Terms Of Use
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE ("AGREEMENT" OR "TERMS OF USE") CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SERVICES OFFERED SPARK MACHINE INNOVATIONS INC. ("COMPANY"). THIS AGREEMENT SETS FORTH THE LEGALLY BINDING TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE AT WWW.THESPARKPROJECT.COM (THE "SITE") AND THE SERVICE OWNED AND OPERATED BY COMPANY (COLLECTIVELY WITH THE SITE, THE "SERVICE"). BY USING THE SITE OR SERVICE IN ANY MANNER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO VISITING OR BROWSING THE SITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT. THIS AGREEMENT APPLIES TO ALL USERS OF THE SITE OR SERVICE, INCLUDING USERS WHO ARE ALSO CONTRIBUTORS OF CONTENT, INFORMATION, AND OTHER MATERIALS OR SERVICES ON THE SITE.
Acceptance of Terms
The Service is offered subject to acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein (the "Terms of Use"), which term also incorporates the Privacy Policy available at http://www.thesparkproject.com/privacy-policy, the Paypal Acceptable Use Policy available at https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full and all other operating rules, policies and procedures that may be published from time to time on the Site by Company, each of which is incorporated by reference and each of which may be updated by Company from time to time without notice to you. In addition, some services offered through the Service may be subject to additional terms and conditions promulgated by Company from time to time; your use of such services is subject to those additional terms and conditions, which are incorporated into these Terms of Use by this reference. The applicable laws in regard to this Terms of Use is the laws rules and regulation of the Republic of the Philippines.
The Service is available only to individuals who are at least 18 years old. You represent and warrant that if you are an individual, you are of legal age to form a binding contract, and that all registration information you submit is accurate and truthful. Company may, in its sole discretion, refuse to offer the Service to any person or entity and change its eligibility criteria at any time. This provision is void where prohibited by law and the right to access the Service is revoked in such jurisdictions.
Modification of Terms of Use
Company reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any of the Terms of Use, or change, suspend, or discontinue the Service (including without limitation, the availability of any feature, database, or content) at any time by posting a notice on the Site or by sending you an email. Company may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Service without notice or liability. It is your responsibility to check the Terms of Use periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to the Terms of Use constitutes acceptance of those changes.
Rules and Conduct
As a condition of use, you promise not to use the Service for any purpose that is prohibited by the Terms of Use. The Service (including, without limitation, any Content or User Submissions (both as defined below)) is provided only for your own personal, non-commercial use (except as allowed by the terms set forth in the Projects: Fund-Raising and Commerce section of the Terms of Use). You are responsible for all of your activity in connection with the Service. For purposes of the Terms of Use, the term "Content" includes, without limitation, any User Submissions, videos, audio clips, written forum comments, information, data, text, photographs, software, scripts, graphics, and interactive features generated, provided, or otherwise made accessible by Company or its partners on or through the Service.
By way of example, and not as a limitation, you shall not (and shall not permit any third party to) either (a) take any action or (b) upload, download, post, submit or otherwise distribute or facilitate distribution of any content on or through the Service, including without limitation any User Submission, that:
§ infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity or other right of any other person or entity or violates any law or contractual duty;
§ you know is false, misleading, untruthful or inaccurate;
§ is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another's privacy, tortious, obscene, offensive, or profane;
§ constitutes unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional material or any junk mail, spam or chain letters;
§ contains software viruses or any other computer codes, files, or programs that are designed or intended to disrupt, damage, limit or interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment or to damage or obtain unauthorized access to any system, data, password or other information of Company or any third party; or
§ impersonates any person or entity, including any employee or representative of Company.
Additionally, you shall not: (i) take any action that imposes or may impose (as determined by Company in its sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on Company’s (or its third party providers’) infrastructure; (ii) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Service or any activities conducted on the Service; (iii) bypass any measures Company may use to prevent or restrict access to the Service (or other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Service); (iv) run Maillist, Listserv, any form of auto-responder or "spam" on the Service; or (v) use manual or automated software, devices, or other processes to "crawl" or "spider" any page of the Site.
