Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy

Loudbus.com Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy

July 17, 2007

Loudbus.com is a social networking service that allows Members to create unique personal profiles online in order to find and communicate with old and new friends. The services offered by Loudbus.com ("Loudbus.com" or "we") include the Loudbus.com website (the "Loudbus Website"), the Loudbus.com Internet messaging service, and any other features, content, or applications offered from time to time by Loudbus.com in connection with the Loudbus Website (collectively, the "Loudbus Services"). The Loudbus Services are hosted in the U.S.

This Terms of Use Agreement ("Agreement") sets forth the legally binding terms for your use of the Loudbus Services. By using the Loudbus Services, you agree to be bound by this Agreement, whether you are a "Visitor" (which means that you simply browse the Loudbus Website) or you are a "Member" (which means that you have registered with Loudbus.com). The term "User" refers to a Visitor or a Member. You are authorized to use the Loudbus Services (regardless of whether your access or use is intended) only 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 Loudbus Website and discontinue use of the Loudbus Services immediately. If you wish to become a Member, communicate with other Members and make use of the Loudbus Services, you must read this Agreement and indicate your acceptance during the Registration process.

This Agreement includes Loudbus.com's policy for acceptable use of the Loudbus Services and Content posted on the Loudbus Website, your rights, obligations and restrictions regarding your use of the Loudbus Services and Loudbus.com's Privacy Policy. In order to participate in certain Loudbus 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 Loudbus Services in which you choose to participate, those additional terms are hereby incorporated into this Agreement.

Loudbus.com may modify this Agreement from time to time and such modification shall be effective upon posting by Loudbus.com on the Loudbus Website. You agree to be bound to any changes to this Agreement when you use the Loudbus Services 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 Loudbus.com and that you provide to other Users. Your Loudbus.com profile may not include the following items: telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, and any photographs containing nudity, or obscene, lewd, excessively violent, harassing, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable subject matter. Despite this prohibition, information provided by other Loudbus.com Members (for instance, in their Profile) may contain inaccurate, inappropriate, offensive or sexually explicit material, products or services, and Loudbus.com assumes no responsibility or liability for this material. If you become aware of misuse of the Loudbus Services by any person, please contact Loudbus or click on the "Report Inappropriate Content" link at the bottom of any Loudbus.com page.

Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus Services at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice, and without liability.  Loudbus expressly reserves the right to remove your profile and/or restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to any part of Loudbus Services if Loudbus determines, in its sole discretion, that you pose a threat to Loudbus and/or its Users.

1.         Eligibility. Use of and Membership in the Loudbus Services is void where prohibited. By using the Loudbus Services, 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 14 years of age or older; and (d) your use of the Loudbus Services 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 14 years of age.

2.         Term. This Agreement shall remain in full force and effect while you use the Loudbus Services or are a Member. You may terminate your Membership at any time, for any reason, by following the instructions on the Member's Account Settings page. Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus.com reserves the right to charge for the Loudbus Services and to change its fees from time to time in its discretion. If Loudbus.com terminates your Membership because you have breached the Agreement, you shall not be entitled to the refund of any unused portion of subscription 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 Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus Services are for the personal use of Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by Loudbus.com. Illegal and/or unauthorized use of the Loudbus Services, 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 Loudbus 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 Loudbus Services.

6.         Proprietary Rights in Content on Loudbus.com.

6.1         Loudbus.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you post to the Loudbus Services. After posting your Content to the Loudbus Services, 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 Loudbus Services, you hereby grant to Loudbus.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the Loudbus Services.

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

6.2         You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Loudbus Services 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 Loudbus Services 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 Loudbus Services.

6.3         The Loudbus Services contain Content of Loudbus.com ("Loudbus.com Content"). Loudbus.com Content is protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other laws, and Loudbus.com owns and retains all rights in the Loudbus.com Content and the Loudbus Services. Loudbus.com hereby grants you a limited, revocable, nonsublicensable license to reproduce and display the Loudbus.com Content (excluding any software code) solely for your personal use in connection with viewing the Loudbus Website and using the Loudbus Services.

6.4         The Loudbus Services contain Content of Users and other Loudbus.com licensors. Except for Content posted by you, you may not copy, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or sell any Content appearing on or through the Loudbus Services.

7.         Content Posted.

7.1         Loudbus.com may delete any Content that in the sole judgment of Loudbus.com violates this Agreement or which may be offensive, illegal or violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of any person. Loudbus.com assumes no responsibility for monitoring the Loudbus Services for inappropriate Content or conduct. If at any time Loudbus.com chooses, in its sole discretion, to monitor the Loudbus Services, Loudbus.com nonetheless assumes 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.

