Last Updated: 1 September 2010
You are subject to the SUPERNEWS Terms of Use
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Acceptance of Terms of Use
1.1 Welcome to www.supernews.co.za (“SUPERNEWS” or “We” or “Website” or “Web”). Your use of or access to, or license of information, materials, programming, products, or anything else of use or value on SUPERNEWS web pages constitutes your acknowledgment that you have read, understood and agreed to these Terms of Use (“Terms of Use” or “TOU”) in their entirety and you expressly agree to and accept and abide by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) Agreement.
1.2 SUPERNEWS provides various services subject to the following Terms of Use. SUPERNEWS reserves the right to alter these TOU without advance notice by posting revised TOU. Accordingly, you should review these TOU each time you access any SUPERNEWS web pages to stay informed of any changes to the TOU.
1.3 If the Terms of Use have been changed, the “Last Updated” notation at the top of this page will reflect the date of those changes. Any use of www.supernews.co.za by you after such notice shall be deemed to constitute acceptance by you of such changes, modifications or additions.
1.4 If you object to any such changes, you must cease using the Website immediately. You agree that any subsequent use of the Website by you following the changes to these Terms of Use shall indicate your acknowledgement of such changes, constitute your acceptance of and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions in all such changes.
2. Definitions
2.1 “Account” shall mean a user Account and/or password ;
2.2 “Legislation” shall mean the applicable legislation from time to time of the Republic of South Africa and in no way derogating from the generality thereof shall in particular mean the Copyright Act No. 98 of 1978 and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act No. 25 of 2002
2.3 “Material” means amongst others, a news event, people, comments, questions and answers, feedback, blogs and perspectives, textual content, news URLs, emails, SMS, MMS, public user profiles as well as photographs, video reports, audio reports and images;
2.4 “Privacy Policy” shall mean SUPERNEWS’ current Privacy Policy;
2.5 “SUPERNEWS Web pages” shall mean SUPERNEWS and any future sites and any and all digital services relating to SUPERNEWS operated by SUPERNEWS;
2.6 “Terms of Use” shall mean the current Terms of Use of service in effect as set forth herein or elsewhere on SUPERNEWS; and
2.7 “You” or “User” shall mean the user or superuser (users who have an account with SUPERNEWS, eg: “Citizen Journalists”, the engaged “SUPERNEWS Community”) or visitor (user who does not have an account with SUPERNEWS) to SUPERNEWS;
3. General Terms of Use
3.1 These Terms of Use apply to you, and all users that submit, contribute or report user-generated content, information or any other materials or service via the Website, mobile phones or email as well as to you and all users who simply consume the material on the Website.
3.2 For any portion of the SUPERNEWS Web pages that requires a user Account and/or password (“Account”), whether free of charge or for a fee, you are responsible for all use of your Account (under any screen name or password) and for ensuring that all use of your Account complies fully with the provisions of these Terms of Use. You shall be responsible for protecting the confidentiality of your user name(s) or password(s), if any.
3.3 These TOU apply to all of SUPERNEWS’ current and future Web pages. In addition, when using particular services provided by SUPERNEWS, you shall be subject to any additional posted Terms of Use, guidelines or rules applicable to such services. All such Terms of Use, guidelines or rules are hereby incorporated by reference into the TOU. The TOU incorporates the terms of the SUPERNEWS Privacy Policy.
3.4 SUPERNEWS shall have the right at any time to change or discontinue any aspect or feature of SUPERNEWS, including, but not limited to, content, hours of availability, and equipment needed for access or use.
4. Changed Terms of Use
4.1 SUPERNEWS shall have the right at any time to change or modify the Terms of Use and conditions applicable to your use of SUPERNEWS, or any part thereof, including but not limited to the SUPERNEWS Privacy Policy, or to impose new conditions, including, but not limited to, adding fees and charges for use.
4.2 Such changes, modifications, additions or deletions shall be effective immediately upon notice thereof, which may be given by means including, but not limited to, posting on SUPERNEWS Web pages, or by electronic or conventional mail, or by any other means by which you obtain notice thereof. Any use of SUPERNEWS by you after such notice shall be deemed to constitute acceptance by you of such changes, modifications or additions.
4.3 We recommend you bookmark this page and review it each time you use or access SUPERNEWS, noting the “Last Updated” information at the top of this page.
