Terms and Conditions

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are a legal agreement between you and Palmetto Citizens for Informed Governance, Inc. (“PCIG”) and govern your use of this Website at www.pcignow.com either as a visitor, content contributor, or as an active member.  Use of, posting of information to, and access to this Website are subject to your compliance with these Terms, so please read them carefully before using this Website. PCIG reserves the right to limit or terminate your access to this Website or terminate or suspend your membership for failure to comply with the terms and policies posted on this Website, including these Terms, or for any reason at any time.

BY ACCESSING AND USING THIS WEBSITE IN ANY WAY, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, DO NOT USE OR POST INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE IN ANY MANNER.

PCIG reserves the right to change or add to these Terms of Use at any time and without advance notice to users. Any such modification will be effective upon being posted here. It is your obligation to periodically check this page to determine if these Terms of Use have been modified and whether you agree to them. If you do not agree, you must discontinue use of the Website.

General

Palmetto Citizens for Informed Governance, Inc. (“PCIG”) is a political action committee organized and incorporated under the laws of the State of South Carolina and is registered with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). It is registered with the FEC as a “Hybrid PAC” (political committees with non-contribution accounts) and may solicit and accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor organizations and other political committees, provided such contributions are made to a segregated bank account for the purpose of financing independent expenditures, other ads that refer to a federal candidate, and generic voter drives in federal and state elections. These accounts are maintained as separate bank accounts, and, where applicable, are subject to the statutory amount limitations and source prohibitions that regulate and govern contributions to federal candidates. 

Consistent with the rules and regulations regarding the operation of a Hybrid Pac, this Website is designed and intended to convey information about political candidates and issues. It also is designed to accept contributions, online, in to four (4) separate and segregated bank accounts, at the choice and selection of the contributor, for the purposes of facilitating PCIG’s stated mission. Three percent (3%) of any such contribution, will automatically be transferred to PCIG’s operating account in order to facilitate its operations and cover all related costs. As a political action committee staffed by volunteers, none of the monies contributed are or will be used for the employment of any individual, unless and until the PCIG’s Board of Directors formally deem employment of any individual necessary to facilitate the mission of PCIG.

PCIG’s Proprietary Rights and Limited License for Active Members

As a registered member of PCIG and by paying the annual membership fee, you have the limited right to use the Website and access various non-public portals, provided such use and access is solely in accordance with these Terms of Use. By becoming an active member of PCIG, you assume full responsibility for the use of the content, activities, and features you select to achieve your intended results, and for any results that you achieve. The limited license to use the Website does not grant you any right or license in and to the Website and its content, and you are prohibited from (i) copying or reproducing any content and (ii) publishing or distributing any content for any purpose other than your own personal purposes in connection with your membership account.

Except for the limited rights granted to active members, PCIG retains all intellectual property rights it possesses in and to all materials contained on or within the Website, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images, illustrations, designs, icons, photographs, and written and other materials (collectively, “Content”), as well as the look, feel selection and arrangement of menus and other user interfaces (together with Content, the “Application Elements). All Application Elements are proprietary and are protected by copyright, trademark, trade dress, trade secret and /or other applicable intellectual property law. Any unauthorized access to, use or disclosure of Application Elements violates these Terms of Use and the intellectual property rights of PCIG and its licensors, including, without limitation, the framing or use of Application Elements as meta tags or in any other “hidden text” techniques or technologies. PCIG retains and reserves all intellectual property rights in and to the Application Elements and neither use of them in the Website nor the grant of a limited user licenses creates or transfers any express or implied rights in and to these Application Elements.

All content, graphics, code, and software used on or incorporated into this Website, and the arrangement or integration of all such content, graphics, code, and software, is subject to copyrights and other proprietary intellectual property rights held by PCIG. PCIG grants you permission to electronically download, copy, or print hard copies of pages from this Website solely for your personal, non-commercial purposes. You may not sell, publish, advertise, or otherwise distribute for commercial purposes any information or materials obtained from the Website.  Any use of this Website or content or information contained herein other than for your own personal, non-commercial use is strictly prohibited, unless the written permission of PCIG is obtained first.

