1. Agreement and General Terms of Use

1.1 Agreement. This User Agreement constitutes the agreement between THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE (“THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE”), and you as a user who accesses or establishes a connection (“user,” “you,” or “your”) to our services, including but not limited to those at www.sunwater.org, www.legis1.com,  www.washingtonrepresentatives.com and/or other services and services based on these services (“Service” or “Services”). You agree to abide by all of the provisions in this Agreement in order to remain an authorized user of the Services, and your use of the Services constitutes your agreement to abide by these provisions.

1.2 Passwords. Sharing or distributing your username and password to others for access to the Services is prohibited and may result in termination of your account. The Sunwater Institute makes multi-user and site licenses available for subscribers needing broader access.

1.3 Changes. The Sunwater Institute reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change any or all of the provisions of this Agreement at any time. The Sunwater Institute will make the current Agreement available at this URL, as well as from a link at the bottom of each Service’s home page. The Agreement in effect at the time you use the Service shall govern your use, and your use of the Service after the effective date of any changes to this Agreement will be deemed your acceptance of the changes. For your convenience, substantive changes to the Agreement will be noted in this “Changes” section for at least one month after a change becomes effective. Any change will be effective immediately, however, and need not be noted in the “Changes” section to be binding upon all subsequent visitors to the site.

1.4 Changes to Services. The Sunwater Institute is constantly changing, updating, and improving its Services. The Sunwater Institute reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change, limit, or discontinue any aspect, content, tool, or feature that is a part of the Services.

1.5 Restrictions, suspensions. The Sunwater Institute further reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to restrict the use of the Service as well as suspend or revoke your rights to use the Services based on THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE’s belief that your use of the Services violates that permitted by this Agreement or applicable law.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT OR ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH THE SERVICE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES.

2. Rights in Service Content and the Service

2.1 Copyright. The Services, together with all content and tools provided by The Sunwater Institute on the Services, are protected by copyright, trademark and/or other applicable intellectual property and proprietary rights laws and are owned, controlled, and/or licensed by The Sunwater Institute All trademarks appearing on the Services are the property of their respective owners. You agree not to use any trademarks or copyrighted material without express written permission of The Sunwater Institute You agree that you do not acquire any ownership rights in any downloaded content.

2.2 Personal use. You may search, retrieve, display, download, and print content from the Services solely for your personal research and reference purposes only and dependent on your subscription level of access (either for the benefit of yourself or for the benefit of your employer). You shall make no other use of the content without the express written permission of The Sunwater Institute If you wish to add users within your organization, multiple-user accounts and site licenses can be obtained by calling (240) 715-9507.

2.3 Prohibited uses. You will not modify, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, translate, create derivative works, or in any way exploit other than as set forth herein, any of the content, tools or technology, in whole or in part, found on the Services. Further, you shall not engage in any systematic downloading or other activity directed towards any of the content, in whole or in part, found on the Services that would create any electronic database or archive containing such content. You are also prohibited from using frames or iFrames when accessing the Services as these often cause problems in the authentication process. In searching the Services, you shall not employ any automated search tools, including so called “crawlers,” “bots” and “spiders” that programmatically access and extract content in order to repurpose or resell the Services content and tools, nor may you “scrape” and/or reformat any information off the services HTML pages or XML interface, including meta tags, results pages, abstracts, and documents without the express written permission of The Sunwater Institute Those seeking more information on permission for systematic access (automated queries meta-search, etc.) should go to the FAQ Contact Us area for each Service.

2.4 Policies and Forms. Some The Sunwater Institute Services contain sample policies, forms, and checklists and documents that you may adapt to your organization. You are granted a specific license to modify such documents. However, this license does not include the right to resell the documents, to create a product for sale, or to share them outside of your organization. This license is perpetual.

2.5 Training materials. The Services contain training materials that you may download and use for internal training within your organization. You are granted a specific license to modify such materials to fit your organization’s policies, procedures, and workplace features. You may display such training materials within your organization. However, they may not be distributed via your organization’s intranet or the internet or loaded into a learning management system without specific written permission from The Sunwater Institute This license shall remain in effect so long as you remain a subscriber of the Services.

Certain training materials are available as versions that include audio narration. These materials may be played via the The Sunwater Institute websites for classroom use or for training of individuals. However, they may not be downloaded, stored on your intranet or the internet, or loaded into a learning management system without specific written permission from The Sunwater Institute

2.6 Alerts. The Services contain tools to create and distribute alerts. You are granted a specific license to distribute such materials within your organization only unless expressly permitted by your subscription access level.

2.7 Third party use. Third parties may not distribute any of these materials to their clients or members without a Consultant License or other written permission from The Sunwater Institute To obtain such permission and information about associated pricing, please call 1-888-265-0600.

3. User Activities and Privacy of User Information on the Service

3.1 Lawful uses. You will use the Services and any tools, content, material, or information found on the Services solely for lawful purposes. You shall not upload to, distribute to or through, or otherwise disseminate through the Service any material or information of any kind that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, or otherwise violates any law or infringes or violates any privacy or other rights of any other person or entity, or contains a solicitation of funds, advertising, or a solicitation for goods or services.

