Pitney Bowes Inc. User Forum Terms of Service

Last Update: September 2, 2008

IMPORTANT -- PLEASE READ: These Terms of Service, the User Forum Guidelines, the Pitney Bowes Website Terms of Use and Pitney Bowes' Privacy Statement govern your use of the Pitney Bowes User Forum (the "User Forum"). These Terms of Service describe appropriate and inappropriate conduct and prohibited uses of the User Forum as well as your legal agreement with respect to your use of the User Forum. These terms are not exhaustive and Pitney Bowes reserves the right to modify them at any time, effective upon posting of the modified terms on the User Forum. By registering as a user or using the User Forum, you agree to abide at all times by these terms as may be modified by Pitney Bowes from time to time. Any violation of these terms by you may result in the suspension or termination of your right to access the User Forum, in addition to potential other liability on your part.

Permissible Uses

Pitney Bowes believes that the User Forum can be a valuable place for Pitney Bowes customers to exchange information, to learn from one another, and to discuss ideas and improvements related to Pitney Bowes products and services and related technology. Like any such community, the User Forum is most valuable when everyone follows certain basic guidelines and rules of conduct. These Terms of Service and the User Forum Guidelines set forth these Rules and Guidelines so that you know what is expected of you and what you can expect from other participants when using the User Forum.

At Pitney Bowes, we want the User Forum to be appropriate, friendly, informative, safe and fun for all of our users. We want our users to utilize the User Forum only to answer questions, correct problems, and learn more about Pitney Bowes products and services. If everyone follows these Terms of Service and the User Forum Guidelines, then the User Forum should remain a fun and informative community. Use of the Pitney Bowes User Forum is limited to participants aged 18 and over and by using the User Forum, you are representing that you are at least 18 years of age.

The User Forum is an English language forum geared towards users of Pitney Bowes products and services that were purchased in the U.S. for use in the U.S. Use of the User Forum is governed by U.S. law. Although Pitney Bowes customers from other countries are welcome to use it, User Forum Moderators/Liaisons are not trained to assist these customers, and the advice on the User Forum is not intended for their use, and thus may not be helpful or relevant to such customers.

Registration

You are not obligated to register in order to access the User Forum and read the message boards. However, registration, login and agreement to these Terms of Service are required in order to post to the message boards and adjust user settings. Pitney Bowes will handle all information received from you in accordance with Pitney Bowes' Privacy Statement.

When you register, you will also be asked to enter your personal information. Please keep in mind when choosing a nickname and filling out your profile that whenever you post to a message board your nickname, and a link to your profile and online status, will automatically appear with your post. (Note: Options to hide certain fields are available in the user profile.)

We may refuse to grant you, and you may not use, a nickname, username or email address that is already being used by someone else, impersonates another person, belongs to another person (without his or her prior consent), violates the intellectual property or other rights of any person, is vulgar or otherwise offensive, or that we reject for any other reason at our sole discretion.

In consideration of your use of the User Forum, you agree that all information provided in your profile is accurate, true, current and complete. Pitney Bowes may terminate your account if any of the information provided is found to be inaccurate, false, out of date, or incomplete.

Pitney Bowes User Forum Moderators / Liaisons

Pitney Bowes provides Moderators/Liaisons for the User Forum who may provide answers to some questions. Only the User Forum Moderators/Liaisons are authorized representatives of Pitney Bowes on the User Forum. Pitney Bowes employees or authorized agents who are not assigned as Moderators/Liaisons are not authorized to represent themselves on the Forum as Pitney Bowes representatives, and do not provide official Pitney Bowes responses to questions. Pitney Bowes is not responsible for content provided by any Pitney Bowes employee, agent or any other party who is not designated as a Pitney Bowes User Forum Moderator/Liaison.

Although the User Forum is moderated by designated Pitney Bowes employees, it is intended only as a way for visitors to get answers from other visitors, and not to get answers from Pitney Bowes. You agree that postings and Private Messages do not constitute notice to Pitney Bowes for any legal purposes. The User Forum is not a substitute for contacting Pitney Bowes support. U.S. customers can contact Pitney Bowes Support by phone by calling 800-522-0020. You can also find additional contact information and other support options at http://www.pb.com/support. Non-U.S. customers should contact support in their region.

