Terms of Service.

Agreement and scope

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and Pique Media, Inc. (“Pique,” “we,” “us”). They govern your use of our websites, iPhone application, and the content, community features, and other services we make available through them (together, the “Services”).

By accessing or using the Services, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

Who may use Pique

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If the law where you live requires a greater age to consent to these Terms, you may use an account only with the involvement and permission of a parent or legal guardian.

You may use the Services only if you can legally enter into this agreement and are not prohibited from using them under applicable law.

Accounts

Some features require an account. You agree to provide accurate information, keep your sign-in credentials secure, and promptly tell us if you believe your account has been compromised. You are responsible for activity through your account unless it results from circumstances outside your reasonable control.

You may not impersonate another person, create an account for someone else without permission, transfer your account, or use an account to evade a restriction or suspension.

Permission to use the Services

Subject to these Terms, Pique gives you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable permission to access and use the Services for their intended purposes.

You may not:

• copy, sell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Services except as we expressly permit;
• reverse engineer or attempt to extract source code except where applicable law gives you that right;
• scrape, harvest, or access the Services through automated means without our permission;
• probe, disrupt, overload, bypass, or interfere with the Services or their security controls; or
• use Pique's name, marks, or content in a way that suggests sponsorship or endorsement without permission.

Comments and other public contributions

“User Content” means comments, replies, profile information, and other material you choose to make public through community features. You retain any ownership rights you have in your User Content.

When you submit User Content, you give Pique a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, publish, distribute, format, adapt, and otherwise use it as reasonably necessary to operate, provide, improve, moderate, and promote the Services. We may sublicense these rights to service providers that help us operate the Services. This license is subject to the deletion and retention practices in our Privacy Policy.

You represent that you have the rights needed to submit your User Content and grant this license. Public contributions may be seen, quoted, or shared by other people, so do not include information you do not want made public.

Community rules

You may not submit or use the Services to distribute content that:

• is illegal or promotes illegal or clearly dangerous conduct;
• threatens, harasses, bullies, stalks, or targets a person or group with hateful or discriminatory abuse;
• is pornographic, sexually exploitative, or sexualizes or endangers a minor;
• reveals another person's private or confidential information without authorization;
• impersonates someone, is fraudulent or deliberately deceptive, or manipulates participation in the Services;
• defames another person or infringes intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
• contains spam, unauthorized advertising, malware, or malicious code; or
• is persistently disruptive, irrelevant, or otherwise undermines a constructive discussion of the journalism.

Moderation, reports, and blocking

We use automated and human systems to filter, review, and moderate User Content. No system will catch everything, and the presence of User Content on Pique does not mean we endorse it.

If you encounter offensive content or abusive behavior, use the reporting tools available in the relevant Service or email hello@pique.media. We review reports and respond as appropriate. Where blocking controls are available, you can use them to limit interactions with or content from a particular user.

We may refuse, restrict, hide, remove, or preserve User Content, and may warn, suspend, or terminate accounts, when we reasonably believe doing so protects people, enforces these Terms, preserves the integrity of the Services, or complies with law. We are not required to publish or continue hosting any particular contribution.

Tips and source communications

A confidential tip, interview, or source communication sent through a channel identified for newsgathering is not public User Content under these Terms. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle that material and protect source identity.

Pique content

The Services, including our journalism, software, design, branding, graphics, audio, video, and other materials, are owned by Pique or our licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws. These Terms do not transfer ownership of that material to you.

You may link to our public journalism and make reasonable personal, noncommercial use of it. Any other reproduction, republication, syndication, or commercial use requires permission unless allowed by law. To report a claimed infringement, contact hello@pique.media with enough information for us to identify the work and the material at issue.

Feedback

If you voluntarily send us ideas or feedback about the Services, you allow us to use them without restriction or compensation. This does not apply to confidential tips or source communications.

Third-party services and Apple

The Services may link to or work with products and content provided by others. Their terms and policies govern your relationship with them, and Pique is not responsible for third-party services it does not control.

If you download the Pique iPhone app through Apple's App Store, these Terms are between you and Pique, not Apple. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the Services and is not responsible for them or for claims relating to them. Your license to the app is also subject to Apple's applicable App Store terms, including the Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of this paragraph and may enforce it.

Changes to the Services

We may add, change, limit, suspend, or discontinue content, features, markets, access methods, or other parts of the Services. We may also introduce paid offerings or additional terms for particular features; any applicable price and additional terms will be shown before you choose to use or purchase them.

Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Services at any time. We may restrict, suspend, or terminate your access if you violate these Terms, create risk or legal exposure, or materially interfere with the Services or other users. Where appropriate, we may give notice or an opportunity to appeal, but we may act immediately when reasonably necessary to protect people or the Services.

Provisions that by their nature should continue after access ends — including intellectual-property provisions, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, and dispute provisions — will survive.

Disclaimers

The Services are provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law, Pique disclaims implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Services will always be available, error-free, secure, or complete.

Our journalism and other content are provided for general informational purposes. They are not legal, financial, medical, or other professional advice. We work to report accurately and may update or correct material as new information becomes available.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Pique and its directors, officers, employees, affiliates, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenues, data, goodwill, or business opportunities, arising from or related to the Services.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, their total liability for all claims arising from or related to the Services will not exceed the greater of $100 or the amount you paid Pique for the Services in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not apply where applicable law does not permit them.

Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Pique and its directors, officers, employees, and affiliates from claims, losses, liabilities, and reasonable expenses arising from your User Content, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of another person's rights. This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim results from Pique's own conduct.

Disputes and applicable law

Before filing a formal claim, you and Pique agree to try to resolve the dispute informally by giving the other side a written description of the issue and allowing a reasonable opportunity to respond.

These Terms and any dispute relating to them are governed by applicable United States law, without overriding consumer rights or other protections that cannot lawfully be waived where you live. Nothing in these Terms prevents either side from seeking relief in a court with jurisdiction.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will update the effective date above and provide additional notice when a change is material. Changes apply prospectively from their stated effective date. If you continue using the Services after revised Terms take effect, you accept the revised Terms.

General

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms without our permission; we may transfer them as part of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets.

These Terms and any additional terms presented for a particular feature are the entire agreement between you and Pique regarding the Services, except for obligations that cannot legally be excluded.

Contact

Pique Media, Inc. · hello@pique.media