Welcome to http://our.marines.com/ (the "Site"), a web site maintained by the United States Marine Corps Recruiting Command ("MCRC"). By accessing and using this Site, you ("you" or "User") agree to be bound by the terms and conditions contained in this agreement (the "TOS").

READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SERVICES DESCRIBED BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR OTHERWISE USE THESE SERVICES. BY ACCESSING THE SITE, YOU INDICATE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND ACCEPTED THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

USE OF THE SITE

Why I Serve(d) and Why it Matters Programs:

All photographs, videos, text and other materials (collectively, “Materials”) submitted to the Site, whether in connection with the Why I Serve(d) or Why it Matters programs (collectively, the “Programs”) or otherwise, must be your original creation – in other words, they must be created by You. If the Materials have not been created by You, the person who created the Materials must submit them. By submitting any Materials to the Site, You represent and warrant that such Materials are Your original creation, have not been copied in whole or in part from any other work, do not violate or infringe any copyright, trademark or other proprietary right of any person or entity (including any rights of privacy or publicity), and are Your sole and exclusive property. All Materials submitted, and all concepts or ideas depicted therein, become the sole property of MCRC and will not be returned.

By submitting any Materials, you hereby grant MCRC permission to use your image or likeness as it appears in such Materials and to post such Materials on the Site. If you submit any Materials that contain the image or likeness of any person other than You, You agree to obtain written permission from each such person for MCRC to use such image or likeness as it appears in such Materials and to post such Materials on the Site. By submitting any Materials that contain the image or likeness of any person other than You, You hereby represent and warrant that you have obtained such written permission. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless MCRC and its affiliates and agents for any action brought by a person whose image or likeness was used in any Materials You submit without such person’s written consent.

Any Materials submitted that show illegal, dangerous or unsafe activity, that violate the rights of third parties, or that are otherwise deemed by MCRC in its sole discretion to be obscene or inappropriate will not be posted. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, any Materials containing any of the following will not be accepted or posted: (a) unsafe behavior / activity that could result in physical injury or property damage; (b) third party materials that You have no rights to, including music, photos owned by third parties, images of celebrities, third party trademarks, artwork, etc.; (c) illegal activity, including drug use; (d) obscenity or profanity; (e) anything defamatory or libelous; (f) anything disparaging the United States Marine Corps; (g) anything racist or sexist; (h) sexual activity or implied sexual activity; (i) gambling; (j) alcohol or drugs; or (k) anything in poor taste or otherwise not in compliance with “Blues Test” standards. By submitting any Materials, You grant the MCRC and its agents (including, without limitation, its advertising and promotions agencies) permission to use the Materials, and any images or likeness of any persons contained therein, for any purpose and in any and all media whatsoever throughout the world, without compensation. Submitted Materials may be posted on the Site if deemed appropriate by MCRC in its sole discretion.

MCRC respects the rights of others. The Site may contain materials of third parties and MCRC may also transmit and store such third party materials, including User materials. As a result, materials of third parties, not owned or controlled by MCRC, may be included in the Site or are stored or transmitted over MCRC’s digital online communication systems. To the best of our knowledge, these materials do not infringe the rights of others. Upon receipt of proper notice of claimed infringement, MCRC will use commercially reasonable efforts to respond expeditiously to resolve the claim between the notifying party and the alleged infringer who provided the materials in issue, including, where applicable, using commercially reasonable efforts to remove or disable access to materials claimed to be infringing. The proper party to whom you should address such notice is ourmarines@marines.com.

You must be 18 or older to participate in the Why It Matters program.

Limited License: MCRC hereby grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right to access, use and display the Site on one computer only.

Providing Information on the Site: If you access the Site anonymously, you may do so as a "Visitor" and will not be required to provide personally identifiable information. However, in order to participate in the Programs, you will be required to provide certain personally identifiable information such as name, address, e-mail address, rank, unit and service information. See our privacy policy regarding how such information is used. You must provide truthful information, and may not use any aliases or other means to mask your true identity. You hereby provide us with authorization to verify any personal information submitted (first name, last name, hometown city and state, zip code, current/last rank, service status, service duration, last unit assigned and current/last duty stationed).

Acceptable use: In connection with your use of the Site, you may not transmit or convey any content, including but not limited to, text, graphics, digital artwork, hyperlinks, software, messages or other communications which contain any obscene, threatening, abusive, harassing, vulgar, defamatory, libelous, infringing or unlawful content or code, whether or not immediately discernable or capable of detection by the average user of the Site. You represent that you are the sole and exclusive owner of any such content, or have the express written authority to post such content, for the viewing, downloading or other uses contemplated on the Site and that the content does not infringe upon the copyright, trademark, service mark, patent, trade secret, privacy or other personal or proprietary rights of any third party. You may not download, copy, adapt or otherwise use any content transmitted through the Site by another user without that user's prior written consent.

