The Character Tree Terms of Service

Welcome to Apperson, Inc. and The Character Tree! These Terms of Service (these “Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Character Tree website and services, including (1) any information and content made available via the Character Tree website and services, and (2) any browser extensions, mobile applications and other downloadable apps we provide (collectively, the “Services”), so please read them carefully before using the Services.

BY USING THE SERVICES, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND AND ABIDE BY THESE TERMS AND OUR PRIVACY POLICY (available at https://www.charactertree.com/privacy-policy), WHICH IS INCORPORATED HEREIN BY REFERENCE. You represent and warrant that you are of legal age (at least 18) to form a binding contract with Apperson and are not barred under any applicable laws from doing so. If you are registering for the Services on behalf of a school, school district or other organization, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind such entity to these Terms. If you do not meet these requirements, you must not access or use the Services.

Changes to the Terms
We may revise and update these Terms from time to time in our sole discretion. If we make material changes to these Terms, we will post a notification on the Character Tree website and we will attempt to notify you by email. All changes are effective immediately when we post them, and apply to all access to and use of the Services thereafter. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of revised Terms means that you accept and agree to the changes. As we will be continually refining the Services and adding more features, you are expected to check this page each time you access the Services so you are aware of any changes, as they are binding on you.

Accessing the Services
Except in the case of paid Services, we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the Services in our sole discretion without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason the Services are unavailable at any time or for any period. You are responsible for (1) making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Services and (2) ensuring that all persons who access the Services through your account with Apperson or your school’s or organization’s account with Apperson are aware of these Terms and comply with them.

To access the Services, you will be required to provide certain registration details, including payment information if you subscribe to Services that require fee payments. It is a condition of your use of the Services that all the information you provide via the Services is correct, current and complete. You agree that all information you provide to register with Apperson or otherwise, including through the use of any interactive features of the Services, is governed by our Privacy Policy, and you consent to all actions we take with respect to your information consistent with our Privacy Policy.

If you choose, or are provided with, a user name, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any other person or entity. You also acknowledge that your account is personal to you and agree not to provide any other person with access to the Services or portions of it using your user name, password or other security information. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your user name or password or any other breach of security. You also agree to ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session. You should use particular caution when accessing your account from a public or shared computer so that others are not able to view or record your password or other personal information.

We have the right to disable any user name, password or other identifier, whether chosen by you or provided by us, at any time if, in our opinion, you have or any Authorized User has violated any provision of these Terms.

Intellectual Property Rights
The Services and all textual, graphic and video content made available via the Services are owned by Apperson, Inc. and its licensors and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws.

These Terms permit you to use the Services for your personal, non-commercial use and the use of your students only. You must not reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store or transmit the Services except as follows:

• Your computer may temporarily store copies of Services materials in RAM incidental to your accessing and viewing those materials.
• You may store files that are automatically cached by your web browser for display enhancement purposes.
• If we provide desktop, mobile or other applications for download, you may download copies to your computers or mobile devices solely for your own personal, non-commercial use, provided you agree to be bound by our end user license agreement for such applications.
• If we provide social media features, you may take actions that are enabled by such features.
• Without limiting the foregoing, if we provide video content as part of the Services, such as webinars, you may only use such content for your internal purposes, and you may not permit access to or distribute such content to any third parties.

You must not permit any Authorized User to:

• Modify copies of any materials from the Services except for the creation, revision, deletion and sharing of records as permitted by the Services.
• Use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from the accompanying text.
• Delete or alter any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices from copies of materials from the Services.
• Access or use for any commercial purposes any part of the Services.

If you wish to make any use of material on the Services other than that set out in this section, please address your request to: support@charactertree.com.

No right, title or interest in or to the Services or any content on the Services is transferred to you, and all rights not expressly granted are reserved by Apperson. Any use of the Services not expressly permitted by these Terms is a breach of these Terms and may violate copyright, trademark and other laws.

