Terms of service

By using MaxM.Social website, or using a MaxMail Email Account (the “Account”) and all its related features (the “Services”), you agree to be bound by the following terms of service (the “Terms”). These Terms cover all present and future features provided by your Account. The Services are operated by Maxm.Network, MaxM.Social and Maxm.Email (“We”, the “Company”).

If you agree to these Terms on behalf of a company or another legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind such entity, its affiliates, and all users who access the Services through your Account to these Terms. In the absence of such an authority, you are not authorized to use the Services.

Users of the Services

The Services are provided exclusively to individuals who are at least 13 years of age, or to minors who have obtained parental or legal guardian consent to open and maintain an Account.

The Services are provided exclusively to human beings and companies. Accounts registered by “bots” or automated methods are not authorized and will be terminated, and those IP addresses will be banned and blacklisted.

Each user is solely and exclusively responsible for any and all actions s/he/they perform through the Services.

Authorized use of the Services

You agree not to use the Services for any illegal or prohibited activities, including but not limited to:

Copyright Infringement

Almost all forms of original expression that are fixed in a tangible medium are subject to copyright protection, even if no formal copyright notice is attached. Written text (including e-mail messages, news posts, and web pages), recorded sound, digital images, and computer software are some examples of works that can be copyrighted.

Copyright holders have many rights, including the right to reproduce, adapt, distribute, display, and perform their work. Reproducing, displaying or distributing copyrighted material without permission infringes on the copyright holder's rights. However, "fair use" applies in some cases. If a small amount of the work is used in a non-commercial situation and does not economically impact the copyright holder it may be considered fair use.

Software Piracy

Unauthorized duplication, distribution or use of someone else's intellectual property, including computer software, constitutes copyright infringement and is illegal and subject to both civil and criminal penalties. The ease of this behavior online causes many computer users to forget the seriousness of the offense. As a result of the substantial amounts of money the software industry loses each year from software piracy, the software companies enforce their rights through courts and by lobbying for and getting stiffer criminal penalties. It is a felony to reproduce or distribute ten illegal copies of copyrighted software with a total value of $2,500 within a 180-day period. Penalties for a first time felony conviction of software piracy include a jail term of up to ten years and fines up to $250,000.

Sound Recording Piracy

Another form of copyright infringement is the unauthorized duplication and distribution of sound recordings. Online piracy is increasing as many people use the Internet to illegally distribute digital audio files (e.g. MP3 format). The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) monitors the Internet daily and scans for sites that contain music. They have been successful in getting the sound recordings removed from those sites.

Federal copyright law grants the copyright owner in a sound recording (typically, a record company) the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, distribute and, in some cases, digitally transmit their sound recordings. Therefore, the following activities, if unauthorized by the copyright owner, may violate their rights under federal law:

• Making a copy of all or a portion of a sound recording onto a computer hard drive, server or other hardware used in connection with a web site or other online forum. This includes converting a sound recording into a file format (such as a .wav or mp3 file) and saving it to a hard drive or server.
• Transmitting a copy or otherwise permitting users to download sound recordings from a site or other forum.
• Digitally transmitting to users, at their request, a particular sound recording chosen by or on behalf of the recipient.

If you reproduce or offer full-length sound recordings for download without the authorization of the copyright owner, you are in violation of federal copyright law and could face civil as well as criminal penalties. Placing statements on your web site, such as "for demo purposes only" or that the sound files must be "deleted with 24 hours," does not prevent or extinguish this liability.

There are several entities you may need to contact before you can use recorded music online. First, you should understand that the copyright in a sound recording is distinct from the copyright in the recording's underlying musical composition. Thus, even if you have secured the necessary licenses for publicly performing musical compositions (from, for example, ASCAP, BMI and/or SESAC) or for making reproductions of musical compositions (from, for example, the Harry Fox Agency), these licenses only apply to the musical composition, not the sound recording. Licenses to utilize particular sound recordings must be secured from the sound recording copyright owners -- generally the record company that released the recording.

Child Pornography

Child pornography, material that depicts minors in a sexually explicit way, is illegal. Under the federal child pornography statute (18 USC section 2252), anyone under the age of 18 is a minor. States also have child pornography statues and the age of minority varies by state. Knowingly uploading or downloading child pornography is a federal offense. It is also illegal to advertise or seek the sale, exchange, reproduction or distribution of child pornography. Lewd exhibition of genitals can constitute sexual conduct and therefore, any graphic files containing images of naked children could violate the federal child pornography statute.

