The following Terms of Use govern all use of text, photography, videos, artwork, audio, and downloadable files (such as but not limited to .pdf, .ppt, .xls, .xlsx, .rtf, .doc, .txt, and any downloadable graphics or video files) (collectively, the "Content"); classes/workshops, forays, culinary events, talks, online forms, and online educational resources and programs (collectively, the "Services"); and T-shirts, posters, stickers and other physical goods (collectively, the "Products") which are available at or through the websites, social media channels, ticketing services and related systems (collectively, the "Platform") which the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz ("FFSC") manages and uses for club operations. The Platform is offered subject to Your acceptance without modification of all the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, the Privacy Policy and FFSC Bylaws) and procedures that may be published from time to time on this site by FFSC (collectively, the "Agreement").

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Platform. By accessing or using any part of the Platform, each user or internet bot ("You", "Your" or "User") agrees to the terms and conditions of this Agreement. If You do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, You should not access the Platform or use any Services or Products made available via the Platform.

(1) Your FFSC Account

If you create an account on the Platform, You are responsible for maintaining the security of Your account, and You are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the account. You must not post content to Your account in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others. FFSC may, at its discretion, change or remove any content that it considers inappropriate or unlawful. Please immediately notify FFSC of any unauthorized uses of Your account or any other breaches of security. FFSC will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

(2) Responsibility of Contributors

If You post Content to the Platform, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) Content available by means of the Platform, You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from Your use of, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software. If you created or owned the Content prior to contributing the Content to the Site, and that Content is subject to Intellectual Property rights, you retain ownership of those rights. Unless you specify otherwise when you post Content, you agree to license Content you contribute to the Platform under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial license (CC BY-NC). If You post Content created or owned by someone else and that Content is subject to Intellectual Property rights, You are responsible for verifying that the original owner has granted You permission to use their creative work to the Platform and that you adhere to the license provided by that Content owner under copyright law.

By making Content available, You represent and warrant that:

• the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;

• the Content is not spam and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);

• You will post only Content that is relevant to FFSC and its Mission, and at a rate and volume that does not hinder other Users' ability to use the Platform;

• the Content is not libelous or defamatory, does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;

• Your account details do not mislead others into thinking they represent another specific person or organization (unique pseudonyms are allowed). For example, Your login name is not the name of a person other than Yourself or organization other than Your own;

• Your content is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, journals and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods.

By submitting Content for inclusion on the Platform, You grant FFSC a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt, and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing, and promoting Your Content via the Platform, and for the purpose of displaying or promoting the Content or FFSC itself in other venues, such as social media or software distribution platforms. We may repackage publicly available information associated with the Content in a machine-readable format for a handful of other parties, including the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and others. You represent and warrant that (a) You own and control all of the rights to the Content that You post or You otherwise have the right to post such Content to the Site; (b) the Content is accurate and not misleading; and (c) use and posting of the Content You supply does not violate this Agreement and will not violate any rights of or cause injury to any person or entity. If You delete Content, FFSC will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Platform, but You acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made unavailable immediately.

Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, FFSC has the right (though not the obligation), in FFSC’s sole discretion, to terminate or deny access to and use of the Platform to any individual or entity for any reason.

(3) Responsibility of Website Visitors

FFSC is a volunteer-run organization. While our website volunteers and advisors do their best to review Content when it is initially posted to the Platform and to periodically revisit and update the Content, FFSC volunteers cannot review all of the Content, and therefore cannot be responsible for that Content, use or effects. By operating the Platform, FFSC does not represent or imply that it endorses the material posted to the Platform, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful, non-infringing or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect Yourself and Your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Platform may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Platform may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. FFSC disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Platform, any mislabeling by Platform visitors of observations, or from any downloading by those visitors of content posted to the Platform.

(4) Inappropriate Use

You agree not to use the FFSC Platform, Services, or any Content for any illegal, unlawful, or unauthorized purpose or activity, including but not limited to threatening, abusing, soliciting, spam, harassing, stalking, impersonating, or intimidating other FFSC or Platform Users.

(5) Copyright Infringement

FFSC respects the intellectual property rights of others, and requests that Users of the FFSC Platform, Services and Content do the same.

FFSC does not own the Content that FFSC members and guests (collectively, "Contributors") post here, the Content belongs to the people who created or legally own the Content.

Any Content posted to the Platform (including but not limited to this website, the FFSC public Facebook Group, the FFSC Google Group, the FFSC YouTube channel, and other FFSC-managed media channels) may be displayed on other parts of the Platform without notice. FFSC volunteers will do their best to credit the owner of the Content when made aware of such uses. Due to the technical operations and limitations of each online system and/or subsystem, ownership credits might appear directly below the Content, or only when hovering over the Content, or it might be cited at the bottom of the page.

Some Contributors to this Platform post Content (such as photographs and recipes) from third-party websites and systems. Such Content is copyrighted by the original creators, and is included on this Platform for non-profit, non-commercial educational purposes only. Please do not download or reprint such third-party Content directly from the FFSC Platform.

• If you are interested in using any creative works sourced from the NAMA website, see Copying material from the NAMA website.