3.2 Rights in submissions. You warrant that any material or information that you make available through the Services, including, for example, postings to forums and documents you may post to your work area, is solely your original work, or that you have all necessary rights to make the material or information of any other person or entity available on the Services. You will be solely responsible for the content of any material or information that you make available through the Services. You will also be liable for any damage resulting from your making any material or information available through the Services.

3.3 License. Except as set forth below, by making any material or information available through the Services, for example, in postings to chat areas and forums, you automatically grant to The Sunwater Institute a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, distribute and sublicense any such material or information (in whole or in part) and/or to incorporate it in other works regardless of form, media, or technology. By making any material or information available through the Services, you also grant to users other than yourself the right and license to access, view, store, or reproduce your material and information for that user’s personal, internal use. The Sunwater Institute shall acquire no rights to personal documents that you or authorized parties post to your work area.

3.4 Review of submissions. The Sunwater Institute has no obligation to, and does not and cannot, review every item of material or information that you and users other than you make available through the Services, and The Sunwater Institute is not responsible for any content of this material or information. However, The Sunwater Institute reserves the right to delete, move, or edit any material or information that it deems, in its sole discretion, unacceptable, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, or otherwise in violation of any law or that infringes or violates any privacy or other rights of any person or entity. Further, The Sunwater Institute reserves the right at all times to disclose any material or information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation, or governmental request.

3.5 User data. The Sunwater Institute reserves the right to collect and use data about you and your use of the Service for purposes such as, for example, performing statistical analyses to assist us in improving the Service. The Sunwater Institute further reserves the right to distribute such data in forms that do not identify you individually or reveal your identity. The Sunwater Institute may also distribute such data in forms that identify you individually or reveal your identity to affiliates, partners and to third parties with a contractual relationship with The Sunwater Institute All such use and distribution shall be in accordance with The Sunwater Institute’s privacy policy, which is incorporated herein by reference. Please familiarize yourself with the privacy policy by clicking on “Privacy Policy” (or another similar link) at the bottom of the Services’ home pages. Nothing herein shall prevent The Sunwater Institute and its marketing partners from contacting you by e-mail, phone, or direct mail with offers, information, and other communications and all such contact is expressly approved by you. Nothing herein shall prevent The Sunwater Institute from complying with valid requests by governmental authorities investigating civil or criminal matters.

3.6 Copyright, DMCA, takedown claims. If you believe that content posted on or through the website has been used in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide Columbia Boo’ss Inc. Copyright Agent with a written notice to the email or mailing address indicated below that includes the following information:

 

• • An electronic or physical signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  • Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
  • A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site;
  • Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address;
  • A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  • A statement by you, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE’s Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement is: Justin DeAngelis, by email at jdeangelis@columbiabooks.com or by mail to The Sunwater Institute, 1530 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22209.

4. Fees, Payments and Auto-Renewals; Account Management; Free Trial Use

4.1 Payment terms. If you become a paid or trial subscriber of any of the Services, you will be bound by the payment terms set forth herein. Access to premium areas of the Services requires payment. If you subscribe, you must provide accurate, complete and updated subscriber information. You acknowledge that you will pay The Sunwater Institute all such fees, charges, and applicable taxes for the Services where enrollment in the Services has been made using your credit card or other means, whether made by you personally or by someone else in your household or organization on your behalf. If you enroll in the Services using a credit card, you certify to The Sunwater Institute that you are at least 18 years of age and that you are the cardholder of the credit card, or that you are expressly authorized by the cardholder to enroll in the Services. In any event, you expressly certify and represent that you are not under the age of 13.

4.2 Auto-Renewal Subscriptions. An auto-renewal subscription is a subscription that The Sunwater Institute will regularly renew on your behalf before your current subscription term expires. We’ll automatically renew your subscription at the purchase price. You can cancel or manage your subscription settings and choose to turn auto-renewal on or off at any time through the CBIS Account Management Portal. You can see your renewal date in CBIS Account Management Portal, and you can always change your payment method, address information, or cancel your subscription before you’re automatically billed for your next term. Unless you notify us before a charge that you want to cancel or do not want to auto renew, you understand your subscription will automatically renew and you authorize us (without notice to you, unless required by applicable law) to collect the then-applicable subscription price and any taxes, using any payment method we have on record for you. All adjustments must be made at least 48 hours prior to your renewal date in order to be in effect for your next subscription period.

4.3 Use of Service. You further acknowledge that your obligation to pay The Sunwater Institute all such fees, charges, and applicable taxes for the Service does not depend on usage of the Service, and that you remain obligated to pay The Sunwater Institute for the Service regardless of whether the Service is used or not. Unless you enroll as part of a free trial, your obligation to pay for the Service begins on the date of your enrollment in the Service, not the date of your first use of the Service. If made available, free trial or free access periods to use the Service also begin on the date of your enrollment in the free trial for the Service, and not the date of your first use of it.

