Terms and Conditions

Last updated Dec 1st, 2022

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY, INCLUDING THE MANDATORY ARBITRATION PROVISION WHICH REQUIRES THAT DISPUTES ARE RESOLVED BY FINAL AND BINDING ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL AND NOT A CLASS‐WIDE OR CONSOLIDATED BASIS.

These Terms and Conditions (“Agreement”) govern the relationship between Witics (“Witics,” “we,” or “us”) and you with respect to your use of our websites, and other online or mobile services or applications (collectively, the “Services”). BY ACCESSING OR USING OUR SERVICES, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT, DO NOT ACCESS OR USE OUR SERVICES. We reserve the right to change or modify this Agreement at any time and in our sole discretion. If we make changes to this Agreement, we will provide you with notice of such changes, such as by providing notice through the Services or updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Agreement. By continuing to use the Services after such notice is provided, you confirm your acceptance of the modified Agreement. If you do not agree to the modified Agreement, you must stop using our Services.

I. Your Agreement with Us

Witics permits access to and use of the Sites subject to these Terms. PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY. BY USING THE SITES YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS. If you are agreeing to these Terms on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind such entity, its affiliates and all users who access the Sites to these Terms and, in which case the terms “you” or “your” shall refer to such entity, its affiliates and users associated with it. If you do not have such authority, or if you do not agree with these Terms, you may not use the Sites.

These Terms are effective as of Dec 1st, 2022. Witics has the right to change these Terms from time to time without notice. Please review these Terms from time to time to see if they have changed. You accept such modifications if you continue to use the Sites after we post updated Terms. If you disagree with the new Terms, your only option is to stop using the Sites.

II. Accessing the Sites and Using the Content

You may use the Sites and their content, including but not limited to the tools, software, pictures, audio, video, text, and data compilations (collectively, the "Content"), subject to the Terms. The Sites may only be used by you for personal purposes. Except as expressly provided below, you may not use the Sites for any commercial purpose that generates income, including in advertisements. Whatever copyright notice that was initially bundled with the content must be included in all copies, displays, or representations of the content in any form, media, or technology that is currently in use or that is later produced. You may use the Sites only for internal business needs if you are using them on behalf of a business, organization, or other legal body. Editorial usage of the Websites and Content is encouraged by Witics. You are allowed to utilize content that you access through the Sites if you work as a journalist, blogger, pundit, or industry analyst. If you produce such editorial content utilizing the Sites or Content, you must adhere to the guidelines for attribution listed below.

Without Witics' prior written consent, you are not permitted to use any of the Content, software, materials, or Sites in any way that is not expressly permitted by these Terms, including but not limited to reproduction, distribution, performance, display, or participation in the transfer or sale of any of the foregoing. If you breach any of these Terms, Witics will immediately revoke your authorization to use and access the Sites and Content without taking any further action.

Witics does not intend for anybody under the age of 18 to use the Sites. You attest that you are using the Sites with your parent or legal guardian's full permission and are at least 18 years old, whichever is older in your jurisdiction. You acknowledge that you will not submit or post any personal data to the Sites, including a minor's name, address, phone number, or email address.

Although Witics will make a fair effort to keep the Sites continually accessible, there may be occasions when they are not because of events outside of Witics's control. The Sites or the storage and accessibility of any Content or analysis may also be interrupted, discontinued, modified, limited, or suspended by Witics for any reason, including content that you have supplied. You acknowledge that Witics won't be held responsible for any such alteration to the Sites or Content.

You may not access the Sites through any automated mechanism, including but not limited to automated visits to the Sites and retention of the Content in any form, automated queries, automated edits or actions, or any other programmatic access, unless permitted by an application programming interface ("API") provided as part of the Sites. Your use of the APIs is governed by separate API Agreements. Except where expressly amended in the relevant API Agreement, all of these Terms apply to your use of the APIs.

All Content offered by the Sites is the property of Witics and/or third parties and is protected by United States and international copyright laws. The Sites are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries.

Witics or, as appropriate, its related companies, licensors, or partners are the owners of the trademarks Witics®, as well as the logos and other intellectual trademarks, service marks, and trade names of Witics. You get a very restricted license from Witics to make use of the names Witics and the Open Hub brand and logo as long as you follow the attribution guidelines outlined below. You agree to clearly distinguish between Content coming from the Sites and other material you combine it with when using these trademarks for credit. Witics maintains the right to decide in its sole discretion whether you have followed the attribution guidelines, made it obvious which content is from the sites and which isn't, and whether you have exploited trademarks in ways which clearly do not indicate an endorsement of your usage by Witics.  Any trademarks used by third parties still belong to their respective owners. This Agreement does not provide you any rights to replicate or utilize any of the distinctive brand aspects of the Sites, including but not limited to the domain names, design, organization, artwork, logos, pictures, and trade dress, which are all the property of Witics.

