USER AGREEMENT

 LOCAL STUDY AND TASTING GROUPS USER AGREEMENT

Last Updated 08/31/17

 

Thank you for using https://www.winescholarguild.org/Wine-Study-Tasting-Groups/All.html (the “Wine Study & Tasting Groups” website or the “WS&TG” website or the “Website”).

 

1.1. Purpose

 

The Website is a community-based, community-directed, and otherwise self-sustained website that is meant to be organized and led by the members as a collective entity, without approval, responsibility, or sanctioning of the Wine Scholar Guild (“WSG” or “we” or “us”). While WSG owns the domain, it is not responsible for any individual member’s actions or statements made on the Website. Additionally, Wine Scholar Guild is not responsible for any individual’s actions or statements made off the Website as more specifically outlined within this User Agreement. It is intended that the members will have a forum for wine students to gather as a group online. Each group is for a specified geographic area. Each group, on its own, via its collective members, may desire to meet offline, however, these meetings or events are NOT organized, authorized, sanctioned, or hosted in anyway by WSG.

 

1.2. Agreement

 

When you use our Services, you are entering into a legal agreement and you agree to all of the terms outlined in this User Agreement.

 

You agree that by clicking “Register for An Account Today,” “Join,” “Sign Up,” “Login,” or anything similar, you are entering into a legally binding agreement. This User Agreement may be amended by WSG from time to time. If you do not agree to this Agreement, do NOT click “Register”, “Join WSG”, “Join Group”, “Sign Up”, “Login” (or similar) and do not access or otherwise use the Website. Registered users of our Services are “Members” and unregistered users are “Visitors.” This Agreement applies to both Members and Visitors alike.

 

2. Obligations

 

2.1. Service Eligibility

 

Here are some legally binding promises that you make to us in this Agreement and through the use of our services and products:

 

You are eligible to enter into this Agreement and you are at least our “Minimum Age.”

To use the Website, you agree that: (1) you are the “Minimum Age” (defined below) or older; (2) you will only have one WSG account, which must be in your real and legal name; and (3) you are not already restricted by WSG from using the services. “Minimum Age” means that you are of legal drinking age in the jurisdiction in which you reside or are visiting.

 

2.2. Regarding Your Membership

 

You will keep your password a secret. You will not share an account with anyone else and will follow Website rules, community-group rules, administrator/group leader’s instructions, and all applicable laws. As between you and others, your account belongs to you. You agree to: (1) try to choose a strong and secure password; (2) keep your password secure and confidential; (3) not transfer any part of your account (e.g., connections, groups) and (4) follow the law and the Dos and Don'ts outlined below. You are responsible for anything that happens through your account unless you close it or report misuse.

 

2.4. Notices and Service Messages

 

You agree that we will use the Website to provide you with important notices. Also, you agree certain additional information can be shared with us. If the contact information you provide is not up to date, you may miss out on these notices. You agree that we may provide notices to you in an email sent to an address you provided during registration, or through other means including mobile number, or telephone. You agree to keep your email and/or contact information up to date.

 

2.5. Messages and Sharing

 

When you share information on any of our products’ platforms, others may see, copy, and use that information. Our services allow messaging and sharing of information. Information and content that you share or post may be seen by other individuals, businesses or, if public, by Visitors. Where we have made settings available, we will honor the choices you make about who can see content or information. Note that other activities, such as sending messages, are by default private, are only visible to the addressee(s).

 

We are not obligated to publish any information or content on the Website and can remove it in our sole discretion, with or without notice. However, that will only occur should it rise to the level of being harmful to WSG, the community, or an individual; or if WSG is directed to do so by its professional advisors and/or a court with jurisdiction over it. You are obligated to follow local, state, federal, and any other applicable laws when sharing information including copyrights, trademarks, or intellectual property, etc. with friends or businesses and you take full responsibilities when sharing such information.

 

3. Rights and Limits

 

3.1. Your License to WSG

 

You own all of the content, feedback, and personal information you provide to us, but you also grant us a non-exclusive license to use it. You promise to only provide information and content that you have the right to share, and that your WSG page will contain only information that is truthful. As between you and WSG, you own the content and information that you submit or post on WSG, but you are granting WSG the rights to use, copy, modify, distribute, publish, and process, information and content that you provide through WSG, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or others.

 

You agree that we may access, store and use any information that you provide in accordance with the terms of the privacy policy and your privacy settings. By submitting suggestions or other feedback regarding the Website to WSG, you agree that WSG can use and share (but does not have to) such feedback for any purpose without compensation to you. WSG may be required by law to remove certain information or content in certain cases.

 

3.2. Website Availability

 

We may change or discontinue the availability of the Website with or without notice. We cannot promise to store or keep showing any information and content you have posted through the use of our products or services. WSG is not under any obligations to you to preserve, store, restore, or recovery your information or your profile. You agree that you will not be compensated due to data loss and WSG is not liable to recover data. Data may include, but not limited to, information you provided to WSG such as posts, images, videos, photos, logos, or any other data stored by WSG.

