Terms of Service

Terms of service: the gist

We (the folks at bibguru.com) run a Service to manage academic references and citations called BibGuru. We make this Service available to you.

Your references and citations are securely stored on our servers and private by default and we will keep your secrets. You can create a BibGuru account by connecting with your Google or Facebook account.

Abide by the respective law and do not share Prohibited Content listed below (such as copyrighted material, spam, viruses, or defamation).

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", we disclaim all warranties of any kind and take no liability for damages due to the use of the service or loss of your Content.

First published on 4/1/2019.

Definitions

we, us, BibGuru

Paperpile LLC (contact address: 245 First Street, 18th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA)

you

A natural or legal person entering this contract

Content

Text or other data stored on the Service. See "Content Terms"

Service

The bibguru.com web site and and downloadable software you consume as a product by us.

Agreement

This "bibguru.com Terms of Service" Agreement.

Account

Your Account at the Service. It can be a Free or Paid Account.

Privacy Policy

Part of the Agreement defining how Content is handled by us.

User

A person using the Service under a specific account.

Terms of Service

The following terms and conditions govern all use of the BibGuru Service and all Content and products available at or through the website bibguru.com , including, but not limited to, the BibGuru Paid Accounts (taken together, the "Service").

The Service is owned and operated by us. The Service is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, BibGuru's Privacy Policy ) and procedures that may be published from time to time on the Service by BibGuru, all of which taken together represent your agreement with BibGuru (collectively, this "Agreement").

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Service. By accessing or using any part of the Service, you will be deemed to have accepted the most recent Terms of Service and be a party to a legally binding contract with us. If you reject our Terms of Service you do not have any right to access or use our Service. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by BibGuru, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms.

You may wish to save a copy of these Terms of Service for your records.

Account Terms.

§ 1. Service Description. The BibGuru Service consists of products, computer programs, services and web sites hosted or made available by us, which you may use for capturing, organizing, searching, storing, sharing and transmitting Content on multiple computer and network platforms, now known or hereafter developed (collectively, the "Service").

§ 2. Use of Service. Subject to the terms and conditions within these Terms of Service, BibGuru grants a user a limited, non-exclusive, license to utilize the Service. The Service is available to (a) individuals as long as they are of legal age to form a binding contract and (b) to companies.

§ 3. Your bibguru.com Account. Parts of the Service can be used without the need to create an account. You can create an account on the Service by connecting to your Google account or Facebook account. Accounts registered by "bots" or other automated methods are not permitted.

§ 4. You agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service's registration form, and to maintain these data accurate, current and complete.

§ 5. The Services and the Account are not transferable. Under your account you are the sole user of the Service and your account may only be used by you in person. To the extent allowed by the purchased service plan.

Responsibilities under your BibGuru Account.

§ 6. You are responsible for all activity occurring under your account. You shall abide by all applicable local, state, national and foreign laws, treaties and regulations in connection with your use of the Service, including those related to data privacy, international communications and the transmission of technical or personal data. In addition, you shall be responsible for abiding by any and all internal policies, procedures and regulations, which are required, by your employer and/or the applicable administrators of your account.

§ 7. You are fully liable for the legality of all Content stored on the Service and, in addition, fully liable, if such Content is infringing upon third party rights, and you accordingly agree to indemnify BibGuru for all claims and losses related to such infringement and/or illegality.

§ 8. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Account Information and, accordingly, will be fully responsible for all activities that occur under your account, including activities of others to whom you have provided your Account Information. We will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to provide us with accurate information or to keep your Account Information secure.

§ 9. You agree to immediately notify BibGuru of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security. BibGuru cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this paragraph or any other terms and conditions of this Agreement.

§ 10. You are solely responsible for obtaining the equipment and telecommunication services necessary to access the Service, and all fees associated therewith (such as computing devices and Internet service provider and airtime charges).

Content Terms

§ 11. Your Content. With "Content" we identify text, comments, graphics, hyperlinks, keywords, ratings, audio files, videos, messages, tags, computer software and other materials, in whatever form and technical structure, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted that you store in the Service. Furthermore, with "Content" we identify all entities defined within the Service, such as: things, groups, comments, ratings.

§ 12. You acknowledge and agree that you are fully liable for the legality of all content introduced, originated or stored using the Service. You agree that you are responsible for your own conduct and all conduct under your account, and all Content that is created, transmitted, stored or displayed by anyone using your Account Information with the Service and for any consequences arising as a result thereof.

§ 13. You agree to use the Service only for purposes that are legal, proper and in accordance with these Terms of Service and all applicable laws and regulations in the relevant legal jurisdictions (including, without limitation, laws and regulations relating to the recording of audio, copyright laws, privacy laws and the storage and transmission of data and technology).

