Terms of Service

Last Updated On: May 27 2024

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) apply to your use of Philosophy With Friends (“PWF”) products or services, including the website (philosophywithfriends.com), the Friends Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Forum (forum.philosophywithfriends.com), the Philosophy With Friends Editor, along with any associated software applications and websites (all together, the “Services”). Please read these Terms carefully before accessing or using the Services. These Terms form an agreement between you and us. By accessing or using any part of the Services, you agree to be bound by all of the Terms, and all other operating rules, policies, and procedures that we may publish via the Services from time to time.

“You” means any individual or entity using our Services. If you use our Services on behalf of another person or entity, you represent and warrant that you’re authorized to accept the Agreement on that person’s or entity’s behalf, that by using our Services you’re accepting the Agreement on behalf of that person or entity, and that if you, or that person or entity, violates the Agreement, you and that person or entity agree to be responsible to us.

If you are a user in countries located in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom (“European User”), some special terms apply to you as mentioned below.

1. GENERAL DEFINITIONS AND RULES

1.a. If you choose to use the Services, you will be agreeing to abide by all of the terms and conditions of these Terms of Service between you and us.

1.b. We may change, or remove or add portions to, the Terms of Service from time to time. If we do this, we’ll provide notice of the changes, such as by posting the amended Terms and updating the “Last Updated on:” date above, or giving notification via email. Any changes will apply immediately upon such notification. It is your responsibility to review these Terms of Service prior to each use of the Services. By continuing to use our Services now or continuing to use the Services after our notification of updated Terms of Service, you are indicating your acceptance of those new Terms of Service, modifications or changes.

1.c. We may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Services at any time, including the availability of any Services feature, database, or content. We may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Services without notice or liability.

2. THE CONTENT ON THE SERVICES

2.a. The contents of the Services are intended for your personal, non-commercial use. All materials published or available on the Services including (but not limited to): text, designs, data, metadata, images, photographs, audio clips, illustrations, video clips, “look and feel,” or compilations (all hereby referred to as the “Content”) are protected by copyright, and owned or controlled by PWF. We also own copyright in the compilation, coordination, enhancement and selection of the Content (hereby referred to as the “Arrangement”). These terms of service do not transfer any PWF or third-party intellectual property to you, and all right, title, and interest in and to such property remains (as between PWF and you) solely with PWF. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with our Services may be the trademarks of other third parties. Using our Services doesn’t grant you any right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any PWF or third-party trademarks. You agree that you will abide by all additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in any Content accessed through the Service. For clarity, non-commercial use does not include the use of Content without prior written consent from PWF in connection with: (1) providing archived or cached data sets containing Content to another person or entity, or (2) the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system.

2.b. The Services and Content are protected by sui generis rights, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, database rights, patents, and other intellectual or proprietary rights in or to the Services and Content pursuant to U.S. and international laws. You are not permitted to modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce (except as provided in Section 2.c. of these Terms of Service), create new works from, distribute, perform, display (including framing and inline linking), communicate to the public or in any way exploit, any of the Content (or its Arrangement) or the Services (including Software) in whole or in part.

2.c. You are permitted to download or copy the Content and other downloadable items displayed on the Services for your personal use only, provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained in the Content and other downloadable items. Copying or storing of any Content for other than personal use is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from PWF.

2.d. We may offer features of the Services that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), like chatbots or plugins that enable you to use AI to generate content, including text and other media. In such cases you may provide a submission (“Input”) to the Services and receive content based on the Input (“Output”) generated by AI. Output is specifically also part of the Content, and to the greatest extent permitted by law protected by copyright and owned or controlled by PWF. As a part of the Content, it is intended only for your personal, non-commercial use.

3. CONTENT GENERATED BY USERS

3.a. If you upload, post or submit any content on the Service, you represent to us that you have all the necessary legal rights to upload, post or submit such content and it will not violate any law or the rights of any person. You shall not upload to, or distribute or otherwise publish to the Services any libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, or otherwise illegal material. You shall not impersonate anyone else or otherwise misrepresent your identity, affiliation or status. You agree not to provide material and misleading information knowingly and with intent to defraud. You shall not upload to, or distribute or otherwise publish to the Services any malware, viruses, spyware, or other malicious software or files to the Services. You shall not use automated means to upload to, or distribute or otherwise publish to, the Services any content.

