RED HOT CONSERVATIVE

CONTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL…. Below is what Texas Teachers have to agree to in order to enter the CSCOPE/TEKS Resource System. It is surprising that after all that has transpired over the last year and the controversy behind CSCOPE, the owners, the education service centers still want to control parents and teachers when it comes to viewing or speaking out against CSCOPE.

TEXAS CURRICULUM MANAGEMENT PROGRAM COOPERATIVE

TEKS Resource System Terms of Service

Welcome to the TEKS Resource System website. Please review the following Terms of Service carefully. These Terms of Service are a legally binding contract between you, as the user of this website, and the Texas Curriculum Management Program Cooperative (“Cooperative” or “our” or “we” or “us”). It applies to your use of the Site and all information, media, content, printed materials and electronic documentation accessible from teksresourcesystem.net or any of its sub-domains (collectively, the “Site”). An employee of a Texas independent school district, charter school, or private school that has licensed use of the TEKS Resource System (a “LEA”), parents of LEA students who access the Site from a LEA computer on a LEA campus in accordance with the policies and procedures of the LEA, and employees and representatives of regional education service centers or the Cooperative, and any individual who has received TCMPC’s express written consent is an “Authorized User.”

The “Services” available to Authorized Users through the Site are the curriculum system, including assessments and assessment items, answer keys, curriculum components and resources (collectively, the “Components”), and professional development courses on the Site. The Services are designed to facilitate the ability of Authorized Users to provide instruction to children enrolled in LEAs in the State of Texas. We will continue to further develop Services and operate the Site, in accordance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations, with a view to enhancing the ability of parents and of teachers and of other Authorized Users to provide high quality educational instruction.

 

1. Acceptance of Terms of Service.

Please review these Terms of Service carefully. By accessing or using the Site, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by them. If you do not agree to these terms, do not use this Site.

 

2. Limited License; Permitted Uses; Restrictions on Use.

You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to:

• permit parents to review the Components and Website in accordance with the policies and procedures of the LEA that is your employer and with Texas Education Code § 26.006;
• permit parents to view the Site and have access to all Components when present at a school within the child’s LEA in accordance with the policies and procedures of the LEA;
• access and use the Site, the Services, and all Components strictly in accordance with this Agreement and any other agreement entered into between you, the Cooperative and/or any entity by which you are employed or with which you contract, and in accordance with the policies and procedures of the LEA;
• use the Site solely for purposes of furthering the educational goals of the public schools that are licensees, either in their own right or through their LEA or the Cooperative, in accordance with the terms of this Agreement and the policies and procedures of the LEA;
• print out and modify Components solely for the purposes set forth in the preceding bullet, in accordance with the terms of this Agreement, and the policies and procedures of the LEA;
• modify the Components and create derivative works from the Components in accordance with Section 2 of the terms of this Agreement and the policies and procedures of the LEA. All modifications and derivative works of the Components belong to the Cooperative;
• share the Components you have modified with other Authorized Users in accordance with this Agreement and the policies and procedures of the LEA.

You may not make any other use of the Site or Components. Other than this license, you do not have any license, title, or ownership of/to the TEKS Resource System or any other intellectual property of the Cooperative or any third party.

Your license for access and use of the Site and Components is subject to the following restrictions:

