At Morningstar Communications (“Morningstar Communications” or "We"), user privacy is an important concern. We are committed to privacy and security, and to providing the best possible user experience for our users and online customers ("You"). We also strive to protect the personal and confidential information of those who use our online services. Click here for our entire Privacy Policy. This policy may be updated by us from time to time, so please check here frequently.
TERMS OF USE
Please read this agreement ("Agreement") carefully before accessing or using the Morningstar Communications website at www.morningstarcomm.com. By accessing or using the site, You agree to be bound by this Agreement. Morningstar Communications provides the information and services on this site to you, the user, conditioned on your acceptance without modification of the terms, conditions and notices contained herein. Your use of the site constitutes your agreement to all such terms, conditions and notices.
The information and services offered on the site are provided with the understanding that neither Morningstar Communications or its representatives are engaged in rendering legal services or other such advice. Your use of the site is subject to the additional disclaimers and notices that may appear throughout the site.
Morningstar Communications and its representatives assume no responsibility for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction that you take based on the information, services or other material on this site. While Morningstar Communications strives to keep the information on this site accurate, complete and up-to-date, Morningstar Communications and its representatives cannot guarantee, and will not be responsible for any damage or loss related to, the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the information.
PERSONAL AND NONCOMMERCIAL USE LIMITATION: PROHIBITED USES
We may provide information about Morningstar Communications' services, marketing and communications related information and access to our Blog. Morningstar Communications grants you access to the site during the term of this agreement solely to receive the services. You may access, download, and print materials as necessary to receive the services. You may not license, copy, distribute, create derivative works from, frame in another webpage, use on any other website, or sell any information, databases or lists obtained from the site. When requested, you agree to provide true, accurate and complete user information. You shall not access or attempt to access password protected, secure or non-public areas of the website without Morningstar's prior written permission. You will comply with all privacy laws.
PROPRIETARY RIGHTS
All materials on this site (as well as the organization and layout of the site) are owned and copyrighted, licensed by or used with permission that is granted to Morningstar Communications. No reproduction, distribution or transmission of the copyrighted materials at this site is permitted without the prior written permission of Morningstar Communications.
YOUR ACCOUNT
We may implement password requirements for our Blog. If you use this site and we have implemented a password requirement, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. If your status as a user of the site is terminated, you will (i) cease using the site and any information obtained from the site, and (ii) destroy all copies of your account information, password and any information obtained from the site.
NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE
As a condition of your use of this site, you warrant to Morningstar Communications that you will not use this site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms. If you violate any of these terms, your permission to use the site automatically terminates.
You may not without the prior written permission of Morningstar Communications' use any computer code, data mining software, "robot," "bot," "spider," "scraper" or other automatic device, or program, algorithm or methodology having similar processes or functionality, or any manual process, to monitor or copy any of the webpages, data or content found on this site or accessed through this site.
If you are under the age of 13, you may not use this site.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
You expressly understand and agree that your use of this site and the services offered at the site is at your sole risk. The site is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. Morningstar Communications expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.
Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of the site is done at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
You expressly understand and agree that Morningstar Communications shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from: (i) the use or the inability to use the site or services; (ii) the cost of procurement of substitute services resulting from any data, information or services obtained, or messages received or transactions entered on the site or through or from the service; (iii) unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data; (iv) statements or conduct of any third party on the service, or (v) any other matter relating to the site or the services. In no event will our maximum liability to you exceed the amount you paid to us for the subject services or $100, whichever is greater.
INDEMNITY
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold Morningstar Communications harmless from and against any claims, losses or liabilities based on content you post or your breach of this agreement, including the restrictions on and representations you make regarding use of the Blog section.
LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES
This site may contain hyperlinks to websites operated by parties other than Morningstar Communications or its affiliates. Such hyperlinks are provided for your reference only. Morningstar Communications does not control such websites, and is not responsible for their content. Inclusion of hyperlinks by Morningstar Communications to such websites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or any association with their operators, and your access to and use of such sites, including information, material, products and services therein, is solely at your own risk. Furthermore, because the Morningstar Communications' privacy policy is applicable only when you are on our site, once linked to another website, you should read that site’s privacy policy before disclosing any personal information.
LINKS TO OUR SITE
You are granted a limited, revocable, and nonexclusive right to create a hyperlink to the homepage of Morningstar Communications so long as (i) the link or your linking website does not portray Morningstar Communications, its affiliates or their products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory or otherwise offensive matter; (ii) your linking website complies with all applicable law and does not otherwise violate this Agreement or the rights of others; and (iii) your website has, maintains and follows a privacy policy no less protective of user data than the privacy policy of this site. You may not use any Morningstar logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark as part of the link without express written permission. Morningstar Communications may revoke this license at any time, with or without cause, in which case you agree to immediately remove such hyperlink. You may not link to any page other than the homepage of this site.