Distribution of Pornography to Minors

Possession of non-obscene adult pornography is legal, but it is illegal to distribute to minors.

Obscenity

Obscenity is illegal. Virtually every state and municipality has a statute prohibiting the sale and distribution of obscenity, and the federal government prohibits its interstate transportation. The Supreme Court in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, (1973), narrowed the permissible scope of obscenity statutes and applied this three part test to determine constitutionality: (a) whether the average person applying contemporary community standard would find the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (b) whether the work depicts or describes in a patently offensive way sexual conduct specifically defined in applicable state law; and (c) whether the work taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

The contemporary community standard is historically the standard of the community in which the material exists. Many online activist argue that the contemporary community standard in cases that arise online ought to be determined by the online community. However, a federal prosecution of a California couple that offered a members-only bulletin board service, concentrating on pornography, resulted in a conviction of the California couple under the federal obscenity statute and Tennessee community standards because a customer in Tennessee had downloaded material over the Internet. See United States v. Thomas, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 1069 (6th Cir. Jan. 29, 1996) (link is external).

Scams and pyramid schemes

A common scam is the pyramid scheme. You get an e-mail message with a subject like "MAKE MONEY FAST" and it instructs you to send money to the people on the list and then add your name to the bottom of the list and send it on to some number of people. At MaxM.Social, this is considered chain mail, but it is also illegal under 18 U.S.C section 1302. The US Postal Service (link is external) and the Federal Trade Commission (link is external) provide information to help individuals identify scams and report them. Pyramid schemes that use US Postal mail to send money are considered mail fraud and can be reported to the USPS.

Federal Computer Security Violations

The primary federal statute regarding computer fraud 18 U.S.C section 1030 was amended in 1996 to protect computer and data integrity, confidentiality and availability. Examples of violations are:

• Theft of information from computers belonging to financial institutions or federal agencies, or computers used in interstate commerce
• Unauthorized access to government computers
• Damage to systems or data (intentionally or recklessly)
• Trafficking in stolen passwords
• Extortionate threats to damage computers
• Computer viruses and worms

Bomb Threats and Hoaxes

It is illegal to send a message via e-mail that threatens other persons or property. While this might seem obvious, every year a number of individuals send what they believe are "hoax messages". Such messages may be investigated by federal authorities with the result that the senders end up with their names in the files of the FBI and/or CIA. This is not an exaggeration!

Spam, which is the practice of sending irrelevant or unsolicited messages or content over the internet, typically to a large number of recipients, notably for the purposes of advertising, phishing, or spreading malware or viruses, is prohibited. Moreover, you agree not to use the Services to send junk mail, bulk emails, or mailing list emails that contain persons that have not specifically agreed to be included on that list. You agree not to use the Services to store or share content that violates the law or the rights of a third party. 

You also agree not to disrupt the Company’s networks and servers in your use of the Services.

Any Account found to be committing the above-mentioned activities will be immediately terminated and the IP addresses banned and blacklisted.

The Company may terminate Accounts which are being used for illegal activities that are not listed in the present section, particularly in response to orders from the competent authorities informing of such illegal activity.

Limited warranties and liability

The Company does not make any warranty about the reliability of the Services or guarantee the security of user data, despite best efforts. The Service is provided “as is” and you agree not to hold the Company responsible nor to seek indemnification for any damages that may arise as a result of the loss of use, data, or profits connected to the performance of the Service or failure in such performance.

Furthermore, you will not hold the Company liable or seek indemnification if confidential material is unintentionally released as the result of a security failure or vulnerability in the performance of the Services.

Due to the encrypted nature of the Services, you acknowledge that the Company has no ability or obligation to recover your data if you misplace your decryption password.

Indemnification

You agree that the Company, and any parents, subsidiaries, officers, employees, or third-party contractors will not be held responsible for any third-party claim, demand, or damages, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of the Services.

Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains the way we handle and protect your personal data and privacy in relation to your Account, your use of the Services, and your browsing of the MaxM.Social website. By agreeing to the present Terms and to be able to use the Services, you also agree to our Privacy Policy.

Modification to the terms of service

Within the limits of applicable law, the Company reserves the right to review and change these Terms at any time. As long as you are using the Services, you are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms. Continued use of the Services after such changes are performed shall constitute your consent to them.

Applicable law and language

These Terms shall be governed in all respects by the substantive laws of the state of Maine, United States. Any controversy, claim, or dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts of the state of Maine. In case of discrepancy between the English version of these Terms and any translated version, the English version shall prevail.