Terms of Use

TheBellNews.com website (the “Site”) is owned and operated by The Bell News Group. These Terms of Use (“Terms of Use”) set forth the terms and conditions under which you are authorized to use the Site.

To the extent rules or guidelines affecting your use of the Site are found on other pages of the Site, those rules and guidelines are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use. By using the Site you (hereinafter either “you” or “User”) agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, you should immediately cease all usage of this Site.

We reserve the right, at any time, to modify, alter, or update these Terms of Use without prior notice. You are encouraged to check the Site regularly for changes to the Terms of Use. Modifications shall become effective immediately upon being posted to the Site, without further notice to you. Your continued use of the Site after such modifications are posted constitutes an acknowledgement and acceptance of such modifications. Except as provided in this paragraph, these Terms of Use may not be amended.

Description of Service  
Our Site features a wide array of intellectual property content, including but not limited to, articles, information, audio, video, photos, comments and user-generated content (collectively “Content”). To the extent new Content, services, or features are added to the Site in the future, the use thereof is subject to these Terms of Use.

Additional Policies and Agreements 
Our Privacy Policy describes the information we collect when you and others use this Site, as well as how we use the information, and some of the steps we take to protect your privacy. Our Privacy Policy is part of these Terms of Use. By agreeing to these Terms of Use, you are also consenting to our use of your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

If you sign up to become a contributor to the Site, to enter a promotion on our Site, or to use a special feature or password-protected area of the Site, you may be asked to agree to special terms. In such cases, you will be asked to expressly consent to the special terms. If any of the special terms are different than these Terms of Use, the special terms will supplement or amend these Terms of Use, but only with respect to the matters governed by the special terms.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability  
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE BELL NEWS GROUP EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THIS SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THIS SITE AND ALL CONTENT, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH THIS SITE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. THE BELL NEWS GROUP IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TIMELINESS OF DELIVERY OF CONTENT, ANY FAILURES OF DELIVERY, OR ERRONEOUS DELETION OR FAILURE TO STORE ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL SETTINGS OR COMMUNICATIONS.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL THE BELL NEWS GROUP, ITS PARENT COMPANY, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, SPONSORS, CONTENT PROVIDERS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, OR LICENSORS, NOR ITS OR THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS (COLLECTIVELY THE “THE BELL NEWS GROUP PARTIES”), BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY PERSON OR ENTITY CLAIMING THROUGH YOU FOR ANY LOSS, INJURY, LIABILITY, DAMAGE OR DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ACCESS TO, USE OF, INABILITY TO USE, OR RELIANCE ON THIS SITE OR ANY CONTENT, PRODUCT OR SERVICE PROVIDED TO YOU THROUGH OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS SITE. THIS IS A COMPREHENSIVE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY THAT APPLIES TO ALL LOSSES AND DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT, GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF DATA, GOODWILL, REVENUE OR PROFITS. THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY APPLIES WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER BASIS; EVEN IF AN AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF ANY THE BELL NEWS GROUP PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES; AND WITHOUT REGARD TO THE SUCCESS OR EFFECTIVENESS OF OTHER REMEDIES.

IF ANY PART OF THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IS FOUND TO BE INVALID, ILLEGAL OR UNENFORCEABLE FOR ANY REASON, THEN THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE BELL NEWS GROUP PARTIES UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES TO YOU OR ANY PERSON OR ENTITY CLAIMING THROUGH YOU FOR LIABILITIES THAT OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE BEEN LIMITED WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S.  DOLLARS.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Indemnification  
You agree to indemnify and hold The Bell News Group Parties harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Site, including without limitation your actual or alleged violation of these Terms of Use, or infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights by you or another user of the Site using your computer or account.

Modifications and Interruption to the Site  
The Bell News Group reserves the right to modify or discontinue all or any portion of the Site with or without notice to you. The Bell News Group shall not be liable to you or any third party should The Bell News Group exercise such right. You acknowledge and accept that The Bell News Group does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to the Site, that operation of the Site will not be uninterrupted or error free, and that usage of our Site may be interfered with or adversely affected by numerous factors or circumstances outside of our control.

Third-Party Sites  
Our Site includes links to other sites that are owned and operated by third parties. You acknowledge that we are not responsible for the availability of, or the content located on or through, any third-party site. You should contact the site administrator for those third-party sites if you have any concerns regarding such sites. Your use of those third-party sites is subject to the terms of use and privacy policies of each site, and we are not responsible therefor.

