Terms Of Use

PLEASE READ OUR TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU USE OUR WEB SITE

Seeking Alpha Ltd. ("Seeking Alpha" "we," or "us") provides its web site, Seeking Alpha, located at http://seekingalpha.com/ (the "Site"), to you, an individual user ("you") for your individual usage, subject to compliance with the terms and conditions set forth herein.

1. Agreement

By using the Site, you agree to be bound by our Terms of Use (the "TOU"). If you do not agree to the terms and conditions contained in the TOU and Seeking Alpha's privacy policy, please do not access or otherwise use the Site or any information contained herein.

You affirm that you are over the age of 18, as the Site is not intended for children under 18. If it comes to Seeking Alpha's attention through reliable means that a registered user is a child under 18 years of age, Seeking Alpha will cancel that user's account.

2. Changes to the TOU

We reserve the right at any time to:

• Change the terms and conditions of the TOU;
• Change the Site, including eliminating or discontinuing any content or feature of the Site; or
• Impose fees, charges or other conditions for use of the Site or parts thereof (with reasonable notice).

Seeking Alpha may modify the Site at any time without prior notice, and you accept those modifications if you continue to use the Site. You should check the Site frequently to see recent changes.

3. Important Securities Disclaimer

You understand that no content published on the Site constitutes a recommendation that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. You further understand that none of the bloggers, information providers or their affiliates are advising you personally concerning the nature, potential, value or suitability of any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, investment strategy or other matter. To the extent that any of the content published on the Site may be deemed to be investment advice or recommendations in connection with a particular security, such information is impersonal and not tailored to the investment needs of any specific person. You understand that an investment in any security is subject to a number of risks, and that discussions of any security published on the Site will not contain a list or description of relevant risk factors. In addition, please note that some of the stocks about which content is published on the Site have a low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float. Such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information. Blogs, postings or content on the Site which may or may not be deemed by you to be recommendations may have an effect on their stock prices.

You understand that the Site may contain opinions from time to time with regard to securities mentioned in other Seeking Alpha blogs or products, and that opinions in one blog or product may be different from those in another blog or product. You understand and agree that, although we require all employees to disclose every stock in which they, their immediate family, or any entity under their control, have a personal interest, if such stock is mentioned in a blog, post, or content which they write, outside bloggers or other content contributors or their affiliates may write about securities in which they or their firms have a position, and that they may trade for their own account, and that they may or may not be subject to a disclosure policy. In cases where Seeking Alpha becomes aware that the employee has violated his or her disclosure obligation, Seeking Alpha will take appropriate action. In addition, outside bloggers or content contributors may be subject to certain restrictions on trading for their own account. However, you understand and agree that at the time of any transaction that you make, one or more bloggers or content contributors or their affiliates may have a position in the securities written about.

You understand that performance data is supplied by sources believed to be reliable, that the calculations herein are made using such data, and that such calculations are not guaranteed by these sources, the information providers, or any other person or entity, and may not be complete.

From time to time, reference may be made on our Site to prior articles and opinions we have published. These references may be selective, may reference only a portion of an article or opinion, and are likely not to be current. As markets change continuously, previously published information and data may not be current and should not be relied upon.

All content on the Site is presented only as of the date published or indicated, and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons. In addition, you are responsible for setting the cache settings on your browser to ensure you are receiving the most recent data.

4. No Investment Recommendations or Professional Advice

The Site is not intended to provide tax, legal, insurance or investment advice, and nothing on the Site should be construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any security by Seeking Alpha or any third party. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy, or any other product or service, is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation. You should consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

5. Copyright, Linking Policy and Trademarks

The Site and the content contained herein, as well as all copyrights, including without limitation, the text, documents, articles, products, software, graphics, photos, sounds, videos, interactive features, services, links, User Submissions (as defined below) and any other content on the Site ("Content") and the trademarks, service marks and logos contained therein are the property of Seeking Alpha and its licensors. You may access and use the Content, and download and/or print out copies of any content from the Site, solely for your personal, non-commercial use. If you download or print a copy of the Content for personal use, you must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained therein. You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by using the Site. Seeking Alpha reserves all rights not expressly granted in and to the Site.

The Site contains links to other Internet websites or links to content created by third party which is published on the Site. We neither control nor endorse such other websites, nor have we reviewed or approved any content that appears on such other websites or on our Site. You acknowledge and agree that we shall not be held responsible for the legality, accuracy, or appropriateness of any content, advertising, products, services, or information located on our Site or any other websites, nor for any loss or damages caused or alleged to have been caused by the use of or reliance on any such content.

You may link to any content on the Site. If you are interested in reprinting, republishing or distributing content from Seeking Alpha, please contact Seeking Alpha to obtain written consent. Seeking Alpha™ is a trademark and/or service mark of Seeking Alpha or an affiliate. All other trademarks, service marks, and logos used on our web sites are the trademarks, service marks, or logos of their respective owners.

