Terms of Use & Legal Disclaimer
Part A: Terms of Use and Legal Disclaimer
American Reality Today, A Social Purpose Corporation Last Updated: [DATE]
These Terms of Use and Legal Disclaimer (“Terms”) govern access to and use of AmericanRealityToday.com (the “Site”), including browsing, account registration, submissions, comments, Topic of the Week responses, ratings, reports, feedback and other interactive features.
“American Reality Today,” “ART,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to American Reality Today, A Social Purpose Corporation and, where appropriate, its officers, directors, editors, administrators, employees, contractors and agents.
By using the Site or submitting material, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.
For purposes of these Terms, “submit” or “upload” means providing material to ART, whether or not the material is ultimately made public. “Post” or “publish” means making material publicly available on the Site.
1. What American Reality Today Is
ART is a moderated platform for civic discussion and the presentation of user-contributed material. The Site may post comments, letters, editorials, photographs, videos, resources and other material contributed by users and third parties.
Much of the material appearing on the Site is user-generated content and is not authored by ART.
Presentation of content or continued availability of material does not mean that ART endorses the author’s opinion, has independently verified every factual assertion, or guarantees the material’s accuracy, completeness or legality.
2. Accounts, Contributors and Age
You must be at least 18 years old, or the applicable age of legal majority where you live, to create an account or submit material for publication.
You are responsible for activity conducted through your account and for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials.
ART is a general-audience site and is not directed to children under 13. ART does not knowingly collect personal information online directly from children under 13 without legally sufficient parental consent. If ART learns that it has done so, it may delete that information and terminate the associated account.
3. Contributor Responsibilities
If you submit content, a comment, article, letter, photograph, video or other material, you represent that:
the material is your own or you have the rights, licenses, permissions and consents necessary for ART to receive, use and publish it as permitted by these Terms;
the material does not unlawfully infringe copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other rights;
you are not knowingly presenting fabricated events or materially false information as fact;
you will make a good-faith effort to distinguish factual assertions from opinion and provide appropriate support for significant factual claims when requested;
the material does not unlawfully defame, threaten, harass or invade the privacy of another person;
photographs, video and similar material are accurately described and any material alteration is disclosed;
where another identifiable person appears in submitted material, you have any consent required by law or another lawful basis for submitting the material; and
your submission does not violate applicable law.
You remain responsible for material you contribute.
ART may ask for sources, original files, contextual information, permission records or other information reasonably necessary to evaluate a submission.
4. Editorial Review and No Right to Publication
Articles, letters, photographs, videos, Topic of the Week responses and similar submissions intended for posting are ordinarily reviewed before publication.
ART may approve, edit, request clarification or revision, hold, decline, unpublish or remove submitted material at any time. Submission does not create a right to publication, and acceptance of one contribution does not require ART to accept another.
ART may decline material because of relevance, duplication, quality, available editorial resources, inability to verify important information, legal or safety concerns, or other reasonable editorial considerations.
ART’s editorial discretion is intended to be exercised consistently with its stated civic and reality-based purposes. A contribution will not receive more favorable or unfavorable treatment merely because it supports or criticizes a political party, public official, ideology, religion, organization or social viewpoint.
ART seeks to apply the same standards of evidence, attribution, authenticity, civility and legality regardless of viewpoint.
Comments and other interactive material may be subject to different moderation standards and practices and are not necessarily reviewed before appearing.
5. Prohibited Content and Conduct
You may not use the Site to submit or distribute material that:
is unlawful or solicits or facilitates unlawful activity;
is knowingly false or fraudulent in a manner likely to cause unlawful harm;
is defamatory;
infringes intellectual-property or proprietary rights;
unlawfully discloses private or confidential information;
contains non-consensual intimate imagery;
constitutes a credible threat, unlawful harassment or targeted intimidation;
exploits or endangers minors;
impersonates another person or materially misrepresents an affiliation;
contains malware, phishing material or other harmful code; or
attempts to bypass security, scrape restricted information, spam or disrupt the Site.
ART may restrict accounts or remove material for violations of these Terms or other legitimate legal, editorial, safety or operational reasons.
