Overview

This Terms of Use Agreement is hereby set forth between you, the website user ("you", "user," "member," "author," "reader," "service provider"), and ChapterBuzz ("ChapterBuzz", "platform", "website", "site", "service", "it", "we", "us"). Mention of "our site(s)" or "our website(s)," depending on context, refers to this or any other web property owned and operated by Dream, Play, Write!. When you use ChapterBuzz, either as a member or website visitor, you automatically agree to these Terms of Use. By using ChapterBuzz, and agreeing to these Terms of Use, you also agree to keep yourself apprised of any changes or revisions. The current version of the Terms of Use may be viewed at www.chapterbuzz.com/terms.


Eligibility

When you use the website, you represent and warrant that you are at least 13 years of age, and have the right, authority, and capacity to enter into this Agreement and to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Each person is allowed to have only one account, and each account shall be associated with only one person's name.


Content

Any content (including text, pictures, video, audio, etc.) that you post, share, link to, or that appears on our site through a third party service (such as a social media site), may not promote or express hatred, racism or bigotry toward any person or group of people, may not be obscene, threatening, or libelous, may not contain nudity or exploit anyone under the age of eighteen in a sexual manner, depict any sexual act, or be graphic in any way. ChapterBuzz reserves the right to remove such material and/or suspend or cancel the account of the person who posted it without notice, as it deems necessary and at its sole discretion.

ChapterBuzz will not be held responsible for any lost content due to software glitches, failure of user to save or back up data, or any other form of data loss. Responsibility for keeping backups of your content falls upon you, the user.

While we do everything possible to prevent private material from being viewed publicly, ChapterBuzz will not be held responsible for the consequences of non-public content being accessed or viewed by any party due to software glitches or other extenuating circumstances. Any material (excluding sensitive information) you compose on, post on, upload to ChapterBuzz, or link to, is subject to unintentional public viewing.

All material that users have posted on ChapterBuzz is copyrighted. Copying, downloading, or transmitting any of this material that is not your own, by any means (outside of mechanisms we have put in place explicitly for this purpose) is prohibited.

When you post (or link to) content on ChapterBuzz, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to reproduce your content, in whole or in part, for the purpose of promotion (both of your content and of our site(s) and services), on this site, any of our subsidiary sites, third-party sites (e.g., social media sites), or in an offline, physical format. We also reserve the right to use, for the same promotional purposes, your name, your likeness, and any other non-sensitive information connected to your account that you provide to us. Note that such promotional material may remain on our site, on the third-party sites we post to, or in an offline, physical format even if you delete your account or remove your content from our site.

At no point, however, do we own the rights to your work. You retain all rights to your own work.

The following guidelines apply to all content you post to the site or link to, including any public information you provide about yourself:

• Any material you post on the site must be your own, original work and you must own all rights to it, or have written permission (that can be readily produced when requested) from any and all other rightsholders to post the material on the site
• Posting or linking to plagiarized work, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited
• The content must not fall into our definitions of spam, pornography, or violent images, as defined in the "Definitions" section of this document
• Your content must not:
  • be threatening, intimidating, or libelous
  • promote, condone, or express (or appear to promote, condone, or express) hatred, bigotry, violence, or discrimination toward any person or group of people based on that person or group's race, color, sex, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity
  • be primarily sexual in nature. Here, we draw a distinction between content whose primary purpose is sexual arousal, and content that primarily seeks to portray sexual activity in limited amounts or to discuss sexual issues, which is allowed. Our judgement prevails in determining which of these categories any given content falls into
  • exploit anyone under the age of eighteen in a sexual context
  • violate any laws
  • infringe upon any existing copyright
  • have rights that are owned by another party

Before posting or linking to your content for public consumption, you will be required to rate it. For simplicity and relatability, we use the same ratings the MPAA uses for movies. Here is how the MPAA, on its website, defines each rating:

• G. "Nothing that would offend parents for viewing by children."
• PG. "May contain some material parents might not like for their young children."
• PG-13. "Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers."
• R. "Contains some adult material."
• NC-17. "Clearly adult."

