Terms of Use

(last revised January 31, 2017)

Welcome to www.hometheaterhifi.com – these Terms of Use constitute a valid and binding agreement between Scientific Design and Information, Inc. dba Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity (“SDI”) and you. Your use of this Website is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms of Use and SDI’s Privacy Policy posted separately on the Website. If you have any questions about our Terms of Use, please call SDI at 650-366-1644 or send an email to [email protected]. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE, SDI DOES NOT GRANT YOU ANY LICENSE OR OTHER RIGHTS TO USE THE WEBSITE AND YOU SHOULD EXIT THIS WEBSITE.

1.  SDI’s Intellectual Property

The Website, its content, look-and-feel and functionality and all intellectual property rights embodied therein, including patent rights, copyrights, trademarks, trade names and service marks, are owned or licensed by SDI and/or its licensors (collectively, the “SDI Intellectual Property”). These Terms of Use do not and shall not be construed as transferring ownership rights of any description in the Website or any related SDI Intellectual Property to you or to any Website user, visitor or other third party. You will not reproduce, republish, sublicense, distribute, transfer, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, modify or create derivative works from any SDI Intellectual Property nor will you sell, resell or exploit for any commercial purpose the Website, any portion thereof or any use thereof or access thereto. SDI hereby grants you a personal, revocable, nontransferable, nonexclusive, limited right to view and use the Website solely for your internal business purposes. You may also download content from the Website for business purposes but solely on a non-commercial basis and provided that (i) such content is not modified in any way, (ii) you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices thereon and (iii) you include the phrase, “Used with permission of SDI” when you display or otherwise use this content in accordance with the terms hereof.

All of the trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos appearing on this Website are registered and unregistered trademarks of SDI and other third parties. Nothing contained on the Website or in these Terms of Use should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any of these marks or logos. All rights not expressly granted to you hereunder are expressly reserved and retained by SDI.

2.  Disclaimer; No Warranties; Indemnification; Limitation of Liability

All the information presented on or made available via this Website has been (i) created by or on behalf of SDI or provided to SDI and/or its owners, directors, officers, employees, contractors and website administrators solely by third party contributors who have submitted this information for publication on the Website or (ii) made available to you via third party links to and from this Website. SDI has not independently investigated or verified any of the information set forth herein and will not be responsible or liable for any misinformation, misprints, typographical errors or other mistakes that may appear. Further, SDI makes no representations, warranties, recommendations or endorsements whatsoever concerning any information provided on the Website. SDI will not be responsible for and expressly disclaims any and all liability for any claim, damages, injury or other loss arising out of your use of any such information for any reason.

YOU HEREBY WAIVE, RELEASE AND DISCHARGE ANY AND ALL RIGHTS AND CLAIMS OF ANY KIND ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE THAT YOU HAVE OR THAT MAY HEREAFTER ACCRUE TO YOUR BENEFIT AGAINST SDI AND ANY AND ALL PERSONS OR ENTITIES AFFILIATED THEREWITH IN ANY CAPACITY. EXCEPT WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL SDI BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT OR SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCURRED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION IN CONTRACT, TORT, BASED ON A WARRANTY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IN ANY EVENT, SDI’S LIABILITY TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY HEREUNDER WILL NOT EXCEED US$100.00 IN THE AGGREGATE.

YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE, ANY AND ALL SERVICES OR FEATURES ON THE WEBSITE, ANY INFORMATION PRESENTED ON THE WEBSITE OR MADE AVAILABLE ON OR THROUGH THE WEBSITE AND/OR THE SERVICES OF ANY INDIVIDUAL, BUSINESS OR RESOURCE IDENTIFIED OR PROFILED HEREoN OR MADE AVAILABLE VIA A WEBSITE LINK ARE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK; THE WEBSITE AND ALL SERVICES AND FEATURES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS, WHERE IS” AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. SDI SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY and/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE; ANY WARRANTIES CONCERNING TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, LACK OF VIRUSES OR OTHER CODE THAT MANIFESTS CONTAMINATING OR DESTRUCTIVE PROPERTIES; AND ANY WARRANTIES CONCERNING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS OR USEFULNESS OF ANY INFORMATION ON THE WEBSITE.

You will indemnify, defend and hold SDI harmless from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, costs, liabilities, losses and damages of any kind (including attorneys’ fees) (collectively, “Damages”) incurred or suffered by SDI as a result of your use of the Website, your breach of any provision of these Terms of Use and/or your acts or omissions. SDI reserves the right to report any wrongdoing that comes to its attention to the appropriate authorities.

Further, you hereby release SDI and its employees, consultants, officers, directors, shareholders, agents, representatives, advisors, assigns and affiliates (collectively, the “SDI Parties”) from any and all Damages (actual, consequential and punitive) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with the Website and/or your use thereof, excluding only Damages to the extent directly arising out of SDI’s gross negligence or misconduct. To the fullest possible extent permitted by law, you waive the provisions of any applicable state law limiting or prohibiting a general release. IF YOU ARE A CALIFORNIA RESIDENT, YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE CALIFORNIA CODE SECTION 1542, WHICH PROVIDES THAT: “A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM MUST HAVE MATERIALLY EFFECTED HIS SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR.” In no event will SDI’s total cumulative liability to you or any other party for Damages, if any, arising under these Terms of Use or otherwise exceed US$ 100.00.