7.2         You are solely responsible for the Content that you post on or through any of the Loudbus Services, and any material or information that you transmit to other Members and for your interactions with other Users. Loudbus.com does not endorse and has no control over the Content. Content is not necessarily reviewed by Loudbus.com prior to posting and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Loudbus.com. Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus Services. Loudbus.com reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in Loudbus.com's sole discretion, violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending communication from the Loudbus Services and terminating the Membership of such violators. Prohibited Content includes, but is not limited to Content that, in the sole discretion of Loudbus.com:

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.         provides any telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, URLs or email addresses;

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

8.         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;

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

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

11.       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;

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

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

14.       includes a photograph of another person that you have posted without that person's consent; or

15.       for band and filmmaker profiles, uses sexually suggestive imagery or any other unfair, misleading or deceptive Content intended to draw traffic to the profile.

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

16.       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;

17.       advertising to, or solicitation of, any Member to buy or sell any products or services through the Loudbus 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 Loudbus Services 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, Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus Services, you acknowledge that you will have caused substantial harm to Loudbus.com, but that the amount of such harm would be extremely difficult to ascertain. As a reasonable estimation of such harm, you agree to pay Loudbus.com $50 for each such unsolicited email or other unsolicited communication you send through the Loudbus Services;

18.       covering or obscuring the banner advertisements on your personal profile page, or any Loudbus.com page via HTML/CSS or any other means;

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

20.       interfering with, disrupting, or creating an undue burden on the Loudbus Services or the networks or services connected to the Loudbus Services;

21.       attempting to impersonate another Member or person;

22.       for band profiles, copying the code for your Loudbus Player and embedding it into other profiles or asking other Members to embed it into their profiles;

23.       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;

24.       selling or otherwise transferring your profile;

25.       using any information obtained from the Loudbus Services in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person;

26.       displaying an advertisement on your profile, or accepting payment or anything of value from a third person in exchange for your performing any commercial activity on or through the Loudbus Services on behalf of that person, such as placing commercial content on your profile, posting blogs or bulletins with a commercial purpose, selecting a profile with a commercial purpose as one of your "Top 8" friends, or sending private messages with a commercial purpose; or

27.       using the Loudbus 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 Loudbus.com to terminate Membership privileges of any Member who repeatedly infringes the copyright rights of others upon receipt of proper notification to Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus Services 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 Loudbus Services; (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.

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

11.       Privacy. Use of the Loudbus Services is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which appears below and is incorporated into this Agreement by this reference.

12.       Disclaimers. Loudbus.com is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate Content posted on the Loudbus Website or in connection with the Loudbus Services, whether caused by Users of the Loudbus Services or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Loudbus Services. Profiles created and posted by Members on the Loudbus Website may contain links to other websites. Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus.com. Inclusion of any linked website on the Loudbus Services does not imply approval or endorsement of the linked website by Loudbus.com. When you access these third-party sites, you do so at your own risk. Loudbus.com takes no responsibility for third party advertisements which are posted on this Loudbus Website or through the Loudbus Services, nor does it take any responsibility for the goods or services provided by its advertisers. Loudbus.com is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any User of the Loudbus Services. Loudbus.com 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. Loudbus.com 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 Loudbus Services 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 the Loudbus Services. Under no circumstances shall Loudbus.com be responsible for any loss or damage, including personal injury or death, resulting from use of the Loudbus Services, attendance at a Loudbus.com event, from any Content posted on or through the Loudbus Services, or from the conduct of any Users of the Loudbus Services, whether online or offline. The Loudbus Services are provided "AS-IS" and as available and Loudbus.com expressly disclaims any warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Loudbus.com cannot guarantee and does not promise any specific results from use of the Loudbus Services.

13.       Limitation on Liability. IN NO EVENT SHALL LOUDBUS.COM 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 LOUDBUS.COM HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, LOUDBUS.COM'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 LOUDBUS.COM FOR THE LOUDBUS SERVICES DURING THE TERM OF MEMBERSHIP.

14.       U.S. Export Controls. Software available in connection with the Loudbus Services (the "Software") is further subject to United States export controls. No Software may be downloaded from the Loudbus Services 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 Loudbus Services, you agree that the dispute shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massacusetts, 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 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, City of Boston. Either Loudbus.com or you may demand that any dispute between Loudbus.com and you about or involving the Loudbus Services must be settled by arbitration utilizing the dispute resolution procedures of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, provided that the foregoing shall not prevent Loudbus.com from seeking injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.

16.       Indemnity. You agree to indemnify and hold Loudbus.com, 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 Loudbus Services 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 the Loudbus Website or through the Loudbus Services causes Loudbus.com to be liable to another.

