User Agreement and Privacy Policy

User Agreement and Privacy Policy

Last Updated: November 11, 2008

This User Agreement and Privacy Policy (“Agreement”) describes the privacy practices for the Iranian.com web site (the “Site”) and the terms and conditions that you, the user, agree to observe and abide by in connection with your use of the Site. 

The terms “you” or “user,” and all derivations thereof such as your, yours, yourself, user’s, users’ or user(s), refer to you, the end-user of the Site, whether an unregistered user or a registered user.  

The terms “we” or “Iranian.com” or “Iranian LLC,” and derivatives like us, our, ours, ourselves or Iranian, refer to Iranian LLC, the owner and operator of Iranian.com.

IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, DO NOT USE THE SITE.

We reserve the right to change the terms or conditions of this Agreement or to modify any features of this Site at any time.  By registering and/or continuing to use this Site after the posting of notices regarding such changes, you agree to be bound by such changes.

 User Obligations

1.      Copyright Notice.  Content on Iranian.com (including, without limitation, format/layout, design elements, advertisements, all text of any kind, photographs, graphics, video and audio content, all such content sometimes collectively referred to herein as “Content”) is protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries (including treaties, conventions and the like between and among countries).  All individual articles, photo essays, cartoons, videos, audio files, blogs, and other similar elements comprising the Site are also copyrighted works.  You must abide by this and all additional copyright notices or restrictions contained on the Site.  

2.      No Copying.  Except for Content you have posted on the Site, or unless expressly permitted in a writing signed by the rights holder thereof, you may not copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, enter into a database, display, perform, modify, create derivative works of, transmit, or in any way exploit any part of this Site, except that you may download material from this Site for your own personal use as follows: you may make one machine-readable copy and/or one print copy that is limited to occasional articles of personal interest only.  Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you may not distribute any part of this Site over any network, nor sell or offer it for sale.  See our Rights and Permissions section on the Site for more information on distribution of copyrighted Content. 

3.      Alleged Copyright Infringement by Iranian.com.  We respect the copyrights of others.  If you believe in good faith that your copyrighted work has been reproduced on our Site without authorization in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify our designated copyright agent via email at copyright<at-sign>Iranian<dot>com.  This contact information is for suspected copyright infringement only.  Contact information for other matters is provided elsewhere on this Site. Any personal information you provide in your email will be used only for purposes related to your email.

4.      No Reuse.  Our Site has been specially designed for presentation of Content in a unique format and appearance to our users. We are concerned about the integrity of our Content when it is viewed in a setting created by a third party that includes advertising or other materials that we have not authorized to be displayed with our Content. Without limiting the scope of any other term or condition of this Agreement, neither you nor any third party shall make use of the Content of this Site in any manner that constitutes an infringement or other violation or impairment of our rights or those of others (including, without limitation, copyright or trademark infringement) or for any use that has not been authorized by us.

5.      We Are Not Responsible For User-Generated Content.  You understand that comments, user messages and blogs are not moderated, and we do not monitor the Content posted on the Site.  Accordingly, we are not responsible for any such Content.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, we reserve the right, without further consent, to: (a) remove, edit or otherwise alter Content that we, in our sole discretion, deem inappropriate for any reason whatsoever, and (b)prohibit any registered user from further use of the Site should we, in our sole discretion, so choose. 

6.      Public Forum.  The Site creates a forum for Content Creators and others to express themselves, and any such opinion or expression does not necessarily represent the opinion or position of Iranian LLC.  Although we make commercially reasonable efforts to avoid the publication of defamatory, harassing, obscene, illegal or offensive Content, you agree that your only remedy, in the event we do so for whatever reason, is to require that we remove the Content pursuant to a written so-called "take-down" notice in accordance with the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") or similar such written notice under other applicable law.

7.      Unreliable Information.  You acknowledge and agree that you use and/or rely on any information on the Site at your own risk.  Iranian.com does not necessarily endorse the Content of the comments, blogs, articles or discussion forums and cannot and will not vouch for their reliability.  Further, the opinions expressed by any Content Creator are those of the Content Creator and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Iranian LLC.

8.      You Are Responsible for “Your” Words and Actions.  You will be responsible while your account is being used by you or others, with or without your permission, for all statements made, or materials posted, under your account, including, without limitation, liability for harm caused by such statements or materials.  Any Submission (as defined below) made by you will be subject to those further terms and conditions set forth under “Submissions” below, which are hereby incorporated by this reference.

