Terms of Service

Thanks for using Socratic! Please read these terms carefully. We've written simplified summaries on the right to make the legal stuff easier to understand.

Introduction
Short version

Please read these terms of service (collectively with Socratic’s Privacy Policy and DMCA Copyright Policy, the “Terms of Service”) fully and carefully before using socratic.org (the “Site”), any mobile applications provided by us (the “Applications”), or any other services, features, or content offered by Socratic, Inc. (“Socratic”, “we”, “us” or “our”) (collectively, with the Site and the Applications, the “Services”). These Terms of Service set forth the legally binding terms and conditions for your use of the Services. By using our Services, you further agree that we can use your data in accordance with the policies set forth in these Terms of Service, including the Privacy Policy.

Please read the terms on this page as well our Privacy Policy and DMCA Copyright policy before using our Services, since by using the Services you are agreeing that we can use your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and to the conditions on your use of the Services in these Terms of Service.

1. Acceptance of Terms of Service
Short version

a. By using the Services in any manner, including but not limited to visiting or browsing the Site or downloading the Applications, you agree to these Terms of Service and all other operating rules, policies and procedures that may be published from time to time on the Site or in Applications by us, each of which is incorporated into these Terms of Service by this reference.

b. Certain of the Services may be subject to additional terms and conditions specified to you by us from time to time; and your use of such Services is subject to those additional terms and conditions, which are incorporated into these Terms of Service by this reference.

c. These Terms of Service apply to all users of the Services, including, without limitation, users who are contributors of content, information, and other materials or services.

By using Socratic in any way, you are agreeing to all of these Terms of Service. Don’t use Socratic if you don’t agree!

2. Eligibility
Short version

No one under age 16 may, under any circumstances or for any reason, use the Services. We may, in our sole discretion, refuse to offer the Services to any person or entity and change their eligibility criteria at any time. You are solely responsible for ensuring that your use of the Services is in compliance with these Terms of Service and all laws, rules and regulations applicable to you and the right to access the Services is revoked where these Terms of Service or use of the Services is prohibited or to the extent offering, sale or provision of the Services conflicts with any applicable law, rule or regulation. Further, the Services are offered only for your use, and not for the use or benefit of any third party. If you are using the Services on behalf of an entity, then “you” means cumulatively you and the entity and you represent and warrant that you are authorized to bind the entity to these Terms of Service and agree to these Terms of Services on the entity’s behalf.

You have to be at least 16 years old to use Socratic. Otherwise, don’t use it.

3. Content
Short version

a. Definition
For purposes of these Terms of Service, the term “Content” includes, without limitation, information, data, text, photographs, videos, audio clips, written posts and comments, software, scripts, graphics, and interactive features generated, provided, or otherwise made accessible on or through the Services. For the purposes of this Agreement, “Content” also includes all User Content (as defined below). “Content” does not include third party content you access through your use of the Services, such as if you click a link to a third party website from the Services (see Section 6 below on Third Party Services).

 

b. User Content
All Content added, created, uploaded, submitted, distributed, or posted to the Services by users (collectively “User Content”), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, is the sole responsibility of the person who originated such User Content. You represent that all User Content provided by you is accurate to your knowledge, complete, up-to-date, and in compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations. You acknowledge that all Content, including, without limitation, User Content, accessed by you using the Services is at your own risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage or loss to you or any other party resulting therefrom. We do not guarantee that any Content you access on or through the Services is or will continue to be accurate.


We hope the Content of the Services is helpful, but we can’t be responsible for your use of it or any Content we did not generate.

c. Notices and Restrictions
The Services may contain Content specifically provided by us, our partners or our users and 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 Services.

 

d. Third Party Content
You acknowledge and agree that, to the extent you incorporate any third party content into any User Content you add, create, upload, submit, distribute or post to the Services, you have the right to add, create, upload, submit, distribute, or post such third party content to the Services.


Only submit someone else’s content if you have their permission.

e. Use License
Subject to these Terms of Service, we grant you a license to the Content under the Creative Commons License linked here (“Creative Commons License”). Please carefully read the terms of such license. You shall not use or exploit any Content for commercial purposes.


All the Content on Socratic is under the Creative Commons License. Basically, you can share the Content however you want, except you have to credit and link where you got it from and say if you changed it. You also can’t sell or make money off the Content and if you adapt the Content then you have to give anyone else who uses it the same rights you have.

f. License Grant
By submitting User Content through the Services, you hereby grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, fully paid, sublicensable and transferable license to use, edit, modify, truncate, aggregate, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, perform, and otherwise fully exploit the User Content in connection with the Services and our (and our successors’ and assigns’) businesses, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Services (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels (including, without limitation, third party websites and feeds), and including, but not limited to, after your termination of your use of the Services. You also hereby grant each user of the Services a non-exclusive, perpetual license to access your User Content through the Services, and to use, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Content, including, but not limited to, after your termination of your use of the Services. For clarity, the foregoing license grants to us and our users do not affect your other ownership or license rights in your User Content, including, but not limited to, the right to grant additional licenses to your User Content, unless otherwise agreed in writing. You represent and warrant that you have all rights to grant such licenses to us without infringement or violation of any third party rights, including without limitation, any privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights.