6. Accuracy Complaints, Flags and Takedowns
Anyone may flag or report material believed to be inaccurate, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, threatening, deceptive, invasive of privacy or contrary to ART’s published standards.
Reports may be made through available reporting tools or by contacting contact@americanrealitytoday.com.
A flag or report alerts ART that material may warrant review. It does not by itself establish that the material is inaccurate or improper or require its removal.
When a significant factual assertion is credibly challenged, ART may examine information supplied by the contributor and complainant and consult reliable independent sources. Depending upon the circumstances, ART may leave the material posted, temporarily restrict access, request additional information, correct or clarify the material, add an editor’s note, remove material, restore previously removed material, restrict an account or take no action.
ART may give expedited attention to reports involving credible threats, highly sensitive personal information, apparent illegality or a substantial risk of immediate harm.
ART may establish and revise internal procedures for reviewing reports and flagged material. Those procedures are administrative guidelines and do not create contractual rights or require ART to take any particular action in a particular case.
7. Requesting Reconsideration (new)
If ART declines, edits, unpublishes or removes your material, or restricts your account, ART will ordinarily tell you the general reason, unless doing so would create a legal or safety risk.
You may ask ART to reconsider by writing to contact@americanrealitytoday.com within 30 days, with the subject line “Reconsideration Request.” Please identify the material and explain why you believe the decision should change. You may include sources, original files or other supporting information.
ART will review the request in good faith, where practical by someone other than the original reviewer, and will tell you the outcome. ART’s decision on reconsideration is final. A reconsideration request does not create a right to publication. Copyright removals are handled through the counter-notification process in Section 9.
8. Copyright and Other Intellectual Property
ART respects copyright and other intellectual-property rights.
Contributors should submit material they created or own, material they have permission or a license to use, or third-party material for which they identify a lawful basis for the proposed use and clearly disclose its ownership and source to ART. Attribution alone does not supply permission or a lawful basis for use.
The fact that a photograph, article, video, recording or other work is available on the Internet does not mean it is free to reproduce.
ART may request evidence of ownership, permission or licensing and may reject, remove, mute, crop, link to or otherwise decline to reproduce third-party material when appropriate.
9. DMCA Copyright Notices
If you believe material on the Site infringes your copyright, submit a notification complying with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512, using our DMCA claim form, or send it to ART’s designated copyright agent:
DMCA Agent: John Monek
American Reality Today
Address: 16811 W. Coulee Hite Rd, Spokane, WA 99224
Email: johnm@lawtonprinting.com
A copyright notice should identify the copyrighted work, identify the allegedly infringing material and its location on the Site, provide the complaining party’s contact information (name, mailing address, telephone number, and email), contain the statements required by applicable law, and contain the physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized representative.
ART may remove or disable access to material after receiving an appropriate copyright notice and may notify the contributor responsible for the material. A contributor who believes material was removed because of mistake or misidentification may submit a counter-notification as permitted by applicable law.
ART has adopted a policy of terminating or restricting, in appropriate circumstances, users or account holders who are repeat infringers. ART also reserves the right to remove or restrict access to material, and to suspend or terminate accounts, when ART reasonably believes such action is appropriate under these Terms, applicable law or ART’s legal, editorial, safety or operational responsibilities.
ART will respond as appropriate to valid legal process concerning intellectual-property rights. ART is not a governmental or private enforcement agency and does not undertake to investigate or adjudicate intellectual-property disputes beyond what ART determines is reasonably necessary to operate the Site and comply with applicable law.
Trademark and other intellectual-property complaints may be sent to the same contact address with sufficient information to permit ART to evaluate the complaint.
10. License Granted to ART
You retain ownership of content you submit.
By submitting content for publication, you grant ART a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, format, edit as authorized by these Terms, post, publish, display and distribute that content as reasonably necessary to operate, promote and preserve the Site and its published material.
This license includes reasonable technical changes required for publication, such as formatting, sizing, compression and accessibility adaptations.
The license continues while the content is posted or maintained on ART’s systems and afterward to the limited extent reasonably necessary for backups, archives, legal compliance, editorial records and dispute resolution.
