Terms of Use – the groundUP S.S.I.
Welcome to www.thegroundup-ssi.com. This website (“Site”) is owned and operated by gUs, inc., an Illinois Corporation. By visiting www.thegroundup-ssi.com or shopping at www.theground-UP.com, www.theground-UP.net; www.thegroundupstores.com; www.thegroundupstores.net; www.groundupstores.com; www.groundupstores.net; www.gustores.com; www.gustores.net; or www.furmandesigns.com, you accept these conditions, so please read them carefully. We reserve the right at our discretion to revise these Terms and Conditions from time to time. Please check these Terms and Conditions periodically. By using the Site after we post changes to these Terms and Conditions, you agree to accept those changes, whether or not you have actually reviewed them.
If you do not agree to abide by these Terms and Conditions, please do not enter or make any use of the Site.
Privacy
Please review our Privacy Statement, which also governs your visit to the Site, to understand our practices.
Copyright
All content included on this Site, including, but not limited to, text, graphics, photographs, images, button icons, page headers, moving images, sound, illustrations and software (“Content”), is owned by gUs, inc. and/or its third-party providers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws.
Copyright © 2013 gUs, inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
You may not modify, remove, delete, augment, add to, publish, display, transmit, retransmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, create derivative works from, or in any way exploit any of the Content, in whole or in part. If no specific restrictions are displayed, you may download or make copies of select portions of the Content, provided that the copies are made only for your personal use and that you maintain any notices contained in the Content, such as all copyright notices, trademark legends, or other proprietary rights notices. Except as provided in the preceding sentence or as permitted by the fair use privilege under the U.S. copyright laws (see, e.g., 17 U.S.C. Section 107), you may not upload, post, reproduce, or distribute in any way Content displayed on this Site without obtaining the prior written permission of gUs, inc.
Nothing contained on the Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use the Site, the Content, or any information displayed on the Site, through the use of framing or otherwise, except: (a) as expressly permitted by these Terms and Conditions; or (b) with the prior written permission of gUs, inc. or the prior written permission from such third party that may own the trademark or copyright of information displayed on the Site.
Trademarks
All trademarks, service marks and trade names of gUs, inc. are trademarks or registered trademarks of gUs, inc. or its subsidiaries, the groundUP stores; the groundUP s.s.i.; Xentrix Studios; and Furman DeSigns.
Nothing contained in or on the Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any licence or right to use any of the trademarks or other intellectual property rights displayed in or on the Site unless the prior written consent of gUs, inc. has been obtained. Other than as expressly provided by these Terms and Conditions, your use of the trademarks or any other intellectual property rights or any Content in or on the Site in any way howsoever is strictly prohibited.
All other trademarks not owned by gUs, inc. that appear on the Site are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected to, or sponsored by gUs, inc. and use of this Site grants you no right to such materials.
Site access
You may not download (other than page caching) or modify the Site or any portion of it, without our express prior written consent. This includes: a prohibition on any resale or commercial use of the Site or the Content; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of the Site or the Content; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of another merchant; or any use of data mining, robots, browsers, spiders, avatars or intelligent agents or similar data gathering and extraction tools other than the search engine and search agents available from gUs, inc. on this Site and other than generally available third party web browsers (e.g., Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Explorer, Firefox, etc). The Site or any portion of the Site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without our express prior written consent. You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of gUs, inc. without our express prior written consent. You may not use any meta tags or any other “hidden text” utilizing our name or trademarks without our express prior written consent.
