OUR TERMS OF USE
PEN A FRIEND, INC. IS A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION CREATED FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF SUPPORTING PEN PAL FRIENDSHIPS FOR YOUTH IN THE FOSTER SYSTEM WITH YOUTH BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF THE FOSTER SYSTEM, AND NOT FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE.
What are the Terms of Use?
The Terms of Use, set out below, are the only basis upon which www.penafriend.org will supply you with a Pen Pal. You may not make any changes to or any modification of these terms. If you want to use the Service provided by Pen A Friend, Inc. you must accept the Terms of Use.
Why should I read them?
It is very important that you fully understand the service that is being offered to ensure you use the service appropriately. Pen A Friend, Inc. has written the Terms of Use in a manner which Pen A Friend, Inc. hopes will enable you to easily understand the nature of the Service offered and the Terms under which it must be used.
TERMS OF USE
A. Acceptance of Terms
Acceptance of and compliance with the Terms of Use is the only basis upon which www.penafriend.org, ('Pen A Friend, Inc.'), will supply you with an email address and match you with a pen pal as described on the Pen A Friend, Inc.'s website and herein referred to as the 'Service'. You may not make any changes to or modifications of these terms. By registering and being a member you agree to be bound by all Terms and Conditions of the Service.
B. Pen A Friend, Inc.’s Obligation to You
Subject to the TERMS OF USE, Pen A Friend, Inc. will:
1. Inform you of any changes to the TERMS OF USE from time to time. See Modification to the TERMS OF USE.
2. Remind you of aspects of 'Your Obligation to Pen A Friend, Inc.' at appropriate times during your use of the Service.
3. Treat your personal information in a responsible manner. See Security and Member Privacy.
4. Supply the Service using operating procedures designed to ensure the Service's security and System availability.
5. Answer any queries you have regarding the TERMS OF USE, Service and the operation of your account.
C. Your Obligation to Pen A Friend, Inc.
1. You will accept liability for some events which may occur. See Indemnification.
2. You will read, acquaint yourself fully and comply with all aspects of the TERMS OF USE. If there are any aspects which you do not fully understand you will seek clarification from Pen A Friend, Inc.
3. If you are aged under 18, then your parent or guardian gives consent to use the service provided by Pen A Friend, Inc.
4. You will at all times use the Service in good faith and in a responsible manner.
5. You will not allow anyone other than yourself and Pen A Friend, Inc. to access your account.
6. You will use the Service solely for your own benefit and shall not sell, lease, assign, lend, hire or gift any part of the Service in whole or in part to any other person without Pen A Friend, Inc.'s prior written approval.
7. You will use the Service only for lawful purposes and in a manner which does not infringe the rights of or restrict or inhibit the use of the Service by any Member and/or Pen A Friend, Inc.
8. Comply with all terms of Members Conduct and Member Account Registration of the TERMS OF USE.
D. Security and Member Privacy
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your application and membership. Furthermore, you are responsible for any and all Member accessible activities that occur under your membership. You agree to notify Pen A Friend, Inc. immediately on becoming aware of any unauthorized use of your membership or any other breach of security.
Pen A Friend, Inc. recommends that you not share such as physical location or phone numbers with other Pen A Friend, Inc. members.
Pen A Friend, Inc. has put in place security measures to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information collected such as physical location or phone numbers with other Pen A Friend, Inc. members.
You agree that Pen A Friend, Inc. and its authorized employees can access your application, including its contents as stated above, or to respond to support queries or technical issues or to fulfill the obligations under this Agreement.
Pen A Friend, Inc. understands and respects your rights of privacy. It is because of this philosophy that subject to the exclusions below, your personal details provided to Pen A Friend, Inc. will not be sold or otherwise distributed to third parties.
Pen A Friend, Inc. reserves the right at all times to monitor, review, retain, and/or disclose in good faith any information it believes in good faith that such action or disclosure is necessary to conform to legal and government requirements, or to protect and defend the rights or property of Pen A Friend, Inc. or enforce the TERMS OF USE.
Pen A Friend, Inc. reserves the right at all times to monitor, review, retain, and/or disclose in good faith any information exchanged between pen pals in emails provided by Pen A Friend, Inc.
Pen A Friend, Inc. reserves the right to collect and distribute non-personal demographic information to third parties. As such this information would not contain any information that would allow your identity to be deduced.
