DATE: Effective July 1 2018
[CANCELLATION URL] for cancelling/deleting your account is https://econ1.net/cancel
[COMPANY] is Economic and Financial Technology Consulting LLC, a limited liability company organized in Tennesee, USA.
[COMPANY LEGAL ADDRESS] is
Economic and Financial Technology Consulting LLC
4219 Shady Oak Drive
Ooltewah TN 37363 USA
[CONTACT EMAIL] for the company is manager@eaftc.com
[SERVICE] is the Econ1.Net Robot Market Laboratory provided at https://econ1.net and other econ1.net websites, and any other services made available, our blog, our API (if any), and any other software, sites, and services offered by [COMPANY] in connection to any of those.
[URL] is the internet address (uniform resource locator) https://econ1.net, or any subaddress or subdomain thereof.
The [COMPANY] is a wholesale provider of the [SERVICE]. All sales and billing support are through our [RETAILER].
Our [RETAILER] is FastSpring.com. at Bright Market, LLC dba FastSpring. 801 Garden St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101
You may question a charge by the retailer at https://fastspring.com/question-a-charge/
"Content" means all content generated by [COMPANY] on your behalf.
Your use of the [SERVICE] is governed by this agreement (the "Terms").
In order to use the Service, You (the "Customer", "You", or "Your") must first agree to the Terms. You understand and agree that [COMPANY] will treat Your use of the Service as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.
[COMPANY] may make changes to the Terms from time to time. You may reject the changes by terminating Your account. You understand and agree that if You use the Service after the date on which the Terms have changed, [COMPANY] will treat Your use as acceptance of the updated Terms.
This document is an adaptation of the Heroku Terms of Service, which is turn an adaptation of the Google App Engine Terms of Service. The original work has been modified with permission under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Neither Heroku, Inc. nor Google, Inc. is not connected with and does not sponsor or endorse [COMPANY] or its use of the work.
You're welcome to adapt and use this document for your own needs. If you make an improvement, we'd appreciate it if you would let us know so we can consider improving our own document. Obviously, you must change the name of the company, service, etc. if you decide to reuse this document.
This document has been revised extensively by Economic and Financial Technology Consulting LLC for use with Econ1.Net
[COMPANY] operates the [SERVICE], which we hope you use.
If you use it, please use it responsibly. If you don't, we'll have to terminate your account.
Paid accounts are available on a subscription basis. You can cancel any time, but there are no refunds.
If you cancel while your account is otherwise in good standing, you may still be able to use the service until the end of your paid subscription period.
The [SERVICE] processes data on your browser, and also on Google Cloud in the United States.
The [SERVICE] is not certified as complying with the European General Data Protection Regulation. We have adopted some of their ideas about privacy, but are not offering [SERVICE] to residents of the European Union at this time.
The [SERVICE] has a Privacy Policy, which explains what Personally Identifiable Information is collected, how the information is handled, and how you can exercise certain rights you have about this kind of information.
The [SERVICE] uses Google Sign-In. Your Gmail address or Google Drive account is your user id. If you don't have an account with Google, creating a new Google account is free at https://accounts.google.com/SignUp
Another reason to create a new Google account instead of using an existing account with our service is to have additional security and peace of mind that private personal or family documents, pictures, recordings, etc. are not inadvertently accesed.
The [SERVICE] uses your Google Drive for storing files you create or delivering files that you have requested, and will ask you to sign in to Google and approve access to your Google Drive. When your web browser asks for your Google password or asks you to approve our app, that information goes directly to Google. At no time does our [COMPANY]/[SERVICE] have your Google password. When you grant the app's requested Google permissions, Google generates an OAuth2 token allowing the app to create new files on your Google Drive, and to access files it has previously created. The app can not access all of your Drive files, only those files that the app created. Although the app includes various security features, one risk of this approach is that a security breach could result in an attacker stealing these tokens and gaining read/write access to your Google drive. At any time you may ask Google to revoke the app's permission to access your Google Drive by following the "apps with account access" link at https://myaccount.google.com/. Revoking the app's permissions also disables any tokens Google has issued to our app. By using the app, you accept all responsibility for this risk and any and all consequences.
The [COMPANY] would currently be classified as a small bootstrap start-up. We make up for our small size by using tech and payment processing offerings provided by some larger, trustworthy companies like Google Inc. and Fastspring. As resources are limited, question and answer support may be slow to nonexistent, and the sustainability of the SERVICE is not guaranteed. To lighten these risks, we save data to your Google Drive in standard formats, so that you won't lose your generated data should the service stop operating. We think many internet businesses start out tiny, but are not transparent with customers because of some alleged strategic theory behind the saying "fake it till you make it". Tell others about us, help us grow, and we'll reach a more stable situation where such favors are not forgotten.
The company has some guiding principles for this project which are important not only for us, but also for you.
