC (together, “YT”), on the other. These TOS govern all use of the YT website (the “Site”), including, without limitation, viewing and participating in debates, voting on, rating or posting comments about debates, messaging and “friending” members, and participation in various YT community activities.

By using the Site and/or by registering with YT, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND by these TOS, as well as YT’s Privacy Policy (http://yackit.com/about/terms#privacypolicy) and Code of Conduct (http://yackit.com/about/terms), which are hereby incorporated by reference. YT reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change, modify, add to, or delete from these TOS at any time by posting a revised version of these TOS on this page. Each version of these TOS will indicate at the bottom of these TOS the date they were last modified. Your continued use of the Site or any other YT community activities after any revised version of these TOS is posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised version.

If you do not understand these or any future TOS or if you do not or cannot agree to these or any future TOS, do not use or access (or continue to use or access) the Site.

Part I — Yackit Members

1. Only registered members may participate in debates, post comments about a debate, message or “friend” members, or participate in YT community activities. You do not need to register with YT in order to view, rate or vote on public debates. All use of the Site by both registered and unregistered users is governed by these TOS and by the Code of Conduct and Privacy Policy.
2. You must provide valid and accurate registration and account information, and you must keep your information up to date, particularly your email addresses. We may refuse, suspend, or terminate your membership and/or your access to some or all of the Site if you fail to do so.
3. You may not share your password or other log-in information. You are responsible for any use or misuse of our Site and/or your membership account that is undertaken by someone using your username and password (unless such person improperly obtained your username and password from us). You agree to immediately notify YT of any unauthorized use of your password or any other breach of security.
4. You must be at least thirteen (13) years old to use the Site, and by using the Site, you represent and warrant that you are at least thirteen (13) years old. Any use of the Site, including any registration or attempted entry into membership or registration, by anyone under thirteen (13) years old is unauthorized and is a violation of these TOS.

