Contents:

1. Use of Site
2. Privacy
3. Ownership of Trademarks and Trade Dress
4. Copyrighted Material
5. Use of Content on Site
   1. Public Records
   2. Limitations on use of Copyrighted Material
   3. Limited License to Copyrighted Material
6. Deep Linking: Framing; Meta Tags and Hidden Text
7. Submission of Information to this Site
8. Links to Third Party Sites
9. Disclaimer
10. Indemnify
11. Copyright Complaints
12. Changes to These Terms of Use
13. Applicable Law
14. Legal Contacts

1. Use of the Site

Welcome to the Government Open Code Collaborative (“GOCC”) Web site, owned by the GOCC and hosted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Information Technology Division's (ITD) Data Center as a public service. ITD and the GOCC maintain this website as a service to the citizens of the states of GOCC’s Members and Academic Members, as that term is described in the Operating Agreement signed by the GOCC’s Members and Academic Members, a copy of which is available online here. The Operating Agreement governs the legal relationship among the GOCC’s Members and Academic Members, Academic Members and Academic Members and Observers with respect to this site. These Terms of Use govern the relationship between all other users of this site on the one hand and the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD on the other.

The maintenance of this site and the provision of the information, services and products offered over the site are subject to the following terms and conditions on the use of the site. By using the site or by downloading any materials from the site, you agree to the terms and conditions as outlined in these Terms of Use. In addition, you will not be able to download code from this site without signing a copy of these Terms of Use in “clickwrap” form. All terms used in these Terms of Use are defined in the manner set forth in the Operating Agreement. By using the site or by downloading any materials from the site, you agree to the terms and conditions as outlined in these Terms of Use. If you do not agree with them, do not use the site or download materials from the site.

2. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy is contained on a separate page (link here to policy) We strongly suggest that you review the policy to learn how the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members and ITD treat information collected by this site, what such information is used for, and how it may be shared.

3. Ownership of Trademarks and Trade Dress

The terms “Government Open Code Collaborative” and “GOCC” and other marks, graphics, logos, page headers, icons, and scripts noted on this site are the trademarks and/or trade dress of the GOCC or its Members and Academic Members and are the property of the GOCC or its Members and Academic Members. Use of trademarks and trade dress of the GOCC or its Members and Academic Members, or ITD is prohibited without any prior approval of the GOCC, its Members and Academic Member, or ITD. In no case shall such trademarks or trade dress be used in any manner that is likely to cause confusion, in any manner that disparages or discredits the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD and in connection with any service or product that is not sponsored, endorsed or produced by the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, or ITD. Trademarks not owned by the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, or ITD that appear on this site are the property of their respective owners.

4. Copyrighted Material

Other than the Donated Code, this site and the content of the site (including any texts, graphics, audio, video and/or audiovisual material, as well as the layout, organization and display of the same), and the software used on or in connection with the site are the property of the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, or ITD and/or their licensors. Such property is protected by the U.S. copyrights laws and international treaty provisions. The GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD reserve all rights in this property not specifically granted in any agreements with the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, or ITD in these Terms of Use.

5. Use of Content on the Site

Type of content. This website contains two types of content: (1) code donated by GOCC Members and Academic Members (“Donated Code”) and (2) all other information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages or any other materials whatsoever whether publicly posted on or privately transmitted via the GOCC Website (“Content”).

Public Record. The Donated Code and Content posted on this site may be public records within the definitions of the freedom of information laws to which the GOCC’s Members and Academic Members are subject. The GOCC’s Members and Academic Members may be required to produce, upon request, copies of public records in accordance with the provisions of their respective freedom of information laws. In many GOCC Member states, the public records or freedom of information act laws do not limit the copyright or other intellectual property rights of either the GOCC Member state or third party holders in these materials.

Limits on the use of Copyrighted Material. Each piece of Donated Code available to you over this site is subject to a software license and your use of the Donated Code is exclusively subject to the terms of the associated license. By comparison, the Content (i.e. material other than Donated Code) available to you over this site may only be viewed and downloaded from this site for your personal use. Except as set forth below, such material may not be reproduced, adapted, published, performed or displayed other than in a manner that would constitute “fair use” under the copyright laws. “Fair use” includes use of limited portions of the copyrighted materials in connection with such activities such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, research and other related activities.

