This Acceptable Use Policy (“Terms of Use”) covers the products, facilities, services, and technologies (collectively referred to as the “Products”) provided by The Waterways Journal, Inc. d/b/a Bound Media Group (“Bound Media Group,” “we,” or “us”) to Bound Media Group’s customers (“Customer” or “you”) under any ongoing agreement with you (“Customer Agreement”). The Terms of Use are designed to protect us, our customers and the general Internet community from unethical, irresponsible and illegal activity.

If you are found engaging in activities prohibited by the Terms of Use, you may be liable for service suspension and account termination. In extreme cases, we may be legally obliged to report you to the relevant authorities.

The Terms of Use were last revised on December 11, 2024.

Fair use

We provide our Products with the assumption your use will be “business as usual”, as per our offer schedule and as may be defined within a Customer Agreement. If we, in our sole discretion, deem your use of the Products to be excessive, then additional fees may be charged or capacity may be restricted.

We are opposed to all forms of abuse, discrimination, rights infringement and/or any action that harms or disadvantages any group, individual or resource and provide our Products with this intent. We expect you and, where applicable, your users (“End-Users”) to likewise engage our Products with similar intent.

If you choose, or are provided with, a username, password, or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any other person or entity. You also acknowledge that your account is personal to you, and where applicable your End-Users, and agree not to provide any other person with access to the Products or portions of it using your username, password, or other security information unless. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your username or password or any other breach of security. You should use particular caution when accessing your account from a public or shared computer so that others are not able to view or record your password or other personal information.

Customer accountability

You are responsible for your own actions as well as for the actions of End-Users using the Products with or without your permission. This responsibility also applies to anyone using our Products on an unauthorized basis as a result of your failure to put in place reasonable security measures.

To the extent that you require End-Users to use the Products, you are responsible for (1) making all arrangements necessary for the End-Users to have access to the Products; and (2) ensuring that End-Users who use the Products are aware of these Terms of Use and comply with them.

By using the Products, you agree to ensure adherence to these Terms of Use on behalf of anyone using the Products as your end user. Complaints regarding your actions or your End-Users will be forwarded to the nominated contact for the account in question.

If you, an End-User or anyone using our Products as a result of your failure to put in place reasonable security measures violates these Terms of Use, we reserve the right to terminate any Products associated with the offending account or the account itself or take any remedial or preventative action we deem appropriate without notice. To the extent permitted by law, no credit will be available for interruptions of service resulting from any violation of our acceptable use policy.

Prohibited activity

You may use the Products only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms of Use. You agree not to use the Products in any way that violates any applicable federal, state, local, or international law or regulation (including, without limitation, any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the US or other countries). This includes but is not limited to:

• In any way that violates any material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right.
• For the purpose of exploiting, harming, or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way by exposing them to any material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat or violates export control laws.
• To impersonate or attempt to impersonate Bound Media Group, a Bound Media Group employee, another user, or any other person or entity. 
• Representation of a significant business relationship with Bound Media Group, or ownership of any Bound Media Group property (including our Products and brand) for the purpose of fraudulently gaining service, custom, patronage or user trust.
• To engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use or enjoyment of the Products, or which, as determined by us, may harm Bound Media Group or users of the Products, or expose them to liability.

Additionally, you agree not to:

• Use the Products in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Products or interfere with any other party’s use of the Products, including their ability to engage in real time activities through the Products.
• Use any robot, spider, or other automatic device, process, or means to access the Products for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material within the Products.
• Use any manual process to monitor or copy any of the material within the Products, or for any other purpose not expressly authorized, without our prior written consent.
• Use any device, software, or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Products.
• Introduce any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, logic bombs, or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage, or disrupt any parts of the Products, the server on which the Products are stored, or any server, computer, or database connected to the Products.
• Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Products.

Customer Contributions

You are solely responsible for all material you or your End-Users input, upload, disseminate, transmit, create or publish through or on our Products (“Customer Contribution”), and for obtaining legal permission to use any works included in such material.

Any Customer Contribution you or your End-Users make will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. By providing any Customer Contribution, you grant us and our affiliates, licensees, successors, and assigns the right to use, reproduce, modify, perform, display, distribute, and otherwise disclose to third parties any such material for any purpose.

You represent and warrant that:

• You own or control all rights in and to the Customer Contribution and have the right to grant the license granted above to us and our affiliates licensees, successors, and assigns.
• All of your Customer Contributions do and will comply with these Terms of Use.

Intellectual Property Rights

The Products and its entire contents, features, and functionality (including but not limited to all information, software, text, displays, images, video, and audio, and the design, selection, and arrangement thereof) are owned by Bound Media Group, its licensors, or other providers of such material and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws.

These Terms of Use permit you to use the Products for “business as usual”, as per our offer schedule or as otherwise may be defined within a Customer Agreement. Unless otherwise defined within the corresponding Customer Agreement, you must not reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store, or transmit any of the material, except as follows: 

• Your computer may temporarily store copies of such materials in RAM incidental to your accessing and viewing those materials.
• You may store files that are automatically cached by your Web browser for display enhancement purposes.

You must not:

• Modify copies of any materials from this site.
• Delete or alter any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices from copies of materials from this site.

