Terms of Use

Thank you for visiting our web site located at SesameStreetFamilyConnections.org, which we refer to below as the “Site.” The Site is provided as a public service with funding from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) and the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. Sesame Workshop is the administrator of the Site. The Department of Defense and the Defense Centers of Excellence do not have access to any user information on the Site or to any materials posted on the Site by users.

Through the Site, Sesame Workshop (also referred to as “we,” “us” or “our”) aims to provide families with a private network in which to post and share messages, artwork, photos, audio and video with each other.  We offer the Site to you (referred to as "you" or "user") under the Terms of Use described below.  By using and accessing the Site, you, on your own behalf and on behalf of other users in your account, are agreeing to these Terms of Use, which will be considered a binding, legal agreement (referred to herein as “Terms of Use” or “Agreement”) between you and Sesame Workshop.  If you do not agree to these terms, please discontinue your access to and use of the Site immediately.

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change these terms at any time, and will publish a revised version of these Terms of Use on the Site.  You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms of Use. Continued access to and use of the Site following any such change means you accept and will abide by the changes.

Ownership of Site

The Site is owned and operated by Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization with charitable, tax-exempt status, and with offices at One Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY 10023, USA.  Sesame Workshop and/or its subsidiaries, affiliated companies, distributors, vendors, contractors, licensors and/or licensees (collectively “SW Parties”) own the copyright in all elements of the Site and all related intellectual property rights, including, but not limited to, all trademark rights, patent rights and moral rights.  The elements of the Site (collectively, “Site Content”) include without limitation the content, software, code, data, art, graphics, animation, photographs, images, text, music, sound effects, all audio and audiovisual elements, look-and-feel, design, layout, organization, presentation, user interface, navigation, trade dress and stylistic convention of the Site.  Your use of the Site does not give you ownership of any Site Content.

Trademarks

All trademarks, logos, service marks and trade names (collectively, the “Trademarks”) displayed on the Site or on Site Content are registered or unregistered Trademarks of Sesame Workshop, the SW Parties and/or others, and may not be used unless authorized by the Trademark owner.  All Trademarks not owned by us that appear on the Site or on the Site Content, if any, are the property of their respective owners.  Nothing contained on the Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademark displayed on the Site.

Use of Site Content

You may access and view the Site Content only for your personal, noncommercial use via personal computer or other Internet compatible device to enable you to use the Site, provided that you do not remove or alter any copyright or other legal notices from the Site or any Site Content.  You may not (except where we have given you express permission or you are otherwise permitted by law) modify, copy, distribute, download, upload, post, broadcast or transmit, display, disassemble, perform, reproduce, publish, license, decompile, reverse engineer, create derivative works from, transfer, sell, or make other use of any of the Site Content.  Any use of the Site Content, other than as explicitly permitted in this paragraph, is unauthorized and may be a violation of copyright or other proprietary rights or other applicable federal or state laws of the United States or other countries.

Consideration

You acknowledge and agree that your access to and use of the Site, the Site Content and the services provided through the Site are valuable benefits that you receive by agreeing to and complying with the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Site Description

The Site contains general information that you can access without registering. You may also create a “Family Network” on the Site through which you, your family members and your friends can stay connected with each other. One person (the “Network Initiator”) – who must be an adult -- can start the process by creating a password-protected Account and designing the appearance and choosing the settings for the Family Network Pages. The Network Initiator may give his or her own kids supervised access to the Family Network Pages, and may create an online identity for them under the Network Initiator’s Account. This is done without submitting any personally identifiable information about the children. Included children will be able to post materials on the Family Network Pages only as part of their parent’s password-protected Account. For this reason, we strongly suggest that users supervise the use of their Account and not provide their account user name and password to anyone.

After the Family Network has been created, the Network Initiator may send e-mail invitations to adult family and friends to join the Family Network. Those individuals who accept an invitation (“Invited Users”) must create an Account. The Invited Users will be able to give supervised access to the Family Network Pages to their own kids, and may create an online identity for them under the Invited User’s Account. Invited Users may send e-mail invitations to additional family and friends (also referred to as “Invited Users”) to join the Family Network. Network Initiators and Invited Users will be able to create, post, share, access, respond to, and delete materials within the Family Network Pages. The posted materials (“User Content”) may include messages, photos, audio and video as well as artwork created with the Site’s art tool. The Family Network Pages and all of the content on those pages will be accessible only by the Network Initiator and the Invited Users for those Family Network Pages.

User Information

During the course of your registration on the Site, you will be asked to provide certain personally identifiable information to us (“Registration Information”).  Our information collection and use policies with respect to the Registration Information are set forth in our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use.  You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for the accuracy and content of Registration Information, and you agree to keep it up to date.

