User Agreement

WELCOME to sptimes.com, a service of the St. Petersburg Times. Please read this agreement . We encourage free and open exchange of information and ideas, but ask you to abide by certain terms as a condition of using this site. Your use of this site constitutes your agreement to these terms.

As a user of this site, you agree that:

This agreement may be changed or modified at any time. A notice of changes or modifications will be posted. You agree to review the agreement periodically to keep current on its terms. Your continued use of the site after any change or modification to this agreement constitutes your agreement to any changes or modifications in the terms.

YOUR USE OF THIS SERVICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. There may be delays, omissions, inaccuracies or other errors in posted information, or other problems inherent in electronic communication.

When we collect personal information about users, that information could be shared with advertisers, but only in the aggregate. We will never provide personal information on an individual basis to any third party.

All of this site's content, including but not limited to text, articles, photographs, images, graphics, trademarks, logos and service marks, is owned by the St. Petersburg Times and is protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws meaning, among other things:

• The site's content is for your personal, non-commercial use.
• If you copy any material from this site, that copy must be exclusively for your personal non-commercial use and that copy must retain copyright, trademark and other ownership notices contained in the material.
• Storing or archiving any significant portion of the content or creating a database using the content is prohibited.
• Any other activity or use of this site that is a violation of United States intellectual property laws or international treaties, including but not limited to copying other than on an isolated basis for personal use; modifying the content; and publishing, transmitting, creating derivative works from, transferring, selling or displaying the content of the site, is prohibited.
• You may hyperlink to sptimes.com so long as the link does not state or imply any sponsorship or endorsement of your site by sptimes.com, St. Petersburg Times, the Times Publishing Company or any of their affiliates. Any linking which results in display of this site's content surrounded by or included with content of another site, organization or person is prohibited.
• You may not use the content in any way not specifically provided for in this agreement without the specific written consent of the St. Petersburg Times.
• You acknowledge that communication using sptimes.com often occurs in real time or is posted in or on one of many forums or message boards. As such, sptimes.com cannot and does not intend to attempt the impossible task of screening communications in advance. You therefore acknowledge that neither sptimes.com, the St. Petersburg Times, the Times Publishing Company or their affiliates shall assume or have any responsibility by action or inaction with respect to content posted or provided by users. You are solely responsible for anything you post in this site's chat rooms, forums, guest books and other public posting areas. If you engage in any posting or communication using sptimes.com, you agree that:
• You will respect the rights of others in using this service.
• You will use sptimes.com only for lawful purposes and will not post or transmit any obscene, threatening, abusive, or false and defamatory material.
• sptimes.com reserves the right to deny access to anyone who violates posting rules or any part of this agreement.
• sptimes.com retains the right to delete, move or edit any posting in its sole discretion and reserves the right to deny access to you and to anyone accessing this service under your registration.
• You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless sptimes.com, St. Petersburg Times, the Times Publishing Company and their affiliates, employees, contractors, officers, directors, and telecommunications providers from all liability, claims, and expenses, including attorneys' fees, that arise from the breach of any of the terms of use of the site or in connection with your use of this site. Sptimes.com reserves the right to assume exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification under this agreement.

This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Florida. The venue for any legal action that concerns this agreement shall be Pinellas County, Florida.

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