These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of and access to the SparkFellowship Services, including our various websites, email notifications, SMS, APIs, commerce services (the "SparkFellowship Services"), and any other services that link to these Terms (known collectively as the "Services"), and any text, information, images, graphics, photos, or other material uploaded, downloaded, or appearing through the Services (collectively, the "Content"). Your access to and on-going use of the Services is dependent on your compliance with and acceptance of these Terms. By using the Services or accessing the Content you agree to be bound by these Terms.
1 - Basic Terms
You are solely and completely responsible for your personal use of the Services, any and all Content you submit to the Services, and for any subsequent consequences that arise from your participation. The Content you submit, post, list, or display through the Services may be seen by other users, including, but not limited to, Church and Ministry Administrators ("Administrators"), Group members, Community members, the general public, and SparkFellowship staff. It is important to know how your information is shared with others, so we've provided account settings to control who sees the content you publish. You agree to only provide Content that may be shared with others under these Terms.
You are allowed to use and access the Services only if you can form a binding contract with SparkFellowship and are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States or jurisdiction of other applicable governments and entities. If you are accepting these Terms and using the Services you verify that you do so on behalf of yourself or on behalf of a recognized Church, Ministry, or Faith-based non-profit, warranting that you have the authority and right to represent such an entity. You may use the Services only in compliance with these Terms and all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules, and regulations.
The Services that SparkFellowship provides are always changing and the nature and form of the Services that SparkFellowship provides may change occasionally without prior notice to you. We may also stop providing the Services or any features within the Services to you or to users generally with or without prior notice. We retain the rights to limit usage and storage at our sole discretion at any time without prior notice to you.
2 - Privacy
Any and all Content that you or other users submit to SparkFellowship is subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy, which governs our use, collection, and display of your information. You understand that your use of the Services constitutes your consent that we may collect and use (as outlined in the Privacy Policy) this information, including the transfer of this Content to the United States and/or other countries for storage, processing, and use by SparkFellowship. As part of the Services, we may need to provide you with communications, such as administrative messages and service announcements. These communications are included under the Services and your account account, which may not include the ability to opt-out from receiving them.
3 - Password
You are responsible for creating, maintaining, and safeguarding the password you use to access the Services and for any activities or actions performed under your password. We recommend that you use a "strong" password (one including a combination of upper and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers) with your account. SparkFellowship will not and cannot be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with the above.
4 - Content on the Services
All content, privately transmitted or publicly posted, is the sole responsibility of the person who created and originated such Content. We may not control, review, or monitor the Content posted through the Services, and we do not and cannot take responsibility for any Content. Any use, consumption, or reliance on any Content, information, or materials posted through the Services or obtained by you through the Services is at your own risk.
We do not endorse, represent, support, or guarantee the truthfulness, completeness, accuracy, or reliability of any Content posted via the Services or endorse any opinions expressed through the Services. You understand that your use of the Services will expose you to Content that may be offensive, inaccurate, harmful, or otherwise inappropriate, including postings that are deceptive or mislabeled. SparkFellowship is in no circumstance liable in any way for the Content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of the Content posted, emailed, transmitted or made available otherwise via the Services or broadcast elsewhere.
5 - Your Rights
Your retain your rights to the Content you post, submit, or display through or on the Services. By posting, submitting, or displaying Content through or on the Services you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, reproduce, process, copy, adapt, publish, display, modify, transmit, and distribute such Content in any and all distribution methods and media (in existence at the time of agreement or later introduced).
You also agree that this license includes the right for SparkFellowship to promote, provide, and improve the Services and make all Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals who partner with SparkFellowship for the broadcast, distribution or publication of the Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for the use of such Content.
Such additional uses by SparkFellowship, or other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with SparkFellowship may be made without compensation paid to you for the Content you post, submit, transmit, or otherwise include through the Services.
We may modify or adapt your Content to transmit, store, display, or distribute it over computer networks and in various media as well as make changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt the Content to any limitations or requirements of any device, network, service, or media.
You are solely responsible for any Content you provide, your use of the Services, and any consequences thereof, including the use of your Content by third party partners or other users. You understand that your Content may be broadcast, distributed or published by our partners and you agree that you have the right and permission to submit Content for such use. If you do not have the right to submit Content for broadcast, distribution or publication, it may subject you to liability. SparkFellowship will not be liable or responsible for any use of your Content by SparkFellowship in accordance with these Terms. You agree and warrant that you have all the power, rights, and authority required to grant the rights granted here to any Content you submit.