Please rate your material "R" or "NC-17" if it contains:

• Extreme or graphic violence
• Violent images (see "Definitions" section)
• Explicit descriptions of sexual acts
• Explicit descriptions of drug use
• Frequent use of profanity

We understand there are gray areas in determining which rating your content should be assigned, and recognizing this, we allow some flexibility in this regard. However, by using this site and posting content, you affirm that the rating you give to your own work is based upon your best judgement according to the guidelines we've set forth here. ChapterBuzz reserves the right to assign a different rating (or a minimum rating) to your work if, in our sole judgement, we decide a different rating is more appropriate.

You understand that each writer has a responsibility to rate his or her own material, and agree that we are not responsible for any consequences arising from improperly rated content.

If you delete your account, some data or posted content may persist in our system. Please see our Privacy Policy for more.


Definitions

• Pornography. Nudity, descriptions, or images of persons engaged in graphic sexual acts, or who appear to be engaged in graphic sexual acts, are considered pornography. Sexual content is allowed in certain contexts, but approval will be at our sole discretion.

• Spam. Considered spam and thereby ineligible for ChapterBuzz is content that:
  
  
  • contains affiliate links; or misleading, disguised, or masked links
  • promotes get-rich-quick or internet money-making schemes
  • contains SEO keyword spam
  
  Also considered spam is content that encourages readers to visit websites to create accounts, as well as content that attempts to mislead the reader by making false or inaccurate claims for commercial gain.

• Violent images. Violent images are graphic depictions of violent acts being perpetrated (or having been perpetrated) upon a person, group of people, or any other living (or formerly living) being, with those beings appearing in the image.

Your responsibilities

You are responsible for protecting your username and password, and not revealing them to anybody for any reason. In the event your password is compromised, you are responsible for reporting the matter to us and changing your password immediately. With respect to restrictions, users are generally prohibited from doing things like: posting or transmitting harmful or illegal content, interfering with the website's operation, making unauthorized attempts to access password-protected areas, and taking actions that might place an unreasonably large load on the website's resources and infrastructure.


Prohibited Activities

As a ChapterBuzz member or website visitor, you will not:

• stalk, harass, intimidate or threaten any other users of the website for any reason
• impersonate any individual or organization
• create more than one account
• use the website for distribution, mass or otherwise, of e-mail which could be considered spam or used for advertising purposes, except as provided in the section of the Terms of Use entitled "Advertising Services"
• engage in any conduct while using the website that could be construed as threatening, intimidating, libelous, discriminatory, or otherwise unlawful
• post or transmit harmful or illegal content
• create fake or spam accounts
• create an account using a name that is not your own
• create an account using a name that could offend other members
• send spam or spamlike material to other members
• post or transmit spam or spamlike material to any part of the website
• post any affiliate links, or URLs connected to programs that pay commissions
• post or transmit any material to the website that violates the terms set forth in the section of this document entitled "Content"
• copy, download, or transmit any material that is not your own from the website (see "Content" section for more detail)
• take any actions that might place an unreasonably large load on the website's resources and infrastructure
• interfere with the website's intended operation in any way
• make unauthorized attempts to access password-protected areas of the website

ChapterBuzz reserves the right to delete or suspend, at its sole discretion, and without notifying you, content, profiles, accounts, links, and any other material that violates these Terms of Use or fails to comply with stated guidelines on our site. ChapterBuzz also reserves the right to pursue legal action, to the full extent of the law, against any user who violates the terms set forth in this document.


Advertising Services

Advertising or using the website for commercial purposes when this advertising is not paid for will be regarded as spamming, and your account will be subject to suspension or deletion. Unless it it posted in an area specifically designated for promotional material, any content posted from your account that has the appearance of being promotional material for a product or service will be regarded as spam, and your account will be in violation of the Terms of Use.


ChapterBucks

ChapterBucks are website credits that can be earned, collected, transferred between members, or purchased, then redeemed for products and services offered through our platform.

By using ChapterBuzz, you agree to the following policies and restrictions governing ChapterBucks:

• ChapterBucks have no cash value and cannot be bartered, sold, or redeemed for cash
• ChapterBucks cannot be transferred to anyone outside of our platform, or by any means other than those our site offers
• Any ChapterBucks remaining in your account after your account is canceled, either by you or by us, are forfeited
• We reserve the right to adjust your ChapterBucks balance for any reason and without notifying you
• We reserve the right to adjust your ChapterBucks balance below zero if ChapterBucks are owed to us
• We reserve the right to cancel or invalidate any ChapterBucks transactions
• Any ChapterBucks obtained or transferred by means that violate (or are suspected to violate) these terms will not be considered valid, will not be accepted for redemption, and could result in a suspended or canceled account, permanent ban, or legal action

We reserve the right to adjust the purchase price or redemption value of ChapterBucks at any time.


