GoldSMS Terms & Policies
Effective June 1, 2014

(Too much to read? Try our "Plain English" condensed version.)

In order to use GoldSMS or make use of the services (the “Service” or “Services”) provided by Plain English CRM Solutions (Plain English), You (hereinafter referred to as “You”, “Your” or “Yourself”) must first read this agreement (the “Agreement”) and accept it. You may not avail Yourself of the GoldSMS Services if You do not accept this Agreement and the terms therein. By using GoldSMS’s services you consent to the terms and policies.

By using the Services, You represent that You have read and agree to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, which also include and incorporate Plain English’s Acceptable Use Policy, General Terms and Privacy Policy. These terms and conditions will remain in effect throughout Your use of the Services and continue after this Agreement expires, cancels or is terminated. These terms and conditions are legally binding should You choose to register for the Service. You may not use the Services and may not accept the terms if (a) You are not of legal age to form a binding contract with us, or (b) You are a person barred from receiving the Services under the laws of the United States or other countries including the country in which You are a resident or from which You use the Services.

The terms and conditions set forth herein may be amended in our sole and absolute discretion from time to time, and such amended terms and conditions shall be effective immediately upon posting to the Website. Your continued use of the Service after such posting will constitute acceptance by You of such amendments. It is Your responsibility to review these Terms of Service frequently and remain informed about any changes to them, so we encourage You to visit this page often.

1. Grant of Rights to Use Services

1.1    Subject to Your acceptance of and compliance with this Agreement and with the payment requirements for the Services, Plain English hereby grants You a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable, non-sublicenseable right and license, in and under our intellectual property rights, to access and use the Services, solely in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features provided by Plain English that augment or enhance the current Services shall also constitute “Services” and shall be subject to these terms and conditions. You may not, nor allow any third party to, copy, distribute, sell, disclose, lend, transfer, convey, modify, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer the Services for any purpose whatsoever. You may not allow any unauthorized third party to access the Services for any purpose whatsoever. All rights not expressly granted under this Agreement are retained by Plain English.

1.2    You may make network calls or requests to the Services, or may receive phone calls via the Service, at any time that the Services are available provided that those requests do not violate the terms of the Acceptable Use Policy or other terms of this Agreement.

1.3    You may not remove, obscure, or alter any notice of any Plain English trademark, service mark or other intellectual property or proprietary right appearing on the product interfaces or contained within the Services.

1.4   You are personally responsible for all traffic originating from Your systems using Your account credentials to the Services. As such, You should protect Your authentication key and security credentials. Actions taken using Your credentials shall be deemed to be actions taken by You, with all consequences including service termination, civil and criminal penalties.

1.5    We may make available to You, for Your installation, copying and/or use in connection with the Services, from time to time, a variety of software, data and other content and printed and electronic documentation (the “Plain English Properties”). Subject to Your acceptance of this Agreement, ongoing compliance with its terms and conditions with respect to the subject Service, and payment if and as required for Your right to use the subject Service, we hereby grant to You, without the right to sublicense, a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license during the Term of this Agreement (as defined in Section 2.1), under our intellectual property or proprietary rights in the Plain English Properties, only to install, copy and use the Plain English Properties solely in connection with and as necessary for Your use of such Services and solely to the extent in compliance with all the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

(a)    The Plain English Properties may include, without limitation:

  • GoldSMS Software Modules
  • The Plain English Website;
  • Plain English APIs and Plain English Markup Language;
  • Specifications describing the operational and functional capabilities, use limitations, technical and engineering requirements, and testing and performance criteria relevant to the proper use of a Service and its related APIs and technology;

(b)    Plain English may make available under another license agreement, such as an open source agreement, additional content or software. Any such content or software will be clearly marked with such a license indicating the usage rights available for that content or software.

(c)    Except as may be expressly authorized under this Agreement:

  • You may not, and may not attempt to, modify, alter, tamper with, repair, or otherwise create derivative works of any software included in the Plain English Properties.
  • You may not, and may not attempt to, reverse engineer, disassemble, or decompile the Plain English Properties or the Services or apply any other process or procedure to derive the source code of any software included in the Plain English Properties.

1.6    The rights granted by us in this Agreement with respect to the Plain English Properties, the Plain English Marks and the Services are nonexclusive, and we reserve the right to: (i) act as a developer of products or services related to any of the products that You may develop in connection with the Plain English Properties or via Your use of the Services; and (ii) appoint third parties as developers or systems integrators who may offer products or services which compete with Your Application.

