HHMI BioInteractive Online Community Terms of Use

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (“HHMI” or “us” or “we”) is a science philanthropy whose mission is to advance basic biomedical research and science education for the benefit of humanity. “HHMI BioInteractive,” which is part of HHMI Educational Media, produces engaging multimedia that brings the excitement and process of scientific discovery into high school and undergraduate classrooms. HHMI BioInteractive is making available its Online Community educator resource repository (“Online Community”) as a collection of data and other information relating to high school and college science education and educator resources. The Online Community includes (i) forums and a group messaging feature where users can share information and post content, (ii) a direct messaging feature where two users can message each other, and (iii) an educator resource library where users can post materials for use in a classroom setting (e.g., worksheets, infographics) (the “Educator Resource Library”). All such data and information made available on or through the Online Community (including, for clarification, as submitted by you) is collectively referred to in this document as the “Data” and any Data made available through the Online Community and intended as an educator resource (e.g., as posted though the associated forums and group messaging feature or through the Educator Resource Library) is referred to as an “Educator Resource”.

Access & Use of the Online Community, Data. By accessing or using the Online Community or any Data, including by submitting Data to the Online Community, you agree to these HHMI BioInteractive Online Community Terms of Use (the “Online Community Terms of Use”), the HHMI Terms of Use, and the HHMI Privacy Policy & Cookie Notice (the “Privacy Policy”); you may access and use the Online Community solely for non-commercial educational purposes consistent with any and all applicable laws, rules, and regulations.  If you do not agree to these Online Community Terms of Use, your only recourse is to discontinue accessing and using the Online Community and Data.  You may download and display the Educator Resources for educational purposes, but not for any commercial purpose without the express permission of HHMI and all other copyright owners. The Educator Resources may not be republished, redistributed, or otherwise disseminated beyond your institution or organization without the express permission of HHMI and all other copyright owners.

Submission Terms.  By submitting Data to the Online Community, you hereby grant HHMI a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, sub-licensable, perpetual, irrevocable license throughout the universe in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed to use, store, make derivative works of, reproduce, publish, display, translate, and distribute any and all such Data to the public for any purpose (which includes distribution under the terms of a Creative Commons (“CC”) Attribution 4.0 International public license (“CC BY license”), or a more restrictive CC license selected by HHMI at its discretion, as well as for archival and preservation purposes (including the right to transfer the Data into a different format now known or later developed). By submitting Data, you grant users of the BioInteractive Online Community permission to use such Data for educational use, including submitting derivative works of such Data for distribution through the Online Community under these same terms.  By submitting Data to the Online Community, you represent, warrant, and covenant that: (i) you either own the Data or have appropriate licenses or permissions necessary for the Data to be made available to the public, including under a CC BY license or more restrictive CC license, and to grant the licenses granted herein; (ii) if you work for or are employed by a school, educational institution, research organization, or other organization, you have the appropriate authority to make available the Data as contemplated herein and to grant the licenses granted herein; (iii) the Data does not, and the use thereof by users of the Online Community in accordance with these Online Community Terms of Use, will not, infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate the intellectual property rights of any other person; (iv) the Data is not obscene, does not contain any spyware, computer virus, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit or other malicious computer software, and does not contain any personally identifiable information of others; and (v) the Data complies with these Online Community Terms of Use, the HHMI Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy, and all applicable laws, rules, and regulations. HHMI reserves the right, at its sole discretion, at any time without notice and without liability to you or others, to alter, delete, or block access to any Data you submit to the Online Community. 