3.b. You agree you will be courteous, that you will not threaten (or verbally abuse) others, or use defamatory language, or deliberately disrupt discussions (including with repetitive or meaningless messages, or “spam”). Conversations in our online community can only flourish when members feel safe and welcome, and you hereby agree not to use language to either abuse or discriminate with respect to race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual preference, age, region, disability, etc, and agree to not engage in hate speech. We PWF encourage active discussions and debates on the Services, however personal attacks are a violation of the Terms of Service, and may lead to immediate and/or permanent suspension of access to the Services.

3.c. The Services may be used only in a noncommercial manner. You must not, without the express approval of PWF, distribute or otherwise publish any material containing any solicitation of funds, advertising or solicitation for goods or services. You may not use all or part of the Services to collect, store, or use any user information for any purpose not expressly permitted by these Terms of Service.

3.d. You acknowledge that any submissions you make to the Services (i.e. user-generated content including but not limited to: comments, forum posts and messages, reviews, text, encyclopedia entries, documents, video, audio and photographs, as well as computer code and applications, hereby referred to as “Submissions”) may be edited, removed, modified, published, transmitted, and displayed by PWF and you waive any rights you may have in having the material altered or changed in a manner not agreeable to you. Submissions made to the Services may also be included in our RSS feeds and APIs and made available for republishing through other formats.

3.e. You grant PWF a perpetual, exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, sub-licensable license to the Submissions, which includes without limitation the right for PWF, or any third party it designates, to use, copy, transmit, excerpt, publish, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, communicate to the public, create derivative works of, host, index, cache, tag, encode, modify and adapt (including without limitation the right to adapt to streaming, downloading, broadcast, mobile, digital, thumbnail, scanning or other technologies) in any form or media now known or developed at any time, any Submission made by you on or to the Services or any other website owned by PWF, including any Submission made on or to the Services through a third party. Among other things, PWF may license submissions to third parties for academic, governmental, financial and corporate use. When you share comments, ideas, or feedback with us, you agree that we’re free to use them without any restriction or compensation to you. By making a Submission, you are consenting to its display and publication on and in the Services and for related online and offline promotional uses.

3.f. You are solely responsible for the content of your Submissions. PWF does not and cannot review every Submission and is not responsible for the content of these messages, and PWF reserves the right to delete, move, or edit Submissions that it, in its sole discretion, deems abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright or trademark laws, in violation of these Terms of Service, or otherwise unacceptable for any reason in its sole discretion.

4. THE SERVICES AND PROHIBITED USE

4.a. You may not access or use, or attempt to access or use, the Services to take any action that could harm us or a third party. You may not use the Services in violation of applicable laws, including export controls and sanctions, or in violation of our or any third party’s intellectual property or other proprietary or legal rights. You further agree that you will not attempt (or encourage or support anyone else’s attempt) to alter or interfere with the Services, or any content of the Services, or make any unauthorized use of the Services.

4.b. You agree that without PWF’s prior written consent, you will not:

(1) access any part of the Services, Content, data or information you do not have permission or authorization to access (or for which PWF has revoked your access);

(2) cache or otherwise archive the Content;

(3) overburden or interfere with our systems or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure, as determined by us in our sole discretion;

(4) use robots, spiders, scripts, service, software or any manual or automatic device, tool, or process designed to data mine or scrape the Content, data or information from the Services, or otherwise use, access, or collect the Content, data or information from the Services using automated means;

(5) engage in reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, deciphering, or otherwise attempting to derive the source code for the Services or any related technology that is not open source;

(6) use the Content for the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system;

(7) use services, software or any manual or automatic device, tool, or process designed to circumvent any restriction, condition, or technological measure that controls access to the Services in any way, including overriding any security feature or bypassing or circumventing any access controls or use limits of the Services;

(8) do anything that could disable, damage or change the functioning or appearance of the Services;

(9) engage in renting, leasing, loaning, selling, or reselling the Services or related Content or data without our consent;

4.c. Engaging in a prohibited use of the Services may result in civil, criminal, and/or administrative penalties, fines, or sanctions against the user and those assisting the user.

5. REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, INDEMNIFICATION AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITIES

5.a. You represent, warrant and covenant that no materials submitted through your account will violate, plagiarize, or infringe upon the rights of any third party (including privacy, trademark, copyright, or other personal or proprietary rights), or contain libelous or otherwise unlawful material.

5.b. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless PWF, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any and all losses, liabilities, demands, damages, costs, claims, and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of or related to your use of our Services, including but not limited to your violation of the Terms of Service, your warranties, or any agreement with a provider of third-party services used in connection with the Services or applicable law, or Content that you post. PWF reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you.

5.c. PWF does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information displayed, uploaded, or distributed through the Services by any user, information provider or any other person or entity. PWF will not be liable to you or any other person as a result of a user’s interactions with other users, or any other Content or part of the Services. You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, memorandum, or information will be at your sole risk.

5.d. Our Services and the Content, and any associated information or data are provided “as is.” PWF, along with its affiliates and their shareholders, directors, officers, employees, advertisers, supplies, content providers and licensors (hereby called “PWF Parties”) hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the maximum extent allowed by applicable law, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. The PWF Parties make no warranty that our Services will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, our Services at your own discretion and risk. You agree you will not rely on the Content as a substitute, and the Content does not replace, professional legal, financial, tax or medical advice. If you have concerns or questions about your health you should consult a health care professional. Before purchasing in a sale, or making any investment, your should consult with a financial advisor or broker to verify pricing and other information. We are not a broker, or financial adviser, and your use of the Content and Services is at your own risk. We will have no liability for investment decisions which you base upon the Content or Services, and nothing in the Content or Services will be construed as investment advice.   

5.e. PWF, along with its affiliates and their shareholders, directors, officers, employees, advertisers, supplies, content providers and licensors (hereby called “PWF Parties”) will in no event be liable (either jointly or severally) to you (or any other person) as a result of your access or use of the Services, Content, or Submissions for exemplary damages, including without limitation: lost profits; lost savings; lost revenues; lost goodwill; or computer malfunction or failure (hereby collectively referred to as the “Excluded Damages”). These limitations will apply whether the alleged liability is based on contract, negligence, tort, or other theory of liability, even if any of the PWF parties could have foreseen any of the excluded damages or if any of the PWF parties have been advised of the possibility of any of the excluded damages, and irrespective of any failure of an essential purpose of a limited remedy. In no event will PWF Parties be liable for any amounts that exceed $50 or the fees paid by you to PWF (if any) under the Terms of Service during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action, whichever is greater. If any applicable authority holds any portion of this section to be unenforceable then the PWF Parties’ liability will be limited to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

European Users: If the PWF parties cause damage to you and you are a consumer in Europe, we limit our liability to the maximum amount permissible in your country of residence. Liability will be limited to foreseeable damages arising due to a breach of material contractual obligations typical for this type of contract. PWF isn’t liable for damages that result from a non-material breach of any other applicable duty of care. This limitation of liability will not apply to any statutory liability that cannot be limited, to liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, liability caused by our willful misconduct or gross negligence, or our responsibility for something we have specifically promised to you. You and we agree that the PWF parties total liability is limited to the greater of $50 or the amount paid by you (if any) to use our Services during the 12 months preceding the claim; To the extent that our liability is limited or excluded, the limitations or exclusions will also apply to the personal liability of the PWF parties employees, legal representatives, and vicarious agents.

6. ACCOUNT SECURITY AND REGISTRATION

6.a. When using our Services requires an account, you agree to provide us with complete and accurate information and to keep the information current so that we can communicate with you about your account. We may need to send you emails about notable updates, or to let you know about legal inquiries or complaints we receive about the ways you use our Services so you can make informed choices in response. We may limit your access to our Services until we’re able to verify your account information, like your email address. When you create an account, we consider that to be an inquiry about our products and services, which means that we may also contact you to share more details about what we have to offer. If you aren’t interested, you can opt out of the communications.

6.b. You’re solely responsible and liable for all activity under your account, including use of the account by any third party authorized by you to use your login credentials. You’re also fully responsible for maintaining the security of your account (which includes keeping your password secure). We’re not liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of your acts or omissions.

6.c. You may not share or otherwise misuse your access credentials. You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized uses of your account, or the Services, or of any other breach of security. If we believe your account has been compromised, we may suspend or disable it.