User Content on Family Network Pages

You are responsible for any User Content that you upload to, or create on, the Site. This means that you, and not Sesame Workshop or the SW Parties, are entirely responsible for all User Content that you upload, post, transmit, create, or otherwise make available to others using the Site. Under no circumstances will Sesame Workshop or the SW Parties be liable in any way for any User Content posted on or made available through the Site by you or any third party.

You are solely responsible for storing and keeping your content safe on your own computer system. Sesame Workshop is not responsible for providing you with replacement copies of material you post or upload to the Site.

Sesame Workshop’s policy is to not pre-screen or monitor User Content posted on the Family Network Pages. However, Sesame Workshop reserves the right in its sole discretion to review any User Content that is posted on the Family Network Pages. If Sesame Workshop, in its sole discretion, deems any User Content to be in violation of these Terms of Use or the Privacy Policy, or otherwise objectionable, Sesame Workshop shall have the right to remove such User Content.

Prohibited User Content

You warrant and agree that, while accessing and using the Site, you will not upload, post, transmit, create or otherwise make available any User Content that, in the sole discretion of Sesame Workshop:

  • contains nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter or contains a link to an adult website;
  • is patently offensive or promotes racism, bigotry, misogyny, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;
  • harasses or advocates harassment of another person;
  • exploits people in a sexual or violent manner;
  • contains profanity or other lewd or offensive language;
  • solicits personal information;
  • provides any telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, URLs or email addresses;
  • promotes information that you know is false or misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous;
  • promotes an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person's or entity’s copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, or providing pirated music or video material or links to pirated music or video files;
  • involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing, instant messaging, "spimming," or "spamming";
  • contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment
  • contains restricted or password only access pages or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);
  • furthers or promotes any criminal activity or enterprise or provides instructional information about illegal activities;
  • solicits passwords or personal identifying information from other users;
  • involves commercial activities and/or sales;
  • includes a photograph of another person that you have posted without that person's consent;
  • is defamatory or derogatory; or
  • is otherwise objectionable for any reason.

Prohibited User Conduct

You warrant and agree that, while accessing or using the Site, you will not:

  • impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your affiliation with any other person or entity, whether actual or fictitious, including anyone from the Site or Sesame Workshop or the SW Parties;
  • insert your own or a third party’s advertising, branding or other promotional content into any of the Site Content, materials or services, or buy or sell any products or services through the Site;
  • obtain or attempt to gain unauthorized access to other computer systems, materials, information or any services available on or through the Site through any means, including through means not intentionally made publicly available or provided for through the Site;
  • permit any third party to access your account, or use the account or username of another user at any time;
  • use any information obtained from the Site in order to stalk, harass, abuse, or harm another person;
  • engage in spidering, “screen scraping,” “database scraping,” harvesting of e-mail addresses or other personal information, or any other automatic or unauthorized means of accessing, logging-in or registering on the Site, or obtaining lists of users or other information from or through the Site, including, without limitation, any information residing on any server or database connected to the Site;
  • use the Site or its features and services in any manner that could interrupt, damage, disable, overburden or impair the Site or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the Site, including, without limitation, sending mass unsolicited messages or “flooding” servers with requests;
  • use the Site or its services in violation of the intellectual property or other proprietary or legal rights of Sesame Workshop or the SW Parties or any third party;
  • use the Site or its services in violation of any applicable law or to engage in any criminal or tortious activity;
  • attempt (or encourage or support anyone else’s attempt) to circumvent, reverse engineer, decrypt, or otherwise alter or interfere with the Site or its services; or
  • post any confidential or proprietary information or material that you do not have the right or authorization to make publicly available.

You alone are responsible for the content and consequences of any of your activities while you are visiting or using the Site.  We reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in our sole discretion, posts prohibited User Content or uses the Site in a prohibited manner, including without limitation, reporting you to law enforcement authorities.

In addition to our right to review and remove User Content, we reserve the right at all times to access, preserve and disclose any information about a user and any User Content as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or government request. We may also impose limits on certain features or restrict your access to part or all of the features or services of the Site without notice or penalty if we believe you are in breach of the guidelines set forth in these Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy or applicable law, or for any other reason without notice or liability.

Ownership of User Content

With the exception of any Site Content or any derivative works of Site Content that may be contained in any User Content, Sesame Workshop does not claim any ownership rights, including but not limited to any copyright, trademark, patent, trade dress or other intellectual property rights, in any User Content. To the extent that User Content contains any Site Content or derivative works of Site Content, Sesame Workshop retains all right, title and interest in and to that portion of the User Content. Otherwise, as the original creator of User Content, you retain ownership and all associated rights in and to that User Content. If any part of the User Content is not your original work, it is your responsibility to obtain permission from the rights holder(s) before making such User Content available on the Site.

