COMMUNITY OPINION and Comment Policy
Some Basic Rules:
- As a community-based news website, BenitoLink welcomes constructive comments, ideas and perspectives that add to the conversation. Stay on topic and don’t be repetitive or disrupt the dialogue.
- Do not post personal contact information or links that direct readers to porn or gore or promote your business shamelessly.
- Be respectful. Don’t post rude, bullying, insulting racist, sexist or homophobic remarks. Threatening comments or comments that incite violence in any form, will be removed.
- We have the right to delete content or block contributors at any time. See full Terms of Use.
Welcome to BenitoLink (BL) Main Terms of Service section. As a member of the public, you agree to use this site within the spirit of BenitoLink’s Statement of Values, which include:
- Truth
- Inclusiveness
- Civility
- Local Emphasis
- Open Identity (no anonymous posting)
- Ethical Writing
- Proper Attribution/Credit (This also applies to photos and articles produced by BenitoLink staff)
You may not post material or comments that are libelous, unsubstantiated, include hate speech or are considered personal attacks. Such content, if posted, will be flagged and removed. Continued submissions containing such material may result in sanctions up to and including cancelation of the subscriber/registered user account.
Please contact Leslie David at lesliedavid@benitolink.com if you have any questions regarding these Terms of Service.
When using BenitoLink (the “Service”), you (“You”) accept and agree to be legally bound by these terms and conditions (the “Terms of Use”). You are only authorized to use the Service (regardless of whether your access or use was intended) if You agree to abide by all applicable laws and to these Terms of Use, which shall remain in full force and effect while You use the Service and thereafter. Please read these Terms of Use carefully and save a copy. If You do not agree with any Term of Use, You should leave this site and discontinue use of the Service immediately. If You intend to use the Service, You must read these Terms of Use and indicate your acceptance during the sign-up process.
The site was created and is owned by BenitoLink, a non-profit, 501(c)(3). BenitoLink is solely responsible for its day-to-day operation (the “Owner”) and its “Board of Directors”. (The “Owner” and ” Board of Directors” are known collectively as the “Operators”).
Please keep in mind that the Operators may, in their sole discretion, modify these Terms of Use from time to time and such modifications shall be effective upon being posted on the website at BenitoLink.com . You agree to be bound to any changes to these Terms of Use when You use the Service after any such modification is posted. It is therefore important that You review these Terms of Use regularly to ensure you are updated on any changes and your use of the Service is in compliance with these Terms of Use.
1. Description of Service – The Service consists of a set of tools that allows You to view and contribute community opinions, events, news releases, features and related content. You agree that the Service is provided to you on an AS IS and AS AVAILABLE basis, without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, and no representations are or have been made to You with regard to the reliability, availability, performance or security of the Service. Further You agree that neither the Operators nor any other person or entity involved in creating, producing or delivering the Service shall have responsibility or liability for any issue, claim or damage related to your use or the reliability, availability, performance, or security of the Service.
2. Transparency – You agree to use your real name, or approved organization’s name, when you post content. “Content” includes all community opinions, events, articles, photographs and videos. Content posted under “Anonymous” and/ or pseudonyms will not be published.
3. Appropriate Conduct and Prohibited Uses – You agree that You are solely responsible for your own conduct while using the Service, and for any consequences thereof. This means that You, and not the Operators or any other person or entity involved in creating, producing or delivering the Service, are entirely responsible for all content that is made available via the Service. The Operators do not control your content made available by the Service and do not guarantee the legality, accuracy, quality, or integrity of the content. Neither the Operators nor any person or entity involved in creating, producing or delivery the Service will be liable in any way for any content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any content made available by the Service.
Any conduct that is disruptive to the flow of communication on the site is a violation of these terms.