No HHMI Warranties; Disclaimer and Indemnification.  HHMI DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS AS TO THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, COMPREHENSIVENESS, ERROR-FREE AND/OR VIRUS-FREE OPERATION, OR CONTINUED AVAILABILITY OF THE ONLINE COMMUNITY OR ANY DATA. THE ONLINE COMMUNITY AND DATA ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, HHMI DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH REGARD TO THE ONLINE COMMUNITY AND DATA, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. NEITHER HHMI NOR ANY PERSON ASSOCIATED WITH HHMI MAKES ANY WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION WITH RESPECT TO THE COMPLETENESS, SECURITY, RELIABILITY, QUALITY, ACCURACY OR AVAILABILITY OF THE ONLINE COMMUNITY OR DATA. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER HHMI NOR ANYONE ASSOCIATED WITH HHMI REPRESENTS OR WARRANTS THAT THE ONLINE COMMUNITY OR DATA WILL BE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, ERROR-FREE, OR UNINTERRUPTED, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, THAT THE SITES OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES THEM AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS OR THAT THE ONLINE COMMUNITY OR DATA WILL OTHERWISE MEET YOUR NEEDS OR EXPECTATIONS. IN CERTAIN STATES, THE LAW MAY NOT PERMIT THE DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES, SO ALL OR A PORTION OF THE ABOVE DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL HHMI, OR ANY OF ITS EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OFFICERS, OR TRUSTEES, BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, UNDER ANY LEGAL THEORY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR INTERACTION WITH OR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE ONLINE COMMUNITY OR DATA (OR OUR PROVISION OF SUCH), INCLUDING ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY PERSONAL INJURY, PAIN AND SUFFERING, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, LOSS OF REVENUE, LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF BUSINESS OR ANTICIPATED SAVINGS, LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF GOODWILL, OR LOSS OF DATA, AND WHETHER CAUSED BY TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), BREACH OF CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF FORESEEABLE. BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABLITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, ALL OR A PORTION OF THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless us and our trustees, officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims, losses, expenses, damages, and costs, including attorneys’ fees, resulting from your use of the Online Community or Data, or any violation by you of these Online Community Terms of Use (including the inaccuracy or untruthfulness of any representation, warranty or covenant that you make pursuant to these Online Community Terms of Use). We reserve the right to assume, at our sole expense, the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will fully cooperate with us.

Termination.   HHMI reserves the right to suspend or terminate your use of the Online Community and Data or terminate or cancel the Online Community Terms of Use, any of which suspension, termination or cancellation may be in whole or in part, at any time with or without prior notice. You agree that HHMI shall not be liable to you or any third party for termination or suspension of your access to the Online Community or Data. We also reserve the right to withdraw or amend the Online Community or Data without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason all or any part of the Online Community or Data is unavailable at any time or for any period.

Trademarks, Proprietary Information. The Online Community contains trademarks and copyrighted material owned by HHMI and/or providers of Data; you may not copy, reproduce, publish, post, transmit, display, store, sublicense, transfer or distribute such materials without written permission from the applicable owner. For purposes of clarification, the previous sentence does not prohibit use of any Educator Resource as permitted and described in the Access & Use section above.

Online Community Copyright Policy.  The below Sections (1)-(4) describe HHMI’s Online Community’s Copyright Policy.

