Terms of Use
These Terms of Use define the terms by which you may use Professorperformance.com website ("Website"), and are an agreement between you and Professor Performance ("Company")(the Company and Website are collectively referenced as "we" or "us"). By using this Website, you expressly acknowledge that you have read, accept, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use, as well as any applicable laws hereunder. You should not use this Website, if you do not agree to these Terms of Use.
We may modify our Terms of Use at any time without notice or in our sole discretion, and any amendments will apply immediately. You should return to this page from time to time in order to ensure that you are aware of any changes. The Privacy Policy posted to our Website also forms part of these Terms of Use. We may at any time modify the Privacy Policy or introduce new policies regarding the use of this Website. Any reference to our Terms of Use includes all such policies.
1. Our Website
Our Website is designed to provide a platform for college students to evaluate their professor's performance in the classroom, and to also exchange notes and sell used books to other members of the online community.
2. Eligibility to Use Our Website
Only adults, who are at least eighteen (18) years of age, are eligible to use our Website. In addition, to use the Website, you must be fully competent to enter into and to comply with the terms, conditions, obligations, representations, and warranties set forth in these Terms of Use. By using this Website, you represent and warrant that you have the right, authority, and capacity to enter into these Terms of Use and can abide by all of the terms and conditions set forth therein.
3. Registration
In order to access many of features of this Website, you will need to register and create an account. We make available three different types of registered accounts: (a) a basic student account; (b) a verified student account, which is verified through the use of a school email address; and a (c) verified teacher account, which is verified through the use of email and phone. When you register, you may be asked to provide the following information: your full name, your age, your email address, and your interests.
Registration, as well as the ability to use this website, is completely free.
All information provided by you in your registration must be truthful and complete. We may suspend or cancel your registration without notice if we have any reason to believe that this is not the case. If you register as a user, you will be required to select a password.
You should not disclose your password to any third party. You are solely responsible for keeping your password confidential and for the activity that occurs on your account. We will never ask you to send your password or other sensitive information to us in an email or to enter it via any website other than one with the URL of www.professorperformance.com. If you suspect any unauthorized use of your account or access to your password, please change your password immediately and contact us. You agree to immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security. You are solely liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this Section 3.
We may suspend or cancel your registration with us at any time without prior warning if you fail to comply with these Terms of Use, without limiting any other remedies to which we may be entitled. Furthermore, if we consider you to have committed fraud or any illegal activity, we may report you to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.
4. Evaluations; Posting Comments
This Website is designed to enable students to evaluate a professor's performance following the completion of a course. Students may search by college name or college to find an existing professor or school, or they may click on "add" to create an evaluation for a specific professor.
Upon creating an evaluation for a specific professor, students have the option to assign a letter grade to the professor's performance in different categories: (a) Ease; (b) knowledge; (c) Interest; (d) Ability; and (e)Helpfulness. Students also have the ability to agree/disagree to a list of statements about the professor's performance in the course. Finally, students have the option to post their own comments regarding the professor's performance to the Website.
If you post a comment evaluating a professor, then you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment is appropriate and not defamatory, threatening, racist, harassing, illegal, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, misleading or false, invasive of privacy, infringing of a third party's intellectual property rights, or otherwise objectionable, and that your evaluation does not contain viruses, commercial solicitation, chain letters, or mass mailings. Please review our Evaluation Comment Guide attached hereto as http://www.professorperformance.com for additional information about appropriate comments, prior to making any postings to the Website.
All evaluations and comments shall remain anonymous to the online community; however, we reserve the right to disclose the identity of the author to law enforcement in the event of alleged criminal activity or if disclosure is necessary to ensure the safety of a member of the online community.
Please note that professors will have the opportunity to respond to any comment posted to our Website. All such professor responses shall also be appropriate and shall not defame any third party in any way, or be threatening, racist, harassing, illegal, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, misleading or false, invasive of privacy, infringing of a third party's intellectual property rights, or otherwise objectionable, and shall not contain viruses, commercial solicitation, chain letters, or mass mailings.
All comments and responses shall be original works of authorship. You hereby grant to us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable right to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such comments on this Website and to make any modifications or reformatting necessary to publish and display the comments (or any portion thereof) on the Website, and to backup the comments on our computers and servers.
We reserve the right to monitor and remove any comments or responses at any time in our sole discretion. If you see a comment or response posted to our Website, which violates the terms of this Section 4, then please notify us immediately by flagging the objectionable comment or response.
Visitors will have the ability to rate all evaluations for humor. The evaluations with the highest votes will be identified on various pages throughout the Website.
