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FUSER USER AGREEMENT
Last Updated: 10 November 2020
We at NCSOFT want you to understand your rights and responsibilities in relation to our Services. Definitions of capitalized terms can be found at the end of this User Agreement.
This User Agreement governs your Use of our Services. Each time you Use the Services or otherwise indicate your consent, you agree to the terms of this User Agreement.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS USER AGREEMENT, DO NOT USE THE SERVICES.
It is your responsibility to check this User Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued Use of the Services following the posting of changes will mean that you accept any changes.
1. OUR SERVICES
1.1 Eligibility
1.1.1 Accounts. To Use the Services, you may need to create a Name and/or Use the Services through an Account created with an Operator (an "Operator Account"). Operator Accounts may be subject to additional terms (e.g., terms of service, code of conduct, etc.) that you must understand and with which you must comply. Any time you create or update an Account, you must provide accurate information.
1.1.2 Age Requirements. Children may not Use the Services. If you are under 18 but not a Child, you and your parent or guardian must review this User Agreement together. Parents or guardians are responsible for the acts of persons under 18 years of age when using the Services, including supervising their use of the Services and informing them of the rules set forth in this User Agreement. A parent or guardian may not allow a minor who does not understand this User Agreement to access the Services. The Services are not intended for Children, and a parent or guardian may not allow Child to access to the Services.
1.1.3 Additional Restrictions. NCSOFT may restrict the use of any portion of the Services based on legal obligations, regulations, your residence, or other factors.
1.2 Naming Policy
You may not select a Name that is:
- vulgar, threatening, racist, sexist, bigoted, defamatory, derogatory, libelous, or otherwise offensive;
- a reference to sexual acts or violence, pornography, human anatomy or bodily functions, any actual person, copyrighted or trademarked materials, or illegal activities; or
- a misspelling or alternative spelling of a Name that violates any of these rules.
NCSOFT reserves the right to examine Names on a case-by-case basis and take whatever reasonable action it deems necessary.
1.3 License and Restrictions
1.3.1 Licensed, Not Sold. NCSOFT does not sell any right or interest in the Services to you. Subject to your compliance with this User Agreement, NCSOFT grants you a revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferrable or assignable license for personal and non-commercial Use of the Services. NCSOFT and its licensors retain all rights, title, and interest in the Services not expressly granted in this User Agreement. Nothing in this User Agreement will limit your right to resell the original physical medium that contains the Services.
1.3.2 License Subject to Change. Except as otherwise provided in Section 7 below, NCSOFT may modify, restrict, or delete any Services, any user's access to the Services, or any user's Name. NCSOFT may provide subsequent versions, updates, or modifications, such as security patches, related to any part of the Services that you must accept or install before you will be able to continue to Use the Services.
1.3.3 System Requirements. To Use the Services, you must meet certain hardware, software, and connectivity requirements, including those stated on the Game's product packaging and/or the online storefront through which the Game is sold and the requirements stated at fuser.com/hardware. NCSOFT will use your device's hardware, software, internet, and information to provide the Services. Your Use of the Services may require you to have additional licenses, and you are responsible for obtaining any such third-party license and for supplying any necessary communications connections (such as Internet access) and hardware. You are also responsible for any costs or expenses related to these requirements.
1.3.4 Services May be Interrupted. NCSOFT does not guarantee you will be able to Use the Services whenever you wish to do so. NCSOFT may interrupt the Services on a regular basis for maintenance or updates and may do so without providing notice before such interruption.
1.4 Payments and Refunds
1.4.1 Required Payments. NCSOFT may require you to pay to Use the Services. If you fail to remit any required payment, NCSOFT may terminate your Use of the Services, in whole or in part. NCSOFT will establish the timing and form in which you must make any such payment.
1.4.2 Virtual Goods. NCSOFT may make Virtual Goods available for Use within the Services. NCSOFT does not sell any right or interest in the Virtual Goods to you, and there is no exchange of goods nor transfer of ownership. You do not own Virtual Goods. Subject to your compliance with this User Agreement, NCSOFT grants you a limited license to the Virtual Goods to enhance your Use of the Services. Virtual Goods have no cash value and do not accrue interest. Virtual Goods may only be redeemed for goods and services within the Services and cannot be cashed out or sold. NCSOFT may offer Virtual Goods in a variety of ways, for example for purchase or through promotions. Except as otherwise provided in Section 7 below, NCSOFT may restrict, discontinue, modify, devalue, or remove Virtual Goods from the Services; remove or disassociate Virtual Goods from any user's Operator Account; and establish any other reasonable additional restrictions related to Virtual Goods.
1.4.3 Third-Party Payments. NCSOFT has no responsibility with respect to any payments you make to any third party. Making such payments may violate the Code of Conduct (set forth below), if for example such payments are for cheat programs.
1.4.4 No Refunds. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROVIDED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, NCSOFT HAS NO OBLIGATION TO REFUND ANY PAYMENTS. WHEN A REFUND HAS BEEN OBTAINED WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF NCSOFT, FOR EXAMPLE BY DISPUTING OR REVERSING PAYMENT THROUGH YOUR CREDIT CARD PROVIDER OR OPERATOR, WE MAY TAKE ANY REASONABLE ACTION WE DEEM APPROPRIATE UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES.
1.5 Privacy Policy
NCSOFT's collection, use, storage, and retention of your personal information in connection with the Services is subject to the FUSER Privacy Policy (available at fuser.com/privacy). It is your responsibility to read and understand the Privacy Policy in effect in connection with your Use of the Services.
1.6 Security and Monitoring
1.6.1 Security. Internet transmissions are never completely private or secure. Others may read or intercept any message or information you send to or through the Services, even if there is a special notice that a transmission is secured.
1.6.2 Monitoring. NCSOFT MAY, BUT HAS NO OBLIGATION TO, MONITOR OPERATION OF THE SERVICES. MONITORING INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, MONITORING COMMUNICATION INTERFACES, STORAGE DEVICES, OR CPU PROCESSES RELATED TO HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE SERVICES. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT NCSOFT MAY UNDERTAKE THE FOREGOING MONITORING AND THAT NCSOFT MAY COMMUNICATE ANY INFORMATION BETWEEN HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE SERVICES AND ANY MECHANISM NCSOFT DEEMS APPROPRIATE. YOU ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT AS A RESULT OF SUCH MONITORING NCSOFT MAY, IN ITS REASONABLE DISCRETION, TAKE ANY ACTION INCLUDING: (i) CHANGING ANY PORTION OF THE SERVICE; (ii) SEEKING RECOURSE AGAINST YOU; OR (iii) TAKING ANY ACTION ON YOUR ACCOUNT WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE.
1.7 Termination and Sanctions
1.7.1 Termination of Services. NCSOFT may terminate the Services at any time.
1.7.2 Termination. You may terminate your Use of the Service at any time by contacting Customer Support. Such termination is permanent and irreversible, and, in the event thereof, NCSOFT will not be able to restore or access the following: (i) refund information, (ii) payment transactions, (iii) Virtual Goods, (iv) subscriptions, or (v) support history. NCSOFT cannot restore a terminated Account.
1.7.3 Sanctions. NCSOFT may terminate some or all of your Use of the Services and/or take other appropriate measures, as determined in NCSOFT's sole discretion, if you or anyone using an Operator Account or Name associated with you violates this User Agreement and/or any other Community Standards for the Services posted by NCSOFT at FUSER.com. NCSOFT primarily responds to violations or reports of violations of this User Agreement through warnings, temporary Service suspensions, or permanent Service terminations, depending on the severity of the violation. Any violation may result in a flag or mark on the relevant Operator Account in addition to any other disciplinary measures. NCSOFT keeps a record of each user's complete history of Using the Services, and users that are frequently involved in violations may have their access to the Services suspended or terminated. If you have more than one Account, depending on the type of breach, NCSOFT may terminate Use of the Services by all Accounts associated with you or take other measures, with or without notice. NCSOFT has no obligation to accept appeals. We also have no obligation to explain any decision regarding breach of this User Agreement.