Part II — Site Use

5. Use of the Site, including, without limitation, participation in and viewing of debates, is at your own risk, as other Site participants’ views may be offensive, hostile, or threatening, among other things.
6. Certain portions of the Site allow registered members to post or upload comments, materials, information, or other content (collectively, “User Generated Content”). You hereby grant to YT a worldwide, non-revocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and sell any and all User Generated Content that you contribute to the Site in connection with YT’s business,, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such User Generated Content through the functionality of the Site.
7. Certain portions of the Site allow registered members to participate in recorded and/or streamed debates. By participating in a debate, YOU HEREBY CONSENT TO THE PHOTOGRAPHIC, AUDIO, AND AUDIO-VISUAL RECORDING OF SUCH DEBATES by YT (the “Debate Content”). To be clear, the Debate Content will contain your image, voice, and performance. You will not have the opportunity to edit the Debate Content at any time. You acknowledge and agree that YT may, in its discretion, use the Debate Content, along with your name, biographical information, your city and state of residence, any statements made by you, and any other information required for registration, for any lawful purpose whatsoever, anywhere, in any manner and media (including, without limitation, on the Site and on third party websites), at any time. You further acknowledge and agree that, subject to your license of the User Generated Content as set forth in Section 5 above, all right, title, and interest in and to the Debate Content is solely owned by YT.
8. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, YT intends the upload select Debate Content to the Yackit YouTube account at http://www.youtube.com/Yackitapp/ and http://www.youtube.com/Yackitappyacks/. Once specific Debate Content is uploaded to YouTube, you will not be able to remove it from YouTube, but you may request that YT remove the specific Debate Content by contacting us at remove@yackit.com, but it shall be in YT’s sole discretion as to whether specific Debate Content is taken down.
9. YT maintains the Site for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes. You are permitted to use the Site for these purposes. It is strictly prohibited to use the Site or any Content (including the text, images, audio and/or video) of the Site for any other purpose, including any commercial purpose. It is strictly prohibited to reproduce, distribute, modify, transmit, publicly display, reuse, re-post, or “frame” the Site or any Content of the Site without YT’s prior consent. IT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED TO DOWNLOAD IMAGES, VIDEO, OR ANY OTHER MATERIAL THAT APPEARS ON THE SITE WITHOUT YT’S PRIOR CONSENT. All rights not expressly granted by YT in these TOS are reserved to YT and/or its licensors, as applicable.
10. YT reserves the right to charge fees for access to some or all of the Site. YT may add, remove, and/or change content, functions, features, and/or services associated with the Site at any time and without notice.
11. Without limiting the foregoing, you agree not to use the Site to:
    1. harvest or collect email addresses or contact information of other users;
    2. use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Site;
    3. post, upload, transmit, share, store, or otherwise make available any User Generated Content or participate in Debate Content that we deem to be harmful, threatening, violent, intended to incite or promote illegal behavior, predatory, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, demeaning, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate;
    4. post, upload, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any User Generated Content that violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation;
    5. impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself, your age, or your affiliation with any person or entity;
    6. post, upload, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any advertising, promotional materials, bulk mail or junk mail, spam, chain letters, or any other form of solicitation;
    7. solicit personal information from anyone under 13 or solicit passwords or personally identifying from any other user; or
    8. post, upload, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any material that contains or comprises computer code, including without limitation software viruses.
    We reserve the right to terminate or limit your use of all or parts of the Site following a violation or multiple violations of these TOS.
12. YT does not control the information, data, User Generated Content, or Debate Content conveyed by any users of the Site, and we do not vouch for the accuracy, integrity, or quality of any such information, data, User Generated Content, and/or Debate Content. YT does not endorse any opinions expressed by any users of the Site. We do not undertake any obligation to monitor the information and/or data posted by any users of the Site, and our removal of information and/or data in specific circumstances shall not be deemed a general undertaking to monitor. You acknowledge that you may be exposed to information and/or opinions that you find offensive or otherwise objectionable. You acknowledge that by providing you with the ability to access and view User Generated Content and Debate Content on the Site, YT is merely acting as a passive conduit for such distribution and is not undertaking any obligation or liability relating to any User Generated Content, Debate Content, or other activities of users on the Website. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that YT has the absolute right to monitor User Generated Content posted to and Debate Content captured by the Site in YT’s sole discretion. In addition, YT reserves the right to alter, edit, refuse to post or remove any such User Generated Content or Debate Content, in whole or in part, for any reason or for no reason, and to disclose such User Generated Content and Debate Content and the circumstances surrounding their transmission to any third party. You agree that YT does not have any obligation to use or respond to any User Generated Content or Debate Content.
13. The Site may enable users to arrange in-person debates or other gatherings. YT does not control or monitor the formation or conduct of these meetings, and YT has no control over, and takes no responsibility for, the actions of any individuals at those meetings. You should use caution and good judgment when considering attending any such meetings, as you would attending any meeting of a person or persons you do not know.
14. You agree that under no circumstance will YT, its directors, officers, shareholders, employees, consultants, agents, advisers, affiliates, subsidiaries or its third-party partners be liable in any way in connection with (a) any opinions, information or data conveyed by any users of the Site, including without limitation errors or omissions in such opinions, information or data; (b) any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use by you or a third party of any information or data conveyed by a user; or (c) any failure to correct or remove user information or data.
15. You acknowledge that YT may establish day-to-day operational practices that supplement these TOS, and YT may implement and change these practices from time to time with or without notice. Such practices may include, for example, daily or weekly deletion of debate video and logging off users who are inactive for an extended period of time during a login session. You acknowledge that YT has no responsibility for the storage or deletion, or the failure to store or delete, of any debate video, information or data.

Part III — Trademarks

16. The term “Trademarks” means all registered and common law trademarks, service marks, trade names, trade dress, logos, Internet domain names, and other indications of origin owned by YourPOV.TV, LLC, whether currently or in the future.
17. The look and feel of the Site, as well as all page headers, graphics, button icons, and scripts, is the proprietary trade dress of YT and may not be copied, imitated, or used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of YT.
18. Nothing contained herein grants or shall be construed to grant you any rights to use any Trademarks, including without limitation as a domain name or part of a domain name or as a metatag, keyword, or other type of programming code.
19. All other trademarks, service marks, logos and the like that are used or appear on the Site are the property of their respective owners. Reference on the Site to any product or service by name on the Site does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation of the product or service by YT, unless expressly so stated.
20. You may not use any of the Trademarks to create a link to the Site without the prior written consent of YT.

