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Terms of Service

Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Welcome to The Alpena News website. Following are the terms and conditions that govern your use of this website.

Using this site tells us that you have read and agreed to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy detailed below. Please read the following sections carefully. If you do not agree with these terms, please exit this site or any site affiliated with this site. These Terms of Service and Privacy Policy apply to all web sites owned and operated by Ogden Newspapers. The Alpena News reserves the right to terminate Membership and deny access to the site to any person who violates these Terms of Service.

Future Changes

These terms may change at any time in the future. No individual notice of changes will be provided to Users. So, please check back periodically and review the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to ensure that you still agree to abide by them. Unless you terminate your registration and use of this site or any site affiliated to this site, you will be bound by any subsequent change to these Terms.

Copyright

All information, content, services and software displayed on, transmitted through or used in connection with The Alpena News sites, including, but not limited to, news articles, reviews, directories, guides, text, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips, video, html, source and object code, trademarks, logos and the like, as well as its selection and arrangement, is owned by Ogden Newspapers Inc., and its affiliated companies. You may use the Content online only, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. If you operate a Web site and wish to link to any of the sites owned and operated by The Alpena News, you may do so provided you agree to cease such link upon request from The Alpena News and that you do not state or imply any sponsorship of your site by The Alpena News. No other use is permitted without prior written permission of The Alpena News. The permitted use described in this Paragraph is contingent on your compliance at all times with these Terms of Service.

You may not, for example, republish any portion of the Content on any Internet, Intranet or extranet site or incorporate the Content in any database, compilation, archive or cache. You may not distribute any Content to others, whether or not for payment or other consideration, and you may not modify, copy, frame, cache, reproduce, sell, publish, transmit, display or otherwise use any portion of the Content. You may not scrape or otherwise copy our Content without written permission. You agree not to decompile, reverse engineer or disassemble any software or other products or processes accessible through The Alpena News, not to insert any code or product or manipulate the content of The Alpena News in any way that affects the user’s experience, and not to use any data mining, data gathering or extraction method.

Requests to use Content for any purpose other than as permitted in these Terms of Service should be directed to Bill Speer – Publisher of The Alpena News at bspeer@thealpenanews.com. In certain cases, you may be able to obtain a license to use individual stories that appear on any of The Alpena News sites through online functionality we have specifically designated. For example, email a story to a friend or purchase a photograph.

Copyright Complaints

The Alpena News respects the intellectual property of others and holds no claim to copyrights of content that is owned by a third party or is in the public domain. If you believe your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement or you are aware of any infringing material on any of The Alpena News sites, please contact us immediately.

Membership, Registration, Termination and Passwords

To use certain features of any Service provided by The Alpena News, you must register on the form(s) provided. If you become a Member of The Alpena News, or any of its affiliated sites or services, you accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account and Password, and agree not to sell, transfer or assign your Membership or any Membership rights.

When registering, you agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service’s registration form and to maintain and promptly update the information you provide to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. We reserve the right to terminate your Membership at any time for any reason and without notice. In the event of termination, you are no longer authorized to access the part of the Service affected by such cancellation or termination. The restrictions imposed on you with respect to material downloaded from any Service, and the disclaimers and limitations of liabilities set forth in these Terms of Service, shall survive.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for restricting access to your computer so others outside your household may not access The Alpena News using your name in whole or in part without your permission. If you believe someone has accessed your member name and/or password without your authorization, e-mail us immediately. The Alpena News cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your password or account information.

License to The Alpena News

By posting a message, uploading a file, providing information to, communicating with, or otherwise placing any material on our websites, you are granting The Alpena News and its affiliated newspapers, a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted right and license to use, copy, modify, display, archive, store, distribute, reproduce and create derivative works from such information, in any form, media, software or technology or any kind now existing or developed in the future. Without limiting the generality of the previous term, you authorize Ogden Newspapers to share the information across all Ogden Newspaper locations, other Ogden Newspaper websites and to use your name and any other information in connection with its use of the material you provide. All rights in this term are granted without the requirement for additional compensation of any sort to you and without further permission required.

Interactive Features

Services offered by The Alpena News or any of its affiliated sites may include a variety of features, such as message boards, photo galleries, comments and other interactive features which will allow feedback to The Alpena News and real-time interaction between users. These features are provided to give users an interesting and stimulating forum to express their opinions and share ideas and information. The Alpena News cannot and does not monitor all of the material posted or transmitted by users and third party information providers.

It is a condition of your use of these Services that you exercise your best judgment and do not:

• Restrict or inhibit any other user(s) from using and enjoying the Service.

• Post any material that contains vulgar, profane, abusive, hateful or racist language or expressions, text, photographs or illustrations in poor taste, or attacks of a personal, racial or religious nature.

• Post any material that is threatening, false, defamatory, misleading, fraudulent, unfair, and inaccurate, contains gross exaggeration or unsubstantiated claims, violates the privacy rights of any party, is unreasonably harmful or offensive to any individual, community, association, business or group.

• Violate any right of The Alpena News or any of its affiliates.