For Witics, open source software is crucial. You might be granted an open source license to use some of the software that we make accessible for download from the sites. Some of the terms of these Terms might be expressly superseded by clauses of such a license.

III. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Sites to:

• Attempt to defeat the access control measures of the Site by hacking, password "mining," or any other means, in order to gain unauthorized access to any area of the Sites, any other systems or networks connected to it, any Witics server, or any of the Content made available on or through the Sites.
• Take any activity that places an excessive or abnormally heavy demand on the Witics systems and networks, the Witics systems and networks' infrastructure, or any systems and networks connected to the Witics systems and networks.
• Post illegal material or use the Sites for illegal activity.
• Posting or using the sites to disseminate "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," "phishing," or other unsolicited advertising or promotion, or material lacking in community value that is intended to drive traffic, disguise its source or authorship, distribute viruses, trojan horses, or other malware, or that serves affiliate marketing purposes, is prohibited.
• Any other logo, trademark, or third-party identifier that would give the appearance that the third party has permission to display the Sites should not be used to frame or otherwise co-brand the Sites.
• Robots.txt, API restrictions, and any other mechanisms that enforce security or usage limitations are to be removed, avoided, disabled, damaged, or in any other way interfered with.
• Use any means to damage, deny the use of, or restrict others’ use of the Sites.
• Post misleading or inaccurate information with the intent to influence the Sites' analyses, search algorithms, "game" reputation, or scoring systems, or take actions on other websites that the Sites automatically access as part of their regular operation with the sole purpose of influencing the Sites' analyses.
• Post libelous or defamatory material.
• Intimidate or harass others.
• Engage in identity theft or violate the privacy of others, such as by using phishing to trick people into disclosing their personal information, posting someone else's personal information that you have in your possession, or attempting to use someone else's account.
• Falsify your identity or misrepresent your affiliation with another person or entity.
• Post or send any software that is designed to interfere with, disrupt, harm, destroy, or restrict access to computer software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment, as well as any computer viruses, trojan horses, or other malware that could interfere with or disrupt other websites on the internet.
• Post or transmit any content that is damaging, threatening, offensive, hateful, discriminatory, obscene, in violation of any laws or regulations in force, or that encourages the commission of a crime.

Your registered user account may be suspended or terminated, and/or your access to the Sites may be blocked, as a result of any such use of the Sites or Content, any other violation of these Terms, or any other fraudulent or unlawful action.

IV. Registered Accounts

Witics may ask you to register for an account, make a user profile, choose a user name, and password before you may use some features of the Sites. You consent to giving Witics true, current, and complete information about your identification, including your email address, and you also consent to quickly updating such information should it change. You undertake not to use the Sites in any way for which you do not have permission, including by impersonating someone else, lying about your identity, using someone else's account, or otherwise trying to access Content that you do not have permission to access.

All actions taken with your account's authorisation are your personal responsibility. By accepting ur terms, you absolve Witics of any and all claims resulting from this behavior. You are in charge of protecting the confidentiality of your password. You consent to immediately notify Witics if you learn or suspect that the security of your account, including your password, has been compromised.

Witics explicitly disclaims all responsibility for the cancellation, suspension, or revocation of your account for any reason. Any violation of the Terms by you will result in the immediate termination of your account and registration. You are always free to stop participating as a registered user and closing your account.

Witics respects your right to privacy. Witics will use any personally identifying information collected by the Sites in accordance with Witics’s Privacy Policy. The servers on which certain personally identifiable information will be collected may be located in the United States or such other jurisdiction as Witics may determine.

You may not use any automated means to create an account including mass-registration of multiple accounts. Any such account created by automated means may be suspended or terminated without notice.

V. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SITES AND THE CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON IT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. WITICS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Witics will have absolutely no liability in connection with the Sites and Content including without limitation, any liability for damage to your computer hardware, data, information or business resulting from the Content available on the Sites. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Witics will have no liability for:

• Any loss or injury caused, in whole or in part, by its actions, omissions or negligence, or for contingencies beyond its control, in procuring, compiling or delivering the Sites or Content;
• Any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in the Content offered by the Sites regardless of how caused or delays or interruptions in delivery of such Content; or
• Any decision made or action taken or not taken in reliance upon the Content offered by the Sites.

Witics makes no warranty, representation or guarantee as to the sequence, accuracy, timeliness or completeness of the Content or that the Content may be relied upon for any reason. Witics makes no warranty, representation or guarantee that the Content will be uninterrupted or error free or that any defects can be corrected.

Witics reserves the right to do any of the following, at any time, without notice: to modify, suspend or terminate operation of or access to the Sites, or any portion of the Sites, for any reason.