9.      You Will Not Abuse The Site.  You will use the site for personal, non-commercial purposes only.  You will not create scripts or robots to download, frame, index or create loads on our servers beyond that required for individual, personal, non-commercial use.

10.  No Assignment.  You may not sell, pledge, hypothecate, assign, transfer or otherwise dispose of or encumber all or any portion of your rights or obligations under this Agreement.

11.  Indemnification.  You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Iranian LLC and its directors, officers, managers, employees, shareholders, agents, and licensors, from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses, resulting from any violation of this Agreement, or the failure to fulfill any obligations relating to your account, incurred by you or any other person using your account.  We reserve the right to take over the exclusive defense of any claim for which we are entitled to indemnification under this Section, at your sole expense.  In such event, you shall promptly provide us with such cooperation as is reasonably requested by us.

12.  No Warranties.  This Site is available "as is." We do not warrant or represent that this Site will be uninterrupted or error-free.  There may be delays, omissions, interruptions and inaccuracies in the news, information or other materials available through this Site.  We are not responsible for the availability of Content or other services that may be linked to this Site.  We do not make any warranties, express or implied, including, without limitation, those of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to this Site or any information or goods that are available or advertised or sold through this Site. We do not make any representations, nor do we endorse the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other material or database displayed, uploaded or distributed in this Site or available though links in this Site. We reserve the right to correct any errors or omissions on this Site.  Although we intend to take reasonable steps to prevent the introduction of viruses, worms, "Trojan horses" or other destructive elements to this Site, we do not guarantee, warrant or represent that this Site, or materials that may be viewed on, or downloaded from, this Site, do not contain such harmful or destructive elements. We are not liable for any damages or harm attributable to such elements. If you rely on this Site or any materials made available through this Site, you do so solely at your own risk and with prior knowledge of the foregoing.

13.  Limitation of Liability.  Neither Iranian LLC, nor any of its directors, officers, managers, employees, shareholders, agents or licensors (collectively, "us"), are liable for any incidental, indirect, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages of any kind, including, without limitation, lost revenues or profits, loss of business or loss of data, in any way related to this Site or for any claim, loss or injury based on errors, omissions, interruptions or other inaccuracies in this Site (including, without limitation, as a result of breach of any warranty or other term of this Agreement). Any claim against us shall be limited to the amount you paid, if any, for use of this Site.

14.  Term and Termination.  This Agreement may be prospectively terminated by either party for any reason at any time, provided that the rights and duties, such as indemnification and limited liability, associated with events prior to termination shall survive any such termination.

15.  Governing Law and Venue.  This Agreement shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the United States and the State of California, and shall be deemed to have been entered into and wholly performed in San Jose, California for venue purposes.

16.  Miscellaneous. This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto, and their respective heirs, successors and assigns.  If any portion of this Agreement is determined to be illegal or unenforceable, then all remaining portions shall be given effect separately and shall not be affected by any such determination,   No waiver of any breach of any provision of this Agreement shall constitute a waiver of any other breach of the same or any other provision hereof, and no waiver shall be effective unless made in writing.  The titles in this Agreement are for convenience only and shall not be considered in construing this Agreement.  The word "or" is not exclusive.

BY CONTINUING TO USE IRANIAN.COM, YOU AGREE TO ABIDE BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT.

Submissions

Registered users are permitted and encouraged to leave comments or submit articles, blog entries, photo essays, music items or other Content on the Site, including, without limitation, related photos, graphics, audio files and text of any sort.  All of these submissions and anything else submitted for publication is hereinafter called a “Submission.”

By making or reading one or more Submissions, you and we understand and agree as follows:

1.      We respect your intellectual property rights.  Unless you and we otherwise agree, you retain all rights to copyright, trademarks, service marks or patents ("Intellectual Property Rights" or "IP Rights") in any original work you submit, and we respect your rights according to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.   