2 THIRD-PARTY CONTENT
2.1 Third-Party Software, Websites, and Programs.
2.1.1 Third-Party Software. The Services may contain Third-Party Software. Any such Third-Party Software is provided under the terms and conditions of the Third-Party Software license agreements described in the documentation provided with the Services. You agree to fully comply with such terms and conditions of any Third-Party Software you install or use. NCSOFT HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE SUPPORT SERVICES FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE.
2.1.2 Third-Party Websites. The Services may contain links to third-party websites. NCSOFT does not control third-party websites and is not responsible for or endorse the content of such third-party websites.
2.1.3 Prohibited Third-Party Programs. NCSOFT does not permit the use of any third-party software, tools, or programs that interact with the Services that give one player an unintended, unnatural, or unfair advantage over another player. Such prohibited third-party software, tools, or programs include those that alter game balance in favor of one player over another, automate actions within the Services, promote unattended gameplay, or have an adverse effect on other users of the Services. Prohibited third-party programs will be determined at NCSOFT's sole discretion.
2.2 User Content and Feedback.
2.2.1 No Confidentiality. You may create User Content or submit Feedback. There is no confidentiality with respect to any User Content or Feedback. You represent that you have all necessary rights to use and authorize NCSOFT to use User Content or Feedback.
2.2.2 Ownership and Rights. We own Feedback; you may retain some rights in User Content. To the extent that User Content constitutes derivative works of Our Content, NCSOFT owns such User Content from the moment of creation. You may own rights in the additions, changes, or other new material included in the User Content. You hereby grant NCSOFT an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, broadcast, license, post, sell, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform any User Content for any purpose (including promotional purposes) in any medium, without compensation or credit. You also hereby grant each user of the Services a perpetual non-exclusive license to access your User Content through the Services, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display, and perform such User Content as permitted through the Services and under this User Agreement. For the avoidance of doubt, without limiting the generality of the rights granted to NCSOFT, the rights described in the preceding sentence include, without limitation, the right to distribute and synchronize all or any portion of your User Content in timed relation to any other visual elements; to web cast, pod cast, re-publish, re-broadcast, re-platform, port, syndicate, route, and link to and from all or any portion of your User Content; to encrypt, encode and decode, and compress and decompress all or any portion of your User Content; to edit, mix, combine, merge, distort, superimpose, create or add special effects, illusions and/or other material to or of all or any portion of your User Content; and to create composite, stunt, comic or unusual photographs, videos, animations, motion pictures and/or voice reproductions from all or a portion of your User Content.
The rights, licenses and privileges described in this Section 2.2.2 and granted to NCSOFT commence immediately upon submission of your User Content and continue thereafter perpetually and indefinitely, regardless of whether you continue to use the Services, unless and until terminated, in whole or in part, by NCSOFT on notice to you. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that NCSOFT will not be required or have any obligation to host, index, display, accept, or use any submitted User Content (or take advantage of any or all of the particular rights and authorities granted or otherwise available) and NCSOFT may, in its sole discretion, remove or refuse to host, index, display, accept, use, or do anything at all with respect to any User Content. Once you submit or attempt to submit User Content you will have no right to prohibit, restrict, revoke, or terminate any of the rights granted to NCSOFT. You are not entitled to and you will not receive any compensation or other consideration for your User Content or any use made of your User Content once submitted. You also understand and agree that neither all nor any portion of your User Content, nor any commercial, advertisement, promotional, marketing or other material associated with your User Content, needs to be submitted for approval prior to use.
Notwithstanding the above, to the extent that NCSOFT, its licensors, you or any other person makes audio edits to the licensed music content incorporated in the Services, neither NCSOFT, its licensors, you or such person shall obtain any ownership or interest in the audio portion of any such derivative works of such licensed music content, and as between NCSOFT, its licensors, you, any other person and the licensor of such music content, the licensor shall retain sole ownership in any audio portion of such derivative works. The foregoing shall not apply to graphical or gameplay elements incorporated in the Services, audio content owned by NCSOFT and its licensors or any non-audio elements added to any licensed music content (the ownership of which shall remain with NCSOFT and its licensors).
You hereby release NCSOFT and its licensees from any and all claims of any rights, encumbrances, liens, claims, demands, actions or suits which you may or can have in connection with your User Content, including, without limitation, any and all liability for any use or nonuse of the your User Content, claims for defamation, libel, slander, invasion of privacy, right of publicity, emotional distress or economic loss. You also forever waive and relinquish all moral rights or droit moral now or hereafter recognized in connection with your User Content and the rights granted to NCSOFT under this User Agreement.
2.2.3 Obligations. If you submit User Content, you must abide by the following:
(i) You may use Our Content if you (a) use Our Content and the User Content in a non-commercial context for private, personal use only, (b) include appropriate attribution to NCSOFT, (c) acknowledge that you have no right to Our Content, and (d) do not present the User Content as officially sanctioned or professionally associated with NCSOFT. NCSOFT has the right to require removal of Our Content for any reason.
(ii) You may not use Our Content on sites that contain or link to sites containing objectionable material (e.g., illegal activities, drug use, or pornography), as determined by NCSOFT.
(iii) To avoid confusion between official NCSOFT sites and other sites, we require fan sites include some manner of designation within your masthead that indicates the site's status. Fan sites may not closely mimic the names of our proprietary domains and must include a prominent designation that the site is not officially sanctioned by or professionally associated with NCSOFT.
User Content may not: (a) violate the Code of Conduct set forth in Section 3.1.1 below and any Community Standards posted by NCSOFT at FUSER.com; (b) be vulgar, threatening, racist, sexist, bigoted, defamatory, derogatory, libelous, or otherwise offensive; (c) reference sexual acts or violence, pornography, human anatomy or bodily functions, any actual person, copyrighted or trademarked materials, or illegal activities; (d) be derogatory or otherwise controversial with respect to the songs provided by the Services, the artists/writers of such songs, the Services, NCSOFT or the developers of the Services; (e) be monetized by you or any third party except as directed or allowed by NCSOFT from time to time; (f) violate any other requirements, rules, terms, or conditions that may be applicable to the Services; or (g) violate the rights (e.g., intellectual property rights, personality rights, publicity rights, privacy rights, etc.) of any third party.
2.2.4 Other Communications. You may submit other communications to NCSOFT. Other than as required by law or stated in this User Agreement, NCSOFT has no obligation, but may choose to review any communication. NCSOFT may act based on any communication without obligation to explain any such decision.
2.3 Noninfringement Policy
2.3.1 Respect Third-Party Rights. NCSOFT may terminate Use rights of users who Use the Services to infringe any third-party intellectual property rights, rights of privacy, or rights of publicity. NCSOFT may remove any content that infringes such rights.
2.3.2 DMCA Notice. You may submit a copyright notice. If you believe that one of our users is unlawfully infringing a copyrighted work through our Services and wish to have the allegedly infringing material removed, you must provide the following information in writing, via physical mail or email to the contact information at the end of this User Agreement:
(i) identification of the copyrighted work that you claim the user has infringed;
(ii) identification of where the infringing material is located on the Services;
(iii) a statement that you have a good faith belief that the owner of the copyright has not authorized the use of the material;
(iv) a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and that, under penalty of perjury, you are either the copyright owner or that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
(v) your address, telephone number, and e-mail address; and
(vi) your physical or electronic signature.
2.3.3 Counter-Notification Procedures. If you believe that material you uploaded or posted to the Services was removed or access to it was disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may file a counter-notification with us. The counter-notification must include substantially the following:
(i) Your physical or electronic signature.
(ii) An identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access disabled.
(iii) Adequate information by which we can contact you (including your name, postal address, telephone number, and, if available, email address).
(iv) A statement under penalty of perjury by you that you have a good faith belief that the material identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
(v) A statement that you will consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located and that you will accept service from the person (or an agent of that person) who provided us with the complaint at issue.
You can submit a copyright counter-notification via physical mail or email to the contact information at the end of this User Agreement. We may be permitted under law to restore the removed materials if the party that filed the original copyright notice does not file a court action against the alleged infringer within 10 business days of receiving the copy of a counter-notification.
