Terms & Conditions

By visiting MuckRock, FOIA Machine, or DocumentCloud ("MuckRock Services", the “Service,” “App” or “Web Site”) you agree to the following terms & conditions. Please read these Terms & Conditions carefully before agreeing to be bound by the same. If you do not agree to be bound by the Terms & Conditions, do not access or use this Service. This Service is provided by MuckRock Foundation, Inc. By using this Service or by submitting any requests using the Service, you agree to abide by the terms and conditions set forth herein. Only upon acceptance of the terms contained herein, you will be entitled to submit public records requests using our Service. If you have any questions about these terms, send us an email to info@muckrock.com.

General Terms

If you are accepting these Terms and continuing to use MuckRock Services on behalf of a company, organization, government, or other legal entity, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so. If you are using MuckRock Services on behalf of a business, that business accepts these Terms and will hold harmless and indemnify MuckRock and its affiliates, officers, agents and employees from any claim, action or proceedings arising from or related to the use of MuckRock Services or violation of these Terms, including any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, judgments, litigation costs, and legal fees.

You may use MuckRock Services only in compliance with these Terms and all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules, and regulations. As a condition of your use, you warrant to MuckRock that you will not use the Services for any unlawful or prohibited purpose. You may not use the Services in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Services or interfere with any other party’s use of the Services. You may not, by any means, obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information not intentionally made available or provided for through MuckRock Services.

MuckRock may revise these Terms at any time by posting an updated version to this Web page. MuckRock may stop, permanently or temporarily, providing the Services or any of its features to you or to users generally and may not be able to provide you with prior notice.

Users who violate these Terms may have their access and use of the Service suspended or terminated at MuckRock’s discretion.

Code of Conduct

• Requests are for requesting information, and not for stating or alleging unfounded allegations or making public accusations. Requests should include information that is useful to successfully searching for and reviewing the requested documents or data, but requests that include material that is defamatory or potentially defamatory are subject to removal or embargoing at the discretion of MuckRock staff. Users who file requests with defamatory or potentially defamatory material or statements are subject to having their accounts deactivated.
• Due to the public nature of MuckRock's service, MuckRock is not to be used for privacy act requests or other requests seeking personal or sensitive information, even if the user is requesting information on themselves. Users who file requests regarding private information or request data that, in MuckRock staff's discretion, is likely to release private information are liable to having their requests embargoed, withdrawn and/or deleted, and having their accounts deactivated.
• Previous requests on the platform regarding the topic of energy-directed weapons, touchless torture, gangstalking, and related subjects have proven to be disruptive to the site's operations while not producing useful responses in the public interest. These requests are prohibited from the platform and the requests may be embargoed, withdrawn, or deleted by site administrators.
• Our services are not to be used as a tool for harassment, including for purposes of intimidation, for causing intentional fear of injury, to seriously and repeatedly annoy another while serving no legitimate purpose, or to intentionally publish or cause to be published information of a private nature, such as social security numbers, personal health information, or information that would reasonably endanger the life or safety of a person. Requests that include harassing or endangering material are subject to removal or embargoing at the discretion of MuckRock staff. Users who file requests with harassing or endangering material are subject to having their accounts deactivated.

Privacy Policy

Please review our Privacy Policy, which also governs your use of MuckRock Services, to understand our practices.

Electronic Communications

When you use the Service or send any emails to us, you will be communicating electronically with us. By such electronic communication, you agree to receive such communications from us electronically. You acknowledge that your electronic submissions constitute your agreement and your acceptance to be bound by and to pay for such agreements and transactions. Your agreement and intent to be bound by electronic submissions applies to all transactions you enter into on the Service, and all records including notices of cancellation, policies, contracts, and applications.