1.7    Subject to our commercially reasonable efforts and so long as Your account remains in good standing, data generated by your use of the Service such as audio recordings and call log entries will remain available as outlined in our Data Retention Policy. The policy can be found at www.plain-english.com.  Notwithstanding the above and without limitation to Section 6, we shall have no liability whatsoever for any damage, liabilities, losses (including any loss of data or profits) or any other consequences that You may incur with respect to loss of data associated with your account and data therein.

2. Term, Termination and Suspension

2.1    The term (“Term”) of this Agreement will commence once You accept this Agreement as provided above. The Agreement will remain in effect until terminated by You or us in accordance with this Section 2.

2.2    You may terminate this Agreement for any reason or no reason at all, at Your convenience, by closing Your account for any Service for which we provide an account closing mechanism.

2.3    We may suspend Your right and license to use any or all Services or terminate this Agreement in its entirety (and, accordingly, cease providing all Services to You), for any reason or for no reason, at our discretion at any time by providing You up to thirty (30) days’ advance notice in accordance with the notice provisions set forth in Section 9 below.

2.4    We may suspend Your right and license to use the Service or terminate this Agreement in its entirety (and, accordingly, Your right to use the Service), for cause effective as set forth below:

2.4.1    Immediately upon our notice to You in accordance with the notice provisions set forth in Section 9 below if (i) You violate any provision of the Acceptable Use Policy or we have reason to believe that You have violated the Acceptable Use Policy, (ii) there is an unusual spike or increase in Your use of the Services for which there is reason to believe such traffic or use is fraudulent or negatively impacting the operating capability of the Service; (iii) we determine, in our sole discretion, that our provision of any of the Services to You is prohibited by applicable law, or has become impractical or unfeasible for any legal or regulatory reason; or (iv) subject to applicable law, upon Your liquidation, commencement of dissolution proceedings, disposal of Your assets, failure to continue Your business, assignment for the benefit of creditors, or if You become the subject of a voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy or similar proceeding.

2.4.2    Immediately and without notice if You are in default of any payment obligation with respect to any of the Services or if any payment mechanism You have provided to us is invalid or charges are refused for such payment mechanism.

2.4.3    Five (5) days following our provision of notice to You in accordance with the notice provisions set forth in Section 9 below if You breach any other provision of this Agreement and fail, as determined by us, in our sole discretion, to cure such breach within such 5-day period.

2.5    Effect of Suspension or Termination.

2.5.1    Upon our suspension of Your use of any Services, in whole or in part, for any reason: (i) fees will continue to accrue for any Services that are still in use by You, notwithstanding the suspension; (ii) You remain liable for all fees, charges and any other obligations You have incurred through the date of suspension with respect to the Services; and (iii) all of Your rights with respect to the Services shall be terminated during the period of the suspension.

2.5.2    Upon termination of this Agreement for any reason: (i) You remain liable for all fees, charges and any other obligations You have incurred through the date of termination with respect to the Services; and (ii) all of Your rights under this Agreement shall immediately terminate.

2.5.3   You are entitled to a refund of unused pre-paid messaging credit. Plain English will retain 50% of the remaining pro-rata balance on your account, or 1/2 year's credit, whichever is larger.

2.6    In the event this Agreement is terminated for any reason, Sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 will survive any such termination.

2.7    Following the suspension or termination of Your right to use the Services by us or by You for any reason other than a termination for cause, You shall be entitled to take advantage of any post-termination assistance we may generally elect to make available with respect to the Services such as data retrieval arrangements. We may also endeavor to provide You with unique post-suspension or post-termination assistance, but we shall be under no obligation to do so. Your right to take advantage of any such assistance, whether generally made available with respect to the Services or made available uniquely to You, shall be conditioned upon Your acceptance of and compliance with any fees and terms we specify for such assistance.

3. Downtime and Service Suspensions; Security

3.1    The Services are provided on a best-efforts basis. In addition to our rights to terminate or suspend Services to You as described in Section 2 above, You acknowledge that: (i) Your access to and use of the Services may be suspended for the duration of any unanticipated or unscheduled downtime or unavailability of any portion or all of the Services for any reason, including as a result of power outages, system failures or other interruptions; and (ii) we shall also be entitled, without any liability to You, to suspend access to any portion or all of the Services at any time, on a Service-wide basis: (a) for scheduled downtime to permit us to conduct maintenance or make modifications to any Service; (b) in the event of a denial of service attack or other attack on the Service or other event that we determine, in our sole discretion, may create a risk to the applicable Service, to You or to any of our other customers if the Service were not suspended; or (c) in the event that we determine that any Service is prohibited by law or we otherwise determine that it is necessary or prudent to do so for legal or regulatory reasons (collectively, “Service Suspensions”). Without limitation to Section 6, we shall have no liability whatsoever for any damage, liabilities, losses (including any loss of data or profits) or any other consequences that You may incur as a result of any Service Suspension. To the extent we are able, we will endeavor to provide You notice of any Service Suspension in accordance with the notice provisions set forth in Section 9 below and to post updates regarding resumption of Services following any such suspension, but shall have no liability for the manner in which we may do so or if we fail to do so.