• You must comply with all applicable laws and regulations, as well as any policies and procedures imposed by the LEA regarding your use of the Site and the Components provided on the Site.
• Except for access to parents and others as permitted by this Agreement, you may not make any portion of the Components available to someone who is not an Authorized User (including by copying, printing, transmitting, through any current or future technology or otherwise).
• You may not, other than for the purpose of administering a test to students assigned to you, release any unit test or assessment or answer keys to parents, students, or individuals who are not Authorized Users within the LEA that is your employer (including copying, printing, posting or transmitting, through any current or future technology or otherwise).
• You may not use the Site to make statements or Components that are defamatory, libelous, threatening, harassing, invasive of privacy, stalking, abusive, tortuous conduct, hateful, discriminatory based on race, ethnicity, gender, sex or disability, pornographic or obscene.
• You may not use any Components in any manner that may violate or infringe any rights of the Cooperative or any third party.
• You may not knowingly distribute viruses, Trojan horses, worms, or other harmful or programming routines.
• You may not impersonate any person or entity, including, without limitation, one of the Cooperative’s or other entities’ officers or employees, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity or commit any fraudulent act.
• You may not remove, change or obscure any copyright notice or other proprietary notices contained in any portion of the Site.
• You may not remove, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any Site software or use any network monitoring or discovery software to determine the Site architecture or use any automatic or manual process to harvest information from the Site.
• You may not transfer your right to use any portion of the Site or give your password to any other person.
• You may not intentionally use the Site to interfere with or disrupt any services or equipment.
• You may not take any action that would involve the unauthorized entry to any machine accessible via the Site or interference with the Site or any servers or networks connected to the Site or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Site, or attempt to breach the security of or disrupt Internet communications on the Site (including without limitation accessing data to which you are not the intended recipient or logging into a server or account for which you are not expressly authorized).
• You may not execute any form of network monitoring or run a network analyzer or packet sniffer or other technology to intercept, decode, mine or display any packets used to communicate between the Site’s servers or any data not intended for you and you cannot attempt to circumvent authentication or security of any Components, host, network or account (“cracking”) on or from the Site.
• You may not collect or store personal data about other account users or attempt to gain access to other account users’ accounts or otherwise mine information about other account users or about the Site.
• You may not forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any information transmitted through the Site.
• You may not take any action contrary to the Cooperative’s public image, goodwill, reputation or mission or otherwise not in furtherance of the intended uses of the Site

2. Copyright and Trademark Rights.

The content, curriculum, organization, graphics, design, photographs, images, text, audio/visual clips, sound records, compilations, magnetic translations, digital conversion and other materials located on the Site (the “Components”) are protected under applicable copyright, trademark and other proprietary and intellectual property rights. In addition, “TEKS Resource System” is our common law service mark and trademark. We own this mark and any other trademarks, service marks, slogans and logos (the “Marks”) used and displayed on the Site. Registration of the Marks is pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Please note:

• You do not have any ownership rights to any Components or other materials viewed on or generated by the use of the Site. Your posting of information or materials on the Site does not constitute a waiver by the Cooperative of any right in such information and materials.
• Posting the Components on other websites is strictly prohibited.
• If you create any materials based on any portion of the Components, you must give full attribution to the Cooperative and you must include all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in this Agreement or in the Components.

Failure to abide by the Terms of Service will give the Cooperative the right to immediately and automatically terminate this Agreement, and may result in the infringement of the copyrights and trademarks owned by the Cooperative or its licensors.

 

4. Account Set Up and Requirements.

In order for Authorized Users other than a Parent to access the Site, you or your employer must create an account in the following manner:

• To register for an account, you must provide your first name, last name, and a valid school or organization email address. Account creation will be coordinated by your organization, your Educational Service Center (ESC), or 3rd Learning. Upon creation of your account, you will receive an email with the appropriate login credentials. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and protecting against unauthorized use of your password.
• · At your initial login, you will be asked whether you have read this Agreement and whether you agree to abide by its terms. If you do not agree to abide by the terms, you will not be permitted to access the Site.
• You may be asked specific questions if you are seeking to use certain features of the Site, and your answers to those questions will determine whether or not you are eligible to register for those features. If you answer “I agree” and you answer all of the questions posed for each feature and otherwise are eligible, your account may be activated.
• If you answer “I Do Not Agree” or otherwise do not answer all of the questions or otherwise are not eligible, your account will not be activated and you will not be permitted to access the Site.
• We reserve the right to decline to activate an account in our reasonable judgment.
• If your account is activated, you will receive a notification email immediately after you register. You must confirm your email address by clicking on the confirmation link in the notification email. Once you have confirmed your email address, you will be permitted to log in, view, load, and use the specific features of the Site for which you have been registered and which are permitted by the terms of this Agreement.
• By making such confirmation, you acknowledge that you have read, understand your rights and obligations under, and agree to be bound by this Agreement. You further acknowledge that certain features will be provided subject to additional terms of service (or a separate written agreement) and you agree to abide by such additional terms of service.
• You are responsible for all activities by you or others that occur under your password and user name. You will immediately notify us if your password is lost, stolen, disclosed to an unauthorized third party or otherwise has been compromised or if there is any other breach of security.
• You must ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session.
• You must provide true, accurate, and complete information about yourself as prompted by our account activation form and promptly update your account information to keep it accurate and complete.