Please be careful about the information posted through the Service and in your profile. The following is a partial list of the kind of content that is illegal or prohibited to post though the Service. While the Operators have no duty to investigate or monitor the content posted by users of the Service, it reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in the Operators’ sole discretion, violates this provision, including removing the offending content from the Service and/or terminating your account. You agree that when using the Service, You will not use or allow your account to be used for any illegal or prohibited content, which includes, but is not limited to, content:
a) that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, or is harmful to minors in any way;
b) that is pornographic or depicts a human being engaged in actual sexual conduct;
c) that harasses, degrades, intimidates or is hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of political party, religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability;
d) that violates the Fair Housing Act by stating, in any notice or ad for the sale or rental of any dwelling, a discriminatory preference based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap (or violates any state or local law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of these or other characteristics);
e) that violates federal, state, or local equal employment opportunity laws, including but not limited to, stating in any support for employment a preference or requirement based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability;
f) with respect to employers that employ four or more employees, that violates the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, including requiring U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency (green card status) as a condition for employment, unless otherwise required in order to comply with law, regulation, executive order, or federal, state, or local government contract;
g) that impersonates any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a BenitoLink representative, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or entity (This provision does not apply to Content that constitutes lawful non-deceptive parody of public figures.);
h) that includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person’s explicit consent;
i) that is false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, misinformation, or constitutes “bait and switch”;
j) that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party, or Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships;
k) that constitutes or contains “affiliate marketing,” “link referral code,” “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or unsolicited commercial support;
l) that constitutes or contains any form of advertising, political campaigning or solicitation if: posted in areas of the site which are not designated for such purposes; or emailed to our users who have not indicated in writing that it is ok to contact them about other services, products, campaigns or commercial interests;
m) that includes links to commercial services, fundraising or web sites, except as allowed by Operators;
n) that supports any illegal service or the sale of any items the sale of which is prohibited or restricted by any applicable law, including without limitation items the sale of which is prohibited or regulated by California law;
o) that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
p) that disrupts the normal flow of dialogue with an excessive amount of Content (flooding attack) to the Service, or that otherwise negatively affects BenitoLink’s goal of publishing varied perspectives, or negatively affects other users’ ability to use the Service; or
q) that employs misleading email addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of Content transmitted through the Service.
Additionally, you agree not to:
r) contact anyone who has asked not to be contacted, or make unsolicited contact with anyone for any commercial purpose;
s) “stalk” or otherwise harass anyone;
t) collect personal data about other users for commercial or unlawful purposes;
u) use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from the Service – unless expressly permitted by the Operators;
v) post non-local or otherwise irrelevant Content, repeatedly post the same or similar Content or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
w) post the same item or service in more than one classified category or forum, or in more than one area;
x) attempt to gain unauthorized access to our computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, the Service or the website; or
y) use any form of automated device or computer program that enables the submission of postings without each posting being manually entered by the author thereof (an “automated posting device”), including without limitation, the use of any such automated posting device to submit postings in bulk, or for automatic submission of postings at regular intervals.
4. Content Posted
The Operators may delete any content that, in their sole judgment, violates these Terms of Use or which may be offensive, illegal or violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of any person. The Operators assume no responsibility for monitoring the Service for inappropriate content or conduct. If at any time the Operators choose, in their sole discretion, to monitor the Service, the Operators nonetheless assume no responsibility for any content, no obligation to modify or remove any inappropriate content, and no responsibility for the conduct of the user submitting any such content. If You become aware of any misuse of the Service by any person, please contact BL staff at info@benitolink.com or https://benitolink.com/contact
You are solely responsible for the content You post on or through the Service, and any material or information You transmit to other users and for your interactions with other users. The Operators do not endorse and have control over any content. Content is not necessarily reviewed by the Operators prior to posting and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Operators. The Operators make no warranties, express or implied, as to any content or to the accuracy and reliability of the content or any material or information You transmit to other users.
The Operators have the right to edit, hold or not allow content.
5. Password – When You sign up to use the Service, You will also be asked to choose a password. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. You agree not to use the account, username or password of another user at any time or to disclose your password to any third party. You agree to notify the Operators immediately if You suspect any unauthorized use of your account or access to your password. You are solely responsible for any and all use of your account.
6. Representations – By using the Service, You represent and warrant that (a) all registration information you submit is truthful and accurate; (b) all information you post on the Service is to your knowledge truthful and accurate; (c) You own the content posted by you on or through the Service or otherwise have the right to grant the license with respect to such content noted below; (d) the posting of your content through the Service does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person; (e) your use of the Service does not violate any applicable law or regulation; (f) You will not engage in any illegal and/or unauthorized use of the Service, including the collection of usernames or contact information for the purpose of sending unsolicited mail/email or unauthorized framing of or linking to the Service; (g) except for content posted by You, You will not copy, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display or sell any content appearing on or through the Service, except as specifically allowed through the Share and embedding tools made available by the Service; and (h) any content shared or embedded from the Service by You will use the original player software, if applicable, and attributed by name and url to benitolink.com.