3.2    We strive to keep information you provide to us secure, but cannot guarantee that we will be successful at doing so.  We will have no liability to You for any unauthorized access or use, corruption, deletion, destruction or loss of any of Your content.

4. Fees

4.1    In its sole discretion, Plain English shall determine whether You are eligible for a free trial subscription to its Services, which terms of the free trial are set forth at www.plain-english.com. Free trials are limited to one per GoldMine license, and if we find that You have created multiple free trial accounts, we reserve the right to suspend those accounts and take actions to prevent additional violations. Free trials are limited in time to 30 days, and 200 text messages, unless other arrangements are made in writing upon commencement of the free trial period. Free trials require a $50 non-refundable provisioning fee, to be credited to your account should you elect to conver the free trial to fully paid.

4.2    If You have committed to the fully paid version of our Services, then You agree to pay applicable fees (including any minimum subscription fees) as set forth at http://www.plain-english.com/?q=goldsms-faq. All payments of fees for the use of our Services will be pre-paid and are non-refundable. Access to the full version of our Services will not be made available until Plain English receives payment of fees from You. If You elect to use our Service again in the future You will be required to prepay applicable fees before access to our Services will be made available for Your use. We may increase or add new fees for any existing Service or Service feature by giving You 30 days’ advance notice. All fees payable by You are exclusive of applicable taxes and duties, including, without limitation, VAT and applicable sales tax. You will provide such information to us as reasonably required to determine whether we are obligated to collect any taxes from You.

4.3    We may specify the manner in which You will pay any fees, and any such payment shall be subject to our general accounts receivable policies from time to time in effect. All amounts payable by You under this Agreement will be made without setoff or counterclaim and without deduction or withholding. If any deduction or withholding is required by applicable law, You shall notify us and shall pay such additional amounts to us as necessary to ensure that the net amount that we receive, after such deduction and withholding, equals the amount we would have received if no such deduction or withholding had been required. Additionally, You shall provide us with documentation that the withholding and deducted amounts have been paid to the relevant taxing authority.

4.4    Should You have any dispute as to fees associated with your account, please contact us at support@plain-english.com within 30 days of the date of the activity that generated such dispute, and we will attempt to resolve the matter. Any and all refunds issued to resolve such a dispute shall be issued as credits to Your account, but in no event shall there be any cash refunds. Disputes older than 30 days shall not be entitled to any refunds or credits.

5. Intellectual Property

5.1    Other than the limited use and access rights and licenses expressly set forth in this Agreement, we reserve all right, title and interest (including all intellectual property and proprietary rights) in and to: (i) the Services; (ii) the Plain English Properties; (iii) the Plain English Marks; and (iv) any other technology and software that we provide or use to provide the Services and the Plain English Properties. You do not, by virtue of this Agreement or otherwise, acquire any ownership interest or rights in the Services, the Plain English Properties, the Plain English Marks, or such other technology and software, except for the limited use and access rights described in this Agreement.

5.2    Plain English may, at its discretion, offer certain Software Development Kits, tools, application samples, or documentation under an open source license. Any such products will be marked with copyright details, and those copyrights will apply to those and only those documents. Plain English reserves all rights to any documents, tools, services, technologies and the like not designated with an open license.

5.3    Other than the rights and interests expressly set forth in this Agreement and excluding any and all works derived from Plain English Properties, You reserve all right, title and interest (including all intellectual property and proprietary rights) in and to: (i) content and data You may send to us or use as part of Your use of any Services (“Your Content”); and (ii) Your Applications.

5.4    In the event You elect, in connection with any of the Services, to communicate to us suggestions for improvements to the Services, the Plain English Properties or the GoldSMS Marks (collectively, “Feedback”), we shall own all right, title, and interest in and to the same, even if You have designated the Feedback as confidential, and we shall be entitled to use the Feedback without restriction. Furthermore, any other content or information You post or provide to Plain English via comments, forums, emails and the like (collectively, “Communications”) shall be considered the property of Plain English. You hereby irrevocably assign all right, title and interest in and to the Feedback and Communications to us and agree to provide us such assistance as we may require to document, perfect, and maintain our rights to the Feedback and Communications.