If you submit anything to the Services, then you give us permanent rights to use it however we would like, including, but not limited to, providing that information to third parties.

g. Availability of Content
We do not guarantee that any Content will be made available through the Services. We reserve the right to, but do not have any obligation to, (i) remove, edit or modify any Content in our sole discretion, 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 we are concerned that you may have violated these Terms of Service), or for no reason at all and (ii) to remove or block any Content from the Services.


We don’t guarantee that any content on our Services will stay there. We can change the content or remove it at any time.

4. Rules of Conduct
Short version

a. As a condition of use, you promise not to use the Services for any purpose that is prohibited by these Terms of Service. You are responsible for all of your activity in connection with the Services.

b. 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 Content, that:

  1. 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 (see our DMCA Copyright Policy);
  2. you know is false, misleading, untruthful or inaccurate;
  3. is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another's privacy, tortious, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, offensive, profane, contains or depicts nudity, contains or depicts sexual activity, or is otherwise inappropriate as determined by us in our sole discretion;
  4. constitutes unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, junk or bulk e-mail (“spamming”);
  5. 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 ours or of any third party;
  6. impersonates any person or entity, including, without limitation, any of our employees or representatives; or
  7. includes anyone’s identification documents or sensitive financial information.

c. You shall not: (i) take any action that imposes or may impose (as determined by us in our sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our (or our third party providers’) infrastructure; (ii) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Services or any activities conducted on the Services; (iii) bypass, circumvent or attempt to bypass or circumvent any measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Services (or other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Services); (iv) run any form of auto-responder or “spam” on the Services; (v) use manual or automated software, devices, or other processes to “crawl” or “spider” any page of the Site; (vi) harvest or scrape any Content from the Services; or (vii) otherwise take any action in violation of our guidelines, policies or applicable laws, including, without limitation, applicable export and re-export control laws and regulations.

d. 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 Services (including without limitation any Application), except to the limited extent applicable laws specifically prohibit such restriction, (ii) modify, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of any part of the Services, 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.

e. We also reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as we reasonably believe is necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (ii) enforce these Terms of Service, including, but not limited to, investigation of potential violations hereof, (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect the rights, property or safety of us, our users and the public.

Don’t use Socratic in any way other than how you’re supposed to use it (as a learning tool). Don’t try and hack into Socratic and don’t use it to do anything bad or illegal.

5. Third Party Services
Short version

The Services may permit you to link to other websites, services or resources on the Internet, and other websites, services or resources may contain links to the Services. When you access third party resources on the Internet, you do so at your own risk and may be subject to additional terms and conditions imposed by that third party for the use of its resources, even where used in connection with the Services. These other resources are not under our control, and you acknowledge that we are 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 our endorsement or any association between us and their operators. You further acknowledge and agree that we 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.

We’re not responsible for any links you click on.

6. Apple Device and Application Terms
Short version

If you are accessing the Services via an Application on a device provided by Apple, Inc. (“Apple”) or an Application obtained through the Apple App Store, the following shall apply: a. Both you and Socratic acknowledge that these Terms of Service are concluded between you and Socratic only, and not with Apple, and that Apple is not responsible for the Application or the Content; b. The Application is licensed to you on a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferrable, non-sublicensable basis, solely to be used in connection with the Services for your private, personal, non-commercial use, subject to all the terms and conditions of these Terms of Service as they are applicable to the Services; c. You will only use the Application in connection with an Apple device that you own or control; d. You acknowledge and agree that Apple has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance and support services with respect to the Application; e. In the event of any failure of the Application to conform to any applicable warranty, including, but not limited to, those implied by law, you may notify Apple of such failure; upon notification, Apple’s sole warranty obligation to you will be to refund to you the purchase price, if any, of the Application; f. You acknowledge and agree that Socratic, and not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims you or any third party may have in relation to the Application; g. You acknowledge and agree that, in the event of any third party claim that the Application or your possession and use of the Application infringes that third party’s intellectual property rights, Socratic, and not Apple, will be responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of any such infringement claim; h. You represent and warrant that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties; i. Both you and Socratic acknowledge and agree that, in your use of the Application, you will comply with any applicable third party terms of agreement which may affect or be affected by such use; and j. Both you and Socratic acknowledge and agree that Apple and Apple’s subsidiaries are third party beneficiaries of these Terms of Service, and that upon your acceptance of these Terms of Service, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms of Service against you as the third party beneficiary hereof.

If you’re using an Apple device, then Apple requires these terms. Socratic is mainly our responsibility, not Apple’s.

7. Termination
Short version

We may terminate your access to all or any part of the Services 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 activity. All provisions of these Terms of Service which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, licenses of User Content, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

We can cut off your access to the Services at any time and don’t guarantee that we will retain your information.