7. Modifications – The Operators reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and with no liability to You. Modifications could include changes to functionality that would be noticeable to You. These Terms of Use may be updated at our discretion from time to time without notice to You, which modifications shall be applicable to You upon using the Service after such modifications have been posted to the Service. If a modification is unacceptable to You, your only recourse is to discontinue your use of the Service.
8. Refusal of Service – The Operators reserve the right to restrict, refuse, cancel, or suspend Service to You at our sole discretion, and to reject, refuse to post or remove any posting by You, or to restrict, suspend or terminate your access to all or any part of the Service, at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice, and without any liability. The Operators expressly reserve the right to remove your profile and/or restrict, suspend or terminate your access to any part of the Service, if we determine, in our sole discretion, that you pose a threat to the Service, Operators and/or our other users.
9. Add-on Services and Features – The Operators reserve the right to offer new features of the Service that may require additional fees or other consideration for participation.
10. Sponsorships – The Service may display sponsors to provide financial support for the site. The Operators do not endorse, recommend, evaluate, or guarantee any service, product, or other message contained in sponsorships displayed via the Service. The Operators reserve the right to, and in their sole discretion may, at any time, review, edit, reject, modify, or remove any sponsorship.
11. Sponsors – The Service includes tools that allows You, or others on your behalf, to place sponsorships within the content of the Service. Any Sponsor placing a sponsorship on the site agrees that:
Sponsor shall be liable for all charges that accrue based on the price list provided to Sponsor at time of purchase. Sponsor agrees that to pay all applicable charges under this agreement, including any applicable taxes or other governmental fees.
Sponsorships will continue running until either suspended by Sponsor or until the end date selected by Sponsor has passed. Sponsor agrees to accept the charges for any spots displayed during that time.
The price for sponsorships is subject to change at any time. If a price change affects an existing placement, the Operators will send an email notification to the Operator at least 5 days prior to the price change having an impact on the Sponsor. If the Sponsor does not agree to the price change, the Sponsorship’s only recourse is to suspend any applicable spots. Any applicable sponsorships that are not suspended will then be charged at the new rate. The Operators are not responsible for lack of notification caused by emails that are delayed or otherwise do not reach the Sponsor.
The primary method of payment for sponsorships on the Service is through checks or credit cards and/or debit cards. Sponsors agree to grant permission for BenitoLink and its third party payment processors to charge accrued fees for spots to the credit cards entered on the Service.
Sponsor agrees to not arrange alternate methods of payment or other consideration for support with the Owner, unless specifically authorized in writing by BenitoLink.
Charges due from a sponsor may be determined from various metrics collected by the Service, such as impressions, clicks, or time. Sponsors agree that the metrics collected by the Service are the only valid options for considering the charges due for spots.
Sponsors agree to promptly resolve and pay for any charges that are declined on their payment instruments. BenitoLink reserves the right to charge interest and late fees on any unpaid balance to the maximum amount allowed by law.
Some forms of sponsorships, including but not limited to flat-fee-per-month sponsorships, is non-refundable, even if canceled before the end of the billing period.
The Operators may from time to time offer special pricing, free spots, or other promotions. All details of pricing, duration, and participation in such promotions are determined in the sole discretion of the Operators and are subject to change without notice at any time.
12. Limitation of Liability – NEITHER BENITOLINK NOR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DELIVERING THE SERVICE SHALL IN ANY EVENT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY, SPECIAL OR PUNATIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THESE TERMS OF SERVICE OR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF BENITOLINK HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. FURTHER, NEITHER BENITOLINK NOR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DELIVERING THE SERVICE SHALL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CLAIMED DAMAGES THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE SERVICE BEING UNAVAILABLE FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER, OR RESULTING FROM THE CORRUPTION, DELETION OR ALLEGED MISUSE OF ANY DATA OR CONTENT STORED IN AND/OR MADE AVAILABLE BY THE SERVICE. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, BENITOLINK’S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO BENITOLINK DURING THE TERM FOR THE SERVICE.