5. Message Boards & Other Public Forums.

The Cooperative may offer certain functionality on the Site, including message boards, blogs, chat rooms, instant messaging and other public forums. Your participation in these items is voluntary. However, any information or content you provide is not private or confidential and you authorize us and our affiliates and licensees to use the content you post, without compensation to you or others. The Cooperative may copy, reproduce, incorporate, distribute, publicly display or otherwise use any information you post as we deem appropriate throughout the world in any format or media. The Cooperative may edit, refuse to post or remove content you submit. To the extent permitted under applicable law, you waive and release and covenant not to assert any moral rights that you may have in any content posted by you. By posting content on the Site, you represent to the Cooperative that you own or have the right to use and permit the Cooperative to use the content as permitted by this Agreement. You agree not to post any content that belongs to any person other than yourself or that contains the name, voice or likeness of any person other than yourself unless you first obtain written permission to do so from that person. The Cooperative has no obligation to delete content that you personally may find objectionable or offensive. We do not control the information posted and we do not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such information. We do not endorse or make any warranties or representations with TCMPC Revised 08/21/2013 Page 6 of 10 regard to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of any content posted on any public forum on the Site.

 

6. Personal Page.

While accessing or using the Site, you may be provided access to a personal web page that can be personalized with your own content (a “Personal Page”). Your Personal Page may have several features, such as a personal URL at a sub-domain or URL as may be designated by the Cooperative, reports and email address book. Your use of the Personal Page may require your agreement and compliance with supplemental terms at the time that you register for a Personal Page.

 

7. Availability of Site.

The Cooperative reserves the right to establish general practices and limits concerning the Site and user accounts at any time and may modify such practices and limits as it determines appropriate, including without limitation the maximum number of days that your or any third party’s information, pictures, content or email will be retained and the maximum amount of disk space that will be allotted on our or our vendors’ servers on your behalf. The Cooperative has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to deliver or store your Personal Page or any other public forum, or any information, pictures, content or email provided by or stored by you on your Personal Page or any other public forum, regardless of whether the deletion or failure was due to the established practices or as a result of our error, intentional misconduct, or negligence. The Cooperative reserves the right to log off accounts that are inactive for a period of time designated by the Cooperative and reserves the right at any time it determines appropriate, and from time to time, to modify or discontinue, either temporarily or permanently, your access to the Site, or any part thereof, with or without notice. You agree that we shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any such modification, suspension or discontinuance of your access to the Site.

 

8. Errors, Corrections and Changes.

The Cooperative does not represent or warrant that the Site will be error free, free of viruses or other harmful components, or that defects will be corrected. We may make changes to the features, functionality or Components at any time. We reserve the right to edit or delete any documents, information or other Components as we determine appropriate.

 

9. Use of Submissions.

We reserve the right, and you authorize us, to use and assign all information regarding Site uses by you and all information provided by you in any manner consistent with our Privacy Policy. All remarks, suggestions, ideas, graphics, or other information about the Components or the Site (or any service, information, content or documentation therein) communicated by you to us (collectively, a “Submission”) and all intellectual property rights from the date of creation or inception will forever be our property. We will not be required to treat any Submission as confidential, and will not be liable to you or others for any ideas (including without limitation, Components or ideas) comprising Submissions, all of which may be freely used by us without compensation, accounting or restrictions, and we will not incur any liability as a result of any similarities that may appear in our future products, TCMPC Revised 08/21/2013 Page 7 of 10 services or operations. Without limitation, we will have exclusive ownership of all present and future existing rights to each Submission of every kind and nature everywhere. We will be entitled to use the Submission for any commercial or other purpose whatsoever, without compensation or accounting to you or any other person. You acknowledge that you are responsible for whatever material you submit, and you have sole responsibility for the content thereof, including its legality, reliability, appropriateness, originality, accuracy, and copyright.

