Ontheside Terms of Service

Rules of the road with Ontheside.com

Please take a read. It’s important. The Terms of Service establish the rules on Ontheside.com and how the platform and our business works, reflect the laws that apply to us and inform our decisions, and define what we believe as a company and community. These terms of service establish our relationship with you and you with us. Understanding these terms is important, as by using our services, you confirm that you have read and are agreeing to these terms.

In addition to these terms, we also publish a Privacy Notice, Security Policy, Cookie Notice, and Community Guidelines. Please read them all carefully. It may seem like a lot to ask, but, it’s important. For specific information about our data practices, please see the Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice. Data is collected, used, and shared in accordance with these policies.

Who we are:

Ontheside.com services are provided by Ontheside, Inc. (hereinafter, Ontheside) which is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, and operating under the laws of the USA. Our mailing address is 703 Pier Ave. Ste B226, Hermosa Beach, California 90254, USA.

About us:

The short answer is, we are a platform that provides access to digital content we license from the sports community. The slightly longer answer is, Ontheside.com is a platform specifically designed for athletes, teams, clubs, associations, events, sponsors, and the like. It has features that will enable them to provide digital content to fans, and for fans to consume that content and sponsor their favorite athletes, teams, clubs, races, and so on. In addition, our hope is to bring visibility to athletes such that corporate sponsors of all sizes can sponsor athletes, teams, clubs, or races and build up their own brands, reputation, and market opportunity. The bottom line - we aim to bring the people of the sports world closer together in one global sports community.

Who are you:

You are of the age necessary to manage your own Ontheside.com account. Whether you are a fan or an athlete, you need to be able to accept these terms of service and understand what is expected of you. You must be over 13 to accept these terms. If you are not, your parent or legal guardian must review these terms with you and you must have their permission to use Ontheside.com. If you are the legal guardian or parent reading these terms, and you allow your child to use these services, then these terms apply to you and you are responsible for your child’s activity. In other words, you, as the parent or legal guardian are accepting these terms on their behalf.

Do we have a specific minimum age requirement to create a user account (assuming those under 13 have a parent or legal guardian who have accepted these Terms of Service)? As this platform is used all over the world and each country has its own minimum age requirement of what a child, or adult for that matter, is allowed to do or not do, we ask that you follow the laws of your country and determine if this platform is for you. It’s as simple as that - don’t break any laws. And if you do, that’s on you or your parent or legal guardian.

Your responsibilities:

When you create an account, you agree to the following:

1. you are old enough to consent to processing your personal data or able to have a parent or guardian do so on your behalf;
2. you will provide us with accurate, up-to-date information, in good faith, and have the rights to do so;
3. you will not post any content that reflects poorly on you or your association with Ontheside; if you establish a listed profile and publish content for sponsorship or to sponsor others, you are able to provide your bank and credit card information for funds management;
4. you will be responsible for anything that occurs when anyone is signed into your account, as well as the security of your account (please contact us immediately if you believe your account is compromised); and last but not least,
5. you will be a good human, which means you will respect others, their rights and their privacy, comply with applicable laws, including intellectual property rights, not abuse or harm others by misleading, harassing, impersonating, bullying or stalking them, and you will not interfere with or disrupt Ontheside.com services in any way.

This all may seem like a lot to ask, but it essentially means we ask that you do right by others and be a positive influence on the world. And if you violate any of the above, well, we may choose to cancel your account and remove you from the platform. Plus, we will retain the right to take action and seek relief in the form of damages or otherwise to prevent any further harm to others or to us. Bottom line, let’s just not go there and we will all be fine.

The views expressed:

A global community of individual athletes that come from different countries, with a variety of experiences, perspectives, and beliefs, will inevitably bring with them views that are different from each other. This is something we at Ontheside celebrate - unique perspective. It is interesting and enlightening to see the world as others do, to understand who they are and how their views of the world came to be. And, whether they may be similar or different to your own, and regardless of whether you agree or disagree, their opinions are theirs as your opinions are yours. Over time, we might see perspectives change as we gain more insight and experiences, interact with a larger community, and see how the other half lives - that is growth. It goes without saying, your views and the views of others are not Ontheside’s views.

What type of content we allow:

Ontheside.com, as mentioned above, is a platform specifically designed for the global sports community and its athletes, teams, clubs, associations, events, sponsors, and the like. Anything and everything related to sports can be included here, from athlete stories, matches, training programs, gear, and nutrition guides. What we do not want is anything else. We understand that there are many other communities of people who seek such a platform to present themselves and their content and services. However, our objective is to create a platform for the sports community and sports alone. I’m sure the right platform for you exists or will exist in the future, so be patient.

