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Published on Sunday, 29 April 2012 00:21

Please read these Terms of Use carefully before accessing the QUBES platform (https://qubeshub.org) which includes the QUBES Educational Resources Library. The QUBES site is operated by the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, a community of researchers and educators, and hosted by University of California, San Diego. Your access to the QUBES platform is subject to your agreement to these Terms of Use. By accessing QUBES, you accept, without limitation or qualification, these Terms of Use.

Modification of the Agreement

We maintain the right to modify these Terms of Use and may do so by posting modifications on this page. Any modification is effective immediately upon posting the modification unless otherwise stated. Your continued use of https://qubeshub.org following the posting of any modification signifies your acceptance of that modification. You should regularly visit this page to review the current Terms of Use.

Eligibility, Registration, Access, and Termination

The https://qubeshub.org site is limited to non-commercial educational and research activities. Posting of spam messages or other commercial advertisements is a violation of these terms and may result in termination of your account.

Certain portions of https://qubeshub.org are limited to registered users and/or allow a user to participate in online services by entering personal information. You agree that any information provided to https://qubeshub.org in these areas will be complete and accurate, and that you will neither register under the name of nor attempt to enter https://qubeshub.org under the name of another person or entity.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your user ID and password, if any, and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. https://qubeshub.org does not authorize use of your User ID by third-parties.

We may, in our sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to and use of https://qubeshub.org without notice and for any reason, including for violation of these Terms of Use or for other conduct that we, in our sole discretion, believe to be unlawful or harmful to others. In the event of termination, you are no longer authorized to access https://qubeshub.org.

Disclaimers

This site and any information, products, or services on it are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The owners and administrators of this site do not warrant, and hereby disclaim any warranties, either express or implied, with respect to the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any good, service, or information obtained from the QUBES platform (https://qubeshub.org). The owners and administrators of this site do not warrant that QUBES will operate in an uninterrupted or error-free manner or that QUBES is free of viruses or other harmful components. Use of QUBES is at your own risk.

You agree that QUBES and its owners and administrators at BioQUEST shall have no liability for any consequential, indirect, punitive, special or incidental damages, whether foreseeable or unforeseeable (including, but not limited to, claims for defamation, errors, loss of data, or interruption in availability of data), arising out of or relating to your use of QUBES or any resource that you access through QUBES.

The QUBES site hosts content from a number of authors. The statements and views of these authors are theirs alone, and do not reflect the stances or policies of BioQUEST or their sponsors, nor does their posting imply the endorsement of BioQUEST or their sponsors.

Choice of Law/Forum Selection/Attorney Fees

You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to QUBES, whether based in contract, tort, statutory or other law, will be governed by federal law and by the laws of the State of New Hampshire, excluding its conflicts of law provisions. You further consent to the personal jurisdiction of and exclusive venue in the federal and state courts located in the State of New Hampshire as the exclusive legal forums for any such dispute.

Code of Conduct

You are responsible at all times for using QUBES in a manner that is legal, ethical, and not to the detriment of others. Once you have created an account, you are allowed to post materials and participate in other social networking features available on this site. All members are encouraged to help moderate content and click on "report abuse" links to report any material deemed offensive or inappropriate. If your posted material is reported as abusive, it will be immediately withdrawn and subsequently reviewed by a site administrator. If the material is judged to be appropriate, it will be restored. Otherwise, it will be removed from the site, and depending on the inappropriate nature of the content, your account may be terminated.

All users must recognize that system resources on QUBES are limited. Quotas for disk storage, job submissions, and other limited resources are strictly enforced. By using QUBES, you agree to delete unused files and acknowledge that if you fail to do so, the files may be deleted for you. You may request an increase in system quotas, but you may not circumvent the policies put in place to manage resources.

Creating multiple accounts or otherwise gaming the system in order to earn extra points, to increase your disk quota, or to gain an unfair share of other system resources is strictly prohibited and may lead to termination of your account.

By using QUBES, you agree that:

• You will not use QUBES to commit a criminal offense or to encourage others to conduct what would constitute a criminal offense or give rise to a civil liability;
• You will not violate any applicable law;
• You will not post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, libelous, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, profane, or otherwise objectionable content;
• You will not use QUBES to impersonate other parties or entities;
• You will not use QUBES to upload any content that contains a software virus, "Trojan Horse" or any other computer code, files, or programs that may alter, damage, or interrupt the functionality of QUBES or the hardware or software of any other person who accesses QUBES;
• You will not post any material that infringes or violates the intellectual property rights of another;
• You will not redistribute resource materials posted on QUBES or create derivative works unless it is allowed by the license terms posted for a resource;
• You will not alter, damage, or delete any content posted on QUBES;
• You will not disrupt the normal flow of communication in any way;
• You will not claim a relationship with or speak for any business, association, or other organization for which you are not authorized to claim such a relationship;
• You will not post or transmit any unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation;
• You will not use email addresses obtained or accessed through QUBES to transmit the same or substantially similar unsolicited message to multiple recipients without a valid purpose specifically related to the research and education mission of BioQUEST;

Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy. We will never sell your e-mail address or other personally identifiable information to third parties, or make that information publicly available without your permission.