5. Posting Photos
We provide to professors the functionality to upload photos to their profile. You hereby grant to us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display any photos that you submit to our Website, to reproduce or store such photos on our computers and servers, to make any modifications or reformatting necessary to publish and display the photos on the Website, and to grant sublicenses as needed to third parties.
6. Uploading Notes
This Website provides the functionality to enable students and professors to upload course notes to the Website, in order to share such notes with other members of the online community. Since notes may constitute derivative works of a professor's course materials and his or her prepared remarks, you are responsible for obtaining permission from either the professor or the university (as appropriate) prior to posting any notes to this Website.
You are solely responsible for ensuring that the notes that you post and not defamatory, threatening, racist, harassing, illegal, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, misleading or false, invasive of privacy, infringing of a third party's intellectual property rights, or otherwise objectionable, and that the notes do not contain viruses, commercial solicitation, chain letters, or mass mailings.
You hereby grant to us an exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable right to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate, sell, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such notes on the Website, to grant sublicenses, and to backup the notes on our computers and servers. You understand and agree that by posting notes to this Website, you accept that you will not publish, sell, create derivative works from, distribute, or display such notes on any third party website or in any other venue.
7. Selling Books
This Website also provides a free classified advertising platform by which students may offer used books for a particular professor's course to other members of the online community. Sellers may post a book listing to the Website, along with the ISBN number of the book and the price that they are seeking for such book in U.S. dollars. Potential buyers of the book may contact the seller through the Website's internal messaging system and make seller an offer to purchase the book. Records of online conversations will be maintained on file for a period of 6 months.
We are not involved in transactions between buyers and sellers. Sellers are solely responsible for setting their own terms and conditions, including but not limited to terms and conditions of sale, payment, shipping and delivery charges, and returns. The buyer shall assume all risk and liability of making purchases from any seller with a listing on the Website. It is each party's sole responsibility to verify the credentials of any buyer or seller, and to address and resolve directly disputes that arise over purchases on the Website. We offer no escrow services, and have no obligation to become involved with any such dispute. It is your sole responsibility to ensure that you receive valid payment in full from the buyer prior to transferring possession of the book to the buyer. You should always request payment in cash, and be cautious of any other form of payment. We cannot assume responsibility for a buyer's nonpayment or theft of any book during the transaction process.
We receive listings for advertising publications in good faith on the basis of representations made by sellers. We do not endorse any books advertised on this Website, or make any warranty or representation that they are of a particular quality or suitable for any purpose. Moreover, we do not pre-screen sellers before they post advertisements on the Website, so it is your responsibility to exercise caution in dealing directly with any such seller. Doing business with people you have never met is inherently risky and may put you at risk to be victimized by scams or other criminal activity, including but not limited to the risk of physical harm. You assume all risks of dealing with sellers or any other third parties with whom you come in contact on this Website. We cannot assume any responsibility for crimes committed by third parties.
8. No Advice
The materials on this Website should not be construed as a professional advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, including that the books listed for sale will be used in any future classes. Information on this Website is not guaranteed to be accurate or complete, and you should not rely on it to make decisions. We expressly disclaim all liability with respect to actions taken or not taken based on any contents of the Website.
9. Communications
We welcome your feedback and suggestions about how to improve the Website. You agree that we shall have an exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any ideas, concepts, methods, know-how, techniques and advice that you provide to us in any feedback or suggestions that you communicate to us.
Any communications through our internal messaging system are made at your own risk. We cannot guarantee that information submitted electronically through the Website shall be treated as privileged or confidential. Any person submitting confidential or sensitive information through the Website waives all rights to confidential information or attorney-client privilege. We assume no liability for the loss of Confidential Information that you transmit through this Website and the Internet.
10. Operation of Website
We use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain our Website and to keep it operating on a twenty-four (24) hour, seven (7) day a week basis, free from bugs, errors, technical problems, or defects. If, at any time in the future, we identify any bugs, errors, technical problems, or defects, then we will immediately assign technicians to address and resolve the issue.
If you become aware of an error, bug, or other technical problem, then you should notify us immediately of the incident and provide us with the following information:
(a) Description of the Incident. The specific sequence of events which generated the incident, and a full description;
(b) Description of Error Message. The exact wording of any error messages, if applicable; and
(c) Description of Discovery of Incident. Any special circumstances surrounding the discovery of the incident for which you are seeking technical support.
We cannot guarantee that your access to the Website will be uninterrupted, or that the Website will be available at all times. We can assume no liability or responsibility for any delay, interruption, or downtime.
We use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that our Website is protected from viruses and other destructive software, but we cannot guarantee that the Website will at all times be free from viruses. We urge you to use reasonable care in downloading information from the Website. We can assume no responsibility for any damage to computer equipment or other property that may result from the use of the Website or as a result of downloading from the Website.