This license does not permit ART to sell your content or to license it to third parties for their own use, including the uses described in Section 11.
11. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (new)
ART does not sell or license your content for AI training. ART does not sell, license or otherwise provide content you submit to any third party for the purpose of training artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models. ART does not use your content to train its own generative AI models.
How ART uses AI tools. As described on ART’s Use of AI page, ART uses AI tools to help with tasks such as site development, graphics, safety review and fact-checking. ART may process submitted material with such tools to evaluate and moderate it. When ART uses an outside AI service for this purpose, ART will choose services whose terms do not permit them to use the material to train their models.
Contributors’ use of AI. You may use AI tools to help refine your own writing. You remain responsible for what you submit, and it must reflect your own experience and views. You must disclose to ART when a submission’s text, image, audio or video was substantially generated by AI. ART may label such material, or decline it, at its discretion.
No scraping for AI. You may not use automated means to collect content from the Site for the purpose of training or improving AI or machine-learning models without ART’s prior written permission.
12. Photographs, Video and Authenticity
ART may request information about when, where and by whom submitted photographs or video were created.
Contributors must disclose material alterations, including AI-generated or AI-altered elements, that could affect a reasonable viewer’s understanding of what an image or recording depicts.
Ordinary technical adjustments such as cropping, resizing, exposure correction and compression are not necessarily considered alterations of the underlying event.
ART may decline or remove visual material when its source or authenticity cannot reasonably be established or its publication would violate ART’s standards or applicable law.
13. Privacy
ART’s collection and use of personal information are described in its Privacy Policy, available at AmericanRealityToday.com/privacy, which forms part of the policies governing use of the Site.
Information intentionally included in material submitted for publication may become publicly available.
Do not submit another person’s private or sensitive information unless its disclosure is lawful and appropriate.
14. Third-Party Websites and Resources
The Site may contain links to resources and websites operated by third parties.
A link does not necessarily constitute endorsement of the linked organization, its views, or all material appearing on its website. ART does not control third-party sites and is not responsible for their content, security, availability or privacy practices.
15. Opinions and No Professional Advice
Opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of ART.
Material on the Site may discuss legal, medical, financial, psychological or other specialized subjects. Unless ART expressly states otherwise, Site content is provided for general informational and discussion purposes and is not individualized professional advice.
16. User-Generated Content and Applicable Legal Protections
Users and contributors remain responsible for content they create.
To the fullest extent provided by applicable law, including 47 U.S.C. § 230 where applicable, ART reserves all protections available to providers or users of interactive computer services concerning information supplied by another information-content provider.
ART’s decision to review, edit, fact-check, moderate, decline or remove particular submissions does not constitute a representation that ART has verified all material on the Site or assumed a general duty to monitor every statement or communication.
17. Feedback (new)
Ideas, suggestions and comments you send ART about the Site or its operations, including through the Feedback page, are voluntary. ART may use them without compensation or obligation to you. This section does not apply to content you submit for publication, which is governed by Section 10.
18. Indemnification
To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless ART and its officers, directors, employees, moderators, editors, administrators, contractors and agents from claims, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees arising from your content or conduct, your material breach of these Terms, or your violation of applicable law or the rights of another person.
19. Disclaimer of Warranties
THE SITE AND ITS CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.”
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ART DISCLAIMS WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY.
ART DOES NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE SITE WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT EVERY ITEM OF USER-GENERATED CONTENT WILL BE ACCURATE, LAWFUL OR APPROPRIATE.
20. Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ART AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, EDITORS, ADMINISTRATORS, CONTRACTORS AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM USE OF THE SITE OR USER-GENERATED CONTENT.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ART’S TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF THE SITE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT, IF ANY, PAID BY THE CLAIMANT TO ART DURING THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM OR US $100.
Where applicable law does not permit a particular exclusion or limitation, that exclusion or limitation applies only to the maximum extent permitted by law.
