Terms of service

The gist

We (the folks at TrotBlogger) run a blog and website hosting platform called TrotBlogger.com and would love for you to use it. TrotBlogger.com’s basic service is free, and we offer paid upgrades for advanced features such as domain hosting and extra storage. Our service is designed to give you as much control and ownership over what goes on your website as possible and encourage you to express yourself freely. However, be responsible in what you publish. In particular, make sure that none of the prohibited items (like spam, viruses, or serious threats of violence) appear on your website.

If you find a TrotBlogger.com website that you believe violates these Terms of Service, please contact us.

Terms of Service

The following terms and conditions (“Terms”) govern all use of the TrotBlogger.com website and all content, services, and products available at or through the website. Our Services are offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, TrotBlogger's Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time by TrotBlogger (collectively, the “Agreement”). You agree that we may automatically upgrade our Services, and these Terms will apply to any upgrades.

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to become bound by the Terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree to all the Terms of this Agreement, then you may not access or use any of our Services. If these Terms are considered an offer by TrotBlogger, acceptance is expressly limited to these Terms.

Our Services are not directed to children younger than 13, and access and use of our Services is only offered to users 13 years of age or older. If you are under 13 years old, please do not register to use our Services. Any person who registers as a user or provides their personal information to our Services represents that they are 13 years of age or older.

Use of our Services requires a TrotBlogger.com account. You agree to provide us with complete and accurate information when you register for an account. You will be solely responsible and liable for any activity that occurs under your username. You are responsible for keeping your password secure.

Your TrotBlogger.com Account and Website

If you create a blog or website on TrotBlogger.com, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and blog, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the blog. You must immediately notify TrotBlogger of any unauthorized uses of your blog, your account, or any other breaches of security. TrotBlogger will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

Responsibility of Contributors

If you operate a blog, comment on a blog, post material to TrotBlogger.com, post links on TrotBlogger.com, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available (any such material, “Content”), you are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content or your conduct. That is the case regardless of what form the Content takes, which includes, but is not limited to text, photo, video, audio, or code. By using TrotBlogger.com, you represent and warrant that your Content and conduct do not violate these Terms or the User Guidelines.

By submitting Content to TrotBlogger for inclusion on your website, you grant TrotBlogger a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing, and promoting your blog. This license allows TrotBlogger to make publicly-posted content available to third parties selected by TrotBlogger so that these third parties can analyze and distribute (but not publicly display) your content through their services.

If you delete Content, TrotBlogger will use reasonable efforts to remove it from TrotBlogger.com, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, TrotBlogger has the right (though not the obligation) to, in TrotBlogger's sole discretion, (i) reclaim your username or website’s URL due to prolonged inactivity, (ii) refuse or remove any content that, in TrotBlogger's reasonable opinion, violates any TrotBlogger policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (iii) terminate or deny access to and use of TrotBlogger.com to any individual or entity for any reason. TrotBlogger will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

Advertisements

TrotBlogger reserves the right to display advertisements on your blog unless you have purchased an Ad-free Upgrade.

TrotBlogger reserves the right to display attribution text or links in your site footer or toolbar, attributing TrotBlogger.com or the design author, for example. The toolbar may not be altered or removed.

Payment and Renewal

Optional paid services such as extra storage or domain purchases are available (any such services, an “Upgrade”). By selecting an Upgrade you agree to pay TrotBlogger the annual subscription fees indicated for that service. Payments will be charged on a pre-pay basis on the day you sign up for an Upgrade and will cover the use of that service for an annual subscription period as indicated. Fees you paid for an Upgrade are not refundable.

If you don't want to renew your Upgrade, you need to warn us four weeks (28 days) before the expiration date of the Upgrade to let us know your choice. After that date, the minimum subscription of one year for the same Upgrade will be renewed and will be due.

Responsibility of Visitors

TrotBlogger has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to our Services, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating our Services, TrotBlogger does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful, or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Our Services may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. Our Services may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. TrotBlogger disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of our Services, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.

Content Posted on Other Websites.

We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which TrotBlogger.com links, and that link to TrotBlogger.com. TrotBlogger does not have any control over those non-TrotBlogger.com websites, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-TrotBlogger.com website, TrotBlogger does not represent or imply that it endorses such website. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. TrotBlogger disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-TrotBlogger.com websites and webpages.

Copyright Infringement

If you believe that material located on or linked to by TrotBlogger.com violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify TrotBlogger. TrotBlogger will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. TrotBlogger will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of TrotBlogger or others. In the case of such termination, TrotBlogger will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to TrotBlogger.

Intellectual Property.

This Agreement does not transfer from TrotBlogger to you any TrotBlogger or third party intellectual property, and all right, title, and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with TrotBlogger. TrotBlogger, TrotBlogger.com, the TrotBlogger.com logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with TrotBlogger.com or our Services, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TrotBlogger or TrotBlogger's licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with our Services may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of our Services grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any TrotBlogger or third-party trademarks.

Domain Names

We act as a registrar and also work with third party registrars in order to provide our users with domain name services. When you register a domain name on TrotBlogger.com, or when you renew or transfer an existing domain name on TrotBlogger.com, you become bound by the relevant registrar’s terms and conditions, either the TrotBlogger Domain Name Registration Agreement, Tucows Domain Inc. Registration Agreement, or this Domain Name Registration Agreement, in addition to these Terms. Which registrar terms apply depends on the TLD you choose, and in some cases, the date you register your domain. These registrar terms are incorporated by reference into these Terms.

Further, your use of the domain name is also subject to the policies of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”). A summary of your rights and responsibilities as a domain name registrant under ICANN’s 2009 Registrar Accreditation Agreement can be found here. You can learn more about domain name registration generally here.

Changes

We are constantly updating our Services, and that means sometimes we have to change the legal terms under which our Services are offered. If we make changes that are material, we will let you know by posting on one of our blogs, or by sending you an email or other communication before the changes take effect. The notice will designate a reasonable period of time after which the new terms will take effect. If you disagree with our changes, then you should stop using our Services within the designated notice period. Your continued use of our Services will be subject to the new terms. However, any dispute that arose before the changes shall be governed by the Terms (including the binding individual arbitration clause) that were in place when the dispute arose.

Termination

TrotBlogger may terminate your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your TrotBlogger.com account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using our Services. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

Disclaimer of Warranties.

Our Services are provided “as is.” TrotBlogger and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither TrotBlogger nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that our Services will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. If you’re actually reading this, here’s a treat. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, our Services at your own discretion and risk.

Limitation of Liability

In no event will TrotBlogger, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this Agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to TrotBlogger under this Agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. TrotBlogger shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

General Representation and Warranty.

You represent and warrant that (i) your use of our Services will be in strict accordance with the TrotBlogger Privacy Policy, with this Agreement, and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of our Services will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless TrotBlogger, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of our Services, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.