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License Agreement
Revised 21st August,
2006
Please remember
to review the current terms and conditions of the User Agreement and Software
License. Thank you.
PLANETSIDE® USER AGREEMENT AND
SOFTWARE LICENSE
THIS AGREEMENT DESCRIBES THE TERMS ON WHICH SONY ONLINE
ENTERTAINMENT LLC ("SOE") OFFERS YOU ACCESS TO AN ACCOUNT (THE
"ACCOUNT") TO PLAY THE
PLANETSIDE MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE COMBAT GAME FOR THE PC AND ANY
EXPANSION PACKS (INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, THE "GAME"). BY PRESSING THE "I
ACCEPT" BUTTON, YOU ACCEPT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BELOW. BY PRESSING
THE "I DO NOT ACCEPT" BUTTON, YOU DECLINE OUR OFFER, IN WHICH CASE
YOU SHOULD CONTACT YOUR PLACE OF PURCHASE REGARDING ITS RETURN POLICY FOR THE
APPLICABLE PLANETSIDE PRODUCT. 1. Accounts are available only to adults or, in
their discretion, their minor child. If you are a minor, your parent(s) or
guardian(s) must complete the registration process, in which case they will
take full responsibility for all obligations under this Agreement. By
clicking the "I Accept" button and providing us with a credit card
number or, if made available by SOE, a valid Game Card, you represent that
you are an adult and are either accepting this Agreement on behalf of yourself
or your child. You may not transfer or share your Account with anyone, except
that if you are a parent or guardian, you may permit one child to use the
Account instead of you (in which case you may not use that Account). You are
liable for all activities conducted through the Account, and parents or
guardians are liable for the activities of their child. Corporations and
other entities are not eligible to procure Accounts.
2. To play the Game, you must (a) purchase or receive through an
SOE-authorized promotional offer (such as an authentic disk bundled with a
game magazine) the PlanetSide DVD-ROM for the PC (the "Disc"), or applicable files which we
may make available for direct download, which includes software required for
the Game (the "Software"),
(b) have a fully paid Account, and (c) have an Internet connection (which we
do not provide) to access your Account. In addition to any fees described
herein, you are responsible for paying all applicable taxes (including those
we are not required to collect) and for all hardware, software, service and
other costs you incur to access your Account. Neither this Agreement nor your
Account entitles you to any subsequent releases of the Software, nor to any
expansion packs or similar ancillary products, without paying applicable
charges. You understand that we may update or otherwise enhance the Software
at any time and in doing so incur no obligation to furnish such updates to
you pursuant to this Agreement.
3. We may amend this Agreement at any time in our sole discretion. Amendments
shall be communicated to you at the time you log into your Account. Such
amendments shall be effective whenever we make the notification available for
your review.
4. Upon registration, you must select a password. You may not disclose your
password to any third party. We never ask you for your password by telephone
or email, and you should not disclose it this way if someone asks you to do
so. Although we may offer a feature that allows you to "save" or
"remember" your password on your hard drive, please note that by
using this feature third parties may be able to access your computer and thus
your Account.
5. We describe our fees and billing procedures at a hotlink located at
www.planetside.com, which are incorporated by reference. All fees are stated
in U.S. Dollars unless otherwise specified. All fees are prepaid and
non-refundable. Upon your acceptance of these terms, we have the right to
automatically charge your credit card the Account fee plus any applicable
taxes we are required to collect, and you authorize us to do so. Thereafter,
each time your Account comes up for renewal, we have the right to charge your
credit card the then-current renewal rate plus any applicable taxes we are
required to collect, and you authorize us to do so. If we are unable to
process your credit card at a renewal period, your Account may be immediately
terminated. If we make a Game Card available and you use a Game Card to pay
for your Account, the Game Card shall activate your Account for the period
stated on the Game Card and, thereafter, you will either need to provide a
valid credit card (in which case your credit card will subsequently be
charged as referenced above) or purchase another Game Card for subsequent
subscription periods, or your Account will be closed. You may terminate your
Account at any time through the Account registration process. If you
terminate your Account during your initial free period, if any, your account
will be closed at the end of the free period and you will not be billed. If
you terminate your Account during any subscription cycle, your Account will
be closed at the end of the then-current cycle and you will not be billed
again unless you affirmatively reopen the Account. We do not give full or
partial refunds for subscription periods that you have purchased.