5.5    During and after the Term of the Agreement, with respect to any of the Services that You elect to use, You will not assert, nor will You authorize, assist, or encourage any third party to assert, against us or any of our customers, end users, vendors, business partners (including third party sellers on websites operated by or on behalf of us), sublicensees or transferees, any patent infringement or other intellectual property infringement claim with respect to such Services.

6. Representations and Warranties; Disclaimers; Limitations of Liability

6.1    You represent and warrant that You will not use the Software (including our forums and comments sections), Services, Plain English Properties, Plain English Marks, Your Application or Your Content in a manner that violates the Acceptable Use Policy. To this effect, we ask that You take reasonable precautions to promote best practices. Although Plain English does not assume the duty or obligation to monitor any materials created, posted or uploaded by You or any third parties, Plain English reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to monitor any and all materials posted or uploaded by You or any third parties at any time without prior notice to ensure that they conform to any usage guidelines or policies (including our Acceptable Use Policy) relating to our Website or Services.

6.2    You also acknowledge and understand that we do NOT currently allow You to access any 911 or similar emergency services (no traditional 911, E911, or similar access to emergency services). The Services are not intended to replace any primary phone service, such as a traditional landline or mobile phone that may be used to contact emergency services.

6.3    You further agree that You understand that You may use any phone number (including any previously-provisioned direct inward toll-free numbers or vanity numbers) assigned or ported in to Your account and Plain English shall not interfere with Your right to port that number away so long as Your account is in good standing and that You provide appropriate supporting documentation in accordance with common industry standards for porting such number away from Plain English; provided, however, that if Your account has closed, suspended or lapsed for any other reason (including termination of this Agreement) and You have not reactivated Your account or rectified such status within thirty (30) days after the earliest to occur of such event, then at the end of such thirty (30)-day period Plain English will immediately assume ownership of any phone numbers and reserves the right to give any of those numbers to other customers, and Your portability rights will be lost. During such thirty (30)-day period, You shall retain the exclusive right to port phone numbers associated with Your account away from Plain English.

6.4    You represent and warrant that you have read and understood the Acceptable Use Policy, Privacy Policy and General Terms, and You agree to abide by their terms, where applicable, including as incorporated by reference herein. You further agree to abide by all applicable local, state, national, foreign and international laws and regulations and that You will be solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under Your account or password, including the content of Your transmissions through the Service. By way of example, and not as a limitation, You agree not to violate any provisions of the Acceptable Use Policy.

6.5    You represent and warrant that: (i) the information You provide in connection with Your registration for the Services is accurate and complete; (ii) You are duly authorized to do business in the jurisdiction where You operate; and (iii) You are an authorized representative of Your entity duly authorized to access the Services and to legally bind You to this Agreement and all transactions conducted under Your account.

6.6    Plain English PROPERTIES, THE Plain English MARKS, THE SERVICES AND ALL TECHNOLOGY, SOFTWARE, FUNCTIONS, CONTENT, IMAGES, MATERIALS AND OTHER DATA OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY US OR OUR LICENSORS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH (COLLECTIVELY THE “SERVICE OFFERINGS”) ARE PROVIDED “AS IS.” WE AND OUR LICENSORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OFFERINGS. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE AND OUR LICENSORS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF ANY COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE AND OUR LICENSORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE OFFERINGS WILL FUNCTION AS DESCRIBED, WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT THE DATA YOU STORE WITHIN THE SERVICE OFFERINGS WILL BE SECURE OR NOT OTHERWISE LOST OR DAMAGED. WE AND OUR LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, POWER OUTAGES, SYSTEM FAILURES OR OTHER INTERRUPTIONS. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION OBTAINED BY YOU FROM US OR FROM ANY THIRD PARTY OR THROUGH THE SERVICES SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT.

6.7   NEITHER WE NOR ANY OF OUR LICENSORS SHALL BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER LOSSES (EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES) IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY SUCH DAMAGES RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES; (ii) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES; OR (iii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR CONTENT. IN ANY CASE, OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU TO US HEREUNDER FOR THE SERVICES DURING THE PRECEDING TWELVE (12) MONTHS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, AND YOU MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL RIGHTS.