Administrator: MCRC shall make reasonable efforts to monitor content posted by users on the Site through the use of filters and administrative personnel. However, due to the nature of the Site and, in particular, the Programs, MCRC may be unable to review or screen all User content posted to the Site. MCRC reserves the right to monitor and inspect any and all transmissions made through the Site and to block, delete or modify any transmissions in contravention of these policies or otherwise objectionable to MCRC in its sole and absolute discretion. In addition, MCRC reserves the right to prevent any User access to the Site that has, or may, violate any terms of this TOS.

License to Postings. User hereby grants MCRC and its agents (including, without limitation, its advertising and promotions agencies) a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-fee license to use, display, catalog, modify, adapt, compile or otherwise exploit any content posted or transmitted by User to the Site.

Ultimate Use. User acknowledges that MCRC may not be able to prevent or control the content posted to the Site by other users, and that User shall in no event hold MCRC liable for the acts of such third parties. In addition, User acknowledges that MCRC has no control over the ultimate use of User's content posted to the Site (including in connection with the Programs) by third parties with access to the Site. MCRC expressly disclaims any liability, and User expressly releases MCRC from any claim, relating to the content of transmissions on the Site provided by User or other users.

Unauthorized access: User agrees not to attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site or any restricted portion of the Site, interfere with the performance of the Site, exceed User's license or permitted use, attempt to access any other User's data or otherwise compromise any aspect of the Site. You may not use spiders, robots or other automated data mining techniques to catalog, download, view, store or otherwise access content, including but not limited to user data and software, on the Site. You may not take any action to interfere with the Site or any other user's use of the Site, our host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, “flooding”, “mail-bombing” or “crashing” the Site. You may not send unsolicited e-mail, including promotions and/or advertising of products or services, through the Site or forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or posting. User may not frame portions of the Site within another web site or establish links from any other web site to any page of the Site other than the home page.

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Changes. Except to the extent any rules, policies, terms or conditions are posted on the Site in connection with any individual service on the Site being accessed by User, this TOS represents the entire agreement between the parties. MCRC reserves the right to change the TOS at any time by posting a revised TOS on the Site.

Liability. User hereby acknowledges that access to the Site may be subject to interruption by reason of scheduled or unscheduled downtime or inherent technical limitations of server technology or Internet connectivity or due to the complexity underlying Internet operations, and that MCRC makes no warranty that the Site will operate as represented or be entirely free of errors. IN NO EVENT WILL MCRC BE LIABLE UNDER ANY THEORY OF TORT, CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER LEGAL OR EQUITABLE THEORY FOR ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, PERSONAL INJURY/WRONGFUL DEATH, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, EACH OF WHICH IS HEREBY EXCLUDED BY AGREEMENT OF THE PARTIES REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT EITHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Severability. If any part of this TOS shall be held or declared to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason by any court of competent jurisdiction, such provision shall be ineffective but shall not affect any other part of this TOS.

Warranty. THE SITE, INCLUDING ALL CONTENT, SOFTWARE, FUNCTIONS, MATERIALS AND INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE SITE, IS PROVIDED "AS IS". TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, MCRC MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER FOR THE CONTENT ON THE SITE OR THE MATERIALS, INFORMATION AND FUNCTIONS MADE ACCESSIBLE BY THE SOFTWARE ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE SITE, FOR ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OR HYPERTEXT LINKS TO THIRD PARTIES OR FOR ANY BREACH OF SECURITY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSMISSION OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION THROUGH THE SITE. FURTHER, MCRC DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. MCRC DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SITE OR ANY MATERIALS OR CONTENT CONTAINED THEREIN WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE SITE OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES IT AVAILABLE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

Privacy Policy. MCRC takes the privacy of our users and their information very seriously. For further information about how we use information collected from you, please view our Privacy Policy.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") Notice. MCRC respects the copyright properties of others. The Site may contain materials of third parties and links to third party sites, portals and directories. MCRC may also transmit and store such third party materials, including User materials. As a result, materials of third parties, not owned or controlled by MCRC, are included in or linked to the MCRC site or are stored or transmitted over MCRC’s digital online communication systems. To the best of our knowledge, these materials do not infringe the copyrights of others. Upon receipt of proper notice of claimed infringement, MCRC will use commercially reasonable efforts to respond expeditiously to follow the procedures specified in the DMCA to resolve the claim between the notifying party and the alleged infringer who provided the materials in issue, including, where applicable, removing or disabling access to materials claimed to be infringing or by removing or disabling access to links to such material. The proper party to whom you should address such notice is ourmarines@marines.com.

It is the policy of MCRC to terminate its relationships with third parties who repeatedly infringe the copyrights of others where such parties are known to MCRC to be repeat infringers in connection with their use of USMCthe Marine’s sites, links, or storage and communication systems and networks.

CONTACT THE SITE ADMINISTRATOR

For questions or concerns relating to message boards or security or data located on the Site, OR IF YOU SUSPECT THAT ELECTRONIC CONTENT HAS BEEN UPLOADED TO THE SITE IN VIOLATION OF THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF ANOTHER, you are encouraged to contact the Site administrator at ourmarines@marines.com.

For questions or concerns relating to privacy, the Site Administrator can be contacted at ourmarines@marines.com.