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The Motley Fool's Rules - Terms & Conditions of Service

Welcome to The Motley Fool! We hope you'll enjoy and participate in our Foolishness -- such as Fool.com, our subscription newsletters and their special websites, our discussions boards, CAPS and whatever else we come up with (collectively, the "Services"), but first things first: By using the Services, you're agreeing to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you don't wish to be bound by what we've written below, you shouldn't register with The Motley Fool, Inc. ("The Motley Fool," "The Fool," "we" or "us") or use the Services we provide. We may change these terms at any time but will post a notice in advance on this website of any material changes; your continued use of The Motley Fool and its Services means that you accept any new or modified terms and conditions. So please check back here from time-to-time.

  1. Registration

    Members may only maintain one active registration with The Motley Fool. In other words, it's one registration per person. By accepting this agreement, you certify that you personally have no other registration with The Fool.

    If you subscribe to one of our premium Services, you will be asked to create a password which you'll need to access the Service. Should you wish to post a message on the discussion boards, you'll also be required to choose a user name.

    As a registered user, you can update your account settings including your email address, by going to the My Fool tab up top. There, you can also change your password at any time and your user name up to three times in a calendar year. Also, if you forgot either your password or user name, you can go to this page.

  2. Premium Services

    When subscribing to a premium Service such as one of our newsletters, you will need to provide us with your name, email, billing and shipping addresses as well as your credit card information. You certify that all information you provide is accurate. You also agree to maintain and update your information as necessary so that it remains accurate and current. In the event that any information you provide is inaccurate or not up to date, The Motley Fool reserves the right to cancel your subscription.

    Some Services may provide a free trial offer. If a trial offer is provided, only one free trial per household and per email address is allowed at any given point in time. In addition, there is a limit of one free trial per person and per email address in any given six-month period.

    If you don't cancel your subscription within the trial offer period, we will charge the credit card you provided during the sign-up process. You agree to pay the applicable subscription fee as set forth on this site. The Motley Fool reserves the right to increase a Service's fees or institute new charges upon reasonable notice. Service fees are due in advance. You may cancel your membership at anytime and receive a pro-rated refund by contacting Member Support. Your membership will automatically renew until you notify us of your decision to terminate your membership. Accordingly, you agree that your membership fee or subscription will be billed automatically at the beginning of each renewal period at the then-current rate to the credit card you used in your most recent transaction with us.

    In the event we terminate a Service, you agree that The Motley Fool may transfer your subscription to another Service of equal or greater value. Of course, you may cancel your membership to the new Service at anytime and receive a pro-rated refund.

  3. Intellectual Property

    All of the Content on our websites and any Service we provide is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws and is the property of The Motley Fool and/or providers of the content under license. By "Content" we mean any information, mode of expression, or other materials and services found on The Motley Fool. This includes message boards, blogs, chats, software, our writings, graphics, CAPS entries and ratings, and any and all other features. You can find out more information on Copyright Law and the Internet at http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html.

    You may make one copy of the Content for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that any material copied remains intact and includes the following notice: "Copyright 1995-2007 The Motley Fool, Inc. All rights reserved." Any other copying, distribution, storing, or transmission of any kind, or any commercial use of our Content is prohibited without The Fool's prior written permission. That means you may not sell, auction, transfer or barter your subscription or any individual publication. You may also not republish, post, transmit or distribute the Content to online bulletin and message boards, blogs, chat rooms, intranets or anywhere else without our consent. You further agree not to create abstracts from or scrape our Content for use on another website or service. Aside from opening yourself up to liability, distributing our premium Services to other sites and forums is unfair to our members who pay good money to receive our Content. So please don't do it.

    Please note that notwithstanding the foregoing, when you post content (such as a message board post or CAPS "pitch"), you are not somehow surrendering your copyright in your expression. By posting content, you agree that The Motley Fool has an unlimited and perpetual license to republish anything you post on our websites, but, aside from that, you retain the right to use your words however you want. If you don't want us to republish your words, then please don't post them on our websites. We'll only republish your post in context and we'll credit you (under your user name) as author (unless we're using small quotations). We won't republish your posts in advertising without your permission. And we promise not to mock you unless it would amuse us.

    You agree not to display any of The Motley Fool's trademarks or use them in any manner without our express written permission. You can find the list of our trademarks here.

  4. Conduct

    The Motley Fool champions active and open debate among our members. All we ask is that it's done in a lawful and civil manner - be it posting on our boards or using our system to email a poster directly. Accordingly, you agree to use The Motley Fool for lawful purposes only. You may not use or allow others to use your Fool membership to:

    • Post or transmit any content that is disruptive, uncivil, abusive, vulgar, profane, obscene, hateful, fraudulent, threatening, harassing, defamatory, or which discloses private or personal matters concerning any person;
    • Post or transmit any material that you don't have the right to transmit under law (such as copyright, trade secret or securities) or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as nondisclosure agreements);
    • Post, transmit, or link to sexually explicit material;
    • Impersonate any person, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
    • Post or transmit any advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation including chain letters and pyramid schemes;
    • Violate any applicable law or regulation while accessing and using our sites, including, without limitation, the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the national or other securities exchanges, (especially and including the rule against making false or misleading statements to manipulate the price of any security);
    • Offer, sell, or buy any security;
    • Post or transmit any file that contains viruses, corrupted files, "Trojan Horses," or any other contaminating or destructive features that may damage someone's computer;
    • Forge headers or manipulate identifiers or other data in order to disguise the origin of any content transmitted through our sites or to manipulate your presence on our sites;
    • Use any automated means, including without limitation, agents, robots, scripts, or spiders, to access, monitor, copy or harvest data from any part of our sites;
    • Take any action that imposes an unreasonably or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure or disrupts the functioning of our systems or Services; and
    • Take any action that damages or disrupts the functioning of our systems or services.