 

10. Term & Termination.

This Agreement is effective from the date you first access the Site, and continues in effect until terminated in accordance with this Agreement.

The Cooperative may terminate your access to the Site without prior notice if: (i) you breach this Agreement; (ii) any government agency so directs; (iii) technical or security issues occur; or (iv) the LEA User License Agreement under which you are an Authorized User terminates.

On termination, the Cooperative may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all related information, files or content in your account and bar any access to such information or content by you or others. The Cooperative shall not be obligated to return or provide copies of any information, files or content in your account to you upon deactivation. The Cooperative shall not be liable to any third party for any deactivation of your access to the Site.

Upon termination, neither you nor the Cooperative will have any further obligation to the other under this Agreement except for liability arising prior to the effective date of termination. Also, your obligations under this Agreement, which by their nature are intended to survive termination (such as indemnification) shall survive the termination of your access to the Site.

 

11. Investigation of Complaints.

We reserve the right to investigate complaints or reported violations of this Agreement and to take appropriate action, in our reasonable judgment. If you wish to submit a complaint or report a violation of this Agreement, please notify the Cooperative at the address stated in Section 11 with a description of the alleged complaint or violation and the person or entity that is the subject of your complaint or of the violation.

 

12. Notice of Claims of Intellectual Property Violations.

The Components may include pictures, information, testimonials, letters, marks, slogans and other content uploaded or provided by third parties or otherwise received from third parties. The Cooperative does not permit the use of Components that infringes on the copyright or trademarks or rights of publicity of others, and will remove any such content that violates the copyright or trademarks or other rights of others if properly notified of such violation in accordance with the procedure set forth in this Agreement. If you believe that any of the Components infringes your copyright or trademark rights or your rights of publicity, please TCMPC Revised 08/21/2013 Page 8 of 10 provide the Cooperative (whose contact information is provided below) with the following information:

• a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
• identification of the copyrighted work or mark or publicity right claimed to have been infringed, or, if you believe that multiple works, marks or publicity rights have been infringed, a representative list of such works, marks or publicity rights;
• identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the Cooperative to locate the material;
• information reasonably sufficient to permit the Cooperative to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which you may be contacted;
• a statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law; and
• a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of a right that is allegedly infringed.

The Cooperative’s agent for the notice of any claim of infringement of any copyright or trademark or right of publicity is as follows:

By mail:
Texas Curriculum Management Program Cooperative
Attention: Wade Labay
5701 Springdale Road
Austin, Texas 78723

Please provide all of the information requested above. No specific form is required to provide the Cooperative with notifications of possible infringement. However, it will take the Cooperative longer to process your notice if any of this information is not provided, and in some cases, we may not be able to process your notice.

 

13. Disclaimer.

THE SERVICES, INFORMATION, CONTENT AND DOCUMENTS FROM OR THROUGH THE SITE ARE PROVIDED “AS IS,” “AS AVAILABLE,” WITH “ALL FAULTS,” AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE DISCLAIMED (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE DISCLAIMER OF ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE). THE INFORMATION, CONTENT AND DOCUMENTATION MAY TCMPC Revised 08/21/2013 Page 9 of 10 CONTAIN BUGS, ERRORS, PROBLEMS OR OTHER LIMITATIONS. THERE IS NO WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION OR GUARANTEE THAT THE SITE WILL CONTINUOUSLY OPERATE OR BE ERROR FREE OR THAT ANY PROBLEMS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE OR OTHER MATERIAL ACCESSIBLE FROM THE SITE IS FREE OF VIRUSES, WORMS, TROJAN HORSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. FURTHER, WE DO NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE, OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OF, OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE SITE EITHER IN TERMS OF ITS COMPATIBILITY WITH HARDWARE OR OTHER SOFTWARE, ITS RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS, OR OTHERWISE; AND YOU RELY ON THE SITE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. WE AND OUR AFFILIATED PARTIES HAVE NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER FOR YOUR USE OF ANY SERVICE, INFORMATION, CONTENT OR DOCUMENTATION, EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN SECTION 14. IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT AS A LIMITATION, WE AND OUR AFFILITATED PARTIES ARE NOT LIABILITY FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF PROFITS, LITIGATION, OR THE LIKE), WHETHER BASED ON BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBLITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND EVEN IF THE REMEDIES STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT FAIL OF THEIR ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. THE NEGATION AND LIMITATION OF DAMAGES SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION 13 ARE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND US. THIS SITE AND THE CONTENT, DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION PRESENTED WOULD NOT BE PROVIDED WITHOUT SUCH LIMITATIONS. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM US THROUGH THE SITE OR OTHERWISE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION OR GUARANTEE NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT. ALL RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES CAUSED BY VIRUSES CONTAINED WITHIN THE ELECTRONIC FILE CONTAINING A FORM OR DOCUMENT IS DISCLAIMED.

