Welcome to the City of Burlington, Vermont’s (“City”) websites.  Access to City websites and all underlying pages is subject to the following terms of use, which we may update from time to time without notice.  By using our site, you understand and agree to all of these terms of use.

1. PRIVACY POLICY

We are committed to protecting your personal information. For more information on how your personal data will be used, please review our Privacy Policy.

2.  YOUR USE OF THE SITE

You agree that you will not use City websites for any purpose that is unlawful or that could interfere with or impair the operation and functionality of the site. You further agree that, when using City websites, you will refrain from posting, uploading, emailing, or otherwise transmitting:

• information that would infringe on the intellectual rights of others, such as copyrighted material to which you do not hold the copyright;
• information that will breach applicable laws or regulations, including data protection or privacy laws;
• material that is threatening, abusive, harassing, intimidating, discriminatory or defamatory to another; or
• viruses, trojans, worms, or other computer code or materials that may alter, damage, or interrupt the functionality of the site, or the hardware or software of any other person who uses the site; or
• content that you do not have the right to transmit.

As a further condition of your use of City websites, you agree that you will not:

• alter, damage, or delete any content posted on the site;
• use this site to commit a criminal offense or to encourage others to engage in any conduct that would constitute a criminal offense;
• use the site in a way to give rise to civil liability or encourage others to engage in any conduct that would give rise to civil liability;
• impersonate any entity or organization or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organization;
• advertise, sell, offer to sell or buy goods or services or engage in solicitation or promotional activity, except in those areas of our website that have been specifically designated for such purposes.  

In addition to the above, you agree that you are bound by, and will comply with, all local laws, regulations, and rules regulating your use.

The City reserves the right to suspend your access to its websites if we have reason to believe that you are using it for any of the prohibited purposes of above.  If you have provided us with an electronic address, we will notify you of any suspension and provide you an opportunity to respond to the issue.

3.  YOUR PASSWORD

Some City websites may allow users to create an account in order to access content, register for an activity, or enter personal information.  If you elect to create an account:

• You agree that you are responsible for maintaining the security and confidentiality of passwords associated with your account(s).
• You agree that you will be solely responsible to the City for all activities that occur under your account.
• If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or of your account, you agree to notify the appropriate City department immediately.
• The City reserves the right to suspend your account if the City deems you are using the account in violation of these terms of use.

5.  INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE

In order to use certain aspects of this site, you may be required to provide information about yourself. You agree that any information you give to the City will always be accurate, correct, and up to date. To learn how the City may use such information, please visit our Privacy Policy

6.  COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

A.    Certain content on the City’s webpages may be copyrighted and may contain images or graphics belonging to another party that are used with permission.  Users are notified, therefore, that one should presume the need to obtain permission from the copyright holder before reproducing or otherwise using images or graphics from the site. 

B.    The City respects the intellectual property of others and it asks its users to do the same. Service marks and trademarks contained in or displayed on the site, and the contents of linked sites operated by third parties, are the property of their respective owners. All rights are reserved.

C.    Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Notice/Takedown Request

If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement via its display on, or other use by, burlingtonvt.gov, you may submit a notice pursuant to the DMCA by providing the City’s DMCA Designated Agent (below) with the following information in writing:

1.    a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2.    identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works;
3.    identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the City to locate the material;
4.    information reasonably sufficient to permit the City to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an email address;
5.    a statement that you (and, if applicable, the person or entity on whose behalf you are acting) 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; and
6.    a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

D.    The City’s DMCA Designated Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement can be reached at:

7.  LINKS TO OTHER SITES AND EMBEDDED CONTENT

This site may contain links to other sites on the Internet that are operated by parties other than the City.  Inclusion of a hypertext link to an external site is not intended as an endorsement of any product or service offered or referenced on the linked site, the organization sponsoring the site, or any views that might be expressed or referenced on the site.  Once you link to another site, the City’s policies no longer apply and you become subject to the policies of that site.  Links may be removed or replaced at the discretion of the City at any time without notice.  
Entities or individuals linking to or embedding content from the City’s websites should not in any way suggest that the City has any relationship or affiliation with that organization, or that the City endorses, sponsors or recommends the information, products or services of that site.  Furthermore, they should not misinform users about the origin or ownership of the City’s website content.