• If you are interested in using any creative works sourced from Mushroom Observer, see the License section of "How to Use Mushroom Observer".

• If you are interested in using any creative works sourced from MykoWeb, see Use of Photographs at MykoWeb.

• If you are interested in using any creative works sourced from iNaturalist, see Can I use the photos and sounds that are posted on iNaturalist?

• If you are interested in using any creative works sourced from other sources, please visit those sources for usage information.

If You believe that Your work has been copied on the Platform in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please reach out to FFSC by using the Contact Us form on the Contact FFSC page.

FFSC volunteers will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material (also see below). In the case of a visitor who may infringe or repeatedly infringes the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of FFSC or others, FFSC may, in its discretion, terminate or deny access to and use of the Platform.

(6) Intellectual Property

All trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with FFSC or the Platform are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz or the Platform's Users or other third parties. Your use of the Platform grants You no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any FFSC or third-party trademarks for any purposes. This Agreement does not transfer to You any FFSC or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain solely with FFSC or such owners.

(7) Prohibited Use for Commercial AI Training

Users may not use any data on the Platform for training artificial intelligence, machine learning models, large language models, or similar networks, algorithms, or systems for commercial purposes.

(8) Changes to the Agreement

FFSC reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is Your responsbility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the Platform following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. FFSC may also, in the future, offer new Services and/or features through the Platform (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or Services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

(9) Termination of Your Access

FFSC may terminate Your access to all or any part of the Platform or Services at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If You wish to terminate this Agreement or Your FFSC account, You may simply discontinue using the Platform and cancel Your FFSC Membership. If you wish to completely delete Your Account on ffsc.us, please use the Contact Us form on the Contact FFSC page and choose "FFSC Website issue" as the Topic Area. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, and limitations of liability.

(10) Disclaimer of Warranties

The Platform is provided “as is.” FFSC and its suppliers, partners and Members hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither FFSC nor its suppliers, partners or Members makes any warranty that the Platform will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that You download from, or otherwise obtain Content, Services or Products through, the Platform at Your own discretion and risk.

(11) Limitation of Liability

In no event will FFSC be liable with respect to any subject matter of this Agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement or substitute products or services; or (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data. FFSC shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond its reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

(12) General Representation and Warranty

You represent and warrant that (i) Your use of the Platform will be in strict accordance with the FFSC Privacy Policy, with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in Your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which You reside) and (ii) Your use of the Platform will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

(13) Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless FFSC, its contractors, partners, licensors and Members, and their respective directors, officers, employees, partners and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of Your use of the Platform, including but not limited to Your violation this Agreement.

(14) Platform Code

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless FFSC, its code contributors, its its contractors, partners, licensors and Members, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of publishing or using Platform code or the acceptance of code contributions from outside parties.

(15) Miscellaneous

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between FFSC and You concerning the subject matter hereof, and may be modified only by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of FFSC or by the posting by FFSC of a revised version of these Terms of Use. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, any access to or use of the Platform will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located within 60 miles of Santa Cruz, California. The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may not assign Your rights under this Agreement; FFSC may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure (take effect) to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

Supplemental Information

Copyright Concerns & Questions

FFSC's ability to adhere to copyright credits and/or infringement notices may vary over time due to these factors:

• FFSC is a nonprofit club operated by a rotating group of volunteers with a diverse range of skills. Some volunteers who contribute Content to this website might not be able to consistently follow FFSC's standards and processes. FFSC might not have other volunteers available with the right skills or availability to identify and update such Content within Your sense of a timely manner. If you notice that a credit is missing, or a copyright request you submitted has not yet been fulfilled, please try contacting us through any of the means provided on the Contact FFSC page.

• FFSC uses applications and systems that belong to external platforms (ticketing, shopping, video, etc.) which own and manage their own user interfaces, including the number of characters available for captions and other text. This means FFSC volunteers must provide copyright credits by using the options those systems offer. Therefore, FFSC volunteers must sometimes shorten attributions and credits; and such attributions and credits may be placed in different locations relative to the Content.

• FFSC has existed for over 40 years, and has operated at least 4 versions of this website on different hosting systems since 2001, as well as online and physical newsletters for many years before that time. This means some of the Content shown today might have been obtained from other sites (such as mushroomobserver.org) many years ago, and might not contain copyright statements that are included on or with newer versions of those works. If You own a photograph or other creative work which appears to be missing such information, we would appreciate it if you would provide (or share a link to) the latest version of that work, and our volunteers will do their best to replace the older version.

Payment Methods

FFSC uses PayPal for payment processing on this Platform, and may also use Square for certain events and purchases. FFSC reserves the right to change our payment method choices in the future. For more information about why we use PayPal, visit the Membership FAQ on our Why Join FFSC? page.

Returns, Refunds, and Warranties

Refunds are determined differently for each event. Before purchasing tickets to any event, please read that event's policies carefully.

T-shirts, stickers, or other physical items that you purchase directly from FFSC are generally considered non-refundable, unless otherwise specified. For items sold through third-party vendors, see that vendor's return, refund, and/or warranty policies.

Products we sell online are generally non-refundable unless we specify a particular return or refund policy for a specific product.