qtCritique Terms of Use
2023-10-06
The following document outlines the terms of use of the qtCritique.com website. Before using any of the qtCritique.com services, you are required to read, understand, and agree to these terms. Registering for an account at qtCritique.com, viewing and participating in activities at qtCritique.com imply you have read and agree with the terms of use stated here.
Description of Service
qtCritique.com (“qtCritique”, “we”, “us” or “our”) provides a platform via its website (the “Site”) to a community of registered users (“users” or “you”) to engage in a variety of activities, including to upload and display writing samples, give and receive critiques of those writing samples, share comments, opinions, and ideas. The foregoing list of Services is not all-inclusive and additional Services may be offered by us from time to time. The following are the terms of use (“Terms”) for using the Site and the Services.
Acceptance of Terms
BY USING THE SERVICES, YOU ARE AGREEING, ON BEHALF OF YOURSELF AND THOSE YOU REPRESENT, TO COMPLY WITH AND BE LEGALLY BOUND BY THESE TERMS AS WELL AS OUR PRIVACY POLICY AND ALL APPLICABLE LAWS. IF YOU, FOR YOURSELF OR ON BEHALF OF THOSE YOU REPRESENT, DO NOT AGREE TO ANY PROVISION OF THESE TERMS, YOU MUST, FOR YOURSELF AND ON BEHALF ANY SUCH PERSON(S), DISCONTINUE THE REGISTRATION PROCESS, DISCONTINUE YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, AND, IF YOU ARE ALREADY REGISTERED, CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT.
Copyrights
Ownership: You retain ownership of the writing samples you upload and share through the Service.
By uploading and sharing writing samples, you grant qtCritique the non-exclusive right to provide your writing sample to other site members for the purpose of critiquing and providing feedback of that sample. This critiquing will only take place on the qtCritique site and only as the author permits. No other distribution or sharing of your writing samples will be conducted or allowed.
Restrictions: You agree not to reproduce, modify, distribute, or exploit any content on the Service without obtaining explicit permission from the respective rights holder.
qtCritique, or any of its representatives, shall not be held liable for any copyright infringement or intellectual property infringements perpetrated by any other user of qtCritique, which includes, but is not limited to, administrators and/or moderators of individual critique groups utilizing the qtCritique service.
Copyright Complaints
qtCritique reserves the right to remove any Content that allegedly infringes another person's copyright. In appropriate circumstances, qtCritique will terminate the accounts of users who infringe copyright. Notices to qtCritique regarding any alleged copyright infringement should be directed to qtCritique at qtCritique/help/contact
Rules of Individual Critique Groups
Each individual critique group utilizing qtCritique may have their own rules and regulations pertaining to how their groups are to be governed and conducted. Administrators of these groups may add additional rules and restrictions as long as they do not counter those rules and restrictions posted here. Group administrators take full responsibility for their additional rules, and they alone are responsible for enforcing their rules. qtCritique, its representatives and staff and employees will not enforce individual group rules, but leave that solely up to the groups themselves. qtCritique, its representatives and staff and employees will not be held responsible for any loss, injury, claim, liability, or damage of any kind resulting from any group's rules, regulations or practices, or lack of rules, regulations or practices.
Modification of Terms
qtCritique reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace the Terms at any time. If the alterations constitute a material change to the Terms, qtCritique will notify you by posting an announcement on the Site. What constitutes a material change will be determined at qtCritique's sole discretion. You are responsible for reviewing and becoming familiar with any such modifications. Using any Service constitutes your acceptance of the Terms as modified.
In addition, when using particular features of the Services, you are subject to any posted guidelines, terms or rules applicable to such Services.
Your access to and use of the Site and our Services may be interrupted from time to time as a result of equipment malfunction, updating, maintenance or repair of the Site or any other reason within or outside of our control. qtCritique reserves the right to suspend or discontinue the availability of the Site, any Service, and to remove any writing samples at any time at its sole discretion and without prior notice. qtCritique may also impose limits on certain features and Services or restrict your access to parts of or all of the Site and the Services without notice or liability. The Site should not be used or relied upon for storage of your writing samples and you are directed to retain your own copies of all writing samples posted on the Site.