For research and reporting purposes, BioQUEST does track your activities on this site. We combine your usage metrics with others to create an aggregate picture of how the site is being used, and we report that usage publicly on our site and send similar quarterly reports to our program sponsors. However, such usage reports never contain detailed information about your activities as an individual without your prior consent.

From time to time, we work with other projects that seek to study social interactions on the site. We may share your activities with those groups, but they are bound by a Memorandum of Understanding to follow our policies and respect your privacy in the same way that we do. We may contact you on their behalf and ask you to participate in their study, but your participation is voluntary, and your information will not be publicly released without your prior consent.

We reserve the right to contact you to request additional information or to keep you updated on changes to QUBES. You may opt out of receiving newsletters and other non-essential communications by updating the settings in your account profile.

All resources, wiki articles, blogs, questions, answers, or other information posted or stored on QUBES is potentially available to all other users of QUBES. We do our best to restrict access to source code and to other private materials shared within groups. However, as QUBES evolves to meet the needs of users, the software will change. We disclaim any responsibility or capability for the preservation of confidentiality of any information posted on this site. Do not post or store information on QUBES if you expect to or are obligated to protect the confidentiality of that information.

Google Drive Connector in Projects

When you establish a connection between QUBES and your Google Drive, we store a Google Drive token and refresh token pair in our database. This enables, via the interface provided on QUBES, you and people you have given access to upload and download files to/from your Google Drive, rename them, and move them around within your Google Drive. We protect your sensitive data by not harvesting, collecting, or keeping it in the first place, and by deleting the token pair immediately when you click on the trash can icon on our Google Drive connection interface. The files themselves or copies aren't stored on QUBES, and we don't keep information about them; the information displayed to you is retrieved from the Google Drive service as needed. Backups of QUBES are stored on encrypted media to protect the token pair.

Changes to policy

We may occasionally update our Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices and services. If we make material changes in the way we collect, use, or share your personal information, we will notify you and/or prominently post notices of the changes on our website.

Copyright

To file a copyright infringement notification with us, you will need to send a written communication that includes substantially the following (please consult your legal counsel or see Section 512(c)(3) of the Copyright Act to confirm these requirements):

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
• 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.
• 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. Providing URLs in the body of an email is the best way to help us locate content quickly.
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
• A statement that the complaining party has 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.
• A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Such written notice should be sent to our executive director:
Sarah Prescott
19 Glen Ridge Rd
Raymond NH 03077
Phone: 603-969-0373
Email: sarah "dot" prescott "at" bioquest "dot" org

Submitting Content to the QUBES Educational Resources Library

If you wish to contribute educational materials to the QUBES Library, such as an instructional text, resource, lesson, module, or other educational work (collectively, “Educational Material”), you may do so via our publishing platform. You can learn more about submitting material using the QUBES Library at https://qubeshub.org/publications/browse

With regard to any Educational Materials that you contribute to the QUBES Library, or by any other means, you represent and warrant that you have the full legal right to post the Educational Material and that use of the Educational Material by us and all other persons and entities as set forth in its license will not (i) infringe the trademark, copyright, privacy, or publicity rights of any person or entity; (ii) violate any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or agreement; or (iii) disclose any confidential or private information of any third party. If you are authoring or contributing Educational Material to the QUBES Library, you must select an approved license applicable to your Educational Material via the the QUBES Library publishing platform. Educational Materials uploaded to the QUBES Library are perpetually licensed under the terms of the licensing option selected.

The QUBES Library is a platform for open educational resources. Accordingly, you represent and warrant that no license terms apply to any Educational Material you contribute to the QUBES Library that are incompatible with the licensing options, at the time your Educational Material is submitted.
If you contribute any metadata – such as author name, title of work, year of completion of the work, and the like – in connection with contributing Educational Material to the QUBES Library or otherwise, you grant to BioQUEST a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, create derivative works of, transfer, sublicense, and make any other use in any form or medium of such metadata, without restriction of any kind.

Display of Licenses

BioQUEST endeavors to provide information about the copyright status of the educational materials in the QUBES Library, and to identify any other terms and conditions that may apply to your use of such materials. However, BioQUEST offers no guarantee or assurance that all pertinent information is provided or that the information provided is correct in each circumstance. In all cases, it is your sole responsibility to determine what permission(s) you may need in order to use materials available from the QUBES Library and, if necessary, to obtain such permission(s).