We reserve the right to discontinue operation of the Website for any time for any reason at our sole discretion, and to make modifications to the operation of the Website at any time at our sole discretion.
11. Prohibited Uses of the Website
Our Website should only be used for lawful purposes. We specifically prohibit any other use of the Website, including but not limited to the following:
(a) posting or submitting to the Website any information in which you impersonate or claim to be any third party, or in which you misrepresent your affiliation with another person or entity, or in the alternative, misrepresent your current or previous positions and qualifications;
(b) disclosing or sharing your password with any third party or allowing such third party access to a password-protected portion of the Website;
(c) posting content or initiating communications which are unlawful, libelous, abusive, obscene, discriminatory, or otherwise objectionable;
(d) using the Website for any illegal purposes, including but not limited to conspiring to violate laws;
(e) sharing information or initiating communications with information you are under an obligation not to disclose;
(f) posting infringing content to the Website;
g) taking any action that disrupts, tampers with, interferes, or imposes an unreasonable burden on the Website's infrastructure, servers, data, or network or those of any third party via our Website;
(h) using or attempting to use any engine, software tool, agent, or other device or mechanism (including without limitation browsers, spiders, robots, avatars, or intelligent agents) to navigate or search the Website other than generally available third party browsers (including but not limited to Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari);
(i) posting or submitting any content that contains software viruses or any computer code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit functionality of the Website or of any computer software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment;
(j) deciphering, decompiling, disassembling, or reverse engineering any of the software comprising or in any way making up part of the Website;
(k) aggregating, copying, or duplicating in any manner any of the software making up part of the Website or any of the content or information available on the Website;
(l) using any means of automatically searching or mining data from the Website, or in any way attempting to interfere with the proper working of the Website;
(m) stalking, harassing, or threatening any customer or visitor to this Website; or
(n) collecting or storing personal information about any customer or visitor of this Website.
We reserve the right (but do not have the obligation) to suspend or terminate visitors who do not appropriately use the Website. If you become aware of any inappropriate use, please notify us using the Contact Us form.
12. Intellectual Property
We and our licensors shall retain ownership of all right, title, and interest in all intellectual property on this Website, including but not limited to the design features, the organization, the codes, text, databases, compilations, and all content (such as designs and text) (collectively, the "Intellectual Property"). You may not reproduce, display, republish, upload, post, transmit, publicly perform or display, copy, distribute, create derivative works of, or otherwise use for any purpose any portion of our Website for any commercial or non-commercial use without the express written consent of us as appropriate.
This Website also includes our proprietary trademarks. You must obtain specific permission in advance before making any commercial use of our marks. To obtain information regarding such permission and the rules for accurate use of our marks, please contact us.
13. Intellectual Property Infringement Complaints
Digital Millennium Copyright Act Compliance
Our Website will respond quickly to claims of copyright infringement as found in our Content, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) as found under United States law (17 USC. § 512). If you believe any of your copyrights are infringed by our Content, please provide us with a written notice via mail, or fax, that contains the following information:
1) An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
2) A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
3) A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on our Website;
4) Your address, telephone number, and email address;
5) A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6) A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.
We are only required to respond to those notices that substantially comply with the above requirements. We will investigate your claim and will notify by the method of contact you used to file your notice with us. We will only receive physical mail as complaints, however, you may notify us via email that you've sent us the notice via postal mail. Please use the following address to send all complaints:
Attn: DMCA ProfessorPerformance.com
54 Wales Street
Taunton, MA 02780
14. Third Parties
(a) Linking to Third Party Websites. Our Website may contains links to third party websites, which are not owned or maintained by us and over which we have no control ("Third Party Site(s)"). These links are provided for informational purposes only in order to assist you in identifying products and services that may be of interest to you and which you may want to research further. If you click on a link to a third party website, our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use will not longer be applicable. We do not intend that links to Third Party Sites be referrals to or endorsements of the linked entities or any product or service that they offer.
(b) Doing Business with Third Parties Linked to Our Website. Your business dealings with any third party with whom you connect through this Website are solely between you and such third party. You are solely responsible for conducting your own due diligence prior to entering into a business relationship with any third party linked to our Website. You agree that we will not be responsible or liable for any loss, damage, or other liabilities incurred as a result of doing business with such third parties. You assume the sole risk of loss and liability in doing business with any third parties linked to this Website. In the event that you ever have a complaint against such third party, you should contact such third party directly regarding your issue.
(c) Affiliate Marketing Relationship. Any third parties linked to our Website may have an affiliate marketing relationship with us, in which we may receive a small referral fee for our referring visitors who are interested in an affiliate's products or services to the affiliate website. An affiliate relationship shall not be construed as endorsement of the affiliate's products or services.