1. DMCA Compliance.  HHMI respects the intellectual property rights of others and the Online Community has a policy of prohibiting users from uploading, posting or otherwise transmitting on or through the Online Community any information or materials that violate another party’s intellectual property rights. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. It is the Online Community’s policy to respond to notices and counter-notices that properly conform with the DMCA’s requirements. Accordingly, notices and counter-notices must meet the then-current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA; see the Copyright Office’s web page for details of the current DMCA requirements.
2. Notification of Alleged Copyright Infringement.  If you believe in good faith that materials hosted by HHMI with respect to the Online Community infringe your copyright (for example, materials posted by a user on one of our forums associated with the Online Community), you (or your agent) may send us a written notification pursuant to the DMCA, by providing our DMCA Agent (as identified below) with the information listed below (and as further set forth in 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)) and requesting that the material be removed or access to it be blocked: (1) Identification in sufficient detail of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed. If multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, you may provide a representative list of such works; however, the representative list must still contain sufficient detail of the copyrighted works so that we can identify them; (2) Identification of the URL or other specific location on the Online Community that contains the material that you claim to be infringing your copyright; (3) Your name, address, telephone number and email address (if available); (4) The electronic or physical signature of the owner of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf; (5) A statement that you have 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; and (6) A statement that you swear under penalty of perjury that the information contained in your notification is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section 2, your DMCA notice will not be valid. You must submit any notification of an alleged copyright infringement to HHMI’s DMCA Agent by mail or email as follows: Operations Manager, Educational Media, DMCA Agent, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, Email: biointeractive.permissions[at]hhmi.org with the subject line “Copyright Policy – DMCA Notification”. This contact information is for DMCA notifications and counter notifications ONLY. ALL OTHER INQUIRIES DIRECTED TO THE DMCA AGENT WILL NOT BE ANSWERED. Please note that you may be liable for damages, including court costs and attorneys fees, if you materially misrepresent that materials offered through the Online Community are infringing a copyright.
3. Counter Notification.  If you believe in good faith that your own copyrighted material has been removed from the Online Community as a result of mistake or misidentification, you may submit a written counter notification letter to HHMI’s DMCA Agent pursuant to Sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the DMCA. To be an effective counter notification under the DMCA, your written correspondence must include substantially the following: (1) Identification of the material that has been removed or disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled; (2) A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court in which your address is located, or in Washington, D.C. if your address is outside the United States; (3) A statement that you will accept service of process from the party that filed the notification of alleged copyright infringement or the party’s agent; (4) Your name, address and telephone number; (5) A statement that you swear under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material in question was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled, or that the material identified by the complaining party has been removed or disabled at the URL or Online Community location and will no longer be shown or accessible; and (6) Your physical or electronic signature. You acknowledge that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements of this Section 3, your DMCA counter notification will not be valid. You must submit your counter notification to HHMI’s DMCA Agent by mail or email as follows: Operations Manager, Educational Media, DMCA Agent, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, Email: biointeractive.permissions[at]hhmi.org with the subject line “Copyright Policy – DMCA Counter Notification”. This contact information is for DMCA notifications and counter notifications ONLY. ALL OTHER INQUIRIES DIRECTED TO THE DMCA AGENT WILL NOT BE ANSWERED. If a counter notice is received by HHMI’s DMCA Agent, we may send a copy of the counter notification to the original complaining party informing that person that HHMI may replace the removed content or cease disabling it. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against HHMI or the user, the removed content may be replaced or access to it may be restored by HHMI. Please note that if you materially misrepresent that the disabled or removed content was removed by mistake or misidentification, you may be liable for damages, including costs and attorney’s fees.
4. Account Termination of Repeat Infringers.  Please be aware that it is the Online Community’s policy to terminate the user accounts of repeat infringers.  If you believe that a user is a repeat infringer of your copyrighted material, please follow the requirements above, but also include information or evidence that will reasonably prove to HHMI that the user is a repeat infringer.  If you provide false information to HHMI regarding any of the above notifications, counter-notifications or repeat infringer notifications, HHMI may immediately terminate your user account and you may be subject to legal and equitable remedies.

Modifications.  HHMI may modify these Online Community Terms of Use from time to time without notice to you. Any modifications to the Online Community Terms of Use shall become effective immediately upon posting.   By making use of the Online Community after such modification, you are agreeing to the modified Online Community Terms of Use then in effect. Please review these Online Community Terms of Use regularly, so that you can be aware of any changes. The effective date or last updated date on these Online Community Terms of Use indicates the last date these terms were modified; please check these terms regularly.

Miscellaneous. These Online Community Terms of Use, HHMI’s Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and HHMI with respect to the Online Community and Data.  In the event of a conflict between the terms of these Online Community Terms of Use, on the one hand, and the HHMI Terms of Use or the Privacy Policy, on the other hand, the HHMI Terms of Use or the Privacy Policy (as applicable) shall govern and control. Any failure of ours to assert a right or provision shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. The words “include” and “including” as used herein, whether or not capitalized, are not words of limitation and shall be deemed to be followed by the words “without limitation.” If any provision of these Online Community Terms of Use is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, then such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Online Community Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect. Except as otherwise expressly provided herein, all remedies provided for in these Online Community Terms of Use shall be cumulative and in addition to and not in lieu of any other remedies available at law or in equity. All matters relating to the Online Community or Data or these Online Community Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Maryland without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule. The Online Community and Data are controlled by us from the United States. If you choose to access the Online Community or Data from locations outside the United States, you do so at your own risk and you are responsible for compliance with any local laws.

English/Spanish Versions. This Agreement has been drafted in both Spanish and English language; however, in the event of a conflict between the Spanish and the English versions, the English version shall prevail.

Effective Date: June 13, 2022
Last updated: June 13, 2022