 

WSG is not a storage service. You agree that we have no obligation to store, maintain or provide you a copy of any content or information that you or others provide, except to the extent required by applicable law.

 

3.3. Other Content, Sites and Apps

 

When you see, or use others' content and information posted on WSG, it is at your own risk. Third parties may offer their own products and services through WSG, and we aren't responsible for those third-party activities, services, products, promotions, and methods of practices. By using the services and products, you may encounter content or information that might be inaccurate, incomplete, delayed, misleading, illegal, offensive or otherwise harmful.

 

WSG generally does not review content provided by members. You agree that we are not responsible for contents posted by individuals or businesses or for any damages as result of your use of or reliance on it.

 

You are responsible for deciding if you want to access the Website or the associated local group’s pages using a third-party accounts such as Facebook^©, Instagram^©, etc. WSG does not post or access your third-party applications or information unless you decide to do so. Third-party applications and sites have their own legal terms and privacy policies, and you may be giving others permission to use your information in ways we would not. Except to the limited extent it may be required by applicable law, WSG is not responsible for these other sites and applications – which you are using at your own risk.

 

3.4. Limits

 

We have the right to limit how you connect and interact with the Website. We're providing you notice about our intellectual property rights. While it is expected that the local group will self-direct and be responsible for restricting, suspending, or terminating its members’ access to the Website for breaching terms of this Agreement, WSG reserves the right to restrict, suspend, or terminate your account on the Website if WSG believes that you may be in breach of this Agreement or law or are misusing the Website (e.g. violating any Do and Don'ts outlined below.).

 

WSG reserves all of its intellectual property rights in its services. For example, WSG trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with WSG are trademarks or registered trademarks of WSG. Other trademarks and logos used in connection with WSG’s services may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

 

4. Disclaimer and Limit of Liability

 

4.1. No Warranty

 

This is our disclaimer of legal liability for the quality, safety, or reliability of the Website.

 

TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED UNDER LAW, WSG (AND THOSE THAT WSG WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) (A) DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND REPRESENTATIONS (E.G. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY OF DATA, AND NONINFRINGEMENT); (B) DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE WEBSITE WILL FUNCTION WITHOUT INTERRUPTION OR ERRORS, AND (C) PROVIDE THE WEBSITE (INCLUDING CONTENT AND INFORMATION) ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS.

SOME LAWS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN DISCLAIMERS, SO SOME OR ALL OF THESE DISCLAIMERS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

 

4.2. Exclusion of Liability

 

These are the limits of legal liability we may have to you.

 

TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER LAW (AND UNLESS WSG HAS ENTERED INTO A SEPARATE WRITTEN AGREEMENT THAT SUPERSEDES THIS AGREEMENT), WSG (AND THOSE THAT WSG WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE WEBSITE) SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR OTHERS FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, OPPORTUNITIES, REPUTATION, PROFITS OR REVENUES, RELATED TO THE SERVICES (E.G. OFFENSIVE OR DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS, DOWNTIME OR LOSS, USE OR CHANGES TO YOUR INFORMATION OR CONTENT).

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE LIABILITY OF WSG (AND THOSE THAT WSG WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE WEBSITE) EXCEED, IN THE AGGREGATE FOR ALL CLAIMS, US $500.

THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IS PART OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND WSG AND SHALL APPLY TO ALL CLAIMS OF LIABILITY (E.G. WARRANTY, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, CONTRACT, LAW) AND EVEN IF WSG HAS BEEN TOLD OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF THESE REMEDIES FAIL THEIR ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

SOME LAWS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY, SO THESE LIMITS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

 

5. Termination

 

We can each end this Agreement anytime and without any prior notice, authorization, or notification. On termination, you lose the right to access or use the Website. You may contact the local group’s administrator to close your account on the Website. If that fails, you may contact WSG to close your WSG account permanently.

 

6. Dispute Resolution, Venue, and Personal Jurisdiction

 

In the unlikely event, we end up in a legal dispute, it will take place in Virginia courts, applying Virginia law. You agree that the laws of the State of Virginia, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of laws rules, shall exclusively govern any dispute relating to this Agreement. We both agree that all of these claims can only be litigated in the federal or state courts located in Richmond, Virginia, USA, and we each agree to personal jurisdiction in those courts. If you do not agree to this clause you are asked NOT to use the Website. If you DO use the Website, you agree to this clause.

 

7. General Terms

 

Here are some important details about how to read this Agreement.

 

If a court with authority over this User Agreement finds any part of it not enforceable, you and WSG agree that the court should modify the terms to make that part enforceable while still achieving its intent. If the court cannot do that, you and WSG agree to ask the court to remove that unenforceable part and still enforce the rest of this User Agreement. To the extent allowed by law, the English version of this Agreement is binding and other translations are for convenience only. This Agreement (including additional terms that may be provided by us when you engage with a feature of the Website) is the only agreement between us regarding the Website and supersedes all prior agreements for the Services.