• Post any material that discriminates, or refers to such matters in any manner prohibited by law.

• Disrupt, interfere with or otherwise harms or violates the security of The Alpena News, or any services, resources, passwords, servers or networks through The Alpena News or affiliated or linked sites.

• Post any material that contains or links to viruses or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files.

• Use or attempt to use another’s identity, account, password, service or system except as expressly permitted by the Terms of Services.

• Post any material that includes copyrighted or other proprietary material of any kind without express permission of the owner of the material.

• Post any material that includes advertisements, promotions, or offers to trade any goods or services, except in areas specifically designated for such purpose, if available.

• Post any material that violates or encourages the violation of any municipal, state, federal or international law, rule or regulation.

• The Alpena News reserves the right to delete any communications at any time, for any reason or in its discretion, but has no obligation to review or remove any such content. The Alpena News also reserves the right to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or governmental request, or to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in The Alpena News sole discretion are objectionable or in violation of these Terms of Service.

E-Commerce and Transactions on our sites

The Alpena News may allow you to engage in a transaction involving the purchase of a product or service such as a newspaper subscription, a print or online advertisement,a print of a photograph, a photograph product, a discount coupon, or other tangible goods and services. The service may be administrated by the newspaper or by an affiliated company. The service may also have an additional terms of service and privacy policy that serves as an addendum to this one. To serve you most efficiently, credit card transactions and order fulfillment are often handled by a third party. These third parties may have separate privacy and data collection practices, so please be sure to read these as well. If you’re concerned about online credit card safety, in most cases a telephone number will be provided so that you can call to place your order by phone. The Alpena News cannot take responsibility for the success or security of transactions undertaken or processed by third parties. The Alpena News are not responsible for the quality, accuracy, timeliness, reliability or any other aspect of these third party products and services. You agree to release Ogden Newspapers, The Alpena News and its affiliates from any damages that you incur, and agree not to assert any claims against them, arising from your purchase or use of any products or services made available by third parties through The Alpena News.

Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

While The Alpena News use reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information, we make no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of the Content and assume no liability or responsibility for any error or omission in the Content. The Alpena News does not represent or warrant that use of any Content will not infringe rights of third parties. The Alpena News has no responsibility for actions of third parties or for content provided or posted by others.

Because services provided by The Alpena News may include links and pointers to Internet sites, content and services provided by third parties. Neither The Alpena News, its parent or subsidiary companies nor their affiliates operate or control in any respect any information, products or services that third parties may provide on or through The Alpena News or on a website linked to by The Alpena News. The content on this site and any third-party sites are provided “as is”, “as available” and without warranties of any kind either expressed or implied. To the fullest extent permissible pursuant to applicable law, The Alpena News disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchant ability and fitness for a particular purpose. The Alpena News does not warrant that this website or any of its functions will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site, including bulletin boards, or the servers that make it available, are free of viruses or other harmful components.

All Services are provided for informational purposes only, and is not intended for trading or investing purposes, or for commercial use. Stock and mutual fund quotes, and related financial news stories may be delayed at least 20 minutes, as may be required by the stock exchanges and/or the financial information services. The Service should not be used in any high risk activities where damage or injury to persons, property, environment, finances or business may result if an error occurs. You expressly assume all risk for such use.

In no event, including, but not limited to, negligence, shall The Alpena News, its subsidiary and parent company or affiliates be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, special or consequential damages including, without limitation, damages related to unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data, the content or any errors or omissions in the content, even if advised of the possibility of such damages or those that result from the use of, or the inability to use, The Alpena News materials, products or services, or third party materials, products or services made available through The Alpena News. You specifically acknowledge and agree that The Alpena News are not liable for any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any user.

Use of Company Directories

The information contained in the Company Directories is provided for business lookup purposes and is not to be used for marketing or telemarketing applications. This information may not be copied or redistributed and is provided “AS IS” without warranty of any kind. In no event will The Alpena News or its suppliers be liable in any way with regard to such Information.

Privacy Policy

The Alpena News strive to offer its visitors the many advantages of Internet technology and to provide an interactive and personalized experience. We may use personally identifiable information such as your name, e-mail address, street address, telephone number, or other information subject to the terms of this privacy policy. Please note that this policy applies only to information collected by The Alpena News online and does not impact information collected or used by The Alpena News or its affiliates through other means.

How We Gather Information From Users

How we collect and store information depends on the page you are visiting, the activities in which you participate and the services provided. You can visit many pages on our site without providing any information. Other pages may prompt you to provide information, for example when registering to access certain portions of our sites, signing up for a newspaper subscription or to make a purchase. You may also be asked to provide information when you take part in voting on our polls, leaving comments and other interactive areas of our site.

The Alpena News also collects information automatically and through the use of electronic tools that may be transparent to our visitors. For example, we may log the name of your Internet Service Provider or use “cookie” technology. The cookie may store your user name and password, sparing you from having to re-enter that information each time you visit, or may control the number of times you encounter a particular advertisement while visiting our site. As we include additional technology, we may also gather information through other means. In certain cases, you can choose not to provide us with information, for example by setting your browser to refuse to accept cookies, but doing so may limit your ability to access certain portions of the site or may require you to re-enter your user name and password. Additionally we may not be able to customize the site’s features according to your preferences.

