Welcome!

Bookspoke User Agreement

The following describes the terms on which Bookspoke offers you access to our services.

Introduction

Welcome to Bookspoke. By using the services on the Bookspoke websites (Bookspoke.com and other related websites where this agreement appears) (the "Sites"), you are agreeing to the following terms, including those available by hyperlink,(the "Agreement" or "User Agreement") with Bookspoke, LLC and the general principles for the websites of our subsidiaries.  If you reside outside of the United States and you transact business with us, you are contracting with one of our partners and we encourage you to read that user agreement. 

Before you may become a member of Bookspoke, you must read and accept all of the terms and conditions in, and linked to, this User Agreement and the Privacy Policy. We strongly recommend that, as you read this User Agreement, you also access and read the linked information. By accepting this User Agreement, you also agree that your use of some Bookspoke-branded websites or websites we operate may be governed by separate user agreements and privacy policies. The agreement that applies on any of our domains and subdomains is always the agreement that appears in the footer of each website.

This Agreement is effective on June 30, 2007, for current users, and upon acceptance for new users.

Copyright Policy

WITHOUT EXCEPTION AND WITHOUT REGARD TO WHAT IS WRITTEN ELSEWHERE IN THIS AGREEMENT, BY AGREEING TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE THE OWNER OF ANY COPYWRITEN OR TRADEMARKED MATERIAL POSTED TO BOOKSPOKE.COM, OR THAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN PROOF FROM THE OWNER OF THE COPYWRITE OR TRADEMARK GIVING YOU PERMISSION TO POST WORKS ON BOOKSPOKE.COM OR ITS AFFILIATES.  YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY VIOLATIONS OF COPYRIGHT OR TRADEMARK LAW IN THE UNITED STATES OR ABROAD.  You agree that all works posted or uploaded by you are:

  • Owned by you or, to the extent owned by someone else, that you have permission to provide the content to Bookspoke for use as described above and, in either case, that the content does not contain any personal data about any individual other than you;
  • Does not violate any copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any third party;
  • Does not invade any individual's right of privacy or publicity;
  • Does not contain material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, pornographic, indecent, lewd, harassing, threatening, harmful, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory, or otherwise objectionable;
  • Does not include malicious code, which includes, without limitation, viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, or any other computer programming routines that may damage, interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, or expropriate any system, program, data, or personal information;
  • Does not break the law, facilitate the breaking of the law, or violate any applicable regulation or Bookspoke rule or policy; and
  • Does not offer or disseminate fraudulent goods, services, schemes, or promotions, or promote domain names, URLs, or hyperlinks that constitute commercial content such as that found in advertising, promotions, or solicitations.

When you post content on Bookspoke's website, you keep your copyright, but you grant that Bookspoke will provide a service to post, display, copy, and sell that content within the limitations you set during the online publishing process.

Using Bookspoke

While using the Sites, you will not:

  • post content or items in an inappropriate category or areas on the Sites;
  • violate any laws, third party rights, or our policies;
  • use the Sites if you are not able to form legally binding contracts, are under the age of 18, or are temporarily or indefinitely suspended from our Sites;
  • fail to deliver payment for items purchased by you, unless the seller has materially changed the item's description after you bid, a clear typographical error is made, or you cannot authenticate the seller's identity;
  • fail to deliver items purchased from you, unless the buyer fails to meet the posted terms, or you cannot authenticate the buyer's identity;
  • manipulate the price of any item or interfere with other user's listings;
  • circumvent or manipulate our fee structure, the billing process, or fees owed to Bookspoke;
  • post false, inaccurate, misleading, defamatory, or libelous content (including personal information);
  • take any action that may undermine the feedback or ratings systems (such as displaying, importing or exporting feedback information off of the Sites or for using it for purposes unrelated to Bookspoke);
  • transfer your Bookspoke account (including feedback) and User ID to another party without our consent;
  • distribute or post spam, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
  • distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm Bookspoke, or the interests or property of Bookspoke users;
  • copy, modify, or distribute content from the Sites and Bookspoke's copyrights and trademarks; or
  • harvest or otherwise collect information about users, including email addresses, without their consent.

Notwithstanding the above, if you are under 18 years of age, you may register and use Bookspoke, but you may not enter into any business agreements or transactions.

Abusing Bookspoke

Bookspoke and the community work together to keep the Sites working properly and the community safe. Please report problems, offensive content, and policy violations to us.