3 YOUR CONDUCT
3.1.1 Code of Conduct. Other than as intended or required by NCSOFT, you may not:
(i) Use, or provide others with, any software related to the Services designed to automate, modify, or display information regarding operation or function of the Services.
(ii) Knowingly affect the Services through any hardware or software or by imposing an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the Services.
(iii) Use, obtain, or provide data related to operation of the Services, including but not limited to software that reads areas of computer memory or storage devices; intercepts or otherwise collects data; or redirects, creates, maintains, or emulates the Services.
(iv) Test for vulnerabilities, exploit any bug, engage in trafficking, or circumvent any technological measure intended to control access to the Services.
(v) Create, use, offer, promote, or distribute any cheats, bots, or hacks.
(vi) Access, acquire, copy, or monitor any portion of the Services, or circumvent the navigational structure of the Services.
(vii) Post, distribute, or attempt to play on any unauthorized server or otherwise gain unauthorized access to the Services.
(viii) Interfere with or disrupt the working of the Services or with any other individual's use of the Services.
(ix) Impersonate any other individual or entity, or communicate any individual's real-world information, including your own.
(x) Defraud, harass, threaten, or cause distress to any other user of the Services.
(xi) Discuss or circumvent disciplinary action.
(xii) Advertise or solicit any product.
(xiii) Buy, sell, share, or transfer Use to the Services to or from any third party (including buying or selling Virtual Goods from or to other players for real money).
(xiv) Sell, license, rent, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, edit, modify or create derivative works from, or in any way exploit the Services and/or any of the content or materials on the Services, in whole or in part, except as allowed by NCSOFT or as explicitly provided by the Services.
(xv) Copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, or decompile any portion of the Services or its contents, including modifying the Services in any manner that violates the rights (e.g., intellectual property rights, personality rights, publicity rights, privacy rights, etc.) of any third party, or removing or altering any legal notices or protectable elements of the Services or its contents, including without limitation any copyrightable elements, trademarks, service marks, trade names, trade dress, and patents.
(xvi) Help others violate this User Agreement.
(xvii) Violate any law or regulation related to the Services.
4 REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, AND INDEMNIFICATION
4.1 Representations and Warranties. You acknowledge the following:
(i) The Services set forth a virtual world and not the real world, and you understand the distinction between a virtual world and the real world;
(ii) Keeping interactions in a virtual world separate from those in the real world is important to protect your privacy, as well as the privacy of others;
(iii) There may be content in the Services that you or others consider objectionable;
(iv) You have no history or patterns of behavior that would lead to use of the Services in an addictive or compulsive manner; and
(v) Use of the Services will not adversely impact your economic, physical, emotional, psychological, or privacy related considerations.
These statements apply to the maximum extent permitted by law and are essential terms of this User Agreement. If any of these terms are unenforceable, fail in essential purpose, or become void or detrimental to NCSOFT, then any license you may have under this User Agreement will terminate immediately.
4.2 Indemnification. You agree to indemnify the NCSOFT Related Parties (defined below) with respect to all losses or expenses that arise from the following:
(i) Your failure to comply with any provision of this User Agreement;
(ii) Your use of or distribution of Third-Party Software;
(iii) User Content or Feedback; or
(iv) Your use of the Services.
The NCSOFT Related Parties have no obligation to indemnify you in relation to this User Agreement or the Services.
4.3 Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability
4.3.1 Disclaimer. YOU USE THE SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK. WE PROVIDE THE SERVICES ON AN "AS AVAILABLE," "AS IS" BASIS IN THEIR CURRENT CONDITION. NCSOFT EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR BY OPERATION OF LAW, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, QUIET ENJOYMENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OPERABILITY, QUALITY OF SERVICE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW ALL SUCH DISCLAIMERS OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THEY MAY NOT ALL APPLY TO YOU. YOU ACCEPT THIS DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND AGREE TO RELEASE NCSOFT FROM ALL WARRANTIES AND OBLIGATIONS TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
4.3.2 Limitation of Liability. OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED. NCSOFT; ARENANET, LLC; NCSOFT EUROPE LIMITED; AND ANY THIRD-PARTIES UNDER AGREEMENT WITH NCSOFT (E.G., HARMONIX MUSIC SYSTEMS, INC.), ANY PARENT, SUBSIDIARY, OR AFFILIATE OF NCSOFT, AND ANY EMPLOYEE, AGENT, SUPPLIER, LICENSOR, LICENSEE, CUSTOMER, DISTRIBUTOR, SHAREHOLDER, DIRECTOR, OR OFFICER OF ANY OF THE FOREGOING (collectively, the "NCSOFT Related Parties") WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, LIQUIDATED, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. YOU ACCEPT THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND AGREE TO RELEASE THE NCSOFT RELATED PARTIES FROM ANY AND ALL LIABILITIES THAT RELATE TO THIS USER AGREEMENT IN EXCESS OF AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED THE LESSER OF: $100 AND THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO NCSOFT OR ITS LICENSEES IN CONNECTION WITH THE APPLICABLE SERVICES IN THE PRECEDING 6 MONTHS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW ALL SUCH LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY, SO THEY MAY NOT ALL APPLY TO YOU. THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY WILL APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
4.3.3 Essential Terms. THE FOREGOING ARE ESSENTIAL TERMS OF THIS USER AGREEMENT. IF ANY OF THESE TERMS ARE CONSTRUED AS UNENFORCEABLE, FAIL IN ESSENTIAL PURPOSE, OR BECOME VOID OR DETRIMENTAL TO NCSOFT, THEN ANY LICENSE YOU MAY HAVE UNDER THIS USER AGREEMENT WILL TERMINATE IMMEDIATELY. NOTHING IN THIS USER AGREEMENT LIMITS NCSOFT'S LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY RESULTING FROM ITS NEGLIGENCE, FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION, OR ANY LIABILITY WHICH CANNOT BE LIMITED BY LAW.
5 DISPUTE RESOLUTION
5.1 Informal Resolution. You will try to informally resolve any dispute that arises under this User Agreement and/or the Services for at least 30 days before initiating any formal proceeding. To begin the informal resolution process, you must notify NCSOFT that you wish to resolve a dispute, and include your name, contact information, any applicable serial code, an explanation of your side of a dispute, and at least one reason why NCSOFT should resolve the dispute in your favor. Based on the information provided in that notice, NCSOFT may take any action and has no obligation to explain any decision. If you are not satisfied with the initial decision by NCSOFT, you will continue to try to resolve that dispute informally for at least another 30 days by sending an email to the contact information provided at the end of this User Agreement, including "Attn: Legal Department" as well as the information required in the initial notice. NCSOFT may extend the time to resolve a dispute informally for successive 30-day periods, not to exceed a total of 90 days, by notifying you using the contact information provided in your notice.
5.2 Binding Arbitration. If you and NCSOFT are not able to informally resolve a dispute, either party may request resolution through binding arbitration. The Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association will control the arbitration proceedings. Binding arbitration is your only final recourse related to a NCSOFT decision. A single arbitrator who is an impartial attorney will conduct the arbitration in Bellevue, Washington, through the submission of documents, by phone, or online. The arbitrator will complete all proceedings within 6 months of initial presentment and limit any written opinion to 3,000 words or less. Each party will pay its own costs of the arbitration. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO CONSULT WITH INDEPENDENT LEGAL COUNSEL REGARDING THIS AND ANY OTHER PROVISION IN THIS USER AGREEMENT. IF YOU ACCEPT THIS USER AGREEMENT, THEN THIS BINDING ARBITRATION PROVISION WILL ELIMINATE YOUR RIGHT TO SUE IN COURT OR HAVE A JURY TRIAL WITH RESPECT TO ANY SUCH DISPUTE. Neither you nor NCSOFT will attempt to have any other dispute related to any other party joined to any arbitration or any dispute decided on a class-action basis.
5.3 Exceptions. This section does not apply to any dispute that arises from criminal activity or any claim for injunctive relief. NCSOFT MAY COOPERATE WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES. YOU HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHTS OR RECOURSE AGAINST NCSOFT RELATED TO SUCH COOPERATION.