 

14. Limitation of Liability.

• Neither the Cooperative nor any Affiliated Party shall be liable for any loss, injury, claim, liability, or damage of any kind resulting in any way from: (i) any errors in or omissions on the Site or in the Components; (ii) the unavailability or interruption of the Site or any features thereof; (iii) your use of the Site; (iv) the Components; or (v) any delay or failure in performance beyond the control of the Cooperative or any Affiliated Party.
• THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE COOPERATIVE AND THE AFFILIATED PARTIES TO YOU AND OTHERS USING THE SITE UNDER THE SAME DISTRICT USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, IN THE AGGREGATE, IN CONNECTION WITH ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE CONTENT, THE SITE, THE CONTENT AND THE SERVICES PROVIDED UNDER THIS AGREEMENT SHALL NOT EXCEED TCMPC Revised 08/21/2013 Page 10 of 10 AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE AMOUNT PAID UNDER YOUR DISTRICT USER LICENSE AGREEMENT IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE BREACH AND THAT AMOUNT SHALL BE IN LIEU OF ALL OTHER REMEDIES WHICH YOU MAY HAVE AGAINST US AND ANY AFFILIATED PARTY.

15. Governing Law.

This Agreement, and all related matters, shall be governed by Texas law and United States law. Any action arising out of any dispute with respect to this Agreement shall only be brought in the state or federal courts located in Travis County, Texas. You agree that the statute of limitations for any claim against the Cooperative shall be brought within one year from when the claim arose, and any claims not brought within such period of time shall be deemed waived.

 

16. Equitable Remedies.

You agree that, if the terms of this Agreement are not specifically enforced, we will be irreparably damaged, and therefore you agree that we shall be entitled, without bond, other security or proof of damages, to appropriate equitable remedies with respect any breaches, in addition to any other available remedies.

 

17. Miscellaneous.

This Agreement shall be interpreted as to its fair meaning and not strictly for or against any party. Any rule of construction to the effect that ambiguities are to be resolved against the drafting party shall not apply in interpreting this Agreement. This Agreement and all incorporated agreements and your information may be automatically assigned by us in our sole discretion to a third party in the event of an acquisition, sale or merger. If any provision of this Agreement is held illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be replaced, to the extent possible, with a legal, valid, and enforceable provision that is similar in tenor to the illegal, invalid, or unenforceable provision as is legally possible. To the extent that anything in or associated with the Site is in conflict or inconsistent with this Agreement, this Agreement shall take precedence. Our failure to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not be deemed a waiver of such provision nor of the right to enforce such provision. Our rights under this Agreement shall survive any termination of this Agreement. The captions used in this Agreement are provided for convenience only and shall have no effect on the construction of the terms of this Agreement. This Agreement (and each supplemental agreement referenced in or referencing this Agreement found on the Site) constitutes the entire agreement between you and the Cooperative with respect to the Site, the Components and any related matter.

 

18. Changes to Terms of Use.

We reserve the right to change the Terms of Service any time by reasonable notice, including without limitation by posting revised Terms of Service on the Site (which shall constitute reasonable notice). All amended Terms of Service shall be binding upon you immediately upon their posting on the Site. Thus, you should consult the most recent version of these Terms of Service each time you view the Site.

Do you agree?