Legal FAQ

Legal FAQ

This FAQ is divided into three sections, which you can conveniently access using these links:


Terms of Use

These terms and conditions govern your use of this website. By such use, you consent to and agree to abide by these terms and conditions. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, you should not use this website.

The terms “We,” “Us,” “Our,” and “Publisher” as used below refer to Spectrum 24/7, our subsidiaries Spectrum Ink Publishing and Virtual University Press, and our parent, Alysian Publishing. These terms are used interchangeably in this document.

You must be at least 18 years of age to use this website. By using this site, you affirm that you are at least 18 years of age.

Unless otherwise stated, We and our licensors own the intellectual property rights to all content published or displayed on this website. All such rights are reserved worldwide. You may view, download, interact with, and print pages, files, and other content from this website for your own personal use, subject to the limitations set forth in this document. You may not do any of the following: edit or otherwise modify any content on this website; republish content from our website in print or digital media, or upload such content to another website; reproduce, share, or otherwise use content on this website for any commercial purpose; or republish or reproduce any content on this website by means of iframes or web scrapers.

Acceptable Use

You agree that you will not use this website in any manner that causes or might, in our opinion, cause damage to the website or impair other visitors’ access to and enjoyment of the website. You further agree that you will not use this website in any manner that is unlawful, illegal, obscene, or fraudulent.

You may not use this website to transmit, host, share, use, publish, or distribute content that is in any way linked to spyware, computer viruses, worms, or other malicious software.

You may not conduct any automated data collection on this website without our express consent. Prohibited activities include but are not limited to: scraping, data mining, data extraction, and displaying content within iFrames without our consent.

You may not use this website to transmit or send unsolicited commercial communications, junk mail, spam, pornography, offensive material, or for any purposes related to marketing.

User Content

The term “user content” as used in this document means material, including without limitation text, images, audio content, and video content that you post or otherwise upload to our website for whatever purpose. By posting, uploading, or sharing such content, you grant to Us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate, edit, and distribute the said content in any existing or future media. You also grant us the right to sublicense these rights and to bring actions for infringement of such rights.

Your user content must not be illegal, obscene, derogatory, disparaging, or threatening towards any other user.

Your user content must not infringe on any third party’s intellectual property rights or other legal rights, and must not potentially give rise, in our opinion, to any legal or law enforcement action, whether against you, us, or any third party.

We reserve the right to edit or delete any content posted, uploaded, or shared on this website, or stored on our servers, at our sole discretion and without notice or explanation.

Without abrogating any of these terms and conditions, We do not actively monitor user content or the publication or uploading of such content to this website.

Restricted Access

Access to certain areas of this website may be restricted. We reserve the right to restrict access to some or all areas of this website at our sole discretion. We may modify this policy without notice or explanation as we deem appropriate.

We may provide you with a user ID and password to access restricted areas of this website. If we do so, you must ensure that your login credentials are kept confidential. You are personally responsible for your password and user ID security. We may disable your user ID and password at our discretion without notice or explanation.

No Warranties

This website is provided “as is” without any warranties, express or implied. We do not warrant that the website will be constantly online, or online at all; or that the content on this website is accurate, complete, or appropriate for audiences in every jurisdiction and country around the world.

All information on this website is published for general information purpose only. We make no warranties as to the completeness, reliability, or accuracy of this content. Any action you take as to the content you find on this website is strictly on your own prerogative and at your own risk. We will not be liable for any losses or damages in connection with your use of this website.

Nothing on this website constitutes or is meant to convey legal, financial, medical, psychological, or moral advice of any kind. If you require advice in relation to any legal, financial, medical, psychological, or moral issue, consult an appropriate professional.

Limitations of Liability

We will not be liable to you, under the law of torts or any other legal theory for: the contents of, or your use of, the website; any direct loss arising from this website; any indirect, special, or consequential loss; or any business loss, loss of income or profits, loss of contracts or business relationships, or loss of reputation or goodwill. These limitations on liability apply even if We or our agents or other parties are aware, or have been been expressly advised, of such potential losses.

