GodTube Community Guidelines
1. It will be assumed that community members will have read and agreed to these community guidelines (“Community Guidelines”) for Godtube.com (the “Site”) and, by occasional rereading of them, to be aware of changes and updates to the Community Guidelines.
a. It is your responsibility to periodically check the rules and make yourself aware of any changes.
2. Only members who have registered with full registration data including real name and a valid e-mail address are permitted in community areas. Failure to register, or registration with false information, especially misrepresentation of age, gender or email address, is grounds for immediate blocking of access. Additionally, it is the member's responsibility to update and maintain a valid email address with their membership.
a. Chat, forums, videos, blogs, article comments, profile comments, and the prayer wall are all considered "community areas".
b. Use of multiple names is limited to no more than two usernames. Given the benefits of anonymity in discussing certain personal issues which may appropriately be discussed in some community settings, use of a different username to protect privacy may be appropriate. Community volunteers may also wish to use different identities for monitoring and personal interaction. However, individuals who have been locked, barred, secured, or banned are not permitted to create a new account as a way to circumnavigate the consequences for violating the Terms of Service. Salem Web Network reserves the right to terminate any new accounts which have been established in this manner as well as remove any content posted.
3. Community members understand that, notwithstanding our commitment to providing the safest and most Christian values sensitive community environment possible, participating in the online community is done at one's own risk. Young children should never participate alone and Salem Web Network cannot be responsible for the safety of children in community areas.
a. Users must be at least 13 years old to participate in our community.
4. You will not use community areas for any unlawful purpose.
5. Intellectual Property (e.g., Patents/Copyrights/Trademarks/Trade Names/ Trade Secrets) and Policy for the Termination of Repeat Infringers.
a. This community respects the intellectual property rights of others. This means that you agree that you will only post videos that you created and in which you own all copyrights.
b. You represent with respect to each video that you post that it does not infringe the copyright, trademark, trade name, or trade secret of any person or entity. [By posting a video you agree to indemnify and hold Salem Web Network harmless from and against any liability, claims, costs, and expenses (including any attorneys’ fees it incurs) if a claim is made that your video infringes the copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property of anyone else. This is important, and could cost you significant amounts of money].
c. In your use of any part of this Site, you agree that you will not infringe, misappropriate, dilute or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of Salem Web Network or any third party. Your use of the Site does not grant you any license to copy, modify, reverse engineer, download, distribute, or sell the intellectual property of Salem Web Network or others. You agree that a violation of this Paragraph 5 harms Salem Web Networks and that that harm cannot be fully relieved by money damages and that Salem Web Networks will be entitled to immediate injunctive relief to prevent or restrain a violation of this paragraph in addition to all other available remedies.
d. As part of its rights under Paragraph 25, Salem Web Network has in place a policy, and reserves the right, in appropriate circumstances and in its sole and exclusive judgment, to terminate the access and accounts (including the ability to participate in the community and use the Site) of any user of the Site who we consider to be a repeat or blatant infringer of the copyrights of others.
e. If you are a copyright owner and believe that your copyright has been infringed by a posting on the Site, please see Paragraph 27, below, for complete information about providing us a notice of infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”).
f. If you have posted material we removed because we received a notice of infringement, and you believe your material was removed in mistake and is not infringing, you may send us a counter-notice under the DMCA. These are also described below, in Paragraph 27.
6. Any language, text, data, information, graphics or videos that could be considered vulgar, pornographic, obscene, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, hateful, unlawful; that are racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; or that violate any copyright or other intellectual property rights of any person will not be promoted or transmitted via community areas.
a. It is expected that members can discuss topics without resorting to name calling or the use of such terminology.
b. Referring to particular vulgar terms or words in any manner that brings them to mind such as purposefully misspelling or using symbols to suggest bad language or referring to something by a letter that identifies the word is unacceptable.
c. Creating a handle or making comments that are sexually suggestive is a violation of this rule.
d. Linking to a site that contains information that violates this TOS is unacceptable.
