Last Updated: 06/24/2021

These Terms of Use (“TOU”) apply to your access to and use of the websites, online store and other online products and services (collectively, our “Services”) provided by The World Aquaculture Society. (“WAS” or “we,” “us” or “our”). By accessing or using any of our Services, you are entering into a binding agreement with WAS and agree to be bound by these TOU. If you do not agree to these TOU, including the mandatory arbitration provision and class action waiver in Section12, do not access or use our Services

If you have any questions about these TOU or our Services, please contact us at Customerservice@was.org.

1 Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years of age and reside in the United States to access or use our Services. If you are accessing or using our Services on behalf of another person or entity, you represent that you are authorized to accept these TOU on that person or entity’s behalf and that the person or entity agrees to be responsible to us if you or the other person or entity violates these TOU.

2 User Accounts and Account Security

You may need to register for an account to access some or all of our Services. If you register for an account, you must provide accurate account information and promptly update this information if it changes. You also must maintain the security of your account and may not share your password or log-in credentials with any third party. You must promptly notify us if you discover or suspect that someone has accessed your account without your permission.

3 Privacy

Please refer to our Privacy Policy was.org/privacy-policy for information about how we collect, use and disclose information about you.

4 Prohibited Conduct and Content

You will not violate any applicable law, contract, intellectual property or other third-party right or commit a tort, and you are solely responsible for your conduct while accessing or using our Services. You will not:

• Engage in any harassing, threatening, intimidating, predatory or stalking conduct;
• Make any misrepresentations or provide any false or misleading information in connection with a purchase made through the Services;
• Use or attempt to use another user’s account;
• Use our Services in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying our Services or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of our Services in any manner;
• Reverse engineer any aspect of our Services or do anything that might discover source code or bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to any part of our Services;
• Attempt to circumvent any content-filtering techniques we employ or attempt to access any feature or area of our Services that you are not authorized to access;
• Develop or use any third-party applications that interact with our Services without our prior written consent, including any scripts designed to scrape or extract data from our Services;
• Bypass or ignore instructions contained in our robots.txt file, which files we may modify or update at any time in our sole discretion, that controls automated access to portions of our Services; or
• Use our Services for any fraudulent, illegal or unauthorized purpose, including to purchase firearms in a jurisdiction where such purchase is illegal, or engage in, encourage or promote any activity that violates these TOU.

5 Limited License; Copyright and Trademark

Our Services and the text, graphics, images, photographs, videos, illustrations, trademarks, trade names, service marks, logos, slogans and other content contained therein (collectively, the “ WAS Content”) are owned by or licensed to WAS and are protected under both United States and foreign laws. Except as explicitly stated in these TOU, WAS and our licensors reserve all rights in and to our Services and the WAS Content. We hereby grant you a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, non-sub-licensable, revocable license to access and use our Services and WAS Content for your own personal use; however, such license is subject to these TOU and does not include any right to (a) sell, resell or commercially use our Services or WAS Content; (b) copy, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform or publicly display WAS Content, except as expressly permitted by us or our licensors; (c) modify the WAS Content, remove any proprietary rights notices or markings or otherwise make any derivative uses of our Services or WAS Content; (d) use any data mining, robots or similar data gathering or extraction methods; and (e) use our Services or WAS Content other than for their intended purposes. Any use of our Services or WAS Content other than as specifically authorized herein, without our prior written permission, is strictly prohibited and will terminate the license granted to you.

6 Feedback

From time to time, you might voluntarily provide us with questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, original or creative materials or other information you submit about WAS or our products or Services (collectively, “Feedback”). You agree that all Feedback is non-confidential and will become the sole property of WAS. We will own exclusive rights, including, without limitation, all intellectual property rights, in and to Feedback, which you hereby assign to us, and we will be entitled to the unrestricted use and dissemination of Feedback for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you.

7 Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend, and hold harmless WAS and our officers, directors, agents, suppliers and employees (individually and collectively, the “WAS Parties ”) from and against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damages, expenses or costs ("Claims ") arising out of or related to (a) your access to or use of our Services; (b) your Feedback; (c) your violation of these TOU; (d) your violation, misappropriation or infringement of any rights of another party (including intellectual property rights or privacy rights); or (e) your conduct in connection with our Services. This indemnity is in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other indemnities set forth in a written agreement between you and WAS or the other WAS Parties.

8 Disclaimers

WE DO NOT CONTROL, ENDORSE OR TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AVAILABLE ON OR LINKED TO BY OUR SERVICES.

YOUR USE OF OUR SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. OUR SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN ADDITION, WAS DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT OUR SERVICES OR ANY WAS CONTENT ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT OR ERROR-FREE. WHILE WAS ATTEMPTS TO MAKE YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF OUR SERVICES SAFE, WE CANNOT AND DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT OUR SERVICES OR SERVERS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. WHEN YOU USE OUR SERVICES, YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THEIR QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE.

9 Limitation of Liability

WAS AND THE OTHER WAS PARTIES WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY—WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, WARRANTY, OR OTHERWISE—FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE OR SPECIAL DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS, INCLUDING RELATING TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE ANY PRODUCTS SOLD THROUGH THE WAS SITE, EVEN IF WAS OR THE OTHER WAS PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF WAS AND THE OTHER WAS PARTIES, FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TOU, OUR SERVICES OR ANY PRODUCTS PURCHASED ON OUR WEBSITE REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SERVICES.

