Terms of Service

Updated 30/03/2019


Thank you for visiting www.moonquillnovels.com (the “Site”)! The Site is owned and operated by InkQuill, LLC d/b/a MoonQuill (“MoonQuill” “we,” “our,” or “us”). By clicking “I accept” [CAB1] and/or using or visiting the Site or mobile application and creating an account, you signify you read, understand and agree to these terms and conditions and the Site’s privacy policy found at www.moonquillnovels.com/privacy-policy and incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth below (collectively, the “Terms of Service”). If you do not agree to any of these terms and conditions or privacy statement, please do not use the Site. We are a new company and we want to work with the author and reader community to provide the best service possible. Therefore, if there is something in particular in these Terms of Service that you do not agree with, we encourage you to contact us at social@moonquill.com so that we may address your concerns.

YOU AGREE TO THE MEDIATION AGREEMENT DESCRIBED IN SECTION 15 TO RESOLVE ANY DISPUTES WITH MOONQUILL.

Creation Account

If you have not done so, we encourage you to create a free account and register to use the Site so you may gain full access. As part of the account creation process, we ask you to choose a username and password. MoonQuill may, in its sole discretion, refuse to grant you the use of a username if the username appears to be vulgar, offensive, infringe on a protected copyright, impersonates a third party, or for any other reason that MoonQuill finds reasonable. You agree not to transfer, sell, assign or sublicense the use of your username and/or password to a third party. You are responsible for any and all activities conducted through your account.

By creating an account with MoonQuill you covenant and agree to the following:

a

You are over thirteen (13) years of age and in the event you are under eighteen (18) years of age, your parent or guardian consents to MoonQuill’s Terms of Service; and

b

You shall provide accurate and complete information about yourself in the account registration process, which you shall maintain and update as necessary.

You may terminate your account at any time by going to your account dashboard.

1 Use of the Site

MoonQuill hereby grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, limited right and license to access the Site, solely as made available by MoonQuill (except as to User Submissions as defined below) and solely for your own purposes. While using the Site, you agree not to do any of the following:

a

Distribute in any medium any part of the Site, including, but not limited to User Submissions (defined below), without MoonQuill’s prior written authorization.

b

Use the Site for any commercial use, without the prior written authorization of MoonQuill. Prohibited commercial uses include any of the following actions taken without MoonQuill’s express approval:

i

Sale of access to the Site;

ii

Use of the Site for the primary purpose of personally gaining advertising or subscription revenue, such as by creating “dummy” accounts to view your own User Submissions;

iii

Solicitation of any Site users with respect to their User Submissions.

c

Alter, modify, sublicense, sell, reverse engineer, disassemble, hack or attempt any of the preceding for any part of the Site, including User Submissions.

d

Defame, abuse, harass, stalk threaten or otherwise violate the rights of others, including privacy rights.

e

Impersonate any person or entity, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.

f

Restrict or inhibit any other user from using the Site, including through “hacking” or defacing any portion of the Site.

g

Express or imply that any statements you make are endorsed by MoonQuill, without our prior written consent.

h

Upload, transmit or display on the Site any unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise objectional material, or material that infringes our or any third party’s intellectual property rights.

i

Upload, transmit or display any confidential, proprietary or trade secret information of any third party.

j

Upload, transmit, or display any advertisement, solicitation or other unsolicited commercial communication, except as expressly permitted by MoonQuill.

k

Engage in spamming or flooding.

l

Attempt to access, modify, or alter another user’s account.

m

Access User Submissions or Site content through any technology or means other than through the Site or associated mobile application if any mobile application exists.

n

Violate the Terms of Service, and all applicable local, national, and international laws and regulations, including but not limited to Intellectual Property protection laws.

o

Use or launch any automated system, such as “robots,” “spiders,” or “offline readers.” Notwithstanding this subsection 2(o), MoonQuill grants the operators of public search engines permission to use an automated system to copy materials from the Site for the sole purpose and extent for creating searchable material, but not for the creation of archives.

MoonQuill may terminate your access to and use of the Site if we determine, at our sole and absolute discretion, that you fail to comply with the Terms and Conditions.