§ 14. Without limiting the foregoing, you shall be deemed to represent and warrant to BibGuru that you have the unrestricted legal rights and authority to permit you to submit your Content to BibGuru in connection with your use of the Service, and such submission and the grant to BibGuru of the rights you grant herein in connection with BibGuru´s offering and operation of the Service does not infringe the rights of any person or third party.

§ 15. You remain in title of your content. We have only limited rights to use your content: we store and backup your content, share it with others if you tell us to (see below "Authorization of BibGuru for Shared Content"), and process it to improve the service (see the Privacy Policy). We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Service. Your profile and materials uploaded remain yours. However, by setting your collections to be shared, you agree to allow others to view and share your Content.

§ 16. Backup of Content. BibGuru takes care to keep your Content safe. We keep backups. Although we do everything we can to secure your content, we, as far as admissible under contingent law, take no liability for damages due to loss of your Content. Some Content managed by BibGuru may be only available on your local computer and not stored on BibGuru's servers. It is your responsibility to keep backups of this data and encourage you to do regular backups of of your computer's hard disk.

§ 17. Liability for Content. You understand and agree that the Service and all BibGuru Services are provided "AS-IS" and that BibGuru, its affiliates, contractors, suppliers and licensors assume no responsibility for the timelines, deletion, misdelivery or failure to store any of your Content or communications.

§ 18. Security and Confidentiality of Content. We are contracting third party suppliers for hosting our servers. Your data is hosted in the US. Our contractors are not allowed to look at nor read, nor use your Content for their own purpose. We do not pass your Content to third parties. Read our Privacy Policy for more details.

§ 19. Deletion of Content. If you delete Content, BibGuru will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Service, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

§ 20. Responsibility of Contributors of Shared Content. All of your data is private by default and cannot be accessed by other users nor the public. If you chose to make data public using the BibGuru Service, copyright and other laws take effect. These laws can also take effect when you share data in private groups, which requires you to handle your Content in a responsible and lawful way. If you share Content, you are entirely responsible for the Content and any harm resulting from it or from sharing it. You only are allowed to share content if you are the copyright owner, have the copyright owner’s permission, are permitted to do so under your publishing agreement or your institution’s license agreement or under license from an Open Access database or under a Creative Commons license. By sharing Content, you further represent and warrant that:

  • (a) the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe any proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
  • (b) if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
  • (c) you act in compliance with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have taken all necessary measures to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
  • (d) the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
  • (e) the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
  • (f) the Content is not an unsolicited promotional method (you must not post Content as unwanted promotion);
  • (g) the Content is not pornographic, libelous or defamatory ( more info on what that means at EFF ), does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
  • (h) your account or data is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your account's URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own; and
  • (i) you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by BibGuru or otherwise.

§ 21. Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, BibGuru has the right (though not the obligation) to, in BibGuru's sole discretion (a) refuse or remove any Content that, in BibGuru's reasonable opinion, violates any BibGuru policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (b) terminate or deny access to and use of the Service to any individual or entity for any such reason. BibGuru will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

§ 22. Authorization of BibGuru for Shared Content. By submitting Content to BibGuru and marking it to be shared with other users and groups, you authorize BibGuru to actually share this Content with other users. For this, you grant BibGuru a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce and publish the Content solely for the purpose of sharing your Content with the selected users or groups.

§ 23. Authorization of BibGuru to Transform and Process Content. As part of managing your Content, the software running the Service will transform your Content to different technical formats. Content may be summarized for visualization purposes. Content will be analyzed automatically to provide recommendation and search features for you. The Privacy Policy applies.

§ 24. You understand that the technical processing and transmission of the Service, including your Content, may be transferred unencrypted and involve transmissions over various networks.

§ 25. Responsibility of Service Visitors. BibGuru has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the Service, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material's content, use or effects. By operating the Service, BibGuru 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. The Service may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Service 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. BibGuru disclaims any responsibility for any harm or damages resulting from the use by visitors or users of the Service, or from any downloading by those visitors or users of content there made available by your or other users.

§ 26. 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 bibguru.com links, and that link to bibguru.com. BibGuru does not have any control over those non-bibguru.com websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-bibguru.com website or webpage, BibGuru does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. 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 by visiting such website or webpages. BibGuru disclaims any responsibility for any harm or damages resulting from your use of non-bibguru.com websites and webpages. You acknowledge that a variety of BibGuru actions may impair or prevent you from accessing your Content or using the Service at certain times and/or in the same way, for limited periods or permanently, and agree that BibGuru has no responsibility or liability as a result of any such actions or results, including, without limitation, for the deletion of, or failure to make available to you, any Content.

