These Terms of Service govern the use of the Tripod Web Site (www.tripod.com), hereafter referred to as the "Site." The term "Tripod" shall be used to refer to Tripod, Inc., and all parent corporations, subsidiary corporations, and affiliates, including, without limitation, Lycos, Inc. The Site provides registered members (each a "Member") with access to content and services ("Membership"). Tripod may, at its discretion, add, delete, or modify the Terms of Service without notice. By registering as a Member, you agree to use the Site in a manner consistent with all applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations and in accordance with the Terms of Service discussed below.

Basic Tripod services and content are available FREE OF CHARGE, exclusive of other Internet or other telecommunications fees.

Tripod reserves the right to delete any page at any time for any reason or no reason at all.

Tripod may terminate any Membership (and any and all related information, communications, postings, or Web pages) at any time, without notice, for conduct that violates local, state or federal laws or regulations, these Terms of Service or other policies or guidelines set out by Tripod elsewhere on the Site, or for material that Tripod in its sole discretion believes is harmful to other Members, the business of Tripod, or other third-party information providers. Individuals who have had their Memberships terminated may not continue to utilize member privileges in any manner or for any reason without the express written permission of Tripod.

Content and services designated as part of the Premium Membership package are available only through the payment of a subscription fee to be determined by Tripod in its sole discretion. The components of the Premium Membership package may be modified at the discretion of Tripod without notice. Premium Members are responsible for all charges that result from the use of a Tripod Membership, including any unauthorized charges resulting from its use. Premium Members agree to forfeit fees paid if their Membership is terminated for a violation of these Terms of Service or for any other reason.

If a Premium Member pays any membership fees with a credit card and the issuer of the credit card fails to pay the amounts authorized by the Premium Member, the Premium Member shall immediately remit full payment to Tripod. In addition, if a Premium Member pays any membership fees with a credit card and the issuer of the credit card seeks to recover from Tripod any amounts received by Tripod from the issuer, the Premium Member shall immediately remit to Tripod all amounts necessary to comply with the issuer's request and any costs and expenses incurred by Tripod. If a Premium Member does not pay to renew its Premium Membership, the Premium Member's web page will be deleted.

Except as expressly stated herein, Premium Membership is subject to all of the Terms of Service applicable to Basic Membership.

The term "Member" shall be used in these Terms of Service to refer both to Premium Members and other Members.

a) Membership is available to anyone over the age of 13 who registers and accurately provides all the required information, provides a legitimate electronic mail address and obtains a unique Tripod Member Name and password. Membership is non-transferable. Tripod does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation. Children under the age of 13 can only register with the express consent of a parent or guardian.

b) Tripod allows one Membership per individual with a legitimate electronic mail address.

c) Please be courteous when selecting your Tripod Member Name. Tripod does not permit the use of vulgar or offensive language for your Member Name. You may not use the name of any person other than yourself, the name of any entity or organization, or any term that is a trademark, service mark, or copyright, or that violates any other proprietary right held by another. Tripod may, at its discretion and without notice, delete or revoke any Membership associated with a Member Name of this nature.

a) Tripod provides Members with Web pages (a "Member Web Page") and the associated storage as a free service to Members. Resumes created on-line with the Tripod Resume Builder are Member Web pages and must adhere to all Member Content Guidelines. Tripod Member Profiles are intended to be brief descriptions of Members and the content contained in Member Profiles must conform to the same content standards set forth in the Member Content Guidelines.

b) Tripod is not responsible for the content of any Member Web Page, and the views expressed on Tripod Member Web Pages are the responsibility of the posting Member and not Tripod. Tripod does not preview Member Web Pages in any way before they appear on the Member Area of the Site. The selection of a site for inclusion in a specialized section of the Member Area does not imply an endorsement of that site or its content by Tripod.

c)By submitting a Member Web Page to Tripod, you grant Tripod and its affiliates a royalty-free, nonexclusive, worldwide, unrestricted license to use, copy, transmit and distribute the content for the limited purposes of displaying and promoting the user's personal homepage and for displaying the content of such personal homepages elsewhere within the Lycos Network. The term of the license will extend only for the duration of the Tripod membership. In the event that the Tripod membership is terminated for any reason, Tripod Inc. and its affiliates will relinquish all rights to the member content as described above following the duration of any applicable promotional activities ongoing at the time the membership is terminated.