2 User Submissions

As an account holder on the Site, you may submit a variety of content to publish or display on the Site or to MoonQuill and its agents, which shall be collectively referred to herein as “User Submissions.” User Submissions include, but is not limited to, text, stories, images, drawings, renderings, cover art, frontmatter, backmatter, messaging, and account information. You remain solely responsible for User Submissions from your account and the consequences of posting or publishing them. You will retain ownership of such User Submissions. Except as otherwise agreed, you hereby grant MoonQuill a worldwide, fee-free, non-transferable, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, assignable, royalty-free right to use, reproduce, distribute, and publicly display User Submissions in connection with the Site.

You represent, covenant and warrant the following:

a

You solely own or otherwise possess all necessary rights to transmit your User Submissions to MoonQuill servers;

b

Your User Submissions do not and will not violate any laws, including but not limited to intellectual property or proprietary right of any third party;

c

Your User Submissions are not obscene, harassing, or otherwise objectionable; and

d

You shall abide by the Privacy Policy and all other agreements between you and MoonQuill, such as licensing agreements or monthly service subscription agreements.

If MoonQuill determines, at its sole discretion, that you violated any of the terms in this Terms of Service, MoonQuill may take action including, but not limited to, the removal of your User Submission from the Site and/or termination of your account. If MoonQuill determines, at its sole discretion, that you are attempting to share User Submissions that violate any of the Terms of Service, MoonQuill may alter or refuse to display your violating User Submission or terminate your MoonQuill account. MoonQuill may be obligated to share User Submissions and other information to a third party, including, but not limited to the following: a third party for operation of the Site, for advertising purposes, to protect the interest of the Site/MoonQuill/related parties, and to comply with legal obligations or government requests.

3 Copyright

MoonQuill respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects you to do the same. By using the Site, you warrant, covenant, and represent not to infringe on the copyright rights of others. As means of illustration and not to be interpreted as an exhaustive list, violating actions would include reproducing a third party’s copyrighted work and submitting it on the Site as your own or representing that a third party’s User Submission is your own, whether that representation is made on this Site, the internet, to a publisher, or any third party.

MoonQuill follows Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. If you believe in good faith that any User Submission infringes on your intellectual property rights, please send notice to MoonQuill at dmca@moonquill.com or mail to 1805 Crystal Drive #908, Arlington, VA 22202.

In the notice, please include the following information:

a

The physical or electronic signature of the true owner of the intellectual property or an individual who is authorized to act on the owner’s behalf;

b

The true owner’s full contact information – physical address, name, email address, telephone number;

c

the identification of the work(s) that the true owner believes were infringed;

d

identification of the work(s) you believe contain the infringement and a statement that in good faith you believe that the material is not authorized and where that material is located;

e

a statement that you have the exclusive right to act as owner of the infringed upon work; and

f

a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, submitted in good faith and under penalty of perjury.

After MoonQuill receives proper notification of an alleged intellectual property infringement, we will remove the potentially infringing content and take reasonable steps to notify the user that his/her content was removed or access was disabled due to potential intellectual property infringement. If you believe in good faith that a copyright infringement notice was wrongfully filed against you , please file a counter-notice to the same contact as provided in the paragraph above with the following information:

a

Your physical or electronic signature

b

Information about the removed content and the material’s location prior to removal

c

A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification

d

Your name, address, and telephone number

e

A statement that you consent to the federal district court of your address and consent of process or consent to binding mediation with MoonQuill and the individual that provided notice of infringement.

If MoonQuill receives notice of a user’s multiple instances of copyright infringement, MoonQuill reserves the right to delete the user’s account and User Submissions, and take all action available under law and equity.

FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TRANSMIT, MAKE AVAILABLE TO OTHERS, OR OTHERWISE DISTRIBUTE IN ANY FORMAT ANY ELECTRONIC MATERIALS DOWNLOADED FROM THE SITE OR ANY DERIVATIVE WORKS OF SUCH MATERIALS.

