Terms & Conditions
1. Agreement and General Terms of Use
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This User Agreement constitutes the agreement between HighBeam
Research, Inc. ("HighBeam Research") and you as a user who accesses or establishes
a connection ("user," "you," or "your") to our services, including but not limited
to those at www.highbeam.com, www.encyclopedia.com
and www.researchville.com and/or other
services based on these services ("Service" or collectively the "Services").
- You agree to abide by all of the provisions in this Agreement in order to remain
an authorized user of the Services, and your use of the Services constitutes your
agreement to abide by these provisions. Distribution of your user name or password
to others for access to the Services is prohibited and may result in termination
of your account.
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HighBeam Research reserves the right, in its sole discretion,
to change any or all of the provisions of this Agreement at any time. HighBeam Research
will make the current Agreement available at this URL, as well as from a link at
the bottom of each Service's home page. The Agreement in effect at the time of you
use the Service shall govern your use and your use of the Service after the effective
date of any changes to this Agreement will be deemed your acceptance of the changes.
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HighBeam Research reserves the right, in its sole discretion,
to change, limit, or discontinue any aspect, content, tool, or feature that is a
part of the Services. HighBeam Research further reserves the right, in its sole
discretion, to restrict the use of the Service as well as suspend or revoke your
rights to use the Services based on HighBeam Research's belief that your use of
the Services violates that permitted by this Agreement or applicable law.
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IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT OR ARE
NOT SATISFIED WITH THE SERVICE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE
YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES.
2. Fees and Payments; Account Management; Free Trial Use
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If you become a trial subscriber, or a paid subscriber ("Subscriber
or Subscribers") of any of the Services, you will be bound by the payment terms
set forth herein.
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Access to premium areas of the Services requires payment. Rates
vary. If you subscribe, you must provide accurate, complete and updated subscriber
information. You will pay HighBeam Research for all fees, charges, and any applicable
taxes, associated with the Services in accordance with the current rates, payment
terms, and policies specified by HighBeam Research in the applicable Service enrollment
screens and online help areas. You acknowledge that you will pay HighBeam Research
all such fees, charges, and applicable taxes for the Services where enrollment in
the Services has been made using your credit card or other means, whether made by
you personally or by someone else in your household or organization on your behalf.
If you enroll in the Services using a credit card, you certify to HighBeam Research
that you are at least 18 years of age and that you are the cardholder of the credit
card, or that you are expressly authorized by the cardholder to enroll in the Services.
In any event, you expressly certify and represent that you are not under the age
of 13.
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You further acknowledge that your obligation to pay HighBeam Research
all such fees, charges, and applicable taxes for the Service does not depend on
usage of the Service, and that you remain obligated to pay HighBeam Research for
the Service regardless of whether the Service is used or not. Unless you enroll
as part of a free trial, your obligation to pay for the Service begins on the date
of your enrollment in the Service, not the date of your first use of the Service.
If made available, free trial or free access periods to use the Service also begin
on the date of your enrollment in the free trial for the Service, and not the date
of your first use of it.
- You may cancel your monthly or yearly account for the Service during any free trial
or free access period without charge. You may also cancel any subscription for the
Service at any other time during its term. However, HighBeam Research does not prorate
any fees, charges, or applicable taxes associated with the Service upon any termination
or cancellation and does not refund any such amounts for any term already charged.
You cancel your account for the Service by completing and submitting a cancellation
form or calling the customer service number located in the customer service area
of the Services. General emails not utilizing the above mentioned form, letters
and other means of notification, including notifying your credit card company or
bank that you no longer wish to be a subscriber will not serve as valid means of
cancellation. In the event that you no longer have access to the online cancellation
form, you may send a certified letter, return receipt requested to 360 N.Michigan
Ave., Suite 1320, Chicago, IL 60601 and your cancellation will be effective upon
actual receipt by HighBeam Research.
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The price you pay for a Service is stipulated at the time you
enroll in such Service and is valid for the initial period for which you enrolled
in the Service. HighBeam Research reserves the right to change the price paid for
a monthly or annual subscription after the initial enrollment period. MONTHLY AND
YEARLY SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE SERVICE ARE ON A CONTINUOUS RENEWAL BASIS. This means
your subscription will automatically renew every month on your monthly enrollment
anniversary or the last day of the month if you enrolled on the 29th, 30th or 31st
and the current month has no such date. For annual subscriptions, this means every
year on your annual enrollment anniversary. Your credit charge or other form of
payment will be automatically charged or debited unless you have notified HighBeam
Research in accordance with Section 2.3 hereof that you wish to cancel the Service.
Your subscription renewal will be at the then current price charged for the Service
or your enrollment price, whichever is higher. YOU MUST CANCEL PRIOR TO YOUR SUBSCRIPTION
RENEWAL DATE TO AVOID CONTINUED CHARGES.