A Science-friendly facility means that we work together to fix issues or improve the software, as time and resources permit, instead of issues being regarding as defects necessitating refunds or lawsuits. Similarly, while you own the research results you generate througn the app, we expect you not to sue other users who try to duplicate or confirm your results in a spirit of fair use. Self-service means that you are mostly expected to find your own answers to questions, or to find other people who can help answer your questions.
To keep costs low, we ask you to agree to a COMPLETE WAIVER OF LIABILITY. In the event such a waiver is found contrary to law or equity by a judge or other official, then you agree that [COMPANY]'s liability is limited to the minimum liability permitted by law, or, if that minimum is impermissibly vague, the wholesale amount paid to the company for the service
We will explain these principles further in the next section.
The Terms of Service, [SERVICE] itself, and our prices can change from time to time. The Terms of Service that apply to your account are those that were in effect the date of your most recently paid renewal.
That's the basic idea, but You must read through the entire Terms of Service below and agree with all the details before You use any of our sites (whether or not you have created an account).
The company has some guiding principles for this project which are important not only for us, but also for you.
[COMPANY] will apply these Guiding Principles when interpreting this terms-of-service document, and when interacting with customers or the public generally.
These guiding principles involve a balancing of three equally valid and important concerns:
A. Creating a science-friendly, self-service, private, for-profit facility for "Basic science" simulations in Economics and Finance.
B. Profitability of the [SERVICE] for the [COMPANY] and sustainability of the [SERVICE] for all stakeholders.
C. Low cost and high value for customers of all varieties.
The "self-service" aspect of our service means that [COMPANY] does not commit to answer questions or provide any free technical support for [SERVICE]. Instead, customers should take the time to discover answers for their own questions or seek help from their own or public resources.
The "private" nature of our service means that we take steps to limit the amount and sensitivity of data collected when
you subscribe to the service, or use the service. We use a secure web connection, or https, when collecting data from you
or delivering data to your Google Drive account. In our usage database, we forward-encrypt your email address so that an
attacker who illegally obtains certain files or logs from our database will not know your email address. We have also
instructed Google Cloud Storage to regularly delete, on a timed basis, our temporary copies of files we created for you.
You may also further enhance the security of the service by enabling Google Two Factor Authentication for the Google
account that you use with the service.
To encourage scientific debate and progress, if you use our service you agree not to threaten, prohibit or otherwise impede other users from also using our simulation service, via copyright or any other legal rights you may otherwise have.
To sustain the service and help keep costs low, you agree to LIABILITY WAIVERS as detailed in the terms of service below and also those contained in any of the licenses of any open source software running portions of the service. Basically, you acknowledge that bugs and incidents may occur with the service, and that issues with software or documentation could affect the validity of simulation results you generate through the service. In case of such an incident, or lesser incidents, we expect you to interact with us in a manner that will support our effort and cooperate towards sustainable solutions rather than raising costs or destroying the service through lawsuits or demands for compensation.
To keep costs low for customers using the service, we have structured the service internally to deliver data to your Google Drive, and to give you a choice between your browser's compute capabilities and low-cost versions of Google cloud services.
For those who are interested in environmental sustainability and not merely the sustainability of our service, we applaud Google, Inc's environmental reports striving for 100% renewable energy usage. All simulations carried out with the [SERVICE] currently use Google, Inc. data center facilities. [COMPANY] obtains these resources as a paying customer of Google,Inc. and otherwise has no special relationship with Google, Inc.
For instance, if you are a researcher you may use the service to produce data and include the data in a book you are writing for sale or in a grant proposal used to solicit research funding. However, if the data later turns out to be incorrect due to a bug, you agree [COMPANY] would have no liability. While this may initially seem unfair, we include this term in our agreement because it is the current industry norm. Virtually all open source software, including Linux, node.js and many of the tools we use to create the service include similar license terms disclaiming liability for any defects and this software, as well as the [SERVICE], would neither exist nor be commercially viable if stricter liability standards were applied.
The Service shall be subject to a privacy policy.
You agree to the use of Your data in accordance with [COMPANY]'s privacy policies.
You may choose to or we may invite You to submit comments or ideas about the Service, including but not limited to ideas about improving the Service or our products ("Ideas"). By submitting any Idea, You agree that Your disclosure is unsolicited and without restriction and will not place [COMPANY] under any fiduciary or other obligation, and that we are free to use the Idea without any additional compensation to You, and/or to disclose the Idea on a non-confidential basis or otherwise to anyone.
The Services may include hyperlinks to other web sites or content or resources or email content. You acknowledge and agree that [COMPANY] is not responsible for the availability of any such external sites or resources, and does not endorse any advertising, products or other materials on or available from such web sites or resources.
[COMPANY] gives You a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive license to use the software provided to You by [COMPANY] as part of the Service as provided to You by [COMPANY]. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling You to use and enjoy the benefit of the Service as provided by [COMPANY], in the manner permitted by the Terms.
