Terms Of Service

Terms Of Service and Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 27, 2009

This Terms of Service document governs the use of the IveBeenMugged.typepad.com blog site ("I've Been Mugged blog"), including without limitation participation in its comments and polls. This document does not cover the I've Been Mugged blog content that appears in other sites (e.g., Twitter.com, Facebook.com, etc.). Please refer to the Terms of Service in those sites for privacy and other policies governing those sites.

This document may be modified from time to time. When modified, the date will appear on this page. This Terms of Service document also includes the Privacy Policy for the I've Been Mugged blog. Please read this Terms of Service carefully. You can access this document any time at ivebeenmugged.typepad.com/my_weblog/terms-of-service.html. Your use of the I've Been Mugged blog and submission of any comments will constitute your agreement to this Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you cannot agree with the terms and conditions in this document, please do not use the I've Been Mugged blog.

MONITORING

A safe, informative, and enjoyable online experience is important to our blog readers, so we may monitor activity on the I've Been Mugged blog including comments. All users of the I've Been Mugged blog hereby specifically agree to such monitoring. Nevertheless, we do not make any warranties or guarantees that: (1) the I've Been Mugged blog, or any portion thereof, will be monitored for accuracy or unacceptable use, (2) apparent statements of fact will be authenticated, or (3) we will take any specific action (or any action at all) in the event of a dispute regarding compliance or non-compliance with this Terms of Service.

RULES OF USAGE

You use of the I've Been Mugged blog is governed by the following:

1. The I've Been Mugged blog is not intended for persons under the age of 18. Such users are expressly prohibited from submitting their personally identifiable information to us. Any information submitted by such users will not knowingly be used, posted, or retained by us.
2. Unless otherwise specified, the I've Been Mugged blog is for your personal use only. You may not authorize others to use the blog, and you are responsible for all use of the blog by you. You may not impersonate, imitate or pretend to be somebody else when using the Website.
3. You may not provide to or post on the I've Been Mugged blog any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that constitutes junk mail, spam, advertising, and/or commercial offers. You may not repeat the same posting multiple times in a day or week.
4. You agree not to use any obscene, indecent, or offensive language ,or to provide to or post on the I've Been Mugged blog graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that is defamatory, abusive, bullying, harassing, racist, hateful, or violent. You agree to refrain from ethnic slurs, religious intolerance, homophobia, and personal attacks when using the I've Been Mugged blog.
5. You further agree not to use any sexually suggestive language, or to provide to or post on the I've Been Mugged blog any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that is sexually suggestive.
6. You may not provide to or post on the I've Been Mugged blog any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that invades another person's privacy, or facilitates or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates any local, state, federal, national or international law or regulation (e.g., drug use, underage drinking). You agree to use the I've Been Mugged blog only for lawful purposes and you acknowledge that your failure to do so may subject you to civil and criminal liability. Do not provide to or post on the I've Been Mugged blog any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that includes instructions for weapon and/or explosive manufacture or use.
7. You are responsible for ensuring that any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material you provide to or post on the I've Been Mugged blog, does not violate the copyright, trademark, trade secret or any other personal or proprietary rights of any third party or is provided or posted with the permission of the owner(s) of such rights.
8. The I've Been Mugged blog may contain graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio and other material that is clearly identified for your use ("Assets"). The Assets are protected by state, national and international copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws. Nevertheless, we (and our licensors) grant to you the limited, non-exclusive, right and license to use the Assets solely as described on the I've Been Mugged blog, as limited by this Terms of Service policy, and provided further that you keep intact any and all copyright and other proprietary notices.
9. The I've Been Mugged blog is protected by state, national and international copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws, and is the property of Service Provider or its licensors. The copying, reproduction, publication, display, rearrangement, redistribution, modification, revision, alteration, cropping, re-sizing, reverse engineering, movement, removal, deletion, or other use or change by you, directly or indirectly, of any content in the I've Been Mugged blog, is strictly prohibited.
10. You may not in any way make commercial or other unauthorized use, by publication, re-transmission, distribution, performance, caching, or otherwise, of material obtained through the I've Been Mugged blog, including without limitation the Assets or content, except as permitted by the Copyright Act or other law or as expressly permitted in writing by this Terms of Service.
11. You agree not to disrupt, overwhelm, attack, modify, reverse engineer or interfere with the I've Been Mugged blog or its associated software, hardware and/or servers in any way, and you agree not to impede or interfere with others' use of the Website.
12. You may not attempt to gain access to I've Been Mugged blog servers by any means - including, without limitation, by using administrator passwords or by masquerading as an administrator while using the Website or otherwise.

COMMENTS BY OTHERS ARE NOT ENDORSED BY SERVICE PROVIDER:

George Jenkins and I've Been Mugged does not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify, or agree with the comments, opinions, or statements posted by readers in the Comments section of the I've Been Mugged blog. Any information or material placed online, including advice and opinions, are the views and responsibility of those who post the statements and do not necessarily represent the views of George Jenkins and the I've Been Mugged blog. You agree that George Jenkins and the I've Been Mugged blog are not responsible, and shall have no liability to you, with respect to any information or materials posted by others, including defamatory, offensive or illicit material, even material that violates this Terms of Service.

USE OF MATERIAL SUPPLIED BY YOU:

The I've Been Mugged blog and George Jenkins do not assert any ownership over the information, text, graphics, photographs, images, video or audio files, or other material or content you post, upload, input, or submit to the I've Been Mugged blog (collectively called "User Content"). You retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content. For information regarding use of information about you that you may provide to, or that may be collected by, the I've Been Mugged blog, please read the Privacy Policy section below.