6 GENERAL TERMS
6.1 Injunctive Relief. Breach of this User Agreement will result in irreparable harm and loss, and, upon a breach of this User Agreement, NCSOFT will be entitled to immediate injunctive relief from a court of competent jurisdiction, without the necessity of posting bond proving actual damages, which is in addition to any other available remedies.
6.2 Governing Law. This User Agreement will be governed Washington State law, excluding choice of law rules. You and NCSOFT disclaim any application of the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods. You and NCSOFT each consent to exclusive venue and jurisdiction of the courts located in King County, Washington.
6.3 Export Laws. You must fully comply with all relevant export laws and regulations of the United States.
6.4 Severability and Non-Waiver. If any of the provisions of this User Agreement are held by a court or other authority to be void or unenforceable, such provisions will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary and replaced with a valid provision that best embodies the intent of this User Agreement, so that this User Agreement will remain in full force and effect. Any waiver of any provision of this User Agreement is not a waiver of any other provisions.
6.5 No Assignment. You may not, without the prior written consent of NCSOFT, assign, transfer, charge, or sub-contract all or any of your rights or obligations under this User Agreement, and any attempt without that consent will be null and void. Solely to the extent restrictions on transfer of access to the Services and Accounts in this User Agreement are not enforceable under the law of your country, then this User Agreement will be binding on any recipient thereof. NCSOFT may, at any time and without consent, assign, transfer, charge, or sub-contract all or any of its rights or obligations under this User Agreement.
6.6 Entire Agreement. This User Agreement and any document or information it references are the entire agreement between you and NCSOFT concerning your use of the Services.
6.7 Third-Party Beneficiaries. Notwithstanding anything in this User Agreement to the contrary, you hereby acknowledge that NCSOFT's licensors, as well as any applicable Operator, are third-party beneficiaries of this User Agreement and have the right to bring an action directly against you for a breach of this User Agreement to the extent required to enforce their respective rights in and to the Game and its underlying software and content and, where applicable, any Operator Account.
7 TERMS APPLICABLE TO RESIDENTS OF GERMANY
If you are ordinarily resident in Germany, the following provisions apply to you and take precedence over the provisions above:
- You are not required to state that you have read these provisions. You do not agree to the terms of this User Agreement by simple Use of the Services.
- Parents or guardians are not responsible for the acts of their children or the children entrusted to them under 18 years of age when using the Services. If you are under 18 you only may Use the Services with your parents' or guardians' consent.
- If the license granted under this User Agreement is terminated, whether the remaining provisions of this User Agreement remain in effect will depend on whether it is reasonable considering the overall effect of the termination of the license on you and NCSOFT.
- NCSOFT may not delete the Services as described in Section 1.3.2 above and only change minor aspects of the Services which do not affect the core elements of the Services.
- If the Services were provided without a recurring fee upon your initial acceptance of this User Agreement, NCSOFT cannot decide unilaterally that continued access will be subject to a required recurring fee. NCSOFT cannot increases the payment requirements to continue using any content that you have already purchased.
- NCSOFT may only delete Virtual Goods from your Account for your fraudulent activities or breach of this User Agreement, if such breach would also entitle NCSOFT to terminate the User Agreement.
- Other than set out in Section 1.7.3 above, NCSOFT is obliged to provide you with an explanation of any decision regarding breach of this User Agreement upon your request.
- Nothing in this User Agreement is a transfer of copyright, but only the granting of rights of use under copyright. You grant to NCSOFT a non-exclusive, worldwide, sublicensable, and perpetual right to use content you post and any communication you provide within the scope for which you intended. You may remove any such content at any time on your own, and, where this is not possible, you may request NCSOFT remove any such content.
- Insofar as they are applicable to your User Content, §§ 31a, 32, 32a, 32c, 32d, 32e and 40a of the German Copyright Act (UrhG) remain unaffected from any provision in this User Agreement. You do not waive or relinquish your unwaivable moral rights within your User Content.
- A household or family may share access to the Services.
- You acknowledge only that there may be content in the Services that you or others consider objectionable. If you have a history or patterns of behavior that would lead to use of the Services in an addictive or compulsive manner, you should not use the Services.
- Any disclaimer of warranties or limitation of liability in this User Agreement does not apply to you. NCSOFT is fully liable for damages with respect to injury to health, body or life caused by NCSOFT, its representatives or vicarious agents in the performance of NCSOFTS's contractual obligations. NCSOFT is fully liable for damages caused wilfully or by gross negligence by NCSOFT, its representatives or vicarious agents in the performance of NCSOFTS's contractual obligations. The same applies to damages, which result from the absence of a quality, which was guaranteed by NCSOFT or to damages which result from malicious action. If damages, except for such cases covered by the preceding sentences, with respect to a breach of a contractual core duty are caused by slight negligence, NCSOFT's liability is limited to the typically foreseeable damages. Contractual core duties, abstractly, are such duties whose accomplishment enables proper performance of an agreement in the first place and whose performance you regularly may rely on. Your rights under the Product Liability Act remain unaffected. Any further liability is excluded.
- Your indemnification obligations will only be applicable if you have caused damages at least negligently. NCSOFT does not waive any potential indemnification obligations.
- You are not subject to mandatory binding arbitration.
- Your continued use of the Services following the posting of changes of this User Agreement will not mean that you accept any changes. NCSOFT will inform you of any change of these terms at least 30 days in advance and will inform you of your right to refuse any modifications during such notice period. NCSOFT will also inform you of the consequences of your refusal (e.g., you may have the ability to terminate this User Agreement and, in that case, you may lose, or we may withhold from you, access to certain functions of the Services). If you accept the changes or log into the Service after the end of the notice period, the modified provisions will be applicable.
- Section 6 of this User Agreement does not apply to you. You and NCSOFT do not agree on any competent court or venue. Both parties may bring claims before any competent courts under the applicable laws.
- German law applies to you.
8 CONTACT INFORMATION
Our mailing address is:
3180 139th Avenue SE, Suite 100
Bellevue, WA 98005, USA
Our customer service email address is support@ncsoft.com.
9 Definitions
"Account" means a set of credentials to Use the Services.
"Child" means a person below the age of 13, provided that, in jurisdictions where individuals of a higher age receive special protections under the data privacy laws, such higher age will apply. "Children" has a correlative meaning.
"Feedback" means feedback, suggestions, opinions, and unsolicited ideas reduced to a tangible form that you send to NCSOFT (e.g., feature requests, character concepts, bug reports, etc.).
"Name" means a designation used to identify you, a character, a group of characters, or any in-Game assets provided through the Services.
"NCSOFT" means NC Interactive, LLC.
"Operator" means a third-party that makes the Game available to users, such as a platform manufacturer or distributor.
"Our Content" means art, in-game content, and similar materials owned or licensed by NCSOFT.
"Services" means the following, as offered by NCSOFT: the proprietary software application known as FUSER (the "Game") and Game-related services, websites, updates, upgrades, patches, documentation, features, Accounts, Virtual Goods, Our Content, and connected infrastructure (e.g., launcher, network, and servers), materials, activities, or communications, or any part of each of the foregoing.
"Third Party Software" means software or components that are either owned by a third party or in the public domain and in which NCSOFT has no proprietary interest.
"Use" includes access, use, maintain, install, download, or the like.
"User Content" means all content, media, and materials users submit to us, whether via the Services (i.e., using any content creation tools, message boards, social networking environments, and the like that relate to the Game or are part of the Game) or through other means, including, without limitation, music, audio, audio-visual works and recordings, likenesses, sound recordings, voices, voice reproductions, video, pictures, images, fan art, or fan fiction and accompanying documentation, packaging, and other materials. For clarity, User Content also includes any kinds of comments, messages, opinions, posts, and the like that users submit through forum services, blogs, web communities, and other message and communication facilities included in the Services, other than comments, messages, opinions, posts, and the like that fall under the definition of Feedback above.
"Virtual Goods" means in-game items, digital items, or virtual currencies.