PALMETTO CITIZENS FOR INFORMED GOVERNANCE, PALMETTO CITIZENS FOR INFORMED GOVERNANCE and Design and the designation PCIG, together with all related marks, constitute trade names, trademarks and service marks of PCIG. All original content, visual or otherwise, are the property of PCIG, and are subject to claims of copyright.

By accessing the Website, you agree that you will not copy, reproduce, republish, frame, download, transmit, modify, display, reverse engineer, sell or participate in any sale, rental, lease, loan, assignment, distribution, license, sublicense, or any commercial exploitation, in whole or in part, of any of the Application Elements, the Website, or any related software, except as expressly permitted in these Terms of Use.

By posting or otherwise submitting any content or other information to the Website, you automatically grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, and irrevocable right to copy, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly perform, and display such content.

Prohibited Activities by Users

 Users are prohibited from using the Website for any illegal or unauthorized purpose(s) and agree to comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.

Users are prohibited from, and agree not to, interfere with the operation of the Website, and with any servers, databases, or networks connected with the Website, by any means whatsoever, including, without limitation, by transmitting any virus, spyware, malware or other malicious code or otherwise altering or interfering with the Website, the user interface, or the appearance of the Website in a user’s browser. Users are prohibited from any attempts to restrict another user from using or enjoying the Website, and all persons are prohibited from intercepting or interfering with any user’s transmission of content to the Website.

Users are expressly prohibited from creating a legacy, message, email, or otherwise providing for the transmission through or via the Website of information or content that:

a) is malicious, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, violent, or harmful to minors in any way;

b) is pornographic or profane;

c) harasses, degrades, intimidates or is hateful toward an individual or group of individuals based on religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, or advocates racial or ethnic intolerance;

d) unlawfully impersonates any person or entity, including, but not limited to a staff or other volunteer of PCIG, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents the user’s affiliation with a person or entity;

e) includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person’s explicit consent;

f)  is false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, or intentionally misinforms;

g) infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party, or that the user does not have a right to make available under law or is restrained from making available under contractual or fiduciary relationships;

h) constitutes or contains “affiliate marketing,” “link referral code,” “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or unsolicited commercial advertisement;

i) constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation;

j) contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment of the recipient; or

k) is intended to advocate or advance computer hacking or cracking;

l) constitutes or advocates gambling or other illegal activity, including, without limitation, pyramid schemes and illegal export of controlled substances or illegal software;

m) relates to or includes drug paraphernalia; or

n) contains other material, products or services that violate or encourage conduct that would violate any criminal laws, any other applicable laws, or any third-party rights.

In addition, users are specifically prohibited from:

(1) using automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from the Website;

(2) phishing;

(3) attempting to gain unauthorized access to the Website’s computer systems, network, host, or databases or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of the Website;

(4) using the Website to generate or facilitate unsolicited commercial email (“spam”), including, without limitation, sending email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act or any other applicable anti-spam law; data mining the Website to find email addresses or other user account information; sending emails to persons who have requested to be removed from a mailing list; selling, exchanging or distributing to a third party the email addresses of any person obtained through the Website without such person’s knowing and continued consent to such disclosure; and sending unsolicited emails to significant numbers of email addresses belonging to individuals and/or entities with whom you have no preexisting relationship;

(5) using the Website to violate the legal rights of others, including, without limitation, rights of privacy and publicity and unlawfully transmitting another’s intellectual property or proprietary information without the owner’s or licensor’s permission; and

(6) using any form of automated device or computer program that enables the submission of content (legacy, message, etc.) without each submission being manually entered by the author thereof (an “automated posting device”), including without limitation, the use of any such automated posting device to submit postings in bulk, or for automatic submission of postings at regular intervals.

Violation and Enforcement; Termination of User Accounts

If you believe any person may have breached these Terms of Use, please contact PCIG IMMEDIATELY. Do not attempt to contact such person yourself.

We reserve the right to investigate any allegation that there has been a breach of these Terms of Use and to terminate a member’s account without advance notice if we determine, in our sole judgment, that a member’s account has been used in a manner that has violated these Terms of Use.