Fees and paid accounts

§ 27. Fees and Paid Accounts. Different periods of Paid Account usage with different prices are offered, you sign up for a period and pricing model (the "Paid Account Plan"). By selecting a Paid Account Plan you agree to pay BibGuru the respective subscription fees indicated for that Service Plan. Payments will be charged on the day you sign up for a model and will cover the use of that service for the respective period as indicated. Account fees are not refundable.

§ 28. By signing up for a Paid Account you agree to pay BibGuru all one-time fees and periodical fees indicated at the price list in exchange for the features listed at the description of the Service. Applicable fees will be invoiced starting from the day your Paid Account is established and in advance of using the Service with your Paid Account. BibGuru reserves the right to change the payment terms and fees upon thirty (30) days prior written notice to you.

§ 29. Switching the Paid Account Plan. You can change your Paid Account Plan anytime. A new period starts the day you switch. You have to pay the full fee for the new Paid Account on the day you switch. Price differences between plans will be pro-rated for the actual time you were subscribed to each plan. If you switch to a lower price plan the difference will be considered in your next invoice but in case you cancel your plan early will not be refunded.

§ 30. Continuation of Paid Services and Cancelling. At the end of a period of using a Paid Account, the Paid Account is automatically continued with the same model and period and a new fee is invoiced. A Paid Account can be canceled by you any time and the Paid Account is not automatically continued in case you cancel it 1 day before the next period starts.

Support and Quality Of Service

§ 31. Support. Requests for technical support assistance can be made by using an online forum or e-mail at any time (with reasonable efforts by BibGuru, but no obligation, to respond within a certain timeframe). All support will be provided in accordance with BibGuru Service practices, procedures and policies, as may be updated by BibGuru from time to time in its sole discretion.

§ 32. Quality of Service. BibGuru gives no guarantee on the quality neither on the availability of the Service. The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". In case the Service is not available, for which reason so ever, Paid Account fees are not refundable. Service Modifications. We retain the right, at our sole discretion, to implement limits to the nature or size of storage available to you, the number of transmissions and email messages, the nature or size of any index or library information, the nature of, or your continued ability to access or distribute, your Content and other data, and impose other limitations at any time, with or without notice.

§ 33. For your information: Our internal quality goals are that the service is available at all times ("24/7") for all Accounts. However, there are many components making the service work, starting with the server hardware and ending with the web browser you are using. Some components like the integration of our Service with third party services such as Google Docs are not under our direct control. We try to resolve problems and provide recommendations (see Support) how to resolve problems that are beyond our control.

§ 34. Planned maintainance work. Sometimes it can be necessary to interrupt the Service to perform maintenance work and updates to our infrastructure. We will announce any planned service interruptions in advance and if possible will limit them to off-peak hours during the weekend.

§ 35. Handling of Defects. The Software running the Service is not guaranteed to be error-free. It may contain defects - for example a feature may not work as described in the product description. These defects will, once reported by you or another user or found by testing, be repaired by BibGuru or parts of the Software replaced or removed. BibGuru cannot guarantee a certain timeline to repair defects.

Account Termination

§ 36. Continuation or Termination of Paid Services. The right of use the Service is at all times conditioned on prompt and timely payment regarding the Service. Non-payment or delay in payment shall terminate any right of use granted to the Customer under this Agreement. In case the automatic invoices of a Paid Account fail to be paid, the Paid Account is not continued and the contract ends. A Paid Account can be canceled by you any time. The Paid Account is not automatically continued in case you cancel it 1 day before the next period starts.

§ 37. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your BibGuru account (if you have one), you may close your Account any time. You can only cancel the Account via the Service.

§ 38. If you are not using a Paid Account, BibGuru may terminate your access to all or any part of the Service at any time, with or without any reason, with or without notice, effective immediately.

§ 39. If you have a Paid Account, such account can only be terminated by BibGuru (a) if you materially breach this Agreement and fail to cure such breach within fourteen (14) days from BibGuru's notice to you thereof, (b) if you fail to pay for the subscribed Service within fourteen (14) days after invoicing or (c) if you have cancelled the Service.

§ 40. If you cancel a Paid Account, it will remain functional until the current billing period ends. After that, you have 60 days to subscribe again to a Paid Account to continue using the Service. After that period your account may be terminated by BibGuru.

§ 41. BibGuru can terminate the Service for all Accounts as part of a general shut down of our Service. If this occurs, it will be announced in advance. In this case, the periodical subscriptions will be cancelled automatically. Paid Account fees are not refundable. You agree that we shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of any part of the Service.

§ 42. Upon termination of your Account, your Content is deleted and cannot be recovered. BibGuru may offer an export service you to receive a copy of your latest Content.

