Our Terms of Use

Welcome to Pioneers of AYSO! Pioneers of AYSO (“we” or “us”), is a nonprofit charitable organization whose mission is to document the history of AYSO under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally, free of charge.

We strive to record and keep AYSO history and make it available on the internet free of charge, in perpetuity.

We welcome you (“you” or the “user”) as a reader, editor, author, or contributor of the Pioneers of AYSO, and we encourage you to join as a contributor or editor . Before you participate, however, we ask that you please read and agree to the following Terms of Use (“Terms of Use”).

Overview

These Terms of Use tell you about our public services at the Pioneers of AYSO, our relationship to you as a user, and the rights and responsibilities that guide us both. We want you to know that we host a large quantity informational content, all of which is contributed and made possible by users like yourself. Generally we do not contribute, monitor, or delete content (with the rare exception of policies like these Terms of Use or legal compliance for DMCA notices). This means that editorial control is in the hands of you and your fellow users who create and manage the content. We primarily host this content.

The community - the network of users who are constantly building and using the Pioneers of AYSO site - are the principal means through which the goals of the mission are achieved. The community contributes to and helps govern Pioneers of AYSO.

You are welcome to join as a contributor, editor, or author, but you should follow our policies.

Please be aware that you are legally responsible for all of your contributions, edits, and re-use of Pioneers of AYSO content under the laws of the United States of America and other applicable laws (which may include the laws where you live or where you view or edit content). This means it is important that you use caution when posting content. In light of this responsibility, we have some rules about what you cannot post, most of which is either for your own protection or for the protection of other users like yourself. Please keep in mind that the content we host is for general informational purposes only, so if you need expert advice for a particular question (such as medical, legal, or financial issues), you should seek the help of a licensed or qualified professional. We also include other important notices and disclaimers, so please read these Terms of Use in their entirety.

1. Our Services

The Pioneers of AYSO is dedicated to documenting the history of AYSO for the public free of charge. Our role is to host the collaboratively edited history. However, we act only as a hosting service, maintaining the infrastructure and organizational framework that allows our users to build the history of AYSO by contributing and editing content themselves. Because of our role, there are a couple of things you should be aware of when considering our relationship to you, the history, and the other users:

1. We may not take an editorial role: Because the history of AYSO is collaboratively edited, all of the content that we host is provided by users like yourself. This means that we generally do not monitor or edit the content of the history, and we do not take any responsibility for this content. Similarly, we do not endorse any opinions expressed via our services, and we do not represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any submitted community content. Instead, we simply provide access to the content that your fellow users have contributed and edited.
2. You are responsible for your own actions: You are legally responsible for your edits and contributions on the Pioneers of AYSO, so for your own protection you should exercise caution and avoid contributing any content that may result in criminal or civil liability under any applicable laws. For clarity, applicable law includes at least the laws of the United States of America. Although we may not agree with such actions, we warn editors and contributors that authorities may seek to apply other country laws to you, including local laws where you live or where you view or edit content. Pioneers of AYSO generally cannot offer any protection, guarantee, immunity or indemnification.

2. Privacy Policy

We ask that you review the terms of our Privacy Policy, so that you are aware of how we collect and use your information. Because our services are used by people all over the world, personal information that we collect may be stored and processed in the United States of America or any other country in which we or our agents maintain facilities. By using our services, you consent to any such transfer of information outside your country.

3. Content We Host

1. You may find some material objectionable or erroneous: Because we provide content that is produced or gathered by fellow users, you may encounter material that you find offensive, erroneous, misleading, mislabeled, or otherwise objectionable. We therefore ask that you use common sense and proper judgment when using our services.
2. Our content is for general informational purposes only:  Please seek independent professional counseling from someone who is licensed or qualified in the applicable area in lieu of acting on any information, opinion, or advice contained in Pioneers of AYSO.

4. Refraining from Certain Activities

The website hosted by the Pioneers of AYSO only exist because of the vibrant community of users like you who collaborate together to write, edit, and curate the content. We happily welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be civil and polite in your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and to make edits and contributions aimed at furthering the mission of the Pioneers of AYSO.

Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, may be harmful to other users and violate our rules, and some activities may also subject you to liability. Therefore, for your own protection and for that of other users, you may not engage in such activities on our sites. These activities include:

Harassing and Abusing Others

• Engaging in harassment, threats, stalking, spamming, or vandalism; and
• Transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users.