You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Site, including, without limitation, (a) accessing data not intended for you or logging into a server or account which you are not authorized to access, (b) attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization, (c) attempting to interfere with service to any other user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of submitting a virus to the Site, overloading, “flooding”, “spamming”, “mailbombing” or “crashing”, (d) sending unsolicited e-mail, including promotions and/or advertising of products or services, or (e) forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. gUs, inc. will investigate occurrences which may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting users who are involved in such violations.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
A. Written DMCA Notice. If you are a copyright owner, or an agent of a copyright owner, and believe that a User Submission or other content displayed on this Site infringes your copyright, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) by providing gUs, inc. Copyright Agent with the following information in writing (see 17 U.S.C 512(c)(3) for further detail): 1 Physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed; 2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site; 3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material; 4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail; 5. A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and 6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. gUs, inc.’s designated Copyright Agent to receive notifications of claimed infringement is: [name] [address] [phone numbers]. Only DMCA notices should go to the Copyright Agent. If you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section 5(D), your DMCA notice may not be valid. B. Written DMCA Counter-Notice. If you believe that your User Submission that was removed (or to which access was disabled) is not infringing, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner, the copyright owner’s agent, or pursuant to the law, to have your User Submission posted and used on this Site, then you may send a counter-notice containing the following information to the Copyright Agent: 1. Your physical or electronic signature; 2. Identification of the content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the content appeared before it was removed or disabled; 3. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the content; and 4. Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court in Portland, Oregon, and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement. If a counter-notice is received by the gUs, inc.’s Copyright Agent, then gUs, inc. may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that it may replace the removed content or cease disabling it in ten (10) business days. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the content provider, member or user, the removed content may be replaced, or access to it restored, in ten (10) to fourteen (14) business days or more after receipt of the counter-notice, at gUs, inc.’s sole discretion.
Links
We are not responsible for the content of any sites that may be linked to or from www.thegroundup-ssi.com. These links are provided for your convenience only and you access them at your own risk. Any other website accessed from the Site are independent from gUs, inc., and gUs, inc. has no control over the content of that other website. In addition, a link to any other website does not imply that gUs, inc. endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content or use of such other website. In no event shall any reference to any third party or third party product or service be construed as an approval or endorsement by gUs, inc. of that third party or of any product or service provided by a third party.
You are granted a limited, revocable, and nonexclusive right to create a hyperlink to the homepage of this Site so long as the link does not portray gUs, inc. or their products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter. You may not use any gUs, inc.’s logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark as part of the link without our prior express written permission.
Disclaimers of Warranty
the site is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. Neither gUs, inc., nor its content providers, affiliates, subsidiaries, or designees, nor each of their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, third-party content providers, designers, contractors, distributors, merchants, sponsors, licensors or the like (collectively, “associates”) warrant that use of the site will be uninterrupted, reliable, current or error-free. Neither gUs, inc., nor its associates warrant the accuracy, integrity, or completeness of the content provided on the site or the products or services offered for sale on the site. Further, we make no representation that content provided on the site is applicable or appropriate for use in locations outside of the united states. gUs, inc. and its associates specifically disclaim warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No oral advice or written information given by gUs, inc. shall create a warranty. You expressly agree that the use of the site is at your sole risk.
Limitations of Liability
under no circumstances shall gUs, inc. or its associates be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential damages that result from the use of or inability to use the site, including but not limited to reliance by a user on any information obtained at the site, or that result from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files or email, errors, defects, viruses, delays in operation or transmission, loss of data or profits, or any failure of performance, whether or not resulting from acts of god, communications failure, theft, destruction or unauthorized access to gUs, inc.’s records, programs or services. the foregoing limitation of liability shall apply whether in an action of contract, negligence, tort, strict liability or any other action, even if an authorized representative of gUs, inc. has been advised of or should have knowledge of the possibility of such damages. you hereby acknowledge that this paragraph shall apply to all content, merchandise and services available through the site. because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in such states, some or all of the above disclaimers, exclusions, or limitations may not apply to you, and you might have additional rights. however, the liability of gUs, inc. and its associates is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.
if you are dissatisfied with any portion of the gUs, inc. site, or with any of these terms and conditions, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the site. if a product offered by gUs, inc. is not as described, your sole remedy is to return it in unused condition.
Prices, descriptions and availability of products on the Site are subject to change without notice. Errors will be corrected when discovered, and we reserve the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions (including after an order has been submitted whether or not the order has been confirmed and your credit card charged).