License

In consideration of your registration and use of the User Forum, you hereby grant to Pitney Bowes and its affiliates a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive fully-paid up and royalty free license to use any ideas, expression of ideas or other materials you submit (collectively, “Ideas”) to User Forum without restrictions of any kind and without any payment or other consideration of any kind, or permission or notification, to you or any third party. The license granted herein includes, without limitation, a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, combine with other works, alter, translate, distribute copies, display, perform, license the Ideas, and all rights therein, in the name of Pitney Bowes and its affiliates in any and all media now or hereafter known.

The license shall also permit Pitney Bowes and its affiliates to use portions of the Ideas you submit, rerecord or modify any audio tracks or visual images you provide, rewrite any Ideas you submit, and/or incorporate other materials, either created by Pitney Bowes and its affiliates or licensed from third parties, with the Ideas you submit. Any such works shall be deemed Ideas owned by Pitney Bowes or its affiliates and shall not be subject to your approval or payment by Pitney Bowes or its affiliates of any compensation to you.

You agree that the Ideas you submit: (i) are original with you and accurate, and (ii) do not violate and will not violate the rights of any third party or any local, state, national or foreign law, including any right of publicity, right of privacy or any other proprietary right.

You acknowledge and agree that the relationship between you and Pitney Bowes is not a confidential, fiduciary, or other special relationship, and that Pitney Bowes shall have the right, but not the obligation, to use your name, likeness, biography and other information about you in connection with any use of the Ideas you submit.

By making a submission, you acknowledge and agree that Pitney Bowes and its affiliates may create on their own or obtain many submissions that may be similar or identical to the Ideas you submit through User Forum or other channels and means. You hereby waive any and all claims Ideas may have had, may have, and/or may have in the future, that the Ideas accepted, reviewed and/or used by Pitney Bowes and its affiliates may be similar to your Ideas.

Option to Purchase

Pitney Bowes shall have the exclusive option to purchase from you and acquire all right, title and interest, including, without limitation, any copyrights and other intellectual property law in and to the Ideas you submit, which rights shall include, without limitation, the irrevocable right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, combine with other works, alter, translate, distribute copies, display, perform, license and apply for copyright registration for any or all of the Ideas, and all rights therein, in the name of Pitney Bowes, or its affiliates throughout the universe in perpetuity in any and all media now or hereafter known. The option shall be exercisable by Pitney Bowes from the date you submit the Ideas until 1 year from that date. If we exercise the option, you agree to accept payment in the amount of $1000 USD or value in kind at Pitney Bowes’ discretion, and you agree to execute, acknowledge and deliver such other instruments consistent with an assignment of the intellectual property as may be reasonably necessary to carry out or effectuate the purposes or intent of the assignment of the Ideas.

Posting Content/ Sending Private Messages

Participation in the User Forum is governed by the Rules of Conduct set forth below and incorporated herein by reference. Messages sent by the Private Messages component are subject to all rules set forth in these Terms of Service. Note: Other users have the right to block Private Messages sent using the Ignore feature, or to turn off this feature altogether.

Link

The Pitney Bowes User Forum permits users to post hypertext links to content hosted and maintained by third parties. Although linked sites are not generally reviewed by Moderators/Liaisons, links are subject to treatment like any other type of content posted to the User Forum. You may not include a link in the User Forum that directs users to any content or information that, if posted in the User Forum, would constitute a violation of these Terms of Service.

The linked sites are not moderated by Pitney Bowes, are not under Pitney Bowes' control and your access to any linked site is at your own risk. You should use your own judgment before you use any link or access any linked site. When leaving the User Forum using any link provided by a user, you should be aware that Pitney Bowes' terms and policies no longer govern, and, therefore, you should review the applicable terms and policies, including privacy and data gathering practices, of that site. If you access a linked site and materials at that linked site are in violation of these Terms of Service, you may report the link to the User Forum Administrator at: ForumAdmin@pb.com.

Pitney Bowes makes no claim or representation regarding, and accepts no responsibility for, the quality, content, nature or reliability of sites accessible by hyperlink from the User Forum. The ability to include links is provided only as a convenience to you, and the inclusion of any link by a user of the User Forum does not imply affiliation, endorsement, or adoption by Pitney Bowes of the linked site or any information contained therein.

