Terms of Service

Last Updated: May 18, 2024

The Gist

Welcome to By Reference, where we're dedicated to fostering a community of knowledge-sharing experts, helping people to grow and learn in a collaborative environment. We're passionate about our product and services, from our blog to our newsletter, and we're constantly striving to bring you new ideas and innovations.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") outline our commitments to you and your rights and responsibilities when using our services. Please take the time to read them carefully, and don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, via our support mail (staff@byreference.net). If you cannot agree to these Terms, we kindly ask that you refrain from using our services.

If you're a user in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom ("European User"), please note that specific terms may apply to you, as outlined below.

Terms of Service

These Terms govern your access to and use of the software, applications, extensions, and other products and services we provide through or for By Reference (our “Services”).

These Terms also govern visitors’ accessing and using any websites utilizing our Services. It's important to note that certain parts of our website, such as the authentication page or other integrations, may be associated and empowered with other service platforms, such as Ghost. For these aspects, please refer to their respective terms of use.

Please read these Terms carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to be bound by all of the Terms and all other operating rules, policies, and procedures that we may publish via the Services from time to time (collectively, the “Agreement”). You also acknowledge and agree that we reserve the right to automatically change, update, or add to our Services as outlined in these Terms, and the Agreement will apply to any such modifications.

If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, then you may not access the Website or use any Services. The Website and Services are available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old (or 16 in Europe).

Violation of any of the terms below will result in the termination of your account. You agree to use the Website and Services at your own risk.

1. Your Account

To access all features of our Services, you must create an account. By creating or using an account, you agree to provide us with complete and accurate information and to keep the information current so that we can communicate with you about your account. We may need to send you emails about notable updates (like changes to our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy), or to let you know about legal inquiries or complaints we receive about the ways you use our Services so you can make informed choices in response.

We may limit your access to our Services until we’re able to verify your account information, like your email address.

When you create an account, we consider that to be an inquiry about our products and services, which means that we may also contact you to share more details about what we have to offer (i.e., marketing). Don’t worry — if you aren’t interested, you can opt out of the marketing communications.

You’re solely responsible and liable for all activity under your account. You’re also fully responsible for maintaining the security of your account (which includes keeping your password secure). We’re not liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of your acts or omissions. If you create a post using our Services, you must not describe or assign keywords to your post in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and we may at its sole and unfettered discretion change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause our liability.

Don’t share or misuse your access credentials. And notify us immediately of any unauthorized uses of your account, store, or website, or of any other breach of security. If we believe your account has been compromised, we may suspend or disable it. We will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you or in connection with your site and your account, whether authorized or unauthorized, including any actions, proceedings, claims, damages, liabilities, charges, losses, or costs and expenses (including without limitation, legal costs and expenses and costs of other professionals and any penalties or other amounts levied).

By creating or using an account:

1. You must be a human. Accounts registered by "bots" or other automated methods are not permitted.
2. You must provide your legal full name, a valid email address, and any other information requested in order to complete the signup process.
3. Your login may only be used by one person - a single login shared by multiple people is not permitted.
4. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password. We cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage from your failure to comply with this security obligation.

2. Minimum Age Requirements

Our Services are not directed to children. You’re not allowed to access or use our Services if you’re under the age of 13 (or 16 in Europe). If you register as a user or otherwise use our Services, you represent that you’re at least 13 (or 16 in Europe).

3. Responsibility of Visitors and Users

We allow users to publish Content using our Services. “Content” includes but is not limited to text, graphics, documents, photographs, images, music, audio files, video files, information, data records, computer software, and any other form of digital or electronic files or data.

If you comment, post material to the Website, post links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of our Services, you are creating or making available Content (“Your Content”).

Rights to Your Content: You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise have all the necessary rights to provide Your Content submitted to the Services, whether directly or indirectly, and represent and warrant that Your Content is accurate, non-confidential, and that it does not and will not infringe any intellectual property rights or personal data rights of any third party.

Grant of license: By submitting Your Content to our Services, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, world-wide, sublicensable, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish Your Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your post.

Deletion of Content: If you want to delete Your Content, we will use reasonable efforts to remove it from our site, but you acknowledge that caching or references to Your Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

Backups: You are solely responsible for securing and backing up Your Content.

Exclusion of liability: You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, Your Content. We take no responsibility and shall assume no liability for Your Content.