    Unauthorized access to our sites is a breach of these Terms and Conditions and a violation of the law. You agree not to access our sites by any means other than through the interfaces we provide for use in our accessing our sites.

    The Motley Fool may at any time, without prior notice and at our sole discretion, remove any post, terminate the membership, or take any action for violating the above (and if we may say so, sensible) provisions or otherwise take an action disruptive to a Service. In the event of termination of a premium Service, you will receive a pro-rated refund.

    You are responsible for statements made and actions taken through the use of your password, so please maintain the confidentiality of your password. You agree to immediately notify Member Support of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of your username and password. We will not be responsible for any loss to you arising from unauthorized use of your data. For more information on posting, please see our Posting Guidelines.

  5. Disclaimer of Warranties and Liabilities

    Please read The Motley Fool's Disclaimer, which is incorporated herein by reference.

    The Motley Fool provides a broad range of information, commentary and entertainment. We can't and we don't warrant the completeness or accuracy of the Content found in our Services or its usefulness for any particular purpose. And although we have the hardest-working, most talented techies in the business, The Motley Fool makes no promises that our content or any of the Services will be delivered to you uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free. In fact, we're not making any promises or warranties except that we'll do our best to provide interesting and helpful information, education, and entertainment." Other than that, we reserve the right to be wrong, stupid or even foolish (with a small "f").

    Now what does this all mean? It means that you agree that under no circumstances will The Motley Fool, its employees or its agents be liable for direct, indirect, incidental or any other type of damages resulting from your use or downloading of any material on our sites, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. This includes, but is no way limited to, loss or injury caused in whole or in part by our negligence or by stuff beyond our control in creating or delivering any of our Services.

    One of the principal tenets here at The Fool is that the best person to handle your finances is YOU and by your use of our Services, you're agreeing that you bear responsibility for your own investment research and investment decisions. You also agree that The Motley Fool, its directors, its employees and its agents will not be liable for any investment decision made or action taken by you and others based upon reliance on news, information, opinion or any other material published through our Services. The Fool relies on various sources of information that we believe to be accurate and reliable. There are also literally thousands of contributors here, most, we believe, with incredibly interesting and insightful information and opinions to share. But we can't and won't take responsibility, or make any claims or representations, for the accuracy, completeness, or even the truth of every bit of data, information, and opinion provided through our Services. Remember: all information and content provided on or by The Motley Fool is to be used on an "as is, with all faults, we're not perfect" basis.

    Additionally, we're not investment advisers and we cannot provide personalized advice. We can't know all the relevant facts about you and your individual needs, and we cannot claim or represent that any particular Services are suitable for you. If you want personal advice, then you should seek a registered investment adviser.

    Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability:

    NEITHER THE MOTLEY FOOL NOR ANY OF OUR PARTNERS MAKES ANY WARRANTY THAT THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION, OR OTHER MATERIAL THAT YOU PURCHASE OR OBTAIN FROM THE USE OF OUR SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS AND ANY ERRORS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CORRECTED. NEITHER WE NOR ANY OF OUR PARTNERS MAKES ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO OUR WEBSITES, ANY CONTENT, OR ANY OF OUR SERVICES, TOOLS, PRODUCTS, OR PROPERTIES, YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOU WILL ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND THE PERFORMANCE OF OUR SERIVCES AND THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ITS CONTENT.

    SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN SUCH STATES, OUR LIABLITY AND THAT OF OUR THIRD PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS WILL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

    That was tiresome, but important.

  6. Communication

    Federal or state law may require that we notify you of certain events. You hereby acknowledge and consent that such notices will be effective upon our posting them on our websites or sending them to you via email (another reason to please keep your account settings current). If you do not provide us with accurate information, we cannot be held liable if we fail to notify you. You may request that we provide such notices to you in paper format, by writing to General Counsel, The Motley Fool, Inc., 2000 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

  7. Everything Else

    If any provision in this Agreement is found to be invalid, unenforceable, or nonsensical, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. This Agreement is and always will be governed by the laws of the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Virginia (except with respect to choice of law).You agree that the proper forum for any claim arising under this Agreement will be the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or the appropriate Virginia court.

    Our services are directed at a U.S. audience. We can not warrant that the Services are appropriate for users outside the United States or that use of the Services is permitted under the laws of other jurisdictions. All personal data is maintained in the United States under the terms of our Privacy Policy, which is also incorporated by reference.

    Please note that certain individual Services (such as CAPS) may have their own, or additional terms and conditions. In the event of a conflict, the terms for the individual Service will control with respect to the Service in question.

    These Terms and Conditions including those that are incorporated by reference, constitute the entire and only agreement between you and The Motley Fool and govern your use of our sites.

Last Updated: January 24, 2007