Enforcement

Pitney Bowes does not pre-screen, verify or edit the content posted by users in the User Forum. However, Pitney Bowes and its agents reserve the right to investigate any violation of the Pitney Bowes Website Terms of Use, these User Forum Terms of Service and the User Forum Guidelines and to take appropriate remedial action. Pitney Bowes has the absolute discretion to take any action whatsoever, in its sole discretion, with respect to the User Forum, including but not limited to enforcement of the terms of these documents, warning users of violations, disabling or suspending Private Message privileges and/or the User Forum, accessing, deleting, screening or editing any content, or prohibiting any behavior that does not comply with these Terms of Service, including the Rules of Conduct, or which is otherwise inappropriate for this User Forum, harmful, objectionable, or inaccurate, each, as may be determined by Pitney Bowes in its sole and absolute discretion. If it is deemed desirable by Pitney Bowes, in its sole discretion to delete content for violation of the Terms of Service or for any other reason, part of or the entire thread, including the original post and any or all replies, may be deleted. Pitney Bowes reserves the right to remove posts and to remove or otherwise edit content without prior notice to you; however, at Pitney Bowes' sole discretion, Pitney Bowes may request that a user edit a post to delete the objectionable content and resubmit it.

Pitney Bowes also may release information concerning your use of the Discussion Forum (including posted content, registration information, and network records) when Pitney Bowes believes it necessary, in its sole discretion, to do so. Circumstances under which Pitney Bowes may release information includes, but is not limited to, compliance with the law (including but not limited to a lawful subpoena, warrant or court order); to enforce or apply Pitney Bowes' Website Terms of Use and these Terms of Service; to protect Pitney Bowes' rights or property, or to protect Pitney Bowes' users from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of the User Forum; or if Pitney Bowes reasonably believes that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure of communications or justifies disclosure of records without delay. In addition, Pitney Bowes may also use any information hereunder in a manner that is consistent with Pitney Bowes' Privacy Statement.

Deliberate attempts by you or someone on your behalf to evade or circumvent your suspension or termination of your rights to use the User Forum violates these Terms of Service, constitutes an unlawful trespass to Pitney Bowes' equipment and systems, and may result in legal action.

To report violations of these Terms of Service, please write to the User Forum Administrator at: ForumAdmin@pb.com. Please include the message board name, the post's subject, the post author nickname, the link of the post in question and any other applicable information in your email.

Rules of Conduct

By participating in the User Forum, including the posting of content and sending of Private Messages, you agree that you will not upload, post, or otherwise transmit any content (including text, links, communications, software, images, sounds, data, or other information) that:

  1. Is not consistent with the permissible uses outlined by these Terms of Service;
  2. Includes content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, vulgar, profane, sexually explicit, obscene, racially or ethnically offensive or otherwise objectionable;
  3. Infringes on any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any party;
  4. Constitutes advertising or promotion, junk mail, "spamming," chain letters, or any other form of unauthorized solicitation, including solicitation of lawsuits. Links that connect to commercial websites will not be considered unauthorized solicitations unless the link or the website content appears to be intended as a means of solicitation as determined by Pitney Bowes in its sole discretion;
  5. Contains software viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or any other computer code or files that are designed to disrupt, damage, or limit the functioning of any software or hardware;
  6. Provides any non-public information about Pitney Bowes or any other company or person without the proper authorization to do so. This includes providing the names and extension numbers of Pitney Bowes employees and User Forum participants;
  7. Intentionally interferes with the operation of the User Forum or with a fellow user's message box, without limitation, mail or "post" bombing, news bombing, other flooding techniques, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks, or attempts to avoid messaging blocking.
  8. Impersonates any person or entity, including a Pitney Bowes employee or forges any TCP-IP packet header, e-mail header or any part of a message header. This prohibition does not include the use of aliases or anonymous remailers.
  9. Attacks or insults another Pitney Bowes User Forum user or Moderator / Liaison;
  10. Suggests or encourages illegal activity. Do not use the User Forum (including Private Messages) in any manner that violates federal or state antitrust laws or other laws regarding competition or trade. Do not discuss or use the User Forum to bring about, or attempt to bring about, any understanding or agreement among and between actual or potential competitors with regard to prices, terms or conditions of sale, distribution, volume of production, sales territories, customers, credit terms, or marketing practices. Do not post any information concerning bids or intentions to bid for particular opportunities, market shares, salaries, costs, profit margins, or any other topic which could have an adverse impact on competition or trade or could violate applicable laws and regulations. In addition, do not use the User Forum to solicit, encourage or agree with others to refrain from purchasing any materials, product, services or other supplies from any supplier or vendor or from dealing with any supplier or vendor; or
  11. Violates U.S. export law, including, without limitation, the Export Administration Act and Export Regulations maintained by the Department of Commerce.