It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyways, keep it clean and professional. If the content does not meet our sports intent, we will notify you and remove the content. Do it again, and we may choose to remove your listing and your ability to post content of any kind.  But, you will be able to remain a fan and follow and sponsor athletes, teams, clubs, etc. So, if you wish to be a content provider, stick to sports related content and we’ll all be just fine.

What account options you have:

Our services are designed to let you upload, store, create, and share your content, to promote your content, and to offer access to your content to the public. Ontheside will charge a subscription fee for access to your content offered for sponsorship, and as such, a service fee will be paid to you based on the subscription of that content. You are under no obligation to provide any content and you are free to choose whether you do so or not.

Our basic account is intended for those who simply wish to follow their favorite athletes, teams, clubs, etc. The more active fan may choose to add a credit card and sponsor, via subscription, their favorite athletes, while others may go as far as to set up a listed account to publish sports content for sponsorship (our way of describing the subscription). It’s really up to you. That said, if you choose to list your profile and upload or create any content, please make sure you have the rights to do so and that the content itself is lawful. Plus, make sure that the content you provide does not conflict with any existing sponsorship or NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) contracts you may have. Again, we put this burden on you as you are the one choosing to upload or produce that content. And, we also ask that if you believe someone is infringing on your intellectual property, you send us a notice of the infringement so that we can take appropriate action. Thank you in advance.

Our rights to use your content:

Here’s where it might get a little legal sounding. Frankly, it’s just hard to describe the concept of license without going down that road, but this is our attempt at simple. Understand that while your content remains yours, which means you retain any of your ownership of all the intellectual property rights in your content, we may need your permission to publish, promote, and use your content. So, you provide Ontheside with that permission through this license to host, reproduce, distribute, promote, communicate, and use your content, publish, publicly display, market and perform your content once you make it visible to others, as well as reformat, modify and create derivative works based on your content so that we might reformat, translate, or otherwise, to properly display on our platform or incorporate in other marketing and promotional materials as needed. Along those same lines, you grant Ontheside the right to use your name, handle(s), picture, image, likeness, signature, voice, and biographical information in and in connection with any materials, posts, or otherwise. You also agree to allowing Ontheside to tag you and your social media handles in any social media posts by or on Ontheside’s behalf and link to posts on your social media channels to/from our platform/site.

What does this license cover? The license covers your content that may be protected by intellectual property rights, worldwide. It is a non-exclusive, royalty-free license, which means there are no monetary fees for the license and our use. What is not covered is factual information that is already publicly available, such as a company address, or any feedback or messages you send to Ontheside. Not to worry, this license does not affect your privacy rights; it only governs your intellectual property rights.

In addition, this license includes a right for Ontheside to grant a sublicense to all other entities and users contracted with Ontheside, to allow Ontheside.com services to work as designed. For example, we integrate with third-party providers for payment processing and tax management, search, analytics and hosting data, and a number of other services which allow us to provide your content and services to the public. These contractors and providers have signed agreements with us that are consistent with these terms of service and only for the limited purposes of ensuring the platform works as designed and for creating new features and functionality for the account holders of Ontheside.com.

How long does this license last? This license to Ontheside will last as long as your content is protected by intellectual property rights. If you remove any content, our systems will cease to make that content publicly available from your account. But note that with the multitude of other technologies in the world today, including simply taking a photo of content displayed, we will have no control over content that has been shared outside of our platform. So, please keep that in mind that the content you publish may take on a life of its own outside of the platform for which we are not responsible.

Your rights to use Ontheside software:

As you might expect, some of our services include software that may be downloaded by you. Ontheside gives you permission to use that software as part of the services we provide to you. This license is to you personally, and just you, and is a worldwide (valid anywhere in the world), non-exclusive (we can license to others), royalty free (there is no fee) and non-assignable (you are not allowed to assign it to anyone else) license. Plus, you may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of our services or software. The license is valid for as long as you have a valid, registered account with Ontheside.

Why this is a very simple model:

We bring two parties together - those with content they wish to provide and share with others for a service fee (let’s call them Providers) and those who wish to gain access to that content by paying a subscription (let’s call them Consumers). Ontheside licenses content from the Providers by paying a service fee to them based on consumption, and then charges Consumers a sponsorship (or subscription) fee for consuming specific content made available by Providers.