Last Updated: 10 November 2020
We at NCSOFT want you to understand your rights and responsibilities in relation to our Services. Definitions of capitalized terms can be found at the end of this User Agreement.
This User Agreement governs your Use of our Services. Each time you Use the Services or otherwise indicate your consent, you agree to the terms of this User Agreement.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS USER AGREEMENT, DO NOT USE THE SERVICES.
It is your responsibility to check this User Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued Use of the Services following the posting of changes will mean that you accept any changes.
1. OUR SERVICES
1.1 Eligibility
1.1.1 Accounts. To Use the Services, you may need to create a Name and/or Use the Services through an Account created with an Operator (an "Operator Account"). Operator Accounts may be subject to additional terms (e.g., terms of service, code of conduct, etc.) that you must understand and with which you must comply. Any time you create or update an Account, you must provide accurate information.
1.1.2 Age Requirements. Children may not Use the Services. If you are under 18 but not a Child, you and your parent or guardian must review this User Agreement together. Parents or guardians are responsible for the acts of persons under 18 years of age when using the Services, including supervising their use of the Services and informing them of the rules set forth in this User Agreement. A parent or guardian may not allow a minor who does not understand this User Agreement to access the Services. The Services are not intended for Children, and a parent or guardian may not allow Child to access to the Services.
1.1.3 Additional Restrictions. NCSOFT may restrict the use of any portion of the Services based on legal obligations, regulations, your residence, or other factors.
1.2 Naming Policy
You may not select a Name that is:
- vulgar, threatening, racist, sexist, bigoted, defamatory, derogatory, libelous, or otherwise offensive;
- a reference to sexual acts or violence, pornography, human anatomy or bodily functions, any actual person, copyrighted or trademarked materials, or illegal activities; or
- a misspelling or alternative spelling of a Name that violates any of these rules.
NCSOFT reserves the right to examine Names on a case-by-case basis and take whatever reasonable action it deems necessary.
1.3 License and Restrictions
1.3.1 Licensed, Not Sold. NCSOFT does not sell any right or interest in the Services to you. Subject to your compliance with this User Agreement, NCSOFT grants you a revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferrable or assignable license for personal and non-commercial Use of the Services. NCSOFT and its licensors retain all rights, title, and interest in the Services not expressly granted in this User Agreement. Nothing in this User Agreement will limit your right to resell the original physical medium that contains the Services.
1.3.2 License Subject to Change. Except as otherwise provided in Section 7 below, NCSOFT may modify, restrict, or delete any Services, any user's access to the Services, or any user's Name. NCSOFT may provide subsequent versions, updates, or modifications, such as security patches, related to any part of the Services that you must accept or install before you will be able to continue to Use the Services.
1.3.3 System Requirements. To Use the Services, you must meet certain hardware, software, and connectivity requirements, including those stated on the Game's product packaging and/or the online storefront through which the Game is sold and the requirements stated at fuser.com/hardware. NCSOFT will use your device's hardware, software, internet, and information to provide the Services. Your Use of the Services may require you to have additional licenses, and you are responsible for obtaining any such third-party license and for supplying any necessary communications connections (such as Internet access) and hardware. You are also responsible for any costs or expenses related to these requirements.
1.3.4 Services May be Interrupted. NCSOFT does not guarantee you will be able to Use the Services whenever you wish to do so. NCSOFT may interrupt the Services on a regular basis for maintenance or updates and may do so without providing notice before such interruption.
1.4 Payments and Refunds
1.4.1 Required Payments. NCSOFT may require you to pay to Use the Services. If you fail to remit any required payment, NCSOFT may terminate your Use of the Services, in whole or in part. NCSOFT will establish the timing and form in which you must make any such payment.
1.4.2 Virtual Goods. NCSOFT may make Virtual Goods available for Use within the Services. NCSOFT does not sell any right or interest in the Virtual Goods to you, and there is no exchange of goods nor transfer of ownership. You do not own Virtual Goods. Subject to your compliance with this User Agreement, NCSOFT grants you a limited license to the Virtual Goods to enhance your Use of the Services. Virtual Goods have no cash value and do not accrue interest. Virtual Goods may only be redeemed for goods and services within the Services and cannot be cashed out or sold. NCSOFT may offer Virtual Goods in a variety of ways, for example for purchase or through promotions. Except as otherwise provided in Section 7 below, NCSOFT may restrict, discontinue, modify, devalue, or remove Virtual Goods from the Services; remove or disassociate Virtual Goods from any user's Operator Account; and establish any other reasonable additional restrictions related to Virtual Goods.
1.4.3 Third-Party Payments. NCSOFT has no responsibility with respect to any payments you make to any third party. Making such payments may violate the Code of Conduct (set forth below), if for example such payments are for cheat programs.
1.4.4 No Refunds. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROVIDED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, NCSOFT HAS NO OBLIGATION TO REFUND ANY PAYMENTS. WHEN A REFUND HAS BEEN OBTAINED WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF NCSOFT, FOR EXAMPLE BY DISPUTING OR REVERSING PAYMENT THROUGH YOUR CREDIT CARD PROVIDER OR OPERATOR, WE MAY TAKE ANY REASONABLE ACTION WE DEEM APPROPRIATE UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES.
1.5 Privacy Policy
NCSOFT's collection, use, storage, and retention of your personal information in connection with the Services is subject to the FUSER Privacy Policy (available at fuser.com/privacy). It is your responsibility to read and understand the Privacy Policy in effect in connection with your Use of the Services.
1.6 Security and Monitoring
1.6.1 Security. Internet transmissions are never completely private or secure. Others may read or intercept any message or information you send to or through the Services, even if there is a special notice that a transmission is secured.
1.6.2 Monitoring. NCSOFT MAY, BUT HAS NO OBLIGATION TO, MONITOR OPERATION OF THE SERVICES. MONITORING INCLUDES, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, MONITORING COMMUNICATION INTERFACES, STORAGE DEVICES, OR CPU PROCESSES RELATED TO HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE SERVICES. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT NCSOFT MAY UNDERTAKE THE FOREGOING MONITORING AND THAT NCSOFT MAY COMMUNICATE ANY INFORMATION BETWEEN HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE SERVICES AND ANY MECHANISM NCSOFT DEEMS APPROPRIATE. YOU ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT AS A RESULT OF SUCH MONITORING NCSOFT MAY, IN ITS REASONABLE DISCRETION, TAKE ANY ACTION INCLUDING: (i) CHANGING ANY PORTION OF THE SERVICE; (ii) SEEKING RECOURSE AGAINST YOU; OR (iii) TAKING ANY ACTION ON YOUR ACCOUNT WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE.
1.7 Termination and Sanctions
1.7.1 Termination of Services. NCSOFT may terminate the Services at any time.
1.7.2 Termination. You may terminate your Use of the Service at any time by contacting Customer Support. Such termination is permanent and irreversible, and, in the event thereof, NCSOFT will not be able to restore or access the following: (i) refund information, (ii) payment transactions, (iii) Virtual Goods, (iv) subscriptions, or (v) support history. NCSOFT cannot restore a terminated Account.
1.7.3 Sanctions. NCSOFT may terminate some or all of your Use of the Services and/or take other appropriate measures, as determined in NCSOFT's sole discretion, if you or anyone using an Operator Account or Name associated with you violates this User Agreement and/or any other Community Standards for the Services posted by NCSOFT at FUSER.com. NCSOFT primarily responds to violations or reports of violations of this User Agreement through warnings, temporary Service suspensions, or permanent Service terminations, depending on the severity of the violation. Any violation may result in a flag or mark on the relevant Operator Account in addition to any other disciplinary measures. NCSOFT keeps a record of each user's complete history of Using the Services, and users that are frequently involved in violations may have their access to the Services suspended or terminated. If you have more than one Account, depending on the type of breach, NCSOFT may terminate Use of the Services by all Accounts associated with you or take other measures, with or without notice. NCSOFT has no obligation to accept appeals. We also have no obligation to explain any decision regarding breach of this User Agreement.