This section shall survive any termination of these TOU.

6. User Conduct

You may not use, copy, display, sell, license, de-compile, republish, upload, post, transmit, distribute or otherwise exploit Content from the Site to online bulletin boards, message boards, newsgroups, chat rooms, or in other any manner, without our prior written permission. Modification of the Content or use of the Content for any purpose other than your own personal, noncommercial use is a violation of our copyright and other proprietary rights, and can subject you to legal liability.

In addition, in connection with your use of the Site and its services (including by sending private messages to other registered users of the Site via your Seeking Alpha email account), you agree not to:

• Restrict or inhibit any other visitor from using the Site, including, without limitation, by means of "hacking" or defacing any portion of the Site;
• Use the Site for any unlawful purpose;
• Express or imply that any statements you make are endorsed by us, without our prior written consent;
• Modify, adapt, sublicense, translate, sell, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of the Site;
• "Frame" or "mirror" any part of the Site without our prior written authorization;
• Use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other manual or automatic device or process to download, retrieve, index, "data mine," or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Site or its contents;
• Harvest or collect information about visitors to the Site without their express consent;
• Send unsolicited or unauthorized advertisements, spam, chain letters, etc to other users of the Site;
• Transmit any Content which contains software viruses, or other harmful computer code, files or programs.

You also agree to comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in connection with your use of the Site and the content made available therein.

In order to access some of the services of the Site, you will have to create an account. You may never use another user's account without permission. When creating your account, you must provide accurate and complete information. You are solely responsible for the activity that occurs on your account, and you must keep your account password secure. You must notify us immediately of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your account. You will be liable for any use made of your account or password and the losses of Seeking Alpha or others due to such unauthorized use. We will not be liable for your losses caused by any unauthorized use of your account.

Seeking Alpha has the right to terminate your access to the Site, in its sole discretion.

7. Overview of Posting Content; Monitoring Content

The Site permits the submission of Content by users of the Site, including without limitation comments, articles, links, private messages sent to a registered user's Seeking Alpha email account, and items in our StockTalk and Instablog sections, and including from those who give permission to Seeking Alpha to post their Content ("User Submissions") and the hosting, sharing and publishing of such User Submissions on the Site. Seeking Alpha has the right in its sole discretion and without further notice to you, to monitor, censor, edit, move, delete, and/or remove any and all Content posted on its Site or any Content transmitted to or from your Seeking Alpha email account at any time and for any reason. Without limiting the foregoing, Seeking Alpha has the right to delete any comment that it believes, in its sole discretion, does or may violate the TOU of the Site by you.

On user-generated Instablogs, StockTalks and Comments, Seeking Alpha reserves the right to remove content that violates one of the following principles, as determined by Seeking Alpha, at our discretion:

• No incitement to hatred. Material that promotes hatred toward groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity will be removed.
• No pornography or pedophilia
• No direct or veiled threats against any person or group of people.
• No copyright infringement
• No publishing of other people's private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers, and driver's and other license numbers.
• No impersonation of others in a manner that is intended to or does mislead or confuse others.
• No use for unlawful purposes or for promotion of dangerous and illegal activities. Your account may be terminated and you may be reported to the appropriate authorities.
• No spamming, link-spamming or transmitting malware and viruses.
• No personal attacks.
• No profanity or vulgarity.
• No business solicitations or advertising.
• No inappropriate, unethical or misleading behavior.

Important note: Seeking Alpha encourages civil, thought-provoking debate and idea-sharing among investors and stock-market followers. In order to maintain a level of discourse appropriate to our user base, we are strongly opposed to trolling, uncivilized discussion, mudslinging, inappropriate language, and blanket dismissal of others' ideas. At our discretion, we may delete comments, StockTalks and Instablogs, and block/delete accounts of users we believe lower the level of discourse and courtesy we strive to engender.

Moderating decisions are subjective, and we strive to make them carefully and consistently. Due to the volume of content, we cannot review moderation decisions with users and cannot reverse decisions.

Our blogs and Content are intended to serve as a discussion center for thoughtful users who make their own investment decisions, with or without the help of a broker. They are not the place for stock touters, cheerleaders or hypesters. We strongly encourage all participants to disclose any positions they have in stocks being discussed.

Without derogating from the above, Seeking Alpha editors, at their discretion, may refrain from posting or remove User Submissions that violate these standards or which are otherwise inappropriate. These standards are designed to ensure that the dialogue on the Site is credible, responsible, intelligent and informative. We cannot guarantee that users will tell the truth, and we will not monitor the veracity of names and positions or the content of any posts. However, by setting out the above guidelines, we hope to raise the credibility of the discussion and foster a spirit of open, honest exchanges of information. In addition, please be advised that even if a user who posts a comment may, if the user so registers, be publicly identifiable only by the alias he or she chose during registration, Seeking Alpha's records will contain the actual identity of the author of any comment posted to the Site.