13. Limitations of Warranty – You agree that the use of the Service is at your own risk. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, neither the Operators nor any other person or entity involved in creating, producing or delivery the Service makes any guarantees of the accuracy, correctness, or completeness of any information or content connected with the Service, or is responsible for: (a) any errors or omissions arising from the use of such information or content; (b) any failures, delays, deletions, defect or interruptions in the reliability, delivery, availability, operation, transmission, or performance of any content or Service; (c) any theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alternation of, any user communication or posting; (d) losses or damages arising from the use of the content or Service or the security thereof; (e) any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email or players due to technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or on any of the Service or combination thereof, including any injury or damage to You or any person’s computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading materials in connection with the Service; (f) any loss or damage, including personal injury or death, resulting from use of the Service, attendance at an event hosted by the Operators, from any content posted on or through the Service, or from the conduct of any user of the Service, whether online or offline; (g) any actual or perceived loss, opportunity cost or similar claimed damage in connection with or as a result of the Service being categorized in a certain manner by the Operators or included in a location on the Service or otherwise with which You do not agree, including being grouped with other submissions the title, content or any other aspect of which the You find objectionable; (h) the opinions expressed through the Service or the sites of any other user; (i) the inclusion of any linked website on the Service, which inclusion does not imply any approval or endorsement of such linked site; or (j) any third party Support which are posted on the Service.
14. No Resale – You agree not to sell, resell, or trade any portion of the Service.
15. BenitoLink’s Intellectual Property Rights – You acknowledge that BenitoLink owns all right, title, and interest in and to the Service, including all intellectual property rights. You agree that you will not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, or create derivative works of the Service. In addition, You agree that any ideas, suggestions, or proposals submitted to BenitoLink automatically become the property of BenitoLink without any obligation or consideration to You.
16. Owner’s Intellectual Property Rights – BenitoLink.com, a 501(c)(3), owns all right, title, and interest in the site’s name and branding.
17. Your Intellectual Property Rights – The Operators claim no ownership rights in any content or data submitted to the Service. You retain all copyright to any content submitted to the Service according to your own standards and policies, and continue to have the right to use your content in any way You choose and in adherence to Creative Commons licensing (must be unedited and proper credit given to the content creator).You agree to pay for all royalties, fees and any other monies owing any person by reason of any content posted by You. By displaying, publishing or making content available through the Service, You grant the Operators a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free license to use, modify, reproduce, publish, publicly display and distribute such content on the Service and other locations for the purpose of promoting and distributing the services and products of BenitoLink, BenitoLink’s third-party partners, or the Owner. This license does not grant the Operators the right to sell your content.
18. Copyright Policy – You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information belonging to others without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. It is BenitoLink’s policy to terminate the Service of any user who repeatedly infringes the copyright rights of others upon receipt of proper notification to BenitoLink by the copyright owner or the copyright owner’s legal agent. Without limiting the foregoing, if You believe that your work has been copied and posted on through the Service in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide us with the following information at http://www.instantjournalist.com/contact Attn: Copyright Representative: (i) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (ii) a description of the copyrighted work that You claim has been infringed; (iii) a description and URL of where the material that You claim is infringing is located on the Service; (iv) your address, telephone number, and email address; (v) a written 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; (vi) 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.
19. Indemnity – You agree to indemnify and hold harmless BenitoLink, Vision San Benito County, the Community Foundation for San Benito County, its affiliates, subsidiaries, and their respective officers, agents, advisors, volunteers, members, shareholders, partners, employees and representatives, from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Service in violation of these Terms of Use and/or arising from any breach of these Terms of Use and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above and/or if any content that You post through the Service causes BenitoLink to in any manner be liable to another.
20. Violations – Violations of these Terms of Use will, in BenitoLink’s sole discretion, be grounds for immediate account deactivation and the right of BenitoLink to pursue any legal remedies available at law or in equity.
21. Disputes – You agree that any dispute about or involving the Service will be governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to conflict of law principles and You agree to exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue in the state and federal courts of the United States located in the State of California, County of San Benito and, City of Hollister. BenitoLink may require that any dispute between BenitoLink and you about or involving the Service must be settled by arbitration utilizing the dispute resolution procedures of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in Hollister, California, USA, provided that the foregoing shall not prevent BenitoLink from seeking injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.
22. Miscellaneous – These Terms of Use are accepted by You upon your use of the Service, and reaffirmed each time you log in to the Service. These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between You and The Operators regarding the use of the Service. The failure of The Operators to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Use shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. The section titles in these Terms of Use are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. These Terms of Use operate to the fullest extent permissible by law. If any provision of these Terms of Use is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision is deemed severable from these Terms of Use and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
23. Donor and Sponsor Policy –
We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.
Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept donations, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects. Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.
We will make public all donors who give over $1000 per year. As a nonprofit, we will not accept donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates actively seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.
Using the Service means you have read the terms of use and agree to all the provisions contained herein.