Last Updated: September 1, 2023
Welcome to SmartNews! You are now reading the Terms of Service (the “Terms”) that serve as an agreement between you and SmartNews, Inc. (“SmartNews,” “we,” or “us”) for your use of our mobile device application (“App”), and our news mining and delivery services, accessible via our App. To make these Terms easier to read, our services, the Site and the App are collectively called the “Services.”
Agreement to Terms
By using our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you don’t agree to these Terms, please do not use the Services.
Changes to Terms or Services
We may modify the Terms at any time, in our sole discretion. If we do so, we’ll let you know by posting the modified Terms on the App or through other communications. It’s important that you review the Terms whenever we modify them because if you continue to use the Services after we have posted modified Terms, you are indicating to us that you agree to be bound by the modified Terms. If you don’t agree to be bound by the modified Terms, then you may not use the Services anymore. Because our Services are evolving over time we may change or discontinue all or any part of the Services, at any time and without notice, at our sole discretion.
Who May Use the Services
You may use the Services only if you are 13 years or older and are not barred from using the Services under applicable law.
Account
You can create an account in order to enable certain function(s) of the Services.
You shall be responsible for the management of your own account, and shall not lend, sell, pledge, or otherwise transfer the account to any third party.
Feedback
We welcome feedback, comments and suggestions for improvements to the Services (“Feedback”). You can submit Feedback by emailing us at support@smartnews.com. You grant to us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, fully-paid, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license under any and all intellectual property rights that you own or control to use, copy, modify, create derivative works based upon and otherwise exploit the Feedback for any purpose.
Privacy Policy
Please refer to our Privacy Policy (https://www.smartnews.com/privacy) for information on how we collect, use and disclose information from our users.
Content Ownership
SmartNews and its licensors exclusively own all right, title and interest in and to the Services and all Content that is not News Content, Advertising Content or User Content, including all associated intellectual property rights. All rights to the News Content and Advertising Content are retained by the third-party that is the source of such Content. You acknowledge that the Services and Content are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of the United States and foreign countries. You agree not to remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Services or Content. “Content” means text, graphics, images, music, software, audio, video, content, works of authorship of any kind, and information or other materials that are posted, generated, distributed, disseminated, provided or otherwise made available through the Services. “News Content” means any and all Content provided via the Services that comprises news content. “Advertising Content” means advertising provided via the Services on behalf of third-parties. “User Content” means any and all Content provided by users via the Services.
This Agreement does not authorize you to, and you may not, copy, distribute, transfer, modify, publicly display, publicly perform or create derivative works based upon Content without our or our partners’ permission.
Users who post the User Content shall grant the SmartNews a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license(with the right to sublicense such content to other third parties working together with the Company), for an indefinite period, to use (after modifying such content, if the Company believes it necessary and proper) such content for the Services and/or promotional purposes.
Rights and Terms for Apps
Rights in App Granted by SmartNews
Subject to your compliance with these Terms, SmartNews grants you a limited non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicenseable license to download and install a copy of the App on a mobile device or computer that you own or control and to run such copy of the App solely for your own personal non-commercial purposes. You may not copy the App, except for making a reasonable number of copies for backup or archival purposes. Except as expressly permitted in these Terms, you may not: (i) copy, modify or create derivative works based on the App; (ii) distribute, transfer, sublicense, lease, lend or rent the App to any third party; (iii) reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the App; or (iv) make the functionality of the App available to multiple users through any means. SmartNews reserves all rights in and to the App not expressly granted to you under these Terms.
Additional Terms for App Store Apps
If you accessed or downloaded the App from the Apple Store, then you agree to use the App only: (i) on an Apple-branded product or device that runs iOS (Apple’s proprietary operating system software); and (ii) as permitted by the “Usage Rules” set forth in the Apple Store Terms of Service.
If you accessed or downloaded the App from any app store or distribution platform (like the Apple Store, Google Play or the Amazon Appstore) (each, an “App Provider”), then you acknowledge and agree that:
These Terms are concluded between you and SmartNews, and not with App Provider, and that, as between SmartNews and the App Provider, SmartNews, is solely responsible for the App.
App Provider has no obligation to furnish any maintenance and support services with respect to the App.
In the event of any failure of the App to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify App Provider and App Provider will refund the purchase price for the App to you (if applicable) and, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, App Provider will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the App. Any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to any failure of an App to conform to any warranty will be the sole responsibility of SmartNews.
App Provider is not responsible for addressing any claims you have or any claims of any third party relating to the App or your possession and use of the App, including, but not limited to: (i) product liability claims; (ii) any claim that the App fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement; and (iii) claims arising under consumer protection or similar legislation.
In the event of any third-party claim that the App or your possession and use of the App infringes that third party’s intellectual property rights, SmartNews will be solely responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of any such intellectual property infringement claim to the extent required by these Terms.
App Provider and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms as related to your license of the App, and that, upon your acceptance of the terms and conditions of these Terms, App Provider will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms as related to your license of the App against you as a third party beneficiary thereof.
You must also comply with all applicable third-party terms of service when using the App.