It is Seeking Alpha's editorial policy not to publish articles submitted by research firms or authors who are directly compensated by a company for coverage of that company's stock or business. We do not publish articles written by authors who actively work in the field of Investor Relations.

If an author has a business relationship with a company named in an article that he or she has authored, that relationship must be fully and accurately disclosed.

If you have any comments on our policies, or complaints or concerns of any kind about any posts, please contact us at feedback@seekingalpha.com. We will review all of the information that you communicate to us, but we may not be able to take action or respond directly to each e-mail.

8. User Submissions; Online Rules of Conduct

When you post any User Submission on the Site or give Seeking Alpha permission to post your Content, you agree to:

• Post comments in both tone and content that contribute in a positive and high quality manner to the substantive exchange of information and the subject matter of the Site.
• Automatically grant Seeking Alpha a royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully transferable and sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display any User Submission (in whole or in part) and/or to incorporate any of your User Submission in other works now or in the future and in any media formats and through any media channels, and You confirm and warrant to Seeking Alpha that you own the copyright in each of your User Submissions and have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license and rights.

Seeking Alpha will use commercially reasonable efforts to attribute material User Submissions to the author.

When you post any User Submission on the Site, you also agree to abide by the following disclosure rules:

• To disclose the existence at the time of writing of a long or short position (including stocks, options or other instruments) in any stock mentioned in a User Submission. The suggested form of disclosure is to add the following to the bottom of the User Submission: Full disclosure: Long GOOG at time of writing.
• You may not write about a stock with the intention to boost or reduce the stock's price and sell (or buy) the stock into the resulting strength or weakness.
• If you intend at the time or writing to sell or buy a stock within three days of publication of a User Submission that discusses that stock, you must disclose this.
• Abide by the following conflict of interest rule: You will disclose any material relationships with companies whose stocks you write about in a User Submission or parties that stand to gain in any way from the viewpoint you are outlining. Examples: You must disclose if you are employed by a company whose stock you are writing about; perform consulting for a company you write about; receive paid advertising revenue or any other form of sponsorship fee from a company you write about. This applies to narrow asset classes as well. For example, if you are paid to promote a gold dealer, that must be disclosed in any User Submission about gold.
• If you choose an alias, be responsible for all statements made and acts or omissions that occur by use of your alias.
• Waive any and all rights against Seeking Alpha and hold Seeking Alpha harmless in connection with any claims relating to any action taken by Seeking Alpha as part of its investigation of a suspected violation or result of its conclusion that a violation of these TOU has occurred, including but not limited to the removal of User Submission from the Site or a suspension or termination of your access to the Site.

Maintain and promptly update your registration data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete.

You agree not to:

• Choose an alias that is threatening, abusive, offensive, harassing, derisive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, hatefully, racially, ethnically or otherwise or objectionable.
• Post or transmit any Content that you either know or should know is false, deceptive or misleading, or misrepresent or deceive others as to the source, accuracy, integrity or completeness of any comment you post.
• Post or transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful or injurious to others, contains software viruses, or other harmful computer code, files or programs, threatening, abusive, offensive, harassing, derisive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, hatefully, racially, ethnically or otherwise tortious or objectionable.
• Post or transmit any Content that does or may invade the privacy or violate or infringe on any rights of others, including, without limitation, copyrights and other intellectual property rights.
• By use of your alias or in any comment, impersonate any person or entity, falsely or deceptively state, infer or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with or connection to any person or entity.
• Post or transmit any Content which, either the act of posting or the comment itself, you do not have a right to do under any law, regulation or order of any court, or as a result of an employment, contractual, fiduciary or other legal obligation or relationship.
• Post or transmit any advertising, promotional materials, so called "chain letters," "pyramid" or other schemes or invitations to participate in these or any other form of solicitation or promotion.
• Post or transmit any non-public or otherwise restricted, confidential or proprietary information without authorization.
• Violate any local, state, national or international law, regulation or order of any court, including but not limited to regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any rules of any securities exchange, including without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or The Nasdaq Stock Market.

9. Caveats

While we believe that the Site can and should be a positive environment for the exchange of information, you understand that the Site is open for posting to all users. Some individuals may post comments that may be offensive, indecent, objectionable, false, misleading or simply inappropriate.

10. Responsibility for User Submission

Each individual who submits a User Submission, whether published on the Site or not, is solely responsible for her or his own acts, including the content, context or information in the User Submission he or she submits. This means that each individual, and not Seeking Alpha, is entirely responsible for anything and everything she or he posts on the Site including on any Blog, StockTalk, and Instablog. Seeking Alpha does not and does not intend to pre-screen any comments posted on its Site and Seeking Alpha cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of anything that may appear on its Site.