Data Security and Privacy

The data security and privacy policies applicable to your use of the Website are stated in the Privacy Policy accessible through the links thereto contained in these Terms of Use or via the link at the bottom of each page of the Website.

Links

To the extent that the Website contains links to outside services and resources, you should be aware that PCIG does not control the availability and/or content of those outside services and resources. Links to these third-party resources are provided solely for your convenience. If you use these links, you leave the PCIG Website. PCIG does not endorse or make any representations about these third-party sites, or any material found on them, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of these third-party websites you do so entirely at your own risk and are subject to their particular terms of use and privacy policies. Any concerns regarding any such service or resource, or any link thereto, should be directed to the particular service or resource.

Indemnification

By accessing or using the Website, you agree to indemnify and hold PCIG, its managers, founders, members, employees, affiliates, licensors and suppliers (individually and collectively, the “Indemnified Part(y)ies”) harmless from and against any and all complaints, charges, claims, damages, losses, costs, liabilities, and expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees) due to, arising out of, caused by or relating in any way to your use of the Website or our enforcement of these Terms of Use as a result of or in connection with your access to or use of the Website. You expressly acknowledge and agree that a violation of these Terms of Use may result in the suffering of consequential, special, incidental, and indirect damages by the Indemnified Parties, including, without limitation, mitigation damages, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, there is no limit on the amount or kind of such damages collectible by an Indemnified Party.

Your indemnification obligations apply without regard to the nature or scope of the underlying cause of action or theory of liability, whether based on warranty, contract, statute, tort (including negligence), or otherwise; provided, however, that you shall have no indemnification obligation with regard to damages suffered by PCIG to the extent such damages are the direct result of its own negligence.

By posting any questions, comments, or information requests on or through the Website, you automatically grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, and irrevocable right to copy, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly perform, and display such content. Please note that our use of your personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy.

Downloadable Information

For your convenience, PCIG provides commentary and opinions on political candidates and issues calendars in a downloadable format.  These downloadable files are provided on an “as is” basis by PCIG.  Your use of any files you download from this Website is at your sole risk.  Though PCIG makes every attempt to ensure these materials are accurate, it makes no warranty that such materials are accurate, complete, correct, or current.

Error Correction

Though PCIG uses reasonable efforts to ensure otherwise, this Website may contain typographical errors or other inaccuracies and may not be complete or current. PCIG therefore reserves the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions and to change or update information at any time.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation on Damages

PCIG provides this Website, its contents, and any and all products, services, and information described or provided herein on an “as is” basis. You expressly agree that your use of this Website: any materials advertised or promoted on this website; or any files downloaded from links placed on this website is at your sole risk.

PCIG has no control over users’ Internet service or access, or the transmission media used when users access and use the Website. Accordingly, PCIG cannot and does not assume any liability for or relating to the delay, failure, or interruption of access to or use of member accounts due to such factors, or the corruption of any data transmitted in connection with your use of the Website.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, PCIG disclaims all warranties, express or implied, statutory or otherwise, including, without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability, non-infringement of third parties’ rights, and fitness for a particular purpose. PCIG makes no express or implied representations or warranties as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness, correctness, or timeliness of content, application elements, activities, or information provided on or through the use of the Website or a member account.

PCIG does not represent or warrant that the functions of the website will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the websites or the servers that make them available are free of viruses or other harmful components.

 To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, PCIG expressly disclaims any liability for any loss or damage of any kind, including, without limitation, for any direct, indirect, economic, exemplary, special, punitive, incidental or consequential losses or damages, loss of profits or revenue, or any loss of data, good-will, or other intangible loss directly or indirectly resulting from or related to the operation or use of the Website, including, without limitation, (a) your access to or use of, or inability to access and use, the website or your user account; (b) your use of or reliance on any content provided by the website; (c) any action PCIG takes or permits law enforcement authorities to take regarding users or information contained in user accounts; (d) the performance or interruption of performance of the Website and member accounts, including any errors or omissions in the operation or performance of the Website or corruption of data; (e) unauthorized third party access to, use or alteration of content or user contributions or transmissions; (f) failure of any appointed messenger to perform the services requested by the user, or the negligence or willful misconduct of the appointed messenger in the performance of such services; (g) any unauthorized or illegal use or misuse of user information and records by an appointed messenger; and (h) any damage to a user’s computer, mobile device, or other equipment or technology resulting from unauthorized access by a third party, or any virus, bug, tampering, fraud, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer or network failure, or any other technical malfunction while a user attempts to, or does, access or use the website.