Exceptions

Nothing in this disclaimer excludes or limits any warranty implied granted to users by law, and nothing in this disclaimer will exclude or limit our liability in the event of: personal injury or death caused by the negligence of our employees or owners; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation by us; or instances where it would be unlawful for us to exclude or limit our liability.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold Us safe and harmless from any losses, damages, liabilities, or costs, including without limitation legal expenses and any amounts paid by us to any third party to settle a claim or dispute on the advice of our legal counsel,) incurred or suffered by Us arising out of any breach by you of any provision of the terms set forth in this document, or arising out of any allegation or actions claiming that you have breached any such provision.

Without abrogating or waiving any of our other rights set forth in this document, if you breach our terms and conditions in any way, we may take such action as we deem appropriate at our discretion to deal with such breach, including suspending your website access, blocking computers using your IP address from accessing the site, contacting your Internet service provider to request that they block your access to the site, and/or pursuing any and all available legal actions and remedies against you.

Severability

If any provision of this disclaimer is found to be unenforceable under applicable law by a court of competent jurisdiction, the other provisions will continue in effect. If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect.

Assignment

We may transfer, subcontract, license, assign, or otherwise carry out our rights and obligations under these terms and conditions without notifying you or obtaining your consent.

Amendments

We may revise these terms and conditions from time to time. Such revisions will apply to the use of this website from the date that such revisions are published on the site. You should review this web page regularly to ensure that you are familiar with our current terms and provisions, and that you consent to, and agree to abide by, the current version.

Entire Agreement

These terms and conditions, together with our Privacy Policy (above), constitute the entire agreement between you and Us as to your use of this website. Such terms and conditions supersede all previous agreements concerning your use of this website.

Jurisdiction

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of California, in the United States. Any disputes arising from these terms and conditions will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in the State of California.

Last Update

This document was last updated on Monday, December 10, 2022.

Consent

By using this website, you consent and agree to abide by our Terms of Use as stated above.


Privacy Policies

Overview

We respect the privacy of our website visitors and users. To help you understand the privacy policies followed on our website, a description of the personal information we collect and how we use it is provided below.

Who we are

Our website address is: https://spectrum.org/weird. This website is owned and managed by Spectrum 24/7, a subsidiary of Alysian Publishing. We can be reached by Webmail through our Contact Us page or you may write to: Alysian Publishing, 785 Quintana Rd., Suite #621, Morro Bay CA 93442-1943. Our telephone number is (805) 888-2900 and our fax number is (805) 888-2900.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. In addition, an anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Log Files

Most websites maintain log files. These logs contain a record of website visitors and are generated automatically by many web hosts and servers. The data contained in a log file includes visitors’ Internet Protocol addresses, browser type, date and time stamps, and referring pages. Website administrators use this data to analyze web traffic trends, manage their websites, track the popularity of content being browsed, and collect demographic information that can help website owners provide relevant content to visitors. Our website maintains log files; however, the data in these files is not linked to any personally identifiable information about you.

Cookies

We use cookies to store information about our visitors’ preferences, to analyze traffic data based on which web pages are browsed, and to customize our page layout and content for specific browsers. A cookie is a small text file created when your browser loads a website. It is stored in your browser’s cache, and when you return to a site, your browser reads that cookie and sends the stored data back to the web server. In a sense, cookies are like bookmarks.

Text stored in a cookie may be encrypted. This protects your data and ensures that other users who might have access to your computer cannot read data stored in the cookie. It is important to understand that a cookie is not a virus, and it does not contain executable code; it’s just a small text file.

Use of cookies is a standard practice on modern websites. They may be used to keep you logged in as you browse from one page to the next, or to remember your site preferences. You can disable cookies in your browser, but doing so may prevent you from accessing some features on a website, or it may render the website inaccessible.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again every time you want to leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article on our website, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Third-party cookies may be sent by other websites that serve advertising and other page elements to users who visit our website. We derive revenue to support our website from such ads displayed on our pages. Third-party ad servers include Google and Amazon. These and other advertisers may use cookies to gauge the effectiveness of their ads and track clicks. For example, Google uses DART cookies to serve ads to our visitors based upon their current visit to our website as well as other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of having DART cookies sent to your browser at http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html. In addition, third-party ad servers may use technology which enables them to automatically receive your IP address and to personalize ads displayed on our website. We do not have access to these third-party cookies, so our privacy policies do not apply to these services. You can browse the privacy policies of the various ad services we use and opt out of certain practices at the following URLs:

 
Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where your data is sent

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Restricted Access for Children

We do not provide content or services intended for children under 13 years of age, and our Terms of Use prohibit users under 18 from accessing this website. We do not knowingly advertise on websites that cater to minors, but it is possible that minors may bypass a website’s minimum age requirement and still access a site. For this reason, parents should closely monitor the online activities of their children. We do not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children. If a parent believes that we have personally identifying data on a child in our database, contact us and we will make our best effort to promptly remove such data from our records.