How this all works:

The Providers upload digital content to Ontheside.com and create a sponsorship Track (it’s like a container). They set a rate for that Track based on a suggested price range from Ontheside. What is included within each track will vary; it may be a podcast, a video on demand, or even a monthly newsletter within one Track or in different Tracks. In fact, Tracks can even be bundled together, giving Consumers access to multiple tracks for their sponsorship payment.

If you are a Provider, the main requirement is to complete a profile which includes a bio, stats, mantra, accomplishments, events, affiliations, etc. This is important as your fans want to know who you are. What is included in this profile gives them a reason to be a sponsor. Once completed, you will be “listed” on the Ontheside.com platform, and be able to upload content accessible by Consumers for a sponsorship fee. This also means your bank information is required so you will be able to receive payments (service fee) from Ontheside. Sponsorship fees are charged monthly at the beginning of a monthly billing cycle. In the month following a cycle, any service fees will be paid out to the Provider via the bank account on record.

As for the Consumer, well, they consume. Anyone can visit Ontheside.com and see, hear or read all the free content provided on the platform. If they create an account, they will be able to organize the athletes, teams, clubs, events, etc. they follow. In addition, if a valid credit card is added to the account (and they have the legal right to do so), they can sponsor their favorite athletes, teams and more, to gain access to the Tracks of paid content available.

Understand that while some content is provided free of charge and others for a sponsorship fee, a consumer does not receive any rights, intellectual property or otherwise, to any content. Content you gain access to will normally continue to be available, but may become unavailable upon the provider’s or our choosing, or due to any of the reasons as described below.

When you sponsor a provider:

Thank you. I think it is worth reiterating that our goal at Ontheside is to enable athletes to connect with fans - providers with consumers - and allow active fans to sponsor their favorite athletes. So, our thanks for supporting this community of amazing individuals.

Ontheside.com providers will have sponsorship opportunities that can be to access a single piece of content or to access a series of ongoing content. Single pieces, such as a long form video on demand, are considered one-time sponsorships - there are no refunds. If you have a subscription for ongoing content and decide to cancel your subscription, which you can do at any time, you will have access to the content for the remainder of that 30 day subscription period. At that time, your access will be discontinued and your subscription terminated.

How brands and businesses sponsor:

Ontheside has included a path for brands or businesses who wish to sponsor specific athletes, teams, clubs and the like. How? All content published on Ontheside.com (such as podcasts, videos, guides, blogs, newsletters, training programs, etc.) will have the potential to be “sponsored by” a brand / business. Ontheside will designate, at its sole discretion, the placement, frequency, and price of such sponsorship placement. However, the provider athlete, team or otherwise who will be associated with such brand / business placement will have the ability to refuse such placement. We understand that brands who wish to sponsor athletes within the Ontheside.com platform might conflict with existing external sponsors, the provider’s belief system, or a variety of other reasons. Ultimately, it is the choice of the provider who they are willing to accept or not - it is our goal as Ontheside to present the opportunity and negotiate the terms for the platform and subsequently pay the Provider a fee for the placement.

The 80/20 rule:

We are sure you are wondering how much it will cost as a Provider to utilize the platform. Well, the Ontheside.com platform is free for qualified providers. Qualified means, you are within the sports community and post sports related content. Free means, you do not have to pay anything to set up an account, complete your profile, and get listed to start uploading digital content and provide access to consumers on the platform. Ontheside will charge a monthly sponsorship rate for Tracks available from Providers and pay the Providers a service fee based on consumption of that Track. The service fee paid to a Provider is 80% of the rate set for a given Track. This fee is only paid out to a Provider if a Consumer subscribes to (i.e., sponsors) a given Track. Tracks that do not have any Consumers sponsoring do not qualify for a fee.

Why 80/20? Our goal is to ensure that we pay a fair and market-based rate for access to your digital content. Plus, 20% is our best estimate of what it will cost to cover the data storage, bandwidth, third-party contracts, and all the internal and external resources to make Ontheside.com work as designed.

Can this service fee percentage change in the future? Anything is possible. Our hope is to maintain or reduce Ontheside rates over time as we better understand what is required to innovate and provide the support you expect. What if we miscalculated and need to reduce the service fee percentage to 70%? We will let you know well in advance if that is to happen; just know that we will only do that if the current business model is unsustainable. That said, we will do our best to make sure that is not the case.