4.4 Cancellation. You may cancel your monthly or yearly account for the Service during any free trial period. Beyond the free trial period, because of the nature of the content, all subscriptions are non-refundable. Columbia Books, Inc will make every effort to ensure you are satisfied with your purchase. General e-mails and other means of notification, including notifying your credit card company or bank that you no longer wish to be a subscriber, will not serve as valid means of cancellation.

4.5 Trial subscriptions. Trial subscribers will have access to the Service for their specified trial period, at no charge, and may cancel at any time before the end of the trial period and avoid all charges. Otherwise, if you entered credit card information, your credit card will be charged at the end of the trial period to cover 12 months of subscription, and the premium (if applicable) will be sent to you once your subscription has been paid. Only one free trial subscription will be granted to the same organization in any 12-month period. The Sunwater Institute reserves the right to limit trial subscribers’ ability to access certain portions of the Services or to download certain resources. The Sunwater Institute also reserves the right to cancel any trial subscription at any time during the trial.

5. Disclaimer of Warranties & Limitation of Liability

5.1 Reference; legal advice. This site is provided as a research and reference tool. Although we make every reasonable effort to ensure that the content and tools provided at this site are useful, accurate, and current, we cannot guarantee that they will be error-free. This site and the information available through it are not intended to constitute legal advice. By using this site, you assume all responsibility for and risk arising from your use of and reliance upon the contents of this site.

5.2 Your risk. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR THAT THEY WILL BE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. NOR DO THEY MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE, OR AS TO THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, COMPLETENESS, OR CONTENTS OF ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION, MATERIAL, POSTINGS, OR POSTING RESPONSES FOUND ON THE SERVICE, ANY MERCHANDISE OR SERVICES PROVIDED THROUGH THE SERVICES, OR ANY LINKS TO OTHER SITES OR SERVICES MADE AVAILABLE ON THE SERVICES.

5.3 As is. THE SERVICES, ALL TOOLS, CONTENT, MATERIAL, INFORMATION, POSTINGS, OR POSTING RESPONSES FOUND ON THE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

5.4 Consequential damages. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NEGLIGENCE, SHALL THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE (OR ANY OF ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, DISTRIBUTORS, THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS, OR LICENSORS (AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS), BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION, MATERIAL, POSTINGS, OR POSTING RESPONSES ON THE SERVICE, OR THE SERVICE ITSELF. YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE (AND ANY OF ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, DISTRIBUTORS, THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS, OR (AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS), IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY USER, INCLUDING YOU. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE (OR ANY OF ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, DISTRIBUTORS, THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS, OR LICENSORS (AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS)) TO YOU EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRIOR TO ANY CLAIM OF INJURY OR DAMAGE.

6. Indemnification.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you will defend, indemnify and hold harmless The Sunwater Institute (and any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, distributors, Third Party Providers, and licensors (and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents)) from and against all claims, liability, and expenses, including attorneys’ fees and legal fees and costs, arising out of your use of the Service or your breach of any provision of this Agreement. The Sunwater Institute reserves the right, in its sole discretion and at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you. You will cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defense of any claim.

7. Third Party Content, Third-Party Providers, Advertising and Links

The Services include a number of third party providers of content, technology and other features, including the opportunity for users of the Services to purchase goods or services from third parties (“Third Party Providers”). These are provided for your convenience and are not endorsements by The Sunwater Institute Neither The Sunwater Institute nor such Third Party Providers make any warranty concerning content, technology, goods or services provided by such Third Party Providers. YOU AGREE THAT ANY RECOURSE FOR DISSATISFACTION OR PROBLEMS WITH THOSE GOODS OR SERVICES WILL BE SOUGHT FROM THE THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS DIRECTLY, NOT FROM THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE

8. Termination

The Sunwater Institute may terminate this Agreement and your use of the Services, or discontinue the Services, at any time. The Sunwater Institute shall have the right immediately upon notice to you to terminate your use of the Services in the event of any conduct by you which THE SUNWATER INSTITUTE, in its sole discretion, considers to be unacceptable, or in the event of any breach by you of this Agreement or violation of applicable law.

9. Governing Law

This Agreement and any disputes arising under it shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the United States of America and the State of Tennessee, without giving effect to their conflict of laws principles. You expressly consent to the exclusive forum, jurisdiction, and venue of the Courts of the State of Tennessee in any and all actions, disputes, or controversies relating to this Agreement.

10. General Terms

This Agreement and any policies and rules posted on the Services by The Sunwater Institute constitute the complete and exclusive and final expression of the agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof. No waiver by either The Sunwater Institute or you of any breach or default under this Agreement shall be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default. This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of The Sunwater Institute and its successors and assigns. The Sunwater Institute may assign this Agreement, or any of its rights or obligations under this Agreement, with or without notice to you. Any such assignment by The Sunwater Institute does not relieve you of your obligations under this Agreement.