Part IV — Copyrights

21. Other than the User Generated Content, all materials on the Site, including, without limitation, text, images, audio, video, graphics, Debate Content, illustrations, data compilations, as well as the underlying programming code to create the Site, are solely owned by YourPOV.TV, LLC, are protected under copyright law, and may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, modified, or publicly displayed without YT’s express written consent. Nothing contained herein grants or shall be construed to grant you any rights to use any of the foregoing without YT’s express written consent.
22. YT respects the intellectual property of others and expects its members and users to do the same. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the "DMCA") provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the Site in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide YT’s designated agent with the following information: (1) an electronic or physical signature of the copyright owner or of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (2) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (3) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Site; (4) your address, telephone number, and e-mail address; (5) a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (6) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf. Any notification by a copyright owner or a person authorized to act on its behalf that fails to comply with requirements of the DMCA shall not be considered sufficient notice and shall not be deemed to confer upon us actual knowledge of facts or circumstances from which infringing material or acts are evident. Our designated agent for receipt of these notices is: Friedman Law Group LLP, 270 Lafayette Street, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10012. Attn: Tracey Kitzman.
    YT suggests that you consult your legal advisor before filing a notice with YT’s designated agent. You should note that there can be penalties for false claims under the DMCA.
    YT may, in appropriate circumstances and in its sole discretion, terminate the accounts of registered members who may be repeat infringers or otherwise prohibit such users from accessing the Site.

Part V — Restriction and Termination of Use

23. YT may block, restrict, disable, suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Site at any time in YT’s discretion, without cause, without prior notice, and without liability to you.

Part VI — Limitations and Disclaimers

24. YOUR USE OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. IT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. NONE OF YT, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, SHAREHOLDERS, EMPLOYEES, CONSULTANTS, AGENTS, ADVISERS, AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES, AND ITS THIRD-PARTY PARTNERS IS OR WILL BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY HARM ARISING OUT OF YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF OR OUT OF YOUR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE THE SITE. IN ADDITION, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES. YOU SPECIFICALLY RELEASE YT, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, SHAREHOLDERS, EMPLOYEES, CONSULTANTS, AGENTS, ADVISERS, AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES AND THIRD-PARTY PARTNERS FROM ANY AND ALL CLAIMS, DEMANDS, AND DAMAGES (ACTUAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL) OF EVERY KIND AND NATURE, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, SUSPECTED OR UNSUSPECTED, DISCLOSED OR UNDISCLOSED, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE ARISING OUR OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR USE OF THE SITE, YOUR THIRD PARTY TRANSACTIONS, OUR RESOLUTION OF ANY DISPUTES AMONG USERS, AND/OR YOUR TRANSPORTATION TO OR FROM, ATTENDANCE AT, OR THE ACTIONS OF YOU OR OTHER PERSONS AT ANY IN-PERSON, OFFLINE MEETING. YOU FURTHER WAIVE ANY AND ALL RIGHTS AND BENEFITS OTHERWISE CONFERRED BY ANY STATUTORY OR NON-STATUTORY LAW OF ANY JURISDICTION THAT WOULD PURPORT TO LIMIT THE SCOPE OF A RELEASE OR WAIVER. YOU WAIVE ANY RELINQUISH ALL RIGHTS AND BENEFITS WHICH YOU HAVE OR MAY HAVE UNDER SECTION 1542 OF THE CIVIL CODE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA OR ANY SIMILAR PROVISION OF THE STATUTORY OR NON-STATUTORY LAW OF ANY OTHER JURISDICTION (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE STATES OF MISSOURI, DELAWARE AND PENNSYLVANIA) TO THE FULL EXTENT THAT YOU MAY LAWFULLY WAIVE ALL SUCH RIGHTS AND BENEFITS. YT’S MAXIMUM LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY REASON OR CAUSE SHALL BE US$10.
25. YT makes no warranty that the Site will meet your expectations or needs, that your access to the Site will be uninterrupted or that the Site will be free from errors or defect (or that errors or defects will be corrected).
26. The Site may contain links to third-party sites. Because YT has no control over such sites, you acknowledge and agree that YT is not responsible for the content of any of those sites. The presence of links from the Site should not be construed as endorsement, sponsorship, or approval of those sites. Use of those sites is at your own risk and may be subject to the terms of service that govern those sites.