You shall not (directly or indirectly): (i) decipher, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to derive any source code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of the Service, except to the limited extent applicable laws specifically prohibit such restriction, (ii) modify, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of any part of the Service, or (iii) copy, rent, lease, distribute, or otherwise transfer any of the rights that you receive hereunder. You shall abide by all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations.
Company does not guarantee that any Content or User Submissions (as defined below) will be made available on the Site or through the Service. Company has no obligation to monitor the Site, Service, Content, or User Submissions. However, Company reserves the right to (i) remove, edit or modify any Content in its sole discretion, including without limitation any User Submissions, from the Site or Service at any time, without notice to you and for any reason (including, but not limited to, upon receipt of claims or allegations from third parties or authorities relating to such Content or if Company is concerned that you may have violated the Terms of Use), or for no reason at all and (ii) to remove or block any User Submissions from the Service.
Registration
You may browse the Site and view Content without registering, but as a condition to using certain aspects of the Service, you may be required to register with Company and select a password and screen name ("User ID"). You shall provide Company with accurate, complete, and updated registration information. Failure to do so shall constitute a breach of the Terms of Use, which may result in immediate termination of your Company account. You shall not (i) select or use as a User ID or domain a name of another person with the intent to impersonate that person or confuse other users that you are another person or entity; (ii) use as a User ID or domain a name subject to any rights of a person other than you without appropriate authorization; or (iii) use as a User ID or domain a name that is otherwise offensive, vulgar or obscene. Company reserves the right to refuse registration of, or cancel a User ID and domain in its sole discretion. You are solely responsible for activity that occurs on your account and shall be responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Company password. You shall never use another user’s account without such other user’s express permission. You will immediately notify Company in writing of any unauthorized use of your account, or other account related security breach of which you are aware.
Projects: Fund-Raising and Commerce
The Site, www.thesparkproject.com ("The Spark Project") is a venue for fund-raising and commerce. The Spark Project allows certain users ("Project Creators") to list projects and raise funds from other users ("Backers"). All funds are collected for Project Creators by Paypal. The Spark Project does not, at any time, receive or hold any money intended for Project Creators.
The Spark Project shall not be liable for your interactions with any organizations and/or individuals found on or through the The Spark Projectservice. This includes, but is not limited to, delivery of goods and services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with listings on The Spark Project. The Spark Project does not oversee the performance or punctuality of projects. The Spark Project is not responsible for any damage or loss incurred as a result of any such dealings. All dealings are solely between you and such organizations and/or individuals. The Spark Project is under no obligation to become involved in disputes between Backers and Project Creators, or between site members and any third party. In the event of a dispute, you release The Spark Project, its officers, employees, agents and successors in rights from claims, damages and demands of every kind, known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and our service.
Though The Spark Project cannot be held liable for the actions of a Project Creator, Project Creators are nevertheless wholly responsible for fulfilling obligations both implied and stated in any project listing they create. The Spark Project reserves the right to cancel a project listing and refund all associated members' payments at any time for any reason. The Spark Project reserves the right to remove a project listing from public listings for any reason.
The Spark Project makes no guarantees regarding the performance or fairness of Paypal. Additionally, because of occasional failures of some credit cards, The Spark Project cannot guarantee the full receipt of the targeted amount.
Project Creators may initiate refunds at their own discretion. The Spark Project is not responsible for issuing refunds for funds that have been collected by Project Creators.
The Spark Project reserves the right to cancel, interrupt or suspend a listing at any time for any reason.
Projects: Permissible Rewards.
