Terms and Conditions

LAST UPDATED ON JUNE 25, 2024

ARTICLE 1: GENERAL

  1. SciPinion, LLC ( “SciPinion” or the “Provider”) offers a web-based forum to assist companies and governments by assembling and analyzing expert opinions (the “Service") which includes use of the Provider’s website (the “Website”) and all the Provider’s applications).
  2. These Terms and Conditions are an agreement that is legally binding between the Provider and any natural or legal person who, as a recipient of the Service, uses the Service for any purpose (“You” or the "User").
  3. The agreement on the Terms and Conditions is effective as of the first to occur: (i) the date You accept the Terms and Conditions in writing or by clicking the “Sign-Up” button on the Provider’s website or through another electronic form of consent; or (ii) the first date You are provided with access to the Service.
  4. By accepting and agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, you also consent and agree to be bound by SciPinion’s Privacy Policy.
  5. The Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy govern the provision of the Services between the Provider and the User.

ARTICLE 2: DISCLAIMER

  1. The Service is provided "as is" and the Provider disclaims any and all representations and warranties, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for any particular purpose, accuracy of data, or non-infringement. The Provider does not promise any specific results, effects, or outcomes from the use of the Service.
  2. The Provider does not represent or warrant that the Service and the data and information provided are accurate, up-to-date, complete, or reliable.
  3. You agree that under no circumstances will the Provider be liable to you or to any other party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages arising from or relating to these Terms and Conditions, whether based on warranty, contract, tort, or any other legal theory or remedy, to the fullest extent allowed under the law.
  4. The Provider disclaims all liability for identity theft or other misuse of your identity or information by others to the fullest extent allowed under the law.
  5. The Provider reserves the right to change, reduce, interrupt, or discontinue the Service or parts of the Service at any time.
  6. The Provider reserves the right to exclude certain Users.

ARTICLE 3: STORAGE OF INFORMATION

  1. The Service consists, in part, of information stored at the request of Users.
  2. The Provider neither previews nor automatically reviews such information. Therefore, the Provider cannot have current knowledge of possible infringements caused by information that is stored on the request of Users. The Provider is not liable for such information to the fullest extent allowed under the law.
  3. The Provider will, upon obtaining knowledge about or awareness of such infringement, act expeditiously to remove or disable access to such information.
  4. Users may only request storage of such information that they may legally store and publish. Users must not request to store any information that infringes any third party's copyright, trademarks, other intellectual property rights, or would otherwise violate the law.

ARTICLE 4: NOTICE AND TAKE DOWN

  1. If a User feels that any information provided within the Service infringes the User’s or any third party's rights, the User shall notify the Provider before taking any legal action.
  2. Upon such notification, the Provider will expeditiously check the objectionable information and will, where necessary, remove or disable access to this information.
  3. The Provider will respond to any such notification within two business days.
  4. Users shall not take any legal action before the Provider has dismissed the notification or after two business days have elapsed without response.

ARTICLE 5: MISUSE OF THE SERVICE

The Provider may restrict, suspend, or terminate the account of any User who abuses or misuses the Service, violates these Terms and Conditions, violates the Privacy Policy, or our policies. In addition, and without limiting the foregoing, the Provider has adopted a policy of terminating accounts of Users who, in the Provider’s sole discretion, are deemed to be repeat infringers under the United States Copyright Act. Misuse or abuse of the Service includes, without limitation, the following:

  1. Conducting automated or massive manual retrieval of the Service or other Users' profile data ("data harvesting");
  2. Advertising for commercial products, goods, or services;
  3. Providing unsolicited job offers and business proposals;
  4. Duplicating, licensing, sublicensing, publishing, broadcasting, transmitting, distributing, performing, displaying, selling, rebranding, or otherwise transferring information found on the Website or otherwise owned by SciPinion except as permitted in this Agreement or content posted by you;
  5. Infringing or using SciPinion’s brand, logos or trademarks without SciPinion’s permission;
  6. Providing or uploading information that:
    1. Is inaccurate or information that is unlawful, libelous, abusive, obscene, discriminatory, or otherwise objectionable as determined by the Provider;
    2. The User does not have the right to disclose or make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as insider information, or proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
    3. Infringes upon patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights or other proprietary rights;
    4. Contains software viruses, worms, or any other computer code, files or programs that interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment of the Provider or any User of the Provider.
    5. Was produced by artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing or other AI assistive services in ways that are not explicitly permitted herein.

ARTICLE 6: USAGE OF INFORMATION

  1. All information provided within the Service by the Provider and by other Users may only be accessed manually by a natural person using ordinary Internet devices.
  2. The Service consists largely of poll results made available by the Provider based upon the opinions of Users provided in response to opinion polls. The opinion polls known as “SciPis” may be supplied to Users by the Provider or by other Users.
  3. Users are encouraged to cite these poll results in their publications and presentations, but any such use must reference “SciPinion.com” or “SciPinion, LLC” as the source of the information.
  4. Users must not sell information that is provided within the Service to any third party.
  5. Users must not publish, share, or make information available that is provided within the Service by the Provider or by other Users to/with any third party, except as set forth in Article 6.3 above.
  6. Users must not store or process any other User's personal data for any other purpose than the natural purpose of such data being published within the Service by the respective User.