 To the extent permissible under applicable law, these disclaimers and limitations apply even if such damages are foreseeable or even if PCIG has been advised of or should have known of the possibility of such damages. In no event will PCIG be liable to users or anyone else for loss, damage or injury due to or related to the use or misuse of the Website.

By accessing the website and/or your membership account, you understand that you may be waiving rights with respect to claims that are at this time unknown or unsuspected.

This disclaimer of liability applies to any damages or injury caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, act of God, act of nature, communication line failure, theft, destruction, unauthorized access to, or alteration of this Website, whether the claim giving rise to such liability is related to breach of contract, tortious behavior, negligence, or any other cause of action.

Any claim arising in connection with the use of the Website, the Content, or the Application Elements must be brought within one (1) year after the date the claim accrued.

To the extent any of the foregoing disclaimers are unenforceable, any damages awarded against PCIG in relation to a membership account shall be limited to the total amount of membership fees paid by the said user.

Copyright Infringement Notice and Takedown Process

If you believe that any Content or Application Elements infringes your copyright, you may request the removal of such Content or Application Elements (or user access to such Content) by emailing PCIG’s Chairman at <[email protected]>  and  by providing the Chairman with the following information:

(i) an identification and description of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, including a copy or the location of such material (e.g., a URL or other identifier of published material);

(ii) a description/identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or the subject of infringing activity and that you are requesting be removed or access be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the location of the alleged infringing material on the Website;

(iii) your first and last name and contact information, including your street address, telephone number, and an email address;

(iv) a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;

(v) a statement that the information you have supplied is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner; and

(vi) a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf.

PCIG reserves the right to remove Content alleged to be infringing without prior notice and at its sole discretion.

Choice of Law, Waiver, Claims, Severability

By using this Website or accessing any information herein, you agree that your use of the Website will be governed by the laws of the State of South Carolina. You also agree that any legal or equitable claim arising from your access to this website or the dissemination of any information derived therefrom must be brought in the city, state, or federal courts located in Beaufort County, South Carolina, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts. PCIG’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Agreement will not be deemed to be a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of this Agreement is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, you agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions and that the other provisions of this Agreement remain in full force and effect. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of this Website or any information derived through this Website must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

Notice

You may direct any questions concerning this Agreement or notices required by this Agreement to:

Palmetto Citizens for Informed Governance, Inc.

35 Parris Island Gateway, Unit #312

Beaufort, South Carolina 29906

Attn: Chairman

E-mail: [email protected]

Termination of the Website

PCIG reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate the Website at any time for any reason, and may do so immediately without prior notice to its active membership.  Notwithstanding the fact PCIG has no duty or obligation to provide members with advance notice of Website termination, to the extent commercially practicable PCIG will endeavor to provide active members with reasonable advance notice of an impending Website termination via the email address associated with their account registration. Termination of the Website will result in member users’ inability to access their accounts and portals, and the deletion of all user-supplied data associated with those accounts but may be retained on backup services for archival or related purposes. The provisions of these Terms of Use relating to Intellectual Property, Indemnification, Disclaimer of Defamation, Libel and Invasion of Rights of Privacy and Publicity together with Limitation on Damages, Governing Law and Miscellaneous Provisions shall survive the termination of the Website.

Whole Agreement and Amendment

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and PCIG with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes and replaces all prior or contemporaneous understandings or agreements, written or oral, regarding such subject matter. PCIG may amend or modify this Agreement at any time by posting the new terms on its Website. This Agreement may not be otherwise amended except in a written document signed by you and PCIG.

PCIG is based in the United States of America and makes no claim that the Website and/or its Application Elements are lawful outside the United States. Access to the Website may not be legal by certain persons, particularly foreign nationals without permanent resident status in the United States, or otherwise in certain countries.

These Terms of Use were first stated on December 1, 2021.