The Project Creator agrees to offer a Reward defined by the Project Creator as part of their Campaign in return for Contributions. Services may not be provided as a Reward, unless the Project Creator can feasibly provide such services to any Supporter who makes a Contribution, no matter where located. The Project Creator may generally choose the form and quantity of such Rewards, but agrees to not to offer to provide or provide any of the following ("Prohibited Rewards"):
stocks, shares, bonds, options, futures or an investment interest in any form of entity or property or any financial instrument that may be subject to applicable laws, rules, and regulations of the Republic of the Philippines;
adult oriented products or services, including pornography, sexually explicit materials, or dating services;
alcohol or tobacco products;
drugs, whether legal or illegal, drug paraphernalia, controlled substances and medical devices;
rewards which involve or facilitate gambling;
firearms, weapons and hazardous materials;
cash or cash equivalent instruments, currency or counterfeit currency;
services that involve the collection of uncollectible debt or accounts receivable and billing companies;
credit services, including credit cards, credit counseling, credit repair services, credit protection, and identity theft protection;
financial intermediary and/or money service businesses, including online auctions, Internet malls processing third party payments, credit card aggregators, offshore banking operations, debt financing, money transmitters, check cashing services, currency exchange and dealing, cash advance services, payday lending, escrow services, any service that receives and processes money on behalf of others, and any issuers, redeemers, and sellers of money orders, travellers checks, and stored value products;
donations and charitable solicitations, including charities and non-profit organisations without a valid tax exempt status, charitable solicitations, commercial fundraisers (including commercial co-ventures), or any activity associated with the solicitation of donations;
government documents, IDs, or licenses;
mailing lists or personal information of third parties;
real estate;
rewards which infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, including pirated software and counterfeit goods; or
illegal, inappropriate or offensive items or activities, including any good or service that violates local, national, or international laws or regulations or facilitates or encourages third parties to do so, or that would be generally offensive to others, including Rewards which defame or slander others, Rewards which glorify, incite, or endorse ethnic, racial or religious hatred, strife or intolerance, stolen goods, wildlife products and any other items or activities that in our judgment are illegal, inappropriate or offensive in connection with our services.
The Project Creator shall not list a Campaign that relates to an illegal, illicit or inappropriate project or venture.
Fees and Payments
Joining The Spark Project is free. However, we do charge fees for certain services. All fees are collected for The Spark Project by Paypal. When you use a service that has a fee you have an opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged, which we may change from time to time. Changes to that Policy are effective after we provide you with notice by posting the changes on the Sites. We may choose to temporarily change the fees for our services for promotional events (for example, free listing days) or new services, and such changes are effective when we post the temporary promotional event or new service on the Sites.
You are responsible for paying all fees and applicable taxes associated with your use of the site. In the event a listing is removed from the Service for violating the Terms of Use, all fees paid will be non-refundable, unless in its sole discretion The Spark Project determines that a refund is appropriate.
Third Party Site
The Service may permit you to link to other websites or resources on the Internet, and other websites or resources may contain links to the Site. When you access third party websites, you do so at your own risk. These other websites are not under Company's control, and you acknowledge that Company is not responsible or liable for the content, functions, accuracy, legality, appropriateness or any other aspect of such websites or resources. The inclusion of any such link does not imply endorsement by Company or any association with its operators. You further acknowledge and agree that Company 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 the use of or reliance on any such Content, goods or services available on or through any such website or resource.
Content and License
You agree that the Service contains Content specifically provided by Company or its partners and that such Content is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents, trade secrets or other proprietary rights and laws. You shall abide by and maintain all copyright notices, information, and restrictions contained in any Content accessed through the Service.
Company grants each user of the Site and/or Service a worldwide, non-exclusive, non-sub licensable and non-transferable license to use, modify and reproduce the Content, solely for personal, non-commercial use. Use, reproduction, modification, distribution or storage of any Content for other than personal, non-commercial use is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from Company, or from the copyright holder identified in such Content's copyright notice. You shall not sell, license, rent, or otherwise use or exploit any Content for commercial use or in any way that violates any third party right.
