Terms of Service

1. General

  1. Cotoe Team ("Service Provider") provides Cotoe ("Service"), subject to the following Terms of Service which is prescribed by the Service Provider.
  2. By using this Service, you, as a User, agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these Terms of Service, you can not use this Service. This Terms of Service is a English version of the Japanese version and is provided for convenience. In the event of a dispute between the English and the Japanese version, the Japanese version of this Terms of Service shall govern.

2. Definition of User

  1. "User" or "User of Service" refers to "registered users" and "guest users" collectively.
  2. "Registered user" is an individual who has entered and submitted required information for user registration ("user registration information"), and has been admitted by the Service Provider.
  3. "Guest user" is an individual who uses any of the Service which can be accessed without the user registration stated in the preceding item, which includes viewing and searching.

3. User Responsibility

  1. Registered user shall be responsible for managing your own user name and maintaining the confidentiality of your own password.
  2. In order to use the Service, you must obtain access to the Internet. Service Provider is not responsible for providing, setting up or operating any equipment necessary to establish such access.
  3. You agree that upon receipt of inquiries or claims arising out of or in connection with use of the Service, you are solely responsible for dealing with them at your own expenses.
  4. You agree that if you have inquiries, questions or claims towards any third parties, you shall notify them directly and you shall deal with the consequences at your own expenses.
  5. Service Provider is not concerned with any disputes between you and other users or any other third parties, over intellectual property including copyrights and trademarks, personal rights including defamation and invasion of privacy, breaches of contracts regarding information you use and submit through the Service, and you are solely responsible for settling such disputes at your own expenses.
  6. You agree that upon causing damage or loss to Service Provider or any third parties arising out of or in connection with use of the Service, you are solely responsible for compensating at your own expenses. This is also applicable to cases where you have violated the Terms of Service and thereby causing damage or loss to Service Provider or any third parties.

4. Account Termination and Removal of User Submissions and Contents

  1. Service Provider reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to take appropriate action including termination of your access to the Service and removal of user submitted content without prior notice, against such cases including, but not limited to, those stated below.
    1. inaccuracy in user registration information or user network faults causing damage to Service operation
    2. violation of the fifth clause of the Terms of Service
    3. any other cases of users, user submissions and contents where Service Provider judged as inappropriate
  2. When user submissions or contents have passed certain limits in time or size, or as required by maintenance and operation of the Service, Service Provider may delete or remove such submissions or contents without prior notice.

5. Prohibited Use of the Service

  1. You may not use the Service to engage in any unlawful activities including, but not limited to those below.
    1. activities that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights and privacy rights of Users and any parties
    2. slanderous, libelous, abusive, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable activities and activities that result in interference of other Users and any parties
    3. activities involving unauthorized or illegal operation against the system or computer of the Service Provider or third parties
    4. any other activities that are unlawful or related to crime
  2. You may not use the Service to engage in any socially inappropriate activities including, but not limited to those below.
    1. criminal activities or activities which may lead to crimes
    2. activities involving creating or submitting of contents that are obscene, pornographic, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable
    3. harassing, inflammatory, libelous, defamatory activities and unrightfully causing economic or emotional damage to others
    4. activities that impersonate another User or person, activities involving alteration of information
    5. any other activities that undermines public order or activities regarded as inappropriate considering established social morals and customs
  3. You may not use the Service in any inappropriate ways including, but not limited to those below.
    1. activities which advertise to, or solicit, any user to buy or sell any products or services
    2. activities that divert, sell, trade, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes, any contents of the Service without prior permission from the Service Provider
    3. any other activities that interfere with or disrupt the Service or operation by the Service Provider and activities that damage or may damage the trust of the Service Provider

6. Intellectual Property

  1. You agree to provide the contents you created on or submitted to the Service, excluding quotations, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.1 Japan license.
  2. Service Provider holds the copyright of the content assembled by the Service as a compilation. This does not infringe the right of the original author of the each content.
  3. You agree that the Service Provider may use the content you create on or submitted to the Service in promotional materials.
  4. Service Provider may provide information collected by the Service, with any personally identifiable information removed, to research institutes including universities and independent administrative institution for research.

7. Disclaimer

  1. Service Provider disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy and reliability of information or materials displayed and provided by the Service.
  2. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL SERVICE PROVIDER BE LIABLE TO YOU OR THIRD PARTIES FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH USE OF THE SERVICE.
  3. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL SERVICE PROVIDER BE LIABLE TO YOU OR THIRD PARTIES FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, OR TERMINATION OF THE SERVICE, USER ACCOUNT TERMINATION AND REMOVAL OF USER SUBMISSION AND OTHER INFORMATION.
  4. Data submitted to and retrieved from the Service and the system of the Service may become corrupted or lost due to system accidents and other reasons. Service Provider is not responsible for performing data backup and recovery of lost data, and is not liable for any indirect or consequential damages arising from such data losses.

8. Service Changes, Suspension and Termination

  1. Service Provider reserves the right to change any aspect of the Service.
  2. Service Provider reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to suspend any and all Services in case of technical and operational maintenance on the servers or the technology that underlies our sites, disasters including fires, failures of service providers including power providers, or natural disasters, without prior notice to you.
  3. Service Provider reserves the right to terminate any and all Services at its sole discretion. Service Provider shall provide prior notice by posting the termination date on the Service website.

9. Modification of Terms of Service

Service Provider reserves the right, without prior notice, to modify the Terms of Service at any time. The changes are effective immediately after the amended Terms of Service are posted on the Service website.

10. Applicable Law and Competent Court

This legal statement is construed based on Japanese law and in case conflicts occur concerning the use of the Service, the exclusive agreement jurisdictional court is Tokyo district court.

Effective Date: December 1, 2008