You must not access or use for any commercial purposes any part of the Website or any services or materials available through the Website.

If you print, copy, modify, download, or otherwise use or provide any other person with access to any part of the Products in breach of the Terms of Use, your right to use the Products will stop immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. No right, title, or interest in or to the Products or any content on the Products is transferred to you, and all rights not expressly granted are reserved by Bound Media Group. Any use of the Products not expressly permitted by these Terms of Use is a breach of these Terms of Use and may violate copyright, trademark, and other laws.

Trademarks

The Bound Media Group name, Product names and all related names, logos, product and service names, designs, and slogans are trademarks of Bound Media Group or its affiliates or licensors. You must not use such marks without the prior written permission of Bound Media Group. All other names, logos, product and service names, designs, and slogans within the Products are the trademarks of their respective owners.

SPAM and unauthorized message activity

Our Products must not be used for the purpose of sending unsolicited bulk or commercial messages in violation of the laws and regulations applicable to your jurisdiction (“spam”). This includes but isn’t limited to sending spam, soliciting customers from spam sent from other service providers, and collecting replies to spam sent from other service providers.

Our Products must not be used for the purpose of running unconfirmed mailing lists or telephone number lists (“messaging lists”). This includes but is not limited to subscribing email addresses or telephone numbers to any messaging list without the permission of the email address or telephone number owner, and storing any email addresses or telephone numbers subscribed in this way. All messaging lists run on or hosted by our Products must be “confirmed opt-in”. Verification of the address or telephone number owner’s express permission must be available for the lifespan of the messaging list.

We prohibit the use of email lists, telephone number lists or databases purchased from third parties intended for spam or unconfirmed messaging list purposes on our Products.

This spam and unauthorized message activity policy applies to messages sent using our Products, or to messages sent from any network by the customer or any person on the customer’s behalf, that directly or indirectly refer the recipient to a site hosted via our Products.

Unethical, exploitative, and malicious activity

Our Products must not be used for the purpose of advertising, transmitting or otherwise making available any software, program, product or service designed to violate these Terms of Use, or the acceptable use policy of other service providers. This includes but is not limited to facilitating the means to send spam and the initiation of network sniffing, pinging, packet spoofing, flooding, mail-bombing and denial-of-service attacks.

Our Products must not be used to access any account or electronic resource where the group or individual attempting to gain access does not own or is not authorized to access the resource (e.g. “hacking”, “cracking”, “phreaking”, etc.).

Our Products must not be used for the purpose of intentionally or recklessly introducing viruses or malicious code into our Products and systems.

Our Products must not be used for purposely engaging in activities designed to harass another group or individual. Our definition of harassment includes but is not limited to denial-of-service attacks, hate-speech, advocacy of racial or ethnic intolerance, and any activity intended to threaten, abuse, infringe upon the rights of or discriminate against any group or individual.

Other activities considered unethical, exploitative and malicious include:

1. Obtaining (or attempting to obtain) services from us with the intent to avoid payment;
2. Using our facilities to obtain (or attempt to obtain) services from another provider with the intent to avoid payment;
3. The unauthorized access, alteration or destruction (or any attempt thereof) of any information about our customers or end-users, by any means or device;
4. Using our facilities to interfere with the use of our facilities and network by other customers or authorized individuals;
5. Publishing or transmitting any content of links that incite violence, depict a violent act, depict child pornography or threaten anyone’s health and safety;
6. Any act or omission in violation of consumer protection laws and regulations;
7. Any violation of a person’s privacy.

Our Products may not be used by any person or entity, which is involved with or suspected of involvement in activities or causes relating to illegal gambling; terrorism; narcotics trafficking; arms trafficking or the proliferation, development, design, manufacture, production, stockpiling, or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, weapons of mass destruction, or missiles; in each case including any affiliation with others whatsoever who support the above such activities or causes.

Reliance on Information Posted

The information presented on or through the Products is made available solely for general information purposes and is provided subject to our Terms of Service which can be found here. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of this information. Any reliance you place on such information through your use of the Products is strictly at your own risk. We disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by you or any other user of the Products, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

Information About You and Your Use of the Products

All information we collect through your use of the Products is subject to our Privacy Policy which can be found here. By using the Products, you consent to all actions taken by us with respect to your information in compliance with the Privacy Policy.

About this policy

This policy outlines a non-exclusive list of activities and intent we deem unacceptable and incompatible with our brand.

We reserve the right to modify this policy at any time by publishing the revised version on our website. Any revised version(s) will be effective as of publication on the website and continued use by the Customer of the Products following the publication on the website shall be considered Customer’s acceptance of the revised version(s). Customer is expected to review the Terms of Use from time to time so you are aware of any changes, as they are binding on you.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Bound Media Group, its affiliates, licensors, and service providers, and its and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors, and assigns from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses, or fees (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to your violation of these Terms of Use or your use of the Products, including, but not limited to, your User Contributions, any use of the Products other than as expressly authorized in these Terms of Use, or your use of any information obtained from the Products.

Waiver and Severability

No waiver by Bound Media Group of any term or condition set out in these Terms of Use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or a waiver of any other term or condition, and any failure of Bound Media Group to assert a right or provision under these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

If any provision of these Terms of Use is held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect.