Effective April 21, 2011

Welcome to Change by Us NYC (the “Website” or the “Site”).

Please read the following Terms of Use (“Terms”) carefully before using this Website. By accessing and using this site, including any subpages, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to these Terms, which may be updated or changed at any time.

Read our Privacy Policy by clicking here.

Basic Terms

The Website: Change by Us NYC, or “we,” “us” is a website and online platform created by the design studio Local Projects, LLC. Content on the site is created and/or added by Users. All content on the site is monitored and administered by the City of New York City (the “City”). The Site’s mission is to effectively link like-minded people and resources, and facilitate the success of environmental sustainability projects to improve the City. Read our Community Policy by clicking here.

The Community: The Change by Us NYC Community (the “Community”) is the collection of Users registered with the Site, as well as Resources that are available through Change by Us NYC. The Community does NOT include users of cellphones who contribute anonymously to the Website via SMS. Anyone sending suggestions or ideas via SMS is welcome to join the Community by means of the registration page on Change by Us NYC. By registering, someone who has previously sent an SMS message may link to his or her User’s account to the SMS phone number used to submit the idea.

Users: “Users,” including “you,” are individuals who wish to participate in the Community discussions and/or join in projects created or promoted by other Users or Resources on the Website. Users may sign on to Change by Us NYC either with their Facebook or Twitter login information or by registering separately. Users may contribute ideas or suggestions, create projects, sign on to projects, post images and other media, or just observe and participate in our project discussions. Users must adhere to our Community Policy.

Resources: “Resources” are organizations, programs, or other entities that choose to participate in the community discussions, list or advertise their own community projects and/or otherwise interact with Users on the Website. Organizations wishing to be included as a Resource on the Website must fill out and submit an online form to be reviewed by administrators for the City of New York City and then approved for participation on the site.

Project Administrators: “Project Administrators” are individuals who have initiated or maintain specific projects. These individuals are responsible for monitoring and maintaining discussions about their given projects, organizing project tasks, delegating project responsibilities and making sure the project conforms with our Community Policy and these Terms. Project Administrators have discretion to remove resources, links, comments, and goals contributed by members of the project without notification if any of these do not conform to either the Community Policy, Terms of Use, or are deemed by the Project Administrator to be otherwise irrelevant or inappropriate to the project. The decisions of Project Administrators concerning content posted by project members and the overall content of Project pages remain subject to review by the Site Administrators under these Terms of Use and the Community Policy.

Project: Projects are groups created by both users and administrators within Change by Us NYC. The creator of each project is the default Project Administrator for that project and retains the rights and responsibilities of the Project Administrator role as defined above. Projects can contain various User-submitted contributions including goals, ideas, comments, resources, and links.

Ideas: Ideas are short messages submitted to the site by users. These can be submitted via either SMS or through the Change by Us NYC website. Ideas can be submitted by both registered and non-registered users. All ideas are subject to moderation under both the Community Policy and Terms of Use.

Site Administrators: “Site Administrators” are individuals appointed by the City of New York City to oversee the Site and are generally responsible for making sure all activity on the Site conforms to our Community Policy and Terms.

Local Leaders: “Local Leaders” are experts or other high-profile individuals designated by the City to provide guidance and encouragement to projects, and to follow the progress of projects of their choosing. Local Leaders have no moderation power within the Site. They can “follow” or “support” individual projects or, like any other members of the Community, they can post comments to project pages. Local Leaders’ actions and comments are personal to that individual and made on behalf of no one else, including the City of New York City.

Community Policy

By signing on to the Website as a registered User or with your Facebook or Twitter account, you agree to participate in our online Community. You agree to abide by all of these Terms and to faithfully adhere to our Community Policy:

• Use your real name. Change by Us NYC doesn’t offer anonymous accounts. The Site is about real people sharing real ideas for real action. Really.
• Share your ideas. Add as many as you have! You’ll connect with more people.
• Stay on topic. How do we make our City a better, greener place to live?
• Be active. Start and join projects. Access resources and start meet-ups. Get things done!

• Don’t use profanity. You may be warned for using offensive language. If you use profane language, your account may be deleted.
• Don’t troll. This site is not a place to harass, threaten, intimidate, or be disrespectful toward other people. If we get a valid complaint about your behavior, we’ll delete your account.
• Don’t send SPAM. Ideas wanted—not advertisements. We’ll remove commercial messages and spam links and delete spammers’ accounts.
• Don’t expose confidential or copyrighted information. Don’t post things you don’t have a right to post—including copyrighted material and other people’s names, addresses, and phone numbers.
• Don’t hack, mod or misuse contents of the site. Don’t run bots on the site, hack it, or scrape its contents. If you need data from the site, let us know and we’ll see if we can provide it.

