Member Agreement/Terms and Conditions

 

You must agree to the following terms and conditions of use before you access or otherwise use or participate in the Hallmark Online Community. Your use of this web site constitutes your agreement with Hallmark Cards, Incorporated to be bound by, and to act in accordance with, these Terms and Conditions.

 

Notification of Changes

We may change or revise these Terms and Conditions from time to time by updating this posting. Please visit the Terms and Conditions area each time you visit the web site to keep up to date with the current terms regarding your use of the web site. Your use of the web site reaffirms your continuing agreement to the then-current Terms and Conditions. Any future changes to these terms and conditions will be posted on the community web site.

 

Confidentiality

Your invitation to participate in the Hallmark Online Community is personal and non-transferable. You may not use or disclose to others any of the information that we disclose to you or any ideas or information that are generated in the community. Your community member name and password are for your use only. You may not disclose your password to any other person.

 

Assignment

You irrevocably assign to Hallmark all rights in any ideas or expressions of ideas that you provide to the community. All comments, suggestions, graphics, ideas (including product and advertising ideas), and other information or materials you submit to Hallmark through this web site will become and remain the exclusive property of Hallmark, including any future rights associated with such submissions, even if these Terms and Conditions are later modified or terminated. This means that you disclaim any proprietary rights in such submissions, and you acknowledge Hallmark’s unrestricted right to use them (or materials or ideas similar to them) in any medium, now and in the future, without notice, compensation or other obligation to you or any other person. It also means that with the exception of your personal information, Hallmark has no obligation to keep your submissions confidential.

 

You further release and waive all claims against Hallmark with respect to any intellectual property or other proprietary rights, rights of privacy and publicity, rights of attribution, or any other liability under the governing law of the United States, on account of Hallmark’s use, including commercial use, or disclosure, of any such information or materials you submit to Hallmark.

 

Privacy

To the extent that you also provide us with any of your personally identifiable information, Hallmark will only use such information in accordance with the privacy policy of Hallmark, a copy of which is available at www.hallmark.com. Please note that by clicking on the "I Accept" button below, any of your personally identifiable information you submit may be directed to a third party site administered and hosted by a third party vendor retained by Hallmark provided, that in such event, the third party vendor will have no right to use any such information other than uses necessary to fulfill its services to Hallmark.

 

Social Networks

To help facilitate login to our Community, we offer an optional and voluntary sign-on service that allows you to sign-in using login credentials from your Facebook® account. This allows you to associate your existing Facebook® profile with your Community account. By linking these accounts, Hallmark will have access to certain profile information contained within your Facebook® profile such as your full name, e-mail, locale, gender, profile picture, as well as other publicly available profile information. No Community content will ever be shared on Facebook® without your express permission. You can disassociate your Facebook® account from your Community account at any time by clicking "Unlink" on your Member Profile page. This service is optional and voluntary and by using this sign-on service and linking your accounts, you consent to the transfer of information from your Facebook® account to Hallmark.

 

Hallmark Contests and Sweepstakes

You agree not to enter or otherwise participate in, during the time that you are a member of the Community, any Hallmark-sponsored skill contests (such as those that solicit consumer-created content for use on products), sweepstakes, or similar promotions outside of the Community. This includes but is not limited to contests and sweepstakes which may appear on websites such as Hallmark.com, Hallmarkcontest.com, and any Hallmark-affiliated Facebook pages. In the event that, notwithstanding this clause, you do enter such a contest or sweepstakes then you agree to forfeit the opportunity to win any prize and to return to Hallmark any prize already awarded.

 

Code of Conduct

You agree not to upload, post or transmit to or distribute or otherwise publish through the Web Site any materials which (i) restrict or inhibit any other user from using the Web Site, or contain a virus or other harmful component, (ii) violate any United States laws or violate or infringe any rights of third parties (including copyright, trademark, rights of privacy or publicity or any other proprietary right), or (iii) are not appropriate or pertinent to the purpose of the Web Site or are libelous, defamatory or offensive. You will agree to abide by the copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property and proprietary rights of Hallmark.

 

You agree to abide by these rules of conduct:

· Only those who are members of the community may access it.

· Unless specifically told otherwise, you must keep confidential all information that Hallmark, other community members, and you share with the community.

· Hallmark has the right to use the ideas and information that you put forth in the community.

· You agree not to copy or download any copyrighted material.

· You agree not to use behavior that does not support a safe and comfortable environment for all members (do not be rude, arrogant, or insulting, nor use profanity under any circumstances). Under any circumstances, do not attack any other community member or group of members (e.g. stay-at-home moms). State your opinion freely about subjects (“I don’t like reality TV shows”), but do not attack people (“People who watch reality TV are stupid”). This includes responding in an attacking way to a comment you find offensive. Postings that violate this principle will be removed by the facilitators, and the member will be contacted privately. Repeated violations may lead to the revocation of membership privileges.