It is therefore important to note that:

• We don’t endorse any Content or represent that Content is accurate, useful, or not harmful. Content could be offensive, indecent, or objectionable; include technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, or other errors.
• You’re fully responsible for the Content available on your post, and any harm resulting from that Content. It’s your responsibility to ensure that your content abides by applicable laws and by the Agreement.
• By using any Service, you agree not to do, or permit others to transmit, distribute, post, store, link, or otherwise traffic in Content that you believe or have reasonable grounds to suspect:
  • infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity;
  • invades any individual’s rights of privacy;
  • violates, or encourages any conduct that would violate, any applicable law or regulation or would give rise to civil or criminal liability;
  • is fraudulent, false, misleading, deceptive, untruthful or inaccurate;
  • is defamatory or libellous;
  • is offensive, profane, contains or depicts pornography that is in breach of applicable laws and regulations;
  • promotes discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment, abuse or harm against any individual or group;
  • is violent or threatening or promotes violence or actions that are threatening to any other person;
  • promotes illegal or harmful activities or substances in breach of applicable laws and regulations
• It is strictly forbidden to:
  • Send any unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, email, junk mail, spam, chain letters or other form of solicitation;
  • Use, display, mirror or frame any individual element within a Service, the By Reference name, the logo or other proprietary information, or the layout and design of any page or form contained on a page, without our express written consent;
  • Attempt to access or search any Service, or download without authorization data (including Content) from any Service through the use of any engine, software, tool, agent, device or mechanism (including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools or the like).
  • Collect or store any personal data from our website, for any reason whatsoever, including anyone’s identification documents or sensitive financial information;
  • Impersonate any person or entity;
  • Violate any applicable law or regulation;
  • Carry out any act that is otherwise inappropriate as determined by us in its sole and unfettered discretion; or
  • Encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing.

Please note that additional third-party terms and conditions may apply to Content you download, copy, purchase, or use.

4. Reserved Rights

We have the rights to, in our sole and unfettered discretion:

1. Refuse or remove any Content (including Your Content) that, in our opinion, violates any policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable;
2. Remove or disable access your access to the Services if, in our opinion, you have violated of the terms of this Agreement, or that harm has or will be done to us;
3. Investigate and prosecute any violations of the prohibited actions at clause "Prohibitions" above to the fullest extent of the law;
4. At any time, involve and cooperate with enforcement authorities in prosecuting users who violate the terms of this Agreement;
5. Cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a long time;
6. Modify or discontinue the Services;
7. Disclose your identity to any third party claiming that Your Content constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their rights to privacy;
8. Terminate or deny access to and use of the Services to any individual or entity at any time and for any reason.

We shall have no obligation to monitor your access to or use of the Services or Content, or to review or edit any Content. However, we shall have the right to review, edit, delay, or remove Your Content for the purpose of operating the Services, to ensure your compliance with the terms of this Agreement, or to comply with the law or the order or requirement of a court, administrative agency or other governmental body.

5. Content Posted on Other Websites

We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through third party websites and webpages to which By Reference links, or that link to By Reference. We do not have any control over third party websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or use. By linking to a third party website or webpage, We do not represent, warrant, guarantee, or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. We disclaim any responsibility for any harm resulting from your access or use of third party websites and webpages

6. Feedback

We love hearing from you and are always looking to improve our Services. When you share comments, ideas, or feedback with us, you agree that we’re free to use them without any restriction or compensation to you. For assistance or to provide feedback, please contact us via our support email at staff@byreference.net.

7. Copyright Infringement

If you believe that material located on or linked to by By Reference violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify us via our support mail: staff@byreference.net. We will respond to all valid notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. We will terminate a user's access to and use of our Services if the user is determined, at our sole and unfettered discretion, to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights.

8. Intellectual Property

All intellectual property rights in the Services, including trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Services, belong to us.
We retain all right, title and interest in and to all of its intellectual property rights, including but not limited to all intellectual property rights in connection with byreference.net, and the By Reference logo device.

9. Changes

We may modify the Terms from time to time, for example, to reflect changes to our Services (e.g., adding new features or benefits to our Services or retiring certain features of certain Services) or for legal, regulatory, or security reasons. If we do this, we’ll provide notice of the changes, such as by posting the amended Terms or updating the “Last Updated” date or, if the changes, in our sole discretion, are material, we may notify you through our Services or other communications. Any changes will apply on a going-forward basis, and, unless we say otherwise, the amended Terms will be effective immediately.