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Except with respect to payment terms when a trial is cancelled
prior to its termination, this Agreement also states the terms and conditions under
which you, as an evaluating user, shall be governed during any free trial period
offered by HighBeam Research.
3. Rights in Service Content and the Service
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All content and tools provided by HighBeam Research on the Services
are protected by copyright, trademark and/or other applicable intellectual property
and proprietary rights laws and are owned, controlled, and/or licensed by HighBeam
Research. The Services are also protected by copyright, patent, trademark, and other
applicable intellectual property and proprietary rights laws. All trademarks appearing
on the Services are the property of their respective owners. You agree not to use
any trademarks or copyrighted material without express written permission of HighBeam
Research.
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You may search, retrieve, display, download, and print content
from the Services solely for your personal. You shall make no other use of the content
without the express written permission of HighBeam Research. You will not modify,
publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, translate, create
derivative works, or in any way exploit other than as set forth herein, any of the
content, tools or technology, in whole or in part, found on the Services. Further,
you shall not engage in any systematic downloading or other activity directed towards
any of the content, in whole or in part, found on the Services that would create
any electronic database or archive containing such content. You shall not make any
changes to any content that you are permitted to download under this Agreement,
and in particular you will not delete or alter any proprietary rights or attribution
notices in any content. You also will not "frame" any of the content,
tools or technology on the Services or the Services themselves without the express
written permission of HighBeam Research. You agree that you do not acquire any ownership
rights in any downloaded content. Your further agree that all rights in the Service
and any of the content found on the Service not granted to you under this Agreement
are expressly reserved to HighBeam Research and/or its licensors.
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In searching the Services, you shall not employ any automated
search tools, including so called "crawlers," "bots" and "spiders"
that programmatically access and extract content in order to repurpose or resell
the Services content and tools, nor may you "scrape" and/or reformat any
information off the services HTML pages or XML interface, including meta tags, results
pages, abstracts, and documents without the express written permission of HighBeam
Research. Those seeking more information on permission for systematic access (automated
queries meta-search, etc.) shall go to the FAQ area for each Service.
4. User Activities and Privacy of User Information on the Service
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You will use the Services and any tools, content, material, or
information found on the Services solely for lawful purposes. You shall not upload
to, distribute to or through, or otherwise disseminate through the Service any material
or information of any kind that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic,
abusive, or otherwise violates any law or infringes or violates any privacy or other
rights of any other person or entity, or contains a solicitation of funds, advertising,
or a solicitation for goods or services.
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You warrant that any material or information that you make available
through the Services, including, for example, postings to chat areas and forums
and documents you may post to your work area, is solely your original work, or that
you have all necessary rights to make the material or information of any other person
or entity available on the Services. You will be solely responsible for the content
of any material or information that you make available through the Services. You
will also be liable for any damage resulting from your making any material or information
available through the Services.
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Except as set forth below, by making any material or information
available through the Services, for example, in postings to chat areas and forums,
you automatically grant to HighBeam Research a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual,
irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish,
translate, distribute and sublicense any such material or information (in whole
or in part) and/or to incorporate it in other works regardless of form, media, or
technology. By making any material or information available through the Services,
you also grant to users other than yourself the right and license to access, view,
store, or reproduce your material and information for that user's personal, internal
use. HighBeam Research shall acquire no rights to personal documents that you or
authorized parties post to your work area.
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HighBeam Research has no obligation to, and does not and cannot,
review every item of material or information that you and users other than you make
available through the Services, and HighBeam Research is not responsible for any
content of this material or information. However, HighBeam Research reserves the
right to delete, move, or edit any material or information that it deems, in its
sole discretion, unacceptable, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive,
or otherwise in violation of any law or that infringes or violates any privacy or
other rights of any person or entity. Further, HighBeam Research reserves the right
at all times to disclose any material or information as necessary to satisfy any
law, regulation, or governmental request.
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HighBeam Research reserves the right to collect and use data about
you and your use of the Service for purposes such as, for example, performing statistical
analyses to assist us in improving the Service. HighBeam Research further reserves
the right to distribute such data in forms that do not identify you individually
or reveal your identity. HighBeam Research may also distribute such data in forms
that identify you individually or reveal your identity to affiliates, partners and
to third parties with a contractual relationship with HighBeam Research. All such
use and distribution shall be in accordance with HighBeam Research's privacy policy,
which is incorporated herein by reference. Please familiarize yourself with the
privacy policy by clicking on "Privacy Policy" (or another similar link)
at the bottom of the Services' home pages. Nothing herein shall prevent HighBeam
Research and its marketing partners from contacting you by email, phone, or direct
mail with offers, information, and other communications and all such contact is
expressly approved by you. Nothing herein shall prevent HighBeam Research from complying
with valid requests by governmental authorities investigating civil or criminal
matters.