6 - Your License To Use The Services
SparkFellowship gives you a single, personal, world-wide, royalty-free, non-assignable, and non-exclusive license to use the software provided to you through the Services. This license is for the singular purpose of enabling you to use the Services provided by SparkFellowship, in the manner allowed by these Terms.
7 - SparkFellowship Rights
All right, title, and interest in and to the Services (excluding Content provided by the users) are and will remain the exclusive property of SparkFellowship and its licensors. The Services are protected by copyright, and other laws of both the United States and foreign countries. Nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use the SparkFellowship name or any of the SparkFellowship logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features. Any feedback, comments, or suggestions you may provide regarding SparkFellowship, or the Services is entirely voluntary and we will be free to use such feedback, comments or suggestions as we see fit and without any obligation to you.
8 - Restrictions on Content and Use of the Services
You agree to follow the SparkFellowship Rules (included under these Terms) regarding what Content may be submitted or what behavior is acceptable within the Services. We reserve the non-obligatory right at all times to remove or refuse to distribute Content on the Services and to suspend or terminate users, Churches, Ministries, or Groups without liability to you. We also reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as we reasonably believe is necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (ii) enforce the Terms, including investigation of potential violations hereof, (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect the rights, property or safety of SparkFellowship, its users and the public.
If you use commerce features of the SparkFellowship Services that require credit or debit card information, such as our Online Giving/Donation feature, you agree to our SparkFellowship Commerce Terms.
You may not do any of the following while accessing or using the Services: (i) access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the Services, SparkFellowship's computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of SparkFellowship's providers; (ii) probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or network or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measures; (iii) access or search or attempt to access or search the Services by any means (automated or otherwise) other than through our currently available, published interfaces that are provided by SparkFellowship (and only pursuant to the applicable terms and conditions), unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with SparkFellowship (NOTE: crawling the Services is permissible if done in accordance with the provisions of the robots.txt file, however, scraping the Services without the prior consent of SparkFellowship is expressly prohibited); (iv) forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or posting, or in any way use the Services to send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information; or (v) interfere with, or disrupt, (or attempt to do so), the access of any user, host or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, mail-bombing the Services, or by scripting the creation of Content in such a manner as to interfere with or create an undue burden on the Services.
9 - Copyright Policy
SparkFellowship respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects you and other users to do the same. We will respond to allegations of copyright infringement properly provided to us and comply with applicable law. If you believe your Content has been used in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide us with: (i) a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner; (ii) identification of the copyrighted work that has been infringed upon; (iii) identification of the material or Content that is claimed to be infringing or the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or have its access disabled, and information sufficient for us to locate the material; (iv) your contact information, including address, phone number, and email address; (v) a statement that you have a good faith belief that the material in question has been used in a manner not authorized by the copyright owner, its agents, or the law; and (vi) a statement that the information in your notification is accurate, and under penalty or perjury, that you are authorize to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
We reserve the right to remove Content alleged to be infringing without prior notice, at our sole discretion, and without liability to you. In appropriate circumstances, SparkFellowship will also terminate a user's account if the user is determined to be a repeat infringer. Under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, our designated copyright agent for notice of alleged copyright infringement appearing on the Services is:
SparkFellowship
Attn: Copyright Agent
740 Carlyle Lake
Decatur, GA 30033
Email: info@sparkfellowship.com
10 - Ending These Terms
These terms will apply continually until terminated by SparkFellowship or you as follows.
You may end your legal agreement with SparkFellowship at any time, for any reason, by deactivating your account and discontinuing your use of the Services. You do not need to inform SparkFellowship specifically when you stop using the Services. If you stop using the Services without deactivating your account, SparkFellowship reserves the right to deactivate your account due to prolonged inactivity.
We may suspend or terminate your accounts or cease providing you with the Services (in part or in full) at any time, and for any or no reason. Reasons may include, but are not limited to, if we believe: (i) you have violated these Terms or the SparkFellowship Rules, (ii) you create possible legal exposure for us or create a risk, or (iii) our provision of the Services to you is no longer viable commercially. We will make efforts to contact you through your account email address of inform you on your next attempt to log in.
In all cases, the Terms shall terminate, including, without limitation, your license to use the Services, but not including sections 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12. Sections 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12 will continue to apply.
Nothing in this section shall affect SparkFellowship's rights to change, limit or stop the provision of the Services without prior notice, as provided above in section 1.
11 - Disclaimers and Limitations of Liability
This section limits the liability of SparkFellowship and its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, related companies, officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, partners, and licensors (collectively, the "SparkFellowship Entities"). The following subsections applies only up to the maximum extent permitted under applicable law. This section may not apply to you as some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer or implied warranties or the limitation of liability in contracts. This section is not intended to limit any rights you may have which may not be limited legally.