Published books

ChapterBuzz allows you to post books that are already published and available for sale in a section called "Member-Only Reads."

By making your material available in our Member-Only Reads section, you acknowledge and agree to the following terms and conditions:

• I acknowledge that when I post any material on the internet, whether it's a novel, blog post, artwork, audio, or video, any member of the general public can access it, which means there is an inherent risk that a bad actor could copy it, download it, transfer it, and/or store it elsewhere in manner that is unauthorized or contrary to its intended use.
• We reserve the right to:
  • make your material available at any time outside of the scheduled "Promotion Weeks" or "Bonus Weeks," for any reason
  • convert your material into any other digital format (PDF, EPUB, etc.), that we deem necessary to fulfill the changing needs of site users. In such a case, your material could be legally and legitimately downloaded from our site for consumption on devices such as e-readers
  • implement DRM (digital rights management) mechanisms to safeguard your material
• We are not responsible for any material copied, transmitted, or downloaded from the site and/or stored elsewhere against our Terms of Use.
• You are free to remove your material from the website at any time.
• If you remove a book from our Member-Only Reads section within 10 days of the start of an upcoming "Promotion Week," you won't be eligible to add any other books to our Member-Only Reads section for the next 6 months.

Service Provider Terms

In order to receive inquiries about your services and begin working with any of the Author/Client users on our site, or to make contact with an Author/Client to provide an estimate, you must first be registered as a Service Provider.

As a service provider who is registered in our Service Directory, the following terms apply:

• You agree that the role of ChapterBuzz is simply to provide a forum where you can connect with potential clients who are in need of your services as a writing, editing, publishing, or book promotion professional. At no point will you be considered an employee of ChapterBuzz, nor will you receive any payment or compensation from us
• You understand that when you make contact with a member through our site, your e-mail address will be revealed to that member so that he or she may contact you directly
• You understand that because you work on a freelance basis with clients, any disputes that arise between you and a client will be handled by you, and that ChapterBuzz is under no obligation to mediate or intervene in any disputes
• You agree that ChapterBuzz is not responsible for any financial losses you incur as a result of a dispute with a client, violation of these Terms of Use by you or by a client, or a client's breach of any agreement entered into by you and that client. You also understand that ChapterBuzz does not have any programs, services, or systems in place to protect against such losses, and you agree to hold ChapterBuzz harmless for any losses of this nature
• You warrant that you are certified, licensed, or otherwise legally able to operate as a business, accept clients, and take payments for your services
• You agree that it is your responsibility to communicate with a potential client, through whatever means you both deem necessary, in order to agree on the terms of a project
• You understand that all work you do for a client you've found through ChapterBuzz, and all correspondence with those clients, must be performed or handled by you personally, unless ChapterBuzz has granted you, in writing, an exception to this rule
• You understand that once initial contact has been made with a client, you are free to correspond with that client via any means necessary in order to set your own terms with the client, just as you would with any other client
• You agree to represent yourself and your qualifications truthfully and in an unexaggerated manner on your profile and in your communications with clients or potential clients
• You agree to comport yourself respectfully, professionally, and ethically at all times while working on projects for clients you've found through ChapterBuzz
• You affirm that your profile will at all times adhere to the terms set forth in the "Content" section of this document
• You agree that any URL you post on your profile will direct users to a page on a legitimate website that contains information about you, your services, or your portfolio
• You give us permission to use your name, service offerings, images you post, including images of your likeness, and other non-sensitive information you submit, for promotional purposes, either on our site or on third-party sites such as social media pages or blog posts

Security

At ChapterBuzz, we take your privacy, anonymity, and security very seriously. Security measures are in place to safeguard the information you provide to us, however, no amount of security can completely guarantee that this information will not be obtained by third parties acting unlawfully.


Privacy

By agreeing to these Terms of Use, you also accept our Privacy Policy.


Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold ChapterBuzz and its subsidiaries, partners, affiliates, officers, agents and employees, harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorney's fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the website 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.


©2024 ChapterBuzz
Last updated July 20, 2022