You may not (and You may not permit anyone else to): (a) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the Service or any part thereof, unless this is expressly permitted or required by law, or unless You have been specifically told that You may do so by [COMPANY], in writing (e.g., through an open source software license); or (b) attempt to disable or circumvent any security mechanisms used by the Service.
Open source software licenses for components of the Service released under an open source license constitute separate written agreements. To the limited extent that the open source software licenses expressly supersede these Terms, the open source licenses govern Your agreement with [COMPANY] for the use of the components of the Service released under an open source license.
For instance, the MIT License, a common open source license, reads, in part:
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Other open source code may be under other licenses, but most of these license include some type of similar broad disclaimer. Most open source code is freely available, somewhere on the internet. Without legal protections from liability, this broad availability would not be sustainable.
You expressly understand and agree that [COMPANY], its subsidiaries and affiliates, and its licensors shall not be liable to you for any direct, indirect, incidental, special consequential or exemplary damages which may be incurred by you, however caused and under any theory of liability. This shall include, but not be limited to, any loss of profit (whether incurred directly or indirectly), any loss of goodwill or business reputation, any loss of data suffered, cost of procurement of substitute goods or services, or other intangible loss (whether or not [COMPANY] has been advised of or should have been aware of the possibility of any such losses arising).
[COMPANY] shall also not be liable for failing or delaying performance of its obligations resulting from any condition beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to, governmental action, acts of terrorism, earthquake, fire, flood or other acts of God, labor conditions, power failures, and Internet disturbances.
You agree to hold harmless and indemnify [COMPANY], and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, employees, advertisers, licensors, suppliers or partners (collectively "[COMPANY] and Partners") from and against any third party claim arising from or in any way related to (a) Your breach of the Terms, (b) Your use of the Service, (c) Your violation of applicable laws, rules or regulations in connection with the Service, or (d) Your Customer Source Code, including any liability or expense arising from all claims, losses, damages (actual and consequential), suits, judgments, litigation costs and attorneys' fees, of every kind and nature. In such a case, [COMPANY] will provide You with written notice of such claim, suit or action.
[COMPANY] is not a public accommodation and its physical office is not open to the public.
[COMPANY] reserves the right to refuse service to anyone, but generally does not discriminate on the basis of legally protected personal traits, such as race, religion, sexual identity or political affiliation. [COMPANY] may establish a code-of-conduct requiring polite and reasonable conduct by customers and refuse service to violators, e.g. customers who use foul or threatening language towards company associates or other customers may have service suspended or banned.
[COMPANY] and customer agree to the exclusive personal jurisdiction of the state courts of Tennessee and the federal courts of the EASTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE. [COMPANY] and customer may also settle a dispute privately, by arbitration, mediation, negotiation, or other means, without resorting to the courts, if the relevant procedures are agreed to by both parties, including the procedures below, or other procedures that both parties agree are more appropriate to the situation.
If the [COMPANY] and customer discuss an incident or dispute via email or other electronic means, any refund or service credit by [COMPANY] and subsequently accepted or used by customer (or specific compensation made by customer and accepted by company) shall be sufficient to completely resolve and extinguish such incident or dispute. If the parties do not resolve their dispute by email, or choose not to discuss their issue by email, then the next paragraph regarding procedures for postal mediation applies to the dispute.
In any legal dispute between [COMPANY] and customer regarding monetary compensation, neither [COMPANY] nor customer may file a civil lawsuit against the other without attempting a bona-fide, good-faith negotiation or mediation through the postal mail, in the English language, at least 90 days prior to filing a lawsuit. Any initial complaints or subsequent replies must be through a traceable form of postal mail or private delivery that indicates a signature and date of delivery. Each party shall be responsible for its own mediation or negotiation expenses. We agree that failure to attempt a bona-fide, good-faith negotiation or mediation is reasonable grounds to ask a court for summary dismissal of a lawsuit in favor of a defendant (whether that defendant is the [COMPANY] or you, the customer).
The [COMPANY] may be contacted at the [COMPANY LEGAL ADDRESS]
Economic and Financial Technology Consulting LLC 4219 Shady Oak Drive Ooltewah TN 37363 USA
Neither the [COMPANY] nor you, the customer, shall forfeit any legal right, either in this agreement or in relevant law, simply by neglecting to enforce that right or by inconsistently enforcing that right. This is not intended to circumvent statutes-of-limitations, nor extend any deadline imposed by law, but merely to preclude misunderstandings caused by imperfect monitoring or imperfect enforcement of the terms.
If a portion of this agreement is found to be void by a judge or similar official, other sections of the agreement shall remain in force to the extent that the remaining agreement as a whole is an equitable and rational implementation of the principles and ideas espoused in this ageeement.
This document is the whole legal agreement between You and [COMPANY] and govern Your use of the Service and completely replace any prior agreements between You and [COMPANY] in relation to the Service.