8.  VIRUSES, HACKING, AND OTHER OFFENSES

You must not attempt to gain unauthorized access to our website, the server on which our website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our website. You must not attack our website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. You must not take any action that intentionally imposes an unreasonably or disproportionately large load on the website’s infrastructure. You must not use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the website or any activity being conducted on the website. You must not use or attempt to use any engine, software, tool, agent or other device or mechanism (including, without limitation, browsers, spiders, robots, avatar’s or intelligent agents) to navigate or search the website other than the search engine and search agents available from the website and other than generally available third-party web browsers (e.g., Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer). You must not attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of the software comprising or in any way making up part of the website. By breaching this provision, you may commit a criminal offense under applicable laws. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will cooperate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our website will cease immediately. We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our website or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

9.  DISCLAIMERS

A.    BURLINGTONVT.GOV AND ALL MATERIALS CONTAINED ON IT ARE DISTRIBUTED AND TRANSMITTED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE WITH RESPECT TO THE QUALITY, CONTENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, CURRENCY, FREEDOM FROM INTERRUPTION, FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUS, FREEDOM FROM ERRORS OR OMISSIONS, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF CONTENT PLACED ON BURLINGTONVT.GOV (WHETHER BY THE CITY OR A THIRD PARTY) INCLUDING ANY OF THE DESIGN, INFORMATION, TEXT, GRAPHICS, IMAGES, PAGES, INTERFACES, LINKS, SOFTWARE, OR OTHER MATERIALS AND ITEMS CONTAINED IN OR DISPLAYED ON BURLINGTONVT.GOV.

B.    THE CITY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY WERE FORESEEABLE) THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, BURLINGTONVT.GOV AND/OR THE MATERIALS CONTAINED ON BURLINGTONVT.GOV WHETHER THE MATERIALS CONTAINED ON BURLINGTONVT.GOV ARE PROVIDED BY THE CITY OR A THIRD PARTY.

C.    ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF BURLINGTONVT.GOV IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK. YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR OTHER DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.

D.    CHANGES ARE MADE PERIODICALLY TO THE CITY CHARTER AND MANY CITY LAWS, RULES, FORMS AND SCHEDULES, AND THESE CHANGES MAY OR MAY NOT BE IMMEDIATELY REFLECTED IN THE MATERIALS OR INFORMATION PRESENT ON BURLINGTONVT.GOV.

11.  TERMINATION

We reserve the right to terminate your access for any reason including, without limitation, prolonged lack of use, violation of applicable laws or breach of these Terms of Use. You agree that any termination of your access may be effected without prior notice. You further acknowledge that we will not be liable to you for any termination of your access to or use of our website.

 
12.  MISCELLANEOUS

A.    Nothing contained in or displayed on this site or in these Terms constitutes or is intended to constitute legal advice by the City or any of its departments, officers, employees, agents, attorneys, or representatives.

B.    You agree that if the City does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy which is contained in these Terms (or which the City otherwise has under applicable law), such omission will not be taken to be a formal waiver of the City’s rights and shall not be construed to be a modification of these Terms.

C.    If any court of competent jurisdiction rules that any provision of these Terms is invalid, then that provision will be removed from these Terms, without affecting the rest of these Terms. The remaining provisions of these Terms will continue to be valid and enforceable.

D.    These Terms of Use and your use of our websites shall be governed by the laws of the State of Vermont without regard to its conflicts of laws principles. Any legal action or proceeding related to a City website shall be brought exclusively in a federal or state court of competent jurisdiction sitting in the State of Vermont.

E.    The City reserves the right to revise and otherwise change these Terms at any time and without notice. Any modification is effective immediately upon posting, unless otherwise stated. Your continued use of the website following the posting of any modification signifies your acceptance thereof. You should periodically visit this page to review the current Terms of Use.

F.    These Terms, and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and the City with respect to your use of the site and they supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between you and the City with respect to the site. These Terms shall be deemed to include all other notices, policies, disclaimers and other terms contained in burlingtonvt.gov and its subpages; provided, however, that in the event of a conflict between such other terms and these Terms, the inconsistent terms shall control in the following descending order: (1) these Terms and the Privacy Policy; other terms contained in City websites.

Thank you for vising our website.

Effective: July 10, 2017