ARTICLE 7: INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Provider, and its affiliates, and its respective officers, directors, members, managing members, managers, employees, agents, representatives, successors and assigns from any and all actions, causes of action, claims, charges, demands, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) and liabilities of any kind whether directly or indirectly resulting from, arising out of or in connection with (i) your breach or violation of any provision of these Terms and Conditions; (ii) your breach of violation of any provisions of any Contract for work or other services; (iii) any content you submit to the Service; and (iv) any activity in which you engage on or through the Service.

  1. The software running the Service, the site design, the logos, names and other graphics, articles and other texts as well as the database are protected by trademark and copyright law and are property of the Provider.
  2. In exchange for use of the Service, the User hereby assigns to the Provider, its licensees, assigns and agents all copyright rights, title, and interest in and to opinion polls drafted by the User and provided in connection with the Service.

ARTICLE 9: TRADEMARKS AND SERVICE MARKS

Marks for certain types of goods and services can possibly be used without any identification, such as the ® or TM symbols. This does not mean that such marks were not registered trademarks or service marks or such marks were not protected by any applicable law. Such trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners and must not be used by Users in any infringing manner.

  1. The Provider has adopted the following policy toward copyright infringement on the Service in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the "DMCA"). The address of the Provider’s Designated Agent for copyright takedown notices ("Designated Agent") is listed below. You may submit a notice under the DMCA using our copyright notice form.

    SciPinion, LLC
    Attn: Claimed Copyright Infringement - DMCA
    777 E. Main St., Suite 202
    Bozeman, MT 59715
    USA

    [email protected]

  1. If you believe that content residing or accessible on or through the Service infringes a copyright, please send a notice of copyright infringement containing the following information to the Designated Agent at the address above:
    1. Identification of the work or material being infringed.
    2. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing, including its location, with sufficient detail so that the Provider is capable of locating the material and verifying its existence.
    3. Contact information for the notifying party (the "Notifying Party"), including name, address, telephone number, and email address.
    4. A statement that the Notifying Party has a good faith belief that the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or under the law.
    5. A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information provided in the notice is accurate and that the Notifying Party is authorized to make the complaint on behalf of the copyright owner.
    6. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright that has been allegedly infringed.

Please also note that the information provided in a notice of copyright infringement may be forwarded to the User who posted the allegedly infringing content. After removing material pursuant to a valid DMCA notice, the Provider will immediately notify the User responsible for the allegedly infringing material that it has removed or disabled access to the material. The Provider will terminate, under appropriate circumstances, the accounts of Users who are repeat copyright infringers, and reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate any User for actual or apparent copyright infringement.

  1. If you believe you are the wrongful subject of a DMCA notification, you may file a counter-notification with the Provider by providing the following information to the Designated Agent at the address below:
    1. The specific URLs of material that the Provider has removed or to which the Provider has disabled access.
    2. Your name, address, telephone number, and email address.
    3. A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or the federal district courts located in Montana if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the original DMCA notification or an agent of such person.
    4. The following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled."
    5. Your signature.

ARTICLE 11: LICENSE AND WARRANTY

  1. As between you and the Provider, you own the content and information you provide the Provider under this Agreement, and may request its deletion at any time, unless you have shared information or content with others and they have not deleted it, or it was copied or stored by other users. Additionally, you grant the Provider a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, unlimited, assignable, sublicenseable, fully paid up and royalty-free right to copy, prepare derivative works of, improve, distribute, publish, remove, retain, add, process, analyze, use and commercialize, in any way now known or in the future discovered, any information you provide, directly or indirectly to the Provider, including, but not limited to, any user generated content, ideas, concepts, techniques and/or data you submit to the Provider, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any third parties. Any content or information you submit to us is at your own risk of loss. By providing content or information to us, you represent and warrant that you are entitled to submit it and that it is not confidential and not in violation of any law, contractual restrictions or other third party rights (including any intellectual property rights). We reserve the right to remove any User content that does not comply with the general purposes or the overall look and feel of our website.
  2. On the condition that you comply with all your obligations under this Agreement, the Provider grants you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nonassignable, nonsublicenseable license and right to access the Service, through a generally available web browser, mobile device or other authorized application to view content and information and otherwise use the Service, to the extent intended and permitted by the functionality thereof, in accordance with this Agreement. Any other use of the Service contrary to our mission and purpose is strictly prohibited and a violation of this Agreement. We reserve all rights not expressly granted in this Agreement, including, without limitation, title, ownership, intellectual property rights, and all other rights and interest in the Service and all related items, including any and all copies made of the Provider’s Website or its applications.
  3. You are solely responsible for your use of the Service, for the confidentiality of your login information and any use of the Service or other activities conducted using your login information. Any access or use of the Service by anyone under 13 years of age is prohibited. However, if applicable law requires that you must be older than such ages in order for the Provider to lawfully provide the Service to you (including the collection, storage and use of your information in accordance with our privacy policy) then the minimum age to use the Service would be such older age required by applicable law.