4 Publishing

If you wish to share your stories on the Site, you may go to www.moonquillnovels.com/non-exclusive-agreement to review our broadly offered Non-Exclusive Licensing Agreement. We offer two types of Licensing Agreements: a Non-Exclusive Licensing Agreement and an Exclusive Licensing Agreement. The Non-Exclusive version is the one that is available to everyone. It allows you to share your stories on the Site and you are still able to license your story to any third party. The Exclusive version is only available to authors specifically handpicked by MoonQuill and it provides that you will license your work solely to MoonQuill for twelve months, and after that time you are able to license your story to any third party. Since the Exclusive Licensing Agreement grants MoonQuill exclusive rights for a year after the work is completed or fully posted on the Site, you receive a higher percentage of MoonQuill net revenue. If you’re interested in either arrangement, we encourage you to review the agreement(s) and ask us any questions you may have.

5 Ad-Free Services

MoonQuill is able to offer compensation to authors by offering advertisement space to third parties. You may notice these advertisements on the Site. At your option, you may choose to enter into an agreement for ad-free use of the Site (“Ad-Free Services”) in exchange for a monthly fee of $3.00 USD for a one-month contract or $16.00 USD for a six-month contract. Please go to www.moonquillnovels.com/premium to review our subscription agreement and learn more about Ad-Free Services.

6 Term and Termination

This Terms of Service shall be made effective on the date first set forth above and shall remain effective until the Terms of Service is terminated. The Terms may be considered terminated if (i) MoonQuill sets forth a revised Terms of Service in which case the revised version shall replace in entirety the older version; (ii) you terminate your MoonQuill account; (iii) MoonQuill limits your access to the Site; or (iv) the Site is no longer active. MoonQuill may take any of the outlined actions at any time for any reason, at its sole discretion, and without prior notice. Actions (ii) and (iii) in this Section 6 may also result in the deletion of your User Submissions, deletion of your account, and denied access to files and Site content. WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU KEEP BACKUP COPIES OF YOUR USER SUBMISSIONS ON YOUR PERSONAL SYSTEM. THE SITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A STORAGE OR BACKUP SOLUTION.

7 Forums

The Site may permit users to share content with other users such as through user uploaded stories, story reviews, user account profiles, author biographs, comments, user forums, and blogs (collectively referred to as “Forum”). MoonQuill does not endorse and is not responsible for any misleading, inaccurate, deceiving, or otherwise objectionable Forum material uploaded by third parties, whether such third party is a user of the Site or otherwise. The opinions, messages, advice, hyperlinks, article posting, or other Forum material (collectively, the “opinions”) reflect solely the opinions of the party that posted the Forum material and may not reflect the opinions of MoonQuill. Under no circumstances will MoonQuill, or any of its members, managers, employees, agents, officers, directors, partners, licensors, advertisers, or other representative be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on such Forum material obtained through the Site.

MoonQuill may, but has no obligation to, monitor any material transmitted through the Site and Forum. MoonQuill may rely on user reporting for this review. To report objectionable Forum material, please contact Moonquill with evidence at social@moonquill.com.

8 Third Party Websites, Advertisements, Software, Sites

MoonQuill may include advertisements that direct you to a third party’s website, software or services (“Third Party Content”). MoonQuill does not operate or control the Third Party Content. MoonQuill is not responsible for the originator of the Third Party Content’s privacy policy, content, or operation. MoonQuill’s display of Third Party Content is not an endorsement of the Third Party Content. Your access, use or processing of Third Party Content is at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of the Third Party Content.

9 Removing Your User Submissions

You may remove any of your User Submissions at any time for any reason. You may remove chapters or stories by contacting MoonQuill at social@moonquill.com. You may revise your account profile by going to the account dashboard. You may delete forum posts by clicking the option next to the post. Removal of your User Submission will terminate MoonQuill and third-party access to the User Submission, except as to User Submissions that were downloaded and sub-licensed by users to their personal devices. Even after accessibility to content is limited by either you or MoonQuill, MoonQuill may retain your data for as long as is reasonably required to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected.

10 Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, save, and hold MoonQuill and its respective managers, members, employees, and agents harmless from any and all claims, allegations, demands, causes of action, judgments, settlements, and any losses, debts, damages, obligations, liens, liabilities or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ and experts’ fees and expenses) and other fees that directly or indirectly arising from or related to:

a

your breach of this Terms of Service;

b

your User Submissions;

c

your activities in connection with the Site; or

d

any claim of any violation, infringement, or misappropriation upon the intellectual property rights of any other person or entity raised in connection with your use of the Site.