21. Suspension, Removal and Legal Process
To the fullest extent permitted by law, ART reserves the right, but does not assume an obligation, to review, edit, decline, restrict, unpublish or remove content and to suspend, restrict or terminate accounts when ART reasonably determines that doing so is appropriate for legal, editorial, safety, security or operational reasons or to enforce these Terms.
ART may remove content, restrict or terminate accounts, preserve records, and disclose information when reasonably believed necessary to comply with applicable law or legal process, protect rights or safety, investigate misconduct, or enforce these Terms.
22. Closing Your Account and Termination (new)
You may stop using the Site at any time. You may close your account through your account settings or by writing to contact@americanrealitytoday.com.
Closing your account ends your ability to log in and submit material. Material that ART has already published may remain on the Site under the license in Section 10. You may ask ART to remove specific published material, and ART will consider the request in good faith. ART may keep material that is part of the public record of a discussion, is needed for an editor’s note or correction, or must be preserved for legal reasons.
ART may suspend or terminate accounts as described in Sections 9 and 21. ART may also close accounts that have been inactive for an extended period, after notice to the account’s email address where practical.
The following sections survive any termination of these Terms or of your account: 3 (Contributor Responsibilities), 10 (License Granted to ART), 11 (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), 16 (User-Generated Content and Applicable Legal Protections), 17 (Feedback), 18 (Indemnification), 19 (Disclaimer of Warranties), 20 (Limitation of Liability), 25 (Governing Law and Venue) and 26 (Severability and Entire Agreement).
23. Changes to These Terms (revised)
ART may revise these Terms as the Site, its practices or applicable law changes. The current version and its “Last Updated” date will be posted on the Site.
For material changes, ART will give additional notice, such as a notice on the Site or an email to the address associated with your account, before the changes take effect where practical.
Revised Terms take effect on the posted date. By continuing to use the Site or submit material after that date, you agree to the revised Terms. If you do not agree, you should stop using the Site and may close your account under Section 22. Revisions do not apply retroactively to disputes that arose before they took effect.
24. Contact
Questions, complaints and legal notices may be directed to:
American Reality Today, A Social Purpose Corporation [MAILING ADDRESS] contact@americanrealitytoday.com [TELEPHONE, if desired]
Copyright notices should be directed specifically to the DMCA agent identified in Section 9.
25. Governing Law and Venue
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [STATE], together with applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law principles that would require application of another jurisdiction’s law.
Subject to applicable law and any mandatory consumer venue requirements, disputes concerning these Terms or the Site shall be brought in courts having appropriate jurisdiction in [COUNTY AND STATE].
26. Severability and Entire Agreement
If a provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect to the extent permitted by law.
These Terms, the Privacy Policy and any other terms expressly incorporated into them constitute the agreement between the user and ART concerning use of the Site, except where ART and the user have entered into a separate written agreement governing the matter.
Part B: Privacy Policy
To be published at AmericanRealityToday.com/privacy with its own footer link.
American Reality Today, A Social Purpose Corporation Effective Date: [DATE]
American Reality Today (“ART,” “we,” “us” or “our”) respects the privacy of people who visit and contribute to AmericanRealityToday.com (the “Site”).
This Privacy Policy explains the types of personal information we may collect, why we collect it, how we may use and disclose it, and choices available to individuals.
1. Information We Collect
Depending upon how you use the Site, we may collect:
Information you provide directly. This may include your name, username, email address, telephone number if voluntarily provided, city and state, account information, correspondence with ART, and information accompanying letters, articles, photographs, videos, comments or other submissions.
Submission and verification information. We may collect information reasonably necessary to evaluate the source, context, authenticity, rights and suitability for publication of submitted material.
Technical information. The Site and its service providers may collect technical information such as IP address, browser or device information, access times, referring pages, cookies and similar information generated through use of the Site.
Information intentionally included in material submitted for publication may become publicly available if ART publishes the submission.
ART will make reasonable efforts to distinguish information intended for publication from information supplied only for administrative or verification purposes.
2. How We Use Information
ART may use personal information to:
operate, maintain and secure the Site;
establish and administer accounts;
review and moderate submissions and comments;
communicate with contributors and users;
evaluate the source, context, authenticity or rights associated with submitted material;
investigate complaints and reported content;
prevent and address fraud, abuse, infringement and misuse;
comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful process;
improve the Site and its services; and
maintain reasonable editorial, security and administrative records.