ARTICLE 12: PAYMENT

If you purchase any services that we offer for a fee, either on a one-time or subscription basis, you agree to the Provider storing your payment information. You also agree to pay the applicable fees as they become due plus all related taxes, and to reimburse us for all collection costs and interest for any overdue amounts. Failure to pay may result in the termination of your subscription. Your obligation to pay fees continues through the end of the subscription period during which you cancel your subscription. All applicable taxes are calculated based on the billing information you provide us at the time of purchase. You may cancel or suspend the Service by requesting deletion of you user account.

ARTICLE 13: TERMINATION

  1. You may terminate this Agreement, for any or no reason, at any time, with notice to the Provider. This notice will be effective upon the Provider processing your notice. The Provider may terminate this Agreement and your account for any reason or no reason, at any time, with or without notice. This cancellation shall be effective immediately or as may be specified in the notice.
  2. Upon termination of your account, you lose access to the Service. The terms of this Agreement shall survive any termination, except Articles 11.1 and 11.2.

ARTICLE 14: DISPUTE RESOLUTION

  1. In the event of a dispute with The Provider, you agree to attempt to resolve the dispute with us informally by contacting us at: [email protected]. These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the laws of the State of Montana without respect to its conflict of laws principles. Any disputes that result in court action will be resolved exclusively by state court located in Gallatin County, Montana or federal court located in Butte, Montana, and you specifically consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts and waive any claim of forum non conveniens.
  2. For any claim (excluding claims for injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of the award sought is less than $10,000.00, the party requesting relief may elect to resolve the dispute in a cost effective manner through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. In the event a party elects arbitration, they shall initiate such arbitration through an established alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) provider mutually agreed upon by the parties. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the following rules: (a) the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or be solely based on written submissions, the specific manner shall be chosen by the party initiating the arbitration; (b) the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and (c) any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator shall be final and may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

ARTICLE 15: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

  1. User agrees not to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools or systems to create, simulate, or substitute for the substantive judgment and analysis that are expected from professionals in the relevant fields. All work products submitted shall be the original creation of the Expert, relying solely on the expertise of human professionals.
  2. Permitted uses of AI for content submitted:
    1. Grammar and spell checking
    2. Readability improvements
    3. Preliminary outline drafting assistance
  3. Any use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the creation of submitted content must be fully disclosed by the Expert. The disclosure should specify the manner in which AI was employed.
  4. AI should not be listed as an author or co-author

ARTICLE 16: GENERAL TERMS

  1. If any provision of this Agreement is found by a court of competent jurisdiction or arbitrator to be illegal, void, or unenforceable, the unenforceable provision will be modified so as to render it enforceable and effective to the maximum extent possible in order to effect the intention of the provision; if a court or arbitrator finds the modified provision invalid, illegal, void or unenforceable, the validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions of these Terms and Conditions will not be affected in any way.
  2. You agree that these Terms and Conditions constitutes the entire, complete, and exclusive agreement between you and the Provider regarding the Service and supersedes all prior agreements and understandings, whether written or oral, or whether established by custom, practice, policy or precedent, with respect to the subject matter of this Agreement.
  3. SciPinion reserves the right to make changes to these Terms and Conditions at any time by updating this page and indicating the effective date of those changes. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review these Terms and Conditions periodically to familiarize yourself with any such modifications. By continuing to access and use the Service after those changes become effective, you consent and agree to be bound by the revised Terms and Conditions.
  4. The Provider’s failure to act with respect to a breach of these Terms and Conditions by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to that breach or subsequent similar or other breaches. Except as expressly and specifically contemplated by the Agreement, no representations, statements, consents, waivers or other acts or omissions by the Provider or any affiliate of the Provider shall be deemed legally binding, unless documented in a physical writing signed by a duly appointed officer of the Provider.
  5. In no event shall you seek or be entitled to rescission, injunctive or other equitable relief, or to enjoin or restrain the operation of the Service, or exploitation of any advertising or other materials issued in connection therewith, or exploitation of the Service or any content or other material used or displayed through the Service.
  6. You may not assign or delegate any rights or obligations under the Agreement. Any purported assignment and delegation shall be ineffective. We may freely assign or delegate all rights and obligations under the Agreement, fully or partially without notice to you.

HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have questions or comments about these Terms and Conditions, please contact us online or by physical mail at:

SciPinion, LLC
Attn: Terms and Conditions Issues
777 E. Main St., Suite 202
Bozeman, MT 59715
USA