CITY OMBUDSMAN WEBSITE STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1. Introduction.
These Website Standard Terms And Conditions (these “Terms” or these “Website Standard Terms And Conditions”) contained herein on this webpage, shall govern your use of this website, including all pages within this website (collectively referred to herein below as this “Service”).
Arbitration Notice: Except if you opt-out and except for certain kinds of disputes described in the Arbitration section below, you agree that disputes between you and City Ombudsman will be resolved by binding, individual arbitration and you waive your right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration. If you live in the United States, please read it carefully.
These Terms apply in full force and effect to your use of this Service and by using this Service, you expressly accept all terms and conditions contained herein in full. You must not use this Service if you have any objection to any of these Website Standard Terms And Conditions.
This Service is not for use by any minors (defined as those who are not at least 18 years of age), and you must not use this Service if you a minor.
2. Intellectual Property Rights.
Our Content (including, without limitation, any information, products or services provided to you by us, any computer source code, object code, html code or other code comprising this Website) is owned by CITY OMBUDSMAN and/or our affiliates or licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. The reproduction, distribution, transmission, display or use of this Website and any of Our Content is prohibited without the prior written consent of CITY OMBUDSMAN.
CITY OMBUDSMAN grants you permission to display, copy, distribute, print or download one copy of individual pages of Our Content for your personal use only. Except as expressly authorized by CITY OMBUDSMAN, if you display, copy, distribute, print or download Our Content on this Website, then you may not modify it and you must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained Service and Our Content.
Unless otherwise agreed upon in writing by you and CITY OMBUDSMAN, you may not use any third party platforms, other than your own website or your own social media pages, to link to or distribute the Content.
The permission granted herein terminates immediately if you breach these Terms. Upon termination of such permission, you must immediately and permanently delete and destroy any of Our Content you displayed, copied, distributed, printed or downloaded.
3. Restrictions.
As a condition of use, you promise not to use the Service for any purpose that is prohibited by these Terms. You are responsible for all of your activity in connection with the Service.
You shall not (and shall not permit any third party to) either (a) take any action or (b) upload, download, post, submit or otherwise distribute or facilitate distribution of any Content on or through the Service, including without limitation any User Content, that:
infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity or other right of any other person or entity or violates any law or contractual duty (see our DMCA Copyright Policy below);
you know is false, misleading, untruthful or inaccurate;
is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another’s privacy, tortious, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, offensive, profane, contains or depicts nudity, contains or depicts sexual activity, or is otherwise inappropriate as determined by us in our sole discretion;
constitutes unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, junk or bulk e-mail (“spamming”);
contains software viruses or any other computer codes, files, or programs that are designed or intended to disrupt, damage, limit or interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment or to damage or obtain unauthorized access to any system, data, password or other information of ours or of any third party;
impersonates any person or entity, including any of our employees or representatives; or
includes anyone’s identification documents or sensitive financial information.
You shall not: (i) take any action that imposes or may impose (as determined by us in our sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our (or our third party providers’) infrastructure; (ii) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website or any activities conducted in the Service; (iii) bypass, circumvent or attempt to bypass or circumvent any measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Service (or other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Service); (iv) run any form of auto-responder or “spam” on the Service; (v) use manual or automated software, devices, or other processes to “crawl” or “spider” any page of the Service; (vi) harvest or scrape any Content from the Service; or (vii) otherwise take any action in violation of our guidelines and policies.
You shall not (directly or indirectly): (i) decipher, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to derive any source code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of the Website (including without limitation any application), except to the limited extent applicable laws specifically prohibit such restriction, (ii) modify, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of any part of the Website, or (iii) copy, rent, lease, distribute, or otherwise transfer any of the rights that you receive hereunder. You shall abide by all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations.
We also reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as we reasonably believe is necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (ii) enforce this User Agreement, including investigation of potential violations hereof, (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect the rights, property or safety of us, our users and the public.
Certain areas of this Service are restricted from access by you and CITY OMBUDSMAN may further restrict access by you to any areas of this Service, at any time, in its sole and absolute discretion.
4. Your Content.
“Your Content” shall mean any audio, video, text, images or other material you choose to display in this Service. By submitting Your Content through the Service, you hereby do and shall grant CITY OMBUDSMAN a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, fully paid, sublicensable and transferable license to use, edit, modify, truncate, aggregate, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, perform, and otherwise fully exploit the Your Content in connection with the Service and our (and our successors’ and assigns’) businesses, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels (including, without limitation, third party websites and feeds), and including after your termination of your use of the Service. For the sake of clarity, the foregoing license grant includes our right to distribute, display, perform and otherwise use Your Content in connection with material provided by our sponsors, and you shall not be entitled to any remuneration for such use. To the extent any of Your Content you submit includes your name, likeness, voice, or photograph, you acknowledge and agree that the foregoing license of this Section 4(e) shall apply to the same. You also hereby do and shall grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive, perpetual license to access Your Content through the Service, solely for personal use of Your Content, including after your termination of your use of the Service. For clarity, the foregoing license grants to us and our users do not affect your other ownership or license rights in Your Content, including the right to grant additional licenses to Your Content, unless otherwise agreed in writing.