In addition, please be aware that User Content you disclose in publicly accessible portions of the Website will be available to all users of the I've Been Mugged blog, so you should be mindful of personal information and other content you may wish to post. Unless expressly provided otherwise in the Privacy Policy or in this Terms of Service document, you grant I've Been Mugged and George Jenkins a royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, copy, reproduce, modify, adapt, reformat, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display such User Content in any medium for any purpose on or in connection with the I've Been Mugged blog, or promotion thereof, as long as your User Content remains on the I've Been Mugged blog.

INDEMNIFICATION:

You agree to indemnify George Jenkins and the I've Been Mugged blog, and to defend and hold each of them harmless, from any and all claims and liabilities (including attorneys fees) which may arise from your submissions, from your unauthorized use of material obtained through the I've Been Mugged blog or from your breach of this Terms of Service, or from any such acts through your use of the I've Been Mugged blog.

EDITING AND DELETIONS:

The I've Been Mugged blog and George Jenkins reserve the right, but undertakes no duty, to review, edit, move or delete any User Content provided for display or placed on the I've Been Mugged blog and its Comments sections, in its sole discretion, without notice.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY:

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE USING THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG IS PROVIDED "AS IS", AND HEREBY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR ANY OTHER WARRANTY, CONDITION, GUARANTEE OR REPRESENTATION, WHETHER ORAL, IN WRITING OR IN ELECTRONIC FORM, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN OR PROVIDED BY THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG AND GEORGE JENKINS DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT ACCESS TO THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THERE WILL BE NO FAILURES, ERRORS OR OMISSIONS OR LOSS OF TRANSMITTED INFORMATION, OR THAT NO VIRUSES WILL BE TRANSMITTED ON THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG.

I'VE BEEN MUGGED AND GEORGE JENKINS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTIES FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ALLEGEDLY SUSTAINED ARISING OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT, THE PROVIDING OF THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG HEREUNDER, THE SALE OR PURCHASE OF ANY GOODS OR MERCHANDISE, YOUR ACCESS TO OR INABILITY TO ACCESS THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG, INCLUDING FOR VIRUSES ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN OBTAINED FROM THE I've BEEN MUGGED BLOG, YOUR USE OF OR RELIANCE ON THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG OR ANY OF THE MERCHANDISE, INFORMATION OR MATERIALS AVAILABLE ON THE I'VE BEEN MUGGED BLOG, REGARDLESS OF THE TYPE OF CLAIM OR THE NATURE OF THE CAUSE OF ACTION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS THAT VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.

YOU HEREBY AGREE TO RELEASE I'VE BEEN MUGGED AND GEORGE JENKINS FROM CLAIMS, DEMANDS AND DAMAGES (ACTUAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL) OF EVERY KIND AND NATURE, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, SUSPECTED AND UNSUSPECTED, DISCLOSED AND UNDISCLOSED ("CLAIMS"), ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR USE OF THIS SITE.

PRIVACY POLICY

THE TYPE OF INFORMATION COLLECTED:

The I've Been Mugged blog collects only the personally identifying information that you provide (e.g., name, web site address, e-mail address), when submitting a comment. Otherwise, we do not collect any personally identifiable information.

Our server automatically collects information about your computer when you visit the I've Been Mugged blog. We collect this information to understand usage patterns; which pages in the I've Been Mugged blog site visitors access as a group. We do not collect or track the usage of specific individuals. The types of information we may collect about your computer:

• Web browser software (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.),
• The operating system (e.g., Windows, Linux, etc.),
• The Web site that referred you to the I've Been Mugged blog,
• Your Internet Protocol ("IP") address (e.g., the Internet address usually associated with the place from which you enter the Internet, like your Internet Service Provider, your company or your university),
• Search terms you entered at a search engine (e.g., www.yahoo.com) that referred you to the I've Been Mugged blog

COOKIES:

You may have read about "cookies," portions of information that are placed by a Web site in a sub-directory on your own computer. We use cookies to understand how site visitors read the posts and articles within the I've Been Mugged blog, and to provide the best user experience possible. We do not participate in any advertising and behavioral advertising advertising networks. The cookies we use may identify your computer so we can understand how new versus repeat site visitors read the information in the I've Been Mugged blog.

So, the specific cookies you may encounter while using the I've Been Mugged blog are from:

• Typepad.com - the hosting service that provides the blogging software,
• Lijit.com - the service that provides the blog search mechanism,
• Twitter.com - the micro-blogging and status service,
• ShareThis.com - the service that provides this social networking mechansim
• PollDaddy.com - the service that provides the polling mechanism,
• Google.com for its Google Analytics software, and
• Quantcast.com for its site metrics and demographics analysis (e.g., male vs. female, age, etc.)

I've Been Mugged blog pages include HTML code for the Google Analytics and Quantcast.com services. Again, this code does not collect data about individuals. This code enables the analysis of page views and I've Been Mugged readership as a whole.

Should we decide to include any new technologies or mechanism in the I've Been Mugged blog, we will inform you and adjust this Terms of Service document accordingly. We do not offer any advertising in the I've Been Mugged site, so we do not participate in any advertising or behavioral advertising networks. If this changes, we will inform you and adjust this Terms of Service document accordingly.

If you don't want any cookies, your Web browser likely includes an option that allows you to not accept them. We suggest that you read this I've Been Mugged blog post about how to secure your Web browser. If you set your browser to refuse cookies, some portions of the I've Been Mugged blog may not function properly (e.g., polls, Lijit search).

CHILDREN:

This Website is not intended for use by children under age 18. Minors must get the permission of their parent(s) or legal guardian(s) before submitting any comments to this blog.