USE OF SUBMISSIONS
You grant us the right to use, reproduce, modify, distribute and display any material you supply or communicate to the site (including our Blog) for the stated purposes of this Agreement and to authorize others to do so.
Blog
Morningstar Communications is the administrator and owner of the Blog section. Our blog offers you the opportunity to contribute your ideas, comments, questions and other communications (the "User Content"). You shall not (nor cause any third party to) use the site or Blog to perform any illegal activities (including without limitation defaming, abusing, harassing, stalking, threatening or otherwise violating the legal rights - such as rights of privacy - of others) or immoral activities or any of the following types of activities, without limitation:
transmitting information that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
transmitting any material that contains software viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, or any other computer code, files or programs which may interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
impersonating anyone or any entity, falsely stating or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity;
advertising or commercial content;
interfering with or disrupting the site;
disrupting the activities or enjoyment of the site for other users;
collecting or storing personal data about other users;
posting anonymous comments; or
posting any pornographic or obscene content.
You agree to abide by all applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations, and are solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under your account or password, including without limitation any of the User Content created by you.
You acknowledge that User Content is not endorsed by Morningstar Communications and such User Content should not be considered to have been reviewed, screened or approved by Morningstar Communications. You should exercise discretion before relying on information contained in User Content. You agree to evaluate, and assume all risks associated with the use of any User Content, including without limitation any risk relating to any reliance on the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of such User Content. Morningstar Communications assumes no responsibility for the information contained in User Content.
You agree that Morningstar Communications, in its sole discretion, may terminate your password, account (or any part thereof) or use of the site, and remove any User Content in Blog at any time and for any or no reason. You agree that Morningstar Communications shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your access to the site or deletion of any User Content on the site.
You acknowledge and agree that Morningstar Communications may preserve and disclose User Content if required to do so by law or if Morningstar Communications believes in good faith that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, enforce this Agreement, respond to a claim that User Content violates any third party's rights, or protect the right, property or personal safety of Morningstar Communications, any users of the site, and the public. You also acknowledge that the technical processing and transmission of the site, including without limitation User Content, may involve transmissions over various networks and changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.
Morningstar assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the User Content for use in Blog. Without limitation to the foregoing, Morningstar Communications shall not be liable for the collection, use or disclosure of any personal information by users of the Blog section.
Subject to any applicable law and the requirements of the Morningstar's privacy policy, any communications sent by you via this site or otherwise to Morningstar Communications (including without limitation User Content) are on a non-confidential basis, and Morningstar Communications is under no obligation to refrain from reproducing, publishing or otherwise using them in any way or for any purpose. Morningstar Communications shall be free to use the content of any such communication, including without limitation any ideas, inventions, concepts, techniques or know-how disclosed therein, for any purpose including without limitation developing, manufacturing and/or marketing goods and services. You agree to not assert any ownership right of any kind in such communications (including without limitation copyright, trademark, unfair competition, moral rights, or implied contract) and you hereby waive the right to receive any financial or other consideration in connection with such communication, including without limitation acknowledgment of you as the source of such communications. You shall be responsible for the content and information contained in any communication sent by you to this site or otherwise to Morningstar Communications, including without limitation for its truthfulness and accuracy.
