Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce

Terms and Conditions

LEGAL STATEMENTS
Thank you for visiting the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce (“Chamber,” "we," "us," "our"). The following Legal Statements apply to our website: www.charlestonchamber.net and its related services.

Charlestonchamber.net is a website that allows Members to create unique personal profiles online in order to find and communicate with business contacts and peers. The Chamber’s websites are hosted in the U.S.

This Terms of Use Agreement ("Agreement") sets forth the legally binding terms for your use of the www.charlestonchamber.net. By using the Chamber website, you agree to be bound by this Agreement, whether you are a "Visitor" (which means that you simply browse the Charleston Chamber website) or you are a "Member" (which means that you have registered with Charlestonchamber.net). The term "User" refers to a Visitor or a Member. You are only authorized to use the Chamber website (regardless of whether your access or use is intended) if you agree to abide by all applicable laws and to this Agreement. Please read this Agreement carefully and save it. If you do not agree with it, you should leave the Chamber website and discontinue use immediately. If you wish to become a Member, communicate with other Members and make use of the Chamber website, you must read this Agreement and indicate your acceptance during the Registration process.

This Agreement includes the Chamber’s policy for acceptable use of the Chamber website and Content posted on said site, your rights, obligations and restrictions regarding your use of charlestonchamber.net's Privacy Policy. In order to participate in certain Chamber services, you may be notified that you are required to download software or content and/or agree to additional terms and conditions. Unless otherwise provided by the additional terms and conditions applicable to the Chamber in which you choose to participate, those additional terms are hereby incorporated into this Agreement. You may receive a copy of this Agreement by emailing us at: privacy@Charlestonchamber.net, Subject: Terms of Use Agreement.

The Charleston Chamber may modify this Agreement from time to time and such modification shall be effective upon posting on the Chamber’s website. You agree to be bound to any changes to this Agreement when you use the Chamber website after any such modification is posted. It is therefore important that you review this Agreement regularly to ensure you are updated as to any changes.

Please choose carefully the information you post on charlestonchamber.net and that you provide to other Users. Your charlestonchamber.net profile may not include the following items: any photographs containing nudity, or obscene, lewd, excessively violent, harassing, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable subject matter. Despite this prohibition, information provided by other Chamber Members (for instance, in their Profile) may contain inaccurate, inappropriate, offensive or sexually explicit material, products or services, and Chamber assumes no responsibility or liability for this material. If you become aware of misuse of the Chamber website by any person, please contact the Chamber or click on the "Report Inappropriate Content" link at the bottom of any charlestonchamber.net page.

The CharlestonChamber reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject, refuse to post or remove any posting (including private messages) by you, or to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to all or any part of the Chamber website at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice, and without liability. The Chamber expressly reserves the right to remove your profile and/or restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to any part of the Chamber website if the Chamber determines, in its sole discretion, that you pose a threat to the Chamber and/or its Users.

1. Eligibility. Use of and Membership in the Chamber is void where prohibited. By using the Chamber website, you represent and warrant that (a) all registration information you submit is truthful and accurate; (b) you will maintain the accuracy of such information; (c) you are 18 years of age or older; and (d) your use of the Chamber website does not violate any applicable law or regulation. Your profile may be deleted and your Membership may be terminated without warning, if we believe that you are under 18 years of age.

2. Term. This Agreement shall remain in full force and effect while you use the Chamber website or are a Member. You may terminate your Membership at any time, for any reason, by calling 843.577.2510. The Chamber may terminate your Membership at any time, without warning. Even after Membership is terminated, this Agreement will remain in effect, including sections 5-17.

3. Fees. You acknowledge that Charlestonchamber.net reserves the right to charge for the Chamber membership and to change its fees from time to time in its discretion. If the Chamber terminates your Membership because you have breached the Agreement, you shall not be entitled to the refund of any unused portion of membership fees.

4. Password. When you sign-up to become a Member, you will also be asked to choose a password. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. You agree not to use the account, username, or password of another Member at any time or to disclose your password to any third party. You agree to notify the Chamber immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account or access to your password. You are solely responsible for any and all use of your account.

5. Non-commercial Use by Members. The Chamber is for the use of Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by the Chamber. Illegal and/or unauthorized use of the Chamber website, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of Members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email or unauthorized framing of or linking to the Chamber website is prohibited. Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, and other forms of solicitation may be removed from Member profiles without notice and may result in termination of Membership privileges. Appropriate legal action will be taken for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Chamber website.