Registration
As a condition to using the Services, you are required to open an account with qtCritique, select a password, and to provide registration information including a valid email address. The registration information you provide must be accurate, complete, and current at all times. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of the Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your access to the Services, by terminating your account. Any personal information that you provide to qtCritique is governed by the qtCritique Privacy Policy.
You may not use a username of another person or entity or that is not lawfully available for use, a name or trademark that is subject to any rights of another person or entity other than you without appropriate authorization, or a name that is otherwise offensive, vulgar, or obscene.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and are solely responsible for all activities resulting from the use of your password and conducted through your qtCritique account.
Services are available to authorized representatives of legal entities and to individuals who are either (i) at least 18 years old, or (ii) at least 14 years old, and who are authorized to access the Site by a parent or legal guardian. If you have authorized a minor to use the Site, you are responsible for the online conduct of such minor, and the consequences of any misuse of the Site by the minor. Parents and legal guardians are warned that the policies of some individual critique groups utilizing qtCritique may display content that may not be suitable for minors.
User Conduct
All writing posted or otherwise submitted to the Site, and any comments, or other communications is the sole responsibility of the account holder from which such Communications originate. You acknowledge and agree that you, and not qtCritique, are entirely responsible for all Content that you post, or otherwise submit to the Site, including via messages exchanged through qtCritique's messenger service or forum. qtCritique does not control user submitted Content and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity, or quality of such Content. You understand that by using the Site, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, or objectionable.
As a condition of use, you promise to abide by these terms of use and not to use the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms, or any other purpose not reasonably intended by qtCritique. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree not to use the Services:
1) To abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate, or intimidate any person;
2) To post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, any Content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, offensive, profane, or that infringes any copyright or other right of any person;
3) To communicate with qtCritique representatives or other users in an abusive or offensive manner;
4) For any purpose (including posting or viewing Content) that is not permitted under the laws of the jurisdiction where you use the Services;
5) To post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, any Communication designed or intended to obtain password, account, or private information from any qtCritique user;
6) To create or transmit unwanted ‘spam' to any person or any URL;
7) To post copyrighted Content that does not belong to you;
8) You agree not to use any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means to access the Site for any purpose without our express written permission. Additionally, you agree that you will not: (i) take any action that imposes, or may impose in our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure; (ii) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site or any activities conducted on the Site; or (iii) bypass any measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Site;
9) To artificially inflate or alter scores, ratings, comments, or any other Service or, for participating in any other organized effort that in any way artificially alters the results of Services;
10) To advertise to, or solicit, any user to buy or sell any third party products or services, or to use any information obtained from the Services in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any user without their prior explicit consent;
11) To sell, assign, or otherwise transfer your Profile or account or account points.
To report a suspected abuse of the Site or a breach of the Terms, please send written notice to qtCritique at qtCritique/help/contact
You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Site. qtCritique reserves the right, but has no obligation, to review disputes between you and other users. This includes the right to review messages exchanged through qtCritique's messenger service, critqiues, or forums, based on any reports that qtCritique receives alleging the violation of these Terms through the use of qtCritique's messenger service, critiques, or forums, including without limitation, reports regarding alleged harassment, indecency, and offensive messages.
If the Services or Site are used in a manner that violates the Terms in any way, qtCritique may at its sole discretion, but is not required to, suspend or terminate your account, disable your access to the Site and/or take any steps that it deems appropriate to address the situation.
Writing Fake Critiques
This site is all about sharing critiques with fellow writers. When someone writes fake critiques just to gain points, it undermines the foundation and integrity of the system, and therefore can not be allowed.
When it is determined that a member is writing fake critiques in this way, that member's ability to post submissions will be revoked and all previously awarded points will be confiscated. These members can still write critiques, and can have their posting permissions reinstated when they demonstrate they can write critiques in good standing as determined by qtCritique staff.