Online conduct
You agree to use this Site only for lawful purposes. You are prohibited from posting on or transmitting through this Site any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, profane, hateful, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including but not limited to any material that encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law. If we are notified of allegedly infringing, defamatory, damaging, illegal, or offensive Content provided by you (e.g., through an author chat or online review), gUs, inc. may investigate the allegation and determine in its sole discretion whether to remove or request the removal of such Content from the Site. We may disclose any Content or electronic communication of any kind (i) to satisfy any law, regulation, or government request; (ii) if such disclosure is necessary or appropriate to operate gUs, inc.; or (iii) to protect the rights or property of gUs, inc., its Associates and you.
Termination of Usage
We may terminate your access or suspend your right to access to all or part of the Site, without notice, for any conduct that we, in our sole discretion, believe is in violation of any applicable law or is harmful to the interests of another user, gUs, inc. or its Associates.
Usage by children under 18
We cannot prohibit minors from visiting the Site. We must rely on parents, guardians and those responsible for supervising children under 18 to decide which materials are appropriate for such children to view and/or purchase. If you are under 18, you may use this Site only with involvement of a parent or guardian
We require that all purchases be made by adult individuals 18 years of age or older, or (ii) give verifiable permission for such minors to purchase items on the Site and for the collection by us of certain information in accordance with the terms of our privacy policy. EACH TIME YOU PURCHASE A PRODUCT ON THIS SITE, YOU ARE REPRESENTING TO gUs, inc. THAT YOU ARE AN INDIVIDUAL 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER, AND FOR THE COLLECTION BY US OF CERTAIN INFORMATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF OUR PRIVACY POLICY.
Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless gUs, inc., including its officers, members, subsidiaries, parents, affiliates, successors, assigns, agents, suppliers and employees, from and against any and all claims, damages (actual and statutory), judgments, penalties, fines, costs and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising from or related to (a) your use of the Site, (b) your tender of User Submissions, and (c) your warranties, representations or agreements contained in these Terms & Conditions.
US Sales Only
Unless otherwise specified, this Site and the Contents thereof are displayed solely for the purpose of promoting gUs, inc.’s products and services available in the United States. This Site is controlled and operated by gUs, inc. from its offices in Machesney Park, Illinois.
Applicable law
By visiting the Site, you agree that the laws of the State of Illinois, U.S.A., without regard to principles of conflict of laws and not the 1980 U.N. Convention on contracts for the international sale of goods, will govern these Terms and Conditions and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and gUs, inc. and its Associates.
Disputes
Any dispute relating in any way to your visit to the Site or to services you purchase through the Site shall be submitted to mandatory, confidential arbitration. This clause shall be interpreted broadly in favor of arbitration, and any issues of arbitrability shall be governed by the United States Arbitration Act. Arbitration shall be conducted in Rockford, Illinois, except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate gUs, inc.’s intellectual property rights, gUs, inc. may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in any state or federal court located in Winnebago County, State of Illinois, and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts. Arbitration under this Agreement shall be conducted under the commercial arbitration rules then prevailing of the American Arbitration Association by a single arbitrator appointed by the AAA. The arbitrator’s award shall be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through class arbitration proceedings or otherwise. Should either party file an action contrary to this provision, the other party may be awarded its reasonable attorneys fees and costs.
gUs, inc.’s failure to insist upon or enforce strict performance of any provision of these Terms and Conditions shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right. Neither the course of conduct between the parties nor trade practice shall act to modify any of these Terms and Conditions.
Site policies, modification and sever ability
Please review our other policies, such as our Privacy and Security Policy, posted on the Site. These policies also govern your visit to the Site. We reserve the right to make changes to the Site, policies, and these Terms and Conditions at any time. If any of these conditions shall be deemed invalid, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that condition shall be deemed sever able and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining condition.
Miscellaneous
Your obligations under these Terms & Conditions shall survive termination, and shall be binding on your heirs, administrators, successors and assigns.
