Writing Atlas - Terms of Service

Effective Date: 2023-12-18

Thank you

We’re excited to have you join the community on Writing Atlas!

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) constitute a contract between you and Writing Atlas, Inc. (“we”, “us”, “our”) and contains the terms governing your use of Writing Atlas’s products and services (collectively, the “Services”).

Using the Services in any way shall constitute your consent to these Terms, and these Terms shall remain perpetually in effect while you use our Services. Please note that the Terms also incorporate by reference our Privacy Policy. You must agree to all of these terms in order to use our Services.

You represent and warrant that you are of legal age in your jurisdiction to form a binding contract (or if not, that you have received parental or guardian consent and that they agree to these Terms on your behalf). You represent and warrant that you are authorized to agree to these Terms if you are doing so on behalf of an entity or organization, and have the authority to bind that entity or organization to these Terms.

Acceptable Use

You will need to create an account on the Services in order to publish content on the platform and access certain other features. If you choose to do so, you will authenticate via Google Accounts, and may be asked to fill out certain information on your profile to register.

In doing so, you agree that:

You are the legitimate owner of the Google account being used for authentication;
You will provide accurate, complete, and up-to-date registration information as requested. Please don’t attempt to impersonate a person or organization, or use a name you don’t have the right to use;
You will only use our Services for your own personal or organizational use. You may not transfer your account to anyone else without our prior written consent.

While using our Services, you additionally agree to:

Use our Services in a manner that complies with all applicable laws;
Not use our Services in a way that is fraudulent, threatening, harmful, harassing, deceptive, abusive, tortious, obscene, or otherwise objectionable;
Not “crawl”, “scrape”, copy, or otherwise store any portion of our Services, either manually or in an automated fashion;
Not take any action that risks the security of your account or anyone else’s;
Violates or otherwise undermines the security of Writing Atlas assets or networks;
Decopiles, reverse engineers, or otherwise attempts to obtain the source code or underlying ideas or information relating to our Services.

Contributing to Writing Atlas

Our Services provide a curated index of short stories and metadata about those stories. As a user, you may choose to contribute metadata, stories, and other kinds of content to our Services (“Content”). Your ownership in any Content is not affected by such contribution, though you agree to grant a limited license as detailed below in order to enable us to operate the Services.

In publishing Content, you hereby grant Writing Atlas a limited license to translate, modify, reproduce, and otherwise act with respect to your Content as reasonable to enable us to provide the Services (“License”). If you choose to publish Content publicly, the License permits us to display, perform, and distribute Content for the limited purpose of providing the Services. This license is royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and worldwide.

Intellectual Property and Reporting Infringement

Please respect the intellectual property of others while using our Services. Don’t post any Content that is not yours, that you do not have permission to use, or is otherwise infringing. You agree to comply with any copyright notices, trademark rules, and other similar restrictions you may receive from us or are posted on our Services.

Writing Atlas complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you believe that there is content which is infringing on our Services, you may submit a DMCA compliant takedown notice by emailing copyright@writingatlas.com. Such notice shall include:

A description of the work or works you claim have been infringed
A description of the content on our website you claim to be infringing and the associated URL(s)
Your contact information
Your statement confirming 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
Your statement confirming that the information you’ve provided is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed
Your signature

To learn more about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which governs how we handle these reports, please see here.

These Terms do not grant any right, title, or interest in Writing Atlas, or our trademarks or other intellectual property.

Third-Party Content

Our Services may contain links or other connections to third-party websites and services that are not owned or controlled in any way by us (“Third-Party Resources”). Writing Atlas assumes no responsibility for the content, accuracy, privacy policies, practices, or opinions of Third-Party Resources. You release and hold us harmless from any and all liability arising from your use of any Third-Party Resources. We advise that you read any applicable legal terms associated with Third-Party Resources to fully understand your rights and obligations.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent allowable by applicable law, under no circumstances and under no legal theory shall Writing Atlas be liable to you or to any other person for (1) any indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any kind, or (2) for any direct damages, costs, losses or liabilities in excess of one hundred ($100) US dollars.

The provisions of this section allocate the risks under these Terms between the parties, and the parties have relied on these limitations in determining whether to enter into these Terms.

No Warranties

Our Services are provided to you on an “as-is” basis. This means we provide it to you without any express or implied warranties of any kind. That includes any implied warranties of merchantability, warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or any warranty that the use of our Services will be uninterrupted or error-free. For avoidance of doubt, this disclaimer includes any short stories found on our Services, their attribution, and any associated metadata.

Modifications

You acknowledge we may suspend or discontinue any part of the Services, and introduce new features or impose limits on any part or all of the Services. These modifications to the Services may happen at our discretion, without any notice to you.

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time without advance notice to you. These updated Terms will be brought to your attention by a notice on the website, updating the listed Effective Date on this page, or by some other means. If you use our Services in any way after a change to the Terms is effective, you consent to these modified Terms. Except as detailed in this provision, no amendment or modification of these Terms will be effective unless in writing and signed by you and Writing Atlas.

Enforcement of these Terms

You agree that failure to follow any of these Terms shall constitute a breach of these Terms. Writing Atlas has the sole discretion to determine whether you are in violation of any of the restrictions set forth in these Terms, and may take actions including but not limited to the following:

We may terminate, suspend access to, or otherwise limit your use of the Services at any time, for any reason, in our sole discretion and without notice;
We may block you from registering an account on the Services, or require you to provide additional information to complete registration; and
We may remove any content on our Services at any time, for any reason, in our sole discretion and without notice.

Miscellaneous Legal Terms

Indemnification: To the fullest extent allowed by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold Writing Atlas harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages (actual and consequential), losses and expenses (including attorneys’ fees) arising from or in any way related to any third party claims relating to (a) your use of our Services (including any actions taken by a third party using your account), and (b) your violation of these Terms.
Survival: You agree that some of the obligations in these Terms will be in force even after you terminate your account. All of the following terms will survive termination: any obligation you have to pay us or indemnify us, any limitations on our liability, any terms regarding ownership or intellectual property rights, terms regarding disputes between us, and any other terms that, by their nature, should survive termination of these Terms.
Assignment: You may not assign, delegate or transfer these Terms or your rights or obligations hereunder, or your account, in any way (by operation of law or otherwise) without our prior written consent. We may transfer, assign, or delegate these Terms and our rights and obligations without consent.
Choice of Law: These Terms are governed by and will be construed under applicable federal law and the laws of the State of Nevada, without regard to the conflicts of laws provisions thereof.
Arbitration: Any dispute arising from or relating to the subject matter of these Terms shall be finally settled by arbitration in Clark County, Nevada, in accordance with the Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures of Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. (“JAMS”) then in effect.
No Joint Venture: You hereby acknowledge and agree that you are not an employee, agent, partner, or joint venture of Writing Atlas, and you do not have any authority of any kind to bind us in any respect whatsoever.
Waiver / Severability: The failure of either you or us to exercise, in any way, any right herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated, to the minimum extent necessary, so that these Terms shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable.
Entire Agreement: You agree that these Terms are the complete and exclusive statement of the mutual understanding between you and us, and that it supersedes and cancels all previous written and oral agreements, communications and other understandings relating to the subject matter of these Terms.