• Be fair. Moderate activity in a way consistent with the community guidelines. Refer members to these if problems arise.
• Check in often. Make sure project members have not added off-topic content, spam, or confidential or copyrighted information.
• Ask questions. If you’re not sure how to deal with a problem, or need advice in how to make your group work better, ask us anything on our feedback page.

You may also want to read our Terms of Use. If you object to these community guidelines, Change by Us NYC is probably not for you. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us at . Thanks!

You warrant that all information you provide is accurate and complete, not misleading and that you are capable of entering into a binding agreement. You must be 18 years of age to register. [If you are between the ages of 14 and 18 years of age, you acknowledge you have the approval of a parent or legal guardian to access this site.] If you misrepresent any of this information, we reserve the right to terminate your membership immediately and without prior consultation. No one under 14 years of age may register for this Site. Users and Resources must abide by this Community Policy. If you think a User or Resource has violated the Community Policy, please notify us immediately.

Behavior Inconsistent with these Terms or the purposes of Change by Us NYC
Change by Us NYC reserves the right to remove any material or deactivate any User account found to be inconsistent with or acting against the intentions of this Website. Violation of these Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Community Policy or the general spirit of the Change by Us NYC Website may be grounds for suspension or deactivation of the account of registered Users or Resources. We will not tolerate hacking, cracking, or any other mischief that compromises the Website or Users’ accounts, or that misuses any part of the Website for commercial or non-commercial purposes, or violates copyright laws or infringes anyone’s copyrights.

Projects and Project Administrators
If you suggest or initiate a project, you warrant your proposal complies with all laws and regulations, and is not formed for any malicious purpose. You acknowledge any project is subject to the approval of the City of New York City, and your project suggestion or idea may be removed from the Website and Community at any time for failing to comply with the law, these Terms or any relevant policies of the Website.

YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY the City of New York City and its agents from any legal action taken as a result of a project initiated or participated in by you and resulting from your or some other participant’s actions or any activity on this Site -- including, but not limited to intentional torts, negligence--or violation of the law.

Users
As a User, you entrust us with your Facebook, Twitter or other private login information. It is your responsibility to make sure you protect your login information and use a strong password. You agree that you are solely responsible for all activities that occur under your account. If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or account, you will notify the City immediately by visiting the contact page. In order to use certain aspects of the Site, you may be required to provide information about yourself. You agree that any information you give via the Site will always be accurate, correct and up to date. To learn how any personal information that you supply may be used, please visit the Site’s privacy policy.

Resources
Organizations, programs, or other entities that would like to be included in the “Resources” section of this Site may submit an application using this form. Inclusion is subject to the approval of Site Administrators based on compliance with the Community Policy, these Terms of Use and relevance to the purpose of the Site. Resources may be removed without notification by Site Administrators if they are found to be in violation of the Community Policy or these Terms of Use. When an organization submits an application to be a Change by Us NYC Resource, the form will be reviewed by the City of New York City. The City will have discretion to determine whether the organization may be approved as a Resource.

Automated Interface or Interaction
Users and Resources agree not to use any unauthorized third-party software that intercepts, “mines,” or otherwise collects information from or through the Website. You will not use automation software (“bots”), hacks, mods or any other third-party software to modify Change by Us NYC files, Website or User interface, nor use any of these things to interact with the Community.

Non-participating Third Parties
Anyone is free to read contents of this Website. No one, including participants, —may use any part of the contents of the Website for commercial purposes. (See also copyright provisions).

Special Notice for Twitter and Facebook Users
These Terms apply to anything you post to the Website. However, you should also remember that if you use your Facebook or Twitter accounts to login to the Site, anything you post or link to on our Site or from other accounts may be subject to Facebook or Twitter’s or other providers’ Terms of Use. In logging onto our Website using your Facebook or Twitter account information, you are allowing us access to information provided by Facebook or Twitter’s Application Programming Interfaces (API), the rules and specifications by which a software application is able to access the services and resources of another that implements the API. The specific permissions you grant may vary depending on whether you’ve used Facebook or Twitter, and the permissions you explicitly agree to grant during the signup process.

Communications
As long as you are a User on our Website, there will be times when Local Projects, the City, or other Users or Resources will need to contact you. We will only communicate with you for important matters concerning your use of the site, and we will do so according to the terms of our Privacy Policy. You also have various options for communications available to you through our Site on your account page. Users and Resources must also abide by these Terms and our Community Policy. If you think a User or Resource has violated these Terms or the Community Policy, please notify us immediately.

If you are a Project Administrator, you must maintain the integrity of your project and communications with other Users. You must maintain communications with Users, keep their contact information updated, and comply with all these Terms and our Community Policy. If a Project is found to be in violation of this site’s Community Policy or these Terms of Use, we will notify you of the violation via email. If you do not contact the Project Administrator immediately to resolve the violation, or a Project Administrator does not accept your explanation or proposed resolution, we reserve the right to terminate your account and/or the Project.

