govirtual.org Terms & Conditions
1. General
Govirtual.org, Materials and any services of the Website ("Website") is a service provided by VMware, Inc. ("VMware" or "Host") and all information is stored and managed by VMware. The Website, as a service for the betterment of the virtualization community, provides a forum benefiting those people in academia and research who are interested in virtualization topics.
2. User's Acceptance of Terms of Use
These Terms of Use shall govern your access, visits and participation in the Website. If you do not agree to all of these Terms of Use, you should not access, visit or participate in the Website. The Host reserves the right to modify, suspend or terminate the forum and/or these Terms of Use from time to time at its sole discretion and without notice. The Website is provided on an AS IS and AS AVAILABLE basis. The Host will not be liable to you or any third-party for any claims or actions arising or resulting from your use, visit, or participation in the Website and for any modification, suspension, or termination of the Website, or termination of your access to the Website.
3. Registration
You must be at least eighteen (18) years old to use and participate in the Website. If you wish to have a Website account, you must provide current, accurate, and complete information about yourself during the account registration process. By joining the Website, you expressly agree to be bound by these Terms of Use as entered into by and between the Host and you. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Website password and account, and assume all liabilities and responsibilities for any and all activities that occur under your account. You must maintain and promptly update any account information provided to the Website in order to keep such information up to date, accurate and complete. The Host reserves the right to refuse access to anyone, at any time, without notice, and for any reason.
4. Conduct
You must abide by the following rules of conduct:
a. Do not engage in any unlawful conduct on the Website. In particular, do not post, publish, or distribute any defamatory, obscene, infringing or other unlawful material or information.
b. Treat others on the Website as you would expect them to treat you. Do not engage in personal attacks or any type of "flaming" of other users. Do not "troll", i.e. post topics or opinions that are designed to provoke a negative response from one or more specific users.
c. Do not use offensive language. If you have any doubts about whether a particular statement might be considered offensive by other users, do not post it.
d. Do not engage in disruptive activity on the Website, such as persistent off-topic contributions or comments, or statements that might incite other users to violate these guidelines or participate in illegal activities.
e. Do not contribute content that contains photos, software or other material protected by intellectual property laws, rights of privacy or publicity, or any other applicable law unless you own or have rights to these materials.
f. Do not post any instructions, software or other materials that would allow participants or third parties to harm other users' computers or to inappropriately access software or websites.
g. Do not post any computer programs that contain destructive features, such as viruses, worms or Trojan horses. Do not employ any type of bots for the use of scrolling, showing multiple screens, or other activities that might disrupt online communication.
h. Do not falsely impersonate any other person in the forum.
i. Do not use the Website to spam other users, including sending identical and irrelevant submissions to many different discussion groups, mailing lists or communities.
j. Do not misrepresent the source of anything you contribute.
k. While you may use the Website to provide supplemental information about your own entity or specific research projects that might be of interest to other users (without spamming them), do not rely on the Website as the primary mechanism for operating or promoting your entity or research project. Any use of the Website for commercial purposes is solely at your own risk, and the Host assumes no liability for such use.
l. Any space provided to you on the Website is for your own personal use, and may not be sold, licensed, exchanged or bartered for any purpose, including advertisements.
m. You are responsible and liable for all your activities while participating in the Website, including anything you contribute.
n. Do not rely on the Website for the safe and secure storage of any materials, such as photos, documents and software. The Website is not designed as the primary place to store any of these materials, and is not responsible for the alteration, deletion or loss of any stored items. Create back-ups for any materials that you contribute to the Website.
p. The Host reserves the right to remove at any time, without notice, any contribution that violates these guidelines. The Host also reserves the right at any time, without notice, to ban a user who has violated these rules of conduct from the Website.
q. Some participants may post Internet website links, however the Host is not responsible for the content on the websites associated with these links. In addition, we must remind you that some content and links on the Internet contain adult content that is not suitable for children and may be offensive to some users.
r. You are responsible for any actions you may take based on information or advice you receive while online. Use your own good judgment when evaluating information provided through the Website or any other communication service. The decision to share information or conduct transactions with anyone is your own; therefore conduct your own research prior to making any decisions.
5. Uploading Contributions and Downloading Materials
Your uploading contributions and downloading materials is subject to and governed by the terms of the Upload and Download License Agreement that you were or will be presented with upon uploading or downloading.
6. Blogs
Blog authors and blog users (hereinafter "Bloggers") who post blog entries, comments or other Contributions are expected to adhere to conduct as set forth in Section 4 above. Bloggers may create blogs generally discussing virtualization products and services, or virtualization software and technology. Although the Host respects the freedom of Bloggers and the Contributions they post, blogs that predominantly discuss topics completely unrelated to virtualization or that consume excessive resources or bandwidth may be taken down at the sole discretion of the Host. Generally it is suggested that Bloggers take responsibility not just for their own words, but for the comments allowed on their blogs; label their tolerance level for abusive comments; consider eliminating anonymous comments; ignore the trolls (i.e., those who intentionally post derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages); take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so; if you know someone who is violating the conduct guidelines, tell them so; and don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person. Bloggers understand that they bear the full responsibility of any Contributions they post and that such Contributions may lead to adverse consequences in their personal or professional lives, such as damaged friendships or loss of employment.
7. Disclaimer
ALL CONTRIBUTIONS AND OTHER ACCOUNT SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. NO WARRANTY IS MADE THAT THE WEBSITE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, THE WEBSITE WILL BE AVAILABLE ON AN UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE BASIS, THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE WEBSITE OR ANY CONTRIBUTIONS AND OTHER ACCOUNT SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH THE WEBSITE WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE OR RELIABLE; OR THE QUALITY OF ANY CONTRIBUTIONS AND OTHER ACCOUNT SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH THE WEBSITE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS.
ANY CONTRIBUTIONS AND OTHER WEBSITE SERVICES DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE WEBSITE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK. WMWARE SHALL HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OR USE OF CONTRIBUTIONS AND OTHER ACCOUNT SERVICES.
IN NO EVENT SHALL VMWARE OR ANY OF ITS PARTNERS OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, INCIDENTAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) RESULTING FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE WEBSITE OR CONTRIBUTIONS, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT VMWARE IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
THE MAXIMUM LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE WEBSITE OR YOUR USE OF CONTRIBUTIONS, AND OTHER ACCOUNT SERVICES, REGARDLESS OR THE CAUSE OF ACTION (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, BREACH OR WARRANTY OR OTHERWISE), WILL NOT EXCEED ONE DOLLAR ($1).
8. Indemnification
If VMware and its subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, agents, and employees should incur any liability to a third party arising out of or in any way related to your use of this Website or Materials, you agree to indemnify and hold VMware free and harmless from any such liability, and from all loss, claims, costs, demands, debts and causes of action in connection therewith, including reasonable attorney's fees.
9. Privacy Policy
VMware does not require that you provide personal information, the decision to provide personal information is voluntary. However, in order to register for an account with the Website, you must provide personal information. By providing your personal information to VMware, you consent to the collection, processing and storage by VMware of your personal information in accordance with the terms of VMware's Privacy Policy.
These Terms of Use are effective June 27, 2008.