COMMENTS
We will remove anonymous or pseudonymous comments that come to our attention, that is, comments that disguise the writer’s email address and identity, or comments whose writer uses someone else’s name. We rely on our readers’ personal integrity to stand behind what they say; please do not write anything to someone that you wouldn’t say to his or her face without your needing to wear a ski mask while saying it. Thanks for doing your part to make your responses forceful, thoughtful, provocative, and civil. We will also consider your comments for the letters column.
YOUR CONDUCT WHEN USING OUR SERVICE
Our Services permit users to interact with our journalists and one another through our comments feature. Our intent is to create a community where you and other users of our Services can share your thoughts on what you read here. While we reserve the right to monitor user postings, it is up to our users to ensure that the discourse on The Berkshire Edge remains polite and informative. We will remove comments that do not comply with these guidelines, or whose content is irrelevant to the discussion at hand. As a last resort, we will block those who repeatedly violate these policies.
First and foremost, we ask that you treat other users of our Services with respect. Language and content should be appropriate for a civil conversation. Please respect the rights of others to their opinions; understand that there may be many other sides to every story. If you see something on the Service that you believe is inaccurate, or about which you hold a different opinion, feel free to post a comment in response.
You agree that you will not:
- Use the Service to impersonate any person or entity or to misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
- Use the Service to engage in or to instigate or encourage others to engage in illegal activities or to cause injury or damage to any person or entity;
- Use the Service to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, harassing, abusive, libelous, or obscene content;
- Use the Service to post or transmit, without permission, any information or content that violates or infringes the rights of others, including information or content that invades the privacy or violates the right of publicity of any person or that is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights;
- Gather for marketing purposes any email address or other personal information that has been posted by another user of the Service;
- Engage in personal attacks, harass or threaten another user, or deliberately disrupt the conversation;
- Interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper functioning of any of the Services.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR INFORMATION AND CONTENT YOU SUBMIT
You are solely responsible for the comments you post on The Berkshire Edge. By posting a comment on The Berkshire Edge you represent and warrant: (1) that you are 13 years of age or older; (2) that you are the owner of all content you post or are making your submission with the express consent of the owner; (3) that the content you post will not violate the rights of, or cause injury to, any person or entity; and (4) that you will indemnify and hold harmless The Berkshire Edge and its affiliates and their directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives and licensors, from and against any liability that may arise out of your posting. We may delete user comments at any time.
You understand that we have no obligation to monitor user comments. However, we reserve the right, in our discretion, to screen user submissions and to edit, move, delete, and/or refuse to accept any submissions that, in our judgment, violate these Terms of Use or otherwise are unacceptable or inappropriate, whether for legal or other reasons.
OUR RIGHTS TO USE CONTENT YOU SUBMIT
When you post comments or otherwise submit material to any of our Services, you are not giving up any ownership rights you otherwise have in such material.
We may (but are not obligated to) preserve content you submit, and may disclose such content if required to do so by law or if, in our judgment, such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary: (a) to comply with legal process; (b) to enforce these Terms of Use; (c) to respond to claims that any content you submit violates the rights of third parties; or (d) to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of The Berkshire Edge, our affiliates, or our or their officers, directors, employees, agents, or representatives, our licensors, other users, and/or the public.
The Berkshire Edge is made available for your personal, noncommercial use only. All content and other material on this Service is the property of The Berkshire Edge or its licensors and is protected by U.S. copyright and trademark laws, other copyright and trademark laws, and international conventions. Except as explicitly provided in these Terms of Use, you may not reproduce, distribute, display, perform, create derivative works from, or otherwise exploit any of the content or other material on this Service. You may display and occasionally print or store single copies of individual pages of the Service for your personal use, provided that you keep intact all credits and copyright and other proprietary notices, but you may not otherwise reproduce,republish, modify, store, or distribute copies of any content or other material found on this Service, in any form (including electronic form), or exploit any of the content you find here for any commercial purpose, without prior written permission from the copyright owner.
To request permission to reproduce or distribute our material found on this Service, please contact us at msetlow@theberkshireedge.com.
TRADEMARKS AND SERVICE MARKS
The Berkshire Edge is the service mark of The Berkshire Edge, Inc. The names of other products and services referred to on our Services may be the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. You may not use any trademark or service mark appearing on our Services without the prior written consent of the owner of the mark.
DISCLAIMERS
Throughout our Services, we provide links to websites and other services maintained by third parties. Our linking to such third-party services does not imply that we endorse such services, or the information, products or services offered on or through those services.
The information, products and services offered on or through this Service are provided “as is,” “as available,” with all faults, and without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Services or any of their functions will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that any part of the Services, or the servers that make the Services available, are free of viruses or other harmful components. Any content downloaded from or otherwise accessed through our Services is accessed at your own risk; you alone will be responsible for any damage to your person or property, including your computer system and any other device you use to access the Services, that results from accessing such content.
If you are dissatisfied with our Services, or any materials, products, or services offered through the Services, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the Services.
LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY; RELEASE
Under no circumstances, including, but not limited to, negligence, will we be liable for any damages arising out of your use of this Service or of any information, content, products, or services made available on or through this Service, including indirect, incidental, special, punitive, exemplary or consequential damages, even if we are advised beforehand of the possibility of such damages. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain categories of damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. In such states, our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by state law.
You hereby release The Berkshire Edge (and its respective directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives, licensors, successors and assigns), from any and all claims, demands, losses, damages, rights, and actions of any kind, including personal injury, death, and property damage, that is related to or arises from your use of the Services, including, but not limited to, any interactions with or conduct of other users or third-party websites or services.
INDEMNIFICATION
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Berkshire Edge, its affiliates, and each of its and their respective directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives, licensors, successors and assigns from and against any and all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, that arise out of your use of the Services, violation of these Terms of Use by you, or your violation of any rights of another. We reserve the right to control the defense of any claim for which we are entitled to indemnification under this section. In such event, you agree to provide us with such cooperation as is reasonably requested by us. We will make reasonable efforts to provide you with notice of any such claim, but our failure to provide such notice will not relieve you of these obligations.
NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
To notify us of an alleged copyright infringement found on this Site, please contact our designated agent for notification of claimed infringement: Marcie L. Setlow, The Berkshire Edge LLC., P.O. Box 117, Great Barrington, MA 01230, 413-528-4040, msetlow@theberkshireedge.com.
Be sure to include the following information:
- Identification of the copyrighted work and the copyright owner.
- Identification of the material you claim infringes the copyrighted work, including its URL.
- Your contact information (name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address.)
- A statement that you have 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.
- A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright that is allegedly infringed.
- Your signature (physical or electronic.)
After receiving notification of an alleged copyright infringement, The Berkshire Edge will remove or disable access to such material pending further review. The Berkshire Edge reserves the right to remove posted materials and to terminate a party’s access to this Site due to copyright infringement(s).