License and Access

Subject to your compliance with these Terms and your payment of any applicable fees, MuckRock grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and make use of MuckRock Services. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of any MuckRock Services, or its contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of another public records request service; any derivative use of any MuckRock Service or its contents; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools. All rights not expressly granted to you in these Terms are reserved and retained by MuckRock or its licensors, rights holders, or other content providers. No MuckRock Services, part or whole, may be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without the express written consent of MuckRock. If you do not comply with these Terms, the licenses granted by MuckRock will terminate.

Trademarks

MuckRock may have registered and has common law trademarks in its name, brand logo, and other designs. MuckRock retains all rights, and you are not granted any right or license to those trademarks. The MuckRock Services may contain third-party trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos. You are not granted any right or license with respect to the trademarks of any third party.

Your Account

If you use any of MuckRock Services, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password, and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password.

Payments

If you purchase any available subscription plan (“Subscription”), or any other services that MuckRock offers for a fee, either on a one-time or subscription basis (collectively, “Member Services”), you agree to MuckRock’s payment processor, Stripe, storing your payment information. You also agree to pay the applicable fees for the Member Services (including without limitation, monthly charges for any Subscription) as they become due, plus all related taxes, and to reimburse us for all collection costs and interest for any overdue amounts. Your obligation to pay fees continues through the end of the Subscription period during which you can cancel your Subscription. If you purchase a Subscription, you agree to monthly recurring payments on your account. You may cancel your Subscription by contacting us at info@muckrock.com, or by changing your account preferences at the following URL:

https://accounts.muckrock.com/users/~payment/

You also acknowledge that MuckRock Member Services are subject to these Terms and any additional terms related to Member Services.

User Generated Content

You may transmit or publish content created by you using any of the Services or otherwise. However, you shall be solely responsible for such content and the consequences of its transmission or publication. Any content made public will be publicly accessible through the Internet and may be crawled and indexed by search engines. You are responsible for ensuring that you do not accidentally make any private content publicly available. Any content that you may receive from other users of MuckRock Services, is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only and you agree not to use, copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license or otherwise exploit such content for any purpose, without the express written consent of the person who owns the rights to such content. In the course of using any of MuckRock Services, if you come across any content with copyright notice(s) or any copy protection feature(s), you agree not to remove such copyright notice(s) or disable such copy protection feature(s) as the case may be. By making any copyrighted/copyrightable content available on any of the MuckRock Services you affirm that you have the consent, authorization or permission, as the case may be from every person who may claim any rights in such content to make such content available in such manner. Further, by making any content available in the manner aforementioned, you expressly agree that MuckRock will have the right to block access to or remove such content made available by you, if MuckRock receives complaints concerning any illegality or infringement of third party rights in such content. By using any of the MuckRock Services and transmitting or publishing any content using such Service, you expressly consent to determination of questions of illegality or infringement of third-party rights in such content by the agent designated by MuckRock for this purpose.

Copyright Notifications

MuckRock will remove infringing materials in accordance with the DMCA if properly notified that Content infringes copyright. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify MuckRock’s Copyright Agent in writing. Your notice must contain the following information (please confirm these requirements with your legal counsel, or see the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3), for more information):

an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;

a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;

a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Site, sufficient for the Civic Project to locate the material;

your address, telephone number, and email 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; and

a statement by you that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

If you believe that your work has been removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, please notify MuckRock’s Copyright Agent in writing. Your counter-notice must contain the following information (please confirm these requirements with your legal counsel or see the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §512(g)(3), for more information):

a physical or electronic signature of the user of the Services;

identification of the material that has been 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;

a statement made under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material; and

the subscriber's name, address, telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriber's address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the user will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subscriber (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

Under the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing or was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

If you fail to comply with these notice requirements, your notification or counter-notification may not be valid.

