Yale Online Alumni Community Terms of Use

These Terms of Use were last updated on Tuesday, October 16, 2018.

Please read these Terms of Use, which includes Yale’s Privacy Policy and the Yale Online Alumni Community and YaleMail Privacy Policy, as applicable  (together, "Terms") carefully before accessing or participating in any website or other on-line platform or service available at aya.yale.edu, alumni.yale.edu, or other Yale Online Alumni Community sites (the "Site" or "Sites"). The Terms are an enforceable agreement between Yale University (“Yale”) and you, the user of the Site, whether you are a student, faculty member, staff member, alumnus/a, group, association, corporation, or other individual or organization. By using and accessing the Sites, you acknowledge that you have read the Terms and agree to be bound by and comply with them. If you do not agree to be bound by and comply with the Terms, you are not authorized to use the Site. Yale reserves the right to modify the Terms at any time in its sole discretion, and will publish notice of any such modifications on this site. Any modified Terms are effective immediately upon posting. By continuing to access the Site after Yale posts notification of modified Terms, you agree to be bound by and comply with them. If you do not agree to the Terms, please do not enter the Site.  If you are not yet eighteen years of age, a parent or guardian may agree to be bound by the Terms on your behalf.

Nothing in the Terms overrides the application of other rules and policies of Yale.  For example, if you are a student, faculty member, staff member, or other user, your use of the Site is also subject to the Yale Information Technology Appropriate Use Policy.

Please review the University’s Privacy Policy and the Yale Online Alumni Community and YaleMail Privacy Policy, as applicable, which form a part of these Terms. The policies describe the collection, use and protection of information about you on the Sites.

The names, marks, logos, seals, devices and designs associated with Yale University are trademarks and service marks of Yale or its affiliates (collectively, “Yale Trademarks”).  All other trademarks or service marks appearing on the Site are the trademarks, service marks, or logos of their respective owners.  No trademark or service mark appearing on the Site may be used without the prior written consent of the mark’s owner.  You may not use Yale Trademarks without valid, written authorization from Yale.  Additionally, you may not use Yale Trademarks in any manner that (a) will likely cause confusion about the source of any product or service or (b) falsely implies or represents that Yale sponsors, endorses, or is affiliated with any third-party activity.  You may not register any domain names containing any Yale Trademarks without Yale’s prior written consent in each case.

You agree not to use the Site or any other Yale computing resources to engage in any of the following conduct.  Such conduct is unacceptable and may result in the termination of your use of the Site.

• Restricting, disrupting or inhibiting any other user from using and enjoying the Site and services;
• Posting or otherwise transmitting any unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, harassing, libelous, defamatory, discriminatory, obscene, or similarly objectionable or harmful material or information of any kind;
• Posting or otherwise transmitting any advertisement, promotion, or solicitation of goods or services for commercial or partisan political purposes;
• Posting or otherwise transmitting any information or software that contains a virus, worm, time bomb, Trojan horse, or other harmful or disruptive component that may compromise the security of the Site;
• Posting, transmitting or otherwise using materials in violation of another party’s copyright, privacy, publicity or other proprietary right, or the terms of any contractual agreement or fiduciary relationship;
• Using the Site or services for any commercial, partisan political or unlawful purposes;
• Copying, scraping, downloading, exporting, storing or otherwise capturing any data obtained via the Site without proper written authorization by Yale;
• Modifying, adapting, sublicensing, translating, selling, reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembling any portion of the Site;
• Sharing or otherwise transferring user account information to any person other than the registered user authorized by Yale to use such account; or
• Otherwise using the Site or services in violation of these Terms or applicable law.

Where authorized, you may submit any text, images, data, or other materials (“content”) to the Site.  In doing so, you hereby grant to Yale a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide right and license to link to, use, reproduce, transmit, modify, adapt, publish, display, perform, distribute, and translate any such submitted content. You acknowledge and agree that any content submitted by users of the Site represent the opinions of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion or information of Yale.

Further, by submitting content to the Site, you certify ownership authority to grant such rights to Yale and acknowledge that the burden of determining whether any content posted or transmitted to the Site by you is protected by copyright rests solely with you.