2 THIRD-PARTY CONTENT
2.1 Third-Party Software, Websites, and Programs.
2.1.1 Third-Party Software. The Services may contain Third-Party Software. Any such Third-Party Software is provided under the terms and conditions of the Third-Party Software license agreements described in the documentation provided with the Services. You agree to fully comply with such terms and conditions of any Third-Party Software you install or use. NCSOFT HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE SUPPORT SERVICES FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE.
2.1.2 Third-Party Websites. The Services may contain links to third-party websites. NCSOFT does not control third-party websites and is not responsible for or endorse the content of such third-party websites.
2.1.3 Prohibited Third-Party Programs. NCSOFT does not permit the use of any third-party software, tools, or programs that interact with the Services that give one player an unintended, unnatural, or unfair advantage over another player. Such prohibited third-party software, tools, or programs include those that alter game balance in favor of one player over another, automate actions within the Services, promote unattended gameplay, or have an adverse effect on other users of the Services. Prohibited third-party programs will be determined at NCSOFT's sole discretion.
2.2 User Content and Feedback.
2.2.1 No Confidentiality. You may create User Content or submit Feedback. There is no confidentiality with respect to any User Content or Feedback. You represent that you have all necessary rights to use and authorize NCSOFT to use User Content or Feedback.
2.2.2 Ownership and Rights. We own Feedback; you may retain some rights in User Content. To the extent that User Content constitutes derivative works of Our Content, NCSOFT owns such User Content from the moment of creation. You may own rights in the additions, changes, or other new material included in the User Content. You hereby grant NCSOFT an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, broadcast, license, post, sell, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform any User Content for any purpose (including promotional purposes) in any medium, without compensation or credit. You also hereby grant each user of the Services a perpetual non-exclusive license to access your User Content through the Services, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display, and perform such User Content as permitted through the Services and under this User Agreement. For the avoidance of doubt, without limiting the generality of the rights granted to NCSOFT, the rights described in the preceding sentence include, without limitation, the right to distribute and synchronize all or any portion of your User Content in timed relation to any other visual elements; to web cast, pod cast, re-publish, re-broadcast, re-platform, port, syndicate, route, and link to and from all or any portion of your User Content; to encrypt, encode and decode, and compress and decompress all or any portion of your User Content; to edit, mix, combine, merge, distort, superimpose, create or add special effects, illusions and/or other material to or of all or any portion of your User Content; and to create composite, stunt, comic or unusual photographs, videos, animations, motion pictures and/or voice reproductions from all or a portion of your User Content.
The rights, licenses and privileges described in this Section 2.2.2 and granted to NCSOFT commence immediately upon submission of your User Content and continue thereafter perpetually and indefinitely, regardless of whether you continue to use the Services, unless and until terminated, in whole or in part, by NCSOFT on notice to you. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that NCSOFT will not be required or have any obligation to host, index, display, accept, or use any submitted User Content (or take advantage of any or all of the particular rights and authorities granted or otherwise available) and NCSOFT may, in its sole discretion, remove or refuse to host, index, display, accept, use, or do anything at all with respect to any User Content. Once you submit or attempt to submit User Content you will have no right to prohibit, restrict, revoke, or terminate any of the rights granted to NCSOFT. You are not entitled to and you will not receive any compensation or other consideration for your User Content or any use made of your User Content once submitted. You also understand and agree that neither all nor any portion of your User Content, nor any commercial, advertisement, promotional, marketing or other material associated with your User Content, needs to be submitted for approval prior to use.
Notwithstanding the above, to the extent that NCSOFT, its licensors, you or any other person makes audio edits to the licensed music content incorporated in the Services, neither NCSOFT, its licensors, you or such person shall obtain any ownership or interest in the audio portion of any such derivative works of such licensed music content, and as between NCSOFT, its licensors, you, any other person and the licensor of such music content, the licensor shall retain sole ownership in any audio portion of such derivative works. The foregoing shall not apply to graphical or gameplay elements incorporated in the Services, audio content owned by NCSOFT and its licensors or any non-audio elements added to any licensed music content (the ownership of which shall remain with NCSOFT and its licensors).
You hereby release NCSOFT and its licensees from any and all claims of any rights, encumbrances, liens, claims, demands, actions or suits which you may or can have in connection with your User Content, including, without limitation, any and all liability for any use or nonuse of the your User Content, claims for defamation, libel, slander, invasion of privacy, right of publicity, emotional distress or economic loss. You also forever waive and relinquish all moral rights or droit moral now or hereafter recognized in connection with your User Content and the rights granted to NCSOFT under this User Agreement.
2.2.3 Obligations. If you submit User Content, you must abide by the following:
(i) You may use Our Content if you (a) use Our Content and the User Content in a non-commercial context for private, personal use only, (b) include appropriate attribution to NCSOFT, (c) acknowledge that you have no right to Our Content, and (d) do not present the User Content as officially sanctioned or professionally associated with NCSOFT. NCSOFT has the right to require removal of Our Content for any reason.
(ii) You may not use Our Content on sites that contain or link to sites containing objectionable material (e.g., illegal activities, drug use, or pornography), as determined by NCSOFT.
(iii) To avoid confusion between official NCSOFT sites and other sites, we require fan sites include some manner of designation within your masthead that indicates the site's status. Fan sites may not closely mimic the names of our proprietary domains and must include a prominent designation that the site is not officially sanctioned by or professionally associated with NCSOFT.
User Content may not: (a) violate the Code of Conduct set forth in Section 3.1.1 below and any Community Standards posted by NCSOFT at FUSER.com; (b) be vulgar, threatening, racist, sexist, bigoted, defamatory, derogatory, libelous, or otherwise offensive; (c) reference sexual acts or violence, pornography, human anatomy or bodily functions, any actual person, copyrighted or trademarked materials, or illegal activities; (d) be derogatory or otherwise controversial with respect to the songs provided by the Services, the artists/writers of such songs, the Services, NCSOFT or the developers of the Services; (e) be monetized by you or any third party except as directed or allowed by NCSOFT from time to time; (f) violate any other requirements, rules, terms, or conditions that may be applicable to the Services; or (g) violate the rights (e.g., intellectual property rights, personality rights, publicity rights, privacy rights, etc.) of any third party.
2.2.4 Other Communications. You may submit other communications to NCSOFT. Other than as required by law or stated in this User Agreement, NCSOFT has no obligation, but may choose to review any communication. NCSOFT may act based on any communication without obligation to explain any such decision.
2.3 Noninfringement Policy
2.3.1 Respect Third-Party Rights. NCSOFT may terminate Use rights of users who Use the Services to infringe any third-party intellectual property rights, rights of privacy, or rights of publicity. NCSOFT may remove any content that infringes such rights.
2.3.2 DMCA Notice. You may submit a copyright notice. If you believe that one of our users is unlawfully infringing a copyrighted work through our Services and wish to have the allegedly infringing material removed, you must provide the following information in writing, via physical mail or email to the contact information at the end of this User Agreement:
(i) identification of the copyrighted work that you claim the user has infringed;
(ii) identification of where the infringing material is located on the Services;
(iii) a statement that you have a good faith belief that the owner of the copyright has not authorized the use of the material;
(iv) a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and that, under penalty of perjury, you are either the copyright owner or that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
(v) your address, telephone number, and e-mail address; and
(vi) your physical or electronic signature.
2.3.3 Counter-Notification Procedures. If you believe that material you uploaded or posted to the Services was removed or access to it was disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may file a counter-notification with us. The counter-notification must include substantially the following:
(i) Your physical or electronic signature.
(ii) An identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access disabled.
(iii) Adequate information by which we can contact you (including your name, postal address, telephone number, and, if available, email address).
(iv) A statement under penalty of perjury by you that you have a good faith belief that the material identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
(v) A statement that you will consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located and that you will accept service from the person (or an agent of that person) who provided us with the complaint at issue.
You can submit a copyright counter-notification via physical mail or email to the contact information at the end of this User Agreement. We may be permitted under law to restore the removed materials if the party that filed the original copyright notice does not file a court action against the alleged infringer within 10 business days of receiving the copy of a counter-notification.