6.8    THE PRODUCTS DO NOT AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO SUPPORT OR CARRY EMERGENCY CALLS TO ANY EMERGENCY SERVICES. “EMERGENCY SERVICES SHALL MEAN SERVICES THAT ALLOW A USER TO CONNECT WITH EMERGENCY SERVICES PERSONNEL OR PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINTS SUCH AS 911 OR E911 SERVICES.” NEITHER Plain English NOR ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AFFILIATES MAY BE HELD LIABLE WHETHER IN CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR ANY OTHER FORM OF LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGE, OR LOSS (AND YOU HEREBY WAIVE ANY AND ALL SUCH CLAIMS OR CAUSES OF ACTION), ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO YOUR INABILITY TO USE Plain English OR ITS SERVICES TO CONTACT ANY EMERGENCY SERVICES, OR YOUR FAILURE TO MAKE ADDITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS TO ACCESS EMERGENCY SERVICES.

7. Indemnification

7.1    You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us, our affiliates and licensors, each of our and their business partners (including third party sellers on websites operated by or on behalf of us) and each of our and their respective employees, officers, directors and representatives, harmless from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, liabilities, judgments, penalties, fines, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys fees), arising out of or in connection with any claim arising out of (i) Your use of the Services, Plain English Properties and/or Plain English Marks in a manner not authorized by this Agreement, and/or in violation of the applicable restrictions, the Acceptable Use Policy, and/or applicable law, (ii) Your Application, Your Content, or the combination of either with other applications, content or processes, including but not limited to any claim involving infringement or misappropriation of third-party rights and/or the use, development, design, manufacture, production, advertising, promotion and/or marketing of Your Application and/or Your Content, (iii) Your violation of any term or condition of this Agreement or any applicable additional policies, including without limitation, Your representations and warranties, or (iv) You or Your employees’ or personnel’s negligence or willful misconduct.

7.2    We agree to promptly notify You of any claim subject to indemnification; provided that our failure to promptly notify You shall not affect Your obligations hereunder except to the extent that our failure to promptly notify You delays or prejudices Your ability to defend the claim. At our option, You will have the right to defend against any such claim with counsel of Your own choosing (subject to our written consent) and to settle such claim as You deem appropriate, provided that You shall not enter into any settlement without our prior written consent and provided that we may, at any time, elect to take over control of the defense and settlement of the claim.

8. Disputes

8.1    Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, we may seek injunctive or other relief in any state, federal, or national court of competent jurisdiction for any actual or alleged infringement of Plain English’s or any third party’s intellectual property and/or proprietary rights. Any dispute hereunder shall be adjudicated in any state or federal court in Orlando, Florida, and You consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts. You further acknowledge that our rights in the Plain English Properties and the Plain English Marks are of a special, unique, extraordinary character, giving them peculiar value, the loss of which cannot be readily estimated and may not be adequately compensated for in monetary damages.

8.2    By using the Services, You agree that the laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to principles of conflicts of laws, will govern this Agreement and any dispute of any sort that might arise between You and us.

9. Notices

9.1    Notices made by us under this Agreement for You or Your account specifically (e.g., notices of breach and/or suspension) will be provided to You via the email address provided to us in Your registration for the Services or in any updated email address You provide to us in accordance with standard account information update procedures we may provide from time to time. It is Your responsibility to keep Your email address current and You will be deemed to have received any email sent to any such email address, upon our sending of the email, whether or not You actually receive the email.

9.2    For notices made by You to us under this Agreement and for questions regarding this Agreement or the Services, You may contact Plain English as follows: by US Postal Mail at Plain English CRM Solutions, 30801 Barrington, Ste. 125, Madison Heights, MI, 48071, or by contacting us at support@plain-english.com.

10. SMS

10.1  You can send SMS text messages to SMS-enabled numbers in the US (Canadian and broader international access may be provided in the future). The use of SMS is governed by the terms herein, including our Acceptable Use Policy.

10.2  The charges payable for sending SMS set out at https://www.plain-english.com/goldsms-faq. Charges are quoted an payable annually, and provide You with a fixed quantity of text messages per month. If you exceed your monthly allotment, overage fees will apply. If you anticipate needing larger quantities for bulk "campaigns" credits may be purchased in advance for 50% of the per-text overage level for the quantity you need. Credits thus acquired expire 60 days from the date of purchase.

10.3  Each SMS message has a limit of 160 characters.  If You type a longer message it will be broken down into several SMS messages and You will be charged accordingly for each message sent.  If You type a character that is not supported by the GSM character set, the format of the SMS may be converted to Unicode, which is subject to a 70 character limit per message.

