Terms of Service
Welcome to the User Agreement for Change.org. This agreement describes the terms on which you may access and use our service. In order to become a Change.org user, you must read and accept all of the terms and conditions of this agreement and the Privacy Policy. In the event of any inconsistency between the Change.org Privacy Policy and this User Agreement, the User Agreement shall control. Nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to confer any third-party rights or benefits. If you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this Agreement, you may not use nor access our services.
We reserve the right to modify this Agreement at any time, and without prior notice, by posting amended terms on this website. Your continued use of the Change.org service indicates your acceptance of the amended User Agreement.
Description of Service
Change.org is an online service that enables users to connect to others who care about the same social causes, share ideas about how to best address the issues they care about, and engage with organizations working to advance those causes.
Eligibility
Membership in the Service is void where prohibited. This Site is intended solely for Users who are thirteen (13) years of age or older, and any registration by, use of or access to the Site by anyone under 13 is unauthorized, unlicensed and in violation of these Terms of Use. By using the Service or the Site, you represent and warrant that you are 13 or older and that you agree to and to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement. The Company may terminate your membership, delete your profile and any content or information that you have posted on the Site and/or prohibit you from using or accessing the Service or the Site (or any portion, aspect or feature of the Service or the Site) for any reason, at any time in its sole discretion, with or without notice, including without limitation if it believes that you are under 13. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, if you are in a jurisdiction in which the minimum age permissible by law to use the Service is greater than 13, all references to 13 in this section shall instead be replaced with the minimum age permitted in your jurisdiction.
Registration Data & Account Security
In consideration of your use of the Site, you agree to (a) provide accurate, current and complete information about you as may be prompted by any registration forms on the Site ("Registration Data"); (b) maintain the security of your password and identification; (c) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data, and any other information you provide to Company, to keep it accurate, current and complete; and (d) be fully responsible for all use of your account and for any actions that take place using your account.
Copyright Policy
Content on the site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Visitors to the Change.org website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world, during all the time allowed by law and for any use, for their submissions to Change.org under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Content excludes blog posts written by the Company, which may be freely excerpted with attribution but cannot be republished in full without the Company's prior written permission.
User Conduct
You understand the Service and the Site are available for your personal, non-commercial use only. You represent, warrant and agree that no materials of any kind submitted through your account or otherwise posted or shared by you through the Service will violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary rights; or contain libelous, defamatory or otherwise unlawful material. You further agree not to harvest or collect email addresses or other contact information of Users from the Service or the Site by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications. Additionally, you agree not to use automated scripts to collect information from the Service or the Site or for any other purpose. You further agree that you may not use the Service or the Site in any unlawful manner or in any other manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the Site. In addition, you agree not to use the Service or the Site to:
- upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any content that we deem to be harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
- register for more than one User account, register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity;
- post or transmit any content that involves unlawful, deception or unfair advertising;
- violates any regulation regarding the secrecy or privacy of information;
- violates the intellectual property rights of any party;
- impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself, your age or your affiliation with any person or entity;
- upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation;
- upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make publicly available on the Site any private information of any third party, including, without limitation, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers;
- solicit personal information from anyone under 18 or solicit passwords or personally identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes;
- upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
- intimidate or harass another user;
- upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available content that would constitute, encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party, or that would otherwise create liability or violate any local, state, national or international law;
- use or attempt to use another's account, service or system without authorization from the Company, or create a false identity on the Service or the Site;
- upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available content that, in the sole judgment of Company, is objectionable or which restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the Site, or which may expose Company or its Users to any harm or liability of any type;
User Content Posted on the Site
You are solely responsible for the photos, profiles, messages, notes, text, information, music, video, advertisements and other content that you upload, publish or display (hereinafter, "post") on or through the Service or the Site, or transmit to or share with other Users (collectively the "User Content"). You understand and agree that the Company may, but is not obligated to, review and delete or remove (without notice) any User Content in its sole discretion, including without limitation User Content that in the sole judgment of the Company violate this Agreement or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of Users or others.