6. Proprietary Rights in Content on charlestonchamber.net.

The Charleston Metro Chamber does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you post to the Chamber website. After posting your Content to the Chamber website, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the Chamber website, you hereby grant to the Chamber a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the Chamber website.

1. Without this license, the Chamber would be unable to provide the Chamber website. For example, without the right to modify Member Content, the Chamber would not be able to format Content to satisfy technical requirements, and without the right to publicly perform Member Content, the Chamber could not allow Users to view videos posted by Members. The license you grant to the Chamber is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to the Chamber), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that the Chamber is not required to pay you for the use on the Chamber website of the Content that you post), sublicensable (so that the Chamber is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide the Chamber website), and worldwide (because the Internet and the Chamber website are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the Charleston Chamber website. The license does not grant the Chamber the right to sell your Content, nor does the license grant the Chamber the right to distribute your Content outside of the Chamber website.

2. You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Chamber website or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of your Content on or through the Chamber website does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the Chamber website.

3. The Chamber website contains Content of charlestonchamber.net ("charlestonchamber.net Content"). Charlestonchamber.net Content is protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other laws, and the Chamber owns and retains all rights in the charlestonchamber.net Content. The Chamber hereby grants you a limited, revocable, nonsublicensable license to reproduce and display the charlestonchamber.net Content (excluding any software code) solely for your personal use in connection with viewing the Chamber website.

7. Content Posted.

1. The Chamber may delete any Content that in the sole judgment of the Chamber violates this Agreement or which may be offensive, illegal or violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of any person. The Chamber assumes no responsibility for monitoring the Chamber website for inappropriate Content or conduct. If at any time the Chamber chooses, in its sole discretion, to monitor the Chamber website, we nonetheless assume no responsibility for the Content, no obligation to modify or remove any inappropriate Content, and no responsibility for the conduct of the User submitting any such Content.

2. You are solely responsible for the Content that you post on the Chamber website, and any material or information that you transmit to other Members and for your interactions with other Users. The Chamber does not endorse and has no control over the Content. Content is not necessarily reviewed by the Chamber prior to posting and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Chamber. The Chamber makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the Content or to the accuracy and reliability of the Content or any material or information that you transmit to other Members.

8. Content/Activity Prohibited. The following is a partial list of the kind of Content that is illegal or prohibited to post on or through the Chamber website. The Chamber reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in the Chamber's sole discretion, violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending communication from the Chamber website and terminating the Membership of such violators. Prohibited Content includes, but is not limited to Content that, in the sole discretion of the Chamber:

1. is patently offensive and promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;

2. harasses or advocates harassment of another person;

3. exploits people in a sexual or violent manner;

4. contains nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter or contains a link to an adult website;

5. solicits personal information from anyone under 18;

6. promotes information that you know is false or misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous;

7. promotes an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person's copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, or providing pirated music or links to pirated music files;

8. involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing, instant messaging, "spimming," or "spamming";

9. contains restricted or password only access pages or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);

10. furthers or promotes any criminal activity or enterprise or provides instructional information about illegal activities including, but not limited to making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses;

11. solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other Users;

12. involves commercial activities and/or sales without our prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes;

13. includes a photograph of another person that you have posted without that person's consent,

The following is a partial list of the kind of activity that is illegal or prohibited on the Chamber Website. The Chamber reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in the Chamber’s sole discretion, violates this provision, including without limitation, reporting you to law enforcement authorities. Prohibited activity includes, but is not limited to:

1. criminal or tortious activity, including child pornography, fraud, trafficking in obscene material, drug dealing, gambling, harassment, stalking, spamming, spimming, sending of viruses or other harmful files, copyright infringement, patent infringement, or theft of trade secrets;

2. unauthorized advertising to, or solicitation of, any Member to buy or sell any products or services through the Chamber Services. You may not transmit any chain letters or junk email to other Members. It is also a violation of these rules to use any information obtained from the Chamber website in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any Member without their prior explicit consent. In order to protect our Members from such advertising or solicitation, charlestonchamber.net reserves the right to restrict the number of emails which a Member may send to other Members in any 24-hour period to a number which charlestonchamber.net deems appropriate in its sole discretion. If you breach this Agreement and send unsolicited bulk email, instant messages or other unsolicited communications of any kind through the Chamber website, you acknowledge that you will have caused substantial harm to the Chamber, but that the amount of such harm would be extremely difficult to ascertain. As a reasonable estimation of such harm, you agree to pay the Chamber $50 for each such unsolicited email or other unsolicited communication you send through the Chamber website;

3. covering or obscuring the banner advertisements on your personal profile page, or any charlestonchamber.net page via HTML/CSS or any other means;

4. any automated use of the system, such as using scripts to add friends or send comments or messages;

5. interfering with, disrupting, or creating an undue burden on the Chamber website or the networks or services connected to charlestonchamber.net;

6. attempting to impersonate another Member or person;

7. using the account, username, or password of another Member at any time or disclosing your password to any third party or permitting any third party to access your account;

8. selling or otherwise transferring your profile;

9. using any information obtained from the Chamber website in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person or;

10. using the Chamber Services in a manner inconsistent with any and all applicable laws and regulations.