You agree to comply with all U.S. and foreign export laws and regulations to ensure that neither the App nor any technical data related thereto nor any direct product thereof is exported or re-exported directly or indirectly in violation of, or used for any purposes prohibited by, such laws and regulations. By using the App you represent and warrant that: (i) you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country; and (ii) you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
Other Additional Terms
The Services may make calls to the YouTube API in order to gather data that is used to improve the Services. By using the Services, you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service, which are found at https://www.youtube.com/t/terms.
General Prohibitions and SmartNews’s Enforcement Rights
You agree not to do any of the following:
Use, display, mirror or frame the Services or any individual element within the Services, SmartNews’s name, any SmartNews trademark, logo or other proprietary information, or the layout and design of any page or form contained on a page, without SmartNews’s express written consent;
Access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the Services, SmartNews’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of SmartNews’s providers;
Attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any SmartNews system or network or breach any security or authentication measures;
Avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, impair, descramble or otherwise circumvent any technological measure implemented by SmartNews or any of SmartNews’s providers or any other third party (including another user) to protect the Services or Content;
Attempt to access or search the Services or Content or download Content from the Services through the use of any engine, software, tool, agent, device or mechanism (including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools or the like) other than the software and/or search agents provided by SmartNews or other generally available third-party web browsers;
Use any meta tags or other hidden text or metadata utilizing a SmartNews trademark, logo URL or product name without SmartNews’s express written consent;
Use the Services or Content, or any portion thereof, for any commercial purpose or for the benefit of any third party or in any manner not permitted by these Terms;
Forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting, or in any way use the Services or Content to send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information;
Attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of the software used to provide the Services or Content;
Interfere with, or attempt to interfere with, the access of any user, host or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, or mail-bombing the Services;
Collect or store any personally identifiable information from the Services from other users of the Services without their express permission;
Impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
Violate any applicable law or regulation; or
Encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing.
Although we’re not obligated to monitor access to or use of the Services or Content, we have the right to do so for the purpose of operating the Services, to ensure compliance with these Terms, and to comply with applicable law or other legal requirements. We have the right to investigate violations of these Terms or conduct that affects the Services. We may also consult and cooperate with law enforcement authorities to prosecute users who violate the law.
DMCA/Copyright Policy
SmartNews respects copyright law. Please see SmartNews’s Copyright Policy at https://www.smartnews.com/copyright for further information.
Links to Third Party Websites or Resources
The Services may contain links to third-party websites, advertising, or resources. We provide these links only as a convenience for you. We do not endorse, verify or vouch for and are not responsible for any view expressed, or the content, products or services on or available from those websites, advertising, or resources or links displayed on such websites. You acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from, your use of any third-party websites, advertising, or resources.
Termination
We may terminate your access to and use of the Services, at our sole discretion, at any time and without notice to you. Upon any termination, discontinuation or cancellation of Services, the following provisions will survive: ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, Indemnification, limitations of liability, dispute resolution, and general terms provisions.
Warranty Disclaimers
The Services and Content are provided “AS IS,” without warranty of any kind. Without limiting the foregoing, WE EXPLICITLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. We make no warranty that the Services will meet your requirements or be available on an uninterrupted, secure, or error-free basis. We make no warranty regarding the quality, accuracy, timeliness, truthfulness, completeness or reliability of any Content. SmartNews does not create, prepare or maintain any News Content provided by or available on third-party websites or resources that are accessible via our Services, and we assume no liability or responsibility for any such third-party News Content. Under no circumstances will SmartNews be liable, directly or indirectly, to any party for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such News Content. Your use of and reliance on such News Content will be at your own risk.
Indemnity
You will indemnify and hold harmless SmartNews and its officers, directors, employee and agents, from and against any claims, disputes, demands, liabilities, damages, losses, and costs and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees arising out of or in any way connected with (i) your access to or use of the Services or Content, or (ii) your violation of these Terms.
Limitation of Liability
NEITHER SMARTNEWS NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING, OR DELIVERING THE SERVICES OR CONTENT WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA OR GOODWILL, SERVICE INTERRUPTION, DEVICE DAMAGE OR SYSTEM FAILURE OR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OR FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES OR CONTENT, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT SMARTNEWS HAS BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE, EVEN IF A LIMITED REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
IN NO EVENT WILL SMARTNEWS’S TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OR FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES OR CONTENT EXCEED THE AMOUNTS OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).
THE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF DAMAGES SET FORTH ABOVE ARE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN SMARTNEWS AND YOU.
Dispute Resolution
Governing Law
If you are a resident outside of Japan, these Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict-of-laws provisions, and the English version of these Terms shall take precedence over the Japanese version. If you are a resident of Japan, these terms will be governed by the laws of Japan without regard to its conflict-of-laws provisions, and the Japanese version of these Terms shall take precedence over the English version.