Third Party Intellectual Property — Copyright Notifications
The Spark Project respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. The Spark Project may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, terminate the accounts of users who infringe the intellectual property rights of others. The Spark Project will remove infringing materials according to its own appreciation, if properly notified that content infringes copyright.
If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide The Spark Project’s Copyright Agent with a written notarized (please see applicable Philippine Laws) notification containing at least the following information (please confirm these requirements with your legal counsel, please see all applicable Philippine laws, for more information:
§ an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
§ a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
§ a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the The Spark Project Site, sufficient for The Spark Project to locate the material;
§ your address, telephone number, and email address;
§ a 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; and
§ a statement by you that the above information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
§ Written consent that if details written are false, the Company may file appropriate charges against you. False information contained in the abovementioned notification is a ground for damages of at least One Million Pesos (Php 1,000,000.00).
If you believe that your work has been removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, please provide the The Spark Project’s Copyright Agent with a written notarized (please see applicable Philippines Laws) counter-notification containing at least the following information (please confirm these requirements with your legal counsel or please see all applicable laws, for more information:
§ a physical or electronic signature of the subscriber/user of the Services;
§ 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 access to it was disabled;
§ a statement made under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled; and
§ the subscriber's name, address, telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of the courts of Judicial Region of Bulacan, Philippines.
You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the aforementioned notice requirements, your notification or counter-notification may not be valid and that The Spark Project may ignore such incomplete or inaccurate notices without liability of any kind.
The Company declares to any user that any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing or was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability which shall not be less than One Million Pesos (Php 1,000,000.00).
Our designated copyright agent for notice of alleged copyright infringement is: [feedback@thesparkproject.com]
Intellectual Property Rights — Project Creators
The Service provides you with the ability upload your content to the Site. Company will not have any ownership rights in your content, however, Company needs the following license to perform the Service. You hereby grant to Company the worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, right to (and to allow others acting on its behalf to) (i) use, host, display, and otherwise perform the Service on your behalf (e.g., use, host, stream, transmit, playback, transcode, copy, display, feature, market, sell, distribute and otherwise exploit ("Host") the content, along with all associated copyrightable works or metadata, including without limitation photographs, graphics, and descriptive text ("Artworks") in connection with the Service); (ii) (and to allow other users to) stream, transmit, playback, download, display, feature, distribute, collect, and otherwise use the content and Artworks; and (iii) use and publish, and to permit others to use and publish, the name(s), trademarks, likenesses, and personal and biographical materials of you and the members of your group, in connection with the provision of the Service.
You agree to pay all royalties and other amounts owed to any person or entity due to your submission of your content to the Service or the Company’s Hosting of the content as contemplated by these Terms of Use.
To enable Company to Host your content pursuant to the above provisions, you hereby grant to Company the worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, sub licensable and transferable right to use, reproduce, copy, and display your trademarks, service marks, slogans, logos or similar proprietary rights (collectively, the "Trademarks") solely in connection with the Service.