THE LIMITATIONS SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION WILL NOT LIMIT OR EXCLUDE LIABILITY FOR THE GROSS NEGLIGENCE, FRAUD OR INTENTIONAL MISCONDUCT OF WAS OR THE OTHER WAS PARTIES OR FOR ANY OTHER MATTERS IN WHICH LIABILITY CANNOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. ADDITIONALLY, SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

10 Release

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you release WAS and the other WAS Parties from responsibility, liability, claims, demands, and/or damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown (including, but not limited to, claims of negligence), arising out of or related to the acts or omissions of third parties. You expressly waive any rights you may have under California Civil Code § 1542 as well as any other statute or common law principles that would otherwise limit the coverage of this release to include only those claims which you may know or suspect to exist in your favor at the time of agreeing to this release.

11 Transfer and Processing Data

By accessing or using our Services, you consent to the processing, transfer and storage of information about you in and to the United States and other countries, where you may not have the same rights and protections as you do under local law.

12 Dispute Resolution; Binding Arbitration

Please read the following section carefully because it requires you to arbitrate certain disputes and claims with WAS and limits the manner in which you can seek relief from us.

Except for small claims disputes in which you or WAS seek to bring an individual action in small claims court located in the county of your billing address or disputes in which you or WAS seeks injunctive or other equitable relief for the alleged unlawful use of intellectual property, you and WAS waive your rights to a jury trial and to have any dispute arising out of or related to these TOU or our Services resolved in court. Instead, all disputes arising out of or relating to these TOU, our Services or your purchase of products from us will be resolved through confidential binding arbitration held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in accordance with the Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures ("Rules") of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services ("JAMS"), which are available on the JAMS website and hereby incorporated by reference . You either acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the rules of JAMS or waive your opportunity to read the rules of JAMS and any claim that the rules of JAMS are unfair or should not apply for any reason.

You and WAS agree that any dispute arising out of or related to these TOU, our Services or your purchase of products from us is personal to you and WAS and that any dispute will be resolved solely through individual arbitration and will not be brought as a class arbitration, class action or any other type of representative proceeding.

You and WAS agree that these TOU affect interstate commerce and that the enforceability of this Section 12 will be substantively and procedurally governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq. (the "FAA"), to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. As limited by the FAA, these TOU and the JAMS Rules, the arbitrator will have exclusive authority to make all procedural and substantive decisions regarding any dispute and to grant any remedy that would otherwise be available in court; provided, however, that the arbitrator does not have the authority to conduct a class arbitration or a representative action, which is prohibited by these TOU. The arbitrator may only conduct an individual arbitration and may not consolidate more than one individual’s claims, preside over any type of class or representative proceeding or preside over any proceeding involving more than one individual. You and Company agree that for any arbitration you initiate, you will pay the filing fee and Company will pay the remaining JAMS fees and costs. For any arbitration initiated by Company, Company will pay all JAMS fees and costs. You and WAS agree that the state or federal courts of the State of Louisiana and the United States sitting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana have exclusive jurisdiction over any appeals and the enforcement of an arbitration award.

ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TOU OR OUR SERVICES MUST BE FILED WITHIN ONE YEAR AFTER SUCH CLAIM AROSE; OTHERWISE, THE CLAIM IS PERMANENTLY BARRED, WHICH MEANS THAT YOU AND WAS WILL NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASSERT THE CLAIM.

You have the right out opt out of binding arbitration within thirty (30) days of the date you first accepted the TOU of this Section 12 by submitting a request to opt out via Certified Mail. To be effective, your request must include your full legal name, and clearly indicate your intent to opt out of binding arbitration. By opting out of binding arbitration, you are agreeing to resolve Disputes in accordance with Section 13.

13 Governing Law and Venue

These TOU and your access to and use of our Services will be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of Louisiana, without regard to conflict of law rules or principles (whether of Louisiana or any other jurisdiction) that would cause the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction. Any dispute between the parties that is not subject to arbitration or cannot be heard in small claims court will be resolved in the state or federal courts of Louisiana and the United States, respectively, sitting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

14 Changes to these Terms

We may make changes to these TOU from time to time. If we make changes, we will post the amended TOU to our Services and update the “Last Updated” date above. We may also attempt to notify you by sending an email notification to the address associated with your account or providing notice through our Services. Unless we say otherwise in our notice, the amended TOU will be effective immediately and your continued access to and use of our Services after we provide notice will confirm your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the amended TOU, you must stop accessing and using our Services.

15 Termination

We reserve the right, without notice and in our sole discretion, to terminate your right to access or use our Services. We are not responsible for any loss or harm related to your inability to access or use our Services.

16 Severability

If any provision or part of a provision of these TOU is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these TOU and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

17 Miscellaneous

These TOU, and any other terms on the site applicable to your purchase, constitute the entire agreement between you and WAS relating to your access to and use of our Services. The failure of WAS to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these TOU will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. The section titles in these TOU are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Except as otherwise provided herein, these TOU are intended solely for the benefit of the parties and are not intended to confer third party beneficiary rights upon any other person or entity.