Your Obligations  
As a condition of your right to use the Site, you represent that you are of legal age to enter into a binding contract and that you are not a person barred from visiting the Site and accessing the Content under the laws of the United States or other country.

Registration on the Site

Certain features of our Site will require you to register by providing your personal information, such as your name, e-mail address, mailing address, or other information. For example you may need to complete a registration form to sign up to receive TheBellNews.com e-mail newsletters, or for other purposes.

If you wish to register on our Site you agree to provide accurate, current and complete personal data and information about yourself (such as name, age, e-mail address, etc.) as required by the applicable registration form, and further agree that you will update such data to keep it accurate, current and complete. The Bell News Group reserves the right to suspend or terminate your use of the Site if it discovers, or has a reasonable basis to believe that any of the data you have provided is inaccurate, incomplete or untrue. If you obtain a username and password from this Site, you may not share your username and password with any other person or authorize any other person to use your username and password. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your username and password and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your username and password. You agree to notify The Bell News Group immediately of any known or suspected unauthorized use of your username and password or any other breach of security. The Bell News Group cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect the confidentiality of your username and password.

User-Submitted Content and User Conduct  
Any Content uploaded, posted, submitted, or otherwise made available by individual users of the Site, including without limitation submissions by contributors, comments to articles, , or other content which does not originate with TheBellNews.com (“User Content”), is the sole responsibility of the person who made such User Content available on the Site. Under no circumstances will The Bell News Group be liable in any way for any User Content made available through this Site by you or any third party.

The Bell News Group does not pre-screen or control the User Content posted on the Site, and does not warrant and/or guarantee the truthfulness, integrity, suitability, or quality of that User Content, and it does not endorse such User Content. You also agree and understand that by accessing the Site, you may encounter Content that you may consider to be obscene, improper, or for other reasons deemed objectionable. The Bell News Group has no responsibility for any User Content, including without limitation any errors or omissions therein. The Bell News Group Parties are not liable for any loss or damage of any kind you claim was incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available on the Site, whether by The Bell News Group, individual users of the Site, or third party contractors or licensors of The Bell News Group.

User Content is owned by the author thereof, and The Bell News Group does not claim ownership of original works created and posted by individual visitors to this Site. However, by uploading, posting, transmitting or otherwise making any User Content available on or through this Site, you are granting The Bell News Group, and its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, and other related entities an irrevocable, nonexclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, transferrable, sublicensable, worldwide license to copy, reproduce, modify, publish, display, distribute publicly, perform, exploit, and prepare derivative works of such User Content (including your name, image, likeness, or information you have made publicly available in connection therewith) in any manner, media or format now existing or hereafter devised, without any obligation of notice, attribution or compensation to you.

The Bell News Group reserves the right (but has no obligation) in its sole discretion to pre-screen, edit, refuse, move or remove any Content that is posted on the Site. The Bell News Group has no obligation to store any Content contributed to the Site.

Prohibited Content and Activities

You agree that you will not post to the Site or use the Site to transmit or make available any Content that:

• violates any laws, contains any threats, is abusive, tortious, harassing, vulgar, obscene, indecent, violates any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, is defamatory, libelous, hateful, contains any disparaging statements or opinions regarding racial, gender or ethnic background, or is otherwise objectionable;
• infringes any intellectual property rights of any party, including, but not limited to any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights;
• contains any private information about an identifiable person without that person’s permission, or any content soliciting any personal or private information from any individual;
• you know or have reason to know is false, misleading, or fraudulent;
• you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information or proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
• contains forged headers or employs other techniques whose purpose is to disguise the origin of the Content submitted;
• contains any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, or material which can be characterized as “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” “Ponzi schemes” or similar material, or any information posted primarily for advertising, promotional, or other commercial purposes, including without limitation any request for or solicitation of money, goods, or services for private gain;
• incorporates within it any software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs whose purpose or function is to interrupt, destroy or otherwise impair the operability of any software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
• contains links to any websites containing content violating any of the foregoing requirements, or links to any websites for purposes of disrupting the operations of such website, harassing the owners of such website, or other objectionable or illegal purposes.

 

You further agree not to use the Site to:

• engage in any conduct which might be harmful to any individual;
• impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
• engage in or facilitate any conduct that is deemed, or found by any court or similar agency, to constitute “stalking” or otherwise harassing conduct aimed at another person or entity;
• engage in or transmit any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law or regulation.

