Terms

SailMail Terms and Conditions

By accessing or using this service, you accept these Terms of Use.
This is a legal agreement (the “Agreement”) between you,
the user, and the SailMail Association (“SailMail”).
The SailMail Association is a non-profit association of yacht owners that operates and maintains a network of FCC licensed, two-way, private coast stations in the Maritime Mobile Radio Service.  The Association provides radioprinter (e.g. Internet email) communications for its members on a cooperative basis, in order to meet the private business and operational needs of the members’ yachts.  The SailMail Association provides services only to its members, who agree to these terms and conditions:

  • Membership in the Association is limited to non-commercial vessels under 1600 tons.
  • All member vessels must have valid ship station licenses issued by the authorities of the vessel’s country of registration.
  • All member vessels must carry on board copies of SailMail’s US FCC licenses.
  • All member vessels represent that they are equipped for compliance with their country’s maritime mobile radio equipment regulations.
  • All member vessels represent that they are eligible under Part 80 of the FCC rules to be licensed for the use of private coast stations in the Maritime Mobile Radio Service.
  • The SailMail Association pro-rates the expenses for station operation among the members of the Association.   These costs include: equipment rental, space, power, telephone, internet access, maintenance, engineering services, setup of additional stations, and operational support.  The  cost is currently $275 per vessel, per year .  This pro-rated expense per member is subject to change as the number of members change, and the costs of operation vary.  Any membership assessments received by the Association in excess of the funds required will be refunded to the members, pro-rata to each member’s paid-in fee’s.  The Association has no other income beyond these membership assessments.
  • Memberships are only available for one year periods.
  • Members must limit their use of the SailMail stations to a running average of 90 minutes per week, calculated over the previous week.
  • Members must always LISTEN FIRST, and never transmit on a frequency on which there is traffic in progress.
  • Membership can be revoked by the Association as a result of a member’s non-compliance with these terms and conditions.
  • Members must understand that communications with the station may not be available when desired and the Association can make no guarantees of reliability.  Factors which may cause the system to be unavailable include (but are not limited to) use by other association members, poor propagation on the available frequencies, interference by other radio users or services, power failure, equipment failure at the station, errors in the software (either at the station or supplied to the user), failures of the Association’s Internet Service Provider, failures of the telephone network, and failures of the Internet itself.
    bullet Members must also understand that, similar to public coast stations, communications with SailMail stations are not confidential and anyone who is equipped (e.g. all other SailMail members and many hams) can monitor and record communications between the stations and the user.  Furthermore, the Internet itself is not secure and messages should not be considered to be confidential even when on the Internet portion of the communications path.
  • The Association takes no responsibility for the suitability or proper operation of the users’ equipment.
  • Members must agree to not post their SailMail email address on the Web or use it on Internet News Groups.  Spammers gather email addresses from the Web and from News Groups and any SailMail account harvested by spammers from those locations will quickly become saturated.
  • Members must understand that the Association and Stations were assembled with donated time and equipment and whining will not be tolerated.

 

 

Additional Legal Stuff:
RIGHTS, RESPONSIBILITIES. As a member of SailMail, you are granted a non-transferable, non-exclusive license to remotely access and use the SailMail radio stations and website for purposes of sending and receiving email messages and to view and download information contained at the website (collectively, the “Use”), solely for your own use, subject to your ongoing compliance with all terms of this Agreement. Non-members are granted a license to access the website, but are not authorized to access or use any SailMail radio station. You agree to be responsible for all access of SailMail by your equipment or account, whether by you or others. You are also solely responsible for providing and maintaining all equipment and software needed to access and use SailMail. You agree not to use SailMail for any unlawful purpose.  You agree to abide by all FCC regulations including but not limited to 47CFR80.92(a) which requires you to determine that the frequency is not in use by monitoring the frequency before transmitting. You agree not to send anything (or encourage anything to be sent) via SailMail that is illegal, defamatory, obscene, harassing, offensive, objectionable or sexually explicit, that encourages a violation of the law, or that contains a virus. You agree not to use SailMail to operate a service bureau involving the commercial processing or transmission of data for other persons or entities. You do not receive any, and SailMail retains all, ownership rights in SailMail. You agree to comply with all terms of use established by SailMail.

EXCLUSION OF WARRANTY, LIABILITY. SailMail is provided to you on an “AS IS” and “WITH ALL FAULTS” basis. You assume the entire risk of loss in using SailMail. Due to its size and complexity, and the budget-constrained nature of its development and maintenance, SailMail likely contains inaccuracies, omissions, errors and other defects. SailMail and its suppliers do not warrant that SailMail will meet your needs or expectations, that SailMail will be error free or uninterrupted,  or that errors can or will be corrected. SailMail and its suppliers reserve the right to make changes and improvements to, or discontinue, SailMail or any part thereof.  SailMail is not appropriate or authorized for use in all countries or other jurisdictions; accordingly, you are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws in accessing or using SailMail.