Part VII — Indemnification

27. You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless YT, its directors, officers, shareholders, employees, consultants, agents, advisers, affiliates, subsidiaries, and its third-party partners from and against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damages, costs and expenses, including attorney fees and costs, arising in any manner out of or in connection with your use of the Site, including without limitation as a result of User Generated Content you post or upload on the Site, your violation of these TOS, or your violation of any rights of any other person or entity.

Part VIII — Additional Terms

28. These TOS constitute the entire agreement between you and YT relating to the subject matter hereof, and they supersede any prior agreements between you and YT relating to the same. The failure of YT to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these TOS shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision in that or any other instance. If any provision of these TOS is held invalid, the remainder of the TOS shall continue in full force and effect. If any provision of these TOS shall be deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these TOS and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
29. These TOS and the relationship between you and YT shall be governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these TOS shall be heard exclusively by the state or federal courts sitting in New York County. You hereby submit to the personal jurisdiction of those courts and waive any objection as to venue or the convenience of those courts.
30. These TOS are personal to you and may not be assigned, delegated, or transferred in any way. Any attempt to do so shall be void.
31. If you are a registered member, any legal notice relating to these TOS shall be sent to the email address associated with your account. Any legal notice to YT shall be sent to legal@yackit.com.

PRIVACY POLICY

Protecting your privacy is a serious matter and doing so is very important to YourPOV.TV, LLC and Yackit (together, “YT”), the operator of yackit.com (the Site). YT believes that the responsible use of information is important both for meeting your needs and providing quality service. This privacy policy identifies and describes YT’s data collection and use practices. Please read this policy carefully.

YT reserves the right to revise, amend, change or update this privacy policy. For significant changes to this policy, YT will notify you either by placing a prominent notice on the home page of our Site or by sending you a notification. YT encourages you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about our use of the information we collect. YT will indicate at the bottom of this policy the date this policy was last modified. Your continued use of the Site after YT has revised this policy constitutes your agreement to the revised version.

Part I — Personal Information and Data Collection

1. YT collects and maintains personal information from its members and from certain users of the Site, including names and email addresses. YT may also collect information that registered members or other Site users provide, such as survey responses and email addresses of users who send inquiries; in some cases, this information may be personally identifying or may be linked by YT with personally identifying information. Additionally, YT may obtain publicly available information, such as demographic data, and link it to information it has collected.
2. YT may automatically track certain basic information about how users get to and interact with the Site, such as internet protocol address, domain, browser type, internet service provider, referring/exit pages, click patterns, and similar information. This information generally is not personally identifying. YT uses this information for internal analysis of visitors’ usage patterns, demographics, interests, and similar information to better understand and serve visitors to our Site. Also, in the case of registered members, YT may link the foregoing information with personal information to better understand and serve individual registered members.
3. YT uses “cookies,” i.e. small data files that YT places in your web browser, to enable YT to recognize you when you visit the Site. This permits YT, for example, to enable registered members to gain access without re-entering their passwords. You will still be able to use the Site if you configure your browser to reject cookies, but certain functions of the Site may be disabled. YT may use data collection technology in addition to cookies, such as web beacons (which are small pieces of data that are embedded in images on the pages of websites), but YT will protect and use your data only as described in this privacy policy.
4. You may opt-in or opt-out from receiving certain types of communications from YT. To do so, go to your My Account page and follow the instructions there. Please note that registered members may not opt-out of receiving certain communications regarding Site usage from YT, such as email notices regarding a flag or breach of the Code of Conduct.