ART will not use personal information for materially unrelated purposes without appropriate notice or consent when required. ART does not sell, license or provide personal information or submitted content to third parties for training AI or machine-learning models.
3. Information Published on the Site
ART is a moderated platform that posts user-contributed material. Information that a contributor intentionally includes in material submitted for publication may become publicly available.
Contributors should not include private or sensitive information about themselves or other people unless its publication is appropriate and lawful.
ART may redact or withhold personally identifying information when publication could unnecessarily invade privacy, create a safety concern, violate applicable law or conflict with ART’s editorial standards.
4. Selling and Sharing Personal Information
ART does not sell personal information.
ART does not provide personal information to advertisers or data brokers for their independent marketing purposes.
ART may provide information to service providers that assist in operating the Site, such as website-hosting, email, security, data-storage, analytics, AI-assisted moderation or technical-service providers, subject to appropriate contractual or other restrictions where required.
ART may also disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with applicable law or legal process; investigate suspected fraud, infringement or unlawful activity; protect ART or others; enforce applicable agreements; or when authorized by the individual concerned.
5. Cookies and Analytics
The Site may use cookies and similar technologies for account access, security, Site functionality, administration and analytics.
ART will review this Policy as its technology and service providers develop and will provide additional disclosures when required concerning material third-party analytics, advertising or tracking technologies.
6. Communications
ART does not currently sell mailing lists or conduct third-party commercial email marketing.
If ART offers optional newsletters, announcements or similar communications, participation will be voluntary and recipients will be provided a reasonable method of unsubscribing.
Administrative communications concerning an account, submission, complaint, security matter or other transaction with ART are not marketing communications.
7. Children
ART is a general-audience Site and is not directed to children under 13.
Accounts and content submissions are intended for people who are at least 18 years old or the applicable age of legal majority.
ART does not knowingly collect personal information online directly from children under 13 without legally sufficient parental consent. If ART learns that it has collected such information, it will take reasonable steps to address the situation as required by applicable law, which may include deleting the information.
A parent or other person who believes a child under 13 has provided personal information to ART may contact [PRIVACY EMAIL].
An adult’s submission of lawful material concerning or depicting a minor remains subject to ART’s editorial, privacy, safety and legal standards.
8. Data Security
ART uses reasonable administrative, technical and organizational measures intended to protect personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction.
No Internet service, transmission system or method of electronic storage can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
9. Data Retention
ART retains personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including operation of the Site, maintenance of editorial records, security, dispute resolution, enforcement of agreements and compliance with legal obligations.
Information associated with published material may be retained in ART’s editorial or archival records even if the published material is later corrected or removed.
10. Access, Correction and Deletion
You may contact ART to request access to, correction of or deletion of personal information you have provided. You may also close your account as described in Section 22 of the Terms of Use.
ART will consider and respond to requests as required by applicable law and may voluntarily honor reasonable requests even when a particular statutory right does not apply.
Information may be retained when reasonably necessary for legal compliance, security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, editorial integrity, recordkeeping or other legitimate purposes.
Requests may be sent to [PRIVACY EMAIL]. ART may take reasonable steps to verify the identity and authority of a person making a privacy request.
11. Third-Party Websites
ART may link to websites operated by other organizations. ART does not control those organizations’ privacy or security practices. Their practices are governed by their own policies.
12. Changes to This Policy
ART may revise this Privacy Policy as the Site, its practices, technology or applicable law changes.
The current version will be posted on the Site with its effective or revision date. Material changes affecting how ART uses personal information will receive additional notice, such as a notice on the Site or an email to account holders, before they take effect where practical.
13. Contact
Privacy questions or requests may be directed to:
American Reality Today, A Social Purpose Corporation [MAILING ADDRESS] [PRIVACY EMAIL] [TELEPHONE, if desired]
This Privacy Policy describes ART’s information practices and does not create contractual rights beyond those provided by applicable law.