Certain areas of the Site are protected by user names and passwords and may be accessed only by members of the Yale community. All user names are subject to review and approval by Yale. If you have a user name and password for accessing the Site, you agree not to share them with any other person, including any person who may have his or her own user name and password. You agree that the user name and password for your account is personal to you only, and you will not access or attempt to access any other user’s account, or misrepresent or attempt to misrepresent your identity, while using the Site or any services. You are responsible for all uses of your user name and password to gain access to the Site and for all activity under them, including the use of any information or material obtained by using them. Yale may terminate your account or authorization to access the Site and/or services at any time, without notice, for conduct that Yale believes violates the Terms or other applicable policies, rules or regulations of Yale.

If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your account, another user’s account or any other portion of the Site, you agree to notify the Yale Alumni Association by telephone at (203) 432-2586, email at yalealumni@yale.edu, or in writing at: Yale Alumni Association, P.O. Box 209010, New Haven, CT 06520-9010, and to provide prompt reasonable assistance at the request of Yale and/or its representatives to address any violations of the Terms as determined by Yale.

You acknowledge and agree that Yale has the right, but not the responsibility, to monitor the Site and Site-related services, including, without limitation, chat rooms, message boards and forums.  Yale reserves the right to refuse to post, or to remove, any information or materials, in whole or in part, that is in violation of the Terms in its sole discretion. Yale is not a publisher of user-generated content on the Sites, or of any content that may be available through them, and, with regard to such content, is acting solely as an Internet service provider (47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1)). Neither Yale nor any Yale-affiliated entity screens, approves, reviews or endorses any such content.

You may not create links to the Site from any web site with content that is fraudulent, threatening, harassing, libelous, defamatory, discriminatory, obscene, or similarly objectionable or harmful, or in a manner that would constitute or encourage a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party (directly or indirectly), or otherwise give rise to liability, violate any law or falsely imply Yale’s sponsorship, endorsement or approval of your or another party’s site or activities.  Additionally, Yale, in its sole discretion, has the right to require that you remove links to the Site.

As a courtesy, the Site may contain links to web sites controlled by third parties. Yale is not responsible for these third-party sites or their content, activities or privacy practices. The inclusion of links on the Site does not imply Yale’s endorsement of the linked web sites, their content, or any associated organization or activity. Yale makes no representation or warranty whatsoever about the nature of the linked sites. You should read the privacy policies and terms of use that govern your use of other sites before accessing and using their services.

Copyright Yale University 2016.  All Rights Reserved.

In consideration for your agreement to the Terms, Yale grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Sites. Although parts of the Site are freely accessible, Yale does not intend to cede its respective rights, or the rights of third parties, to materials appearing on the Site.  By downloading material from the Site, you agree that there is no explicit or implicit transfer of ownership rights.  Yale grants you permission to use materials to which Yale owns the copyright for personal, limited, non-commercial and educational purposes. You may not otherwise copy, reproduce, retransmit, distribute, publish, exploit or otherwise transfer any such material unless permission to do so is specifically granted by Yale. Because Yale does not hold the copyright to certain materials on the Site, Yale cannot grant or deny permission to use those materials.  Accordingly, you are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of any materials you may wish to use, to investigate the owner of the copyright, and to obtain permission for your intended use, if appropriate. If a particular material is copyrighted, you must cite all copyright information and comply with all other terms or restrictions that may be applicable to that material. 

Yale intends that all material posted on the Site respect the copyright and other proprietary rights of third parties. However, Yale cannot monitor the copyright ownership of all material posted on the Site. If you believe that any material posted on the Site infringes your copyright, then you may request the removal of those materials from the Site in accordance with the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), and the procedures described below.

A notice of infringing material that complies with the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) (“Notice”) must be sent to the agent Yale has designated with the Copyright Office:

Chief Information Security Officer
Yale University
150 Munson Street (25 Science Park)
Room 132
New Haven, CT 06511
Tel: (203) 436-5872
Fax: (203) 436-8292
copyright@yale.edu

To comply with the Copyright Act, your Notice must be in writing and must include the following:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works;
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Yale to locate the material;
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit Yale to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which you may be contacted;
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 the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury, and that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

When Yale receives a Notice that complies with the Copyright Act, it will remove the identified material immediately. Yale will promptly take reasonable steps to inform the user who posted the allegedly infringing material (the “alleged infringer”) of the Notice and subsequent removal. The alleged infringer may then provide Yale with a counter-notice (“Counter-Notice”) that the initial infringement notice was erroneous. Such Counter-Notice must be in writing and must include:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the alleged infringer;
2. Identification of the material removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled;
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the alleged infringer has a good-faith belief that the material was removed or access to it disabled as a result of error;
4. The alleged infringer’s name, address, and telephone number; and
5. A statement of consent to jurisdiction in federal district court and that the alleged infringer consents to service of process from the complaining party or its agent.