Limited License to Copyrighted Materials. In the case of the Content (i.e. material other than Donated Code) available over the site (i) which constitutes public records under the freedom of information act of any GOCC Member and (ii) with respect to which the GOCC or its Members and Academic Members owns the copyright (“Licensed Content”), and except as may otherwise be indicated on the site with respect to specific Content, the GOCC and its Members and Academic Members grant to you a revocable license as follows (any use of the copyrighted material by you which would not qualify as “fair use” being deemed acceptance of these Terms of Use):

1. You may reproduce, publish, or display copies of Licensed Content in any medium, provided: (i) you conspicuously display the following notice on every page of the Licensed Content: © 2004 Government Open Code Collaborative; (ii) You do not charge any fee in connection with distribution of the Licensed Content other than a fee which reasonably equals your cost to copy and transfer Licensed Content; and (iii) you conspicuously include the following statement together with an offer to distribute, transfer, or sell the Licensed Content for a fee: “The information and materials offered here are available without cost from the GOCC at www.gocc.gov."
2. You may adapt and otherwise produce and publish works which are derived from the Licensed Content, provided: (i) you conspicuously include the following statement on every copy of the work: “This work includes information and materials derived from and copyrighted or licensed by the GOCC, available at www.gocc.gov ” and (ii) In connection with the derivative work, you do not charge any fee related to the Licensed Content other than a fee which reasonably equals your cost to copy and transfer Licensed Content to your derivative work.

Disclosure of the statements required here cannot be satisfied by display in a footnote which must be “clicked” to access. The disclosures must be set out with the Licensed Content to which each applies.

This license does not grant any rights in copyrighted works held by third party licensors to the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, or ITD. If you are unsure whether or not these entities hold a copyright or license to particular Content on this site, please contact the GOCC at the address listed in section 14 herein.

6. Deep Linking; Framing; Meta Tags and Hidden Text

Deep Linking. You may deep link to pages within the site only if the page to which you deep-link include both: (i) an indication that the page is the property of the GOCC or it’s Members and Academic Members and (ii) a link to these Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy of the site.

Framing. You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademarks or other proprietary information or content (including text, graphics, page layout or organization) of the GOCC or its Members and Academic Members or licensees without the prior written permission of the GOCC.

Meta Tags and Hidden Text. You may not use “meta tags” or any “hidden text” utilizing any of the trademarks of the GOCC or its Members and Academic Members without the prior written permission of the GOCC.

7. Submission of Information To this Site

This site permits GOCC Members and Academic Members only to submit code for donation to the site. Donation of Donated Code is governed exclusively by the terms and conditions of the GOCC Operating Agreement.

In addition to the donation of Donated Code by GOCC Members and Academic Members, this site permits all users to submit comments and provide other information. If you provide any information to the site, other than Donated Code, you may do so on the condition that what you submit is not obscene, illegal, threatening, or defamatory and so long as what you submit does not invade the privacy or infringe the intellectual property of a third party. Furthermore, nothing you submit may contain software viruses, mass mailings, chain letters, or any other form of “spam”. You may not use a false email address, impersonate any person or entity or otherwise mislead as to the origin of the information you submit.

By submitting any information to this site, other than Donated Code, in any form, you grant the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD a nonexclusive, royalty-free , perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to reproduce, use, modify, publish, adapt, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the work in any media. By submitting information you also represent and warrant that the content is accurate; you own or have permission to use the content that you submit, and that use of the content will not cause injury to any person or entity.

8. Links to Third Party Sites

This site may provide hypertext or other links to third party web sites or access to third party content. The GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD cannot and does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of these external sites. In addition, The GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD do not endorse any views, products, services or sponsors of these external sites. You agree that the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD are not responsible for any content, associated links, resources, products or service provided by or associated with a third party site. You further agree that the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD shall not be liable for any loss or damage of any sort associated with your use of third party content. Links and access to these sites are provided for your convenience.

