Terms

The Gifting Earth User Agreement and Terms of Service (UA-TOS)

This document presents the terms on which The Gifting Earth (TGE) offers you access to our services. By participating in TGE (which always in this document refers to thegiftingearth.net and its related sites, services and tools), you agree to be bound by the terms of this document as well as to any document(s) referenced in it and/or linked to from it. If you wish not to be bound by any part of this Agreement, you are prohibited from accessing TGE. By accepting this User Agreement, you agree that this User Agreement and Privacy Policy will apply whenever you use TGE sites or services, or when you use the tools we make available to interact with TGE sites and services.

1. Introduction

Welcome to The Gifting Earth.

As a member of the TGE community, you always have a potentially dual role. You will be both a GIFTor and a GIFTee.

In your role as a GIFTor, you will register your offers of GIFTS to others within the community. In your role as a GIFTee, you will register your NEEDS for what you would like to receive as gifts from other members of the community.

You are also required to comply with, and to ensure compliance with, all laws, ordinances and regulations applicable to your activities on TGE. TGE is intended and designed for users 18 years of age and older, and access or use by anyone younger is not authorized without the explicit written permission of their parent or guardian.You are not allowed to make any use of TGE other than that intended in your role as a GIFTor and GIFTee.This Agreement is first effective on May 1, 2012, and the date of first use and acceptance.

2. Privacy

We are active members of TGE as well as its creators. We treat your personal information as if it was our own. We will use your information only as described in the Privacy Policy. We view protection of users' privacy as a very important community principle.

Offers made to the community by GIFTors and needs listed by GIFTees are always publicly available for all members to see. Transactions involving those offers and needs are under the GIFTor's ultimate control.

3. Responsibility for Member Safety and Member Content

The first and guiding principle of The Gifting Earth is, "Do no harm!" All GIFTing events should be win-win-win-win. The GIFTor should win. The GIFTee should win. Our community should win. And the Earth should win.

However, no community is immune to crime, regardless of its location. Online GIFTing communities are no different. GIFTing events take place in the public space. If a citizen sees a crime in the public space, it is his or her responsibility to call 911, NOT to prevent the crime from occurring nor to rescue the victims.

PUBLIC SAFETY: TGE does not control, is not responsible for, and makes no representations or warranties with respect to any member's behavior or activity. You are solely responsible for your own personal safety. If TGE is notified of a crime related to a GIFTing event, it will be TGE’s sole responsibility to alert the proper government authorities. In the public space, the primary responsibility for crime prevention and personal safety rests with each individual member. Each of us must take personal responsibility for our own safety, as well as for the safety of those around us.

You are expected to report any member behavior or activity that you believe is criminal to the proper government authorities. You are welcome to also report such member behavior or activity to TGE by using the Report Problem link at the bottom of every page.

CONTENT: TGE does not control, is not responsible for, and makes no representations or warranties with respect to any user content. You are solely responsible for your access to, use of and/or reliance on any user content. You are also responsible for any content that you post or transmit and for all content posted or transmitted through or by use of your account.

You are expected to "flag" any member content on TGE that you believe is inappropriate or in violation of this Agreement. You may only call such content or behavior to TGE's attention through processes to be described and provided by TGE if you have a personal, good-faith belief that the content or behavior violates the rules of TGE as set forth in this Agreement.

3.1 Content Guidelines

All gifts offered must be legal to own and legally owned by the GIFTor. Their possession must not violate any federal, state or local laws.

3.2 Prohibited Content
Content prohibited from TGE includes but is not limited to:

  • content in facilitation of the creation, advertising, distribution, provision or receipt of illegal goods or services;
  • offensive content (including, without limitation, defamatory, threatening, hateful or pornographic content);
  • false or fraudulent content (including but not limited to false, fraudulent or misleading responses to user offers transmitted via TGE);
  • malicious content (including, without limitation, malware or spyware);
  • content that offers, promotes, advertises or provides links to unsolicited products or services;
  • firearms, weapons, ammunition and military items of any kind
  • hazardous materials as defined by state or local laws, (explosives, combustibles, corrosives, and poisons)
  • alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs,
  • drugs and devices that require a doctor's prescription
  • legally protected animals and legally restricted wildlife products related to endangered species
  • used cosmetics
  • sexually related goods or services (TGE is a "G" rated site. All listings must be appropriate for viewing by children of any age.)

3.3 Restricted Content
The following items may be posted to TGE only if the indicated restrictions are followed:

  • Used clothing may only be offered if it is clean, and has been sanitized by being laundered twice or dry cleaned.
  • Commercial food, health supplements or vitamins may only be offered if they have a clearly marked expiration date, are delivered before they expire, are not altered or changed in any way, and if they are stored safely both before and during delivery.
  • Plants and seeds may be offered if they are allowed by the state and local laws in the area where the GIFTee lives.

Both posting inappropriate or prohibited content and engaging in inappropriate "flagging" are violations of this Agreement, and may result in a member being banned from TGE.

4. Conduct Prohibited

While using TGE, you agree not to:

  • engage in any behavior or activity that intentionally or deliberately injures another human being, including but not limited to physical, psychological, emotional, reputational, and economical injures;
  • engage in any selling activity or any other activity that results in the exchange of funds, currencies, securities or other forms of financial compensation for the GIFT, or as part of any transaction, including but not limited to advertising items for sale, linking to a Web site that advertises items for sale, and offering payment for any item posted on TGE;

    *** However, one can offer GIFTs with financial conditions. As example, if a GIFTee is unable to pick up their GIFT in person, the GIFTor could ship the GIFT to them, but ask for reimbursement for the costs of shipping. Shipping services are provided by Market, the payment is simplly passed through the GIFTor to the shipper: UPS, FEDEX, or the USPS.
     