· Everyone here is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how off the wall it might seem. You are encouraged to state your own opinions, but do not criticize or attack the opinions of others who may see a subject differently from you. The world would be a very boring place if everyone thought the same way.

· The Idea Exchange site allows (although we do not encourage) members to make a Discussion posting “Anonymous,” so that other members do not know the name of the member making the post. This feature is intended to serve three purposes:
a) Allowing members to freely express their views about Hallmark products, services and research questions, even if they think other members might dislike those views.
b) Facilitating occasional fun activities that require temporary anonymity, such as the “Secret Santa” activity each Christmas season.
c) Helping new community members begin to participate in Discussions if they initially feel shy about having their name attached to an on-line posting.

The “Anonymous” feature is never to be used, however, to mask the identity of a member making a critical comment about another community member, group of members, or member’s opinion. Postings that violate this principle will be removed by the facilitators, and the member will be contacted privately. Repeated violations may lead to the revocation of membership privileges.

· If at any point you see a posting in the community which you believe violates the Code of Conduct, please do not respond to that post on the site in a critical or attacking manner. Instead, please e-mail the facilitators immediately, making them aware of the post and the name of the bulletin board in which it occurs.

· Limit yourself when writing in all capital letters; it's hard to read, and is generally considered rude in cyberspace (like screaming).

· Everyone makes mistakes, so you are entitled to misspell words or use bad grammar in whatever language you are expressing yourself in without being attacked by the “spelling police” (either from Hallmark or other community members).

· Do not post any of the following: material that advocates illegal activity, advertising or any form of commercial solicitation, unauthorized copyrighted material, spam (multiple copies in one area or the same communication in multiple areas).

· A condition of membership in this community is that you do not work for a greeting card company, wholesaler or retailer of greeting cards, an advertising or PR firm, a marketing research firm, or be in the field of marketing research. Please notify us immediately if you become employed in any of these areas.

· You agree to receive emails from the Community regarding Community Activities.

· You, or any members of your household, are not currently involved in any other online community hosted by C Space.

· You understand that no personal information that you post on this site will be sold, traded, shared with other organizations, or used for any purpose other than consumer research

· Hallmark does not endorse the information posted in the community.

 

Membership

In order to meet our research needs, Hallmark Research will periodically replace members and refresh the community with new members. This means your participation is of a limited time frame. Your membership in and access to the Hallmark Online Community is strictly at the discretion of Hallmark and may be revoked at any time without cause and without notice. You hereby release Hallmark from any and all liability that may arise in connection with your use of the Hallmark Online Community.

 

Warranty

Hallmark does not represent or endorse the correctness, accuracy, reliability or any other aspect of advice, opinion, statement or other information distributed through the Hallmark Online Community, and reserves the right to remove any content from the community website that it deems inappropriate or not sufficiently advancing the purposes of the Hallmark Online Community.

 

Hallmark and/or its agencies endeavor to maintain this web site and its operation, but is not, and cannot be, responsible for the results of any defects that may exist in the web site or its operation. As to the operation of the web site, Hallmark expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether expressed or implied, including, but not limited to all implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. Hallmark makes no warranty that (i) the operation of the web site will meet the user's requirements; (ii) access to the web site will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, free of viruses, worms, trojan horses or other harmful components, or free of defects or errors; (iii) the results that may be obtained from the use of the web site will be accurate or reliable; or (iv) defects will be corrected. You (and not Hallmark) assume the entire cost of all servicing, repair, or correction that may be necessary for your computer equipment and software as a result of any viruses, errors or any other problems whatsoever you may have as a result of visiting this web site.

 

Limitation of Liability

Under no circumstances shall Hallmark and/or its agencies be liable for any damages or injury, including any direct, special, incidental, consequential, punitive or other damages, that may result from the use of, or the inability to use, the web site or any materials in this site, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the website or information available in the web site. Hallmark shall not be liable even if Hallmark or a Hallmark authorized representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages. These include but are not limited to damages or injury caused by error, omission, interruption, defect, failure of performance, delay in operation or transmission, line failure or computer virus, worm, trojan horse or other harmful component.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold Hallmark and/or its agencies harmless from any claim or demand made by any third party against Hallmark due or arising out of your participation in the Hallmark Online Community and/or any breach by you of the provisions of this agreement.

 

Jurisdiction

These Terms and Conditions and any disputes arising under or related to these Terms and Conditions (whether for breach of contract, tortious conduct or otherwise) shall be governed by the laws of the State of Missouri, without reference to its conflicts of law principles. You agree to submit to jurisdiction in Missouri and further agree that any cause of action arising under this Agreement may be brought in a court in Kansas City, Missouri and you hereby accept and submit to the personal jurisdiction of these courts with respect to any legal actions, suits or proceedings arising out of these Terms and Conditions. You also waive to the fullest extent permitted by law any right to a trial by jury in any action, suit or proceeding brought to enforce, defend or interpret any right or remedies under, or arising in connection with or relating to, these Terms and Conditions.