10.4  You can send SMS messages to more than one person at a time (subject to any restrictions on the overall number of concurrent messages that may be imposed by Plain English or its partners from time-to-time); however please note You will be charged for each SMS sent.  You agree not to send any unsolicited SMS and/or SMS containing commercial material or material over which you do not have rights of dissemination.

10.5  If Plain English cannot (for whatever reason) send Your SMS, its status will be “pending”.  Plain English will continue to try and send the message for up to 24 hours and if we cannot properly send the message within this timeframe then the SMS charge will be refunded to Your account balance automatically.

10.6  All prices quoted online are for Texting only within the U. S. and Canada. Text messages sent outside the U. S. and Canada will be billed at $0.42 each. (No additional charge for inbound Texts.) If you need an International plan, call us.

11. Miscellaneous Provisions

11.1    Responsibility. If You authorize, assist, encourage or facilitate another person or entity to take any action related to the subject matter of this Agreement, You shall be deemed to have taken the action Yourself.

11.2    Severability. If any portion of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining portions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect, and any invalid or unenforceable portions shall be construed in a manner that most closely reflects the effect and intent of the original language. If such construction is not possible, the provision will be severed from this Agreement, and the rest of the Agreement shall remain in full force and effect.

11.3    Waivers. The failure by us to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall in no way be construed to be a present or future waiver of such provision nor in any way affect our right to enforce such provision thereafter. All waivers by us must be in writing to be effective.

11.4    Successors and Assigns. This Agreement will be binding upon, and inure to the benefit of the parties and their respective successors and assigns.

11.5    Entire Agreement. This Agreement incorporates by reference all policies and guidelines posted on the Plain English Website and as may be modified thereafter (including the Acceptable Use Policy, the General Terms and the Privacy Policy) and constitutes the entire agreement between You and us regarding the subject matter hereof and supersedes any and all prior or contemporaneous representation, understanding, agreement, or communication between You and us, whether written or oral, regarding such subject matter.

11.6    No Endorsement. You understand and acknowledge that we are not certifying nor endorsing, and have no obligation to certify or endorse, any of Your Applications or Your Content.

 

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) defines acceptable use and actions that Plain English prohibits when You use GoldSMS (the “Services”). You acknowledge and agree that this policy may be revised from time to time by Plain English at its sole discretion, with any such modifications effective when the revised Acceptable Use Policy is posted here. It is Your responsibility to review this Acceptable Use Policy frequently and remain informed about any changes to it, so we encourage You to visit this page often. This Acceptable Use Policy is governed by our Terms of Service, and all undefined terms herein shall be as defined in the Terms of Service. This list is provided by way of example and shall not be considered exhaustive. Any use not covered here is not to be assumed to be acceptable.

  • Actions that restrict or inhibit any person, whether a customer of Plain English or otherwise, in its use of products and services that leverage Plain English resources is prohibited.
  • You may not reverse engineering of any product or service provided by Plain English.
  • Exploitation of known bugs or limitations in any of the services deployed on Your behalf to circumvent billing or impact the system in a way that violates any other requirements listed in the AUP is prohibited.
  • Use of undocumented features and methods is strictly at Your own risk. Any claims, support issues or AUP violations resulting from such use will be at Your expense.
  • Executing any program or process that will intercept data not intended for Your application or service is prohibited.
  • Introduction of malicious programs into the network or systems (e.g., viruses and worms) is prohibited.
  • Effecting security breaches or disruptions of the Services is prohibited. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which You are not an intended recipient or accessing a server or account that You are not expressly authorized to access. For purposes of this bullet point, “disruption” includes, but is not limited to, war dialing, flood pings, packet spoofing, and forged telephony information.
  • Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account is prohibited.
  • Interfering with or denying service to any user, system or service is prohibited.
  • Using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, designed to interfere with a user’s session, service or application is prohibited.
  • Furnishing false or incorrect data on the Plain English required documentation including account setup or other applicable agreements and Plain English documents is prohibited.
  • Attempting to circumvent or alter the processes or systems that measure time, bandwidth utilization, or other methods for calculating Your use of Plain English’s products and services is prohibited.
  • You may not send unsolicited messages, including mass calling “War Dialing”, or the distribution through Plain English’s systems of other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material “Phone spam.”
  • Any activities that violate anti-spamming laws and regulations such as the CAN SPAM Act of 2003 and the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act is prohibited.
  • Harassment, whether through language, frequency or size of messages is prohibited.
  • Unauthorized use, or forging, of identity information is prohibited.
  • Using GoldSMS or Your account to collect replies to messages sent from another provider, which violate the AUP rules or those of that provider is prohibited.
  • You may not use any of the Plain English Properties other than as expressly permitted in the Terms of Service.
  • Transmitting any material that may infringe the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties, including but not limited to trademark, copyright or rights of publicity or otherwise violating, infringing, or misappropriating the rights of any third party.
  • Offering any Emergency Services to users. “Emergency Services” shall mean services that allow a user to connect with emergency services personnel or public safety answering points such as 911 or E911 services.
  • Promoting or engaging in illegal activities.
  • Engaging in activities or transmitting through the Services any information that may be libelous or defamatory or otherwise malicious or harmful to any person or entity, or discriminatory based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age.
  • Violating or facilitating the violation of any U.S. or foreign law regarding the transmission of technical data or software.
  • Interfering with or disrupting networks connected to the Services or violating the regulations, policies or procedures of such networks.
  • Improperly engaging in activity for which the United States Federal Communications Commission has restricted or regulated with regard to proper use of the public telephony network.