Limitation of Liability
A. ALL MATERIALS CONTAINED ON THE SITE ARE DISTRIBUTED AND TRANSMITTED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE WITH RESPECT TO THE QUALITY, CONTENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, CURRENCY, FREEDOM FROM INTERRUPTION, FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUS, FREEDOM FROM ERRORS OR OMISSIONS, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF CONTENT PLACED ON THE SITE (WHETHER BY THE CITY OR A THIRD PARTY) INCLUDING ANY OF THE DESIGN, INFORMATION, TEXT, GRAPHICS, IMAGES, PAGES, INTERFACES, LINKS, SOFTWARE, OR OTHER MATERIALS AND ITEMS CONTAINED IN OR DISPLAYED ON THE SITE.

B. Local Projects, LLC and THE CITY ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY WERE FORESEEABLE) THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE AND/OR THE MATERIALS CONTAINED ON THE SITE, WHETHER THE MATERIALS CONTAINED ON THE SITE ARE PROVIDED BY THE CITY OR A THIRD PARTY.

C. YOU DOWNLOAD OR OTHERWISE OBTAIN ANY MATERIAL THROUGH THE USE OF THE SITE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK. YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR OTHER DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.

Third Party Websites
The Site may post links or allow users to post links to other websites ("Linked Sites"). We have no control or connection to such sites, nor do we maintain these sites; and are not responsible for the content, products, services, policies or activities of those Linked Sites. The inclusion of any link to such Linked Sites does not imply endorsement of the Linked Sites by Local Projects or the City, and the owners of the Linked Sites should be contacted directly with questions or concerns regarding their content.

Third Party Websites Seeking to Link to our Website.
We welcome appropriate hyperlinks to the Website. By publishing a hyperlink to our Site on your website, you warrant that the content of your website is appropriate and consistent with the goals of LP, the City, its Users and participating Resources. If this is not the case, please do not link to our Website. The City reserves the right to rescind the right to link to the Website at its discretion. Upon request by us or our representative or agent, you shall immediately remove any hyperlink to the Website, and discontinue use of any trademarks, service marks or other intellectual property or content provided by us.

Projects, Meetings and Real-world Encounters Arising out of Use of the Site
Personal safety: The Site aims to connect people with like interests and facilitate the success of Projects. Members of and contributors to Projects may want to meet together in real life. We encourage Users to be judicious, meet in groups and in well-known public places. The Site is not responsible for the safety of users who choose to meet each other in real life.

One of the goals of the Site is to connect Users and/or Resources to create or contribute to projects in their community. Thus, connections made on the Website may lead to actual face-to-face encounters between Users and/or members of participating Resources. The City does not undertake any duty nor make any promise to monitor these interactions. The City is not responsible and disclaims liability for any incident occurring as a result of a connection, meeting or interaction arising out of any relationship, project or idea originally formed on the Website. You, the User, are solely responsible for your actions in meeting others, and the Site and the City urge you to take precautions when meeting other Users, going to Project locations or visiting participating Resources.

It is always your responsibility to exercise good judgment when meeting a stranger, even for a Change by Us NYC-facilitated project.

These include the following:

• Meet in a public place and with a group
• Do not meet in a secluded place, or invite strangers into your home
• Tell a friend or family member where you’re going
• Take your cell phone or other device along if you have one
• Consider having a friend accompany you
• Trust your instincts

• Get Safe Online
• Wired Safety

Copyright
Change by Us NYC and the City of New York City adhere to all federal and state copyright laws, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

Users and Resources of the Website must also abide by these laws.

Any post to the Website by a User is subject to all applicable federal, state and international copyright laws, including the DMCA. Under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA, we will remove any content posted by a User found to be infringing a creator’s copyrights.

The Website
All original material comprising the Website is owned by Local Projects, except that content contributed by the City of New York City, which belongs to the City, or that contributed by Users or Resources, which belongs to the User or Resource who prepares the contribution.

Users or Resources may not copy, reproduce or republish any material from the Website to any other source without express permission from the original creator of the material, be they another User, a Resource or the City of New York City.

User-generated material
Any original material created by Users, including words, photographs, images, sound recordings and videos and posted to the Website is owned by the User and published on the date of posting. The User grants a limited and revocable license for use of the material on the Website. The User also grants a limited license to the City and to Local Projects to re-publish material to promote the Website. This license does not include any reproduction of the material other than for the Website’s own promotional material, and the User is free to revoke the license and remove his or her material at any time.