User Content

Certain features of the QUBES Library may allow you to contribute content that is not itself either Educational Material or metadata, for example in the form of comments, ratings, reviews, feedback, evaluations, or other content for access, use, viewing, and downloading by us and by other users of the QUBES Library (“User Content”). When you post User Content, you represent and warrant that you have the full legal right to post the User Content and that use of the User Content by us and all other persons and entities will not (i) infringe the trademark, copyright, privacy, or publicity rights of any person or entity; (ii) violate any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or agreement; or (iii) disclose any confidential or private information of any third party. Upon your submission of User Content, you grant us a fully-paid, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, license to access, use, distribute, reproduce, display, modify, create derivative works based upon, and sublicense the User Content for the purposes of providing and promoting the QUBES Library, all without any additional compensation to you whatsoever. Please note that Educational Materials and metadata are not considered User Content, but rather are discussed above, in the section titled Educational Materials.

Removal of User Content or Educational Material

We make User Content and Educational Material (including its metadata) available at our sole discretion and may disable access to any User Content or Educational Material at any time and for any reason. By using the QUBES Library, you acknowledge and agree that we do not guarantee access to and/or hosting of User Content or Educational Material that is published through the QUBES Library. For example, if Educational Material violates this Agreement, access to it may be disabled.

If you believe that a user of the QUBES Library has violated your intellectual property rights – for example by improperly posting your trademarks or copyrighted content to the QUBES Library – please contact us. You can review our full intellectual property policy, including information on how to report infringement, at https://qubeshub.org/terms#copyright.

If we receive notice that User Content or Educational Material posted to or through the QUBES Library may infringe the rights of thirds parties, including their intellectual property rights, we reserve the right (in our sole discretion) to disclose information, including PII, about the poster of such material to those third parties, so that they can contact the poster directly regarding their concerns.

QUBES Content

Except for Educational Materials (which are made available by BioQUEST and its users pursuant to the public licenses associated therewith), all text, metadata, user interfaces and visual interfaces (including graphics, photographs, sounds, music, and artwork), trademarks, logos, computer code, and any and all compilations thereof (collectively, “QUBES Content”), including but not limited to the design, structure, selection, coordination, expression, “look and feel,” and arrangement of QUBES Content, is owned, controlled, or licensed by or to BioQUEST, and is protected by trade dress, copyright, and trademark laws, and is subject to various other intellectual property rights. Except as expressly provided in this Agreement, you are prohibited from copying, reproducing, modifying, distributing, displaying, performing, or transmitting any of the QUBES Content for any purpose, and nothing otherwise stated or implied in the QUBES Library confers on you any license or right to do so.

Links

To Third Party Sites

The QUBES Library may link to third party sites that are not under the control of BioQUEST. Links from the QUBES Library are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not indicate endorsement, sponsorship of, or affiliation with the third party or content of the linked website, including any advertisements that may be posted. BioQUEST has no control over and bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of the externally linked sites. Privacy policies and practices for such linked sites may differ from our Privacy Policy and practices. You access and use such linked sites entirely and solely at your own risk. We urge you to read the privacy policies of such linked sites before disclosing your personal information on such sites.

From Third Party Sites

If you present a link to any portion of the QUBES Library from any third party site, you agree to present the link in a manner that does not convey the impression that BioQUEST endorses, whether expressly or implicitly, any products, services, or opinions provided on your website. Any link to the QUBES Library must provide a clearly written notice that the user is leaving your website to access another.

Violation of this Agreement - Termination

Your right to access and use the QUBES Library terminates automatically upon your breach of any of the terms of this Agreement. You agree that we may, in our sole discretion and without prior notice to you, terminate your access to the QUBES Library and/or block your future access to the QUBES Library for any reason, including if we determine that you have violated this Agreement or other agreements or guidelines which may be associated with your use of the QUBES Library. Please note that it is our policy to terminate the accounts of Registered Users who repeatedly violate the copyrights, trademark rights, or other rights of third parties.

If we take any legal action against you as a result of your violation of this Agreement, we will be entitled to recover from you, and you agree to pay, all reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs of such action, in addition to any other relief granted. You agree that we will not be liable to you or to any third party for termination of your access to the QUBES Library. The disclaimer of warranties, the limitation of liability, and the jurisdiction and applicable law provisions will survive any termination.

