The following terms and conditions govern all use of the Annotation Studio Application (“Application”) and all content, services and products available at or through the Application. Annotation Studio is owned and operated by COVE Collective. COVE is a research group within the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program, which is part of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Annotation Studio is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies and procedures that may be published from time to time on the Application or the Annotation Studio website (http://annotationstudio.org) (collectively, the “Agreement”).

For the purposes of the Agreement, the term “document” refers to any material uploaded by the user into Annotation Studio, including, but not limited to text files, video files, image files, and audio files. For the purposes of the Agreement, the term “annotation” refers to any comment made by the user in the Application on the document, which may or may not include text, video, images, or audio.

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using Annotation Studio. By accessing or using any part of Annotation Studio, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, then you may not access Annotation Studio.

1. Your Annotation Studio account

If you create an account on Annotation Studio, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the account.

If you choose a password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must take reasonable steps to keep such information confidential and secure, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any account or password if, in our reasonable opinion, your account information has been compromised. You must tell us immediately if you become aware of or suspect any unauthorized use of your account or access to your password.

You must not upload documents to your account or annotate in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others. We may change or remove any document or annotation that we consider inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause COVE Collective liability. You must immediately notify COVE Collective of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security. COVE Collective will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

2. Responsibility of Contributors

If you operate an account, annotate a document, upload a document, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Application (any such material, and annotation data, including but not limited to annotations, timestamps, locations within the text, tags, links, and images, collectively, “Content”), you are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or video file. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:

• the uploading, downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
• if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
• you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
• the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
• the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content;
• the Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite violence, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
• your account is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person. For example, the name of your account or any class/working groups is not the name of a person other than yourself; and
• you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by COVE Collective or otherwise.

By submitting Content to Annotation Studio, you grant COVE Collective a world-wide, perpetual, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, research, analyze, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing, improving and promoting Annotation Studio, COVE. COVE Collective will remove personally identifiable information (PII) from all Content which it uses hereunder.

If you delete Content, COVE Collective will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Application. You acknowledge that caching of, or references to, the Content may not be immediately removed.

Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, COVE Collective has the right (though not the obligation) to, in COVE Collective’s sole discretion, (i) refuse or remove any content that, in COVE Collective’s reasonable opinion, violates any COVE Collective policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Application to any individual or entity for any reason,.

3. Responsibility of Application Visitors

COVE Collective has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the Content, including computer software, uploaded or posted to Annotation Studio, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Application, COVE Collective does not represent or imply that it endorses the Content there posted, or that it believes such Content to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Application may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Application may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. COVE Collective disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by users of the Application, or from any downloading by those users of Content there posted.

4. Copyright Infringement and COVE DMCA Policy

As COVE Collective asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that Content on Annotation Studio violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify COVE Collective in accordance with COVE’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) policy (http://web.mit.edu/copyright/policy.html). COVE Collective will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the applicable Content. COVE Collective will terminate a user’s access to and use of the Application if, under appropriate circumstances, the user is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of COVE Collective or others.

5. Intellectual Property

This Agreement does not transfer from COVE Collective to you any COVE Collective or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with COVE Collective. COVE, COVE, Annotation Studio, annotationstudio.org, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with Annotation Studio, or the Application, are trademarks or registered trademarks of COVE Collective. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Application may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Application grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any COVE Collective or third-party trademarks.

6. Changes

COVE Collective reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the Application following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. COVE Collective may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Application (including the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

7. Termination

COVE Collective may terminate your access to all or any part of the Application at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your Annotation Studio account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using the Application. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Application is provided “as is”. COVE Collective hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. COVE Collective does not make any warranty that the Application 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, the Application at your own discretion and risk.

9. Limitation of Liability

In no event will COVE Collective be liable with respect to any subject matter of this Agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; or (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data. COVE Collective shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

You understand, acknowledge and agree that you are assuming the entire risk as to your use of the Application and the Content, including without limitation the quality, accuracy, performance, timeliness, adequacy, completeness, correctness, authenticity, non-infringement, security and validity of any and all features and functions of the Application, your Content and materials associated with your use of the Application.

YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, WE, ANY OF OUR AFFILIATES, OR OUR RESPECTIVE SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS, OR ANY OF OUR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, REPRESENTATIVES, LICENSORS, PARTNERS, OPERATIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS, ADVERTISERS, OR SUPPLIERS, SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, DIRECT OR INDIRECT, IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING FROM USE OF THE APPLICATION, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LICOVEATION, COMPENSATORY, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES.

We do not claim ownership, endorse or take responsibility for any third-party product, information, guidelines, materials or services that may be offered, advertised, provided or displayed on the Application or incorporated in the Content, products or services contained on, accessible from or distributed through the Application.

19. General Representation and Warranty

You represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Application will be in strict accordance with the COVE Collective Privacy Policy, with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Application will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless COVE Collective, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of the Application, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.

12. Miscellaneous

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between COVE Collective and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and it may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized representative of COVE Collective, or by the posting by COVE Collective of a revised version. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, and any access to or use of the Application will be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of laws provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in Boston, Massachusetts. Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under this Agreement shall be finally settled in accordance with the Comprehensive Arbitration Rules of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. (“JAMS”) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such Rules. The arbitration shall take place in Boston, Massachusetts, in the English language and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court. The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; COVE Collective may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

These Terms of Service were adapted from Wordpress.org for use by COVE and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.

COVE Collective
coveeditions@gmail.com
http://editions.covecollective.org
Created: June, 2021