6.d. Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use personal information. Although it does not form part of these Terms, it is an important document that you should read.

6.e. You may not: (1) select or use the login credentials of another person with the intent to impersonate that person; (2) use login credentials in which another person has rights without such person’s authorization; or (3) use login credentials that we, in our sole discretion, deem offensive.

6.f. You hereby consent to receive notifications from us electronically to the e-mail address you provide to us. You further agree that all notices, disclosures, or other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. You also agree that you have the ability to store such electronic communications so they remain accessible to you in an unchanged form.

6.g. If your access to the Services (or any part thereof) has been provided by or through a third party such as an employer or educational institution at which you are a student (herby referred to as a “Client”), the Client may provide us with information about you to enable us to provide you with access to the Services and distinguish you from other subscribers (for example, but not limited to, your email address or name).

6.h. We cannot and do not guarantee that any of the Services are or will be free from viruses or other code that may have contaminating or destructive elements. You’re responsible for taking the necessary precautions to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content, and to ensure you have appropriate IT security safeguards in place to meet your own requirements concerning the safety and reliability of the Services.

7. MINIMUM AGE REQUIREMENTS

Our Services are not directed to children. You’re not allowed to access or use our Services if you’re under the age of 13 (or 16 in Europe). If you register as a user or otherwise use our Services, you represent that you’re at least 13 (or 16 in Europe). You may use our Services only if you can legally form a binding contract with us. In other words, if you’re under 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority where you live), you can only use our Services under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to the Agreement.

8. THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES.

We haven’t reviewed, and can’t review, all of the Content (for example text, photo, video, audio, code, computer software, items or services for sale, and other materials) posted to or made available through the Services or on websites that link to, or are linked from, the Services. We’re not responsible for any use or effects of the Content or third-party websites. We don’t have any control over third-party websites. A link to or from one of our Services does not represent or imply that we endorse any third-party website or its content. We don’t endorse any Content or represent that Content is accurate, useful, or not harmful. Content could be offensive, indecent, or objectionable; include technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, or other errors; or violate or infringe the privacy, publicity rights, intellectual property rights, or other proprietary rights of third parties. We aren’t responsible for any harm resulting from anyone’s access, use, purchase, or downloading of Content, or for any harm resulting from third-party websites. Please note that additional third-party terms and conditions may apply to Content you download, copy, purchase, or use.

9. TERMINATION AND SURVIVAL

9.a. You may terminate your account at any time.

9.b. We may terminate your account and/or your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause or notice, effective immediately, including if we believe, in our sole discretion, that you have violated these Terms of Service or any of our policies.

9.c. The provisions of these Terms of Service will survive the termination of your account or access to all or part of the Services.

10. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

10.a. Except to the extent any applicable law provides otherwise, the Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions and the application of the United Nations Convention of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to the Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, U.S.A. Nothing in this Agreement affects your rights as a consumer to rely on mandatory provisions in your country of residence.

10.b. Any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Services or these Terms of Services must be filed within one year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. Any claim by you that may arise in connection with these Terms of Service will be compensable by monetary damages and you will in no event be entitled to injunctive or other equitable relief.

11. OTHER TERMS

11.a. These Terms of Service have been made in and will be construed and enforced in accordance with California law. Any action to enforce these Terms of Service must be brought in the federal or state courts located in San Francisco.

11.b. In these Terms of Service “Philosophy With Friends”, ‘PWF’, ‘us’, and ‘we’ refers to Luke Pistol. Correspondence to us should be sent to us via our contact form.

11.c. You agree to report any violations of the Terms of Service to PWF as soon as you become aware of them. In the event you have a claim of copyright infringement with respect to material that is contained in a Service, please notify us via our contact form.

11.d. Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms of Service or to respond to a breach by you or other parties will not in any way constitute a waiver of our right to enforce subsequently any terms or conditions of these Terms of Service or to act with respect to similar breaches.

11.e. PWF may assign its rights under the Agreement without condition. You may only assign your rights under the Agreement with our prior written consent.

11.f. The Terms of Service constitutes the entire agreement between us and you concerning our Services. If any part of the Terms of Service is unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that part is severable from the Terms, and does not affect the validity or enforceability of the rest of the Terms.