11 Disclaimer of Warranties; Limitation of Liability

MoonQuill shall take reasonable action to ensure the Site operates as MoonQuill intends, however, technical, maintenance and other issues may make the Site unavailable from time to time. MoonQuill makes no warranty or guarantee that the Site will operate in an uninterrupted or error-free manner or that the Site will meet your purposes.

EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE SET FORTH IN THIS TERMS OF SERVICE, MOONQUILL SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM AND/OR ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND MOONQUILL MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR OTHERWISE. YOU AGREE THAT REGARDLESS OF CAUSE, MOONQUILL SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR AND YOU WILL NOT MAKE ANY CLAIM AGAINST MOONQUILL FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER DIRECT, SPECIAL, OR INDIRECT. IN NO EVENT WILL MOONQUILL, OR ANY OF ITS MEMBERS, MANAGERS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS, BE LIABLE TO YOU (USERS OR AUTHORS) OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTY, FOR (i) ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, (ii) INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF USE, (iii) ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT, (iv) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN, (v) ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE WHICH MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH THE SITE BY ANY THIRD PARTY, (vi) ANY LOSS OF YOUR DATA OR CONTENT FROM THE SITE, (vii) LOSS OF REVENUE, (viii) LOSS OF GOODWILL, (ix) ANY INTERRUPTION IN BUSINESS, (x) OR FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS TERMS OF SERVICE, USER SUBMISSIONS, SITE CONTENT, USE OF THE SITE, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION, WHETHER IN WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OR ARE OTHERWISE AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND NOTWITHSTANDING THE FAILURE OF THE ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY. DESPITE THE ABOVE, MOONQUILL’S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE OF ACTION YOU TAKE AGAINST MOONQUILL WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO NO MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100.00).

Some countries and jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of consequential, direct, indirect, or other damages in contracts with consumers and to the extent you are a consumer the limitations or exclusions in this section may not apply to you.

12 IP of MoonQuill

Exclusive of content transmitted by third parties which is owned by the licensor, MoonQuill is the owner of all intellectual property rights, including all copyright, patents, and trademarks associated with the Site, with all rights reserved. The MoonQuill art and names as posted on the Site are trademarks and/or service marks of MoonQuill or registered trademarks and/or service marks of MoonQuill. Nothing contained on the Site should be construed as granting any license or right to use MoonQuill trade names, trademarks, or services marks, without MoonQuill’s express prior written consent.

13 Downloading Content - License Agreement

This Section 13 applies to you downloading stories, chapters, text, media, code, and other content (“Content”) from the Site to your personal devices. By downloading Content through the Site, you agree to this Terms of Service, including this Section 13.

Content may be provided by MoonQuill or by third parties. Content is owned by Moonquill and is copyrighted by MoonQuill or licensed to MoonQuill. Even if you download Content, MoonQuill remains the respective owner of the Content.

By downloading Content, MoonQuill agrees to grant you a perpetual, royalty free, nontransferable, worldwide, non-exclusive limited sub-license to view the Content on your personal devices only and not to edit, copy, reproduce, publish, publicly display and/or perform, format, modify, sell, assign, rent, lend, copyright, trademark, make derivative works of, translate, rearrange, distribute any of the Content or portions thereof or to sublicense such rights for commercial and non-commercial use. All rights to the Content, including, without limitation, all copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Content, are retained by MoonQuill. Any of the aforementioned prohibited uses would be immoral, illegal, and infringing.

For clarity, YOU ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED FROM DISPLAYING, DISTRIBUTING OR SELLING ANY AND ALL DOWNLOADED CONTENT OR REPRESENTING IT AS YOUR OWN, INCLUDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA, POSTERS, APPLICATIONS, BLOGS, WWW.moonquillnovels.com, PUBLISHING COMPANIES, OR TO ANY OTHER THIRD PARTY.

You agree to pay MoonQuill the download fee for the Content as set forth on the Site. You agree to allow MoonQuill to process your method of payment for the download fee set forth on the Site.

All information and Content on the Site is provided on an “AS-IS” BASIS. Moonquill makes no representations or warranties that the downloaded Content is accurate or complete.