You represent and warrant that you have all rights to grant such licenses to CITY OMBUDSMAN without infringement or violation of any third party rights, including without limitation, any privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights.
CITY OMBUDSMAN reserves the right to remove any of Your Content from this Service at any time, and for any reason, without notice.
5. Third Party Services
The Service may permit you to link to other websites, services or resources on the Internet, including but not limited to our sponsors and Facebook, and other websites, services or resources may contain links to the Website. When you access third party resources on the Internet, you do so at your own risk. These other resources are not under our control, and you acknowledge that we are not responsible or liable for the content, functions, accuracy, legality, appropriateness or any other aspect of such websites or resources. The inclusion of any such link does not imply our endorsement or any association between us and their operators. You further acknowledge and agree that we shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such website or resource.
5. No warranties.
We have no special relationship with or fiduciary duty to you. You acknowledge that we have no duty to take any action regarding:
which users gain access to the Service;
what Content you access via the Service; or
how you may interpret or use the Content through the Service.
You release us from all liability for you having acquired or not acquired Content through the Service. We make no representations concerning any Content contained in or accessed through the Service, and we will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, or legality of material or Content contained in or accessed through the Service. Additionally, nothing contained on this Service shall be construed as providing consult or advice to you.
THE SERVICE AND CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”, “AS AVAILABLE” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY WARRANTIES IMPLIED BY ANY COURSE OF PERFORMANCE OR USAGE OF TRADE, ALL OF WHICH ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. WE, AND OUR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS, PARTNERS AND CONTENT PROVIDERS DO NOT WARRANT THAT: (I) THE SERVICES WILL BE SECURE OR AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION; (II) ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED; (III) ANY CONTENT OR SOFTWARE AVAILABLE AT OR THROUGH THE SERVICES IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS; OR (IV) THE RESULTS OF USING THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
6. Limitation of liability.
In no event shall CITY OMBUDSMAN, nor any of its officers, directors and employees, be liable to you for anything arising out of or in any way connected with your use of this Service, whether such liability is under contract, tort or otherwise, and CITY OMBUDSMAN, including its officers, directors and employees shall not be liable for any indirect, consequential or special liability arising out of or in any way related to your use of this Service.
7. Indemnification.
You shall defend, indemnify, and hold harmless us, our affiliates and each of our and their respective employees, contractors, directors, suppliers and representatives from all liabilities, costs, demands, causes of action, damages and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, that arise from or relate to your use or misuse of, or access to, the Service, Content, or otherwise from your User Content, violation of these Terms, or infringement by you, or any third party using your identity on the Service, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will assist and cooperate with us in asserting any available defenses.
8. Severability.
If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid under any applicable law, such unenforceability or invalidity shall not render these Terms unenforceable or invalid as a whole, and such provisions shall be deleted without affecting the remaining provisions herein.
9. Variation of Terms.
CITY OMBUDSMAN reserves the right, in our sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of these Terms, or change, suspend, or discontinue the Service (including without limitation, the availability of any feature, database, or content) at any time by posting a notice on the Service or by sending you notice through the Service, via e-mail or by another appropriate means of electronic communication. We may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Service without notice or liability. While we will timely provide notice of modifications, it is also your responsibility to check these Terms periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Service following notification of any changes to these Terms constitutes acceptance of those changes.
10. Force Majeure.
We shall not be liable for any failure to perform our obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond our reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic or communications failure or degradation.
11. Assignment.
CITY OMBUDSMAN shall be permitted to assign, transfer, and subcontract its rights and/or obligations under these Terms without any notification or consent required. However, you shall not be permitted to assign, transfer, or subcontract any of your rights and/or obligations under these Terms.
12. Agency.
No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship is created as a result of these Website Standard Terms and Conditions and neither party has any authority of any kind to bind the other in any respect.
13. Copyright Notices/Complaints.
CITY OMBUDSMAN respects the intellectual property of others and asks it website users to do the same. As such, CITY OMBUDSMAN has adopted the following general policy toward copyright infringement in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The address of the Designated Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement (“Designated Agent”) is listed at the end of this policy.
Procedure for Reporting Copyright Infringement:
If you believe that material or content residing on or accessible through CITY OMBUDSMAN’s websites or services infringes a copyright, please send a notice of copyright infringement containing the following information to the Designated Agent listed below:
An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed, including the URL (i.e., web page address) of the location where the copyrighted work exists or a copy of the copyrighted work;
Identification of the URL or other specific location on this Website where the material that you claim is infringing is located;
Your address, telephone number and e-mail address;
Your statement, that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
Your statement, under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.