17.       Other. This Agreement is accepted upon your use of the Loudbus Website or any of the Loudbus Services and is further affirmed by you becoming a Member. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and Loudbus.com regarding the use of the Loudbus Services. The failure of Loudbus.com 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. Loudbus.com is a trademark of Loudbus, Inc. 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.


Privacy Policy

We at Loudbus are committed to ensuring the privacy of our users. This Privacy Policy ("Policy") describes how personal information is collected from users of the Loudbus website located at http://Loudbus.com ("Site"), and how that information is used and disclosed. By using our Site, you consent to the terms of this Policy.

1.     Personal Information. This Policy covers our treatment of personal information that we gather when you are on the Site and when you use our services. This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that we do not own or control, or to individuals that we do not employ or manage.
We only collect personal information that is relevant to the purpose of our website. We do not process this information in a way that is incompatible with the purpose for which it has been collected or subsequently authorized by you. We collect the following types of information from our users:

1.1 Information You Provide to Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website, email to us, or provide to us in any other way. This may include name and email address. You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but then you may not be able to take advantage of many of our features. The personal information you provide is used for such purposes as:

 

Registration: In order for you to access many of our features, such as posting content, commenting, and voting on posts, you must complete a registration form. As part of this registration form, we require your email address. We may send you emails from time to time updating you on news and information regarding Loudbus. Each email will contain a link enabling you to unsubscribe from future emails. As content on Loudbus is not directed at children under the age of 14, you must also provide your accurate date of birth.

Email: In order to serve you better, we may keep a record of any emails you send to us. These emails will only be accessed by employees who need this information to better serve you.

 

Email Newsletters: When you register for Loudbus, you agree to receive periodic email newsletters from Loudbus, as well as information about your account. Each of these emails will contain information on how to opt out of future emails.

1.2 Automatic Information: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. Loudbus automatically receives and records certain "traffic data" on our server logs from your browser including your IP address, Loudbus cookie information, and the page you requested. We use this traffic data to help diagnose problems with its servers, analyze trends and administer the website.

2.     Social sharing of data. We allow other users to browse information that you have posted on your profile page. This information is made available by clicking your username. We may choose to post this data on other site features in the future.

3.     API. We will allow 3rd parties access to all Loudbus data this is already publicly available through Loudbus. We will keep passwords, identification numbers, and other non-publicly available information private.
Many companies offer programs that help you to visit websites anonymously. While we will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these programs are available.

4.     Cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer.s hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and tell us how and when pages in our website are visited and by how many people. Loudbus cookies do not collect personal information, and we do not combine information collected through cookies with other personal information to tell us who you are or what your screen name or email address is.
Some of our business partners may use cookies on our website (for example, advertisers). However, we have no access to or control over these cookies.

5.     Sharing Information with Third Parties. Information about our users is an integral part of our business. We neither rent nor sell your personal information to anyone. We share your personal information only as described below.

 

5.1 Business Transfers: In some cases, we may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, user information is typically one of the business assets that is transferred. Moreover, if Loudbus, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred.

 

5.2 Protection of Loudbus and Others: We may release personal information when we believe in good faith that release is necessary to comply with that law; enforce or apply our conditions of use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Loudbus, our employees, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

 

5.3 With Your Consent: Except as set forth above, you will be notified when your personal information may be shared with third parties or used for a purpose incompatible with the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, and you will be able to prevent the sharing of this information by opting out.

6.     Securing Your Personal Information. Your Loudbus account information is protected by a password for your privacy and security. You need to work to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer by logging off once you have finished using a shared computer.

Only employees who need personal information to perform a specific job (for example, a customer service representative) are granted access to it.

7.     Accessing Your Personal Information. You can access your personal information on the Site and correct, amend, update, or delete information that you wish to remove or is inaccurate. Upon logging in visit your user profile page located at: http://loudbus.com/index.php?
option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile.

8.     Your Choices Regarding Your Information. As stated previously, you can always opt not to disclose information, but then you may be unable to use certain features on the Site, such as posting content and receiving payment.
You are able to add or update certain information on pages, such as those listed in the "Personal Information" section above. When you update information, however, we often maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records.

9.     Children on Loudbus. You must be 14 years and older to register to use the Loudbus Site. As a result, we do not specifically collect information about children.

10.     Changes in Services. As we grow, we plan to offer more services, which may result in additions to this Policy. Please review this policy frequently to see how these additions and changes will affect our Policy. Your continued use of the Site after any change signals your consent to the new terms of the Policy. If, at any time, you cannot accept any provision in this Policy, you may discontinue your use of our Site.

11. Conditions of Use. If you decide to visit the Loudbus Site, your visit and any possible dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms and Conditions, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of Commonwealth of Massachusetts law.


Please contact us at: Contact Loudbus with any questions regarding this Agreement.

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