Terms of Use

Solving DC Problems Campaign

a project of DC Appleseed

Website Terms of Use

These "Terms of Use" set forth the terms and conditions that apply to your use of and participation in the "Solving DC Problems" Campaign via www.solvingDCproblems.org ("Website").  The Website is the culmination of a project operated by DC Appleseed ("Sponsor").  By using the Website, you agree to comply with all of the terms and conditions set forth herein.  The right to use the Website is personal to you and is nontransferable to any other person or entity.

General Purpose and Operation

• Solicit and gather ideas from District of Columbia residents, the city's large non-resident workforce, and other interested persons concerning (a) what they believe to be the District's biggest problems and (b) how to solve them;

• Compile collected wisdom in a clear, user-friendly format, and distribute the information to the public, including government officials and candidates for elected office;

• Facilitate voter registration and participation in the District;

• Stimulate constructive dialogue between District residents, the District's large resident and non-resident workforce, and the public officials who govern the jurisdiction where they live and work; and

• Convey the most pressing concerns of area residents to public officials and create a publicly-molded "platform" for leaders of the Nation's Capital.

To achieve these purposes, the Sponsor will administer the Website for the "Solving DC Problems" Campaign.  The Campaign seeks original, creative, and practical solutions to the District's biggest and most pressing problems.  The Website will allow the public to submit ideas on general and selected topics, view and comment on such ideas, and email them to other residents.  The Sponsor may subsequently channel select ideas to District of Columbia public officials and/or candidates for elected office.

Anyone, regardless of age, place of residence, citizenship, or affiliation may participate in the Campaign by submitting ideas via website or mail.  Before posting an idea on the Website, Posters may be asked to register for the Website by providing certain biographical information and their email address.  The Poster will then be given the opportunity to submit an idea or comment in response to an idea.  There is no limit on the number of times that any individual person can enter a submission.  Submissions should include:

• What the problem is
• A proposal for fixing the problem; and
• A description of how fixing the problem will benefit people who live and/or work in the District.

Campaign participants may also mail submissions to: Solving DC Problems, 1111 14^th Street NW, Suite 510, Washington D.C. 20005-5603.  Any entry received by mail will subject to terms and conditions described herein.  Participants who make a mail submission must include their name, mailing address, and date of birth.

Participants may choose to submit an idea anonymously or may permit personally-identifying data to be published on the Website and associated with the submitted ideas.  Regardless, however, the Participant agrees to abide by the terms of these official Terms of Use and by the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding on all matters pertaining to the Website.

Amendments

The Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, at any time (and from time to time) to suspend, cancel, terminate, change, or modify the Website (including without limitation these Terms of Use).  The Sponsor may take such action without advance notice and thereafter recommence normal operations of the Website, if at all, only at such time(s) and upon such terms and conditions as the Sponsor shall deem reasonable under the circumstances.  Therefore, please review the Terms of Use periodically to ensure that you remain aware of any updates or changes to the terms.  By continuing to use this Website after any changes or modifications in the Terms of Use have been made, you thereby agree to be bound by such changes or modifications.

Cost

There is no cost to participate in the "Solving DC Problems" Campaign.  No purchase is necessary to submit an idea, comment on another poster's idea, or utilize the Website in any capacity.

Intellectual Property

All materials contained in the Website, including names, logos, service marks, and trademarks appearing in the Website, are intellectual property of the Sponsor unless otherwise noted.  All rights reserved. 

The use or misuse of these trademarks or any other content on this Website, except as provided in these Terms of Use or in the site content, is strictly prohibited.  Your use of the Website is limited to personal and non-commercial use only unless other uses are granted expressly to you.  You may print copies of the information on this site for your personal use, store the files on your computer for personal use, or reference this server from your own documents.  No person, however, is authorized to use, copy, publish, display, modify, sell, or distribute any portion of the Website, including related graphics and other trademarks and/or service marks found on the Website.  Such graphics, trademarks, and/or service marks identify the Sponsor and/or goods or services provided by the Sponsor.  Such marks may not be used under any circumstances without the prior written authorization of the Sponsor.  You shall not make use of the contents of the Website in any manner that constitutes an infringement of rights, including copyright, or that has not been authorized by the Sponsor.

Grant of Rights in Ideas Submitted

Submission of any material to the Sponsor constitutes the irrevocable grant to the Sponsor of all rights in the idea, including all rights to publish, use, transfer, adapt, edit, and/or modify such idea in any way and in any and all media (whether now known or hereafter developed), without limitation, and without compensation or acknowledgment to the Poster.  Without limiting the foregoing, Sponsor also shall have the unconditional right to use any material submitted to the Sponsor for advertising/publicity purposes without additional compensation, except where prohibited by law.  The Sponsor shall also have the right, at any time and from time to time, to print, publish, broadcast, and use, worldwide and in any media known or hereafter developed, including but not limited to the Internet and World Wide Web, the name, portrait, picture, voice, likeness, and biographical information of any Poster as news or information and for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation, except where prohibited by law.  By submitting an idea, you express agreement to operate under these terms and conditions.

Originality of Idea

By making a submission, you represent and warrant that your submission is original, that it does not infringe the rights or intellectual property claims of any other parties, and that the submission does not violate any enforceable agreements or understandings that you have with any other party.

