Conditions and Policies
of
greatriverroad.com

The following is the  greatriverroad.com standard agreement which is on the reverse side of our order form. It serves the dual purpose of being a legal document and as an outline of the policies we have concerning advertisements.

For those wishing a general explanation of the conditions and policies of the agreement, an explanation in plain English is provided in green below each clause. These explanations do not appear on the paper form of the contract.

THIS AGREEMENT is between the party identified as "Customer" on the reverse of this page, and greatriverroad.com, PO Box 87, Elsah, IL 62028, herein known as "Provider". The essence of this agreement is that Provider has an on-line Internet World-Wide Web publication, called greatriverroad.com, and that Customer wishes to advertise on said publication. This agreement also serves as an invoice for these services provided to Customer by Provider. Payment in full is due upon Customer's receipt of this agreement. Therefore, in consideration of mutual benefit, Customer and Provider hereby agree to the terms, conditions and policies below:

Like most businesses, our invoice and agreement are combined on a single sheet of paper with the invoice on the front and the contract provisions on the back. The service we provide is exposure on the World Wide Web via advertisements and information on our site: greatriverroad.com.

1: Acceptance of Advertising Documents: Customer has a 15-day grace period from the date of notification of posting of advertising or copy to submit changes to advertising designs and copy. After this 15-day period, no changes, other than typographical errors, will be performed by Provider without charge. Customers renewing their contract have a 15-day period, starting on the date a renewal contract is signed to make changes free of charge provided all those changes are submitted on the same day. Prices for changes after said 15-day grace period are a minimum of $25. All requests for changes must be given in writing to Provider, and a check for the total amount of the changes must accompany the change order. Changes and payments are to be mailed to greatriverroad.com, PO Box 87, Elsah, IL 62028, or hand delivered to Provider or Provider's representatives.

Once we create advertising material for your business you will be asked to review the material to see if it is satisfactory. We can't, however, be constantly asked to make changes free of charge to the material. Therefore, time limits have been placed on the period on which we will make changes free of charge. We are a small company and also need time to create the material that brings in our readership in the first place.

2. Limitation of Liability: Customer agrees to hold Provider harmless for any computer network, hardware, or software failure on equipment that is not administered by greatriverroad.com. Furthermore, Provider's liability in case of such failure, accidental or otherwise, shall be explicitly limited to the refund of service fee paid by Customer to Provider as set forth on the reverse. The refund of service fee is the exclusive remedy extended to Customer for these types of failure, or for the breach of this contract, or any other contract or guarantee, whether express or implied. Any such refund will be granted only upon total and permanent failure of any such system not maintained by Provider. No refunds will be given for failures lasting ten days or less. If any such failure within the systems not maintained by Provider lasts longer than ten days, then Provider will refund to Customer a fee equal to a daily proration based upon the total value of this contract and the total number of days the failure lasted beyond the ten day limit.

Internet transfer systems sometimes fail, (servers go down, hackers, viruses, etc.) and the site can be unavailable for short periods of time. We cannot control this and therefore do not assume responsibility for these failures. If the server we use suffers a failure that lasts longer than ten (10) days and we do not switch to another server then you are entitled to a partial refund.

3. Prohibition of Illegal Content: Customer agrees to abide by all copyright and other laws governing content of publications in the United States of America. Customer agrees that Provider shall be held harmless from any damages resulting from Customer's violation of any copyright laws, or any other laws that may be violated by Customer’s advertising document or content. In the event of any copyright violation, Provider, upon so discovering, will immediately remove said violations from Customer's advertising document or content without warning or compensation to Customer.

We are regarded by law as a publisher and will not put ourselves at risk by disseminating illegal material. If we discover illegal material we maintain the right to remove it.

4. Ownership Rights of Intellectual Property: Customer retains ownership of the copyright for any original material supplied by Customer to Provider. Provider retains ownership of the copyright for any photographs and advertising copy produced by Provider for Customer. Provider holds sole and exclusive rights of ownership to the copyright and all other intellectual properties represented in the completed advertisement document produced by Provider. Exclusive intellectual property ownership rights retained by Provider on creative material produced by Provider shall include, but not be limited to, any photographic, logo, Web banner ad, or artwork files in .JPEG or GIF format, or any other programming codes if produced by Provider. Customer understands and agrees that the terms of this paragraph shall survive the expiration date of this agreement.

The Customer retains the copyrights of original material that the Customer provides. However, the copyrights of any material created by greatriverroad.com, including material that includes Customer original material (i.e. we create a web-ready ad using your logo), are retained by greatriverroad.com.

5. Hold Harmless On Violations: Provider agrees not to use any intellectual property in any form without permission from Customer. In the event that Customer does not own the rights to the intellectual properties, Customer hereby warrants that Customer has obtained permission from any title holder to said intellectual properties, and further hereby holds Provider harmless if such permission has not been granted to Customer, and any title holder to said intellectual properties files a complaint against Provider.

If you already have web-ready material that you wish to use, we will use it. However, this clause implies that you are the owner of the copyrights of this material. If it turns out that you do not own the copyrights, then you hold us harmless if you are sued for copyright infringement.

6. Piracy Of Intellectual Property By Third Parties: Customer may not themselves use, or grant to any other party, the right to use, in part, or in full, for any purpose, by any method, the advertisement document files, any logo or artwork files, any photographic files, and any related World-Wide-Web files produced by Provider for Customer, without Customer first obtaining written permission from Provider. Provider retains the right to refuse said permission, but agrees to negotiate in good faith with Customer. Customer understands and agrees that the terms of this paragraph shall survive the expiration date of this agreement.

You cannot give permission to another business to copy off the World Wide Web material that we produced. If you want to use an advertisement we have produced on another site, we will be happy to work out terms with you.

7. Editorial Control: Customer understands and agrees that Provider has editorial control pertaining to what goes into any advertising documents or copy produced by Provider for Customer. Provider retains the right to refuse to place any item or content that Provider deems unfit.

Because we can be held legally liable for anything we publish, we retain the right of editorial control.

8. Cancellations: In the event that Customer wishes Provider to remove any or all of Customer's advertising documents produced and or maintained by Provider from the World-Wide-Web for any reason, before the one year term of this contract has been completed, Provider shall do so upon receiving written request from Customer. However, Customer understands and agrees that in the event of any such cancellation, Customer is not entitled to a refund.

Sometimes a Customer will go out of business. We will remove any materials at the Customer's request but we do not give partial refunds. 

9. Limitations of Free Design Work: Design work by Provider is limited to 1 hours for Banners Ads. Additional design work costs $25 per hour. Free design work does not include the creation of any original artwork, graphics or logos.

We don't charge very much for our advertisements or web pages, relying on Customers to renew on a yearly basis for revenue. Because the design work is included free of charge, we feel that a limit needs to be placed on the amount of time put into each advertisement.

10. Index Page Positioning: Preferred Positioning is given to Customers who choose the Enhanced Listings option on a first come, first served basis. Customer’s failure to renew or to renew late will result in a change in the Customer’s Preferred Positioning position.

We have a first come first serve policy on the position a Customer is listed on our Index pages. It is not fair to those who renew on time to have another Customer who renews late to be listed ahead of them.

11. Failure to Renew: If Customer does not renew by midnight of the last day of this contract, Provider will remove Customer’s advertising documents and links and Customer will lose their Preferred Positioning on any Index pages that their business is listed.

We feel it is only fair to all involved that only paying customers have enhanced listings and advertisements. We also would like to be paid on time. Therefore we will remove any enhanced listings and advertisements of any Customers who are late in paying.