Copyright Policies

Copyright laws protect the hard work and originality of artists, musicians, writers, and other content creators. We follow all US and international copyright laws. If you post copyrighted material on SPECTRUM without the copyright’s owner’s permission and it comes to our attention, your access will be terminated. If you encounter copyrighted material on this site that you believe has been used without permission, or if you are a copyright owner and you wish to file a takedown request, contact our Site Administrator.

As a content producer, contributor, member, guest, or any other contributor or visitor to this website, you agree to refrain from any and all acts of copyright infringement, plagiarism, and other violations of intellectual property law while you are using this site. When you respect the copyrighted works of others, you help ensure that others will respect and protect your rights.

Copyright infringement is “the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it.” (Wikipedia) Most original writings and art (books, magazine articles, news stories, blog posts, photographs, drawings, etc.) are protected by copyright. Be aware that works created during the past thirty years are protected by copyright automatically, even if they do not contain a copyright notice!

It is unlawful to “copy and paste” a magazine article, news story, tutorial or other content (whether published in print or online) unless you have the copyright owner’s permission to do so, or you own the content yourself. It is illegal to use copyrighted images, even small clipart drawings, unless you have permission or you own the art yourself. In copyright law, the saying “ignorance of the law is no excuse” applies. Even an honest mistake (“Wait! I didn’t know the material was copyrighted!”) may subject an infringer to criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.

To lawfully use copyrighted content, you must have permission from the copyright owner. Although not required, you should obtain the copyright holder’s consent in writing for your own protection and to avoid misunderstandings. Often, the author or artist who created the work owns the copyright, but sometimes a publishing firm or other third party may own the rights. Before you can use copyrighted material in your own work, you must locate and contact the copyright owner and explain what material you wish to use and how you propose to use it. The owner may refuse, or might allow the use, perhaps for a fee, and often subject to certain restrictions. You must follow these restrictions imposed by the copyright owner to the tee.

Plagiarism is “the use of another’s ideas, information, language, or writing, when done without proper acknowledgment of the original source.” (Wikipedia) Plagiarism differs from copyright infringement in the sense that an author might pass off a quote or a passage of original material as their own without attributing the true author. Plagiarism is not a crime and won’t lead to criminal prosecution, but it is an “intellectual offense” that could undermine an author’s or expert’s credibility and lead to scandal, loss of employment, and other serious personal and economic consequences.

Fair Use is a legal doctrine under which you can make very limited use of some copyrighted material in certain situations. For example, you can usually use short quotations from a copyrighted work as long as you cite the author’s name and source of the material. You may refer to copyrighted works, describe them in your own words, review or analyze them, state your opinions, and provide links to such writings and images, as long as you do not falsely claims the materials as your own.

Public domain is a legal term that refers to works that are not protected by copyright. This includes many works published prior to the 1930s, and most material published by the U.S. Government using taxpayer funds. Occasionally, you may come across a website where an author or creator of a writing or an image declares “I release this material to the public domain” or something to that effect. You can freely use public domain material without permission from anyone, but you must still credit the source.

If you are in doubt about the copyright status of a work or whether you can use it, do not use it! As to all content that you post on this website, you agree to respect the copyrights and trademarks of others. All material that you post must be your own original work, must not contain any copyrighted material unless you have written permission to use it (and you can provide proof upon request), and any content used under Fair Use or Public Domain doctrines must be appropriately cited and attributed to the original source. Any act of copyright infringement or plagiarism on this website will result in immediate termination of your access to this website. If you are in doubt about the copyright status of material or whether you can lawfully use excerpts from such material, err on the side of caution and do not use it. If you have questions about these policies, contact us.

This document was last updated on December 10, 2022. We may make update this FAQ at any time and without notice or explanation. Please review this document regularly to ensure that you are familiar with and that you are compliant with our current terms and provisions.