8. Warranty Disclaimer.
Short version

a. We have no special relationship with or fiduciary duty to you. You acknowledge that we have no duty to take any action regarding:

  1. which users gain access to the Services;
  2. what Content you access via the Services; or
  3. how you may interpret or use the Content.

b. You release us from all liability for you having acquired or not acquired Content through the Services. We make no representations concerning any Content contained in or accessed through the Services, and we will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, or legality of material or Content contained in or accessed through the Services.

THE SERVICES AND CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”, “AS AVAILABLE” AND 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. WE, AND OUR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS, PARTNERS AND CONTENT PROVIDERS DO NOT WARRANT THAT: (I) THE SERVICES WILL BE SECURE OR AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION; (II) ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED; (III) ANY CONTENT OR SOFTWARE AVAILABLE AT OR THROUGH THE SERVICES IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS; OR (IV) THE RESULTS OF USING THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

We’ll do our best to provide Socratic to you and to fix any problems, but we’re not responsible if something goes wrong. We’re also not responsible for how you use Socratic or what you get out of it.

9. Indemnification
Short version

You shall defend, indemnify, and hold harmless us, our affiliates and each of our and their respective employees, contractors, directors, suppliers and representatives from all liabilities, claims, and expenses, including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys’ fees, that arise from or relate to your use or misuse of, or access to, the Services, Content, or otherwise from your User Content, violation of these Terms of Service, or infringement by you of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity. We reserve 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 us in asserting any available defenses.

If we have to pay damages for something that’s your fault, then you have to reimburse us.

10. Limitation of Liability
Short version

IN NO EVENT SHALL WE, NOR OUR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS, SUPPLIERS OR CONTENT PROVIDERS, BE LIABLE UNDER CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, NEGLIGENCE OR ANY OTHER LEGAL OR EQUITABLE THEORY WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICES (I) FOR ANY LOST PROFITS, DATA LOSS, COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, COMPENSATORY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER (HOWEVER ARISING), (II) FOR ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE (REGARDLESS OF THE SOURCE OF ORIGINATION), OR (III) FOR ANY DIRECT DAMAGES IN EXCESS OF (IN THE AGGREGATE) OF THE GREATER OF (A) FEES PAID TO US FOR THE PARTICULAR SERVICES DURING THE IMMEDIATELY PREVIOUS THREE (3) MONTH PERIOD OR (B) $100.00.

If you want to sue us anyway, then your damages won’t be more than $100 or the amount of money you spent on Socratic.

11. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
Short version

These Terms of Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, including, but not limited to, its conflicts of law rules, and the United States of America. You agree that any dispute arising from or relating to the subject matter of these Terms of Service shall be governed by the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and Federal courts of Santa Clara County, California.

These terms follow California law and any disputes will be decided in California courts.

12. Modification
Short version

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to modify or replace any of these Terms of Service, or change, suspend, or discontinue the Services (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 notice through the Services, or by another appropriate means of electronic communication. We may also impose limits on certain features of the Services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Services without notice or liability. While we will timely provide notice of modifications, it is also your responsibility to check these Terms of Service periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Services following notification of any changes to these Terms of Service constitutes acceptance of those changes.

We may update these Terms of Services from time to time. We will post a notice of any changes prior to them taking effect, but it’s your responsibility to keep up to date with the Terms of Service regularly. We post the last update date at the bottom of these Terms of Service to make it easier for you to know if the Terms of Service have changed.

13. Miscellaneous
Short version

Entire Agreement and Severability
These Terms of Service are the entire agreement between you and us with respect to the Services and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals (whether oral, written or electronic) between you and us with respect to the Services. If any provision of these Terms of Service is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that these Terms of Service will otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable. Except as expressly stated in Section 8, these Terms of Services do not create any third party beneficiary rights.

Force Majeure
We shall not be liable for any failure to perform our obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond our reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic or communications failure or degradation.

Assignment
These Terms of Service are personal to you, and are not assignable, transferable or sublicensable by you except with our prior written consent. We may assign, transfer or delegate any of our rights and obligations hereunder without consent.

Agency
No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship is created as a result of these Terms of Service and neither party has any authority of any kind to bind the other in any respect.

Notices
Unless otherwise specified in these Terms of Service, all notices to us under these Terms of Service will be in writing and will be deemed to have been duly given when receipt is electronically confirmed. Notices should be sent to legal@socratic.org.

No Waiver
The failure of either party to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder. Additionally, our failure to enforce any part of these Terms of Service shall not constitute a waiver of our right to later enforce that or any other part of these Terms of Service. Waiver of compliance in any particular instance does not mean that we will waive compliance in the future. In order for any waiver of compliance with these Terms of Service to be binding, we must provide you with written notice of such waiver through one of our authorized representatives.

Headings
The section and paragraph headings in these Terms of Service are for convenience only and shall not affect their interpretation.

These Terms of Services are the entire agreement between us. We’re not responsible for not doing something if it’s due to something out of our control, like a blackout. These Terms of Service are between Socratic and you and you can’t transfer this agreement to someone else without our consent.

Last updated: September 6, 2018
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