Legalese/Privacy-Policy

 

Contents of this webpage:

 

Binding Effect

 

By your:

  • linking to;

  • framing;

  • engaging in any copyrighted-related act described in 17 USC 106, such as:

    • reproducing;

    • preparing a derivative work based upon;

    • distributing;

    • publicly performing; or

    • publicly displaying;

    any material on this website; or

  • sending me an email at my public email address (consider instead telephoning me, and having a follow-on face-to-face meeting, both of which will be subject to my Privacy Policy);

you agree to be bound by the terms of this legalese/privacy-policy.

 

Keep in mind the rather Draconian laws in California, such as this one, on recording either private face-to-face conversations or telephone conversations without the consent of all parties to the conversation. I certainly do!

 

Applicable Law and Jurisdiction

 

I am a citizen and resident of Orange County, State of California, United States of America.

  • The laws of The State of California shall govern any dispute which may arise out of your having linked to, framed, engaged in a copyright-related act, or publicly emailed me, except to the extent that California laws have been displaced by the laws of The United States of America, in which case the laws of The United States of America shall govern such disputes.

  • Such laws shall apply without regard to choice-of-law rules, as though you were also a citizen and resident of Orange County, State of California, United States of America.

  • The courts having jurisdiction over Orange County, State of California, United States of America -- whether courts of The State of California or of The United States of America -- shall have exclusive jurisdiction and venue over any dispute which may arise out of your having accessed this website, or out of your having contacted me.

  • You irrevocably appoint The Secretary of State of The State of California as your agent for service of process if service of process by ordinary means has been unsuccessful.

 

Well, some might say that I live in The Benevolent Dictatorship of Baja LasVegastan. However, I'm reasonable, and will not subject you to Baja LasVegastani laws and courts.

 

Takedown

 

I have a reasonable takedown policy:

  • If you think that my website contains (or links to) material that you have the copyright on, then please contact me.

  • For that matter, if you find anything else on my website (or linked-to from it) that looks illegal to you (obscene, classified military secret, trademark infringement, etc.), then please contact me.

  • Heck, if you find anything that looks just plain stupid and/or wrong, then please contact me.

 

Hey, I'm in this to inform and entertain. I'm not in this to get folks all riled up when there's no cause for riling.

 

In an astonishingly large percentage of situations, I'll take down a webpage (or modify it to your satisfaction) simply:

  • because you ask me to; and not

  • because you have the legal power to force me to -- after we've both spent a gazillion dollars on lawyers and legal expenses.

 

Lemme say it again:

  • I'm in this to inform and entertain.

  • I'm not in this to get folks all riled up when there's no cause for riling.

 

Intellectual Property

 

Everything on this website is Copyright © Tom Streeter 1991-[whatever this year is]. And that goes double for patents, trademarks (oh, yes: ™), and all other Intellectual Property. That's IP, for the cognoscenti.

 

Here is a cool copyright notice. I'm copying it, without permission (or even attribution), as part of "fair use":

We have gone to considerable difficulty and expense to assemble a staff of necromancers, sorcerers, chamans, conjurers, and lawyers to visit nettlesome and mystifying discomforts on any ninny who endeavors to reproduce or transmit this work in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission from the publisher. Watch yourself.

Pretty Broad License To You

 

That having been said:

  • Feel free to link to, quote, copy, modify, create a derivative work, archive, or frame any page on this website. An acknowledgement and a link-back are appreciated, but not necessary.

  • If I decide that you're not playing nice, I reserve the right to revoke this permission by the simple expedient(s) of:

    • updating this webpage of legalese; and/or

    • sending you an email (or snail-mail, if I have to).

  • Note that phrasing: "and/or".

    • If you make it easy for me to send you an email/snail-mail, then I am more likely to do so, and to thereby bring the problem to your actual attention. "Ask, and you might well receive; don't ask, and your odds go way down." Maybe I'll:

      • set up an RSS; or

      • include your email address in this page, and send you an email every time I upload a modified version; or

      • something else.

    • That "and/or" phrasing means that revocation is complete once I have updated this webpage of legalese. So:

      • Don't worry about pre-revocation use; just don't do any post-revocation use.

      • If you're thinking about starting some hard-to-back-out-of project that uses stuff from this webpage, and that you could find yourself suddenly not permitted to use any more, then double-check back to this webpage.

        • Yes, I'm prepared to cut special deals. Call me on the telephone, and let's meet face-to-face, subject to my Privacy Policy. I'm reasonable.