Intellectual Property Rights — Users
The Service may provide users with the ability to add, create, upload, submit, distribute, collect, or post ("Submitting" or "Submission") content, videos, audio clips, written forum comments, data, text, photographs, software, scripts, graphics, or other information to the Site (collectively, the "User Submissions"). By Submitting User Submissions on the Site or otherwise through the Service, you:
§ acknowledge that by Submitting any User Submission to the Site, you are publishing that User Submission, and that you may be identified publicly by your User ID in association with any such User Submission;
§ by Submitting any User Submissions through the Site or the Service, you hereby do and shall grant Company a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid, sub licensable and transferable license to use, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, perform, and otherwise fully exploit the User Submissions in connection with the Site, the Service and Company’s (and its successors and assigns’) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Site (and derivative works thereof) or the Service in any media formats and through any media channels (including, without limitation, third party websites). You also hereby do and shall grant each user of the Site and/or the Service a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Site and the Service, and to use, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions solely for personal, non-commercial use. For clarity, the foregoing license grant to Company does not affect your other ownership or license rights in your User Submission(s), including the right to grant additional licenses to the material in your User Submission(s), unless otherwise agreed in writing;
§ represent and warrant, and can demonstrate to Company’s full satisfaction upon request that you (i) own or otherwise control all rights to all content in your User Submissions, or that the content in such User Submissions is in the public domain, (ii) you have full authority to act on behalf of any and all owners of any right, title or interest in and to any content in your User Submissions to use such content as contemplated by these Terms of Use and to grant the license rights set forth above, (iii) you have the permission to use the name and likeness of each identifiable individual person and to use such individual’s identifying or personal information as contemplated by these Terms of Use; and (iv) you are authorized to grant all of the aforementioned rights to the User Submissions to Company and all users of the Service;
§ you agree to pay all royalties and other amounts owed to any person or entity due to your Submission of any User Submissions to the Service;
§ that the use or other exploitation of such User Submissions by Company and use or other exploitation by users of the Site and Service as contemplated by this Agreement will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party, including without limitation any privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights; and
§ understand that Company shall have the right to delete, edit, modify, reformat, excerpt, or translate any materials, content or information submitted by you; and that all information publicly posted or privately transmitted through the Site is the sole responsibility of the person from which such content originated and that Company will not be liable for any errors or omissions in any content; and that Company cannot guarantee the identity of any other users with whom you may interact in the course of using the Service.
Company does not endorse and has no control over any User Submission. Company cannot guarantee the authenticity of any data which users may provide about themselves. You acknowledge that all Content accessed by you using the Service is at your own risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage or loss to any party resulting therefrom.
Termination
Company may terminate your access to all or any part of the Service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately, which may result in the forfeiture and destruction of all information associated with your membership. If you wish to terminate your account, you may do so by following the instructions on the Site. Any fees paid hereunder are non-refundable. All provisions of the Terms of Use which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
Warranty Disclaimer
Company has no special relationship with or fiduciary duty to you. You acknowledge that Company has no control over, and no duty to take any action regarding: which users gains access to the Site; what Content you access via the Site; what effects the Content may have on you; how you may interpret or use the Content; or what actions you may take as a result of having been exposed to the Content. You release Company from all liability for you having acquired or not acquired Content through the Site. The Site may contain, or direct you to websites containing, information that some people may find offensive or inappropriate. Company makes no representations concerning any Content contained in or accessed through the Site, and Company will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality or decency of material contained in or accessed through the Site or the Service.
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" AND IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY WARRANTIES IMPLIED BY ANY COURSE OF PERFORMANCE OR USAGE OF TRADE, ALL OF WHICH ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. COMPANY, AND ITS DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS, PARTNERS AND CONTENT PROVIDERS DO NOT WARRANT THAT: (A) THE SERVICE WILL BE SECURE OR AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION; (B) ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED; (C) ANY CONTENT OR SOFTWARE AVAILABLE AT OR THROUGH THE SERVICE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS; OR (D) THE RESULTS OF USING THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
COMPANY MAKES NO GUARANTY OF CONFIDENTIALITY OR PRIVACY OF ANY COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TRANSMITTED ON THE SITE OR ANY WEBSITE LINKED TO THE SITE. Company will not be liable for the privacy of email addresses, registration and identification information, disk space, communications, confidential or trade-secret information, or any other Content stored on Company’s equipment, transmitted over networks accessed by the Site, or otherwise connected with your use of the Service.
Indemnification
You shall defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Company, its affiliates and each of its, and its affiliates employees, contractors, directors, suppliers and representatives from all liabilities, claims, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, that arise from or relate to your use or misuse of, or access to, the Site, Service, Content or otherwise from your User Submissions, violation of the Terms of Use, or infringement by you, or any third party using the your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity. Company reserves the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will assist and cooperate with Company. Any litigation regarding any matters within this "Terms of Use" shall be litigated in the applicable court of the Judicial Region of Bulacan, Republic of the Philippines.