Betatale Terms of Service
These Terms of Service govern your use of our online platform, including the site located at betatale.com, our mobile apps and any related services provided by Betatale.
By accessing our services, you agree to abide by these Terms of Service and to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. If you do not agree with these Terms of Service, you are prohibited from using or accessing services provided by Betatale.
We, Betatale, reserve the right to review and amend any of these Terms of Service at our sole discretion. Upon doing so, we will update this page. Any changes to these Terms of Service will take effect immediately from the date of publication.
This Terms of Service is effective as of 18 September 2023.
Last updated: 30 April 2024.
1. Definitions
These are definitions of key terms and roles within our platform ecosystem, encouraging clarity in communication and collaboration among our community members.
Query is a public message from a journalist seeking information for use in their material, which is being prepared for publication.
Pitch is a response to a query containing expert facts or opinions.
Publication is a material released by a media outlet, prepared in part thanks to information from experts' pitches.
Journalist is a user who, upon registration, selects the status of journalist and gets the ability to post queries.
Expert is a user who, upon registration, selects the status of expert and gets the ability to submit pitches in response to queries.
2. Limitations of Use
By using Betatale, you warrant on behalf of yourself, your users, and other parties you represent that you will not:
2.1) providing false information about yourself, other individuals, or any goods or services;
2.2) modify, copy, prepare derivative works of, decompile, or reverse engineer any materials and software contained on our platform;
2.3) remove any copyright or other proprietary notations from any materials and software on our platform;
2.4) transfer the materials to another person or "mirror" the materials on any other server;
2.5) knowingly or negligently use our platform in a way that abuses or disrupts our networks or any other service Betatale provides;
2.6) use our platform to transmit or publish any harassing, indecent, obscene, fraudulent, or unlawful material;
2.7) use our platform in conjunction with sending unauthorised advertising or spam;
2.8) harvest, collect, or gather user data without the user’s consent; or
2.9) use our platform in such a way that may infringe the privacy, intellectual property rights, or other rights of third parties;
2.10) transfer access to your account to third parties;
2.11) engage in any behavior that insults anyone, including the use of profanity and expressions that demean human dignity, as well as the dissemination of information that defames anyone's business reputation;
2.12) demand from the administration the restoration of lost email and password for platform access (the password on the site can be restored independently on the login page);
2.13) use our platform in violation of any applicable laws or regulations.
3. Journalists rules
A journalist on our platform agrees to:
3.1) submit media queries only if the content is truly being prepared for a stated media outlet; we reserve the right to request the journalist's editorial contacts or colleagues for verification;
3.2) specify the deadline for the query and the estimated publication date, after coordination with their editorial team;
3.3) not to include commercial offers, ads, press releases, event announcements to queries; also not to collect information with the help of queries for the purpose of creating advertising publication;
3.4) avoid duplicating other queries on the platform;
3.5) write the query's text and title concisely and clearly, free of spelling and punctuation errors, and without using all caps or emoticons;
3.6) have the query moderated before posting on the platform, which can take from minutes to several hours; if the query violates the current Terms of Service, we may block it;
3.7) respond to pitches in the chat below each pitch; or at the very least, use the buttons to reject or accept them;
3.8) independently verify the accuracy of pitches and any other information provided by experts; the platform is not responsible for the accuracy of the information experts send;
3.9) attach a link to the publication on our platform by the stated release date, or adjust this date if it has been postponed;
3.10) credit the expert in the publication, including their name, position, and company if their information is used and the expert requests such attribution;
3.11) not offer or accept any compensation for any collaborative work with experts on the platform.
4. Experts rules
An expert on our platform agrees to:
4.1) publish pitches only under their own name and on behalf of a real company they specify in the pitch byline;
4.2) ensure that they work or have worked for the company indicated in the pitch byline, or own it; we reserve the right to request contacts from their company, colleagues, or partners to verify information about them;
4.3) confirm their expertise on the topic of the query to which they respond if requested by the journalist or platform administration;
4.4) consent to the impossibility of editing the pitch, its byline, as well as messages in the pitch chat after sending them to the journalist;
4.5) consent to the use of their pitch content in media publication after sending them to the journalist; the pitch content refers to its text, byline, and any information from messages in the related pitch chat;
4.6) not to make any claims if the journalist does not use my pitch for publication in the media;
4.7) consent to the disclosure of information regarding the queries to which I have submitted pitches; the content of the pitches themselves will remain private, accessible only to the journalist, the query author;
4.8) not offer or accept compensation for any collaborative work with journalists on the platform.
5. Intellectual Property
The intellectual property in the materials contained on our platform are owned by or licensed to Betatale and are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law. We grant our users permission to download one copy of the materials for personal, non-commercial transitory use.
This constitutes the grant of a licence, not a transfer of title. This licence shall automatically terminate if you violate any of these restrictions or the Terms of Service, and may be terminated by Betatale at any time.
6. User-Generated Content
You retain your intellectual property ownership rights over content you submit to us for publication on our platform. We will never claim ownership of your content, but we do require a licence from you in order to use it.
When you use our platform to post, upload, share, or otherwise transmit content covered by intellectual property rights, you grant to us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide licence to use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly display, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of your content in a manner that is consistent with your privacy preferences and our Privacy Policy.
The licence you grant us can be terminated at any time by deleting your content or account. However, to the extent that we (or our partners) have used your content in connection with commercial or sponsored content, the licence will continue until the relevant commercial or post has been discontinued by us.
You give us permission to use your username and other identifying information associated with your account in a manner that is consistent with your privacy preferences and our Privacy Policy.
7. Liability
Our platform and the materials on our platform are provided on an 'as is' basis. To the extent permitted by law, Betatale makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties including, without limitation, implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property, or other violation of rights.
In no event shall Betatale or its suppliers be liable for any consequential loss suffered or incurred by you or any third party arising from the use or inability to use this platform or the materials on this platform, even if Betatale or an authorised representative has been notified, orally or in writing, of the possibility of such damage.
In the context of this agreement, "consequential loss" includes any consequential loss, indirect loss, real or anticipated loss of profit, loss of benefit, loss of revenue, loss of business, loss of goodwill, loss of opportunity, loss of savings, loss of reputation, loss of use and/or loss or corruption of data, whether under statute, contract, equity, tort (including negligence), indemnity or otherwise.
Because some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on implied warranties, or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, these limitations may not apply to you.
8. Accuracy of Materials
The materials appearing on our platform are not comprehensive and are for general information purposes only. Betatale does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the materials on this platform, or otherwise relating to such materials or on any resources linked to this platform.
9. Links
Betatale has not reviewed all of the sites linked to its platform and is not responsible for the contents of any such linked site. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or control by Betatale. Use of any such linked site is at your own risk and we strongly advise you make your own investigations with respect to the suitability of those sites.
10. Right to Terminate
If a user violates these Terms of Service, we may block or delete the user's account along with all associated content on the platform, without prior explanation or notice.
The unblocking of a user account or content is considered on a case-by-case basis. To do this, the user can contact us via email: support@betatale.com.
11. Severance
Any term of these Terms of Service which is wholly or partially void or unenforceable is severed to the extent that it is void or unenforceable. The validity of the remainder of these Terms of Service is not affected.
12. Governing Law
These Terms of Service are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of The United Kingdom. You irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in that State or location.