VII. Limitation of Liability

Under no circumstances will Witics, Witics’s subsidiaries, affiliated companies, agents, employees, shareholders or directors (“Witics Parties”) be liable for any losses or damages whatsoever, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, from the use of, or reliance on, the Sites or Content.

Witics Parties are not liable under any circumstances, including but not limited to negligence, for any special or consequential damages that may result from the use of, or the inability to use, the Sites or any Content, from the conduct or material of any third party on the Sites, including without limitation any defamatory, offensive, illegal conduct by users of the Sites or other third parties, or from loss of use, profit, revenue, customers, data, reputation, good-will, or other intangible losses to you or any third party or person, even if the Witics Parties have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Witics Parties are not liable for damages or injury, including but not limited to damages or injury caused by any performance, failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of the Sites or any Content, whether resulting, in whole or in part, from breach of contract, tortious behavior, negligence, or otherwise. This section only applies to the maximum extent allowable under applicable law. If you live in a jurisdiction that does not allow the disclaimer of implied warranties, or limitation or exclusion of liability or incidental or consequential damages, the above disclaimer, limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.

In no event will Witics’s total liability to you for damages, losses and causes of action, whether in contract, tort (including, but not limited to, negligence) or otherwise exceed the amount you paid, if any, for accessing the Sites.

VII. Indemnity

You acknowledge that your violation of these Terms may result in losses, expenses, damages, costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees, and that you will defend, indemnify, and hold the Witics Parties harmless from and against any and all liabilities resulting from, or in connection with, such violations, whether directly or indirectly. Additionally, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold the Witics Parties harmless from and against any claims made by third parties resulting from your use of any of the Sites and any Contribution you make available via any of the Sites through any means, including without limitation through a posting, a link, or another method. Witics Parties may take part in the defense and settlement at their own expense and with lawyers of their own selection. Don't do it. You shall not settle any claim or action without the Witics Parties prior written consent.

VIII. Copyright Claims

Witics honour’s other people's intellectual property. In response to reports of suspected infringement, Witics complies with the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). We may remove or disable access to Content on the Sites that is allegedly infringing as part of our response, in which case we will make a good-faith effort to get in touch with the person who submitted the allegedly infringing material so they can issue a counter notification.

To further understand your rights and obligations under the DMCA and other applicable laws, you might want to speak with a lawyer before serving either a Notice of Infringing Material or Counter-Notification. The following notice specifications do not represent, and are not intended to be construed as, a waiver of, Witics' rights or responsibilities under the DMCA.

• Notice of Infringing Material

To file a notice of infringing material on the Sites, please provide a written notification containing the following details:

• Reasonably sufficient details to enable us to identify the work claimed to be infringed or, if multiple works are claimed to be infringed, a representative list of such works (for example: title, author, any registration or tracking number, URL);
• Reasonably sufficient detail to enable us to identify and locate the material that is claimed to be infringing (for example a link to the page that contains the material);
• Your contact information so that we can contact you (for example, your address, telephone number, email address);
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material identified in (2) is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is alleged to be infringed;
• Your physical or electronic signature.

• Counter-Notification

If material that you have posted to the Sites has been taken down, you may file a counter-notification that contains the following details:

• Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled;
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material in question;
• Your name, address and telephone number;
• A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for any judicial district in which Witics may be found and that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted a notice in compliance with the section (c)(1)(C) of the DMCA, as generally described above;
• Your physical or electronic signature.

Upon receipt of a counterclaim, Witics will forward it to the party who submitted the original copyright infringement claim. The original complainant will then have 10 days to notify our designated agent that he or she has filed legal action relating to the allegedly infringing material. If Witics does not receive any such notification within 10 days, we may, at our sole discretion, restore the material to the Sites.

X. General Terms

• Jurisdiction and Applicable Law

Unless otherwise specified, Witics controls and operates the Sites within the United States of America. If you take legal action relating to these Terms, you agree to file such action only in the United States, and you consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of those courts for the purposes of litigating any such action.

This agreement is void where prohibited by law, and in such jurisdictions, Witics revokes your right to access the Sites and/or Content. Witics makes no claim that the Sites or Content are legal to access or use outside of the United States of America. You access the Sites and use the Content at your own risk, and you are responsible for complying with the laws of your jurisdiction.

ii. Waiver and Severability

The failure of Witics to enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision. If any term or section of the Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by any law or regulation or final determination of a competent court or tribunal, all remaining provisions will be considered in effect, valid, and enforceable. You agree that no membership, shareholder, affiliate, joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Witics or its affiliates as a result of these Terms, your use of any of the Sites or Content, or your registered account on the Sites.

iii. Survival

Sections VI. (Disclaimer of Warranties), VII. (Limitation of Liability), and Section X.i (Jurisdiction and Applicable Law) shall survive any termination of this agreement by you or Witics.