  • obtain a gift through TGE with the sole purpose and/or intent of reselling it;
  • use our sites, services or tools if you are not able to form legally binding contracts, are under the age of 18 and without the written approval of your parent or guardian, or are temporarily or indefinitely suspended from using our sites, services or tools;
  • fail to deliver gifts offered by you and accepted by the GIFTee, unless a GIFTee fails to meet conditions of the offered gift, or you cannot connect with the GIFTee;
  • take any action that may undermine the feedback or ratings systems (including but not limited to displaying, importing or exporting feedback information off of the sites or using it for purposes unrelated to TGE);
  • transfer, permanently or temporarily, your TGE account information (including, without limitation, login, password and feedback) and User ID to another party;
  • distribute or post spam, unsolicited, or bulk electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
  • distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm TGE or the interests or property of TGE users;
  • export or re-export any TGE tools except in compliance with the export control laws of any relevant jurisdictions;
  • copy, modify or distribute content from TGE;
  • infringe TGE's claimed copyrights and trademarks;
  • harvest or otherwise collect information about users, including email addresses, or use such information regardless of how it is obtained, without their consent;
  • use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access TGE for any purpose without TGE's express signed, written permission;
  • take any action that imposes or may impose (in our sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
  • copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, or publicly display any content (except for your information) from TGE without the prior express written permission of TGE and the appropriate third party, as applicable;
  • interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the sites, services or tools, or any activities conducted on or with the sites, services or tools; or
  • bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the sites.

5. Inappropriate Content

While using TGE, you agree not to post any offer or make any request which would if accepted or fulfilled or by the mere fact of its publication on TGE violate any copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of a third party;

Furthermore, you agree not to post any content of any kind in any manner on TGE which:

  • reveals a trade secret or other protected confidential information belonging to any party other than you;
  • promotes hate or constitutes hate speech;
  • is pornographic; or,
  • advocates, promotes or facilitates illegal activity.

6. Intellectual Property Protection

You own your own posts and other content you submit to TGE. TGE will limit its use of your content to display on the site in accordance with normal operations, dispute resolution, and in conjunction with legal actions where we may be compelled to disclose identifying information. See our Privacy Policy for more details.

7. Member Disputes and Their Resolution

You and all TGE members share the responsibility for making sure exchanges transacted through TGE are rewarding and safe.

If and when issues arise that create a problem exchange, members should first work with each other to resolve those issues before requesting help from TGE.

However, if the parties cannot resolve a problem exchange to their mutual satisfaction, then any member may request arbitration and resolution by TGE.

8. Indemnification

In the event of a dispute involving TGE and another membrer or a third party alleging a grievance against you for use of TGE, you agree to indemnify and hold TGE harmless from and against any third-party claim, cause of action, demand or damages related to or arising out of your conduct or activities on, through or related to TGE, and related to or arising out of any conduct or activities on, through or by use of your TGE account. This indemnification obligation includes payment of any attorneys' fees and costs incurred by TGE.

9. Notices

Except as explicitly stated otherwise, legal notices shall be served to TGE by email to LegalNotice@thegiftingearth.net or to you at the email address you provide to TGE during the registration process. Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid. Alternatively, TGE may give you legal notice by mail to the address provided during the registration process. In such case, notice shall be deemed given three days after the date of mailing.

10. Termination

Without limiting or excluding any other remedy, TGE may limit, suspend or terminate our service and user accounts, prohibit access to our sites and their content, services and tools, delay or remove hosted content, and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the sites if we think that they are creating problems or possible legal liabilities, infringing the intellectual property rights of TGE or third parties, or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies. We also reserve the right to cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a year or longer, and to modify or discontinue TGE sites, services or tools.

11. Choice of Law

This Agreement shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of California as they apply to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within California between California residents, without regard to conflict of law provisions. You agree that any claim or dispute you may have against TGE must be resolved exclusively by a state or federal court located in Monterey County, California, except as otherwise agreed by the parties. You agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within Monterey County, California for the purpose of litigating all such claims or disputes.

By mutual consent, a legal dispute between you and TGE may be submitted for arbitration in Monterey County, CA, in accordance with the rules and procedures of the American Arbitration Association in effect as of the effective date of this Agreement.

12. Severability

If any provision of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. In our sole discretion, we may assign this Agreement in whole or in part in accordance with the Section 9.

13. Failure to Seek Remedy

Our failure to act with respect to an alleged breach of this Agreement by you or others does not affect our right to act with respect to subsequent similar breaches.

14. Headings

Headings are for reference purposes only and do not limit the scope or extent of such section.

15. Amending This Agreement

We may amend this Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on this site. All amended terms shall automatically be effective 10 (ten) days after they are initially posted. Additionally, we will notify you through the TGE Message Center. This Agreement may not be otherwise amended except in a writing hand signed by you and us. For purposes of this provision, a "writing" does not include an email message and a signature does not include an electronic signature.

16. Provisions Surviving Termination

The following Sections survive any termination of this Agreement: 2 (Privacy), 6 (IP Protection), and 8 (Indemnification).

17. Entire Agreement

This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to your use of TGE.