Tripod runs advertisements on its Member Web Pages. By submitting a Member Web Page, you agree that Tripod will run such advertisements and grant Tripod the right to do so. These advertisements may include, but are not limited to, "banner" advertisements and "pop-up text" advertisements. The manner, mode, and extent of advertising by Tripod on the Member Web Pages is subject to change.

Tripod offers its Members the ability to communicate on-line through the use of e-mail, chat rooms and conferencing. It is the intention of Tripod to allow open and diverse communication through the use of these systems. Though conduct in these areas is governed by the guidelines set forth in Section VI of this document and the separate terms of service of each of those services, Tripod does not guarantee that these guidelines will be followed and, therefore, expressly disclaims any and all liability arising from or relating to any failure to follow such guidelines.

The following is a non-exclusive list of actions and content that are prohibited on the Site. Tripod may cancel any Membership associated with such actions or content or may remove any associated Member Web Page with or without prior notice, in its sole discretion.

a) Any use of copyrighted, trademarked, patented or servicemarked material without the express permission of the author or owner, the commission of any acts of copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property infringement, or contributing to, inducing, or facilitating such infringement. This prohibition shall include, without limitation, the following forms of software piracy:

1. Making available copyrighted software which has been "cracked", for example, the copyright protection has been removed from the software;
2. Making available serial numbers for software that can be used to illegally validate or register software;
3. Making available tools that can be used for no purpose other than for "cracking" software (this does not include tools that have legitimate uses for software developers, system administrators, etc.);
4. Making available any software files for which the user does not own the copyright or have the legal right to make available.

b) Material concerning any software, information or other material that contains a virus, corrupted data or any other harmful or damaging component.

c) Material that exploits the images of children under 18 years of age, or that discloses personal identifying information belonging to children under 18 years of age. Tripod reserves the right to report violations of this provision to, and will cooperate with, law enforcement authorities.

d) Material that is, in Tripod's view, grossly offensive to the Tripod Community, including, but not limited to clear expressions of bigotry, racism, or other hate speech, or threats of violence.

e) Pages that promote illegal activity and any promotion of or provision of instructions for illegal activity.

f) Material that defames, abuses, or threatens others or is libelous.

g) Material that is invasive of privacy or publicity rights, including posting another person's private information.

h) Material that

1. depicts sexual content or nudity;
2. is contrary to customary standards for material suitable for public display; and
3. lacks serious literary, artistic, political, educational, or scientific value.

i) Use of a Member Web Page as storage for remote loading, or as a door or signpost to another home page.

j) Creation of a Member Web Page that contains hyperlinks to content not permitted on Tripod.

k) Transmission of unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation via email or news groups that lists a Member Web Page.

l) Development of Member Web Pages that restrict access to pages through the use of password protection or other means, other than through services provided by Tripod.

m) Misrepresentation of your identity or impersonation of any person including, but not limited to, employees of Tripod.

n) Use of Tripod for the purpose of gathering personal identifying information from individuals for commercial or unlawful purposes.

o) Acting in a manner that disrupts the flow of normal conversation in a chat room including, but not limited to, the harassment of other members, the excessive use of vulgarity, or the use of hate speech.

p) Conduct that is deemed by Tripod, in its sole and absolute discretion, harmful to Tripod, any third party content provider, or other individuals.

q) Materials regarding or links to any raffle, contest or game requiring payment of a fee by participants.

r) If there is no activity related to a Member Web Page for ninety days.

s) Any use of a Member Web Page in connection with "spamming" or the sending of unsolicited messages.

All judgments concerning the application of these guidelines are made at the sole and absolute discretion of Tripod.

If, in its sole discretion, Tripod determines that law enforcement officials should be notified regarding any Member Web Page, Tripod will provide copies of the Member Web Page in question to the appropriate officials without notice to the user. Tripod will cooperate with all law enforcement efforts to locate persons who have posted Member Web Pages that are illegal or that promote illegal conduct. This may result in Tripod disclosing to law enforcement officials user information and Internet protocol addresses pursuant to a subpoena or court order or, in circumstances where Tripod in its sole discretion deems appropriate, at the request of law enforcement officials.