9. Disclaimer

All information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages or any other materials whatsoever (collectively, "Content") and the Donated Code, whether publicly posted on or privately transmitted via the GOCC Website are the sole responsibility of the person from which such Content originated. This means that the user, and not the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, or ITD is entirely responsible for all Content that he or she uploads, posts, emails or otherwise transmits via the GOCC Website. No user shall transmit Content or otherwise conduct or participate in any activities on the GOCC Website which, in the judgment of the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, or ITD is likely to be prohibited by law in any applicable jurisdiction, including laws governing the encryption of software, the export of technology, the transmission of obscenity or the permissible uses of intellectual property. The GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD will not pre-screen or review Content, but reserve the right to refuse or delete any Content of which they become aware that they reasonably deem not to fulfill the public purpose of the site. In addition, the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or delete any content that they reasonably consider to violate these terms or be otherwise illegal.

All services and information provided through this web site are subject to change without notice.

The GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD in their sole and absolute discretion, may preserve Content and may also disclose Content if required to do so by law or judicial or governmental mandate or as reasonably determined useful by us to protect the rights, property or personal safety of the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, ITD, GOCC Website users, or the public.

Certain activities facilitated by this website are accessible only by Members, Academic Members and Observers, as those terms are defined in the so called Operating Agreement (the “Operating Agreement") signed by Members and Academic Members. All Members, Academic Members, and Observers, as defined in the Operating Agreement, are limited to using this site in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the Operating Agreement.

The GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD intend that the Content and Donated Code posted on this site be accurate and reliable, however, since the Content and Donated Code have been compiled by the GOCC from a variety of sources, they are provided “as is”. Neither the GOCC nor its Members and Academic Members, nor ITD control the Content posted to this site and, as such, make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, currency, completeness, adequacy, integrity or quality of the contents of this website and expressly disclaim liability for errors and omissions in the Contents, including any software downloaded from this site.

The GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD expressly disclaim all warranties and/or conditions, express or implied, as to any matter whatsoever related to or referenced by this site, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties and/or conditions of merchantability or satisfactory quality and fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty of any kind, implied, express or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, and freedom from computer virus, are given with respect to this web site, its links to other Internet resources, or the software available at this site. Under no circumstances will the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, or ITD be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, liability for any errors or omissions in any Content or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed or otherwise transmitted via the GOCC Website. In addition, the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD disclaim any liability for the improper or incorrect use of information obtained from this site.

10. Indemnity

Unless you are a public sector entity forbidden by law from doing so, you must agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, ITD, and their respective employees, attorneys, and agents (collectively, the “Indemnitees”) against all claims, expenses, liabilities, losses, costs and damages, including reasonable attorneys fees, that the Indemnitees may incur (i) in connection with your use of the site or any hyperlinked website or (ii) resulting from Content that you may supply.

11. Patent, Copyright and Trademark Complaints

The GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD respect the intellectual property of others. If you believe your work has been copied in a way that constitutes patent or copyright infringement, or if you believe that the site has used any mark in a way that constitutes trademark infringement, please contact the GOCC Administrator listed in section 14. Please include your contact information, an identification of the patented or copyrighted work or trademark which you believe to have been infringed and an indication of what content on the site you believe infringed such patent, copyright or trademark.

12. Changes to Terms of Use

The GOCC or its Members and Academic Members may change these Terms of Use from time to time without notice. Changes to the terms will apply to use of the web site as of the date of the change. As a result, we recommend that regular users of this site review the Terms of Use on a periodic basis. If there is a determination that any provision of these Terms of Use is invalid or unenforceable, that determination will not affect the rest of the Terms of Use and the Terms of Use shall be deemed amended to the minimum extent necessary to make them valid and enforceable.

13. Applicable Law

These Terms of Use shall be considered a Massachusetts contract and are to be construed pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

These Terms of Use contain the entire understanding of all parties and supersede all previous verbal and written agreements; there are no other agreements, representations, or warranties not set forth herein.

These Terms of Use may not be modified in any way without the written consent of the GOCC, its Members and Academic Members, and ITD. The parties may not assign this Agreement in whole or in part.

14. Contacts

If you have any questions regarding these Terms of Use, please contact the GOCC at: admin@gocc.gov