Terms of Use

Catholic Relief Services – United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (CRS) agrees to provide you with access to and use of the web site hosted at http://crs.org/ and affiliated microsites (collectively, the “Site“) subject to the terms and conditions of use set forth herein (”Terms“).

By accessing, using or submitting content of any nature and in any form(”Content“) to the Site, and in consideration for such access and use, you agree to be bound by these Terms, whether you only browse the Site or you are a registered user of the Site, and that these Terms constitute a legal agreement between you and CRS. Please read these Terms carefully. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must refrain from accessing or using the Site. CRS reserves the right to change these Terms at any time and you are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms. Your continued use of the Services constitutes your agreement to these Terms as modified or amended from time to time.

You may print a copy of these terms for your records.

1. Your Rights in the Content You Submit

By posting Content to the Site you grant to CRS a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, perpetual worldwide license to use, copy, sublicense, adapt, transmit, translate, distribute, publicly display, and modify such Content and/or incorporate it into a collective work. You represent and warrant that (a) you own the Content you post to the Site, otherwise have the right to grant the foregoing license, or that such submission constitutes fair use; (b) the Content you post to the Site does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyright rights, intellectual property rights, or any other rights of any person; and (c) the submission of your Content to Site does not result in a breach of any contract between you and a third party.

2. Prohibited Content and Activity

You agree that you will not post any Content to the Site or engage in any activity in connection with the Site (”Activity“) that is illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing of intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy, injurious, deemed inappropriate by CRS in its sole discretion, or otherwise prohibited by these Terms, including, without limitation, Content or Activity that:

• promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;
• harasses or advocates harassment of another person;
• contains nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter;
• involves or promotes the transmission of computer viruses spam, junk mail, chain letters or unsolicited mass mailing;
• you know is false or misleading and intended to defraud;
• promotes conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous;
• exploits people in a sexual or violent manner;
• solicits personal information from anyone under 18;
• discloses the personal identifying information of any person who has not authorized such disclosure, including, without limitation, any telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, URLs or email addresses of such person;
• furthers or promotes or provides instructional information regarding any illegal or criminal activity or enterprise
• solicits passwords or personal identifying information from any person for commercial or unlawful purposes;
• attempts to impersonate another user of the Site;
• disrupts, interferes with, or unduly burdens the Site or any networks connected to the Site; and
• involves the use of the username or password belonging to another user of the Site.

You further agree that you will not post any Content to the Site or engage in any Activity, without the prior express written consent of CRS, that:

• involves commercial activities and/or sales, including, without limitation, contests, sweepstakes, solicitation of donations, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes; or
• represents your personal opinions as endorsed by CRS or uses the name or any trademark of CRS to endorse or promote any product, opinion, cause or political candidate.

CRS reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action in its sole discretion against anyone who posts or engages in any of the foregoing Content or Activity, respectively, including without limitation, reporting you to law enforcement authorities. You are solely responsible for all Content you post to the Site and all Activity in which you engage and CRS accepts no responsibility whatsoever in connection with such Content and Activity.

You acknowledge that Content posted to the Site is not necessarily reviewed or screened by CRS prior to posting, but that CRS reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to edit, restrict or remove any Content posted to the Site or to terminate the registration of any user for any reason.

3. Disclaimer of Warranties, Limitation of Liability and Indemnification

This Site is provided “as is” and “as available” and CRS makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the Site’s operation or the information, Content or materials included on the Site, or the accuracy or reliability thereof. To the fullest extent permitted by law, CRS hereby disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose. You agree that CRS will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of or inability to use the Site and you expressly agree that you use the Site solely at your own risk.

You understand that CRS does not endorse the Content posted by users to the Site and that all opinions expressed by users of the Site are expressed strictly in their individual capacities, and not as representatives of CRS or its affiliates. You understand that all Content posted to the Site and all Activity in which users of the Site engage is the sole responsibility of the individual who originally posted the Content or engaged in the Activity in question.

You agree that CRS will not be liable, under any circumstances, for any errors or omissions, loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted on the Site.

You represent and warrant also that neither the Content you post nor the Activities in which you engage violate these Terms, and that you will indemnify and hold CRS harmless, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for any and all claims resulting therefrom.

4. Privacy Policy

Please be sure to read our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated herein by reference.

5. Copyright Infringement

If you believe that material posted to the site infringes your copyrighted work, notify CRS of your infringement claim in accordance with the following procedure. All notifications of claimed copyright infringement should be sent to CRS’s designated Copyright Agent by email, with the Subject ATTN: Copyright Agent, to ogc@crs.org, or by mail to: Office of General Counsel, Attn: Copyright Agent, 228 W. Lexington St., Baltimore, MD 21201.

 

To be effective, the notification must be in writing and contain substantially the following information:

• 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;
• 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; and
• 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.

Upon receipt of a notification of claimed infringement that conforms to the foregoing requirements, CRS will investigate the claim and respond expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity. It is CRS’s policy to, in appropriate circumstances, take reasonable steps within its power to terminate registered users who are repeat copyright infringers.

6. Miscellaneous

If any provision hereof is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision is deemed severable from the other provisions hereof and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

These Terms shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of Maryland without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the State of Maryland or, if appropriate, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland for resolution of any dispute, action or proceeding arising in connection with these Terms or your use or non-use of the Site, and you further irrevocably waive any right you may have to trial by jury in any such dispute, action or proceeding.