If you witness a violation of these guidelines, please notify us at abuse@tripod.com. Complaints may be investigated by Tripod but Tripod is under no obligation to act or not act with regards to any complaint. Any action taken will be at the sole discretion of Tripod.

It is the policy of Tripod to respond expeditiously to claims of intellectual property infringement. Tripod will promptly process and investigate notices of alleged infringement and will take appropriate actions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") and other applicable intellectual property laws. Upon receipt of notices complying or substantially complying with the DMCA, Tripod will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to any material claimed to be infringing or claimed to be the subject of infringing activity and will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to any reference or link to material or activity that is claimed to be infringing. Tripod will terminate access for subscribers and account holders who are repeat infringers. Notices of claimed infringement should be directed to:

Registered Copyright Agent
Tripod, Inc.
160 Water Street
Williamstown, MA 01267
Telephone: (413) 458-2265 Ext. 360
Facsimile: (413) 458-0213
Email Address: copyright@tripod.com

Please put "Notice of Infringement" in the subject line of all such notifications.

When Tripod removes or disables access to any material claimed to be infringing, Tripod may attempt to contact the user who has posted such material in order to give that user an opportunity to respond to the notification, although Tripod makes no promise to do so. Any and all counter notifications submitted by the user will be furnished to the complaining party. Tripod will give the complaining party an opportunity to seek judicial relief in accordance with the DMCA before Tripod replaces or restores access to any material as a result of any counter notification.

If Tripod becomes aware of the presence of material on its server that violates any other right of any party, either in the course of its ordinary and reasonable business activities, or through notification by a third party who alerts Tripod, preferably by certified mail, of the specific location of the alleged presence of such materials, Tripod will contact the member responsible for the material and alert him or her of the allegations and notify the person that within five days he or she must respond as to why the material does not violate the rights in question. Tripod also will alert the Member that, absent such a response, Tripod reserves the right to delete the Member Web Page; and, if the member fails to respond within five days, Tripod will make a decision whether to remove the Member Web Page. In all cases, if in its sole and absolute discretion, Tripod concludes that one of the Member Web Pages violates the rights of any other party, Tripod reserves the right to delete the offending Member Web Page at any time without prior notice.

See our Privacy Policy.

a) THE MEMBER AGREES THAT THE USE OF THE SITE IS ENTIRELY AT THE MEMBER'S OWN RISK. THE SITE IS PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE, ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, AND STATUTORY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS, ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TRIPOD DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES FOR THE SECURITY, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SITE. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TRIPOD DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES FOR OTHER SERVICES OR GOODS RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE SITE OR THROUGH ANY LINKS PROVIDED ON THE SITE, AS WELL AS FOR ANY INFORMATION OR ADVICE RECEIVED THROUGH THE SITE OR THROUGH ANY LINKS PROVIDED IN THE SITE. NEITHER TRIPOD NOR ANY THIRD-PARTY CONTENT PROVIDER MAKES ANY WARRANTY WITH RESPECT TO ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION, SERVICES, OR PRODUCTS PROVIDED THROUGH OR IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE SITE.

b) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL TRIPOD BE LIABLE TO ANY USER ON ACCOUNT OF THAT USER'S USE OR MISUSE OF THE SITE OR RELIANCE ON THE SITE. SUCH LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO PREVENT RECOVERY OF DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE AND EXEMPLARY DAMAGES (EVEN IF TRIPOD HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES). SUCH LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY WHETHER THE DAMAGES ARISE FROM USE OR MISUSE OF THE SITE OR RELIANCE ON THE SITE, FROM INABILITY TO USE THE SITE, OR FROM THE INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, OR TERMINATION OF THE SITE OR SERVICES OFFERED ON THE SITE (INCLUDING SUCH DAMAGES INCURRED BY THIRD PARTIES). SUCH LIMITATION SHALL ALSO APPLY WITH RESPECT TO DAMAGES INCURRED BY REASON OF OTHER SERVICES OR GOODS RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE SITE OR RECEIVED THROUGH ANY LINKS PROVIDED ON THE SITE, AS WELL AS BY REASON OF ANY INFORMATION OR ADVICE RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE SITE OR RECEIVED THROUGH ANY LINKS PROVIDED ON THE SITE. SUCH LIMITATION SHALL APPLY, WITHOUT LIMITATION, TO THE COSTS OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, LOST PROFITS, OR LOST DATA. SUCH LIMITATION SHALL APPLY WITH RESPECT TO THE PERFORMANCE OR NON-PERFORMANCE OF THE SITE OR ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION, OR MERCHANDISE THAT APPEARS ON, OR IS LINKED OR RELATED IN ANY WAY TO, THE SITE OR THE LYCOS NETWORK. THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY. SUCH LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