7. You will not harass, threaten, embarrass or distress members, either in the community itself or via personal email, phone, physical mail or in person. You will not engage in name-calling or personal attacks in the course of discussion or debate. You will not post inflammatory remarks simply for the purpose for evoking reaction or starting fights with other community members (Often referred to as "trolling"). Overall, promoting a spirit of divisiveness in the community areas will not be tolerated.
a. Attacking the character or motives of someone who differs with your view or denying that he or she is a Christian is unacceptable.
8. You will not ask members for the phone number, physical, email, instant message ID, other identifying information, or any other information considered to be private at our sole discretion of a third party that is not present, nor provide such information if asked. Both the one asking for such information and the one supplying it will be viewed as violating this rule.
9. You should always view the online community area as a public meeting place. To the extent possible, all conversations are the property of Salem Web Network. By participating you have granted Salem Web Network the license to use them with acknowledgement for any purpose whatsoever. For this reason you may not upload any material for which you do not own the copyright.
10. Posting entire articles is prohibited, even if permission has been granted by the copyright holder. Instead please only post a portion of the article with a link to read the rest.
a. Please note that we define "a portion" as no more than three paragraphs of long articles or books, and one paragraph of very short articles.
b. "Private Messages" may be recorded by logs as a matter of course and may be viewed by Salem Web Network staff. "Private Messages" are not considered the private property of the sender or recipient of the messages. The "Private Message" system is a free service to Community members. If a member's account is disabled they will not be able to retrieve any saved "Private Messages."
11. You will not disrupt the normal flow of dialog in the community or act in a manner that negatively affects other members, including and perhaps especially in the defense of Christianity, in offering unwelcome spiritual counsel, or in debating doctrinal issues.
12. You will not impersonate in the community any person, including Salem Web Network employees and volunteer staff.
a. No creating handles or making statements falsely indicating that you represent Salem Web Network as a volunteer moderator or other employee.
13. You will not post disruptive content, such as chain letters, all caps, unnecessarily long messages, or meaningless text.
14. You will not attempt to "spam", "crack," "hack," or "bomb" the community. You will not attempt to access moderator-only sections or features.
a. Posting the same or similar message in more than one place in the community is considered spamming and is not permitted.
b. Do not try to crash the Site by cracking into the code or hacking the server or sending mass amounts of posts or bomb or in any way do anything that would cause the Site to go down or access secure areas.
c. Using software or other services in order to upload mass amounts of content to the Site is prohibited.
15. You will not post or transmit either in the Community, or via PM ("Private" message) any unsolicited advertising of websites, products or promotional materials or any other forms of solicitation. (Even if the site is not selling anything.)
a. No posting or sending people PMs ("Private" Messages) telling them to come check out your new website or community, or any other sort of advertisement (even if the website is not for profit.)
16. Discussion of sexual issues in any other than a serious and responsible manner is prohibited including "flirtatious" consensual conversation of an intimate nature.
17. You will not promote by repeated statements, by provision of URLs to other websites, by recommendation to engage in non-community activities such as watching programs, reading books, or attending events, or by any other means, beliefs or teachings contrary to those of Christianity as articulated by the historic creeds, as understood by Evangelicalism, and as interpreted by Salem Web Network in its sole discretion.
a. If you are unsure about a site or content please direct your question to communitycare@godtube.com. This rule also applies to any material whether it be on the web, in print, on video, or on audio.
18. Harvesting or collecting email addresses or other contact information of other users from the Service or the Site by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications is not permitted.
19. The use of automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Service or Site is not permitted.
20. Engaging in unauthorized framing of or linking to the Site is not permitted.
21. Registering for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself without the consent of that individual, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity without the consent of the group or entity is not permitted.