6. We may terminate this Agreement (including your Software license and your
Account) and/or suspend your Account immediately and without notice if you
breach this Agreement or repeatedly infringe any third party intellectual
property rights, or if we are unable to verify or authenticate any
information you provide to us, or upon gameplay, chat or any player activity
whatsoever which we, in our sole discretion, determine is inappropriate
and/or in violation of the spirit of the Game as set forth in the Game player
rules of conduct, which are posted at a hotlink located at
www.planetside.com. If we terminate this Agreement or suspend your Account
under these circumstances, you will lose access to your Account for the
duration of the suspension and/or the balance of any prepaid period without
any refund. We may also terminate this Agreement if we decide, in our sole
discretion, to discontinue offering the Game, in which case we may provide
you with a prorated refund of any prepaid amounts.
7. Subject to the terms of this Agreement, we hereby grant to you a
non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Software solely
in connection with playing the Game via an authorized and fully-paid Account.
You may not copy (except to make one necessary back-up copy), distribute,
sell, auction, rent, lease, loan, modify or create derivative works, adapt,
translate, perform, display, sublicense or transfer all or any portion of the
Software. You may not copy any of the written materials accompanying the
Software. You may not reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile the Software
except to the extent that this restriction is expressly prohibited by
applicable law. The Software may contain license management software that
restricts your use of the Software.
8. We and our suppliers shall retain all rights, title and interest,
including, without limitation, ownership of all intellectual property rights
relating to or residing in the Disc, the Software and the Game, all copies
thereof, and all game character data in connection therewith. You acknowledge
and agree that you have not and will not acquire or obtain any intellectual
property or other rights, including any right of exploitation, of any kind in
or to the Disc, the Software or the Game, including, without limitation, in
any character(s), item(s), coin(s) or other material or property, and that
all such property, material and items are exclusively owned by us.
9. You may not use any third party software to modify the Software to change
Game play. You may not create, facilitate, host, link to or provide any other
means through which the Game may be played by others, such as through server
emulators. You may not take any action which imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately
large load on our infrastructure. You may not buy, sell or auction (or host
or facilitate the ability to allow others to buy, sell or auction) any Game
characters, items, monetary units (such as coin, if any), or copyrighted
material.
10. To obtain an Account, you will be required to choose both a login name
and a player name. While you are encouraged to use a pseudonym, especially if
you are a minor, you may not pick a name that violates anyone's trademarks,
publicity rights or other proprietary rights.
11. As part of your Account, you can upload content to our servers in various
forms, such as in the selections you make for the Game and in chat rooms and
similar user-to-user areas (collectively, your "Content"). Your
Content shall not: (a) infringe any third party intellectual property, other
proprietary or publicity/privacy rights; (b) violate any law or regulation;
(c) be defamatory, obscene, child pornographic or harmful to minors; or (d)
contain any viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or other
computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally
interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or
personal information. We may take any action with respect to your Content if
we believe it may create liability for us or may cause us to lose (in whole
or in part) the services of our ISPs or other suppliers. You hereby grant to
us a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable (through
multiple tiers) right to exercise all intellectual property rights, in any
media now known or not currently known, associated with your Content.
Additionally, the Game may include certain optional voice communication
features that you may choose to use. If you use these voice communication
features, if any, to send or receive voice messages through the Game, you
agree that (a) you will not receive or send any Content in violation of this
Agreement, (b) we are not responsible for any Content transmitted by you,
other users, or any other third parties, and (c) we are not responsible for
any use of such features by any other users or third parties, including
without limitation, uses that may result in unauthorized access or damage to
your computer and/or the information stored there.
12. We cannot ensure that your private communications and other personally
identifiable information will not be disclosed to third parties. For example,
we may be forced to disclose information to the government or third parties
under certain circumstances, or third parties may unlawfully intercept or
access transmissions or private communications. Additionally, we can (and you
authorize us to) disclose any information about you to private entities, law
enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion,
believe necessary or appropriate to investigate or resolve possible problems
or inquiries. You agree that we may communicate with you via telephone, email
and any similar technology for any purpose relating to the Game, the Software
and any services or software which may in the future be provided by us or on
our behalf. You expressly permit SOE to upload CPU, operating system, video
card, sound card and memory information from your computer to analyze and
optimize your Game experience, improve and maintain the Game and/or provide
you with customer service.