Violation of this AUP may result in the immediate suspension or termination of Your account, civil and/or criminal liability, and Plain English may, in addition to any remedy that it may have at law or in equity, terminate permission for You to use the Services. In such event, You are still liable for any and all outstanding charges accumulated through Your use of the Services, including uses in violation of this AUP or the laws of any jurisdiction. In addition, Plain English may investigate incidents that are contrary to this AUP and provide requested information to third parties who have provided notice to Plain English stating that they have been harmed by Your failure to abide by this AUP. Plain English’s failure to enforce this policy in each and every instance in which it might have application does not amount to a waiver of Plain English’s rights hereunder.

In addition to the above policies and acceptable use practices, the following terms shall apply to Your use of SMS on the Plain English network:

In order to access the SMS Services, You must:

  • maintain the security of and prevent unauthorized access to the SMS Services;
  • give all end users to whom messages may be transmitted using the SMS Services the rights to opt-in and opt-out of the SMS with the following action words: STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, QUIT, STOP ALL, START and START ALL;
  • cooperate with Plain English, third-party service providers, and governmental authorities in investigations of any alleged or perceived violation of any law, rule, regulation, or this AUP;
  • You acknowledge that (i) end-users who use the SMS Services are also the end user customers of the carriers whose services are used by Plain English to transmit messages over the carrier networks; and (ii) carriers’ assert that information of or about carriers’ end user customers (who may also be Your end-users) derived solely by such end user customers’ use of the carriers’ networks is confidential information of the carriers and the private information of such end user customers of the carriers and subject to the confidentiality provisions under the Agreement;
  • comply with the Common Short Code Administration’s Best Practices, which can be found at http://www.usshortcodes.com/csc_best_practices.html

Restrictions on Use. You agree to ensure that the Services will not be used in or for any illegal, fraudulent, unauthorized or improper manner or purpose and will only be used in compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations, including all applicable state, federal, and international Internet, data, telecommunications, telemarketing, “spam,” and import/export laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Without limiting the foregoing, You agree not to permit the Services to be used to transmit or disseminate any:

  • junk mail, spam, or unsolicited material to persons or entities that have not agreed to receive such material or to whom You or Your end-users do not otherwise have a legal right to send such material;
  • material that infringes or violates any third party’s intellectual property rights, rights of publicity, privacy, or confidentiality, or the rights or legal obligations of any wireless service provider or any of its customers or subscribers;
  • material or data, that is illegal, or material or data, as determined by Plain English (in Plain English’s sole discretion), that is harassing, coercive, defamatory, libelous, abusive, threatening, obscene, or otherwise objectionable, materials that are harmful to minors or excessive in quantity, or materials the transmission of which could diminish or harm the reputation of Plain English or any third-party service provider involved in the provision of the Services;
  • material or data that is alcoholic beverage-related (e.g., beer, wine, or liquor), tobacco-related (e.g., cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco), guns or weapons-related (e.g., firearms, bullets), illegal drugs-related (e.g., marijuana, cocaine), pornographic-related (e.g., adult themes, sexual content), crime-related (e.g., organized crime, notorious characters), violence-related (e.g., violent games), death-related (e.g., funeral homes, mortuaries), hate-related (e.g. racist organizations), gambling-related (e.g., casinos, lotteries), specifically mentions any wireless carrier or copies or parodies the products or Services of any wireless carrier;
  • viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data, or personal information;
  • material or information that is false, misleading, or inaccurate;
  • material that would expose Plain English, any third-party service provider involved in providing the Services, or any other third party to liability; and/or
  • any signal or impulse that could cause electrical, magnetic, optical, or other technical harm to the equipment or facilities of Plain English or any third party.