A. The Services are provided "AS-IS"
You agree to access and use the Services at your own risk. You understand and agree that the Services are provided to you and others on an "AS-IS" and "AS-AVAILABLE" basis. Without limiting the foregoing, and to the maximum extent of applicable law, THE SPARKFELLOWSHIP ENTITIES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.
The SparkFellowship Entities make no warranty or representation and disclaim all responsibility and liability for: (i) the completeness, accuracy, availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Services or any Content; (ii) any harm to your computer system, loss of data, or other harm that results from your access to or use of the Services or any Content; (iii) the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any Content and other communications maintained by the Services; and (iv) whether the Services will meet your requirements or be available on an uninterrupted, secure, or error-free basis. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained from the SparkFellowship Entities or through the Services, will create any warranty or representation not expressly made herein.
B. Hyperlinks
The Services may contain hyperlinks to third-party resources and websites. You agree that the SparkFellowship Entities cannot and will not be held responsible for: (i) the availability of such websites, documents, or resources; (ii) the accuracy or validity of such websites, documents, or resources; or (iii) the content, services, or products listed on or made available by such websites, documents, or resources. Links to such websites, documents, or resources do not imply the endorsement in any degree by the SparkFellowship Entities of such websites, documents, or resources or the content, services, or products listed on or made available from such a website, document, or resource. You agree and acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all the risk that comes from your use of any such website, document, or resource.
C. Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SPARKFELLOWSHIP ENTITIES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS OR REVENUES, WHETHER INCURRED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, USE, GOOD-WILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, RESULTING FROM (i) YOUR INABILITY TO, ACCESS TO, OR USE OF THE SERVICES; (ii) ANY THIRD-PARTY CONDUCT OR CONTENT ON THE SERVICES, INCLUDING ANY DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE, OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF OTHER USERS OR THIRD PARTIES; (iii) ANY AND ALL CONTENT OBTAINED BY OR THROUGH THE SERVICES; OR (iv) THE UNAUTHORIZED ALTERATION, ACCESS, USE, OR FALSIFICATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR CONTENT.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE OR EVENT SHALL THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF THE SPARKFELLOWSHIP ENTITIES EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID SPARKFELLOWSHIP, IF ANY, IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS FOR THE SERVICES THAT HAVE GIVEN RISE TO THE CLAIM OR ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (U.S. $100.00).
THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS SUBSECTION SHALL APPLY TO ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, STATUTE, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE SPARKFELLOWSHIP ENTITIES HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF A REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.
12 - General Terms
A. Waiver and Severability
The failure to enforce and right, provision, or restriction of these Terms by SparkFellowship will not be deemed a waiver of such a right, provision, or restriction. If any provision of these Terms is determined invalid or unenforceable then that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary while the remaining provisions of the Terms will remain in full effect.
B. Controlling Law and Jurisdiction
These Terms and related actions will be governed by the laws of the State of Georgia without regard to or application of the laws of your state or country of residence. All claims, legal proceedings or litigation connected with use of the Services will be solely brought in the Federal or State courts of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and you consent to the jurisdiction of and venue in such courts, and agree to waive any and all objections regarding inconvenient forum.
If you are a local, state, or federal government entity in the United States using the services on the official behalf of such an entity and are legally unable to accept the controlling law, jurisdiction, or venue clauses provided above, then those provisions shall not apply to you. For such United States federal entities, these Terms and related actions will be governed by the laws of the United States of America (without reference to conflict of laws) and, where federal law is absent and to the fullest extent permissible under federal law, by the laws of the State of Georgia (excluding choice of law).
C. Entire Agreement
These Terms, which include the SparkFellowship Rules for the Services, our Privacy Policy, and Commerce Terms and the entire and exclusive agreement between you and SparkFellowship regarding the Services (excluding any additional services that introduce a separate agreement between you and SparkFellowship that is explicitly in addition or in place of these Terms), and these Terms replace and supersede any and all prior agreements between you and SparkFellowship regarding the Services. Other than SparkFellowship Entities, no other company or person will be a third party beneficiary of these Terms.
We reserve the right to revise the Terms occasionally, and the most current and active version will be listed at sparkfellowship.com/tos. At our sole discretion we may decide to inform you of changes to the Terms via your account email address if we deem the revision important. By continuing to use or access the Services after those revisions become effective, you agree to to be bound by the new Terms.
If you live in the United States, these Terms are an agreement between you and SparkFellowship, 740 Carlyle Lake, Decatur, GA 30033 U.S.A. If you live outside the United States, your agreement is with SparkFellowship International. If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us.
Effective: September 25, 2015
