Terms and Conditions

Summary: Terms and Conditions

Thank you for choosing Wineskin Websites (a project of Wineskin Media) to build your new website! We’ll always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong.

We have no desire to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. What we do want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.

Like most Terms and Conditions, this is rather long. Most of this language is to needed to cover the unfortunate, unusual, unlikely situations. We feel this Agreement is basically common sense, but if you have any questions or concerns about anything you read here, please reach out and contact us.

Terms and Conditions

About These Terms

These terms and conditions govern all use of Wineskin Media services and all content, services, and products available at or through our websites, including, but not limited to Wineskin Websites and Monastic Sites (taken together, our Services). Wineskin Media (“We or Us”) is based in Front Royal, Virginia.

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 and procedures that may be published from time to time by Wineskin Media (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 applying for, accessing or using our Services. By applying for, accessing, paying for, 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 apply for, access, pay for, or use any of our services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by Wineskin Media, 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 apply to use our Services. Any person who applies to use our Services or provides their personal information to our Services represents that they are 13 years of age or older.

Description of Services

For a “Monastic Site”, the details of this website project, including but not limited to the features included, payment amounts, due dates, and the length of the post-launch support time, are described on these pages (the “Product Description”):

  • Wineskin Websites: Monastic Site Overview
  • Wineskin Websites: Monastic Site FAQ

What do both parties agree to?

You: You have the authority to enter into this contract on behalf of yourself, your organization or your company (“You”). You’ll give us the assets and information we tell you we need to complete the project. (If you have a website, most of these assets are probably already present on that site, and we can usually get them ourselves.) You’ll provide these assets and information when we ask and provide it in the formats we ask for. You’ll review our work and provide feedback and approval in a timely manner. Due dates work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule set out in the Product Description.

Us: We have the experience and ability to do everything we’ve agreed with you, and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We’ll endeavor to meet every due date that’s set, and we’ll craft you a beautiful site.

Design

For a Monastic Site, the overall “look” of a Monastic Site is provided by a WordPress theme. You will have your choice between one or more customized themes we have crafted ourselves or else one of the hundreds of themes available from WordPress.com.

Whichever theme you choose, we will help with a few key customizations to make the theme your own, such as adding your logo and changing the colors and fonts.

If these customizations include code, especially CSS code, this code is licensed under the same GPL license as WordPress and the WordPress themes on WordPress.com. This is an “open source” license, which basically means that you, we, and everyone else will always be free to use this code.

This does not mean that any content you have provided as part of your theme, such as your logo, will fall under this new license. You will retain all existing copyrights over your own content.

Since your theme will be provided by third-party developers, it is possible that these developers will make changes in the future that will affect the look of your site. We will try to make customizations that are likely to last as long as possible, but we can’t be responsible for those future changes. You may need to hire a developer in the future to deal with these changes, or even switch to a different theme.

Content

A Monastic Site may include a certain number of pages migrated from your old website onto the new website. This number is given in the Product Description, and we are under no obligation to migrate any extra pages beyond this number.

By making (or allowing any third party to make) material available (any such material, “Content”) on your website, 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. You represent and warrant that your Content and conduct do not violate these terms.

Wineskin Media has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Wineskin Media’s sole discretion, remove or refuse to migrate any content that, in Wineskin Media’s reasonable opinion, violates any Wineskin Media policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable. (Given that Monastic Sites are designed for religious communities, this is exceedingly unlikely.)

Wineskin Media 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, Wineskin Media 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. Wineskin Media 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.

We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which the sites we build link, and that link to the sites we build. Wineskin Media does not have any control over those websites, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a website, Wineskin Media 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. Wineskin Media disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of linked websites and webpages.

Migration

As part of your migration to your new website, you may grant us access to your existing website. Although we have no obligation to address security vulnerabilities on your existing site, in order to address security vulnerabilities, we may push an upgrade to your site, or we may access your site to attempt to remove malicious code.

Browser testing and Mobile browser testing

Since your site will be running a customized version of a theme from WordPress.com, we will not do extensive browser or mobile testing on the theme. We will strongly encourage you to choose only themes which are labeled “responsive,” because that means they work on mobile devices. But it is up to the individual theme developers to test and ensure that these themes work correctly on different browsers and devices.

Technical support

We’re not a website hosting company, so we don’t offer support for website hosting, email or other services relating to hosting.

A Monastic Site will be hosted either on WordPress.com or another chosen web host, as described in the Product Description. Your hosting company will be responsible for your hosting, and you will enter into your own agreement for your hosting with your hosting company, separate from Wineskin Media.