Trademarks
The Character Tree name and certain related names, logos, product and service names, designs and slogans are trademarks of Apperson or its licensors. You must not use such marks without the prior written permission of Apperson. All other names, logos, product and service names, designs and slogans on this website are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Third Party Content
The Services may contain content and services developed by third parties and provided to us under license (“Third Party Content”). You (the “Customer,” for purposes of this section of these Terms) agree to Third Party Content license terms as follows:

1. The Customer and each Authorized User’s rights to access and use the Third Party Content shall terminate upon the termination of these Terms. The Customer and each Authorized User acknowledges that use of the Third Party Content after termination of these Terms is strictly prohibited and would constitute infringement of the Third Party Content provider(s)’ proprietary rights.
2. Pursuant to these Terms, the Customer and each Authorized User acknowledges and agrees that certain content may expire or otherwise terminate during the term of these Terms. Any rights in and to Third Party Content will at all times be limited and subject to the Third Party Content provider(s) rights in and to the respective Third Party Content. Throughout the term of these Terms, Apperson and the Third Party Content provider(s) will have the right, at its sole discretion, to modify the content, and to delete, and require the deletion by the Customer and each Authorized User, of specific Third Party Content.
3. The Customer shall cause any proprietary notice that appears in the Third Party Content included in the Services to be displayed on any copies thereof as it appears in any of the Third Party Content.

Prohibited Uses
You may use the Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree not to use the Services or allow any Authorized User to use the Services:

• In any way that violates any applicable federal, state, local or international law or regulation (including, without limitation, any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the U.S. or other countries).
• For the purpose of exploiting, harming or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable information or otherwise.
• To transmit, or procure the sending of, any advertising or promotional material, including any “junk mail,” “chain letter” or “spam” or any other similar solicitation.
• To impersonate or attempt to impersonate an Apperson employee, another user or any other person or entity (including, without limitation, by using e-mail addresses or screen names associated with any of the foregoing).
• To engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use or enjoyment of the Services, or which, as determined by us, may harm Apperson or users of the Services or expose them to liability.

Additionally, you agree not to or allow any Authorized User to:

• Use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Character Tree website or interfere with any other party’s use of the Services, including their ability to engage in real time activities through the Services.
• Use any robot, spider or other automatic device, process or means to access the Services for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Services.
• Use any manual process to monitor or copy any of the material on the Services or for any other unauthorized purpose without our prior written consent.
• Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Services.
• Introduce any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage or disrupt any parts of the Services, the server on which the Services is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to the Services.
• Attack the Services via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.
• Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Services.

Monitoring and Enforcement; Termination
We have the right to:

• Take appropriate legal action, including without limitation, referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Services.
• Terminate your account or your access to all or part of the Services for any violation of these Terms.

Without limiting the foregoing, we have the right to fully cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity of anyone posting any materials on or through the Services. YOU WAIVE AND HOLD HARMLESS APPERSON FROM ANY CLAIMS RESULTING FROM ANY ACTION TAKEN BY APPERSON DURING OR AS A RESULT OF ITS INVESTIGATIONS AND FROM ANY ACTIONS TAKEN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF INVESTIGATIONS BY EITHER APPERSON OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES.

We have no liability or responsibility to anyone for performance or non-performance of the activities described in this section.

We have the right to suspend or terminate your account (and all Authorized Users under your account) with Apperson at any time. You may also terminate your account (and all Authorized Users under your account) at any time. Upon termination of your account, your user profile may be removed from the Services.

Software and Updates
Some use of the Services may require you to download a client software package (“Software”). Apperson hereby grants you a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, revocable license to use the Software solely to access the Services. Your license to use the Software is automatically revoked if you violate these Terms in a manner that implicates our intellectual property rights. We hereby reserve all rights not expressly granted in these Terms. You must not reverse engineer or decompile the Software, nor attempt to do so, nor assist anyone else to do so.

Compliance with FERPA, COPPA and Other Laws
Apperson is committed to compliance with the requirements of the Family and Educational Rights to Privacy Act (“FERPA”), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), all relevant state privacy laws (including state laws that specifically protect student data) and all regulations promulgated thereunder. We will not disclose any “personally identifiable information” of any “student” (as those terms are defined by FERPA) without obtaining the prior written consent of the student (or, if the student is not an “eligible student” as defined by FERPA, that student’s parent or legal guardian). Compliance with COPPA will be achieved by requiring that you or your school, school district or educational organization obtain parental or guardian consent as described above. We will comply at all times with the terms of our Privacy Policy.

You agree that we may use any information that you provide or an Authorized User provides to us or that is collected via the Services (i) to provide the Services for your and each Authorized User’s benefit; (ii) to aggregate information in anonymized form for the purpose of preparing benchmarking reports and for other purposes consistent with any applicable legal requirements, including FERPA; and (iii) to utilize data capture, syndication and analysis tools, and other similar tools, to extract, compile, synthesize and analyze any non-personally identifiable data or information resulting from your or an Authorized User’s use of the Services (“Statistical Data”). Statistical Data may be collected and used by us for (i) improving our educational products, (ii) demonstrating the effectiveness of our products and services, (iii) developing new services and applications, and (iv) any lawful business purpose without a duty of accounting to you, provided that the Statistical Data is used only in aggregated form, without specifically identifying you, any student or other individual, or the source of the Statistical Data.