Bookspoke works to ensure that listed works do not infringe upon the copyright, trademark or other rights of third parties. If you believe that your rights have been violated, please notify our team immediately and we will investigate.  You can notify us in writing at Bookspoke, LLC, Attn: Legal – Copyright Infringement, 57 E 3rd St., Suite 2A, New York, NY 10003, or by writing to us on the Contact Us page.

Without limiting other remedies, we may limit, suspend, or terminate our service and user accounts, prohibit access to our website, delay or remove hosted content, and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the Sites if we think that they are creating problems, possible legal liabilities, or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies. We also reserve the right to cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a long time.

Fees and Services

Joining Bookspoke is free. We do charge fees for using other services, such as listing works for sale, and for certain types of memberships. When you list an item or use a service that has a fee you have an opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged based on our Fees schedule, which we may change from time to time. Changes to that Policy are effective after we provide you with at least fourteen days' notice by posting the changes on the Sites. We may choose to temporarily change the fees for our services for promotional events or new services, and such changes are effective when we post the temporary promotional event or new service on the Sites.

Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in U.S. Dollars. You are responsible for paying all fees and applicable taxes associated with the Sites in a timely manner with a valid payment method. If your payment method fails or your account is past due, we may collect fees owed using other collection mechanisms. (This includes charging other payment methods on file with us and retaining collection agencies and legal counsel.)

Content License

When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future.  While your work is royalty-free, you will split your earnings with Bookspoke as laid out in the Fee Schedule.

Liability

You will not hold Bookspoke responsible for other users' actions or inactions, including things they post. You acknowledge that we are not a traditional book seller. Instead, the Sites are a venue to allow anyone to offer, sell, and buy written works, at anytime, from anywhere, in a variety of pricing formats and venues. We have no control over and do not guarantee the quality, safety or legality of works advertised, the truth or accuracy of works, the ability of sellers to sell works, the ability of buyers to pay for works, or that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction.

We do not transfer legal ownership of items from the seller to the buyer, and nothing in this agreement shall modify the governing provisions of New York State and Federal Commercial Law, under which legal ownership of an item is transferred upon physical delivery of the item to the buyer by the seller. Unless the buyer and the seller agree otherwise, the buyer will become the item's lawful owner upon physical receipt of the item from the seller, in accordance with New York State and Federal Commercial Law.  Further, we cannot guarantee continuous or secure access to our services, and operation of the Sites may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control. Accordingly, to the extent legally permitted, we exclude all implied warranties, terms and conditions. We are not liable for any loss of money, goodwill, or reputation, or any special, indirect, or consequential damages arising out of your use of our Sites. Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of warranties or exclusion of damages, so such disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you.

Regardless of the previous paragraph, if we are found to be liable, our liability to you or to any third party is limited to the greater of (a) the total fees you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to the liability, and (b) $50.

Release

If you have a dispute with one or more users, you release us (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees) from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes.

Access and Interference

The Sites contains robot exclusion headers. Much of the information on the Sites is updated on a real-time basis and is proprietary or is licensed to Bookspoke by our users or third parties. You agree that you will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Sites for any purpose without our express written permission.

Additionally, you agree that you will not:

  • take any action that imposes or may impose (in our sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
  • copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, or publicly display any content (except for Your Information) from the Sites without the prior expressed written permission of Bookspoke and the appropriate third party, as applicable;
  • interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Sites or any activities conducted on the Sites; or
  • bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Sites.

Privacy

We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. We use your information only as described in the Bookspoke Privacy Policy. We view protection of users' privacy as a very important community principle. We store and process your information on computers located in the United States that are protected by physical as well as technological security devices. You can access and modify the information you provide us and choose not to receive certain communications by signing-in to your account. We use third parties to verify and certify our privacy principles. For a complete description of how we use and protect your personal information, see the Bookspoke Privacy Policy. If you object to your information being transferred or used in this way please do not use our services.

Indemnity

You will indemnify and hold us (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees), harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

No Agency

No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement.

Notices

Except as explicitly stated otherwise, legal notices shall be served on Bookspoke's national registered agent (in the case of Bookspoke) or to the email address you provide to Bookspoke during the registration process (in your case). Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid. Alternatively, we may give you legal notice by mail to the address provided during the registration process. In such case, notice shall be deemed given three days after the date of mailing.