 

If we don't act to enforce a breach of this Agreement, that does not mean that WSG has waived its right to enforce this Agreement. You may not assign or transfer this Agreement (or your membership or use of the Website) to anyone without our consent. However, you agree that WSG may assign this Agreement to its affiliates or a party that buys it without your consent. There are no third-party beneficiaries to this Agreement.

 

We reserve the right to change the terms of this Agreement and will provide you notice if we do and we agree that changes cannot be retroactive. If you don't agree to these changes, you must stop using the Website.

 

8. DOs” and “DON’Ts.”

 

8.1. Dos. You agree that you will:

 

• Comply with all applicable laws, including, without limitation, privacy laws, intellectual property laws, anti-spam laws, export control laws, tax laws, and regulatory requirements;
• Provide accurate information to us and keep it updated;
• Use your real (legal) name on your profile;
• Use the Wine & Study Tasting Group in a responsible manner.

 

8.2. Don'ts. You agree that you will not:

 

• Act dishonestly, irresponsibly, or in a defamatory way including by posting inappropriate, inaccurate, or objectionable content;
• Add content that is not intended for, or inaccurate for, a designated field (e.g. submitting a telephone number in the “title” or any other field, or including telephone numbers, email addresses, street addresses or any personally identifiable information for which there is not a field provided by the Wine & Study Tasting Group website);
• Use an image that is not your likeness or a head-shot photo for your profile;
• Create a false identity on the Wine & Study Tasting Group website;
• Create a profile for anyone other than yourself (a real person);
• Use or attempt to use another's profile or account;
• Harass, abuse or harm another person;
• Send spam or other communications that are not welcome to others;
• Scrape or copy profiles and information of others through any means (including crawlers, browser plugins and add-ons, and any other technology or manual work);
• Act in an unlawful, defamatory, libelous, abusive, obscene, discriminatory or otherwise objectionable manner;
• Disclose information that you do not have the right to disclose (such as confidential information of others (including your employer));
• Violate intellectual property rights of others, including patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights or other proprietary rights;
• Violate the intellectual property or other rights
• Post any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;
• Send messages to distribution lists, newsgroup aliases, or group aliases;
• Post anything that contains software viruses, worms, or any other harmful code;
• Manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any message or post transmitted through the services;
• Create profiles or provide content that promotes escort services or prostitution.
• Create or operate a pyramid scheme, fraud or other similar practice;
• Copy or use the information, content or data of others available on the services (except as expressly authorized);
• Copy or use the information, content or data contained on Wine & Study Tasting Group website in connection with a service competitive with WSG (as determined by WSG);
• Copy, modify or create derivative works of Wine & Study Tasting Group website, the services or any related technology (except as expressly authorized by WSG);
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decipher or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the services or any related technology, or any part thereof;
• Imply or state that you are affiliated with or endorsed by WSG without our express written consent (e.g., representing yourself as an accredited WSG representative or agent);
• Rent, lease, loan, trade, sell, or re-sell access to the Wine & Study Tasting Group website services or related any information or data;
• Sell, sponsor, or otherwise monetize the Wine & Study Tasting Group website without WSG’s express written consent;
• Deep linking (or universal linking) the Wine & Study Tasting Group website, for any purpose other than to promote your profile on the Wine & Study Tasting Group website, without WSG’s express written consent;
• Remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained in or on the Wine & Study Tasting Group website;
• Remove, cover or obscure any advertisement included on the Wine & Study Tasting Group website;
• Use bots or other automated methods to access the services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages;
• Monitor the Wine & Study Tasting Group website availability, performance or functionality for any competitive purpose;
• Engage in “framing,” “mirroring,” or otherwise simulating the appearance or function of the services;
• Override any security feature on the Wine & Study Tasting Group website.

 

9. Complaints Regarding Content

 

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. We require that information posted by you be accurate and not in violation of the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties. You will indemnify and hold WSG harmless for any such violation by you of a third party’s intellectual property rights.

 

10. How to Contact Us

 

If you want to send us notices or service of process, please contact us ONLINE at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. OR BY MAIL at:

 

Wine Scholar Guild

1777 Church St. NW, #B

Washington, DC20036

 

11. Privacy & Sharing Information

 

What WSG does NOT share:

 

Personal information such as first name, last name, personal email address, and personal phone numbers, with third parties. However, WSG may use personal information for WSG-related advertisements and marketing, and  , WSG also may use your personal information for news, updates, changes to the services, notifications, or updates to this User Agreement or other documents related to the services. If the particular news item, update, change, or notification has an option for you to opt out, you can opt out by updating user profile preferences or simply by deleting your account.

 

What WSG DOES share:

 

WSG may use all other information not stated above only to expand its services or add additional features. Such features may include, but are not limited to, expanding business networks, user groups, survey results, site traffic monitoring, and statistics. The information shared may include geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavior information. WSG is not responsible for any information that is uploaded, copied, used, downloaded, or shared by or amongst members.

 

Privacy: We do not sell user information such as names, email address, or phone numbers. However, we may collect user location and we may drop cookies on user’s systems to keep sessions persistent.  

 

Should our policies change at any time you will be notified by email that you provide to us during your registration. You will have options to opt-out if necessary.