5. Submissions
5.1 By submitting your Material, for good and valuable consideration, the sufficiency and receipt of which you hereby acknowledge, you hereby grant to SUPERNEWS and its affiliates a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to edit, telecast, rerun, reproduce, use, create derivative works from, syndicate, license, print, sublicense, distribute and otherwise exhibit the materials you submit, or any portion thereof in any manner and in any medium or forum, whether now known or hereafter devised, without payment to you or any third party. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event SUPERNEWS licenses your material as stand-alone content outside of SUPERNEWS’ programming to third parties unaffiliated with SUPERNEWS, SUPERNEWS will pay you a percentage of the license fees it actually receives according to rates determined by SUPERNEWS’ licensing division. The fees will be determined on a unique basis and per media partner.
5.2 Your submissions are deemed non-confidential and SUPERNEWS has no obligation to maintain the confidentiality of any information, in whatever form, contained in any submission, except pursuant to the SUPERNEWS Privacy Policy.
5.3 You represent and warrant to SUPERNEWS that you have the full legal right, power and authority to grant to SUPERNEWS the license provided for herein, that you own or control the complete exhibition and other rights to the materials you submitted for the purposes contemplated in this license and that neither the materials nor the exercise of the rights granted herein shall infringe upon or violate the right of privacy or right of publicity of, or constitute a libel or slander against, or violate any common law or any other right of, any person or entity.
5.4 Users are solely responsible for anything contained in their submissions, message board and/or chat sessions. SUPERNEWS does not verify, endorse or otherwise vouch for the contents of any submission, message board or chat room. Users may be held legally liable for the contents of their submissions, message board and chat sessions, and may be held legally liable if their submissions or chat sessions include, for example, material protected by copyright, trademark, patent or trade secret law or other proprietary right without permission of the author or owner, or defamatory comments.
5.4.1 Web site user submissions to SUPERNEWS do not represent the views of SUPERNEWS, or any individual associated with SUPERNEWS and we do not control this content. In no event shall you represent or suggest, directly or indirectly,
5.4.2 SUPERNEWS’ endorsement of user submissions. SUPERNEWS does not vouch for the accuracy or credibility of any content submitted by users on our SUPERNEWS Web pages, and does not take any responsibility or assume any liability for any actions you may take as a result of reading user published content on SUPERNEWS.
5.4.3 Through your use of SUPERNEWS, you may be exposed to content that you may find offensive, objectionable, harmful, inaccurate or deceptive.
5.4.4 There may also be risks of dealing with underage persons, people acting under false pretense, international trade issues and foreign nationals. By using SUPERNEWS, you assume all associated risks.
6. Copyrighted Material
6.1
6.1.1 SUPERNEWS contains copyrighted material, trademarks and other proprietary information, including, but not limited to, text, software, photos, video, graphics, music and sound, and the entire contents of SUPERNEWS are protected by South African copyright laws as a collective work and otherwise.
6.1.2 SUPERNEWS owns a copyright in the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such content, as well as in the content original to it.
6.1.3 You may not modify, publish, transmit, license, participate in the transfer, licensing or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the content, copyrights, trademarks, or other property interests therein, in whole or in part.
6.1.4 When authorized by SUPERNEWS, you may download copyrighted material for your personal use only. Except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law, no copying, redistribution, retransmission, licensing, publication or commercial exploitation of downloaded material will be permitted without the express written permission of SUPERNEWS and the copyright owner, or owner of any other legal interests therein.
6.1.5 In the event of any permitted copying, redistribution or publication of copyrighted material, no changes in or deletion of author attribution, trademarks legend or copyright notice shall be made.
6.1.6 You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading copyrighted material.
6.2
6.2.1 SUPERNEWS may, from time to time, be a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties other than users of SUPERNEWS. Accordingly, SUPERNEWS has no more editorial control over such content than does a public library, bookstore or newsstand.
6.2.2 Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including information providers, you or any other user of SUPERNEWS, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of SUPERNEWS or SUPERNEWS.
6.2.3 Neither SUPERNEWS nor any third-party provider of information guarantees the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content, nor its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.
6.2.4 SUPERNEWS neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on SUPERNEWS by anyone other than authorized SUPERNEWS employees acting in their official capacities. Under no circumstances shall SUPERNEWS be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information, opinion, advice or other content available through SUPERNEWS.
6.3
6.3.1 SUPERNEWS respects the copyrights of others and expects its users to do the same. By uploading, posting or otherwise making available content on SUPERNEWS, you represent that you own or otherwise have the intellectual property rights to submit such materials.