Our designated copyright agent for notice of alleged copyright infringement is:

MuckRock

Attn: Copyright Agent

263 Huntington Ave

Boston, MA 02115

Email: info@muckrock.com

Disclaimers

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN AS-IS AND AS-AVAILABLE BASIS. MUCKROCK EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. MUCKROCK MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR VIRUS FREE. USE OF ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICES SHALL BE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM, MOBILE TELEPHONE, WIRELESS DEVICE OR DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICES OR THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER WRITTEN OR ORAL, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM MUCKROCK, ITS EMPLOYEES OR REPRESENTATIVES SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE TERMS.

MUCKROCK MAKES NO GUARANTEES, REPRESENTATIONS, OR WARRANTIES THAT USE OR RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE MUCKROCK SERVICES WILL BE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, CURRENT, UNINTERRUPTED OR WITHOUT ERRORS. WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE, MUCKROCK MAY MODIFY, SUSPEND, OR DISCONTINUE THE MUCKROCK SERVICES (INCLUDING ANY CONTENT) OR YOUR USE OF THEM. WHENEVER MUCKROCK ELECTS TO MODIFY, SUSPEND, OR DISCONTINUE THE MUCKROCK SERVICES, IT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOUR SUBMISSION OF ANY INFORMATION OR DATA TO US IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. MUCKROCK DOES NOT ASSUME ANY LIABILITY TO YOU WITH REGARD TO ANY LOSS OR LIABILITY RELATING TO SUCH INFORMATION OR DATA IN ANY WAY.

YOU UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MAY ENCOUNTER OFFENSIVE, INDECENT OR OTHER OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT WHEN USING THE MUCKROCK SERVICES. MUCKROCK WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY SUCH CONTENT.

SOME OF THE CONTENT, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES AVAILABLE THROUGH THE MUCKROCK SERVICES MAY INCLUDE MATERIALS THAT BELONG TO THIRD PARTIES. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MUCKROCK ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR SUCH CONTENT, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.

Limitation of Liability

YOU AGREE THAT MUCKROCK SHALL, IN NO EVENT, BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR OTHER LOSS OR DAMAGE WHATSOEVER OR FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, COMPUTER FAILURE, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, LOSS OF DATA, OR OTHER LOSS ARISING OUT OF OR CAUSED BY YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, EVEN IF MUCKROCK HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR ANY DISPUTE WITH MUCKROCK RELATED TO ANY OF THE SERVICES SHALL BE TERMINATION OF SUCH SERVICE. IN NO EVENT SHALL MUCKROCK’S ENTIRE LIABILITY TO YOU IN RESPECT OF ANY SERVICE, WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT, EXCEED THE FEES PAID BY YOU TOWARDS SUCH SERVICE.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless MUCKROCK, its officers, directors, employees, suppliers, contractors, agents, licensors, sublicensors, and affiliates, from and against any losses, damages, fines and expenses (including attorney's fees and costs) arising out of or relating to any claims that you have used the Services in violation of another party's rights, in violation of any law, in violations of any provisions of the Terms, or any other claim related to your use of the MUCKROCK Services.

Suspension and Termination

We may suspend your user account or terminate access to whole or part of any MuckRock Service in the event of any suspected illegal activity, extended periods of inactivity or requests by law enforcement or other government agencies. We will also terminate your user account on your request. In addition, we reserve the right to terminate your user account and deny the MuckRock Services if you breach any payment agreement you make with us, or upon reasonable belief that you have violated the Terms and to terminate your access to any MuckRock Service in case of unexpected technical issues or discontinuation of the Service. Termination of user account will include denial of access to all Services, deletion of information in your user account such as your e-mail address and password and deletion of all data in your user account.

Waiver and Severability

The failure of MuckRock to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision. In the event that any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, then that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in full force and effect.

Applicable Law

By visiting the Service, you agree that the laws of the State of Massachusetts, without regard to the principles of conflict of laws, will govern these Terms & Conditions and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and MuckRock.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT AND WILL BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS AGREEMENT REPRESENTS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US AND THAT IT SUPERSEDES ANY PROPOSAL OR PRIOR AGREEMENT ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN US RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS AGREEMENT.