Resolution of Disputes

If a dispute arises between you and Bookspoke, our goal is to provide you with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. Accordingly, you and Bookspoke agree that we will resolve any claim or controversy at law or equity that arises out of this Agreement or our services (a "Claim") in accordance with one of the subsections below or as we and you otherwise agree in writing. Before resorting to these alternatives, we strongly encourage you to first contact us directly to seek a resolution by going to the About Customer Support help page. We will consider reasonable requests to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation or arbitration, as alternatives to litigation.

style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>         Law and Forum for Disputes - This Agreement shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of New York as they apply to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within New York between New York residents, without regard to conflict of law provisions. You agree that any claim or dispute you may have against Bookspoke must be resolved by a court located in New York County, New York, except as otherwise agreed by the parties or as described in the Arbitration Option paragraph below. You agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within New York County, New York for the purpose of litigating all such claims or disputes.

style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>         Arbitration Option - For any claim (excluding claims for injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of the award sought is less than $10,000, the party requesting relief may elect to resolve the dispute in a cost effective manner through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. In the event a party elects arbitration, they shall initiate such arbitration through an established alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") provider mutually agreed upon by the parties. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the following rules: a) the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or be solely based on written submissions, the specific manner shall be chosen by the party initiating the arbitration; b) the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and c) any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>         Improperly Filed Claims - All claims you bring against Bookspoke must be resolved in accordance with this Resolution of Disputes Section. All claims filed or brought contrary to the Resolution of Disputes Section shall be considered improperly filed. Should you file a claim contrary to the Resolution of Disputes Section, Bookspoke may recover attorneys' fees and costs up to $1000, provided that Bookspoke has notified you in writing of the improperly filed claim, and you have failed to promptly withdraw the claim.

General

Bookspoke Inc. is located at 57 E 3rd St., Suite 2A, New York, NY, 10003. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. In our sole discretion, we may assign this Agreement in accordance with the Notices Section. Headings are for reference purposes only and do not limit the scope or extent of such section. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. We do not guarantee we will take action against all breaches of this Agreement.

We may amend this Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on this Site. Except as stated elsewhere, all amended terms shall automatically be effective 30 days after they are initially posted. Additionally, we will notify you through the Bookspoke Message Center. This Agreement may not be otherwise amended except in a writing signed by you and us. This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to the subject matter hereof. The following Sections survive any termination of this Agreement: Fees and Services (with respect to fees owed for our services), Release, Content License, Liability, Indemnity and Resolution of Disputes.

You may report complaints to the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs by contacting them in writing at 42 Broadway New York, NY 10004, or by telephone at (212) NEW-YORK outside of New York City, and 311 within New York City.

Copyright Policy

WITHOUT EXCEPTION AND WITHOUT REGARD TO WHAT IS WRITTEN ELSEWHERE IN THIS AGREEMENT, BY AGREEING TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE THE OWNER OF ANY COPYWRITEN OR TRADEMARKED MATERIAL POSTED TO BOOKSPOKE.COM, OR THAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN PROOF FROM THE OWNER OF THE COPYWRITE OR TRADEMARK GIVING YOU PERMISSION TO POST WORKS ON BOOKSPOKE.COM OR ITS AFFILIATES.  YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY VIOLATIONS OF COPYRIGHT OR TRADEMARK LAW IN THE UNITED STATES OR ABROAD.  You agree that all works posted or uploaded by you are:

  • Owned by you or, to the extent owned by someone else, that you have permission to provide the content to Bookspoke for use as described above and, in either case, that the content does not contain any personal data about any individual other than you;
  • Does not violate any copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any third party;
  • Does not invade any individual's right of privacy or publicity;
  • Does not contain material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, pornographic, indecent, lewd, harassing, threatening, harmful, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory, or otherwise objectionable;
  • Does not include malicious code, which includes, without limitation, viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, or any other computer programming routines that may damage, interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, or expropriate any system, program, data, or personal information;
  • Does not break the law, facilitate the breaking of the law, or violate any applicable regulation or Bookspoke rule or policy; and
  • Does not offer or disseminate fraudulent goods, services, schemes, or promotions, or promote domain names, URLs, or hyperlinks that constitute commercial content such as that found in advertising, promotions, or solicitations.

When you post content on Bookspoke's website, you keep your copyright, but you grant that Bookspoke will provide a service to post, display, copy, and sell that content within the limitations you set during the online publishing process.