6.3.2 You shall not upload, post or otherwise make available on SUPERNEWS any material protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right without the express written permission of the owner of the copyright, trademark or other proprietary right and the burden of determining that any material is not protected by copyright or other proprietary rights rests with you.
6.3.3 You shall be solely liable for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights, or any other harm resulting from such a submission.
6.3.4 By submitting material to any public area of SUPERNEWS, you automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such material has expressly granted SUPERNEWS the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate and distribute such material (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed for the full term of any copyright and any other proprietary rights that may exist in such material.
6.3.5 You also permit any other user to access, view, store or reproduce the material for that individual’s personal use on SUPERNEWS.
6.3.6 You hereby grant SUPERNEWS the right to edit, copy, publish and distribute any such material made available on SUPERNEWS by you.
6.4 If you believe you have a claim of copyright infringement with respect to material that is posted on SUPERNEWS Web pages, you may give SUPERNEWS written notification of your claim in accordance with the requirements of the legislation.
7. Conduct on Supernews
7.1 If you submit any materials or participate in any online forum or any other forum or similar service within or in connection with SUPERNEWS, you agree to abide by the following rules of conduct:
7.1.1 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS any material that violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others, including any statements which may defame, abuse, harass, stalk or threaten others;
7.1.2 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS any material that is offensive to the online community, including blatant expressions of bigotry, racism, abusiveness, vulgarity or profanity;
7.1.3 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS any material that contains or advocates pornography, pedophilia, incest or bestiality;
7.1.4 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS any statements that advocate or provide instruction on illegal activity or discuss illegal activities with the intent to commit them;
7.1.5 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS any material that infringes and/or violates any right of a third party or any law, engage in activity that would constitute a criminal offense or give rise to a civil liability;
7.1.6 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS any vulgar or obscene language or images;
7.1.7 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS, without SUPERNEWS’ express prior approval, material which contains advertising or any solicitation with respect to products or services;
7.1.8 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS, any software or other materials which contain a virus or other harmful or disruptive component;
7.1.9 You agree not to post or transmit through SUPERNEWS material or statements that do not generally pertain to the designated topic or theme of any chat room or bulletin board;
7.1.10 You agree not to upload, post, or otherwise make available on SUPERNEWS Web pages any material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity or other proprietary right without the express permission of the owner of such copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity or other proprietary right. Any person determined by SUPERNEWS, in its sole discretion, to have repeatedly violated the intellectual property or other rights of others shall be barred from submitting or posting any further material on SUPERNEWS Web pages;
7.1.11 You agree not to impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, any SUPERNEWS employee, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
7.1.12 You agree not to interfere with any other user’s right to privacy, including by harvesting or collecting personally-identifiable information about SUPERNEWS users;
7.1.13 You agree not to interfere with or disrupt the SUPERNEWS Web pages or servers or networks connected to the Web pages, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Web pages;
7.1.14 You agree not to upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;
7.1.15 You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes, any portion of SUPERNEWS Web pages, use of the Web pages, or access to the Web pages;
7.1.16 You agree that if necessary, you have the consent of each and every identifiable natural person in any submission to use such persons name or likeness in the manner contemplated by SUPERNEWS; and
Any conduct that in SUPERNEWS’ sole discretion restricts or inhibits anyone else from using or enjoying SUPERNEWS will not be permitted. SUPERNEWS reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove or edit messages or material submitted by you and to suspend or terminate your account for any reason. SUPERNEWS is not responsible for material submitted to SUPERNEWS or posted in chat rooms, on bulletin boards or on other forums by users of SUPERNEWS.
7.2 The foregoing provisions of this Section 7 are for the benefit of SUPERNEWS, its subsidiaries, affiliates and its third party content providers and licensors and each shall have the right to assert and enforce such provisions directly or on its own behalf.
8. Monitoring
8.1 SUPERNEWS shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor the content of SUPERNEWS, including online forums, to determine compliance with these Terms of Use. SUPERNEWS shall have the right in its sole discretion to edit, refuse to post or remove any material submitted to or posted on SUPERNEWS. Without limiting the foregoing, SUPERNEWS shall have the right to remove any material that SUPERNEWS, in its sole discretion, finds to be in violation of the provisions hereof or otherwise objectionable. In addition, SUPERNEWS may share personally identifiable information in response to a law enforcement agency’s request, or where we believe it is necessary, or as otherwise required or permitted by law. See Privacy Policy.