If you have any trouble downloading the Content, please contact social@moonquill.com.

14 Governing Law; Venue

MoonQuill controls and operates the Site from the United States and these Terms of Service were drafted in Illinois. In the event a dispute should arise out of or relating to your access or use of the Site, you expressly understand and agree that the dispute shall be governed by the internal laws of the State of Illinois in the United States, without regard to the choice or conflict of law provisions, and controlling United States federal law. YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT THE TERMS OF SERVICE SHALL NOT BE GOVERNED BY THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTIONS ON CONTRACTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SALE OF GOODS, IF OTHERWISE APPLICABLE. If you access the Site from a location outside the United States, you are responsible for compliance with all applicable local laws.

Exclusive jurisdiction for litigation of any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, or breach thereof shall be only in the federal or state court with competent jurisdiction in Cook County, Illinois; and each party irrevocably and unconditionally consents to such jurisdiction and further agrees to waive any right it may have to seek a change of venue, including, without limitation, any objection to venue or request for change in venue based on the doctrine of forum non conveniens.

15 Dispute Resolution

a

BINDING MEDIATION. In the event of a dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or related to this Terms of Service, including the formation, interpretation, breach or termination thereof, including whether the claims asserted may be resolved by alternative dispute resolution (a “dispute”), the parties hereto agree to confer and negotiate in good faith for ten (10) days. If the dispute cannot be resolved in ten (10) days, the dispute shall be referred to and determined by binding mediation in accordance with JAMS International Mediation Rules. The neutral decision maker shall consist of a single mediator chosen by the parties or through and chosen by JAMS. The place of mediation shall be Chicago, Illinois. Judgment upon the award rendered by the mediator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. Each party shall bear their own costs and expenses and shall share equally in the cost of the mediator. The JAMS forms and rules are available online at jamsadr.com.

b

Notwithstanding Section 15(a), any dispute involving an allegation of intellectual property infringement or breach of confidentiality shall not be bound by Section 15(a) and such dispute shall only be submitted to a court of competent jurisdiction for resolution and subject to the venue set forth in Section 14.

16 Miscellaneous

a

SEVERABILITY. If any provision or provisions of this Terms of Service shall be held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable, the validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired thereby. In the event any provision is held to be illegal, invalid, or unenforceable, then a court of competent jurisdiction may re-write the provision(s) to give effect to the parties’ intent. No consent to or waiver of any default hereunder shall be effective unless in writing and no such consent to or waiver of any default shall be construed as a consent to or waiver of any default in the future or of any other default hereunder.

b

ENTIRE AGREEMENT. This Terms of Service supersedes all prior agreements between the parties with respect to its subject matter and constitutes a complete and exclusive statement of the terms of the agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter contained herein. THIS TERMS OF SERVICE MAY BE AMENDED AT ANY TIME BY MOOONQUILL, where such amendment will replace the prior Terms of Service in its entirety pursuant to Section 6.

c

HEADINGS. The headings herein are inserted only for convenience and do not affect the interpretation of this Terms of Service.

d

ASSIGNMENT. This Terms of Service shall be binding upon and insure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their permitted successors and assigns. This Terms of Service may not be assigned without the consent of the other party, but such consent is not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed.

e

CONSTRUCTION. This Terms of Service will be fairly interpreted in accordance with its terms and without any strict construction in favor of or against any party. Ambiguities will not be interpreted against the drafting party. Additionally, (1) the use of the term “including” and inflections thereof, or of the abbreviation “e.g.” mean “including without limitation,” “include without limitation” or “includes without limitation;” and (2) where this Terms of Service refers to action of a party (e.g., damage “caused by a party”), such references to action shall be deemed to include actions of all persons or entities under the control of such party, including actions of all personnel.

f

EXPENSES. In the event that either party shall default or breach in performing its respective obligations hereunder, in any litigation or dispute resolution the prevailing party’s fees and costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and collection costs) shall be paid by the other party.

g

SURVIVAL. Each term, provision, representation, and warranty contained in this Terms of Service that by its sense and/or context is intended to survive the performance hereof by either or both parties hereunder shall so survive the completion of performance and termination of this Terms of Service, including, without limitation, limitations of liability and warranties.