 

In addition, you are prohibited from interfering with or disrupting the Site, or servers or networks connected thereto.

With respect to any information you provide to TheBellNews.com or The Bell News Group, including personal data and information, you agree and accept that The Bell News Group may retain, maintain and/or disclose such information and User Content if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such retention, preservation and/or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) respond to any legal process; (b) enforce these Terms of Use; (c) respond to any claims that any User Content violates the rights of third parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; or (e) protect the rights, property or personal safety of The Bell News Group, its users and the public.

Ownership of Feedback  
The Bell News Group welcomes your comments and feedback regarding this Site. All information and materials submitted to TheBellNews.com or The Bell News Group through this Site or otherwise, such as any comments, feedback, ideas, questions, designs, data or the like regarding or relating to the Site or the business of The Bell News Group (collectively, “Feedback”), will be considered NON-CONFIDENTIAL and NON-PROPRIETARY with regard to you, but The Bell News Group reserves the right to treat any such Feedback as the confidential information of The Bell News Group. For this reason, we ask you not to send us any information or materials that you do not wish to assign to us, including, without limitation, any confidential information or any original creative materials such as product ideas, computer code, or original artwork.

By submitting Feedback to TheBellNews.com or The Bell News Group, you assign to The Bell News Group, and its parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, free of charge, all worldwide rights, title and interest in all copyrights and other intellectual property rights in such Feedback. The Bell News Group will be entitled to use any Feedback you submit to it, and any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques contained in any such Feedback, for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to developing, manufacturing and marketing products and services using such Feedback without restriction and without compensating you in any way. You are responsible for the information and other Content contained in any Feedback you submit to us, including, without limitation, their truthfulness and accuracy.

Disclaimer Regarding Accuracy of Content  
Some of the Content on the Site, including without limitation User Content, has been provided by or obtained from parties other than The Bell News Group. The Bell News Group Parties make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of any Content on the Site created or provided by third parties, or with regard to any product or service provided or offered by any vendor on the Site (including without limitation advertisers on the Site) and you acknowledge that any reliance on representations and warranties provided by any party other than The Bell News Group shall be at your own risk. You expressly agree to hold The Bell News Group harmless for any claims of damage arising from any product or service provided by any third party, including without limitation any contributor.

UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED ON THIS SITE, OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON THIS SITE ARE THOSE OF INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY CONTRIBUTORS TO OUR SITE, AND NOT OF THE BELL NEWS GROUP, AND ARE NOT ENDORSED BY ANY OF THE BELL NEWS GROUP PARTIES.

Copyright and Trademark Information  
All Content included or available on this Site, including Site design, text, graphics, interfaces, and the selection and arrangements thereof is copyright The Bell News Group, with all rights reserved, or is the property of The Bell News Group and/or third party licensors, and is protected by the intellectual property rights of those owners. Any use of materials on the Site, including without limitation reproduction for purposes other than those noted above, modification, distribution, or replication, any form of data extraction or data mining, or other commercial exploitation of any kind, without prior written permission of an authorized officer of The Bell News Group, is strictly prohibited. With the exception of search engines, you agree that you will not use any robot, spider, or other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our web pages or the Content contained therein without prior written permission of an authorized officer of The Bell News Group.

You may use the Content solely for your personal, non-commercial use, except that a commercial web site is permitted to link to the Site provided that the web site page on which such feeds or links are featured must be accessible to the general public and not provided through a subscription service or for a fee, unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing by The Bell News Group. You may not make any use of Content owned by any third parties which is available on TheBellNews.com, without the express consent of those third parties. All Content which qualifies for protection under Federal Copyright Law under the laws of the United States is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Court System, whether registered or unregistered. Based on the presence of this notice of copyright ownership, any infringement of the protected Content of this Site will be deemed by The Bell News Group to be an intentional infringement.

All trademarks displayed on the Site are the trademarks of their respective owners, and constitute neither an endorsement nor a recommendation of such parties. In addition, such use of trademarks or links to the web sites of third parties is not intended to imply, directly or indirectly, that those third parties endorse or have any affiliation with The Bell News Group.