Children’s Privacy Statement

This children’s privacy statement explains our practices with respect to the online collection and use of personal information from children under the age of thirteen, and provides important information on your rights under federal law with respect to such information.

• We do NOT knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen. We screen users who wish to provide personal information in order to prevent users under the age of thirteen from providing such information. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personally-identifiable information from a user under the age of thirteen, we will delete such information from our records. If we change our practices in the future, we will obtain prior, verifiable parental consent before collecting any personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen.

• Because we do not collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen, we also do NOT knowingly distribute such information to third parties.

• We do NOT knowingly allow children under the age of thirteen to publicly post or otherwise distribute personally identifiable contact information.

• We do NOT condition a child’s participation in online activities on providing more personally identifiable information than is needed to participate in the activity.

What We Do With The Information We Collect

We will use your information only as permitted by law. Information that does not personally identify you may be used in many ways. As one example, we may combine information about your usage patterns with similar information obtained from other users to learn which pages are visited most or what features are most attractive. This information may occasionally be shared with our advertisers and business partners, but cannot be used to contact you individually.

We also collect information to enhance your visit and deliver more individualized content and advertising. For example, we may use Personally Identifiable Information collected on The Alpena News to communicate with you regarding our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, products and services offered by The Alpena News and other Ogden Newspaper affiliates and partners, administration of sweepstakes and contests, processing e-commerce transactions and other topics we think you might find of interest. We reserve the right to share this information with other Ogden Newspaper locations and affiliates, including for example our affiliated newspapers and entities in which Ogden Newspapers has an ownership interest. This policy does not apply to any Affiliate’s use of such information.

Personally Identifiable Information collected by The Alpena News may also be used for other purposes including but not limited to site administration and troubleshooting. Certain third parties who provide technical support for the operation of our site may access such information.

As we continue to develop our business, we may sell, buy, merge or partner with other companies or businesses. In such transactions, user information may be among the transferred assets. We may also disclose your information in response to a court order, at other times when we believe we are reasonably required to do so by law, in connection with the collection of amounts you may owe to us, and/or whenever we deem it appropriate or necessary to give such information to law enforcement authorities. Please note we may not provide you with notice prior to disclosure in such cases.

Your Choice To Opt Out

The quality news and information on The Alpena News is supported by advertising revenue and a controlled program of e-mail marketing is an important element of our online publishing business. Like other Web publishers, we will sometimes send e-mail about services, features, products, special offers and unique content we believe might interest you on behalf of our advertising and promotional partners. If you prefer not to receive e-mail communications sent from us on behalf of our advertisers and promotional partners, you will be given an opportunity to opt out from receiving any more emails. Opting out will revoke your membership to The Alpena News. As a registered member of The Alpena News, you agree to receive emails from us on behalf of our advertisers.

Affiliated Sites, Linked Sites and Advertisements

The Alpena News expects its partners, advertisers and third-party affiliates to respect the privacy of our users. However, third parties, including our partners, advertisers, affiliates and other content providers accessible through our site, may have their own privacy and data collection policies and practices. For example, during your visit to our site you may link to, or view as part of a frame on a The Alpena News page, certain content that is actually created or hosted by a third party. Also, through The Alpena News you may be introduced to, or be able to access, information, Web sites, advertisements, features, contests or sweepstakes offered by other parties. The Alpena News is not responsible for the actions or policies of such third parties. You should check the applicable privacy policies of those third parties when providing information on a feature or page operated by a third party.

While on our site, our advertisers, promotional partners or other third parties may use cookies or other technology to attempt to identify some of your preferences or retrieve information about you. For example, some of our advertising is served by third parties and may include cookies that enable the advertiser to determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement before. Through features available on our site, third parties may use cookies or other technology to gather information. The Alpena News does not control the use of this technology or the resulting information and is not responsible for any actions or policies of such third parties.

Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online. Should you choose to voluntarily disclose Personally Identifiable Information on our site, such as in message boards, chat areas or in advertising or notices you post, that information can be viewed publicly and can be collected and used by third parties without our knowledge and may result in unsolicited messages from other individuals or third parties. Such activities are beyond the control of The Alpena News and this policy.

Miscellaneous

This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between The Alpena News and you with respect to the subject matter contained in this agreement and supersedes all previous and contemporaneous agreements, proposals and communications, written and oral. You also may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use the products or services of a third party that are provided through any Service. In the event of any conflict between any such third party terms and conditions and these Terms of Service, these Terms of Service shall govern. This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Pennsylvania without giving effect to any principles or conflicts of law. If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Google

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Questions on Privacy

If you have any questions about The Alpena News Terms of Service, please contact:

Bill Speer – Publisher

The Alpena News

130 Park Place

Alpena, MI 49707

bspeer@thealpenanews.com

1-800-448-0254