We may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Website. Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

By continuing to use our Services after we’ve notified you, you agree to be bound by the new Terms. You have the right to object to any changes at any time by ceasing your use of our Services and requesting the deletion of your account and cancellation of any subscriptions. For further information about your rights and how to request data deletions, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

10. Termination

We may terminate your access to all or any part of the Service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your By Reference account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using the Website and our Services. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions including ownership of intellectual property rights, warranty disclaimers, indemnities and limitations of liability.

11. General Representation and Warranty

Our mission is to make the web a better place, and our Services are designed to give you the possibility to express yourself freely, subject to a few requirements. In particular, you represent and warrant that your use of our Services:

• Will be in strict accordance with the Agreement, including our Privacy Policy;
• Will comply with all applicable laws and regulations (including, without limitation, all applicable laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content, licensing, privacy, data protection, the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside, unfair competition, and false advertising);
• Will not be for any unlawful purposes, to publish illegal content, or in furtherance of illegal activities;
• Will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of By Reference or any third party;
• Will not overburden or interfere with our systems or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure, as determined by us in our sole discretion;
• Will not disclose the personal information of others;
• Will not be used to send spam or bulk unsolicited messages;
• Will not interfere with, disrupt, or attack any service or network;
• Will not be used to create, distribute, or enable material that is, facilitates, or operates in conjunction with, malware, spyware, adware, or other malicious programs or code;
• Will not involve reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, deciphering, or otherwise attempting to derive the source code for the Services or any related technology that is not open source; and
• Will not conduct cyber attacks against our Services; and
• Will not involve renting, leasing, loaning, selling, or reselling the Services or related data without our consent.

12. Indemnification

You hereby agree to indemnify us against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses (including but not limited to any direct, indirect or consequential losses, loss of profit, loss of reputation and all interest, penalties and legal costs (calculated on a full indemnity basis) and all other professional costs and expenses) suffered or incurred by us arising out of or in connection with any breach of the warranties contained in this Agreement, your breach or negligent performance or non-performance of this Agreement, the enforcement of this Agreement, and any claim made against us (including but not limited to actual or alleged infringement of a third party's intellectual property rights) arising out of or in connection with your Content.

13. Jurisdiction and Applicable Law.

Except to the extent any applicable law provides otherwise, this Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be governed by the laws of Italy, excluding its conflict of law provisions and the application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to this Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be the courts located in Italy. Nothing in this Agreement affects your rights as a consumer to rely on mandatory provisions in your country of residence.

14. US Economic Sanctions

You agree that our ability to provide our Services to you is subject to compliance with US sanctions that restrict or prohibit who or from where our Services can be accessed. By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you (i) are not located or residing in any country or territory subject to comprehensive US sanctions (currently including, but not limited to, Cuba, Crimea, Iran, North Korea, Donetsk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, and Syria); (ii) are not listed on any United States list of prohibited or restricted parties, such as the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, or otherwise subject to US sanctions that would prohibit your access to or use of our Services; and (iii) shall not use or allow access by any of your customers or potential customers (if applicable) to the Services in any manner that may cause By Reference to violate US export controls and sanctions. We reserve the right to restrict or block your access, or access by any of your customers or potential customers (if applicable), to the Services and/or to terminate the Agreement at any time without notice if we determine, at our sole discretion, that such access may cause a violation or create an unacceptable risk to us under export controls or sanctions.

15. Translation

These Terms were originally written in English (US). We may translate these terms into other languages, and in the event of a conflict between a translated version of these Terms and the English version, the English version will control.

16. Miscellaneous

The Agreement (together with any other terms we provide that apply to any specific Service) constitutes the entire agreement between By Reference and you concerning our Services. If any part of the Agreement is unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that part is severable from the Agreement, and does not affect the validity or enforceability of the rest of the Agreement. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of the Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof.

By Reference may assign its rights under the Agreement without condition. You may only assign your rights under the Agreement with our prior written consent.

Creative Commons Sharealike License

We built this Terms of Service using the template created by Automattic, the makers of WordPress, who made their Terms of Service available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license. You can grab a copy of their Terms of Service and other legal documents on GitHub. You’re more than welcome to copy ours or theirs, and adapt and repurpose them for your own use. Just make sure to revise the language so that your policy reflects your actual practices.