Upon receipt of a Counter-Notice, Yale will notify you of the Counter-Notice and restore the material within 10 to 14 business days of receipt of the Counter-Notice, unless you inform Yale that you have filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the allegedly infringing party from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on the Site.

The site and the services and materials available on or through it are provided “as is” and “as available.” Yale does not warrant that the site or any such services or materials will be uninterrupted or error-free. There may be delays, omissions, interruptions and inaccuracies in materials or services available on or through the site. Yale makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, reliability or non-infringement of any content on the site or services available on it, including user content, or through links to other web sites. Yale reserves the right to correct any errors or omissions in the site. If you rely on the site and any materials or services available on or otherwise transmitted through it, you do so entirely at your own risk. 

You specifically acknowledge that Yale is not liable for the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of other users or third parties, and that the risk of injury from this type of conduct rests entirely with you.  Your sole remedy for dissatisfaction with the site, site-related services, and/or content or information contained within the site is to stop using the site and/or those services.

To the maximum extent permitted under law, Yale disclaims all express or implied warranties with respect to the site and any content, information, goods or services that are available on or otherwise transmitted through it, including without limitation, any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose (even if that purpose has been disclosed).

Although Yale intends to take reasonable steps to prevent the introduction of viruses, worms, “trojan horses” or other malicious code to the site, Yale does not guarantee or warrant that the site, or services or materials that may be available on or through the site, are free from such destructive features. Yale is not liable for any damages or harm attributable to such features.  It is up to you to take any and all precautions to ensure that the services and/or materials you access and use from the site or any hyperlinked web site is free of such items of a destructive nature.

Yale and its officers, trustees, employees and agents are not liable for any claim of any nature whatsoever based on loss or injury because of errors, omissions, interruptions or inaccuracies in the site or any services or materials available on or through the site, including loss or injury that results from your breach of any provision of the terms.

Under no circumstances will Yale or its officers, trustees, employees, or agents be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substituted services or materials; loss of use, data, revenues or profits; or business interruption) arising in any way out of or in connection with your use of the site or services available on or through the site or the terms, however caused and regardless of the theory of liability, whether in tort (including negligence of any kind), contract, statutory, or any other legal or equitable theory, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Some states do not allow the limitation of liability for certain kinds of damages, so some of these limitations or exclusions may not apply to you.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold Yale and its officers, trustees, employees and agents harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, costs, or other expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) that arise directly or indirectly out of or from: 

1. your breach of the Terms;
2. your violation of the Code of Conduct (as set forth above); or
3. your activities in connection with the Site or Site-related services.

Yale reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter for which it is entitled to indemnification. You agree to provide Yale with whatever cooperation it reasonably requests.

The Terms, which include the University’s Privacy Policy and the Yale Online Alumni Community and YaleMail Privacy Policy, as applicable, are the complete agreement between you and Yale regarding your use of the Site, and any and all prior or contemporaneous written or oral agreements existing between you and Yale are expressly canceled.  Any heading, caption, or paragraph title contained in the Terms is inserted only as a matter of convenience and in no way defines or explains any paragraph or provision contained within the Terms.  

You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to the Terms or any content posted to the Site, including copies and republication thereof, whether based in contract, tort, statutory or other law, will be governed by the laws of the State of Connecticut, excluding its conflicts of law provisions. You irrevocably agree to bring any claim or dispute relating to your use of the Site and the Terms exclusively in the applicable state courts located in New Haven County, Connecticut or the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (sitting in New Haven), to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of those courts, and to waive any objections based on jurisdiction, venue, or inconvenience of the forum.  In any action to enforce this agreement, the prevailing party will be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees.  If a court determines that any provision of the Terms is unenforceable for any reason, then that provision will be deleted and the remaining provisions will be enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Please contact the Yale Alumni Association at yalealumni@yale.edu with any questions you may have about these Terms, including the University’s privacy policies.