If we receive a takedown notice in accordance with the foregoing, we will remove the material cited in the notice and attempt to notify any user who uploaded the allegedly infringing material if we have their contact information. Any such user will have the opportunity to submit a “counter-notice” as set forth below. If we identify any user as a “repeat infringer,” we will remove material that user has uploaded and terminate any accounts that user has with us.
Procedure to Deliver Counter-Notice:
If any user believes any material removed is either not infringing or that such user has the right to post and use such material from the copyright owner, the copyright owner’s agent, or pursuant to the law, the user must send a counter-notice containing the following information to the Designated Agent listed below:
A physical or electronic signature of the user;
Identification of the material that has been removed and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed;
A statement that the user has a good faith belief that the material was removed as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the material; and,
The user’s name, address, telephone number, and, if available, e-mail address and a statement that such person or entity consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal Court for the judicial district in which the user’s address is located, or if the user’s address is located outside the United States, for any judicial district in which Company is located, and that such person or entity will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.
If a counter-notice is received by the Designated Agent, Company will forward a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that Company may restore the removed material following 10 days. The original complaining party will then have 10 days to notify us that he or she has filed legal action relating to the allegedly infringing material. If Company does not receive any such notification within 10 days, we may restore the material, at our discretion.
Please contact the Designated Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement for CITY OMBUDSMAN at connect@cityombudsman.com or at:
City Ombudsman
Attn: DMCA Agent
P.O. Box 12794
Cincinnati, Ohio 45212
14. Entire Agreement.
These Terms, including any legal notices and disclaimers contained in this Service, constitute the entire agreement between CITY OMBUDSMAN and you in relation to your use of this Service, and supersede all prior agreements and understandings with respect to the same.
15. ARBITRATION CLAUSE AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER—IMPORTANT—PLEASE REVIEW AS THIS AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.
YOU AGREE THAT ANY AND ALL DISPUTES OR CLAIMS BETWEEN YOU AND US (WHETHER OR NOT SUCH DISPUTE INVOLVES A THIRD PARTY) WITH REGARD TO YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH US, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DISPUTES RELATED TO THESE WEBSITE STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE, AND/OR RIGHTS OF PRIVACY AND/OR PUBLICITY, WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION UNDER THE AMERICAN ARBITRATION ASSOCIATION’S RULES FOR ARBITRATION OF CONSUMER-RELATED DISPUTES AND YOU AND WE HEREBY EXPRESSLY WAIVE TRIAL BY JURY. DISCOVERY AND RIGHTS TO APPEAL IN ARBITRATION ARE GENERALLY MORE LIMITED THAN IN A LAWSUIT, AND OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU AND WE WOULD HAVE IN COURT MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE IN ARBITRATION. Except, you may bring claims in Small Claims Court if your claims qualify.
You may bring claims only on your own behalf. Neither you nor we will participate in a class action or class-wide arbitration for any claims covered by this agreement to arbitrate. YOU ARE GIVING UP YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE AS A CLASS REPRESENTATIVE OR CLASS MEMBER ON ANY CLASS CLAIM YOU MAY HAVE AGAINST US INCLUDING ANY RIGHT TO CLASS ARBITRATION OR ANY CONSOLIDATION OF INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATIONS. You also agree not to participate in claims brought in a private attorney general or representative capacity, or consolidated claims involving another person’s account, if we are a party to the proceeding. This dispute resolution provision will be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act and not by any state law concerning arbitration. In the event the American Arbitration Association is unwilling or unable to set a hearing date within one hundred and sixty (160) days of filing the case, then either we or you can elect to have the arbitration administered instead by the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services. Judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having competent jurisdiction. Any provision of applicable law notwithstanding, the arbitrator will not have authority to award damages, remedies or awards that conflict with these Website Standard Terms and Conditions.
You may opt-out of this agreement to arbitrate. By exercising your right to opt-out of binding, individual arbitration, neither you nor City Ombudsman can require the other to participate in an arbitration proceeding. To opt-out, you must notify City Ombudsman in writing within 30 days of the first date that you became subject to this arbitration provision. You shall use this address to opt-out:
City Ombudsman
Attn: Arbitration Opt-Out
P.O. Box 12794 Cincinnati, Ohio 45212
You must include: your name;
your residential address;
email address provided when subscribing to Services;
and, a clear statement of your intention to opt-out of this arbitration agreement.
16. Governing Law & Jurisdiction.
These Terms will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of OHIO, and you submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO for the resolution of any disputes.
16. No waiver.
Our failure to enforce any part of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of our right to later enforce that or any other part of these Terms. Waiver of compliance in any particular instance does not mean that we will waive compliance in the future. In order for any waiver of compliance with these Terms to be binding, we must provide you with written notice of such waiver through one of our authorized representatives.
17. Heading.
The section and paragraph headings in these Terms are for convenience only and shall not affect their interpretation.
18. Contact.
You many contact us at: connect@cityombudsman.com
OR
City Ombudsman
P.O. Box 12794
Cincinnati, Ohio 45212
Effective date of Website Standard Terms and Conditions: April 13, 2018