Medium Terms of Service

Effective Date: 4-10-14

Medium Terms of Service

We’ll try to make this as painless and straightforward as possible.

This is a contract (“Terms”) between you and A Medium Corporation (“Medium,” “we,” or “us”), applicable when you use our sites, services, mobile applications, products, and content provided by Medium, globally, in existence now or in the future (“Medium Services”).

These terms are a binding agreement

Even if your eyes normally glaze over the word “Terms,” it’s a good idea to read this agreement carefully before you use Medium. For one thing, we want your feedback and suggestions on how to make our service better. (We’d really like to hear from you: email your input to terms@medium.com.) For another, by using Medium Services, you agree to be bound by everything in these Terms. If you don’t agree to the Terms, please don’t use Medium.

Your content

You own the rights to the content you post on Medium. We don’t claim ownership over any of it. However, by posting or transferring content to Medium, you give us permission to use your content solely to do the things we need to do to provide Medium Services, including, without limitation, storing, displaying, reproducing, and distributing your content. This may include promoting your content with partner companies or services for broader broadcast, distribution, or publication.

We will never sell your content to third parties without your explicit permission.

By publishing on Medium, you agree to allow others to view your content.

We don’t pre-screen user content, but we have the right (though no obligation) to refuse or remove any content you post or transfer to Medium Services for any reason.

You are free to delete your content from Medium at any time, though there may be a delay in removing it from public view due to operational requirements. We retain, but do not publicly display, backup copies of your deleted content on our servers for 30 days after you delete your account. If you delete your account or content, it may be permanently unrecoverable.

You’re responsible for the content you submit to Medium and assume all risks associated with it, including anyone else’s reliance on its accuracy, or claims relating to intellectual property or other legal rights. By posting, you represent that you own or have the necessary rights to post the content on Medium, and that doing so doesn’t conflict with any other licenses you’ve granted.

Aside: We get a lot of questions about whether you can post content you own on Medium if you’ve already posted it elsewhere, like on your blog. The answer is yes. If you own the content, you’re welcome to copy it from other places and publish it on Medium (and vice versa) as long as you didn’t give exclusive rights to other platforms or publishers.

Our content

The look and feel of Medium Services are copyright A Medium Corporation. All rights reserved. Some portions of the site are licensed pursuant to third party open source licensing. We have also open sourced some of our own code, available here. For the remainder of the site, you may not duplicate, copy, or reuse any portion of the HTML/CSS, JavaScipt, logos, or visual design elements without express written permission from Medium unless otherwise permitted by law.

We may modify these Terms at any time

We can change these Terms at any time. If the changes are material, we’ll let you know by email or posting a notice on the site before the changes go into effect. The notice will designate a reasonable amount of time (the “Notice Period”) after which the new terms will go into effect for all users. If you don’t agree to the new terms, please delete your account within the Notice Period. If you do not delete your account within the Notice Period, your content and use of the site will be subject to the new terms going forward.

You can access historical versions of our Terms of Service and other policies here.

We may modify our Services at any time

We do our best to provide you a reliable and evolving service, but we may change, terminate, or restrict access to any aspect of the service, at any time, without notice.

Privacy

When you use Medium Services, you consent to the collection and use of information as detailed in our Privacy Policy. If you’re outside the United States, you consent to the transfer, storage, and processing of your information—including but not limited to the content you posted or transferred to the site and any personal information—to and within the United States and other countries.

No children please

Medium is only for people 13 years old and over. If you’re under 13, we’re sorry, but you’re not allowed here. If we learn a child under 13 is using Medium we will terminate the child’s account.

Security and Responsible Disclosures

We take security very seriously, and are always on the lookout for opportunities to make our service better. Our policy on security and finding and reporting vulnerabilities can be found here.

Third-party account use for sign-ins

We currently use third parties like Twitter to create and authorize user accounts. By using those third-party services, you agree to their terms of use, privacy policy, and other agreements between you and them.

Our rules

Because Medium is shared space, and we want many different ideas to thrive, we need to have a few ground rules. There aren’t many. In fact, they can pretty much all be summed up thusly: Don’t pee in the pool (metaphorically speaking).

A complete list of our rules can be found here. Failure to comply with them may result in us taking action such as removing content, or suspending or deleting your account.

DMCA copyright policy

Medium deals with copyright infringement on Medium Services in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We have a policy of terminating repeat copyright infringers in appropriate circumstances.

The contact information for Medium’s Designated Agent for receipt of notices of claimed infringement is here:

A Medium Corporation 760 Market Street, Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94103 Attn: Copyright Agent Email: copyright@medium.com

To read our full Copyright and DMCA Policy, visit us here.

INTERLUDE

You’re doing great, Dear Reader of these Terms. Let’s rest a moment, shall we? You’ve earned it. So far, so good, right? Everything pretty clear? Well, don’t get too comfortable. Now’s the time to activate the full Galactic Armada of your legal vocabulary comprehension and ALL CAPS READING SKILLS. What follows are several sections of heavily lawyered-up provisions that we would love to express in a more human-readable, less legal manner. But their form and substance has evolved over time, often via brutal, hand-to-hand litigation or not-to-be-ignored authoritative rulings from courts and interpretations by agencies. This gives us little flexibility in the wording, at least if we want to avoid being laughed out of court in some Doomsday scenario that neither of us even wants to think about. So these following provisions are important, you should read them carefully, and we apologize for the excruciating lawyerly patois.

Miscellaneous lawyerly provisions (please read these carefully)

1. YOU USE THE MEDIUM SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS.

2. MEDIUM MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO MEDIUM SERVICES. FOR EXAMPLE, WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT (I) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS, (II) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, ABSOLUTELY SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (III) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION, OR OTHER MATERIAL PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS, OR (IV) ANY ERRORS IN THE MEDIUM SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED.

3. YOU UNDERSTAND AND EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT MEDIUM SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF MEDIUM HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (I) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (II) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE; (III) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (IV) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; (V) OR ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE MEDIUM SERVICES.

4. THE FAILURE OF MEDIUM TO EXERCISE OR ENFORCE ANY RIGHT OR PROVISION OF THESE TERMS SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE A WAIVER OF THAT RIGHT OR PROVISION. THE TERMS AND OUR PRIVACY POLICY CONSTITUTE THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND MEDIUM AND GOVERN YOUR USE OF THE MEDIUM SERVICES, SUPERSEDING ANY PRIOR AGREEMENTS BETWEEN YOU AND MEDIUM (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY PRIOR VERSIONS OF THE TERMS). YOU AGREE THAT THESE TERMS AND YOUR USE OF THE MEDIUM SERVICES ARE GOVERNED UNDER CALIFORNIA LAW. BEFORE RESORTING TO COURTS, WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO CONTACT US DIRECTLY TO TRY TO WORK IT OUT.

We’d love to hear your questions, concerns, and feedback about this policy. If you have any suggestions for us, feel free to let us know at terms@medium.com.

The End.