11. Disclosure

We reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any User Submissions (whether published or not) or any other information as it reasonably believes is necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, subpoena or governmental request, (b) enforce these TOU, including investigation of potential violations of it, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (d) respond to user support requests, or (e) protect the rights, property or safety of Seeking Alpha, its users or the public.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SITE, AND ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE OBTAINED OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE SITE, IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, SEEKING ALPHA, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, ADVERTISERS, AND AGENTS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ALL WARRANTIES RELATING TO THE ADEQUACY, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION ON OUR SITE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusions may not apply to you.

SEEKING ALPHA AND ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, AGENTS AND SPONSORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT YOUR USE OF THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE OR SECURE, OR THAT THE SITE OR THE SERVER(S) ON WHICH THE SITE IS HOSTED ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. YOU ASSUME TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK FOR YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND YOUR RELIANCE THEREON. NO OPINION, ADVICE, OR STATEMENT OF SEEKING ALPHA OR ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, AGENTS, MEMBERS, OR VISITORS, WHETHER MADE ON THE SITE OR OTHERWISE, SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY.

13. Limitation of Liability

NEITHER SEEKING ALPHA NOR ITS AFFILIATES AND THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, SUPPLIERS, ADVERTISERS, AGENTS AND SPONSORS ARE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES UNDER ANY CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER THEORY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING IN ANY WAY TO THE SITE AND/OR ANY CONTENT CONTAINED THEREIN, OR ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE USED OR PURCHASED THROUGH SEEKING ALPHA. YOUR SOLE REMEDY FOR DISSATISFACTION WITH THE SITE IS TO STOP USING IT. THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE MAXIMUM LIABILITY TO SEEKING ALPHA FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES, AND CAUSES OF ACTION (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE) SHALL BE THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID TO US BY YOU, IF ANY, FOR ACCESS TO THE SITE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations may not apply to you.

14. Indemnification

As a condition of your use of the Site, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold us, our officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives harmless from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees), or other expenses that arise directly or indirectly out of or from (a) your violation of the TOU; (b) your use of the Site; (c) your violation of the rights of any third party, or (d) any claim that one of Your User Submissions caused damage to a third party. This defense and indemnification obligation will survive these TOU and your use of the Site.

15. Termination

You understand and agree that Seeking Alpha may, under certain circumstances and without prior notice to you, terminate your access to and use of the Site. Cause for such termination shall include, but not be limited to, (i) breaches or violations of the TOU or other agreements or guidelines, (ii) requests by law enforcement or other government or regulatory authorities or (iii) repeat violators of third party copyrights or other intellectual property.

16. Copyright Policy

Seeking Alpha respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. Seeking Alpha may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, terminate the account or access of users who infringe the intellectual property rights of others.

If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent the following information:

• 17.1: an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
• 17.2: a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed, including the URL (web page address) of the location where the copyrighted work exists or a copy of the copyrighted work;
• 17.3: a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site, including the URL;
• 17.4: your address, telephone number, and email address;
• 17.5: 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
• 17.6: a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Seeking Alpha's Copyright Agent for Notice of claims of copyright infringement can be reached as follows:

• By mail: David Jackson
  c/o Meitar Liquornik Geva & Leshem Brandwein
  16 Abba Hillel Silver Road
  Ramat Gan 52506
  Israel

• By phone: (718) 548-4666
• By fax: 011-972-3-610-3111
• By email: copyright@seekingalpha.com

Please also note that under Section 512(f) any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be subject to liability.

17. Miscellaneous

The Site is directed solely to individuals residing in jurisdictions in which provision of the Site's content is legal. We make no representation that materials provided on the Site are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who choose to access the Site from other locations do so on their own initiative and at their own risk, and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent applicable. We reserve the right to limit the availability of the Site to any person, geographic area, or jurisdiction we so desire, at any time and in our sole discretion, and to limit the quantities of any such service or product that we provide.

The TOU, together with all Seeking Alpha policies referred to herein, constitutes the entire agreement between you and Seeking Alpha relating to your use of the Site and supersedes and any all prior or contemporaneous written or oral agreements on that subject between us. The TOU, privacy policy and the relationship between you and Seeking Alpha are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its principles of conflict of laws. You and Seeking Alpha agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the federal and state courts located within New York County, New York, and waive any jurisdictional, venue, or inconvenient forum objections to such courts. If any provision of the TOU is found to be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from the TOU and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. No waiver by either party of any breach or default hereunder shall be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding or subsequent breach or default. Any heading, caption or section title contained in the TOU is inserted only as a matter of convenience and in no way defines or explains any section or provision hereof. We reserve the right to require you to sign a non-electronic version of the TOU.

Updated: January 7, 2010, 7:00 a.m. ET