c) TRIPOD MAKES NO IMPLIED OR EXPRESS REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE RELIABILITY, OR ACCESSIBILITY OF THE MEMBER PAGES OR THE ASSOCIATED STORAGE FACILITIES. TRIPOD IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY LOSS OF ACCESS TO, DELETION OF, FAILURE TO STORE, FAILURE TO BACK UP, OR ALTERATION OF MEMBER WEB PAGES; INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING AND CREATING BACKUPS OF THEIR PAGES, IN THE CASE OF PREMIUM MEMBERSHIPS, TRIPOD'S ENTIRE LIABILITY, IF ANY, SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF THE PREMIUM MEMBER'S MOST RECENT MEMBERSHIP FEE PAYMENT.

d) The Member specifically agrees that Tripod and third party content providers are not liable for any conduct by Members associated with the Site, including, but not limited to, Member Web Pages, resumes, Member Profiles, surveys, chat rooms, or conferencing.

e) Tripod and third-party content providers make no guarantee of the accuracy, correctness, or completeness of any information on the Site and are not responsible for

1. any errors or omissions arising from the use of such information;
2. any failures, delays, or interruptions in the delivery of any content or services contained within the Site; or
3. losses or damages arising from the use of the content or services provided by the Site.

f) Tripod is not responsible for the delivery of any goods or services sold or advertised through its sponsors, advertisers or its members' commercial home pages or affiliate program pages.

g) Tripod makes available certain information provided by third parties related to various professional fields such as medicine, law, and accounting. Tripod does not give advice in any such fields and in no way endorses any of the information provided in this manner. If you intend to use any such information, you should carefully re-read capitalized words set forth above, as they will have special importance for you. All information made available through the Site is made available subject to these Terms of Service, including this Section X. TRIPOD STRONGLY SUGGESTS THAT YOU SEEK ADVICE FROM A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL REGARDING ISSUES IN ANY PROFESSIONAL FIELD.

Each Member agrees to indemnify Tripod and any third-party content provider against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising from the Member's use of the Site. This includes, without limitation:

1. Member's responsibility for any and all liability arising from the violation or infringement of proprietary rights, copyrights, trademarks, or servicemarks and
2. Member's responsibility for any and all liability arising from any libelous or unlawful material contained within Member Web Pages, resumes, profiles, or postings.

By using the Site and any other sites in the Lycos Network you are hereby agreeing to release Tripod and its affiliates, officers, and employees from any and all claims, demands, debts, obligations, damages (actual or consequential), costs, and expenses of any kind or nature whatsoever, whether known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed, that you may have against them arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and/or to the Lycos Network products and services. You hereby agree to waive all laws that may limit the efficacy of such releases.

This Agreement shall be constructed and controlled by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any dispute arising hereunder will be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Each Member agrees to personal jurisdiction by the state and federal courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

These Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter contained herein and supersedes any other agreement, proposals and communications, written or oral, between Tripod representatives and each Member with respect to the subject matter hereof. Tripod may amend these Terms of Service at any time without notice.

We hope your enjoyment of Tripod's services and content will be enhanced by the application of the Terms of Service outlined in this document. It is our belief that you understanding of the guidelines that we have sent forth will allow the Tripod community to continue to be a place where each of us can prosper, grow, and enjoy ourselves within an open and non-threatening environment. Thank you for taking the time to read the Tripod Terms of Service and we hope you enjoy our services.