§ 43. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, confidentiality, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

 

Copyright and Intellectual Property

§ 44. Intellectual Property. This Agreement does not transfer any BibGuru or third party intellectual property from BibGuru to you, and all rights, title and interest in and to such property will remain solely with BibGuru.

§ 45. Feedback. When giving feedback about the software or providing any ideas, suggestions, documents and/or proposals (collectively, "Contributions") to improve the Service through a "Feedback" or "Contact Us" interface or otherwise, you give BibGuru the right to unlimitedly use your contributions freely. You acknowledge and agree that your Contributions do not contain confidential or proprietary information; that BibGuru is not under any obligation of confidentiality express or implied, with respect to the Contributions. Furthermore you acknowledge and agree, that you are not entitled to any accounting, compensation or reimbursement of any kind from BibGuru under any circumstances. Under no circumstances you will acquire any intellectual property rights in the Service.

§ 46. Trademarks. BibGuru and the bibguru.com logo and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with bibguru.com, or the Service are trademarks or registered trademarks of BibGuru. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Service may be the trademarks of third parties. Your use of the Service grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any BibGuru or third-party trademarks.

§ 47. Restrictions on the BibGuru Software. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any Software provided by BibGuru. BibGuru or his licensors are entitled to all copyrights and other intellectual property rights on the agreed services (programs, documentation, etc.). By this contract you acquire merely the authorization to use the Service. Further distribution of the Service by you is hereby prohibited, as it is by copyright law. The look and feel of the user interface of our Service is our intellectual property and our copyright. We reserve all rights in the user interface. You may not copy or reuse any part of the user interface (including but not limited to color scheme, visual arrangement, CSS, HTML, labels and texts).

§ 48. Approved Reuse of BibGuru Software, Trademark, and Graphics. You have our approval to make screenshots or videos of the software and publish them for illustrational and journalistic purposes, such as blog posts or articles, if you add a link to our website bibguru.com and give attribution. You can also verbally cite parts of the Service in journalistic and academic or educational environments, if you give attribution. For such purposes, you can also use our logos, photos, screenshots, and colors, provided that you do not modify them or imply that such use is by BibGuru itself.

General Conditions

§ 49. Changes. BibGuru reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, update,or replace any part of this Agreement. Registered users will be informed of such changes and can at any time decide to terminate their Account. Your continued use of or access to the Service following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. In any event, be sure to regularly check these Terms of Service for any updates or other changes, which shall be binding when we post them, whether or not we provide you direct notice of such changes. The then-applicable Terms of Service will be posted at bibguru.com/tos. Your continued use of the Service after any update will be deemed to represent your consent to be bound by, and agreement with, the new Terms of Service. BibGuru may also, in the future, offer new features and other products through the Service (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or products based on the Service shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

§ 50. Disclaimer of Warranties. The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", see "Support and Quality of Service" above. BibGuru and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim to the maximum extent permitted by law all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither BibGuru nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Service will be timely, secure or error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted or that errors in the software will be corrected. In no case, BibGuru will refund a Paid Account subscription fee.

§ 51. You understand and agree that your use of the service is at your sole risk and that you download from, or otherwise obtain Content at your own discretion and risk.

§ 52. Limitation of Liability. In no event will BibGuru, 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: (a) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (b) consequential damages and financial loss; (c) not realized savings; (d) the cost of procurement or substitute products or services; (e) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; (f) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to BibGuru under this Agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. BibGuru shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond our reasonable control. Liabilities for damages arising from third-party claims against BibGuru are excluded.

§ 53. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

§ 54. General Representation and Warranty. You represent and warrant that (a) your use of the Service will be in strict accordance with the BibGuru 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 (b) your use of the Service will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

§ 55. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless BibGuru, 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 the Service, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.

§ 56. Jurisdiction. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provided otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of the Service will be governed by the laws of Massachusetts. This agreement shall be governed by the laws of Massachusetts. This is the case also when the order is carried out outside of Massachusetts.

§ 57. Miscellaneous. The Terms of Service constitutes the entire agreement between you and BibGuru and govern your use of the Service, superceding any prior agreements between you and BibGuru (including, but not limited to, any prior versions of the Terms of Service)., and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of BibGuru, or by the posting of a revised version by BibGuru on the BibGuru and/or BibGuru website. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties' original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof.

§ 55. You agree that, except as otherwise expressly provided in this Agreement, there shall be no third-party beneficiaries to this Agreement.

§ 59. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; BibGuru may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

These Terms of Service are published under an Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. They are based on the Wordpress terms published under an Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, and adapted by Freemix and Refinder.

 

No sign-in required

Alternative to