3 YOUR CONDUCT
3.1.1 Code of Conduct. Other than as intended or required by NCSOFT, you may not:
(i) Use, or provide others with, any software related to the Services designed to automate, modify, or display information regarding operation or function of the Services.
(ii) Knowingly affect the Services through any hardware or software or by imposing an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the Services.
(iii) Use, obtain, or provide data related to operation of the Services, including but not limited to software that reads areas of computer memory or storage devices; intercepts or otherwise collects data; or redirects, creates, maintains, or emulates the Services.
(iv) Test for vulnerabilities, exploit any bug, engage in trafficking, or circumvent any technological measure intended to control access to the Services.
(v) Create, use, offer, promote, or distribute any cheats, bots, or hacks.
(vi) Access, acquire, copy, or monitor any portion of the Services, or circumvent the navigational structure of the Services.
(vii) Post, distribute, or attempt to play on any unauthorized server or otherwise gain unauthorized access to the Services.
(viii) Interfere with or disrupt the working of the Services or with any other individual's use of the Services.
(ix) Impersonate any other individual or entity, or communicate any individual's real-world information, including your own.
(x) Defraud, harass, threaten, or cause distress to any other user of the Services.
(xi) Discuss or circumvent disciplinary action.
(xii) Advertise or solicit any product.
(xiii) Buy, sell, share, or transfer Use to the Services to or from any third party (including buying or selling Virtual Goods from or to other players for real money).
(xiv) Sell, license, rent, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, edit, modify or create derivative works from, or in any way exploit the Services and/or any of the content or materials on the Services, in whole or in part, except as allowed by NCSOFT or as explicitly provided by the Services.
(xv) Copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, or decompile any portion of the Services or its contents, including modifying the Services in any manner that violates the rights (e.g., intellectual property rights, personality rights, publicity rights, privacy rights, etc.) of any third party, or removing or altering any legal notices or protectable elements of the Services or its contents, including without limitation any copyrightable elements, trademarks, service marks, trade names, trade dress, and patents.
(xvi) Help others violate this User Agreement.
(xvii) Violate any law or regulation related to the Services.
4 REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, AND INDEMNIFICATION
4.1 Representations and Warranties. You acknowledge the following:
(i) The Services set forth a virtual world and not the real world, and you understand the distinction between a virtual world and the real world;
(ii) Keeping interactions in a virtual world separate from those in the real world is important to protect your privacy, as well as the privacy of others;
(iii) There may be content in the Services that you or others consider objectionable;
(iv) You have no history or patterns of behavior that would lead to use of the Services in an addictive or compulsive manner; and
(v) Use of the Services will not adversely impact your economic, physical, emotional, psychological, or privacy related considerations.
These statements apply to the maximum extent permitted by law and are essential terms of this User Agreement. If any of these terms are unenforceable, fail in essential purpose, or become void or detrimental to NCSOFT, then any license you may have under this User Agreement will terminate immediately.
4.2 Indemnification. You agree to indemnify the NCSOFT Related Parties (defined below) with respect to all losses or expenses that arise from the following:
(i) Your failure to comply with any provision of this User Agreement;
(ii) Your use of or distribution of Third-Party Software;
(iii) User Content or Feedback; or
(iv) Your use of the Services.
The NCSOFT Related Parties have no obligation to indemnify you in relation to this User Agreement or the Services.
4.3 Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability
4.3.1 Disclaimer. YOU USE THE SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK. WE PROVIDE THE SERVICES ON AN "AS AVAILABLE," "AS IS" BASIS IN THEIR CURRENT CONDITION. NCSOFT EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR BY OPERATION OF LAW, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, QUIET ENJOYMENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OPERABILITY, QUALITY OF SERVICE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW ALL SUCH DISCLAIMERS OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THEY MAY NOT ALL APPLY TO YOU. YOU ACCEPT THIS DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND AGREE TO RELEASE NCSOFT FROM ALL WARRANTIES AND OBLIGATIONS TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
4.3.2 Limitation of Liability. OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED. NCSOFT; ARENANET, LLC; NCSOFT EUROPE LIMITED; AND ANY THIRD-PARTIES UNDER AGREEMENT WITH NCSOFT (E.G., HARMONIX MUSIC SYSTEMS, INC.), ANY PARENT, SUBSIDIARY, OR AFFILIATE OF NCSOFT, AND ANY EMPLOYEE, AGENT, SUPPLIER, LICENSOR, LICENSEE, CUSTOMER, DISTRIBUTOR, SHAREHOLDER, DIRECTOR, OR OFFICER OF ANY OF THE FOREGOING (collectively, the "NCSOFT Related Parties") WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, LIQUIDATED, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. YOU ACCEPT THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND AGREE TO RELEASE THE NCSOFT RELATED PARTIES FROM ANY AND ALL LIABILITIES THAT RELATE TO THIS USER AGREEMENT IN EXCESS OF AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED THE LESSER OF: $100 AND THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO NCSOFT OR ITS LICENSEES IN CONNECTION WITH THE APPLICABLE SERVICES IN THE PRECEDING 6 MONTHS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW ALL SUCH LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY, SO THEY MAY NOT ALL APPLY TO YOU. THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY WILL APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
4.3.3 Essential Terms. THE FOREGOING ARE ESSENTIAL TERMS OF THIS USER AGREEMENT. IF ANY OF THESE TERMS ARE CONSTRUED AS UNENFORCEABLE, FAIL IN ESSENTIAL PURPOSE, OR BECOME VOID OR DETRIMENTAL TO NCSOFT, THEN ANY LICENSE YOU MAY HAVE UNDER THIS USER AGREEMENT WILL TERMINATE IMMEDIATELY. NOTHING IN THIS USER AGREEMENT LIMITS NCSOFT'S LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY RESULTING FROM ITS NEGLIGENCE, FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION, OR ANY LIABILITY WHICH CANNOT BE LIMITED BY LAW.
5 DISPUTE RESOLUTION
5.1 Informal Resolution. You will try to informally resolve any dispute that arises under this User Agreement and/or the Services for at least 30 days before initiating any formal proceeding. To begin the informal resolution process, you must notify NCSOFT that you wish to resolve a dispute, and include your name, contact information, any applicable serial code, an explanation of your side of a dispute, and at least one reason why NCSOFT should resolve the dispute in your favor. Based on the information provided in that notice, NCSOFT may take any action and has no obligation to explain any decision. If you are not satisfied with the initial decision by NCSOFT, you will continue to try to resolve that dispute informally for at least another 30 days by sending an email to the contact information provided at the end of this User Agreement, including "Attn: Legal Department" as well as the information required in the initial notice. NCSOFT may extend the time to resolve a dispute informally for successive 30-day periods, not to exceed a total of 90 days, by notifying you using the contact information provided in your notice.
5.2 Binding Arbitration. If you and NCSOFT are not able to informally resolve a dispute, either party may request resolution through binding arbitration. The Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association will control the arbitration proceedings. Binding arbitration is your only final recourse related to a NCSOFT decision. A single arbitrator who is an impartial attorney will conduct the arbitration in Bellevue, Washington, through the submission of documents, by phone, or online. The arbitrator will complete all proceedings within 6 months of initial presentment and limit any written opinion to 3,000 words or less. Each party will pay its own costs of the arbitration. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO CONSULT WITH INDEPENDENT LEGAL COUNSEL REGARDING THIS AND ANY OTHER PROVISION IN THIS USER AGREEMENT. IF YOU ACCEPT THIS USER AGREEMENT, THEN THIS BINDING ARBITRATION PROVISION WILL ELIMINATE YOUR RIGHT TO SUE IN COURT OR HAVE A JURY TRIAL WITH RESPECT TO ANY SUCH DISPUTE. Neither you nor NCSOFT will attempt to have any other dispute related to any other party joined to any arbitration or any dispute decided on a class-action basis.
5.3 Exceptions. This section does not apply to any dispute that arises from criminal activity or any claim for injunctive relief. NCSOFT MAY COOPERATE WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES. YOU HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHTS OR RECOURSE AGAINST NCSOFT RELATED TO SUCH COOPERATION.