E. Member Account Registration
To register as a Pen A Friend, Inc. Member, you agree to:
1. Provide us with current, complete and accurate information about yourself (the application data);
2. To represent only yourself on the Service, and no other persons, living, dead, or imagined.
3. If you provide any information that is not current, or is incomplete or inaccurate, or Pen A Friend, Inc. has reasonable grounds to believe that such information is not current, or is incomplete or inaccurate, Pen A Friend, Inc. has the right to suspend or terminate your membership, and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service.
Under no circumstances does Pen A Friend, Inc. have any obligations under the Agreement to check the accuracy or truthfulness of the registration data of any Member. Pen A Friend, Inc. also deserves the right to cancel, delete and/or block any accounts at its sole discretion.
F. Member Conduct
If you are a foster youth under the age of 18, you agree that you have permission from your foster parent, social worker, and the court to engage in the activity provided by Pen A Friend, Inc. In addition, you have permission from your foster parent, social worker, and the court to become a pen pal with Pen A Friend, Inc.
If you are not in the foster care system, and you are under the age of 18, you agree that you have permission form a parent or guardian to engage in the activity provided by Pen A Friend, Inc. In addition, you have permission from your parent or guardian to become a pen pal with Pen A Friend, Inc.
As a condition of your use of the Service, you guarantee to Pen A Friend, Inc. that you will not use the Service for any purpose that is unlawful and / or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices.
You agree to abide by all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations and are solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under your account made by you including the content of your transmissions through the Service. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree NOT to:
1. Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
2. Publish, distribute and/ or disseminate any harmful, obscene, indecent, unlawful, libelous, profane, defamatory, infringing, inappropriate, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material or information.
3. Create a false or misleading identity of, including, but not limited to, a Pen A Friend, Inc. employee, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity, for the purpose of misleading others as to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message or to harvest or otherwise collect information about others.
4. Transmit, e-mail or post any material that contains in any form software viruses or such programs as including but not limited to, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancel-bots, computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.
5. Communicate through means other than provided by Pen A Friend, Inc. including phone call, letters, or through other email addresses, or meetings in person. Pen A Friend, Inc. recommends that pen pals do not contact other family members of their pen pal.
6. Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Service, through password mining or any other means.
7. Disseminate content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, rights of privacy or publicity, or other proprietary right ('Rights') of any party or infringes any intellectual property law or any other applicable law.
8. Disseminate any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, 'junk mail', 'spam', 'chain letters', 'pyramid schemes', or any other form of such solicitation.
9. Interfere with another member's use and enjoyment of the Service.
10. Without prejudice to the Security and Member Privacy of the TERMS OF USE, Pen A Friend, Inc. has no obligation to monitor the Service or any member's use thereof.
G. Pen A Friend, Inc.’s Proprietary Rights
You acknowledge and agree that the Pen A Friend, Inc. content including but not limited to (1) text, (2) software, (3) photographs, (4) graphics, (5) page layout (6) design presented through and as part of the Service by Pen A Friend, Inc. is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents, or other proprietary rights and laws.
Such content received through the Service may be displayed, reformatted, and printed by you for your personal, non-commercial use only and at all times used solely in connection with the Service in accordance with the TERMS OF USE.
Certain of the names, logos, and other materials displayed on the Pen A Friend, Inc. web site constitute trademarks, copyright and other intellectual property collectively referred to as 'IP rights' of penafriend.org. Ownership of such IP rights remains with Pen A Friend, Inc. You are authorized to use such IP rights during the process of promoting and using the Pen A Friend, Inc. Service.
H. Disclaimer of Warranties
YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT:
1. Your use of the Service is at your sole risk.
2. The Service is provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis and the warranties on the part of Pen A Friend, Inc. contained in this TERMS OF USE are given in place of and replace, exclude and extinguish all and every other condition or warranty whatsoever on the part of Pen A Friend, Inc., written or oral, whether express or implied by statute, regulation, directive or any other legislative or administrative enactment, common law, trade usage, custom or otherwise to the full extent permitted by law.
3. The information and content included in or available through the Service may include inaccuracies or typographical errors.
4. Changes are periodically added to the information contained with the Service and Pen A Friend, Inc. and/or its respective suppliers may make improvements and/or changes in the Service at any time.
5. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from Pen A Friend, Inc. or through the Service shall create any warranty not expressly stated in the TERMS OF USE.