By uploading or posting User Content on the Site, you are granting Sesame Workshop and the SW Parties a non-exclusive right to copy, modify, prepare derivative works, publish and distribute publicly such User Content in order to display and maintain the Family Network Pages on which the User Content Is posted.

Account Limitations

So long as Sesame Workshop continues to operate the Site, Sesame Workshop will maintain your Account and your Family Network Pages, at no cost to you. However, if there is no activity on your Family Network Pages for a period of 180 days or longer, Sesame Workshop reserves the right to remove your Family Network Pages and terminate the associated Accounts. Upon removal of your Family Network Pages and termination of the associated Accounts, all information and User Content associated with those Family Network Pages will be deleted.

If there is no activity on an Account for a period of 180 days or longer, Sesame Workshop reserves the right to terminate that Account. Upon termination of an Account, all information and User Content associated with that Account will be deleted.

Sesame Workshop may impose a limit on the amount of User Content that can be uploaded or saved to an Account each day, and on the total amount of User Content that can be stored in an Account. Sesame Workshop will notify users if such limits are put in place.

Links From The Site To Third Party Site

As a convenience for users, the Site may contain links to Internet sites maintained by third parties (“Linked Sites”).  You acknowledge and agree that Sesame Workshop and the SW Parties do not operate or control in any respect, or necessarily endorse, the information, content, products, services, advertising, or other materials that may be found on a Linked Site.  When you click on a link from the Site to a Linked Site, you become subject to their terms of use and privacy policy rather than to ours.  You assume sole and complete responsibility for, and we do not accept any responsibility for any losses or penalties incurred as a result of your use of a Linked Site, and any reliance on the contents of a Linked Site is at your own risk.

Links To The Site From Third Party Site

You agree that if you include a link from any other web site to the Site, such link shall open in a new browser window and shall link to the full version of an HTML formatted page of the Site.  You are not permitted to link directly to any image hosted on the Site, such as using an “in-line” linking method to cause the image hosted by us to be displayed on another web site.  You agree not to link from any other web site to the Site in any manner such that the Site, or any page of the Site, is “framed,” surrounded or obfuscated by any third party content, materials or branding.  We may require that any link to the Site be discontinued, and to revoke your right to link to the Site from any other web site at any time.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Sesame Workshop and the SW Parties, and its and their respective affiliates, directors, trustees, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) that may arise from your use of the Site in any way, your placement or transmission of any message, content, information, software or other materials on, to or through the Site or your violation of law or breach of the terms of this Agreement.  Sesame Workshop and the SW Parties reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, and in such case, you agree to cooperate with the defense of any such claims by Sesame Workshop and the SW Parties.

Copyright Agent

We respect the intellectual property rights of others, and require that the people who use the Site do the same.  If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please forward the following information to our Copyright Agent, designated as such pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(2), named below:

  • Your address, telephone number, and email address;
  • A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
  • A description of where the alleged infringing material is located;
  • A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  • An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; and
  • A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Copyright Agent: David K. Chan, One Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY 10023, Voice: 212-875-6299; Fax: 212-875-6117; e-mail: copyrightdmca@sesameworkshop.org

General Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

Sesame Workshop controls and operates the Site from offices in the United States of America.  We make no representation that Site Content is appropriate or authorized for use in all countries, states, provinces, counties or any other jurisdictions.  If you choose to access the Site, you do so on your own initiative and risk, and you are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws if and to the extent such laws and restrictions are applicable.

The Site provides information of a general nature only and you are responsible for determining whether it applies to your specific situation.  Sesame Workshop specifically disclaims any liability concerning any action that any person may take based on any information or guidance provided at the Site.

Sesame Workshop does not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, correctness, completeness, performance or fitness for a particular purpose of the Site or any of the Site Content. Sesame Workshop is not liable for any errors, omissions, or inaccurate Site Content on the Site.

