Important Information

You should carefully read the following Terms and Conditions. Your purchase or use of our products implies that you have read and accepted these Terms and Conditions.

Introduction

Some of our basic services are free to those that opt-in by accessing them through Benchmark Connections, Benchmark Systems, LLC or affiliated web sites and services. We also offer paid and/or upgraded services for advanced features such as your own site or blog or on-line classroom. Our service is designed to give you as much control and ownership over what is associated with your user profile or goes on your site as possible and encourages you to express yourself freely. However, each organization and individual must be responsible for the contents they create or publish by making sure that none of the prohibited items listed below appear on your site or blog or are linked to or from your site or blog (such as spam, viruses, or hate content).
The following terms and conditions govern all use of the Benchmark Connections website and all content, services and products available at or through the website. The Website is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, Benchmark Systems, LLC Privacy Policy for Benchmark Connections). Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using this Website because you are fully accepting and become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement when you access or use any part of the web site. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the Website or use any of its services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by Benchmark Connections, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. The Benchmark Connections website, accounts, and services are only available to individuals who are at least 18 years old.

Ownership

You do not claim intellectual property right or exclusive ownership to any of our products, modified or unmodified. All products and information generated by or through Benchmark Connections products or services are property of Benchmark Systems, LLC. Our products are provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. In no event shall our company be liable for any damages including, but not limited to, direct, indirect, special, punitive, incidental or consequential, or other losses arising out of the use of or inability to use our products.

Your Benchmark Connections Account and Publications.

If you create any content on the Benchmark Connections site, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and site, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the site. You must not describe or assign keywords to your site in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and Benchmark Connections may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause Benchmark Connections liability. You must immediately notify Benchmark Connections of any unauthorized uses of your site, your account or any other breaches of security. Benchmark Connections will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

Responsibility of Contributors.

If you access Benchmark Connections web services by operating a website, commenting on a website, posting material to a website, posting links on a website, or otherwise making (or allowing any third party to make) material available by means of the website (any such material, 'Content'), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:

the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
the Content is not obscene, libelous or defamatory, hateful or racially or ethnically objectionable, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
your site is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your site's URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own; and
you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by Benchmark Connections or otherwise.
By submitting Content to Benchmark Connections for inclusion with your profile or any Benchmark Connections website or web services, you grant Benchmark Connections a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Benchmark Connections services and our affiliate and contributing member initiatives.

Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Benchmark Connections has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Benchmark Connections's sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in Benchmark Connections's reasonable opinion, violates any Benchmark Connections policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in Benchmark Connections's sole discretion. Benchmark Connections will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

Fees and Payment.

Optional paid services such as memberships, subscriptions, domain purchases and hosting are available. By selecting an optional service you agree to pay Benchmark Connections the one time, initial setup, monthly, or annual fees indicated for that service. Payments will be charged on the day you sign up for an optional service and will cover the use of that service for a one time, monthly or annual period as indicated. Optional service fees are not refundable.

Responsibility of Website Visitors.

Benchmark Connections has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material's content, use or effects. By operating the Website and associated