8.2 The decision by SUPERNEWS to monitor and/or modify the content of SUPERNEWS does not constitute nor shall it be deemed to constitute any responsibility or liability in any manner on the part of SUPERNEWS in connection with or arising from use by you of SUPERNEWS or participation in any online forums or interactive features of SUPERNEWS.
8.3 SUPERNEWS makes no guarantees for the users on www.supernews.co.za and takes no direct responsibility for the content they publish.
8.4 At present, SUPERNEWS provides You access to certain online resources, including various communication tools, training tips, blogging and discussion platforms, etc. We reserve the right to change or discontinue temporarily or permanently any content, products or services available via the Website at anytime without notice.
9. Third-Party Links, Sponsors and Frames
9.1 SUPERNEWS may provide links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Because SUPERNEWS has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that SUPERNEWS is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that SUPERNEWS shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource. You should direct any concerns regarding any external resource to the proprietor(s) of that site.
9.2 SUPERNEWS may contain commercial images and/or links to sponsors of SUPERNEWS. SUPERNEWS is not responsible or liable for the content of those images and/or links.
9.3 No third party may use framing technologies or functionalities to contain any content provided by SUPERNEWS, for purposes either commercial or non-commercial, without express prior and written consent from SUPERNEWS.
9.4 No third party may provide links to any content within SUPERNEWS without the express prior written consent from SUPERNEWS.
10. Disclaimer of Warranty; Limitation of Liability
10.1 You expressly agree that use of SUPERNEWS is at your sole risk. Neither SUPERNEWS, its affiliates nor any of their respective employees, or agents warrant that SUPERNEWS will be uninterrupted or error free; nor do they make any warranty as to the results that may be obtained from use of SUPERNEWS, or as to the accuracy, reliability or content of any information, service, or merchandise provided through SUPERNEWS.
10.2 SUPERNEWS is provided on an as is” basis without warranties of any kind, either express of implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, other than those warranties which are implied by and incapable of exclusion, restriction or modification under the laws applicable to these terms of use.
10.3 This disclaimer of liability applies to any damages or injury caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorised access to, alteration of, or use of record, whether for breach of contract, tortious behaviour, negligence, or under any other cause of action. You specifically acknowledge that SUPERNEWS is not liable for the defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of other users or visitors of SUPERNEWS or third parties and that the risk of injury form the foregoing rests entirely with you.
10.4 In no event will SUPERNEWS, or affiliated companies, or any person or entity involved in creating, producing or distributing SUPERNEWS, be liable for any damages, including, without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising out of the use of or inability to use SUPERNEWS, nor mall SUPERNEWS, or affiliated companies, or any person or entity involved in creating, producing or distributing SUPERNEWS, be liable for any damages, claims, or injury including without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or personal or bodily injury, arising from or in connection with your creating content, by videotaping, photography or otherwise, for submission to SUPERNEWS, and you hereby assume all risk for any damages, claims or injuries. You hereby acknowledge that the provisions of Section 10 shall apply to all content on SUPERNEWS.
10.5 In addition to the terms of service set forth above, neither SUPERNEWS, nor its affiliated companies, information providers or content partners shall be liable regardless of the cause or duration, for any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or other defects in, or untimeliness or inauthenticity of, the information contained within SUPERNEWS, or for any delay or interruption in the transmission thereof to the user, or for any claims or losses arising therefrom or occasioned thereby. None of the foregoing parties shall be liable for any third-party claims or losses of any nature including, but not limited to, lost profits, punitive or consequential damages. Neither SUPERNEWS, nor its affiliated companies, information providers or content partners or media partners warrant or guarantee the timeliness, sequence, accuracy or completeness of this information. Additionally, there are no warranties as to the results obtained from the use of the information.
10.6 SUPERNEWS disclaims any and all liability of any kind for any unauthorized access to or use of your personally identifiable information. By accessing SUPERNEWS, you acknowledge and agree to SUPERNEWS’ disclaimer of any such liability. If you do not agree, you should not access or use SUPERNEWS.