By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, during the time period permitted by law, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time.
Repeat Infringer Policy
In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other applicable law, Company has adopted a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances and at Company's sole discretion, members who are deemed to be repeat infringers. Company may also at its sole discretion limit access to the Site and/or terminate the memberships of any Users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is any repeat infringement.
Links to Other Websites and Content
The Site contains (or you may be sent through the Site or the Services) links to other web sites ("Third Party Sites") as well as articles, photographs, text, graphics, pictures, designs, music, sound, video, information, software and other content belonging to or originating from third parties (the "Third Party Content"). Such Third Party Sites and Third Party Content are not investigated, monitored or checked for accuracy, appropriateness, or completeness by us, and we are not responsible for any Third Party Sites accessed through the Site or any Third Party Content posted on the Site, including without limitation the content, accuracy, offensiveness, opinions, reliability or policies of or contained in the Third Party Sites or the Third Party Content. Inclusion of or linking to any Third Party Site or any Third Party Content does not imply approval or endorsement thereof by us. If you decide to leave the Site and access the Third Party Sites, you do so at your own risk and you should be aware that our terms and policies no longer govern. You should review the applicable terms and policies, including privacy and data gathering practices, of any site to which you navigate from the Site.
User Disputes
You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Change.org Users. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other Users.
Privacy
We care about the privacy of our Users. Click here to view the Site's Privacy Policy. By using the Site or the Service, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.
Disclaimers
The Company is not responsible or liable in any manner for any User Content or Third Party Content posted on the Site or in connection with the Service, whether posted or caused by Users of the Site or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Site or the Service. Although we provide rules for User conduct and postings, we do not control and are not responsible for what Users post on the Site and are not responsible for any offensive, inappropriate, obscene, unlawful or otherwise objectionable content you may encounter on the Site or in connection with any User Content or Third Party Content. The Company is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any User of the Site or Service.
The Site and the Service may be temporarily unavailable from time to time for maintenance or other reasons. Company 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, User communications. The Company 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 email or players on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any Site or combination thereof, including injury or damage to Users or to any other person's computer related to or resulting from participating or downloading materials in connection with the Web and/or in connection with the Service. Under no circumstances will the Company be responsible for any loss or damage, including any loss or damage to any User Content or personal injury or death, resulting from anyone's use of the Site or the Service, any User Content or Third Party Content posted on or through the Site or the Service or transmitted to Users, or any interactions between Users of the Site, whether online or offline.
THE SITE, THE SERVICE AND THE SITE CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND THE COMPANY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE COMPANY CANNOT GUARANTEE AND DOES NOT PROMISE ANY SPECIFIC RESULTS FROM USE OF THE SITE AND/OR THE SERVICE. COMPANY DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT CONTENT OR MATERIALS ON THE SITE ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT THE SITE OR ITS SERVERS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. THEREFORE, YOU SHOULD EXERCISE CAUTION IN THE USE AND DOWNLOADING OF ANY SUCH CONTENT OR MATERIALS AND USE INDUSTRY-RECOGNIZED SOFTWARE TO DETECT AND DISINFECT VIRUSES.
Company reserves the right to change any and all content contained in the Site and any Services offered through the Site at any time without notice. Reference to any products, services, processes or other information, by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, supplier or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof, or any affiliation therewith, by Company.
In connection with your sponsorship of a
petition (if applicable), you will be asked to provide customary billing
information such as name, billing address and credit card information and the
amount of your sponsorship. You hereby authorize the collection of such amount
by Change.org’s third party online payment processor. You are subject to terms
and conditions governing use of that third party’s service and that third
party’s personal information collection practices (as described in greater
detail on the sponsorship webpage). Please review such terms and conditions and
privacy policy before sponsoring a petition. Once your sponsorship transaction
is complete, you will receive an email summarizing your confirmed sponsorship.