THE SITE AND THE SITE CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY FOR INFORMATION, DATA, DATA PROCESSING SERVICES, UPTIME OR UNINTERRUPTED ACCESS, ANY WARRANTIES CONCERNING THE AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY OR USEFULNESS OF SITE CONTENT AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE OR NONINFRINGEMENT, WHICH ARE EXCLUDED FROM THIS AGREEMENT TO THE EXTENT THAT THEY MAY BE EXCLUDED AS A MATTER OF LAW.  SESAME WORKSHOP DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE OR THE SERVICES, CONTENT, FUNCTIONS OR MATERIALS CONTAINED THEREIN WILL BE TIMELY, SECURE, UNINTERRUPTED, OR OPERATED FREE OF DELAYS IN TRANSMISSION, FAILURE IN PERFORMANCE, COMPUTER VIRUSES, INACCURACIES, ERRORS, OR DEFECTS.  YOU USE THE SITE AT YOUR OWN RISK.  SESAME WORKSHOP ALSO ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY, AND SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR, ANY DAMAGES TO, OR VIRUSES THAT MAY INFECT, YOUR COMPUTER EQUIPMENT OR OTHER PROPERTY ON ACCOUNT OF YOUR ACCESS TO, USE OF, OR BROWSING IN THE SITE OR YOUR DOWNLOADING OF ANY MATERIALS, DATA, TEXT, IMAGES, VIDEO, OR AUDIO FROM THE SITE.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR IMPLEMENTING SUFFICIENT PROCEDURES AND VIRUS CHECKS (INCLUDING ANTI-VIRUS AND OTHER SECURITY CHECKS) TO SATISFY YOUR PARTICULAR REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ACCURACY AND SECURITY OF DATA INPUT AND OUTPUT. SESAME WORKSHOP MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE SITE WILL MEET USERS’ REQUIREMENTS.  NO ADVICE, RESULTS OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM US OR THROUGH THE SITE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY MADE HEREIN.

EXCEPT AS SET OUT BELOW, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORT OR NEGLIGENCE, WILL SESAME WORKSHOP OR THE SW PARTIES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT ARISE OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE SITE OR WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE, OR FOR ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH THE SITE, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE SITE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.  BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THOSE ASPECTS OF THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.  IN NO EVENT SHALL SESAME WORKSHOP OR THE SW PARTIES BE LIABLE FOR OR IN CONNECTION WITH ANY CONTENT POSTED, TRANSMITTED, EXCHANGED OR RECEIVED BY OR ON BEHALF OF ANY USER OR OTHER PERSON ON OR THROUGH THE SITE (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY SUBMITTED MATERIALS). IN NO EVENT SHALL SESAME WORKSHOP’S OR THE SW PARTIES’ TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES AND CAUSES OF ACTION EXCEED, IN THE AGGREGATE, THE AMOUNT, IF ANY, PAID BY YOU TO US FOR YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR FOR ANY OF YOUR ACTIVITIES ON THE SITE.

Termination

Sesame Workshop may terminate, change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Site at any time.  Sesame Workshop may restrict, suspend or terminate your access to the Site and/or this Agreement if we reasonably believe or suspect you have acted inappropriately on the Site or you are in breach of these Terms of Use or applicable law, or for any other reason without notice or liability.  Additionally, Sesame Workshop may terminate use or access privileges to the Site of users who are repeat infringers of intellectual property rights.  You may terminate this Agreement by discontinuing your use of and access to the Site.  This Agreement is effective until terminated by you or by Sesame Workshop for any reason, with or without notice.  Upon any termination of this Agreement, you agree to discontinue your use and access of the Site and to immediately destroy all Site Content obtained from it.

Miscellaneous

This Agreement shall be deemed to include all other notices, policies, disclaimers, and other terms contained in the Site, including our Privacy Policy; provided, however, that in the event of a conflict between such other terms and the terms of this Agreement, the terms of this Agreement shall prevail.

You agree that Sesame Workshop may assign any of its rights and/or transfer, sub-contract or delegate any of its obligations under this Agreement.  This Agreement is personal to you and you may not transfer or assign it to a third party.

This Agreement is governed by and is construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, U.S.A, without regard to conflicts of law provisions.  You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in New York County, New York, U.S.A. in all disputes arising out of or relating to your use of the Site. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Sesame Workshop shall have the right to bring action against visitors of the Site in courts of competent jurisdiction in the jurisdiction in which such visitors reside or are located: (i) to seek injunctive relief against such visitor, (ii) to obtain a judgment against such visitor where a judgment by a United States court will, or may, not be enforced by the jurisdiction in which such visitor resides or is located, or (iii) to enforce a judgment obtained against such visitor in a New York court.

Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

If any part of this Agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable under applicable law including but not limited to the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations stated above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the Agreement shall continue in effect.

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and Sesame Workshop with respect to the Site and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between you and Sesame Workshop with respect to the Site.  A printed version of this Agreement and of any notice given in electronic form will be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this Agreement to the same extent as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.

Any rights not expressly granted in this Agreement are reserved to Sesame Workshop.