11. Termination
You agree that SUPERNEWS, in its sole discretion, may terminate your Account, password, and User Name and/or use of the SUPERNEWS Web pages, and may remove and discard any content within the SUPERNEWS Web pages, for any reason, including, without limitation, if SUPERNEWS believes that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of these Terms of Use. You agree that any termination of your access to the SUPERNEWS Web pages under any provision of this Terms of Use may be effected without prior notice, and acknowledge and agree that SUPERNEWS may immediately deactivate or delete your Account, password, and User Name and all related information and files associated with it and/or bar any further access to such files or the SUPERNEWS Web pages. Further, you agree that SUPERNEWS shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of your access to the Web pages. The provisions of Sections 6, 9 (C), 9 (D), 10, 12, 13 and this Section 11, shall survive termination of these Terms of Use.
12. Indemnification
12.1 You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless SUPERNEWS, its affiliates and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of the use of SUPERNEWS by you or your Account by you or any other person using the Account. SUPERNEWS reserves the right to take over the exclusive defense of any claim for which we are entitled to indemnification under this Section. In such event, you shall provide SUPERNEWS with such cooperation as is reasonably requested by SUPERNEWS.
12.2 You agree that SUPERNEWS will not be liable to you or any third party for any modification or discontinuance of the Website Services therein.
12.3 Neither SUPERNEWS nor our third-party service providers assume responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, mis-delivery or failure to store any data, communications or personalization settings as we cannot always anticipate technical or other operational outages which may result in loss of data, personalization settings or other services.
13. Trademarks
“SUPERNEWS™” and the SUPERNEWS logo are service marks of SUPERNEWS. All rights reserved. All other trademarks including Newsvertise™, Newsvertising™ and Newsvert™, logos and service marks appearing on SUPERNEWS are the property of SUPERNEWS or their respective owners.
14. Miscellaneous
These Terms of Use and any operating rules for SUPERNEWS established by SUPERNEWS constitute the entire agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof, and supersede all previous written or oral agreements between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof. These Terms of Use shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. If you access SUPERNEWS from any location other than the Republic of South Africa, you accept full responsibility for compliance with all local laws. You are also subject to South African export controls and are responsible for any violations of South African embargoes or other federal rules and regulations restricting exports. No waiver by either party of any breach or default hereunder shall be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default. If any part of these Terms of Use is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, it will be replaced with language reflecting the original purpose in a valid and enforceable manner. The enforceable sections of these Terms of Use will remain binding upon the parties. You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and SUPERNEWS as a result of these Terms of Use or your use of or access to the Website.
15. Force Majeure
Neither SUPERNEWS nor you shall be liable for damages or for delays or failures in performance resulting from acts or occurrences beyond their reasonable control, including, without limitation: fire, lightning, explosion, power surge or failure, water, acts of God, war, terrorism, revolution, civil commotion or acts of civil or military authorities or public enemies: any law, order, regulation, ordinance, or requirement of any government or legal body or any representative of any such government or legal body; or labor unrest, including without limitation, strikes, slowdowns, picketing, or boycotts; inability to secure raw materials, transportation facilities, fuel or energy shortages, or acts or omissions of other common carriers.
16. Compliance with Legislation
16.1 SUPERNEWS is committed to full compliance with South African copyright law, and expects its users to do the same. Accordingly, as a courtesy, SUPERNEWS is providing the following information regarding its understanding of the legislation concerning notice of claimed online copyright infringement. SUPERNEWS is not providing legal advice. Any persons wishing to assert or oppose a claim under the legislation should consult their own legal adviser concerning these matters.
16.2 The legislation provides recourse for owners of copyrighted material who believe that their rights under South African copyright laws have been infringed online. Under the legislation, copyright owners may contact the authorized agent of an Internet service provider to report alleged infringements based on unauthorized use of their protected works appearing on web pages hosted by the service provider. Upon receipt of properly filed complaints satisfying the requirements of the legislation, SUPERNEWS will remove or block access to the allegedly infringing material posted by third party users of the SUPERNEWS Web pages. If a SUPERNEWS user who posted such material believes in good faith that a notice of copyright infringement has been wrongly filed, the user may submit a counter-notice to assert a private dispute with the claimed copyright owner. SUPERNEWS will not be a party to such disputes over alleged copyright infringement.
Supernews™, 2010.
SUPERNEWS has referenced many sources in terms of conceptualising SUPERNEWS and developing and building www.supernews.co.za and would like to acknowledge some of them, including: www.allvoices.com, www.nowpublic.com, www.ireport.com, www.huffingtonpost.com, www.unicef.org, www.current.com, www.groundreport.com, www.ushahidi.com, www.engineeringnews.co.za, www.oprah.com, www.weforum.org, www.ted.com, www.scoop08.org, www.kiva.org, www.innocentive.com.