Except as otherwise expressly provided in the TERMS OF USE, Pen A Friend, Inc. does NOT represent or warrant that:
1. The Service will meet your requirements.
2. The Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, timely or secure.
3. Defects or errors will be corrected, or that the Service or the server that makes it available, are free of viruses or other harmful components.
4. The use of or the results of the use of the Service or the content made available as part of the Service will be correct, accurate, timely, or otherwise reliable.
5. The content of the Service input by other members is correct or accurate.
I. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
1. YOU AGREE THAT Pen A Friend, Inc. SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR:
2. PROVIDED THAT Pen A Friend, Inc. HAS FULFILLED ITS SECURITY OBLIGATIONS, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA, ANY MATERIAL OR DATA SENT OR RECEIVED OR NOT SENT OR RECEIVED, OR ANY TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH THE SERVICE.
3. ANY THREATENING, DEFAMATORY, OBSCENE, OFFENSIVE OR ILLEGAL CONTENT, SAVE THAT Pen A Friend, Inc. SHALL BE ENTITLED TO REMOVE IT IN ALL PRACTICABLE SPEED AFTER Pen A Friend, Inc. HAS BEEN NOTIFIED IN WRITING OF ITS PRESENCE ON THE SITE.
4. CONDUCT OF ANY OTHER MEMBER OR ANY INFRINGEMENT OF ANOTHER'S RIGHTS, INCLUDING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.
5. ANY INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION:
DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF USE;
DATA GOODWILL;
PROFITS, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES;
6. ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH:
USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICE OR RELATED WEBSITES;
DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE OR RELATED WEBSITES;
PROVISION OF OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SERVICES, INFORMATION OR SOFTWARE;
SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICE, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE SERVICE;
ERROR;
OMISSION;
INACCURACY;
INTERRUPTION;
DELETION;
DEFECT;
DELAY IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION;
COMPUTER VIRUS;
COMMUNICATION LINE FAILURE;
THEFT;
DESTRUCTION OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS;
ALTERATION;
7. WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE - EVEN IF Pen A Friend, Inc. OR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES.
8. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THE SERVICE OR ANY PART OF THE SERVICE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE SERVICE AND ITS RELATED WEBSITE.
J. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Pen A Friend, Inc., its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers and employees from any claim, demand, or damage, including reasonable legal fees, asserted by any third party due to or arising out of your use of or conduct on the Service.
K. Modification and Termination of the Service
You agree that Pen A Friend, Inc., in its sole discretion, may terminate your password, account or use of the Service, and remove and discard any content within the Service, for any reason, including without limitation, if Pen A Friend, Inc. believes that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of the TERMS OF USE.
Pen A Friend, Inc. may also, in its sole discretion and at any time, discontinue temporarily or permanently providing the Service, or any part thereof, with or without notice. You agree that any termination of access to the Service under any provision of the TERMS OF USE may be effected without notice, and acknowledge and agree that Pen A Friend, Inc. may immediately deactivate or delete your membership and all related information and files in your account and/or bar any further access to such files or the Service UNLESS agreed in writing with Pen A Friend, Inc. Nevertheless, where possible, Pen A Friend, Inc. will use reasonable endeavors to give Members fair notice of termination or suspension of their access to the Service.
Further you agree that Pen A Friend, Inc. shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination or suspension of access to the Service or modification of the Service.
L. Modifications to the TERMS OF USE
Pen A Friend, Inc. reserves the right to change the TERMS OF USE or policies regarding the use of the Service at any time. In this event you might be sent an e-mail detailing the changes. Upon which you may be sent an email and be asked to indicate your acceptance of the new TERMS OF USE, acceptance of which is required to allow your continued use of the Service.
Pen A Friend, Inc. reserves the right at any time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice. You agree that Pen A Friend, Inc. shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modification to or discontinuance of the Service.
M. TERMS OF USE Violations
Please report any violations of the TERMS OF USE to Customer Support via the Contact Us page.
N. Entire Agreement
These TERMS OF USE constitute the entire agreement between Pen A Friend, Inc. and the Member and supersede any previous agreement or understanding between Pen A Friend, Inc. and the Member.
O. Governing Law
The court of jurisdiction is located in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. As such, the laws of the State of Maryland, USA will govern these disclaimers, terms and conditions, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of laws.
P. Pen A Friend, Inc. is for the use of youth that currently reside in the United States of America and are between the ages of 5 and 21.
This document was last modified on June 1, 2019