Agreement to Arbitrate
You and SmartNews agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the breach, termination, enforcement, interpretation or validity thereof or the use of the Services or Content (collectively, “Disputes”) will be settled by binding arbitration, except that each party retains the right: (i) to bring an individual action in small claims court and (ii) to seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent the actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation or violation of a party’s copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, patents or other intellectual property rights (the action described in the foregoing clause (ii), an “IP Protection Action”). The exclusive jurisdiction and venue of any IP Protection Action will be the state and federal courts located in the Northern District of California and each of the parties hereto waives any objection to jurisdiction and venue in such courts. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU AND SMARTNEWS ARE EACH WAIVING THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS ACTION OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. Further, unless both you and SmartNews otherwise agree in writing, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of any class or representative proceeding. If this specific paragraph is held unenforceable, then the entirety of this “Dispute Resolution” section will be deemed void. Except as provided in the preceding sentence, this “Dispute Resolution” section will survive any termination of these Terms.
Arbitration Rules
The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) in accordance with the Commercial Arbitration Rules and the Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes (the “AAA Rules”) then in effect, except as modified by this “Dispute Resolution” section. (The AAA Rules are available at www.adr.org/arb_med or by calling the AAA at 1-800-778-7879.) The Federal Arbitration Act will govern the interpretation and enforcement of this Section.
Arbitration Process
A party who desires to initiate arbitration must provide the other party with a written Demand for Arbitration as specified in the AAA Rules. (The AAA provides a form Demand for Arbitration at http://www.adr.org/aaa/ShowPDF?doc=ADRSTG_015820 and a separate form for California residents at http://www.adr.org/aaa/ShowPDF?doc=ADRSTG_015822.) The arbitrator will be either a retired judge or an attorney licensed to practice law and will be selected by the parties from the AAA’s roster of arbitrators. If the parties are unable to agree upon an arbitrator within seven (7) days of delivery of the Demand for Arbitration, then the AAA will appoint the arbitrator in accordance with the AAA Rules.
Arbitration Location and Procedure
Unless you and SmartNews otherwise agree, the arbitration will be conducted in the county where you reside. If your claim does not exceed $10,000, then the arbitration will be conducted solely on the basis of the documents that you and SmartNews submit to the arbitrator, unless you request a hearing or the arbitrator determines that a hearing is necessary. If your claim exceeds $10,000, your right to a hearing will be determined by the AAA Rules. Subject to the AAA Rules, the arbitrator will have the discretion to direct a reasonable exchange of information by the parties, consistent with the expedited nature of the arbitration.
Arbitrator’s Decision
The arbitrator will render an award within the time frame specified in the AAA Rules. The arbitrator’s decision will include the essential findings and conclusions upon which the arbitrator based the award. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. The arbitrator’s award of damages must be consistent with the terms of the “Limitation of Liability” section above as to the types and amounts of damages for which a party may be held liable. The arbitrator may award declaratory or injunctive relief only in favor of the claimant and only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by the claimant’s individual claim. If you prevail in arbitration you will be entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees and expenses, to the extent provided under applicable law. SmartNews will not seek, and hereby waives all rights it may have under applicable law to recover, attorneys’ fees and expenses if it prevails in arbitration.
Fees
Your responsibility to pay any AAA filing, administrative and arbitrator fees will be solely as set forth in the AAA Rules. However, if your claim for damages does not exceed $75,000, SmartNews will pay all such fees unless the arbitrator finds that either the substance of your claim or the relief sought in your Demand for Arbitration was frivolous or was brought for an improper purpose (as measured by the standards set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b)).
Changes
Notwithstanding the provisions of the “Changes to Terms or Services” section above, if SmartNews changes this “Dispute Resolution” section after the date you first accepted these Terms (or accepted any subsequent changes to these Terms), you may reject any such change by sending us written notice (including by email to info@smartnews.com) within 30 days of the date such change became effective, as indicated in the “Last Updated” date above. By rejecting any change, you are agreeing that you will arbitrate any Dispute between you and SmartNews in accordance with the provisions of this “Dispute Resolution” section as of the date you first accepted these Terms (or accepted any subsequent changes to these Terms).
General Terms
These Terms constitute the entire and exclusive understanding and agreement between SmartNews and you regarding the Services and Content, and these Terms supersede and replace any and all prior oral or written understandings or agreements between SmartNews and you regarding the Services and Content. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of these Terms invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the other provisions of these Terms will remain in full force and effect.
You may not assign or transfer these Terms, by operation of law or otherwise, without SmartNews’s prior written consent. Any attempt by you to assign or transfer these Terms, without such consent, will be null. SmartNews may freely assign or transfer these Terms without restriction. Subject to the foregoing, these Terms will bind and inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.
Any notices or other communications provided by SmartNews under these Terms, including those regarding modifications to these Terms, will be given by posting to the Services.
SmartNews’s failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of such right or provision. The waiver of any such right or provision will be effective only if in writing and signed by a duly authorized representative of SmartNews. Except as expressly set forth in these Terms, the exercise by either party of any of its remedies under these Terms will be without prejudice to its other remedies under these Terms or otherwise.
Contact Information
If you have any questions about these Terms or the Services, please contact SmartNews at:
info@smartnews.com Ichigo Jingumae Building 2F, 6-25-16 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