Copyright Infringement
We respect the intellectual property rights of others, and ask that you do the same. It is our policy to terminate the Apperson account of anyone who repeatedly infringes the copyright or intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that any materials you access via the Services infringe your copyright or other intellectual property rights (e.g., trademark infringement or right of publicity), please contact our Copyright Agent at the address below and provide the following information: (1) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest or other intellectual property interest; (2) a description of the copyrighted work or other interest that you believe has been infringed; (3) identification of the content you believe to be infringing in a sufficiently precise manner to allow us to locate that content; (4) adequate information by which we can contact you, including 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 owner of the copyright or other intellectual property right, 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 or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.

Our designated Copyright Agent for notices of copyright infringement and counter-notices is:

Apperson, Inc. ATTN: Copyright Agent
support@charactertree.com

Other Content
The Services may contain links to third-party websites or resources. Apperson does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for their availability, accuracy, the related content, products, or services. You are solely responsible for your use of any such websites or resources.

The Services Are Available “AS-IS”

THE SERVICES AND RELATED SOFTWARE ARE PROVIDED “AS IS,” AT YOUR OWN RISK, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. WE ALSO DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. Apperson will have no responsibility for any harm to your computer system, loss or corruption of data, or other harm that results from your access to or use of the Services. Some states do not allow the types of disclaimers in this paragraph, so they may not apply to you.

Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL APPERSON, ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR (A) ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL (INCLUDING LOSS OF USE, DATA, BUSINESS, OR PROFITS) DAMAGES, REGARDLESS OF LEGAL THEORY, WHETHER OR NOT BEEN HAS BEEN WARNED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, AND EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE; (B) AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICES MORE THAN THE GREATER OF $50 OR (IF YOU HAVE A PAID ACCOUNT) THE AMOUNTS PAID BY YOU TO APPERSON FOR THE PAST THREE MONTHS OF THE SERVICES IN QUESTION. Some states do not allow the types of limitations in this paragraph, so they may not apply to you.

Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Apperson, its affiliates and licensors and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, and suppliers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses or fees (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) resulting from your violation of these Terms or your use of the Services, including, without limitation, any use of the content, services, and products of the Services other than as expressly authorized in these Terms.

Mobile Application Terms
We may make certain mobile applications available to you. The use of mobile applications in connection with the Services is governed by these Terms. In addition, you must comply with all applicable third party terms of agreement when using the mobile applications (for example, any agreement with a wireless service or wireless data provider). You agree that these Terms and the Privacy Policy are between you and us, and that even if you receive access to the Services through Apple, Inc.’s App Store or any other source (collectively, the “Distributor”) for use on a mobile device, the Distributor has no liability or responsibility whatsoever to you related to Apperson, whether by contract, warranty or otherwise, and you will look only to Apperson for any support regarding the Services. You may use the Apperson mobile application on a product that you own or control and as permitted by the usage rules set forth by the Distributor. The Distributor is not responsible for addressing any claims of any sort related to the Services, and you must address any claims directly with Apperson. The Distributor and its subsidiaries have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third party beneficiary hereof.

Miscellaneous Legal Terms
THESE TERMS AND THE USE OF THE SERVICES AND SOFTWARE WILL BE GOVERNED BY CALIFORNIA LAW EXCEPT FOR ITS CONFLICTS OF LAWS PRINCIPLES. ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES OR SOFTWARE MUST BE LITIGATED EXCLUSIVELY IN THE FEDERAL OR STATE COURTS OF MECKELENBURG COUNT, NORTH CAROLINA, AND BOTH PARTIES CONSENT TO VENUE AND PERSONAL JURISDICTION THERE. These Terms constitute the entire and exclusive agreement between you and Apperson with respect to the Services, and supersede and replace any other agreements, terms and conditions applicable to the Services. These Terms create no third party beneficiary rights. Apperson’s failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of its right to do so later. If a provision is found unenforceable the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in full effect and an enforceable term will be substituted reflecting our intent as closely as possible. You may not assign any of your rights in these Terms, and any such attempt is void, but Apperson may assign its rights to any of its affiliates or subsidiaries, or to any successor in interest of any business associated with the Services. Apperson and you are not legal partners or agents; instead, our relationship is that of independent contractors.