Disclaimer of Warranties

You expressly understand and agree that your use of BioQUEST and the QUBES Library is at your sole risk. BioQUEST and the QUBES Library, and any good or service downloaded or used through or in connection with BioQUEST and the QUBES Library, is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. BioQUEST and our parents, subsidiaries, directors, officers, employees, stockholders, licensors, and any party under our common ownership or common corporate control (collectively, “our affiliates”), expressly disclaim all representations, warranties, and conditions of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, merchantable quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, title, or any warranty or condition arising by usage of trade, course of dealing, or course of performance. We and our affiliates make no warranty that (a) QUBES/QUBES Library will meet your requirements; (b) QUBES/QUBES Library will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free; (c) content and material will be hosted and/or transmitted without interruption or cessation; (d) any products, sites, information, or other material, whether in tangible or intangible form, downloaded or obtained by you through QUBES or the QUBES Library, will meet your expectations or any standard of quality; and (e) any defects in the operation or functionality of QUBES and the QUBES Library or related software will be corrected. Any material, information, or data downloaded, viewed, shared, or otherwise accessed on or through the QUBES Library is accessed at your own discretion and risk; you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that result from the downloading, viewing, sharing, or otherwise accessing of such material. No advice, representation, or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you either from us or through QUBES or the QUBES Library shall create any warranty not expressly stated in this agreement.

Limitation of Liability

You expressly understand and agree that we and our affiliates will not be liable to you for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages that may be incurred by you, however caused and under any theory of liability. This includes, but is not limited to, any loss of profits, goodwill, or business reputation; any loss of data; any cost of procurement of substitute goods or services; or any other intangible losses. This also includes any loss or damages that may be incurred by you as a result of (a) any changes that we may make to the QUBES Library; (b) any permanent or temporary cessation of the QUBES Library; (c) the deletion or corruption of, or failure to store, any content or data (including without limitation user content, educational material, and metadata) maintained through the QUBES Library; or (d) your failure to keep your password or registered user account details secure. The limitations and exclusions of liability above shall apply irrespective of the theory of liability, including contract (including fundamental breach), warranty, product liability, strict liability, tort (including negligence), or other theory, even if we (or our affiliates) have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

You specifically acknowledge that we and our affiliates shall not be liable for user content, educational material, and/or metadata, or for the infringing, defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of any third party, and that the risk of harm or damage from the foregoing rests entirely with you.

Exclusions and Limitations

Some jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties or conditions, or the limitation or exclusion of liability for certain damages. Accordingly, only the limitations that are lawful in your jurisdiction will apply to you and, in such instances, our liability and that of our affiliates will be limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold BioQUEST and Our Affiliates harmless from and against any and all liabilities and costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) we may incur in connection with any claim arising out of your breach of this Agreement or your use of the QUBES Library. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you.

General Terms

Entire Agreement

These Terms of Use contain the entire agreement between you and BioQUEST regarding the use of the QUBES Library, and supersede any prior agreement between you and BioQUEST on such subject matter. The parties acknowledge that no reliance is placed on any representation made but not expressly contained in these Terms of Use. You may also be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use or purchase other goods or services from us, our affiliates, or our parents or subsidiary entities.

Governing Law

New Hampshire law will govern this Agreement – as well as any claim, cause of action, or dispute that might arise between us concerning the QUBES Library, content appearing thereon, or any other matter – without regard to conflict of law provisions. For any claim brought by either party relating to or not governed by the arbitration provision of these Terms of Use, the parties agree to submit and consent to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction in, and the exclusive venue of, the state and federal courts located within New Hampshire.

Arbitration

Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement, or the breach thereof, or your use of the QUBES Library shall be settled by confidential binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association in accordance with its Commercial Arbitration Rules and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator(s) may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. The place of arbitration shall be New Hampshire. The arbitration shall be governed by the laws of the State of New Hampshire. The award of the arbitrators shall be accompanied by a reasoned opinion. The prevailing party shall be entitled to an award of reasonable attorney fees. Except as may be required by law, neither a party nor an arbitrator may disclose the existence, content, or results of any arbitration hereunder without the prior written consent of both parties.

Statute of Limitations

You agree that, regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim under this Agreement must be brought within one (1) year after the cause of action arises, or such claim or cause of action is forever barred.

Severability of Terms; Non-waiver of Terms; Assignment

If any portion(s) of the Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision(s) shall be stricken and the remainder of the Agreement enforced as written. If we do not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy, including those contained in the Agreement or arising under applicable law, this will not be taken to be a formal waiver or relinquishment of our rights. We may assign or delegate all rights and obligations under the Agreement, fully or partially.

Notices

We may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Agreement, by email, by regular mail, or by postings to the QUBES Library. If you have general questions or concerns regarding these Terms of Use, please contact us in writing at qubeshub "at" gmail "dot" com for fastest processing, please include the phrase “Terms of Use” in the subject line and in the body of your message.