•         Notices.  We recommend that you explicitly declare and protect your IP Rights to articles, pictures or other Content you wish to protect by adding a proper copyright notice ("Copyright" or "©," [the year the work was first published], [your name or the name of the rights holder if different that you].  "All rights reserved.") or similar notice(s) in the case of other IP Rights, below all such work.  If you wish to preserve your IP Rights and also grant a Creative Commons license to other users, you may do so simply by including the appropriate language and hyperlinks, as copied from the Creative Commons site. The reservation and declaration of your IP Rights, including any grant of a Creative Commons license, is sometimes referred to in this Agreement as a "Notice."   Note: the HTML code for a Creative Commons license, when pasted in the "Body" of your submission may not show up correctly on the "Preview" panel, but it will work correctly in the final, published version.  

•         Photographs and Videos.  You can add a Notice of your IP Rights or a Creative Common's license to image or video works by embedding the actual Notice in the image or video stream itself.  Alternatively, you may add the Notices in the text that is adjacent to the image by including the Notice in the "Body" field of the Submission form.  Use "Preview" to ensure that the Notice appears adjacent to the image, thereby effectively placing others on notice about your rights.  

•         Audio Material.  It is recommended that you include a Notice in the text adjacent to the link to the audio file for any original music or other audio work.

•         Right to Republish.  Unless otherwise agreed (namely, to where you give Iranian.com an "exclusive" right to publish), you retain the right to allow other people to publish and copy your work.  Under paragraph 6, you grant Iranian LLC a very broad license, including, without limitation, the right to grant other people rights relating to your work, but you retain the right to do anything you want with your work, too.

•         Rights of Third Parties.   If you are submitting works from other parties, you agreed above that you have authority to do so and to enter into this Agreement and, in so doing, bind such works and the rights holders thereof to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.  Assuming that proper copyright notice(s) are included in the Submission, we will respect the copyright owned by the author, artist, songwriter, publisher, filmmaker, videographer or other content creator (collectively, "Content Creator") of the work.

2.      You are fully responsible for your own Submissions.  You will not knowingly make a Submission that violates the copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right(s) of any third party, and you will remove the same should you discover or be notified that you have violated this provision.  Likewise, you may not post Content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, that violates a third party's right to privacy, that otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, or is otherwise inappropriate.  You may not post Content that degrades others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual preference, disability or other classification.  Epithets, slurs, canards and other language intended to intimidate or to incite violence will not be tolerated.  You will not upload or email to other users malicious software, viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, spam or any other “malware.”  You will not impersonate others.  You will indemnify Iranian LLC, and its employees, members, managers, officers, directors, shareholders, agents, and affiliates from any and all claims and/or damages (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses) resulting from any claim brought by any third party relating to any Content you have posted. 

3.      You have the right to grant Iranian.com the license to use and publish the Submission.  By making a Submission, you grant us a very broad and extensive license to publish, republish, modify and use your Submission as more fully set forth below and in the Rights and Permissions page published elsewhere on the Site, which is incorporated by this reference.  By making the Submission, you represent that you have the legal rights to enter into this Agreement and to agree to the terms set forth herein.

4.      You grant us broad editorial privileges.  Any submissions other than blog entries are irrevocable, and we may publish them over your byline.  You grant us the right to make editorial changes to your submission prior to publication and to publish the same without your further consent. 

5.      Your Submission is non-commercial.  You understand and agree that comments and forums are to be used only for non-commercial purposes. You may not solicit funds, promote commercial entities or otherwise engage in commercial activity in our comments areas or any discussion forums.

6.      You grant Iranian LLC very broad rights to your Submission.  For any Content that you post, you hereby grant to Iranian LLC a worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content, in whole or in part, and to incorporate it in other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.  

7.      Compilation Rights.   Iranian LLC asserts a copyright in and to the compilation of all Content on the Site, even Content where the Content Creator has retained or asserted a copyright, trademark or patent interest or where he or she has granted a Creative Commons license.  See the Rights and Permissions page on the Site for more information.

Our Privacy Policy and Use of Your Information

At Iranian.com we are committed to protecting your privacy.  We will not intentionally release any of your personal information to any party without your explicit approval, as set forth herein or unless compelled to do so by subpoena or other legal process.

We hope that you will want to provide some information about yourself to Iranian.com by becoming a “registered user,” because it will make your experience here more valuable to you and to other members of the community.  If you are comfortable sharing some basic information about yourself, you will receive enhanced services that are otherwise not possible to offer to unregistered users.  

However you choose to interact with Iranian.com, you have our pledge that we will manage your privacy information in accordance with the policies set forth herein.