Screening of Ideas

The Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to perform any screening and sorting of the ideas that would be necessary to ensure their appropriateness, usefulness, and accessibility.  The Sponsor also reserves the right (but not the obligation) to delete, edit, or move any materials that it deems, in its sole and absolute discretion, to be in violation of these Terms of Use or which it otherwise, in its sole and absolute discretion, considers to be objectionable.  While the Sponsor does not seek to limit the expression of ideas, certain materials and language will not be tolerated.  You may not post, upload, or transmit any material or links to material that is libelous, defamatory, false, obscene, profane, lewd, indecent, pornographic, violent, hostile, abusive, disruptive, threatening, harassing, discriminatory, unlawful or that constitutes hate speech.  You may not post, upload, or transmit any software or other material containing a virus, Trojan horse, worm, or other harmful code or device.  You may not use the Website to distribute chain letters, mass mailings, or "spam" or to gather e-mail addresses for the purpose of sending "spam" to other users of the Website.  By posting or submitting any idea, you operate under the acknowledgement of the Sponsor's sole and absolute discretion to perform any screening and sorting of ideas that violate any of the aforementioned provision or that might be necessary to ensure the appropriateness, usefulness, and accessibility of the Website..

Liability for Statements

Although you may opt to post comments anonymously, the Sponsor reserves the right to require you to identify yourself for administrative and record-keeping purposes.  The Sponsor, however, will not display any personally-identifying information of posters who elect to remain anonymous to the general public on the Website.  Regardless, however, you assume responsibility for all statements and comments you submit, including liability for harm caused by such statements or materials.  You cannot transfer, sell, or otherwise assign your rights and obligations under this Agreement.

Links to Third-Party Websites

The Sponsor may provide hyperlinks to third-party websites as a convenience to users of the Website.  The Sponsor does not control third-party websites and is not responsible for the contents of any linked, third-party websites or any hyperlinks contained within a linked website.  The Sponsor does not endorse, recommend, or approve any third-party website hyperlinked from the Website and cannot ensure that such sites are error and virus free.  The Sponsor will have no liability to any entity for the content or use of the content available through such hyperlinks.  Nor will the Sponsor be responsible for the terms of use of such sites.  You are therefore encouraged to carefully read the policies of each site you visit.

Privacy Policy

The Sponsor is committed to protecting the personal information that you provide when using the Website.  The Sponsor's privacy policy describes how all user data collected during your visit to the Website, both anonymous data and personally-identifying data, will be treated.  The privacy policy can be accessed at http://solvingdcproblems.org/privacy/.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Sponsor and any of its directors, officers, managers, employees, and agents against all losses, expenses, damages, and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from any violation of this Agreement.  The Sponsor reserves the right to take over the exclusive defense of any claim for which it is entitled to indemnification under this Section.  In such event, you shall provide the Sponsor with any cooperation that may be reasonably requested.

Limitation of Liability

THE SPONSOR MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ANY INFORMATION, MATERIALS, OR GRAPHICS ON THE WEBSITE, ALL OF WHICH IS PROVIDED TO YOU STRICTLY ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.  

Additionally, the Sponsor does not warrant that the functions of the Website will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that the Website or the server that makes it available are free of viruses, worms, "Trojan horses" or other harmful components.  If for any reason the Website is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Website, the Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Website as may be necessary (including without limitation the right to modify these official Terms of Use).  The Sponsor assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, delay, misdelivery or other failure of mail, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries.  The Sponsor 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 electronic transmission to be received by the Sponsor on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to participant's or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials on the Website.

The Sponsor does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the result of the use of any materials on this Website in terms of their correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise.  Your use of the Website is at your own risk.  If you become dissatisfied in any way with this Website or its Terms of Use, your sole and exclusive remedy is to stop using this Website and its services.

Limitation of Remedies

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL THE SPONSOR OR AFFILIATED ENTITIES OR ITS SUCCESSORS OR ASSIGNS, OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS AND REPRESENTATIVES, BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF PROFITS OR HARM TO BUSINESS OR REPUTATION ARISING OUT OF PARTICIPATION IN THE CAMPAIGN, POSTING ON OR ACCESS AND/OR DOWNLOAD OF ANY MATERIALS OR INFORMATION FROM ANY WEBSITE OWNED, OPERATED OR CONTROLLED BY THE SPONSOR OR AFFILIATED ENTITIES, OR ACCEPTANCE OR USAGE OF A PAYMENT, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGE TO PROPERTY AND, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DAMAGES FOR BODILY OR PERSONAL INJURY, EVEN IF THE SPONSOR OR ANY AFFILIATED ENTITIES, THEIR SUCCESSORS OR ASSIGNS, OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, SHAREHOLDERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS OR REPRESENTATIVES, HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR LOSS.  THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF SPONSOR ARISING OUT OF ANY KIND OF CLAIM (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE) SHALL NOT EXCEED $1.00.  THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL BE ENFORCEABLE TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. 

Severability

In the event that one or more provisions of these official Terms of Use are held to be unenforceable under applicable law, such provisions shall automatically be replaced with one that incorporates the original intent of the Sponsor to the maximum extent permitted by law and the remainder of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect.

Jurisdiction; Venue; Choice of Law

This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the United States of America and the District of Columbia.  Any dispute that may arise hereunder, if not settled by the parties directly or through alternate dispute resolution, shall be brought solely in the appropriate state or federal court sitting in the District of Columbia and any individual using the Website consents to the personal jurisdiction and venue thereof.  Your access to the Website as well as the terms and conditions and the agreement they create are thus governed and interpreted by the laws of the District of Columbia without regard for conflict of laws provisions.

If you do not agree with the Terms of Use, please discontinue your use of the Website.  BY CONTINUING TO USE THE "SOLVING DC PROBLEMS" WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO ABIDE BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT.

Contact Information

For a hard copy of these Terms of Use, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Solving DC Problems, Attn:  Terms of Use, 1111 14^th Street NW, Suite 510, Washington, DC 20005-5603.  These official Terms of Use also will remain available through www.solvingDCproblems.org.