Violating the Privacy of Others

• Infringing the privacy rights of others under the laws of the United States of America or other applicable laws (which may include the laws where you live or where you view or edit content);
• Soliciting personally identifiable information for purposes of harassment, exploitation, violation of privacy, or any promotional or commercial purpose not explicitly approved by the Pioneers of AYSO; and
• Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.

Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud

• Intentionally or knowingly posting content that constitutes libel or defamation;
• With the intent to deceive, posting content that is false or inaccurate;
• Attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, or using the username of another user with the intent to deceive; and
• Engaging in fraud.

Committing Infringement

• Infringing copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights under applicable law.

Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes

• Posting child pornography or any other content that violates applicable law concerning child pornography;
• Posting or trafficking in obscene material that is unlawful under applicable law; and
• Using the services in a manner that is inconsistent with applicable law.

Engaging in Disruptive and Illegal Misuse of Facilities

• Posting or distributing content that contains any viruses, malware, worms, Trojan horses, malicious code, or other device that could harm our technical infrastructure or system or that of our users;
• Engaging in automated uses of the site that are abusive or disruptive of the services and have not been approved by the Pioneers of AYSO community;
• Disrupting the services by placing an undue burden on a Pioneers of AYSO website or the networks or servers connected with a Pioneers of AYSO website;
• Disrupting the services by inundating any of the Pioneers of AYSO websites with communications or other traffic that suggests no serious intent to use the Pioneers of AYSO website for its stated purpose;
• Knowingly accessing, tampering with, or using any of our non-public areas in our computer systems without authorization; and
• Probing, scanning, or testing the vulnerability of any of our technical systems or networks unless all the following conditions are met:

• such actions do not unduly abuse or disrupt our technical systems or networks;
• such actions are not for personal gain (except for credit for your work);
• you report any vulnerabilities to Pioneers of AYSO developers (or fix it yourself); and
• you do not undertake such actions with malicious or destructive intent.

We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to the above terms.

5. Password Security

You are responsible for safeguarding your own password and should never disclose it to any third party.

6. Trademarks

Although you have considerable freedoms for re-use of the content on the Pioneers of AYSO websites, it is important that, at the Pioneers of AYSO, we protect our trademark rights so that we can protect our users from fraudulent impersonators. Because of this, we ask that you please respect our trademarks. All Pioneers of AYSO trademarks belong to the Pioneers of AYSO, and any use of our trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, or domain names must be in compliance with these Terms of Use.

Please note that Pioneers of AYSO is not an official part of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO).  "AYSO", "American Youth Soccer Organization", and AYSO logo are trademarks of the American Youth Soccer Organization. AYSO's official website is http://www.ayso.org

7. Licensing of Content

To grow the commons of free knowledge and free culture, all users contributing to the Pioneers of AYSO are required to grant broad permissions to the general public to re-distribute and re-use their contributions freely, so long as that use is properly attributed and the same freedom to re-use and re-distribute is granted to any derivative works. In keeping with our goal of providing free information to the widest possible audience, we require that when necessary all submitted content be licensed so that it is freely reusable by anyone who cares to access it.

You agree to the following licensing requirements:

1. Text to which you hold the copyright: When you submit text to which you hold the copyright, you agree to license it under:
   • Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (“CC BY-SA”)
     
     
2. Attribution: Attribution is an important part of these licenses. We consider it giving credit where credit is due – to authors like yourself. When you contribute text, you agree to be attributed in any of the following fashions:
   1. Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the article to which you contributed (since each article has a history page that lists all authors and editors);
   2. Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy that is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on the Pioneers of AYSO website; or
   3. Through a list of all authors (but please note that any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions).
3. Importing text: You may import text that you have found elsewhere or that you have co-authored with others, but in such case you warrant that the text is available under terms that are compatible with the CC BY-SA 3.0 license (or, as explained above, another license when exceptionally required by the Pioneers of AYSO)("CC BY-SA").
   

   You agree that, if you import text under a CC BY-SA license that requires attribution, you must credit the author(s) in a reasonable fashion. Where such credit is commonly given through page histories, it is sufficient to give attribution in the edit summary, which is recorded in the page history, when importing the text. The attribution requirements are sometimes too intrusive for particular circumstances (regardless of the license), and there may be instances where the Pioneers of AYSO community decides that imported text cannot be used for that reason.

4. Non-text media: Non-text media on Pioneers of AYSO are available under a variety of different licenses that support the general goal of allowing unrestricted re-use and re-distribution. When you contribute non-text media, you agree to comply with the requirements for such licenses as described here.
   