When you visit Iranian.com ("cookies")

Cookies are used on the Iranian.com Web site to manage advertising banner displays by our advertising partners. We use Google Adsense and other advertising networks, and they have their own cookies, for which we are not responsible. Google uses the DoubleClick DART cookie, which enables it to serve you ads based on your visits to all sites on the Internet which support that cookie. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.  

Iranian.com cookies from registered users also may contain a user's username(s) so that the username is “remembered” on the computer.

We also gather traffic patterns and Site usage information, such as browser type, referring URL, and IP address, in order to help us develop the design and layout of the Site.  This information is not linked to any personally identifiable information about you. 

We have relationships with advertisers and vendors who sell products and services to customers who click from Iranian.com to the vendor's Web site.  We may use broad demographic or geographic information provided by you to target ads, but no advertiser will have access to your personally identifying information.  In cases where you click through to an advertisers’ site, Iranian.com does not collect any information about you, and any information provided by you to these vendors and service providers would fall under the privacy policy of such vendor(s).  These are external to the Iranian.com Web site, and therefore not under the control of Iranian.com.

We may share aggregate statistical information regarding our customers, sales, traffic patterns, and Site usage with our commercial partners.  For example, we may develop summary, not individual, reports for our advertisers or sponsors.  An example of a summary report might be "800 people clicked on Advertisement Z today." We never tell our partners who it was that saw or clicked on their advertisements. 

We also may use this general information in conjunction with generally available marketing databases so that we better understand our customers and can tailor our products, services and Content to meet our customers' needs and preferences.  This information is for use by Iranian.com only and is not shared with third parties.

When you register at Iranian.com

In order to use some advanced features of Iranian.com, you must first complete the Site registration form.  During registration, you must provide certain personal information (specifically “username” and email address).  We encourage, but do not require, that you use your real name as your username.  We use this information to contact you about the Site's services in which you have expressed interest. 

You have the option to provide certain demographic information, such as year of birth, “bio,” picture, personal Web site, country of residence, zip code (if your country is the United States) and gender.  If you want to use the blogging features of the Site, you may add a name and tagline for your blog.  We encourage you to submit this information, so that we can provide a more personalized experience on the Site and as a benefit for our community of users, but it is not required.  If, however, you do provide such demographic information, it will be displayed on your “User’s Page” and blog, and all Users can see it, along with your username.  Note that your email address is NOT revealed or displayed.  If you wish that certain demographic information not be displayed, please do not provide it.  (If you have provided it and now wish that it not be displayed, simply “edit” your “My Account” page and remove the information.)

Registered users may also check a “personal contact form” option on the “My Account” page.  This enables other Users of the Site to create a message for you on a web-based form on the Site, which message will be privately forwarded to you via email.  The sender of the message will not see your email unless you reply to him/her via email.  If you do not wish to be contacted by other Users, do not select the option to enable the personal contact form.

Registered users may also subscribe or unsubscribe for email newsletters or for occasional special offers from our advertisers.  In both cases, we will not intentionally reveal your email address to advertisers or other users. 

You may opt out of receiving any newsletters or special offers by “unsubscribing” to these offers on your “My Account” page. 

We use your email address to respond to questions you ask us or for certain administrative communications such as forgotten passwords or confirming activities on your account.  And we may use your email address to send you email regarding the status of your user account. 

Public Forums

Iranian.com may provide public forums for our visitors to read and share information with other individuals.  Disclosing personally identifiable information online through comments, forums, message boards or other Content makes the information public information.  Please be careful and use discretion when disclosing any information in such a public forum.

Advertising and Links to Other Sites

We may use your personally identifying information to target certain ads based on your geographic location and/or demographic profile (specifically age and gender).  We will not reveal your information to the advertiser. 

Iranian.com has arrangements with third parties and advertising networks who provide advertising banners or sponsored links.  We do our best to only link to reliable Web sites.  However, Iranian.com cannot control the activities of any third parties or ad networks with regard to the ads that appear on our Site or once an Iranian.com customer leaves the Iranian.com Web site.  If you have questions about the privacy policies of such third parties, we suggest contacting them directly or visiting their Web sites to review their posted privacy policies.

Contests, Promotions and Surveys

From time to time, we may offer our users the opportunity to participate in contests, promotions and surveys, in which case we will collect additional information, which will be used only for the purposes specified in the contest, promotion or survey.