As the owner of your site, you will have administrative access. Unfortunately, that means you may be able to break things. Wineskin Media 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. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and website, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with your website.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

We don’t guarantee improvements to your website’s search engine ranking, but the web pages that we develop are accessible to search engines.

Changes and revisions

We don’t want to limit your ability to change your mind. The price for your chosen product in the Product Description is based on the features described. If you decide you need further services, we will be happy to talk about that.

Legal stuff

We’ll carry out our work in accordance with good industry practice and at the standard expected from a suitably qualified person with relevant experience.

That said, we can’t guarantee that our work will be error-free and so we can’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them.

Your liability to us will also be limited to the amount of fees payable under this agreement and you won’t be liable to us or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages, even if we’ve advised you of them.

Also, we have limited resources, and we may not be able to provide you our services at this time. We reserve the right to reject any application for any reason, and to discontinue our services at any time. By applying for our services, you hereby release, hold harmless and forever discharge and agree not to sue Wineskin Media or any of its owners, proprietors, members, agents, contractors, or employees, from any and all claims, responsibilities, or liabilities resulting from or arising out of your application, our services, or our discontinuation of services to you.

If you have made any initial payment with your application, and your application is rejected, this initial payment will be refunded to you in full.

Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Intellectual property rights

Just to be clear, “Intellectual property rights” means all patents, rights to inventions, copyright (including rights in software) and related rights, trademarks, service marks, get up and trade names, internet domain names, rights to goodwill or to sue for passing off, rights in designs, database rights, rights in confidential information (including know-how) and any other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications (or rights to apply) for, and renewals or extensions of, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or shall subsist now or in the future in any part of the world.

Whew.

First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other artwork you provide are either owned by you, or that you’ve permission to use them. When you provide text, images or other artwork to us, you agree to protect us from any claim by a third party that we’re using their intellectual property.

Provided you’ve paid for the work and that this agreement hasn’t been terminated, we’ll assign intellectual property rights to you as follows:

You’ll own the website we design for you plus any visual elements that we create for you that are unique to your particular website. We’ll give you source files and finished files and you should keep them somewhere safe, as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all intellectual property rights of text, images, site specification and data you provided, unless someone else owns them.

We’ll own any intellectual property rights we’ve developed prior to this project, or developed separately from this project, or that we develop for your project but that are not unique to your project and thus may be reused on other projects. We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design and we’ll license its use to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.

This Agreement does not transfer from Wineskin Media to you any Wineskin Media or third party intellectual property, and all right, title, and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Wineskin Media.

Wineskin Media, Wineskin Websites, Monastic Sites, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with Wineskin Media, Wineskin Websites, Monastic Sites, or our Services, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Wineskin Media or Wineskin Media’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 Wineskin Media or third-party trademarks.

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

Wineskin Media 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 you must notify us. 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.

Fortunately, this termination is exceedingly unlikely. The most likely scenario for such a termination is probably if you refuse to make your final pre-launch payment. If you refuse to complete your payments, your new site may be deleted.

Displaying our work

We love to show off our work, so we reserve the right to display all aspects of our creative work, including sketches, work-in-progress designs and the completed project on our portfolio and in articles on websites, in magazine articles and in books.

We also reserve the right to display a discreet attribution link such as “A Monastic Site by Wineskin Websites” in your site footer or toolbar. This is crucial for us to share our services with other communities, and we appreciate you helping us in this way.

Payment schedule

We’re sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. You agree to follow the simple payment schedule outlined in the Project Description.

We issue invoices electronically. All proposals are quoted in U. S. dollars and payments will be made at the equivalent conversion rate at the date the transfer is made.

You agree to pay all charges associated with international transfers of funds. The appropriate bank account details will be printed on our electronic invoice. We reserve the right to charge interest on all overdue debts at the rate of 3% per month or part of a month.

Disclaimer of Warranties

Our Services are provided “as is.” We and our 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 we nor our 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 we, or our 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 us under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. We 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 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.

US Economic Sanctions

You expressly represent and warrant that your use of our Services and or associated services and products is not contrary to applicable U.S. Sanctions. Such use is prohibited, and Wineskin Media reserves the right to terminate accounts or access of those in the event of a breach of this condition.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Wineskin Media, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective owners, 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 Wineskin Media and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Wineskin Media, or by the posting by Wineskin Media of a revised version. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of our Services will be governed by the laws of the state of Virginia, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in Virginia. Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under this Agreement shall be finally settled in accordance with the Comprehensive Arbitration Rules of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. (“JAMS”) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such Rules. The arbitration shall take place in Virginia, in the English language and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court. The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. 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; Wineskin Media 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.

Thus end the Terms and Conditions. Thanks for reading all that! 🙂