CHANGES TO SITE
Morningstar Communications may make improvements or changes in the information, services, products and other materials on this site, or terminate this site at any time. Morningstar Communications may modify this Agreement at any time, and such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the modified Agreement. Accordingly, you agree to review the Agreement periodically, and your continued access or use of this site shall be deemed your acceptance of the modified Agreement.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION
You agree that: (1) Any claim, dispute, or controversy (whether in contract, tort, or otherwise) arising out of, relating to, or connected in any way with the site or the services provided on the site will be resolved exclusively by final and binding arbitration conducted pursuant to the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) Procedures for Consumer-Related Disputes in conjunction with the AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules (if and as applicable depending on the amount in controversy); (2) This arbitration agreement is made pursuant to a transaction governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), 9 U.S.C. §§ 1-16; (3) The arbitration shall be held at the AAA regional office in St. Louis, Missouri; (4) The arbitrator’s decision shall be controlled by the terms and conditions of this Agreement; (5) The arbitrator shall apply Kansas law consistent with the FAA and applicable statutes of limitations and shall honor claims of privilege recognized at law; (6) There shall be no authority for any claims to be arbitrated on a class or representative basis; arbitration can decide only your individual claims and the arbitrator may not consolidate or join the claims of other persons or parties who may be similarly situated; (7) The arbitrator shall not have the power to award punitive damages against any party; (8) In the event that the administrative fees and deposits you are required to pay under the Company rules exceed $125, and you are unable to pay the additional fees and deposits, Morningstar Communications retains the right to forward them to the company on the your behalf, subject to ultimate allocation by the arbitrator. In addition, if you are able to demonstrate that the costs of arbitration will be prohibitive as compared to the costs of litigation, Morningstar Communications retains the right to pay as much of your filing and hearing fees in connection with the arbitration as the arbitrator deems necessary to prevent the arbitration from being cost-prohibitive; and (9) If any part of this Arbitration Provision is deemed to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable or illegal, the balance of this Arbitration Provision shall remain in full force and effect and shall be construed in accordance with its terms as if the invalid or illegal provision were not contained herein. You understand that, in the absence of this provision, you would have had a right to litigate disputes through a court, including the right to litigate claims on a class-wide or class-action basis, and that You have expressly and knowingly waived those rights and agreed to resolve any disputes through binding arbitration in accordance with the provisions of this paragraph.
MISCELLANEOUS
This site is intended to and directed to residents of the United States and all advertising claims contained in this site are valid only in the United States. This Agreement and the resolution of any dispute related to this Agreement or this site shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Kansas, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. Failure by Morningstar Communications to insist upon strict enforcement of any provision of this Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of this site or this Agreement must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. If any of these terms shall be deemed invalid, void or for any reason unenforceable, that term shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining term.
Morningstar Communications and other logos, product and service names are trademarks and service marks owned by or licensed to Morningstar Communications or its affiliates (the "Marks"). Without the prior written permission of Morningstar Communications, or its appropriate affiliates, you agree not to display or use in any manner, the Marks.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
© Copyright 2018 Morningstar Communications Company. All rights reserved.
DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT POLICY
It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. This page describes the information that should be present in these notices. It is designed to make submitting notices of alleged infringement to Morningstar Communications as straightforward as possible while reducing the number of notices that we receive that are fraudulent or difficult to understand or verify. The form of notice specified below is consistent with the form suggested by the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office website) but we will respond to notices of this form from other jurisdictions as well.
Regardless of whether we may be liable for such infringement under local country law or United States law, our response to these notices may include removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity and/or terminating subscribers. If we remove or disable access in response to such a notice, we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the owner or administrator of the affected site or content so that they may make a counter notification. We may also document notices of alleged infringement on which we act. Please note that in addition to being forwarded to the person who provided the allegedly infringing content, a copy of this legal notice may be sent to a third-party partner for publication and annotation.
INFRINGEMENT NOTIFICATION FOR MORNINGSTAR COMMUNICATIONS' BLOG
To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail - not by email, except by prior agreement) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.
To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following format (including section numbers):
1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon. This post must include identification of the specific posts, as opposed to entire sites. Posts must be referenced by the permalink of the post.
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above.
YOU MUST IDENTIFY EACH POST BY PERMALINK OR DATE THAT ALLEGEDLY CONTAINS THE INFRINGING MATERIAL. The permalink for a post is usually found by clicking on the timestamp of the post.
3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Morningstar Communications to contact you (email address is preferred).
4. Include the following statement: "I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted material described above on the allegedly infringing webpages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law."
5. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
6. Sign the paper.
7. Send the written communication to the following address:
Morningstar Communications
12307 Flint Street
Overland Park, KS 66213
Please note that a copy of each legal notice we receive is sent to a third-party partner for legal evaluation.
COUNTER NOTIFICATION
The administrator of an affected site or the provider of affected content may make a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When we receive a counter notification, we may reinstate the material in question.
To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail – not by email, except by prior agreement) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is not infringing the copyrights of others. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether certain material infringes the copyrights of others, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.
To expedite our ability to process your counter notification, please use the following format (including section numbers):
1. Identify the specific URLs or other unique identifying information of material that Morningstar Communications has removed or to which Morningstar Communications has disabled access.
2. Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or Johnson County, Kansas, if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification or an agent of such person.
3. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that each search result, message, or other item of content identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled, or that the material identified by the complainant has been removed or disabled at the URL identified and will no longer be shown."
4. Sign the paper.
5. Send the written communication to the following address:
Morningstar Communications
12307 Flint Street
Overland Park, KS 66213