Notification of Claimed Copyright Infringement

If you believe that your work has been copied on the User Forum in any way without your permission, please provide the following information to our Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Copyright Infringement identified below. Your notice must contain the following:

  • Your electronic or physical signature;
  • A description of the work you claim has been infringed;
  • Identification of the work you claim infringes the copyrighted work and a description of where it is located on the User Forum;
  • Your address, telephone number and e-mail address;
  • A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the infringing use is not authorized by the copyright owner, the copyright owner's agent or by law; and
  • A statement by you, under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
  • Our Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Copyright Infringement can be reached as follows: ForumAdmin@pb.com.

Additional Rules

These additional rules are intended to set the User Forum's tone and visitor expectations, in order to improve the User Forum experience. You hereby agree to abide by these additional rules.

Do not reveal information that you do not want to make public. Any personal information that you post can be obtained and used by others. Anything you post in the User Forum, you post at your own risk.

You use the User Forum at your own risk. In any online forum like the User Forum, it is not possible to be sure that other users are who they say they are, know what they say they know, or are affiliated with whom they say they are affiliated.

Please refrain from posting where you do not know the answer. Incorrect, misleading or incomplete responses do not help other users. Please feel free to respond to any post where you know the answer and you intend to contribute in a constructive way to the discussion. User Forum users have come to trust that they will get good answers. Please help build and maintain that trust.

User Forum Moderators/Liaisons do not respond to every post. The User Forum is a place for users to help users. User Forum Moderators/Liaisons will review the message boards, and respond at their discretion. If you need to contact Pitney Bowes support, please call 800-522-0020 or you can find additional contact information and other support options at http://www.pb.com/support.

Be considerate and respectful to other users. Some User Forum users may be relatively new to Pitney Bowes, postage meters and other mailstream solutions, computing or forums such as the User Forum and may not have extensive knowledge of these areas. Belittling or insulting remarks are not conducive to the creation of a strong online community.

Release and Indemnification

You hereby release and agree to indemnify and hold Pitney Bowes, and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and employees harmless from any claim, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any party due to or arising out of content you submit, post, transmit or make available through the User Forum or its Private Message feature, your use of the User Forum, your violation of these Terms of Service, the Pitney Bowes Website Terms of Use, the User Forum Guidelines or the violation by you or Pitney Bowes, and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and employees, of yours or any third party’s rights including, without limitation, intellectual property or other proprietary rights, rights of privacy and publicity, rights of attribution, or any other liability, direct or indirect, vicarious, contributory, or otherwise.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

Most of the content posted to the User Forum and sent in Private Messages is provided by third parties like you. Such third-party content is the sole responsibility of the person originating that content. Pitney Bowes does not control, and is not responsible for this third-party content.

Although the User Forum is moderated by certain designated Pitney Bowes employees and/or Pitney Bowes' authorized agents who will attempt to answer your questions and assist you, they may not have time to fully research answers before posting them due to time pressures. Accordingly, the User Forum is not a substitute for contacting Pitney Bowes support or customer care. If you need to contact Pitney Bowes support or customer care, please do so by using the contact information provided above.

Pitney Bowes does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, reliability, completeness, usefulness, non-infringement of intellectual property rights, or quality of any content on the User Forum, regardless of who originates that content. You expressly understand and agree that you bear all risks associated with using or relying on any such content. Pitney Bowes will not be liable or responsible in any way for any content posted on or linked from the User Forum or in Private Messages, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in content, or for any losses or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of or reliance on any content. This disclaimer and limitation on liability is in addition to the disclaimers and limitations contained in the Pitney Bowes Website Terms of Use that apply to all of Pitney Bowes' websites.

Governing Law and Venue

THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE GOVERNED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT AND ITS VALIDITY, CONSTRUCTION AND EFFECT SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND ENFORCED PURSUANT TO THE SUBSTANTIVE LAWS OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT ALL LEGAL PROCEEDINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE ENFORCEMENT, CONSTRUCTION, INTERPRETATION, BREACH OR VIOLATION OF THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE SUBMITTED TO THE STATE OR FEDERAL COURTS IN FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT AND THAT JURISDICTION AND VENUE ARE PROPER IN SUCH COURTS.

Pitney Bowes Website Terms of Use:

http://www.pb.com/cgi-bin/pb.dll/jsp/GenericEditorial.do?catOID=-18333&editorial_id=ed_10210&lang=en&country=US

Pitney Bowes Privacy Statement:

http://www.pb.com/cgi-bin/pb.dll/jsp/GenericEditorial.do?catOID=-18333&editorial_id=ed_8511&lang=en&country=US