 

Notification of Claimed Copyright Infringement 
In the event that you find Content posted on the Site which is believed to be an infringement of the copyright ownership or other intellectual property rights of you or any third party, you are requested to immediately contact The Bell News Group’s Copyright Agent as described below. To report any alleged infringement, you may contact us in writing by providing a signed statement containing the following information:

1. your name, address, telephone number, and email address, and if you are acting on behalf of the owner of the intellectual property, the name of the owner

1. 2.  a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner of the copyright or are authorized to act on behalf of the owner;

3. a detailed description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;

4. if your claim is based on a registered work, the trademark, patent, or copyright registration number, and the date of issuance of the registration;

5. a description of the infringing material and the URL where such material is located on the Site, or a description of where on our Site you found such material;

6. your written statement that you believe, in good faith, that the use of the work on our Site has not been authorized by the true owner of the work, its agent, or as a matter of law; and

7. a statement that all of the information you have provided is true.

 

Please send your notice of alleged infringement to: 
Copyright Agent, TheBellNews.com ringthebellnews@gmail.com
E-mail: ringthebellnews@gmail.com

In accordance with the DMCA, it is the policy of The Bell News Group to terminate use of our Site by repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.

Links to the Site and RSS Feeds 
Unless otherwise prohibited under these Terms of Use, you are hereby licensed to create hyperlinks to the content on the Site, provided that the hyperlink accurately describes the content as it appears on the Site. You are further granted a right to implement the RSS feeds offered by our Site, solely in the manner described on our Site.

Under no circumstances may you “frame” the Site or any of its Content or copy portions of the Site to a server, except as part of an Internet service provider’s incidental caching of pages. When a page of our Site is accessed from a link (including RSS feeds) featured on your web site, each page within our Site must be displayed in full (including all trademarks, branding, advertising and promotional materials), without any accompanying frame, border, margin, design, branding, trademark, advertising, or promotional materials not originally displayed on the page within the Site, and without any interstitial pop-ups or web pages loading before the applicable target page is accessed.  The RSS feed license use is limited to personal, desktop viewing purposes.  The Bell News Group reserves the right to revoke these licenses generally, or your right to use specific links or RSS feeds, at any time, with or without cause.

Mobile Devices  If you access the versions of our Site or Content designed for use on mobile devices, you understand that your mobile carrier’s standard charges will apply. If you use our Site to send any Content to a friend’s mobile device, you understand that your friend may incur standard messaging charges according to your friend’s mobile plan.

User Disputes  You are solely responsible for your postings on our Site and any disputes you may encounter with other users of our Site as a result of such postings or otherwise. The Bell News Group has no obligation to become involved in or resolve any disputes between users of our Site (whether Content contributors or other users). However, The Bell News Group reserves the right to take any actions it deems appropriate with regard to such disputes.

Governing Laws.
The Bell News Group is located in Illinois. As such, we are subject to the laws of Illinois, and such laws will govern these Terms of Use and any claims arising out of or relating to use of the Site, without giving effect to any choice of law rules. We make no representation that our Site is appropriate, legal or available for use outside of the United States. The state and federal courts located in Highland, Illinois will serve as the venue for any actions brought, or claims made, arising out of your use of this Site.

Compliance with Laws  
You assume all knowledge of applicable law and you are responsible for compliance with any such laws. You may not use the Site in any way that violates applicable state, federal, or international laws, regulations or other government requirements.

Other Terms  
If any provision of these Terms of Use shall be unlawful, void or unenforceable for any reason, the other provisions (and any partially-enforceable provision) shall not be affected thereby and shall remain valid and enforceable to the maximum possible extent. You agree that these Terms of Use and any other agreements referenced herein may be assigned by The Bell News Group, in our sole discretion, to a third party in the event of a merger or acquisition. These Terms of Use shall apply in addition to, and shall not be superseded by, any other written agreement between us in relation to your participation as a User. You agree and understand that these Terms of Use together with any other click-through agreements you may have entered with TheBellNews.com or The Bell News Group, constitute the entire agreement between you and The Bell News Group regarding your use of the Site, and that any and all prior agreements between you and The Bell News Group are superseded by these Terms of Use. You may not amend these Terms of Use.

Any failure by The Bell News Group to exercise its rights under these Terms of Use or to enforce the terms hereof will not constitute a waiver of those rights. If any term of these Terms of Use is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, the parties agree that the court in any event should try to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and that all of the other provisions of these Terms of Use will remain in full force and effect.

You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of site or relating to the terms of these Terms of Use must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

Effective Date of this Terms of Use Agreement 
This Terms of Use Agreement is effective as of January 1, 2013.