The long and short of it (well, mostly the long):
My Writing Network (also called MWN or MyWriting.Network) is a blog and website hosting platform built upon the WordPress platform and making use of the WordPress multisite function. It was designed especially with writers of all types in mind. We (the people who run MWN) would love for you to use it. MWN’s basic service is free, and we offer paid upgrades for advanced features. Our service is designed to give you as much control and ownership over what goes on your website as possible and encourage you to express yourself freely. However, be responsible in what you publish. In particular, make sure that none of the prohibited items (like spam, viruses, or serious threats of violence) appear on your website.
If you find a My Writing Network website that you believe violates these Terms of Service, please email us immediately at TOS@mywriting.network.
Terms of Service:
The following terms and conditions govern all use of the MyWriting.Network website and all content, services, and products available at or through the website. Our Services are offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, My Writing Network’s Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time by My Writing Network (collectively, the “Agreement”). You agree that we may automatically upgrade our Services, and these terms will apply to any upgrades.
Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our services, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access or use any of our services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by My Writing Network, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms.
Our Services are not directed to children younger than 13, and access and use of our Services is only offered to users 13 years of age or older. If you are under 13 years old, please do not register to use our Services. Any person who registers as a user or provides their personal information to our Services represents that they are 13 years of age or older.
Use of our Services requires a My Writing Network account. You agree to provide us with complete and accurate information when you register for an account. You will be solely responsible and liable for any activity that occurs under your username. You are responsible for keeping your password secure.
Your MWN Account and Website. If you create a blog or website on MyWriting.Network, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and blog, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the blog. You must immediately notify My Writing Network of any unauthorized uses of your blog, your account, or any other breaches of security. My Writing Network will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.
Responsibility of Contributors. If you operate a blog, comment on a blog, post material to MyWriting.Network, post links on MyWriting.Network, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available (any such material, “Content”), you are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content or your conduct. That is the case regardless of what form the Content takes, which includes, but is not limited to text, photo, video, audio, or code. By using MyWriting.Network, you represent and warrant that your Content and conduct do not violate these terms or the User Guidelines.
By submitting Content to MyWriting.Network for inclusion on your website, you grant MyWriting.Network a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing, and promoting your blog. Does this mean we want to own your stuff? No. What it means is that you can’t post your work on your blog and then turn around and sue us for letting it appear on the internet. My Writing Network will never attempt to gain control of copyright ownership of your work. That is the very opposite of what we stand for.
You also give other MyWriting.Network users permission to share your Content on other WordPress.com websites and add their own Content to it (aka to reblog your Content), so long as they use only a portion of your post and they give you credit as the original author by linking back to your website.
If you delete Content, MyWriting.Network will use reasonable efforts to remove it from MyWriting.Network, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable. Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, MyWriting.Network has the right (though not the obligation) to, in MyWriting.Network’s sole discretion, (i) refuse or remove any content that, in MyWriting.Network’s reasonable opinion, violates any MyWriting.Network policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of MyWriting.Network to any individual or entity for any reason. My Writing Network will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.
Advertisements. MyWriting.Network reserves the right to display advertisements on your blog unless you have purchased an Ad-free Upgrade.
Attribution. MyWriting.Network reserves the right to display attribution links such as ‘Blog at MyWriting.Network,’ theme author, and font attribution in your blog footer or toolbar. Footer credits and the MyWriting.Network toolbar may not be altered or removed regardless of upgrades purchased.
Themes. By activating a theme from our themes directory, you agree to that theme distributor’s terms of service. You can opt out of their terms of service at any time by de-activating the theme.
General Terms.
Optional paid services such as extra storage or domain purchases are available (any such services, an “Upgrade”). By selecting an Upgrade you agree to pay MyWriting.Network the monthly or annual subscription fees indicated for that service. Payments will be charged on a pre-pay basis on the day you sign up for an Upgrade and will cover the use of that service for a monthly or annual subscription period as indicated. If you have used an annual subscription for longer than one month, or a monthly subscription for longer than one week, no refund shall be made available.
Automatic Renewal.
Unless you notify MyWriting.Network before the end of the applicable subscription period that you want to cancel an Upgrade, your Upgrade subscription will automatically renew and you authorize us to collect the then-applicable annual or monthly subscription fee for such Upgrade (as well as any taxes) using any credit card or other payment mechanism we have on record for you. Upgrades can be canceled at any time in the Upgrades section of your website’s dashboard.
Responsibility of Visitors.
MyWriting.Network has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to our Services, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating our Services, MyWriting.Network does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful, or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Our Services may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. Our Services may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. MyWriting.Network disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of our Services, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.
Content Posted on Other Websites.
We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which MyWriting.Network links, and that link to MyWriting.Network. MyWriting.Network does not have any control over those non-MyWriting.Network websites, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-MyWriting.Network website, MyWriting.Network does not represent or imply that it endorses such website. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. MyWriting.Network disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-WordPress.com websites and webpages.
Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy.
As MyWriting.Network asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by MyWriting.Network violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify MyWriting.Network in accordance with MyWriting.Network’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Policy. MyWriting.Network will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. MyWriting.Network will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the Website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of MyWriting.Network or others. In the case of such termination, MyWriting.Network will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to MyWriting.Network
Intellectual Property. (Ours, not yours)
This Agreement does not transfer from MyWriting.Network to you any MyWriting.Network or third party intellectual property, and all right, title, and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with MyWriting.Network. MyWriting.Network, the MyWriting.Network logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with MyWriting.Network or our Services, are trademarks or registered trademarks of MyWriting.Network or MyWriting.Network’s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with our Services may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of our Services grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any MyWriting.Network or third-party trademarks.
Domain Names.
Your use of the domain name is also subject to the policies of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”). A summary of your rights and responsibilities as a domain name registrant under ICANN’s 2009 Registrar Accreditation Agreement can be found here. You can learn more about domain name registration generally here.
Changes.
We are constantly updating our Services, and that means sometimes we have to change the legal terms under which our Services are offered. If we make changes that are material, we will let you know by posting on one of our blogs, or by sending you an email or other communication before the changes take effect. The notice will designate a reasonable period of time after which the new terms will take effect. If you disagree with our changes, then you should stop using our Services within the designated notice period. Your continued use of our Services will be subject to the new terms. However, any dispute that arose before the changes shall be governed by the Terms (including the binding individual arbitration clause) that were in place when the dispute arose.
Termination.
MyWriting.Network may terminate your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your MyWriting.Network account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using our Services. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
Disclaimer of Warranties.
Our Services are provided “as is.” MyWriting.Network and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither MyWriting.Network nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that our Services will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, our Services at your own discretion and risk.
Limitation of Liability.
In no event will MyWriting.Network, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this Agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to MyWriting.Network under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. MyWriting.Network shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.
General Representation and Warranty.
You represent and warrant that (i) your use of our Services will be in strict accordance with the MyWriting.Network Privacy Policy, with this Agreement, and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of our Services will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.
Indemnification.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless MyWriting.Network, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of our Services, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.
Translation.
These Terms of Service were originally written in English (US). We may translate these terms into other languages. In the event of a conflict between a translated version of these Terms of Service and the English version, the English version will control.
Miscellaneous.
This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between MyWriting.Network and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of MyWriting.Network, or by the posting by MyWriting.Network of a revised version. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; MyWriting.Network may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.