You shall not access any Services that You have not ordered or for which You have not paid the applicable fees. You will not use or attempt to use a third party’s account with Plain English, or interfere with the security of, or otherwise abuse, the Services or other Plain English customers. You shall not interfere in any manner with Plain English’s provision of the Services.

 

Overview
This policy reflects Plain English’s Data Retention Practices. Some technical capabilities relating to these practices have not yet been developed or implemented.

Account Logs
The current and previous month’s data will be available to you on line. On the first of each month, older data will be purged.

As an example, on the 31st of December all of December and all of November’s data will be available on line. On the 1st of January, November’s data will be purged leaving all of December’s data on line plus all new data that is stored in the month of January. On February 1st all of December’s data will be purged, leaving all of January’s data on line plus all new data that is stored in the month of February.

Call Recordings
The current and previous month’s data will be available to you on line. On the first of each month older data will be purged.

As an example, on the 31st of December all of December and all of November’s data will be available on line. On the 1st of January, November’s data will be purged leaving all of December’s data on line plus all new data that is stored in the month of January. On February 1st all of December’s data will be purged, leaving all of January’s data on line plus all new data that is stored in the month of February.

The data that is permitted to be retained is restricted to the types listed above.

Plain English reserves the right to review the types of data retained to insure compliance with this policy.


General Terms

The terms “you,” “your,” and “yours” refer to the customer using our website. The terms “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Plain English. Your use of Plain English’s website (the “Website”) is subject to these General Terms and Conditions (“Terms”). We may modify these Terms at any time without notice to you by posting revised Terms on our Website. It is your responsibility to review these General Terms and Conditions frequently and remain informed about any changes to them, so we encourage you to visit this page often. Your use of this Website constitutes your binding acceptance of these Terms, including any modifications that we may make.

While Plain English strives to ensure that the information contained on this Website is accurate and reliable, Plain English makes no warranties as to the accuracy, correctness or completeness of any such information and assumes no liability or responsibility for any omissions or errors in the content of this Website. Plain English reserves the right to revise the information contained on this Website at any time, in its sole discretion without any obligation to notify past, current or prospective visitors.

THE INFORMATION ON THE SITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OR MERCHANTABILITY, FITNES FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON- INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID. Plain English MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, GUARANTIES AS TO THE QUALITY, SUITABILITY, TRUTH, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE. ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THE INFORMATION SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO THE PROVIDERS OF SUCH INFORMATION.

Plain English makes no representations about any other web site that you may access through this one. When you access a non-Plain English web site, please understand that it is independent from us, and that we have no control over the content on that web site. In addition, a link to a non-Plain English web site does not mean that we endorse or accept any responsibility for the content, or the use, of such web site. It is up to you to take precautions to ensure that whatever you select for your use is free of viruses, worms, trojan horses and other items of a destructive nature.

IN NO EVENT WILL Plain English BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES FOR ANY USE OF THIS WEB SITE, OR ON ANY OTHER HYPERLINKED WEB SITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY LOST PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF PROGRAMS, OTHER DATA OR OTHER ECONOMIC ADVANTAGE, EVEN IF WE ARE EXPRESSLY ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU HAVE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ADEQUATE PROTECTION AND BACKUP OF DATA AND/OR EQUIPMENT USED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SITE AND WILL NOT MAKE A CLAIM AGAINST Plain English FOR LOST DATA, RE-RUN TIME, INACCURATE OUTPUT, WORK DELAYS OR LOST PROFITS RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THE SITE OR INFORMATION. YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY AND HOLD Plain English HARMLESS FROM, AND YOU COVENANT NOT TO SUE Plain English FOR, ANY CLAIMS THAT MAY BE ASSERTED, ARISING OUT OF, RELATING TO, OR BASED ON USING THE SITE OR ANY OF THE SERVICES PROVIDED ON OR MADE ACCESSIBLE BY THE SITE.

Phone numbers provisioned to Your account for development purposes may be changed or revoked at any time without warning.

You acknowledge and agree that the site and information are subject to the U.S. Export Administration Laws and Regulations. Diversion of such information contrary to U.S. law is prohibited. You agree to comply strictly with all U.S. export laws and assume sole responsibility for obtaining licenses to export or re-export as may be required.