This is the legal section of The Spore Zone. Everything stated here applies to the whole site and hosted sites. If we find out you break these rules - and we will - then we will take appropriate actions. Send questions, comments and suggestions to this address.
The terms listed here are subject to changes. They can be changed without further notifications.
Last update: 7 January 2007
All the content is copyright © 2005-2007 The Spore Zone and/or the author, unless otherwise stated.
Articles, Files and other content posted on or before 16 May 2005 are copyright © 2001-2007 The Sims Zone. (Note that coverage for Spore was previously on that site)
Spore and related tools developed by Maxis and/or Electronic Arts are all copyright © 2005 -2007 Maxis and/or Electronic Arts.
Files are copyright by their authors and The Spore Zone, unless copyrights are explicitely mentioned in the file section's or the file's description.
Other (registered) trademarks mentioned on this site or its content are property of their respective owners.
You cannot use or link to any of the content or files or screenshots directly, except for the The Spore Zone banner and button, without our written permission. You can link to the front page, news posts, editorials and extras, interviews and screenshot indexes directly. Linking to any other page at The Sims Zone, including but not limited to a file, a file's information page, or screenshot is prohibited. You can quote from news posts, editorials or other articles at The Spore Zone without our permission, as long as only part of the item is quoted. You have to mention The Spore Zone as the source of the quote. Only affiliates can copy a news post completely, as long as credit is given to The Spore Zone and the article is properly quoted. For content other than news, affiliates are NOT an exception to this rule. If a news post or other content is too similar to an original article at The Spore Zone (e.g. only a few changes were made), then The Spore Zone will consider it as copied and so against these terms. Wheter content is too similar or not is decided by The Spore Zone.
You cannot include into other files, copy, modify, post pictures of or link to any files at The Spore Zone without our written permission. This doesn't include the banner and button on the links page, but those cannot and may not be modified. Affiliates are NOT an exception to this rule.
Any texts, articles, comments, pictures, files or other content submitted to The Spore Zone in any method become property of The Spore Zone. The Spore Zone is allowed to redistribute or publish the submitted items unless the author does not allow that to happen at the time of submitting, or when a written agreement has been made before submitting any items.
If we give permission to use some of the content at this site, you will always have to acknowledge The Spore Zone and/or the author as the source of the content. The Spore Zone and/or the content's author will always have and keep the right to make you remove the content posted. Affiliates again are NOT an exception to this rule.
This site uses several features that either store information on the server where The Spore Zone residies, or on the client computer in the form of cookies. These are primarily used to provide a better service to the end-user. IP addresses are only stored when you vote in the poll or when you post a comment or another text (like a Site Update). These are used to block certain IP addresses when somebody misbehaves according to the terms of agreement - e.g. by using profanity language. The Spore Zone will not abuse this information or try to gather additional information about the user, unless the user may be violating legal rules of their country, the UK or the USA. In the case of voting in polls, it is only used to check that one IP can vote only a set amount of times in a poll, to prevent mass-voting. Those IP addresses are stored for a limited time only. In no way, The Spore Zone will try to gather additional information from such IP addresses. No other personal information is stored, unless explicitly entered by the user. Information that will be stored will be marked as such.
Registering to this site is optional. However, a valid email address must be given and that will be stored in The Spore Zone's database. This email address is used for verification purposes, and for sending out a newsletter. The email address signed up with is always stored. If a different email address is given after registering, then that will be stored too, along with the original one. In the case of violation with the terms of agreement, e.g. by using profanity language, The Spore Zone may decide to deny access of a user, and/or to prevent the person from registering again using the provided original (and optionally later provided) email address, as well as any IP addresses used during the period since registering for posting comments and/or other texts. Any personal information besides a valid email address is optional and thereby the user decides whether to provide personal details or not.
The Spore Zone does not send spam. A newsletter may be received by members if they choose to allow us to email it to them in their profile when registering. The Spore Zone will never sell or give away any personal information provided to The Spore Zone to third parties, including IP addresses, unless requested for legal reasons by the proper authorities (e.g. police).
Registering as member, and voting in polls, as well as posting any texts either when registered or not, is optional while browsing this site. By doing any of these actions, the user agrees that The Spore Zone may store the IP address or any personal information provided directly by the user. The Spore Zone is allowed to provide certain features or files only to registered members or donators.
The person who registers is responsible for their account. If another person uses, abuses or misuses the account, then the person who registered the account will be held responsible for all the actions taken by that person.
The Spore Zone has the option to register as member to gain access to special parts of the website. These sections may allow users to post content on the site, e.g. comments. The privacy terms apply to membership accounts too. The registering user is responsible for the account and whatever happens or is done using that account. It is not allowed to share an account with more people, or to give away your password to others. Abuse, misbehaviour, discrimination, spam and other unwanted content posted using an account may result in the account being restricted or blocked without warning. The Spore Zone will decide if the account is blocked or not.
Posting links to illegal sites or sites containing illegal content, content not copyrighted by the website or its owner, or explicit content (e.g. porn), or having such links in a member's profile (either the Website link, signature, or anywhere else) is not allowed. Such links can be removed by The Spore Zone, and The Spore Zone is allowed to restrict or block the account. The Spore Zone is also allowed to remove links from a member profile pointing to websites not related to Spore or other games The Spore Zone focusses on.
The Spore Zone is always allowed to edit or remove content written by members. This will be done in case the content is irrelevant to the topic, or if the content is of abusive, discriminating or other unwanted nature, or if the same post was made a multiple number of times. This can be done without warning. The Spore Zone is also allowed to restrict or block an account for any reason, without warning.
All content is provided "as is", without any warranties of any kind, express or implied. The Spore Zone and/or the content's author cannot be held responsible for any damage caused by any content at The Spore Zone. This includes but is not limited to files and the pages.
The Spore Zone tries to make sure news and/or other articles contain true facts, unless otherwise stated. However, we cannot guarantee that everything is correct. The Spore Zone and/or the author of content at The Spore Zone cannot be held responsible if given information is false.
The Spore Zone cannot be held responsible for the opinions expressed by anybody in any of the content. This includes but is not limited to the opinions of authors of an item or visitors of The Spore Zone.
This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved.
By entering The Spore Zone, you automatically agree to the terms listed in this document. If you do not agree, you must leave this site immediately.
If you think that we have violated any copyrights from other sites, please contact us. We have no intentions to break copyright laws. However, if this (accidentally) happens, we'll remove the content in question as soon as possible, after we've seen that we were indeed violating copyright laws.
If you find another site or resource that has violated any of the rules mentioned above, please contact us at the same address, so we can take appropriate actions. We try to make these rules as solid as possible. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact us.