15. Limitation of Liability; Consequential Damages
You agree that Company and Website will not be liable to you for any indirect, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages, arising out of or in connection with the use of this Website, including but not limited to damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses (even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages).
Our liability to you shall in no event exceed the total aggregate amount of One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) for all claims. Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation of liability, so these limitations may not apply to you.
16. Warranty; Disclaimer
You represent and warrant that all evaluations and comments are your original works of authorship, that they are appropriate and not defamatory, threatening, racist, harassing, illegal, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, misleading or false, invasive of privacy, infringing of a third party's intellectual property rights, or otherwise objectionable, and that they do not contain viruses, commercial solicitation, chain letters, or mass mailings. You also represent and warrant that you have obtained the necessary permissions to post any photo you have submitted, and that such photos have not been manipulated or altered in any manner so as to distort or misrepresent the individual depicted therein.
Your use of this Website and your decision to enter into any transactions on this Website shall be at your own risk. We can make no warranty that your access to the Website will be continuous, uninterrupted, bug-free, error-free, virus-free, free of defects, or free of technical problems, or that listings about books available for sale on this Website will be accurate or complete. We do not screen buyers or sellers on this Website, so we cannot warrant that the parties with whom you do business will be honest, accurate in their representations of the books they are selling, free of criminal backgrounds, that they will be who they say they are, or that the buyers will have the actual intent to buy the books listed. We cannot warrant against buyer's remorse on this Website in the event that you buy a book that is listed for sale and then discover flaws or defects in the book after the purchase is completed. We can make no warranties regarding the information or contents of any Third Party Sites linked to this Website, or with respect to any decision to enter into a business relationship with such third parties.
TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF QUIET ENJOYMENT AND NON-INFRINGEMENT AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ALL ERRORS, BUGS, OR DEFECTS CAN OR WILL BE CORRECTED OR THAT THIS WEBSITE WILL OPERATE BUG-FREE, ERROR-FREE, CONTINUOUSLY, OR UNINTERRUPTED.
17. Indemnification
By using this Website, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Company and this Website, our officers, employees, independent contractors, representatives, agents, and other visitors against any third party claim arising from or in any way related to your use of this Website or any Third Party Sites, including but not limited to any liability or expense arising from any and all claims, demands, losses, damages, costs, expenses, suits, judgments, litigation costs, or attorneys fees.
18. Miscellaneous
We reserve the right to discontinue this Website and our services at any time in our sole discretion. You agree that we may assign these Terms of Use without prior notice to a successor entity in the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or part of our business. No waiver of any breach of the Terms of Use, no matter how long continuing or how often repeated will be deemed a waiver of any subsequent breach , nor shall any delay or omission to exercise any right, power, or privilege hereunder be deemed a waiver of such right, power, or privilege. If any section of these Terms of Use is held to be unenforceable or in conflict with the law of any jurisdiction, the validity of the remaining paragraphs shall not be affected by such holding. The meaning of that section shall be construed to the extent feasible to render the section enforceable and to give effect to the Parties' intentions as reflected in the section. If no feasible interpretation would save such section, it is to be severed from the remainder of these Terms of Use, which are to remain in full force and effect. The Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement with you and us with respect to the subject matter set forth herein. The section headings and subheadings contained in these Terms of Use are included for convenience only and shall not limit or otherwise affect these Terms of Use.
19. Governing Law; Dispute Resolution
These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Massachusetts, without regard to conflicts of law principles. All disputes arising under this Agreement shall be submitted to first to non-binding mediation. We shall share equally the costs of the dispute. In the event that we are unable to resolve the dispute within thirty (30) days following our first meeting, then we shall submit the dispute to binding arbitration under the Commercial Rules of the American Arbitration Association in Boston, Massachusetts by one arbitrator mutually agreed upon by you and us in accordance with the aforementioned Rules. The costs of arbitration, including administrative and arbitrators' fees, shall be shared equally by each of us. The arbitration award shall be final and each of us shall comply in good faith to the entry of the arbitrator's award in any court having jurisdiction. If judicial enforcement or review is sought, then the prevailing party shall be entitled to costs and reasonable attorney's fees. All claims you bring against us or the Website must be resolved in accordance with this Section. All claims filed or brought against us contrary to the terms of this Section shall be considered improperly filed. Should you file a claim contrary to this Section, you agree that we may recover attorneys' fees and costs for the improperly filed claim, provided that we have notified you in writing of the issue and you have failed to properly withdraw the claim.
20. Contact Us
In the event that you have any questions about these Terms of Use, or that you need further assistance with respect to the access or use of the Website, please notify us by contacting us. co
21. Effective Date
These Terms of Use were last modified as of the 27thth of September, 2010.