SAILMAIL AND ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE AND YOU RECEIVE NO WARRANTY, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, ARE EXPRESSLY EXCLUDED AND DISCLAIMED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL SAILMAIL OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, CLAIM OR LOSS INCURRED BY YOU (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION COMPENSATORY, INCIDENTAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES,  LOST PROFITS, LOST SALES OR BUSINESS, EXPENDITURES, INVESTMENTS, OR COMMITMENTS, LOSS OF ANY GOODWILL, OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST, DAMAGED OR MISAPPROPRIATED DATA, INABILITY TO USE DATA, DELAYS, INTERRUPTIONS, OR COMPUTER VIRUSES), IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER SAILMAIL OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF, KNEW OF, OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE LIKELIHOOD OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION IN THE AGGREGATE INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, DEFAMATION, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, MISREPRESENTATION, AND OTHER TORTS, AS WELL AS THIRD-PARTY CLAIMS. IF THE WARRANTY EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT SHALL FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER BE HELD UNENFORCEABLE OR INAPPLICABLE, USER AGREES THAT SAILMAIL AND ITS SUPPLIERS’ LIABILITY SHALL NOT EXCEED $1 U.S. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages or the limitation of duration of an implied warranty, so the limitation or exclusion herein may not apply to you. This warranty shall not be applicable to the extent that any provision of this warranty is prohibited by any federal law, or by any state or local law which cannot be preempted. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state.

SUBMITTED INFORMATION. You agree not to submit to SailMail any information that infringes upon or violates the privacy, rights, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property rights of others, anything that is illegal, defamatory, obscene, harassing, offensive, objectionable or sexually explicit, that encourages a violation of the law, or that contains a virus. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless SailMail from any damages and costs, including without limitation court costs and attorneys’ fees, arising from your use of SailMail. By submitting information (other than your personal emails) to SailMail, you grant SailMail the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right to use, edit, copy, modify, adapt, combine, incorporate, publish, publicly perform, translate and distribute all or part thereof in any form and for any purpose whatsoever, and you also permit other users of SailMail to use that information subject to the rules of SailMail. SailMail shall have the right, but not be obligated to, monitor SailMail to determine users’ compliance with this Agreement and applicable laws. SailMail shall have the right in its sole discretion to not publish or remove any information submitted to the site.

THIRD PARTY INFORMATION. The SailMail website may contain information submitted by third parties, including without limitation users and suppliers, and may also contain links to third party sites. Those third parties are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information they submit. SailMail has no more control over such third party content than does a public library, newsstand, or bookstore, and SailMail is not responsible for such third party content. SailMail does not evaluate or endorse any third party information. It is your responsibility to evaluate all information provided on SailMail, or to obtain specific professional advice.

COPYRIGHT, TRADEMARKS. This Site compilation and all portions authored by SailMail are Copyright © 1998-2008 The SailMail Association, a California nonprofit association, Palo Alto, California. All rights reserved. Portions of SailMail authored by third parties who have licensed their material to SailMail are owned by those respective third parties. You agree not to alter or remove any copyright notice or proprietary legend at Site.

SailMail is a registered trademark.  Other products or names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

MISCELLANEOUS. This is the exclusive and entire Agreement between SailMail and you regarding its subject matter. You may not assign any part of this Agreement without SailMail’s prior written consent. This Agreement shall be governed by the internal laws of California without reference to choice of law principles. SailMail may terminate or restrict your use of SailMail at any time without notice if SailMail believes you have not fully complied with this Agreement. Further, either party may terminate this Agreement at any time without cause; upon termination for any reason, your obligations under this Agreement shall continue, except that you agree to no longer access or use SailMail. You consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the courts of Santa Clara County, California for all matters arising out of or related to this Agreement or SailMail. You understand that SailMail may comply with law enforcement requests or subpoenas regarding your use of SailMail. SailMail reserves the right to modify the terms of this Agreement at any time by posting the new terms on SailMail, which modifications shall take place immediately. No waiver by either party of any breach or default hereunder shall be deemed to be a waiver of any prior or subsequent breach or default. If any provision of this Agreement is declared invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions of this Agreement shall remain in effect and the invalid or unenforceable provision shall be replaced by a valid, enforceable provision that effectuates the intent of the original provision. SailMail’s suppliers, licensors, affiliates, subsidiaries, employees and agents shall be third party beneficiaries of SailMail’s rights under this Agreement. You represent and warrant that you are of legal age to enter into this Agreement and use SailMail pursuant to this Agreement, and that the information you submit will be true and accurate. You agree to pay any taxes levied on your use of SailMail or your transactions on SailMail. All rights not granted expressly by this Agreement are reserved.

TAX TREATMENT:  SailMail Association membership assessments are not deductible as charitable contributions on the member’s federal income tax return.

PRIVACY POLICY. Users understand and agree that the contents of emails sent via SailMail are not private, that no privacy can be assured, and that such emails can be accessed by the general public with appropriate equipment and software. This condition is inherent in the nature of using public radio frequencies for worldwide communications. Also, email sent via the Internet is not secure and can be accessed by third parties. Within those limitations, however, SailMail’s policy and practice is to not disclose the contents of emails sent using SailMail, or any personally identifying information submitted by SailMail users unless SailMail is requested to do so by law enforcement agencies, or unless requested by the US Coast Guard or similar organizations in support of maritime search and rescue operations. Personally identifying information from users is collected only when the user sends in a  membership application, or in other site locations when users knowingly submit such information to SailMail. SailMail may internally use the information you submit to improve or custom tailor SailMail to your individual needs.