SDI cannot and does not guarantee continuous uninterrupted or secure access to our Website or the services or features thereon. Operation of the Website may be subject to interference from numerous factors outside our control, including scheduled and preventative maintenance as well as required and emergency maintenance work. Further, SDI does not control the actions of other users, visitors and/or linked third parties on the Website. SDI will have no liability whatsoever for the unavailability OR INOPERABILITY of the Website caused by THE acts or omissions OF YOU, ANY THIRD PARTY, INCLUDING ANY INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER OR HOST, OR SDI or ARISING OUT OF Internet infrastructure and networkS external to the Website.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

3.  Changes to the Terms of Use

SDI may modify the Website, the services or features offered thereon and these Terms of Use at any time and from time to time by implementing the modifications and/or posting the amended Terms of Use on the Website, as applicable. All modifications will be effective upon implementation and/or posting, as applicable. You are bound by the Terms of Use in effect on the date of any particular visit to the Website. SDI will use reasonable efforts to post notices of any material updates to these Terms of Use on the Website.

4.  Links

The Website contains links to third party sites and SDI has no control over any such sites. Links to other sites, if any, are provided solely as a convenience; SDI neither endorses nor bears any responsibility for or control over any linked site or any other link contained therein. All statements by SDI herein pertaining to the Website do not apply in any way to any links or any linked third party sites. Once you leave this Website, neither these Terms of Use or our Privacy Policy remain in effect; we encourage you to read the terms of use of each and every website that you visit.

5.  Website Integrity

You may not use any device, software or routine, including any viruses, Trojan horses, worms or time bombs, intended to damage or interfere with the proper working of the Website or to surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information thereon or therefrom. You may not take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure, including “spam” or other unsolicited mass emails.

6.  Third Party Content

At SDI’s sole option, at any time and from time to time, the Website will contain third party content, software and/or other information and any and all such third party materials are subject to and governed solely by that third party’s terms of use, license agreement and/or other requirements. SDI bears no responsibility or liability for any such content or information or the acts or omissions of such third party.

7.  Compliance with Laws

You must comply with all applicable laws and regulations governing your access to and use of the Website and any features, services or software thereon, including the posting and retrieval of information and laws governing the encryption of software, the export of technology, the transmission of obscenity or the permissible uses of intellectual property. You represent that you have the legal right to enter into this agreement with SDI.

SDI will have the right, but not the obligation, in its sole discretion to refuse or delete any content, user questions and other submissions, software or other information on the Website that it considers, in its sole discretion, to violate the Terms of Use and/or to be otherwise illegal, unsafe or inappropriate. SDI, in its sole and absolute discretion, may preserve any such content, software or other information and may also disclose any such content, software or information if required to do so by law or judicial or governmental mandate or as reasonably determined necessary by SDI to protect the rights, property or personal safety of SDI, the SDI Parties (as defined in Section 2 above), its Website users and the public.

8.  User Submissions; Forum Participation Rules

Any comments or information that you provide to SDI, including any feedback or ideas submitted by you in response to a survey on or concerning the Website or any other suggestions, concepts or other information provided by you (collectively, the “Submissions”) may be freely used by SDI and you hereby grant SDI a royalty-free, non-fee-bearing, perpetual and irrevocable, worldwide, and assignable, sub-licensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, publish and/or display, create derivative works from, modify (including the right to edit and translate), and transmit, sell, distribute or otherwise exploit the Submissions without limitation in any media or form now known or later developed. SDI may sublicense its rights hereunder to third parties. At SDI’s sole option and request, you will sign or accept SDI’s then-current Contributor’s License posted on the Website.

If you elect to participate in any online discussion group or forum hosted on the Website, you must comply with the following rules:

In SDI’s sole and absolute discretion and to the fullest extent permitted by law, SDI reserves the right to: (i) remove, edit, move or close any message, post or thread thereof for any reason, (ii) delete any message or post at any time and/or (iii) block your email address or any other email address from participating in any SDI online group or forum or any other exchange on this Website.

You represent and warrant that: (i) each fact and statement in each of your messages and posts is true; and (ii) no content in any of your messages or posts, whether text, graphics or otherwise, (a) infringes any copyright, patent, trademark or other intellectual property right of a third party, (b) violates any right of privacy, right of publicity or any other right of any person or entity, (c) gives rise to any claim of libel, defamation, obscenity or vulgarity or contains any material that is unlawful, harmful, abusive, hateful, obscene, vulgar, threatening, libelous or defamatory or (d) violates any international, federal, state or local law or regulation.

You acknowledge, accept and agree that (i) any message or post appearing on the Website or received via the Website expresses the views of its author, (ii) neither SDI nor its Website host, manager and/or Internet service provider will be liable or responsible for the content thereof. SDI will attempt to keep objectionable messages off the Website but cannot guarantee its ability to do so.

9.  Governing Law and Jurisdiction

The Terms of Use and any and all transactions and other activities on the Website will be governed by the laws of the State of California, excluding its conflict of law rules. The United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods will not govern the Website or any activities or transactions thereon in any way. You hereby submit to the jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in San Mateo County, California, which shall be the exclusive venue for any and all disputes or claims arising hereunder. Use of the Website is not authorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to these Terms of Use.

10.  General

At all times, the then-current Terms of Use and SDI’s Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between SDI and you with respect to your use of the Website, superseding any prior agreements, superseded Terms of Use and/or Privacy Policy and all other communications between SDI and you. You acknowledge and agree that you may also be subject to additional terms and conditions when you use third party content, services or software via our Website. Please report any violations of these Terms of Use, any alleged copyright infringements relating to the Website or any other matters to [email protected]. Unless otherwise required by law, you will send notices to SDI by email to [email protected]. If SDI has either an email or street address for you, SDI will provide notices to you via the email address provided during your registration or, at SDI’s option or if an email address is not available, by certified mail, postage prepaid and return receipt requested, to the street address provided during registration.