Unauthorized Other Use of Content
Outside of the uses of content on the Website outlined above, no party may use material on the Site without express written permission of the Site, the City and/or the Creator of content. This includes but is not limited to commercial use of any part of the Site.

Copyright Infringement Take-down Requests
If you feel there has been content posted to the Website infringing your copyright, you or your agent may contact us and request the infringing material be removed.

Please include in any take-down request ALL of the following: 1. A physical or electronic signature of you or a person authorized to act on your behalf (your agent).
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed. If there are multiple copyrighted works to be covered by the single notification, include a representative list of such works. (These are the works you are claiming have been copied.)
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, and that you are requesting we remove or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient --e.g. a hypertext link to the page, a description of the post title and date, or some other information--that will allow us to easily locate the alleged infringing material.
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, the complaining party, such as an address telephone number, or if available, an electronic mail address at which we may contact you.
5. A statement that you, the complaining party, have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
7. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with the above notice requirements, your DMCA notice may not be valid.
8. Only DMCA notices should go to the address listed above.

Contesting a Take-down notice
If you believe in good-faith we wrongfully removed or disabled a work posted by you based on a copyright infringement claim, you may contact us at the address listed above in order to have us review the claim based on the requirements of the DMCA.

Privacy Policy

Local Projects and the City are committed to protecting the privacy of Users and Resources and the data they share via the Site. This privacy policy explains what we do with the information that is entered by Users and Resources on the Site.

Use of your personal data
LP and the City may save any data that Users or Resources post to the Site. This includes User account data, and User-generated content including ideas, Projects, and project data. Local Projects and the City also solicit input and contributions from individuals via SMS. In such cases, LP and the City will retain the phone number accompanying any SMS.

Local Projects and the City seek to provide protection for your information. We may disclose personally identifiable information about you to third parties in limited circumstances, including: (1) with your explicit consent; or (2) when we have a good-faith belief the law requires it.

Because the Website is enabled with a Facebook and Twitter login feature, any data you share with Facebook or Twitter as a result of using this Site may be subject to Facebook and Twitter’s terms of use and privacy policies.

Apart from the circumstances described above, we will not sell your data to third parties (this includes for all commercial purposes).

Special Note regarding Users who participate from their Cellphones
In addition to online activity, the Site also solicits community involvement from individuals from their cellphones via SMS. If you are a registered User who sends a suggestion to us from your cellphone, you will have the option of notifying us upon logging in to the Website of your SMS/text message suggestion. If you choose to identify a suggestion sent by cellphone as originating from you, we will link this suggestion to your account. Any suggestion sent to us by cellphone will be saved by us in conjunction with the originating phone number; however, we will not post this phone number, but rather keep it in order to identify the origin of any comments or suggestions. Phone users may receive invitations from relevant projects via phone SMS to join. We will only contact you one time for such projects, and we will not share your phone number with any other individual, group or organization, nor sell your phone number to anyone else.

Removing your information
If you would like us to delete your data entirely, please send use the feedback page.

Miscellaneous
These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the State that the City of New York City and controlling United States federal law without regard to its choice of law or conflicts of law provisions. You agree that any action to resolve or enforce any dispute regarding use of the Site or these Terms will be brought exclusively in the federal or State courts located in the City of New York City. If any provision is deemed by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unlawful or unenforceable, that decision will not affect the validity or enforceability of any remaining provisions. The section headings are for convenience only and do not have legal force or effect.

You agree that if the City does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy which is contained in the Terms (or which the City has under otherwise applicable law), such omission will not be taken as a formal waiver of the City’s rights and shall not be construed to be a modification of the Terms. The City reserves the right to revise and otherwise change the Terms at any time and without notice. Any modification is effective immediately upon posting, unless otherwise stated. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of any modification signifies your acceptance of the changes or modifications. You should visit this page periodically to review the current Terms.

Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold Local Projects, LLC and the City harmless from and against any and all loss, liability, claims, causes, actions, damages or penalties, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of: (1) your use of any part of the Website in breach of these Terms; (2) your violation of any law or regulation; (3) breach of any of your representations and warranties pursuant to these Terms; or (4) any content or material you post on the Website. You have no right to indemnification by Local Projects or the City.

Entire Agreement
These Terms, including referenced other rules such as our Community Policy and other guidelines specifically applicable to Resources, Users and Project Administrators, and other policies and notices we may post on the Website necessary for access to Project portions of the Sites, constitute the entire agreement between the City and you in connection with your use of (1) the Website; (2) hyperlinks to the Website; and (3) any content or software displayed on the Website. These Terms supersede any prior agreements between the City and you regarding such matters, including prior versions of these Terms.

These Terms and revisions are effective until terminated by the City—at any time and without notice. In the event of termination of the Website, the disclaimers, limitations of liabilities and indemnities set forth in these terms will survive.