22. Salem Web Network reserves the right to determine what forms of Christian "ministry" can be safely practiced within the community and to prohibit at its sole discretion any form of ministry that it deems unsafe.
a. The practice of and some forms of advocacy of otherwise biblical and legitimate supernatural spiritual gifts can be dangerous apart from supervision by duly appointed spiritual leaders such as pastors and the accountability that comes from being known within a local church.
b. Salem Web Network prohibits the exercise of prophecy, dream interpretation, "words of knowledge," speaking in tongues and praying for or coaching others in the receipt of speaking in tongues, and various forms of deliverance ministry within the online community. This is not, however, reflective in any way of the views of Salem Web Network or its staff on the legitimacy of such practices in a local church setting.
23. Please do not use community areas to air your grievances against other fellow members. If you have observed a violation of the Terms of Service please use the Offender Report Form instead. (This includes violations or allegations of inappropriate actions by the volunteer staff and administration.)
a. We want this community to be a fun place to learn and interact with others from a Christian world view.
24. Salem Web Network has designated certain members in the community areas, commonly called moderators (“Moderators”), to moderate the discussions. All members are required to immediately comply with any moderator directive. Failure to do so may result in loss of access to the Site. If you believe a moderator directive is incorrect you should not discuss it in the community. Instead send an email to the Community Manager [communitycare@godtube.com] who will review the problem and make final judgment.
25. Salem Web Network reserves the right to:
a. Move any discussion in community areas to a different folder or room for any reason at our sole discretion.
b. Edit any discussion, post, or chat room title for any reason at our sole discretion.
c. Respond to the violation of any of the above Terms of Service with any of the responses available to community administrators and moderators without warning including involuntary movement to another area, "booting" (involuntary expulsion from the online community), and various forms of prevention of access to all community services including "Private Messages" for any duration of time including permanently at its sole discretion.
d. To report any violations of the Terms of Service to law enforcement and/or the Internet Community Alliance.
e. To bar, restrict, block any user including Internet Community Alliance offenders for any reason as well as remove any content or chat rooms at our sole discretion.
26. Please email communitycare@godtube.com with any questions, comments, or concerns regarding our Terms of Service.
a. To report a possible violation of the Community Guidelines in forums please use the report link located at the bottom of every post. To report in chat please click on the offender link at the bottom of the page.
b. Salem Web Network reserves the right to revise the Community Guidelines at any time, at its sole discretion, and without prior notice; therefore, please refer to this page from time to time.
27. Claims of Copyright Infringement/DMCA Notices/Counternotices. If you believe that material available on the Site infringes a copyright of yours (or a person on whose behalf you are authorized to act), please notify our Designated Agent by using the Notice Procedures for Making Copyright Infringement Claims described in this paragraph. We may remove or disable access to any infringing material identified in your notice.
a. You must address notices of infringement to our Designated Agent: Stacie Marshall; Address: 111 Virginia St., Suite 500, Richmond, VA 23219; Phone: 804.205.9684; Fax: 804.205.9648; Email: removals@godtube.com
i. Please note that there are substantial penalties for sending false notices.
b. Details of DMCA Notices and Counter Notices. It is the policy of Salem Web Network to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the DMCA.
i. DMCA Takedown Notices:If you believe your copyrighted work has been copied on the Site in a way that is copyright infringement, you may provide notice to our Designated Agent. The DMCA requires that the notice must include the following information, 17 U.S.C. § 512( c )(3):
1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Salem Web Network to locate the material;
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit Salem Web Network to contact the complaining party, such as address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;
5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
ii. DMCA Counter Notices: If you believe that material you have posted to the Site has been removed by mistake or as the result of an improper take down notice, you may send our Designated Agent, a “counter notification.” The DMCA requires that a counter notification must include the following information, 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3):
1. Your physical or electronic signature;
2. 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 to it was disabled;
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled;
4. Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located, or if your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which Salem Web Network may be found, and you will accept service of process from the person who provided the notice that led to the removal of the material that you posted, or an agent of that person.