5. Disclaimer of Warranties & Limitation of Liability
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YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.
NEITHER HIGHBEAM RESEARCH NOR ANY OF ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS,
OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, DISTRIBUTORS, THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS, OR LICENSORS
(AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS) WARRANT THAT THE
SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR THAT THEY WILL BE FREE OF VIRUSES
OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. NOR DO THEY MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS THAT
MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE, OR AS TO THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY,
COMPLETENESS, OR CONTENTS OF ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION, MATERIAL, POSTINGS, OR POSTING
RESPONSES FOUND ON THE SERVICE, ANY MERCHANDISE OR SERVICES PROVIDED THROUGH THE
SERVICES, OR ANY LINKS TO OTHER SITES OR SERVICES MADE AVAILABLE ON THE SERVICES.
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THE SERVICES, ALL TOOLS, CONTENT, MATERIAL, INFORMATION, POSTINGS,
OR POSTING RESPONSES FOUND ON THE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
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UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NEGLIGENCE
OR GROSS OR WILLFUL NEGLIGENCE, SHALL HIGHBEAM RESEARCH (OR ANY OF ITS PARENTS,
SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, DISTRIBUTORS,
THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS, OR LICENSORS (AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS,
EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS), BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION,
MATERIAL, POSTINGS, OR POSTING RESPONSES ON THE SERVICE, OR THE SERVICE ITSELF.
THESE LIMITATIONS APPLY REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE PARTY LIABLE OR ALLEGEDLY LIABLE
WAS ADVISED, HAD OTHER REASON TO KNOW, OR IN FACT KNEW OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGES. YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT HIGHBEAM RESEARCH (AND ANY
OF ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS,
DISTRIBUTORS, THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS, OR (AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS,
OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS), IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE OR
ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY USER, INCLUDING YOU. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE TOTAL LIABILITY
OF HIGHBEAM RESEARCH (OR ANY OF ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS,
OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, DISTRIBUTORS, THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS, OR LICENSORS
(AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS)) TO YOU EXCEED
THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO HIGHBEAM RESEARCH DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRIOR
TO ANY CLAIM OF INJURY OR DAMAGE.
6. Indemnification
- To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you will defend, indemnify and
hold harmless HighBeam Research (and any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates,
directors, officers, employees, agents, distributors, third party providers, and
licensors (and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents)) from
and against all claims, liability, and expenses, including attorneys' fees and legal
fees and costs, arising out of your use of the Service or your breach of any provision
of this Agreement. HighBeam Research reserves the right, in its sole discretion
and at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter
otherwise subject to indemnification by you. You will cooperate as fully as reasonably
required in the defense of any claim.
7. Third Party Content, Third-Party Providers, Advertising and Links.
- The Services include a number of third party providers for content, technology and
other features, including the opportunity for users of the Services to purchase
goods or services from third parties ("Third Party"). HighBeam Research
makes no warranty concerning content, technology, goods or services provided by
Third Party providers. YOU AGREE THAT ANY RECOURSE FOR DISSATISFACTION OR PROBLEMS
WITH THOSE GOODS OR SERVICES WILL BE SOUGHT FROM THE THIRD PARTY PROVIDER DIRECTLY,
NOT FROM HIGHBEAM RESEARCH.
8. Notices between Us
- You may contact us by sending electronic mail to info@highbeam.com. If a response
is necessary, we will contact you by sending electronic mail to the address you
provide to us, or by posting a notice on the Services.
9. Termination
- HighBeam Research may terminate this Agreement and your use of the Services, or
discontinue the Services, at any time. HighBeam Research shall have the right immediately
upon notice to you to terminate your use of the Services in the event of any conduct
by you which HighBeam Research, in its sole discretion, considers to be unacceptable,
or in the event of any breach by you of this Agreement or violation of applicable
law.
10. Law Governing Performance and Disputes
- This Agreement, your performance under it, and any disputes arising under it shall
be governed exclusively by the laws of the United States of America and the State
of Illinois, without giving effect to their conflict of laws principles. You expressly
consent to the exclusive forum, jurisdiction, and venue of the Courts of the State
of Illinois in Cook County and the United States District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois in any and all actions, disputes, or controversies relating
to this Agreement.
11. General Terms
- This Agreement and any policies and rules posted on the Services by HighBeam Research
constitute the complete and exclusive and final expressionof the agreement of the
parties with respect to the subject matter hereof. No waiver by either HighBeam
Research or you of any breach or default under this Agreement shall be deemed to
be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default. This Agreement shall
be binding upon and inure to the benefit of HighBeam Research and its successors,
trustees, and permitted assigns. HighBeam Research may assign this Agreement, or
any of its rights or obligations under this Agreement, with or without notice to
you. Any such assignment by HighBeam Research does not relieve you of your obligations
under this Agreement.
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