5. No revocation of license: Except as consistent with your license, you agree that you will not unilaterally revoke or seek invalidation of any license that you have granted under these Terms of Use for text content or non-text media contributed to the Pioneers of AYSO or features, even if you terminate use of our services.
6. Public domain content: Content that is in the public domain is welcome! It is important however that you confirm the public domain status of the content under the law of the United States of America as well as the laws of any other countries as required by the Pioneers of AYSO. When you contribute content that is in the public domain, you warrant that the material is actually in the public domain, and you agree to label it appropriately.
7. Re-use: Re-use of content that we host is welcome, though exceptions exist for content contributed under "fair use" or similar exemptions under copyright law. Any re-use must comply with the underlying license(s).

   When you re-use or re-distribute a text page developed by the Pioneers of AYSO community, you agree to attribute the authors in any of the following fashions:

   1. Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the page or pages that you are re-using (since each page has a history page that lists all authors and editors);
   2. Through hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy that is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on the Pioneers of AYSO website; or
   3. Through a list of all authors (but please note that any list of authors may be filtered to exclude very small or irrelevant contributions).

   If the text content was imported from another source, it is possible that the content is licensed under a compatible CC BY-SA license. To determine the license that applies to the content that you seek to re-use or re-distribute, you should review the page footer, page history, and discussion page.

   In addition, please be aware that text that originated from external sources and was imported into Pioneers of AYSO may be under a license that attaches additional attribution requirements. Users agree to indicate these additional attribution requirements clearly. Depending on the location, such requirements may appear for example in a banner or other notations pointing out that some or all of the content was originally published elsewhere. Where there are such visible notations, re-users should preserve them.

   For any non-text media, you agree to comply with whatever license under which the work has been made available (which can be discovered by clicking on the work and looking at the licensing section on its description page or reviewing an applicable source page for that work). When re-using any content that we host, you agree to comply with the relevant attribution requirements as they pertain to the underlying license or licenses.
8. Modifications or additions to material that you re-use: When modifying or making additions to text that you have obtained from a Pioneers of AYSO  website, you agree to license the modified or added content under CC BY-SA 3.0 or later (or, as explained above, another license when exceptionally required by the Pioneers of AYSO).

   When modifying or making additions to any non-text media that you have obtained from a Pioneers of AYSO website, you agree to license the modified or added content in accordance with whatever license under which the work has been made available.

   With both text content and non-text media, you agree to clearly indicate that the original work has been modified. If you are re-using text content in a wiki, it is sufficient to indicate in the page history that you made a change to the imported text. For each copy or modified version that you distribute, you agree to include a licensing notice stating which license the work is released under, along with either a hyperlink or URL to the text of the license or a copy of the license itself.

8. DMCA Compliance

The Pioneers of AYSO wants to ensure that the content that we host can be re-used by other users without fear of liability and that it is not infringing the proprietary rights of others. In fairness to our users, as well as to other creators and copyright holders, our policy is to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the formalities of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Pursuant to the DMCA, we will terminate, in appropriate circumstances, users and account holders of our system and network who are repeat infringers.

However, we also recognize that not every takedown notice is valid or in good faith. In such cases, we strongly encourage users to file counter-notifications when they appropriately believe a DMCA takedown demand is invalid or improper. For more information on what to do if you think a DMCA notice has been improperly filed, you may wish to consult the Chilling Effects website.

If you are the owner of content that is being improperly used on Pioneers of AYSO without your permission, you may request that the content be removed under the DMCA. To make such a request, please email us at legalapayso.org.

9. Third-party Websites and Resources

You are solely responsible for your use of any third-party websites or resources. Although Pioneers of AYSO contain links to third-party websites and resources, we do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for their availability, accuracy, or the related content, products, or services (including, without limitation, any viruses or other disabling features), nor do we have any obligation to monitor such third-party content.

10. Management of Websites

The community has the primary role in creating and enforcing policies applying to Pioneers of AYSO. Nonetheless, we reserve the right, but do not have the obligation to:

• Investigate your use of the service (a) to determine whether a violation of these Terms of Use, Pioneers of AYSO policy, or other applicable law or policy has occurred, or (b) to comply with any applicable law, legal process, or appropriate governmental request;
• Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues or respond to user support requests;
• Refuse, disable, or restrict access to the contribution of any user who violates these Terms of Use;
• Ban a user from editing or contributing or block a user's account or access for actions violating these Terms of Use, including repeat copyright infringement;
• Take legal action against users who violate these Terms of Use (including reports to law enforcement authorities); and
• Manage otherwise the Pioneers of AYSO websites in a manner designed to facilitate their proper functioning and protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and our users, licensors, partners, and the public.

