Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Appalachian Art Sales maintains the interactive portions of its website, www.appalachianartsales.org (the site), as a service free of charge. By using any interactive services provided herein, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the terms, conditions and notices relating to its use.

General Terms and Conditions of Use

A. INTERACTIVE SERVICES

  1. As a condition of your use of the site and the interactive services contained therein, you represent and warrant to Appalachian Art Sales that you will not use the site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions and notices.

  2. This website contains one or more of the following interactive services: news groups, mailing lists, and/or other message or communication facilities. You agree to use such services only to send and receive messages and material that are proper and related to the particular service, area, group, forum, or other message or communication facility. In addition to any other terms or conditions of use of any news groups, mailing lists, and/or other message or communication facilities, you agree that when using one, you will not:

    • a. Publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate any inappropriate, profane, derogatory, defamatory, infringing, improper, obscene, indecent or unlawful topic, name, material or information.

    • b. Upload files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another's computer.

    • c. Advertise any goods or services for any commercial purpose. You also agree to not utilize the intellectual property of Appalachian Art Sales in advertising any goods or services for any commercial purpose without prior written consent.

    • d. Offer to sell any goods or services for any commercial purpose.

    • e. Conduct or forward chain letters or pyramid schemes.

    • f. Download for distribution in any manner any file posted by another user of a forum that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such manner.

    • g. Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of any persons, including but not limited to those involved in the administration, creation, and/or maintenance of this website, and/or those listed in the credits on the About page of this website.

    • h. Falsify or delete any author attributions, legal or other proper notices, proprietary designations, labels of the origin, source of software or other material contained in a file that is uploaded.

    • i. Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying any of the services, news groups, mailing lists, and/or other message or communication facilities.

  3. When necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, Appalachian Art Sales reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part.

  4. You acknowledge that communications to or with news groups, mailing lists, and/or other message or communications facilities are not private communications, therefore others may read your communications without your knowledge. You should always use caution when providing any personal information about yourself or your family members, including children. Appalachian Art Sales does not control or endorse the content, messages or information found in any news groups, and/or other message or communications facilities and, specifically disclaims any liability with regard to same and any actions resulting from your participation.

  5. The information, products and services included on the site may include inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically added to the information herein. Appalachian Art Sales may make improvements to the site at any time. Advice received via the site should not be relied upon for personal, legal or financial decisions and you should consult an appropriate professional for specific advice tailored to your situation.

  6. APPALACHIAN ART SALES MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS about the suitability reliability, timeliness and accuracy of the information, products and services contained on the site for any purpose. All such information, products, and services are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind.

  7. APPALACHIAN ART SALES HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS with regard to the information, products and services contained on the site, including all implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.

  8. IN NO EVENT SHALL APPALACHIAN ART SALES, its associates or assigns BE LIABLE for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special, consequential damages or any damages whatsoever including without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profits, arising out of or in any way connected:

    • a. With the use or performance of the site

    • b. With the delay or inability to use the site

    • c. With the provision of or failure to provide services, or

    • d. For any information, software, products, services and related graphics obtained through this web site, or otherwise arising out of the use of this web site, whether based on contract, tort, strict liability or otherwise, even if Appalachian Art Sales, associates, or assigns has been advised of the possibility of damages.

  9. DUE TO THE FACT THAT CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS DO NOT PERMIT OR RECOGNIZE AN EXCLUSION OF LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. If you are dissatisfied with any portion of the site, or with any of these terms of use, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the site.

  10. Appalachian Art Sales reserves the right in its sole discretion to deny any user access to the site, any interactive service herein, or any portion of the site without notice, and the right to change terms, conditions, and notices under which the site is offered.

  11. This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, U.S.A. You hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Watauga County, North Carolina, U.S.A. in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of the site. Use of the site is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these terms and conditions, including without limitation this paragraph. You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment or agency relationship exists between you and Appalachian Art Sales as a result of this agreement or use of the site. The performance of this agreement by Appalachian Art Sales is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this agreement is in derogation of its rights to comply with governmental, court and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the site or information provided to or gathered with respect to such use. If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect.

  12. This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the user and Appalachian Art Sales with respect to the site and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written with respect to the site. A printed version of this agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.

  13. Appalachian Art Sales is located in Boone, North Carolina 28607 USA.

  14. All contents of the site are: Copyright © Appalachian Art Sales 2007.


    15. B. PRIVACY POLICY

    Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to Appalachian Art Sales , and while you visit the site we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.

    Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the gathering and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.

    Information Appalachian Art Sales gathers and tracks:

    Appalachian Art Sales gathers two types of information about users:

    1. Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to become a member of the user, to receive our electronic letters, to participate in our message boards or forums, to email a friend, to be included either by name or aggregate in our impact report and, in aggregate, in our annual report, from participation in polls and surveys, and in other membership activities that Appalachian Art Sales pursues in its mission to build the user (for Appalachian Art Sales 's full mission statement, and information on the user, please see here).

    2. Information Appalachian Art Sales gathers through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help our advertisers and sponsors better understand the demographics of our audience. Because Appalachian Art Sales derives its revenue mainly through sponsorship, providing such aggregated demographic data is essential to keeping our service free to users. Under no circumstances does Appalachian Art Sales divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.

    Appalachian Art Sales Gathers User Information in some or all of the Following Processes:

    1. Electronic Mail Newsletters (email newsletters):

      We offer electronic mail newsletters and updates to our users. Appalachian Art Sales gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe to these gratis newsletters and updates. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every electronic letter that points users to the subscription management page.

    2. Polling: We may offer interactive polls to our site guests and/or users so that they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. Appalachian Art Sales may use a system to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual users.

    3. Surveys: Appalachian Art Sales may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our sponsors, advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.

    Children

    Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.

    Usage tracking

    Appalachian Art Sales tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. Appalachian Art Sales does break down overall usage statistics according to user's domain name, browser type and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user's browser).

    Appalachian Art Sales sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.

    Cookies

    We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it will enable us to relate to your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Appalachian Art Sales uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above). Our advertising system delivers a one-time cookie to better track ad impressions and click rates.

    You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in some of the online benefits of the site, and in news groups, polling and surveys.

    Use of Information

    Appalachian Art Sales uses any information voluntarily given by our site guests and users to enhance their experience of our site, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the site or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our site guests and users.

    As stated above, we use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and updates to our users, and to enable our site guests and users to participate in polls, surveys, and newsletters. We send out electronic newsletters to our users on a regular schedule (depending on the nature of the electronic letter) and occasionally send out updates and special editions when we think our users might be particularly interested in something we are doing. Appalachian Art Sales never shares user electronic newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.

    When we use tracking information it is to determine which areas of our site users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We track search terms entered in Search function as one of may measures of what interests our users. But we don't track which terms a particular user enters.

    Appalachian Art Sales creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs. Because we don't track the usage patterns of individual users, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific user clicked their ad. We will not disclose any information about any individual user excerpt to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.

    Sharing of the Information

    Appalachian Art Sales uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience's demographics. We will not share information about individual users with any third party, excerpt to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.

    Security

    Appalachian Art Sales operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our users.

    Opt-Out Policy

    We give our site guests and users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:

    • Opting not to register as a member in the user

    • Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users.

    Your Consent

    By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by Appalachian Art Sales . If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.