Members who continue to write fake critiques after being restricted from posting submissions will also be restricted from writing critiques.
A.I. Generated Critiques
Using any A.I. tools to generate all or part of a critique is not permitted, and will result in the immediate banning of the perpetrator.
File Storage Policy
qtCritique is not a file storage service, and therefore does not maintain large storage capabilities. qtCritique takes reasonable measures to store and maintain the writing samples you upload to the Service. However, you acknowledge that qtCritique is not responsible for any loss, deletion, or corruption of your writing samples and recommends that you keep a backup of your data.
In the event of account termination, qtCritique may delete your account and associated data. It is your responsibility to retrieve and backup your writing samples before terminating your account.
Links
The Services may provide, or third parties may provide, links to other sites or resources. Because qtCritique has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that qtCritique is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that qtCritique shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods, or services available on or through any such site or resource.
Release and Indemnity
You hereby expressly and irrevocably release and forever discharge qtCritique, its representatives and staff and employees of and from any and all actions, causes of action, suits, proceedings, liability, debts, judgments, claims, and demands whatsoever in law or equity which you ever had, now have, or hereafter can, shall or may have, for or by reason of, or arising directly or indirectly out of your use of the Site and the Services.
You hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless qtCritique, its representatives and staff and employees from and against all claims, losses, expenses, damages and costs (including, but not limited to, direct, incidental, consequential, exemplary, and indirect damages), and reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from or arising out of (i) a breach of these Terms, (ii) Content posted on the Site, (iii) the use of the Services, by you or any person using your account or qtCritique Username and password, (iv) the licensing, distribution, or use of your writing, or (v) any violation of any rights of a third party. qtCritique reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you.
Trademarks
qtCritique, qtCritique, and other qtCritique graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and service names are trademarks, or trade dress of qtCritique. qtCritique's trademarks and trade dress may not be used in connection with any product or service without the prior written consent of qtCritique.
Termination
qtCritique may terminate or suspend any and all Services and/or your qtCritique account immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if you breach the Terms. Upon termination of your account, your right to use the Services will immediately cease. If you wish to terminate your qtCritique account, you must do so using the provided button on your account settings page, which will result in the removal of your writing from the Site pursuant to these Terms. All provisions of the Terms which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership and rights provisions and warranties, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
Upon termination (by qtCritique or you), qtCritique will remove your submitted writing.
It is your responsibility to retain copies of your writing because qtCritique will automatically remove and delete all writing from your account prior to termination.
Warranty Disclaimer
YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SITE AND THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS, AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. qtCritique EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, TITLE, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. qtCritique DISCLAIMS ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LOSS, INJURY, CLAIM, LIABILITY, OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND RESULTING FROM, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO (A) ANY ERRORS IN OR OMISSIONS FROM THIS SITE AND THE SERVICES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, TECHNICAL INACCURACIES AND TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS, (B) THIRD PARTY COMMUNICATIONS, (C) ANY THIRD PARTY WEBSITES OR CONTENT DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY ACCESSED THROUGH LINKS IN THE SITE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS, (D) THE UNAVAILABILITY OF ALL OR ANY PART OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICES, (E) YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICES, OR (F) YOUR USE OF ANY EQUIPMENT OR SOFTWARE IN CONNECTION WITH THE SITE OR THE SERVICES.
Limitation of Liability
EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE PROVIDED BY LAW, NEITHER qtCritique NOR ANY OF ITS REPRESENTATIVES, STAFF OR EMPLOYEES SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS, INJURY, CLAIM, LIABILITY, OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND RESULTING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SITE, ANY FACTS OR OPINIONS APPEARING THEREON, OR THE SERVICES. qtCritique OR ANY OF ITS REPRESENTATIVES, STAFF OR EMPLOYEES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ATTORNEYS' FEES) IN ANY WAY DUE TO, RESULTING FROM, OR ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE OR SERVICES.