In the interests of our users and Pioneers of AYSO, in the extreme circumstance that any individual has had his or her account or access blocked under this provision, he or she is prohibited from creating or using another account on or seeking access to the Pioneers of AYSO, unless we provide explicit permission. Without limiting the authority of the community, the Pioneers of AYSO itself will not ban a user from editing or contributing or block a user's account or access solely because of good faith criticism that does not result in actions otherwise violating these Terms of Use or community policies.

The Pioneers of AYSO community and its members may also take action when so allowed by the community or Pioneers of AYSO policies applicable to the specific Pioneers of AYSO area, including but not limited to warning, investigating, blocking, or banning users who violate those policies. You agree to comply with the final decisions of dispute resolution bodies that are established by the community for the specific Pioneers of AYSO editions (such as arbitration committees); these decisions may include sanctions as set out by the policy of the Pioneers of AYSO.

The blocking of an account or access or the banning of a user under this provision shall be in accordance with Section 12 of these Terms of Use.

11. Resolutions and Pioneers of AYSO Policies

The Pioneers of AYSO may releases official policies from time to time. Some of these policies may be mandatory, and, when they are, you agree to abide by them as applicable.

12. Termination

Though we hope you will stay and continue to contribute to the Pioneers of AYSO, you can stop using our services any time. In certain (hopefully unlikely) circumstances it may be necessary for either ourselves or the Pioneers of AYSO community or its members (as described in Section 10) to terminate part or all of our services, terminate these Terms of Use, block your account or access, or ban you as a user. If your account or access is blocked or otherwise terminated for any reason, your public contributions will remain publicly available (subject to applicable policies), and, unless we notify you otherwise, you may still access our public pages for the sole purpose of reading publicly available content on the Pioneers of AYSO. In such circumstances, however, you may not be able to access your account or settings. We reserve the right to suspend or end the services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Even after your use and participation are banned, blocked or otherwise suspended, these Terms of Use will remain in effect with respect to relevant provisions, including Sections 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9-15, and 17.

16. Modifications to these Terms of Use

Just as the Pioneers of AYSO community's input is essential for the growth and maintenance of the Pioneers of AYSO, we believe that community input is essential for these Terms of Use to properly serve our users. It is also essential for a fair contract.

Because it may be necessary to modify these Terms of Use from time to time, we will provide notice of such modifications and the opportunity to comment via the Pioneers of AYSO website. However, we ask that you please periodically review the most up-to-date version of these Terms of Use. Your continued use of our services after the new Terms of Use become official following the notice and review period constitutes an acceptance of these Terms of Use on your part. For the protection of the Pioneers of AYSO and other users like yourself, if you do not agree with our Terms of Use, you cannot use our services.

17. Other Terms

These Terms of Use do not create an employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture relationship between you and us, the Pioneers of AYSO. If you have not signed a separate agreement with us, these Terms of Use are the entire agreement between you and us. If there is any conflict between these Terms of Use and a signed written agreement between you and us, the signed agreement will control.

You agree that we may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms of Use, by email, regular mail, or postings on Pioneers of AYSO websites.

If in any circumstance, we do not apply or enforce any provision of these Terms of Use, it is not a waiver of that provision.

You understand that, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by us, you have no expectation of compensation for any activity, contribution, or idea that you provide to us, the community, or the Pioneers of AYSO.

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in these Terms of Use, we (the Pioneers of AYSO) and you agree not to modify the applicable terms and requirements of any free license that is employed on the Pioneers of AYSO when such free license is authorized by these Terms of Use.

If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms of Use is found unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms of Use and will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and all other provisions of these Terms of Use will remain in full force and effect.

Thank You!

We appreciate your taking the time to read these Terms of Use, and we are very happy to have you contributing to the Pioneers of AYSO and using our services. Through your contributions, you are helping to build a durable and expanding history of AYSO.

These Terms of Use went into effect as of the creation of the Pioneers of AYSO.

These Terms of Use are based on the ones developed for Wikipedia by the Wikimedia Foundation as documented at http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_use

The Pioneers of AYSO is very grateful for the pioneering work that Wikipedia has done.