        • Keep in mind the rather Draconian laws in California, such as this one, on recording either private face-to-face conversations or telephone conversations without the consent of all parties to the conversation. I certainly do!

  • Not that I undertake, warrant, or represent anything, of course.

    • This website is a perpetual work in progress. A link to (or frame of) a page on this website -- one that worked yesterday -- might well not work today.

    • A lot of the stuff on this website is tongue in cheek.

      • Sometimes it is marked as such.

      • Sometimes it is marked as not being such.

      • Sometimes you're left to think it through for yourself.

      Feel free to link to this tongue-in-cheek-disclaimer when folks start to cite to, or even quote, stuff on this website (whether to you or to third parties).

    • As noted above, I have no problem with you using any of the stuff on this website in a fashion which (but for this legalese/privacy-policy page) would constitute an infringement of my IP rights. However, you do so at your own risk that what you do might give rise to some claim of infringement of the IP of some third party (or parties).

      • Sure, I do my best to avoid infringement of third-party IP. I even do a pretty prompt takedown of stuff in response to some pretty bogus third-party claims of infringement.

      • Rest assured, however, that anyone who is angry enough to not be satisfied with me doing a pretty prompt takedown from this website is quite likely to also be angry enough to not be satisfied with you doing a pretty prompt takedown -- in any medium -- of anything which is remotely similar. You're going to have to cut your own deal with this angry person. No, I'm not going to help you fund that deal.

Pretty Broad License Back To Me, Too

 

This Pretty Broad License is a two-way street. It's just like it says in my Privacy Policy:

  • Whatever you provide to me (other then by telephone, or by face-to-face) is fair game for me to do anything that I want to with it, to the maximum extent allowed by law.

  • Privacy, publicity, copyright -- heck, any kind of Intellectual Property.

  • Yes, I often try to maintain the reputation of someone who knows how to keep his mouth (and keyboard) shut when appropriate.

  • Still, if you provided it to me, don't be complaining that I did something with it that you didn't like.

 

Yes, I'm prepared to cut special deals. Call me on the telephone, and let's meet face-to-face. I'm reasonable. Keep in mind the rather Draconian laws in California, such as this one, on recording either private face-to-face conversations or telephone conversations without the consent of all parties to the conversation. I certainly do!

 

Privacy Policy

 

I can't vouch for my ISP, but I'm far too lazy, myself, to track visitors to this website:

 

WARNING!!!!! If you choose to contact me (other than by telephone or face-to-face), then whatever you provide to me is fair game for me to use or republish, whether by:

  • email;

  • upload to this website;

  • print media; or

  • anything else.

This includes not only your message, but also your contact information: your name, postal address, email address, telephone number, and so on.

 

Yes, I often try to maintain the reputation of someone who knows how to keep his mouth (and keyboard) shut when appropriate. Still, don't you be hauling me into court claiming that I've invaded your privacy or other IP rights.

 

If you want privacy, then please call me on the telephone, so that we can meet face-to-face.

  • I don't record telephone conversations.

  • If I'm away from the phone when you call me, and my answering machine takes your message, then I'll erase that message as soon as I've called you back and either:

    • contacted you; or
    • left a message on your answering machine.

  • I'll meet you face-to-face at a mutually convenient coffee shop.

    • I'll spring for coffee.

    • I'll open face-to-face-over-coffee negotiations with you on the details -- to be later reduced to writing -- of what should be public and what should be private.

    • I agree to keep private the face-to-face-over-coffee negotiations themselves (and even the existence of such negotiations), even if they fail.

    • You, by meeting me for face-to-face-over-coffee negotiations, also agree to keep private the face-to-face-over-coffee negotiations themselves (and even the existence of such negotiations), even if they fail.

  • Keep in mind the rather Draconian laws in California, such as this one, on recording either private face-to-face conversations or telephone conversations without the consent of all parties to the conversation. I certainly do!

  • Or approach me directly (without a lead-in telephone call), perhaps at a party which we're both attending. I regularly attend:

    • Crumpets and Tea (usually the Third Sunday of each month); and 

    • Opera SIG (on selected Saturday mornings of the fall-winter-spring opera season.

  • All bets are off if either of us gets hit with legal process (subpoena, national security letter, search warrant, or such like) directed at our negotiations and/or telephone conversations. In this case, however, each of us agrees to:

    • notify the other of having been hit, to the extent permitted by law; and to

    • fight the legal process to the extent that the other funds the fight.

 

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Legalese/Privacy