Furthermore, if you request any technical support, you consent to our
remote accessing and review of the computer you load the Software onto for
purposes of support and debugging. You
may choose to visit www.planetside.com or www.station.sony.com, the web site
of Sony Online Entertainment LLC ("The
Station") if such web sites offer services such as a
PlanetSide game themed chat room or other services of interest to you. You
are subject to the terms and conditions, rules of play and privacy policies
of Sony Online Entertainment LLC while on such web sites and/or in connection
with use of your Account and the Game, which terms and conditions, rules of
play and policy are incorporated herein by this reference. Since we do not
control other web sites and/or privacy policies of third parties, different
rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the personal information you
disclose to others. Solely for the purpose of patching and updating the Game,
you hereby grant us permission to (i) upload Game file information from the
Game directory and (ii) download Game files to you. You acknowledge that any
and all character data is stored and is resident on our servers, and any and
all communications that you make within the Game (including, but not limited
to, messages solely directed at another player or group of players) traverse
through our servers, may or may not be monitored by our personnel, you have no expectation of privacy in any such
communications and you expressly consent to monitoring of communications that
you send and receive. You acknowledge and agree that we may transfer such
information (including, without limitation your personally identifiable
information or personal data) to the United States or other countries
or may share such information with our licensees and agents in connection
with the Game. PlanetSide may incorporate third party ad serving
technology from suppliers such as Massive Incorporated (“Massive”). This technology, if used by SOE and provided to you, enables certain advertising to be
temporarily uploaded to your PC or console and replaced in-game while
connected online. As part of that process, no personally identifiable
information about you is collected and only select non-personally
identifiable information (such as IP address) is temporarily logged. No
logged information is used by Massive to determine any personally
identifiable information about you. For full details, see Massive’s privacy
policy at http://www.massiveincorporated.com/privacy.htm.
13. WE PROVIDE THE DISC, THE SOFTWARE, THE ACCOUNT, THE GAME AND ALL OTHER
SERVICES "AS IS." WE AND OUR SUPPLIERS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL
WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY,
INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE,
NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Without limiting the foregoing, we do not ensure continuous, error-free,
secure or virus-free operation of the Disc, the Software, the Game, your
Account or continued operation or availability of any given server. Some
states do not allow limitations as to how long an implied warranty lasts
and/or exclusions or limitations of consequential damages, so the above
limitations and/or exclusions of liability may not apply to you. This
warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other legal
rights which vary from state to state.
We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from any
causes beyond our reasonable control. Further, we cannot and do not promise
or ensure that you will be able to access your Account whenever you want, and
there may be extended periods of time when you cannot access your Account.
14. IN NO EVENT SHALL WE, OUR PARENT, OUR AFFILIATES OR OUR SUPPLIERS BE
LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR SPECIAL,
INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (HOWEVER ARISING, INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE) ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE POSSESSION, USE, OR
MALFUNCTION OF THE SOFTWARE, YOUR ACCOUNT, THE GAME, OR THIS AGREEMENT. OUR
LIABILITY TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTIES IS LIMITED TO $100. Some states do not
allow the foregoing limitations of liability, so they may not apply to you.
15. You shall comply with all applicable laws regarding your use of the the
Software, your access to your Account and your playing of the Game. Without
limiting the foregoing, you may not download, use or otherwise export or re-export
the Software except in full compliance with all applicable laws and
regulations, including, without limitation, the laws of the United States.
16. This Agreement is governed in all respects by the laws of the State of California as such
laws are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely
within California between California residents. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods
is expressly disclaimed. Both parties submit to personal jurisdiction in California and further
agree that any cause of action relating to this Agreement shall be brought in
the County of San Diego, State of California (if under State law) or the
Southern District of California (if under federal law). If any provision of
this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall
be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. Our failure to act
with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act
with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. You may not assign or
transfer this Agreement or your rights hereunder, and any attempt to the
contrary is void. This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and
agreement between us and you with respect to the subject matter hereof. Except
as provided herein, this Agreement may not be amended except in a writing
signed by both parties.
17. All services hereunder are offered by Sony Online Entertainment LLC,
located at 8928 Terman Court,
San Diego, California 92121. Our phone
number is (858) 537-0898. Current rates for using the Game may be obtained
from a hotlink located at www.planetside.com,
and such rates are subject to change at any time. If you are a California resident,
you may have this same information emailed to you by sending a letter to the
foregoing address with your email address and a request for this information.
The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the
Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 400 R Street,
Sacramento, CA 95814, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210
Parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or
filtering services) are commercially available that may assist you in
limiting access to material that is harmful to minors. If you are interested
in learning about these protections, information is available at
http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/school/html/control.htm or other similar sites
providing information on such protections.
The Software is a "commercial item" if acquired under agreement
with the U.S. Government or any contractor therewith in accordance with 48
CFR 12.212 of the FAR and, if acquired for Department of Defense (DoD) units,
48 CFR 227-7202 of the DoD FAR Supplement, or any succeeding similar
regulations.
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