Part II — Use of Personal Information

YT may use your personal information in a number of ways, such as:

5. YT uses the personal information it collects to service your account, improve YT’s offerings and communications, and analyze site usage, among other purposes. YT also uses the information it collects to troubleshoot problems, resolve disputes, and enforce its Terms of Service and Code of Conduct.
6. YT may offer products or services that may be of interest to you, and YT may learn of other organizations offering products or services that may be of interest to you. We may use contact information you provide to YT, such as your email address, to inform you about these offers. You may opt-in or opt-out from receiving these types of communications. To do so, go to your My Account page and follow the instructions there.
7. YT may use or disclose aggregate information, i.e. information that is not personally identifying, as well as information it obtains from public sources for any purpose. If you participate in a "Sponsored Yack" (i.e. a Yack that is initiated by a Yackit partner), Yackit may provide the organization sponsoring the Yack identifying information such as your name and email address.

Part III — Disclosure of Personal Information

8. YT may disclose personal information relating to a registered member or a Site user if YT has a good-faith belief that the disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with the law, such as to comply with a subpoena, court order, or other legal process served on YT; (b) enforce our Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, or this privacy policy; (c) respond to a legal claim by a third party that relates to your conduct on the Site; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of YT, its users, and/or the public. Further, YT may disclose personal information to law enforcement personnel in connection with an investigation of illegal activity, such as intellectual property infringement or harassment.
9. YT may contract with third-party service providers in order to operate its business, including the Site. Those service providers may need access to your information to perform certain services. YT will attempt to provide only that portion of your information needed to perform the pertinent service, and YT requires that all of our service providers hold your information in confidence and use it only to provide the service for which they have been engaged.
10. In the case of a merger, sale, or reorganization of some or all of its business, YT may transfer some or all of the information in its records.

Part IV — Public Information

11. When you participate in certain functions available on the Site, such as voting on or commenting upon a debate, some information about your account and your account activity will be provided to other users of the Site. This may include your Yackit account name, profile picture, interests, ratings, and location. You may also choose to have personal information, such as your name, interests, age, gender, or other details, made visible to other Site users or the general public. If you are a registered member, you may update your profile information, email preferences and privacy settings at any time by visiting your My Account page.
12. PLEASE NOTE . As you are aware, certain portions of the Site allow registered members to participate in recorded and/or streamed debates (the “Debate Content”). Pursuant to the Terms of Service, you acknowledge and agree that YT may use the Debate Content, along with your name, biographical information, any statements made by you, your city and state of residence, and any other information required for registration, for any lawful purpose anywhere, in any manner and media, at any time (including, without limitation, uploading the Debate Content to the YT YouTube account at http://www.youtube.com/Yackitapp/ and http://www.youtube.com/Yackitappyacks/ and offering to sell or otherwise distribute select Debate Content to registered members). THE DEBATE CONTENT IS NOT CONFIDENTIAL AND IS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE. YOU THEREFORE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION CONTAINED IN OR ACCOMPANYING SUCH DEBATE CONTENT WILL BE DISCLOSED TO THE PUBLIC.

Part V — Security

13. YT maintains reasonable physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to guard the information we obtain. These include limiting the employees with access to sensitive information and requiring the use of passwords to gain access, and the use of firewalls and other security technology to protect our network and systems from external attacks.
14. Your account is password-protected. You must use your password to view or change personal information in My Account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account information and for restricting access to your computer on which you access the Site. Users of public or shared computers should log out at the completion of each visit to the Site.
15. Unfortunately, no security system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Accordingly, it is not possible to give an absolute guarantee that the security of computer connected to the Internet will not be compromised and YT assumes no liability for improper access to your personal information.

Part VI — Additional Terms

16. You should be aware that when you are on the Site you could be directed to other websites beyond YT’s control. These other websites may send their own cookies to you, independently collect data or solicit personal information and may or may not have their own published privacy policies. If you visit a website that is linked to the Site, you should consult that website’s privacy policy before providing any personal information.
17. This privacy policy is governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its choice of law rule and without regard to the location of any user. You acknowledge and agree that any dispute arising in connection with this policy will be filed in the state or federal courts located in New York County, New York. You may raise any matter of concern relating to this privacy policy by emailing us at privacy@yackit.com.
18. The Site is a general audience website that is not directed at users under the age of thirteen (13). YT does not knowingly collect any personal information from persons under the age of thirteen (13).

Last Modified: May 20, 2011