9. Copyright Policy. You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information belonging to others without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. It is the policy of the Chamber to terminate Membership privileges of any Member who repeatedly infringes the copyright rights of others upon receipt of proper notification to the Chamber by the copyright owner or the copyright owner's legal agent. Without limiting the foregoing, if you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the Chamber website in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent with the following information: (i) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (ii) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (iii) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Chamber website; (iv) your address, telephone number, and email address; (v) a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (vi) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Charlestonchamber.net's Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement can be reached as follows: Copyright Agent, Chamber, 2750 Speissegger Dr., Suite 100, North Charleston, SC 29405; Facsimile: 843.577.2510; Attn: Copyright Agent; and email: marketing@charlestonchamber.org.

10. Member Disputes. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Chamber Members. The Chamber reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other Members.

11. Privacy. Use of the Chamber website is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into this Agreement by this reference.

12. Disclaimers. The Chamber is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate Content posted on the Chamber Website whether caused by Users of charlestonchamber.net or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Chamber website. Profiles created and posted by Members on the Chamber website may contain links to other websites. The Chamber is not responsible for the Content, accuracy or opinions expressed on such websites, and such websites are in no way investigated, monitored or checked for accuracy or completeness by the Chamber. Inclusion of any linked website on the Chamber website does not imply approval or endorsement of the linked website by the Chamber. When you access these third-party sites, you do so at your own risk. The Chamber takes no responsibility for third party advertisements which are posted on this Chamber website, nor does it take any responsibility for the goods or services provided by its advertisers. The Chamber is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any User of the Chamber website. The Chamber assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, any User or Member communication. The Chamber is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email or players due to technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or on any of the Chamber website or combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Users or to any person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading materials in connection with charlestonchamber.net. Under no circumstances shall the Chamber be responsible for any loss or damage, including personal injury or death, resulting from use of the Chamber website, attendance at a Chamber event, from any Content posted on or through the Chamber website, or from the conduct of any Users of the Chamber website, whether online or offline. The Chamber website is provided "AS-IS" and as available and the Chamber expressly disclaims any warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. The Chamber cannot guarantee and does not promise any specific results from use of the Chamber website.

13. Limitation on Liability. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE CHAMBER BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFIT DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, EVEN IF THE CHAMBER HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, THE CHAMBER'S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO THE CHAMBER FOR THE CHAMBER WEBSITE DURING THE TERM OF MEMBERSHIP.

14. U.S. Export Controls. Software available in connection with the Chamber website (the "Software") is further subject to United States export controls. No Software may be downloaded from the Chamber website or otherwise exported or re-exported in violation of U.S. export laws. Downloading or using the Software is at your sole risk.

15. Disputes. If there is any dispute about or involving the Chamber website, you agree that the dispute shall be governed by the laws of the State of South Carolina, USA, without regard to conflict of law provisions and you agree to exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue in the state and federal courts of the United States located in the State of South Carolina, City of Charleston. Either the Chamber or you may demand that any dispute between the Chamber and you about or involving the Chamber website must be settled by arbitration utilizing the dispute resolution procedures of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, provided that the foregoing shall not prevent the Chamber from seeking injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.

16. Indemnity. You agree to indemnify and hold the Chamber, its subsidiaries, and affiliates, and their respective officers, agents, partners and employees, harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Chamber website in violation of this Agreement and/or arising from a breach of this Agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above and/or if any Content that you post on or through the Chamber website causes the Chamber to be liable to another.

17. Other. This Agreement is accepted upon your use of the Chamber website and is further affirmed by you becoming a Member. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and the Chamber regarding the use of the Chamber website. The failure of the Chamber to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. The section titles in this Agreement are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. This Agreement operates to the fullest extent permissible by law. If any provision of this Agreement is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision is deemed severable from this Agreement and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Please contact us at: marketing@charlestonchamber.org with any questions regarding this Agreement.

I HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL OF THE PROVISIONS CONTAINED ABOVE.