Limitation on Liability
EXCEPT IN JURISDICTIONS WHERE SUCH PROVISIONS ARE RESTRICTED, IN NO EVENT WILL COMPANY OR ITS DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PERSON FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR LOST DATA ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICE OR ANY OF THE SITE CONTENT OR OTHER MATERIALS ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE SITE, EVEN IF THE COMPANY IS AWARE OR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, THE COMPANY'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 COMPANY FOR THE SERVICE DURING THE TERM OF MEMBERSHIP, BUT IN NO CASE WILL THE COMPANY'S LIABILITY TO YOU EXCEED $1000. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IF NO FEES ARE PAID TO COMPANY FOR THE SERVICE, YOU SHALL BE LIMITED TO INJUNCTIVE RELIEF ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE PERMITTED BY LAW, AND SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO DAMAGES OF ANY KIND FROM COMPANY, REGARDLESS OF THE CAUSE OF ACTION.
CERTAIN STATE LAWS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES. IF THESE LAWS APPLY TO YOU, SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS, EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, AND YOU MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL RIGHTS.
Governing Law & Venue and Jurisdiction
By visiting or using the Site and/or the Service, you agree that the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern these Terms of Use and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and the Company or any of our affiliates. With respect to any disputes or claims not subject to arbitration (as set forth below), you agree not to commence or prosecute any action in connection therewith other than in the state and federal courts of California, and you hereby consent to, and waive all defenses of lack of personal jurisdiction and forum non conveniens with respect to, venue and jurisdiction in the state and federal courts of California.
Arbitration
YOU AND COMPANY AGREE THAT THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE FORUM AND REMEDY FOR ANY AND ALL DISPUTES AND CLAIMS RELATING IN ANY WAY TO OR ARISING OUT OF THESE SITE TERMS, THE SITE AND/OR THE SERVICE (INCLUDING YOUR VISIT TO OR USE OF THE SITE AND/OR THE SERVICE) SHALL BE FINAL AND BINDING ARBITRATION, except that, to the extent that either of us has in any manner infringed upon or violated or threatened to infringe upon or violate the other party's patent, copyright, trademark or trade secret rights, such other party may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief.
Arbitration under this Agreement shall be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (the "AAA") under its Commercial Arbitration Rules and, in the case of consumer disputes, the AAA's Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes ( the "AAA Consumer Rules") (collectively the "AAA Rules"). The location of the arbitration and the allocation of costs and fees for such arbitration shall be determined in accordance with such AAA Rules and shall be subject to the limitations provided for in the AAA Consumer Rules (for consumer disputes). If such costs are determined to be excessive in a consumer dispute, the Company will be responsible for paying all arbitration fees and arbitrator compensation in excess of what is deemed reasonable. The arbitrator's award shall be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, NO ARBITRATION OR CLAIM UNDER THESE TERMS OF USE SHALL BE JOINED TO ANY OTHER ARBITRATION OR CLAIM, INCLUDING ANY ARBITRATION OR CLAIM INVOLVING ANY OTHER CURRENT OR FORMER USER OF THE SERVICE, AND NO CLASS ARBITRATION PROCEEDINGS SHALL BE PERMITTED. In no event shall any claim, action or proceeding by you related in any way to the Site and/or the Service (including your visit to or use of the Site and/or the Service) be instituted more than three (3) year after the cause of action arose.
Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold the Company, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their directors, officers, agents, contractors, partners and employees, harmless from and against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damages, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees, arising out of or in connection with any User Content, any Third Party Content you post or share on or through the Service, your use of the Service or the Site, your conduct in connection with the Service or the Site or with other Users of the Service or the Site, or any violation of this Agreement or of any law or the rights of any third party.
Submissions
You acknowledge and agree that any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, feedback or other information about the Site or the Service ("Submissions"), provided by you to Company are non-confidential and shall become the sole property of Company. Company shall own exclusive rights, including all intellectual property rights, and shall be entitled to the unrestricted use and dissemination of these Submissions for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you.
Other
These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and Company regarding the use of the Site and/or the Service, superseding any prior agreements between you and Company relating to your use of the Site or the Service. The failure of Company to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision in that or any other instance. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid, the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. If any provision of these Site Terms shall be deemed unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Terms of Use and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.