6 GENERAL TERMS
6.1 Injunctive Relief. Breach of this User Agreement will result in irreparable harm and loss, and, upon a breach of this User Agreement, NCSOFT will be entitled to immediate injunctive relief from a court of competent jurisdiction, without the necessity of posting bond proving actual damages, which is in addition to any other available remedies.
6.2 Governing Law. This User Agreement will be governed Washington State law, excluding choice of law rules. You and NCSOFT disclaim any application of the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods. You and NCSOFT each consent to exclusive venue and jurisdiction of the courts located in King County, Washington.
6.3 Export Laws. You must fully comply with all relevant export laws and regulations of the United States.
6.4 Severability and Non-Waiver. If any of the provisions of this User Agreement are held by a court or other authority to be void or unenforceable, such provisions will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary and replaced with a valid provision that best embodies the intent of this User Agreement, so that this User Agreement will remain in full force and effect. Any waiver of any provision of this User Agreement is not a waiver of any other provisions.
6.5 No Assignment. You may not, without the prior written consent of NCSOFT, assign, transfer, charge, or sub-contract all or any of your rights or obligations under this User Agreement, and any attempt without that consent will be null and void. Solely to the extent restrictions on transfer of access to the Services and Accounts in this User Agreement are not enforceable under the law of your country, then this User Agreement will be binding on any recipient thereof. NCSOFT may, at any time and without consent, assign, transfer, charge, or sub-contract all or any of its rights or obligations under this User Agreement.
6.6 Entire Agreement. This User Agreement and any document or information it references are the entire agreement between you and NCSOFT concerning your use of the Services.
6.7 Third-Party Beneficiaries. Notwithstanding anything in this User Agreement to the contrary, you hereby acknowledge that NCSOFT's licensors, as well as any applicable Operator, are third-party beneficiaries of this User Agreement and have the right to bring an action directly against you for a breach of this User Agreement to the extent required to enforce their respective rights in and to the Game and its underlying software and content and, where applicable, any Operator Account.
7 TERMS APPLICABLE TO RESIDENTS OF GERMANY
If you are ordinarily resident in Germany, the following provisions apply to you and take precedence over the provisions above:
- You are not required to state that you have read these provisions. You do not agree to the terms of this User Agreement by simple Use of the Services.
- Parents or guardians are not responsible for the acts of their children or the children entrusted to them under 18 years of age when using the Services. If you are under 18 you only may Use the Services with your parents' or guardians' consent.
- If the license granted under this User Agreement is terminated, whether the remaining provisions of this User Agreement remain in effect will depend on whether it is reasonable considering the overall effect of the termination of the license on you and NCSOFT.
- NCSOFT may not delete the Services as described in Section 1.3.2 above and only change minor aspects of the Services which do not affect the core elements of the Services.
- If the Services were provided without a recurring fee upon your initial acceptance of this User Agreement, NCSOFT cannot decide unilaterally that continued access will be subject to a required recurring fee. NCSOFT cannot increases the payment requirements to continue using any content that you have already purchased.
- NCSOFT may only delete Virtual Goods from your Account for your fraudulent activities or breach of this User Agreement, if such breach would also entitle NCSOFT to terminate the User Agreement.
- Other than set out in Section 1.7.3 above, NCSOFT is obliged to provide you with an explanation of any decision regarding breach of this User Agreement upon your request.
- Nothing in this User Agreement is a transfer of copyright, but only the granting of rights of use under copyright. You grant to NCSOFT a non-exclusive, worldwide, sublicensable, and perpetual right to use content you post and any communication you provide within the scope for which you intended. You may remove any such content at any time on your own, and, where this is not possible, you may request NCSOFT remove any such content.
- Insofar as they are applicable to your User Content, §§ 31a, 32, 32a, 32c, 32d, 32e and 40a of the German Copyright Act (UrhG) remain unaffected from any provision in this User Agreement. You do not waive or relinquish your unwaivable moral rights within your User Content.
- A household or family may share access to the Services.
- You acknowledge only that there may be content in the Services that you or others consider objectionable. If you have a history or patterns of behavior that would lead to use of the Services in an addictive or compulsive manner, you should not use the Services.
- Any disclaimer of warranties or limitation of liability in this User Agreement does not apply to you. NCSOFT is fully liable for damages with respect to injury to health, body or life caused by NCSOFT, its representatives or vicarious agents in the performance of NCSOFTS's contractual obligations. NCSOFT is fully liable for damages caused wilfully or by gross negligence by NCSOFT, its representatives or vicarious agents in the performance of NCSOFTS's contractual obligations. The same applies to damages, which result from the absence of a quality, which was guaranteed by NCSOFT or to damages which result from malicious action. If damages, except for such cases covered by the preceding sentences, with respect to a breach of a contractual core duty are caused by slight negligence, NCSOFT's liability is limited to the typically foreseeable damages. Contractual core duties, abstractly, are such duties whose accomplishment enables proper performance of an agreement in the first place and whose performance you regularly may rely on. Your rights under the Product Liability Act remain unaffected. Any further liability is excluded.
- Your indemnification obligations will only be applicable if you have caused damages at least negligently. NCSOFT does not waive any potential indemnification obligations.
- You are not subject to mandatory binding arbitration.
- Your continued use of the Services following the posting of changes of this User Agreement will not mean that you accept any changes. NCSOFT will inform you of any change of these terms at least 30 days in advance and will inform you of your right to refuse any modifications during such notice period. NCSOFT will also inform you of the consequences of your refusal (e.g., you may have the ability to terminate this User Agreement and, in that case, you may lose, or we may withhold from you, access to certain functions of the Services). If you accept the changes or log into the Service after the end of the notice period, the modified provisions will be applicable.
- Section 6 of this User Agreement does not apply to you. You and NCSOFT do not agree on any competent court or venue. Both parties may bring claims before any competent courts under the applicable laws.
- German law applies to you.
8 CONTACT INFORMATION
Our mailing address is:
3180 139th Avenue SE, Suite 100
Bellevue, WA 98005, USA
Our customer service email address is support@ncsoft.com.
9 Definitions
"Account" means a set of credentials to Use the Services.
"Child" means a person below the age of 13, provided that, in jurisdictions where individuals of a higher age receive special protections under the data privacy laws, such higher age will apply. "Children" has a correlative meaning.
"Feedback" means feedback, suggestions, opinions, and unsolicited ideas reduced to a tangible form that you send to NCSOFT (e.g., feature requests, character concepts, bug reports, etc.).
"Name" means a designation used to identify you, a character, a group of characters, or any in-Game assets provided through the Services.
"NCSOFT" means NC Interactive, LLC.
"Operator" means a third-party that makes the Game available to users, such as a platform manufacturer or distributor.
"Our Content" means art, in-game content, and similar materials owned or licensed by NCSOFT.
"Services" means the following, as offered by NCSOFT: the proprietary software application known as FUSER (the "Game") and Game-related services, websites, updates, upgrades, patches, documentation, features, Accounts, Virtual Goods, Our Content, and connected infrastructure (e.g., launcher, network, and servers), materials, activities, or communications, or any part of each of the foregoing.
"Third Party Software" means software or components that are either owned by a third party or in the public domain and in which NCSOFT has no proprietary interest.
"Use" includes access, use, maintain, install, download, or the like.
"User Content" means all content, media, and materials users submit to us, whether via the Services (i.e., using any content creation tools, message boards, social networking environments, and the like that relate to the Game or are part of the Game) or through other means, including, without limitation, music, audio, audio-visual works and recordings, likenesses, sound recordings, voices, voice reproductions, video, pictures, images, fan art, or fan fiction and accompanying documentation, packaging, and other materials. For clarity, User Content also includes any kinds of comments, messages, opinions, posts, and the like that users submit through forum services, blogs, web communities, and other message and communication facilities included in the Services, other than comments, messages, opinions, posts, and the like that fall under the definition of Feedback above.
"Virtual Goods" means in-game items, digital items, or virtual currencies.