Transaction costs passed along to the Consumer:

We tried…. boy did we try to figure out how to absorb as much of the transaction costs as possible. Unfortunately, we couldn’t absorb it all. So, we are also charging a $1.00 USD fee to cover credit card fees, tax systems, line items for the online store, accounting systems, hosting and other web services, and more. While the $1.00 USD does not cover all the expenses to provide the platform and related services, it helps. Many transaction costs are a percentage of the subscription fee or based on volume. As such, at some point, the fees Ontheside pays will exceed the $1.00 USD. However, when we do, we believe we can absorb the costs on the margin - let’s hope our forecasts are correct.

The government’s take:

As always, no business can operate without paying a tax to the government. In the USA, this can be in the form of local taxes, county taxes, state taxes, and federal taxes. In other countries, this might include, but is not limited to, Value Added Tax (VAT) or Goods and Services Tax (GST), and in locales where a transaction tax is to be collected from consumers, a transaction tax related to the type of content or service provided.

Ontheside will be required to file and report to the required government bodies what taxes are collected through the platform. How this will appear to the sponsoring fan (consumer) is a separate line item along with the sponsorship track rate for taxes. Why not include this tax as part of the sponsorship amount? This way, all parties know what they will receive - the consumer knows what they are going to pay directly to the provider, Ontheside knows what portion of that amount it will receive, and the various government tax bodies will know exactly what is collected for them. Since digital content is taxed differently and will vary country by country, we will be using third-party systems to manage the funds flow.

Also, in order to satisfy our tax filling requirements, we will collect tax identification information and report this information with earnings to tax authorities as legally required. For example, if you are located in the USA or are a US citizen who has earned $600 or more, Ontheside is required to request a Form W-9 and issue a Form 1099-K at year end. This Form reports your earnings or payments from Ontheside for content provided. You are responsible for reporting any income, withholding, or other earnings-based taxes which may be due as a result of your earnings from Ontheside. For international customers or vendors, a VAT registration number may be collected as needed.

The warranty we provide:

We strive to provide you with software and services that help you achieve your goals on Ontheside.com and we continually invest in improving those services to meet your needs. However, there are limits to what can be done. As such, we offer our services to you without warranties, unless explicitly stated. And, to ensure that we comply with the law ourselves, we need to include the following legal disclaimer:

TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE PROVIDE OUR SERVICES “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. ADDITIONALLY, WE DO NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES ABOUT THE CONTENT OR FEATURES OF THE SERVICES PROVIDED, INCLUDING THEIR ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, AND ABILITY TO MEET YOUR NEEDS.

How we balance liability:

Here’s the thing - Ontheside is investing a lot of time, capital and resources to build a platform for the sports community, to enable athletes to provide content and services to their fans, and for their fans to have access to some pretty amazing content and services from some extraordinary people. But, you don’t have to use it - it’s your choice. If you do choose to use Ontheside.com, know that we are doing our best to build something for you.

With regards to liability, these Terms of Service try to balance what can be claimed by one party to another if any problem arises. The laws do allow Ontheside to limit certain liabilities to create this balance between parties. But, the laws do not allow Ontheside to limit liability for gross negligence or willful misconduct. To the extent allowed by law, Ontheside is only liable for breaches of these terms of service or the terms of its other policies as noted above. Ontheside is not liable for loss of profits, revenues, business opportunities, goodwill, anticipated savings or earnings, indirect or consequential losses or punitive damages. Ontheside’s total liability arising out of a claim related to these terms of service is limited to the greater of a) $32.00 USD or b) the fees paid to use the Ontheside.com platform in the 12 months prior to the dispute.

To the extent allowed by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and defend Ontheside and its directors, officers, employees, and contractors for any third party legal proceedings (including actions by government authorities) arising out of or relating to your unlawful use of the services or violation of these terms of service. This indemnity covers any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, judgments, fines, and legal fees. If you are legally exempt from certain responsibilities, including indemnification, then these responsibilities do not apply to you under these terms of service.

Claims of Alleged Copyright Infringement:

Ontheside is committed to complying with U.S. copyright law and expects you to do the same.  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”) provides recourse for owners of copyrighted material who believe that their rights under U.S. copyright law have been infringed on the Internet. Under the DMCA, copyright owners may contact the authorized agent of an Internet service or host provider to report alleged infringements of their protected works appearing on Web pages hosted by the service provider.  Upon receipt of a properly filed complaint satisfying the requirements of the DMCA, Ontheside will remove or block access to the allegedly infringing material.  If you believe in good faith that a notice of copyright infringement has been wrongly filed, you may submit a counter-notice to Ontheside.  Users of the onetheside.com platform who are the subject of a DMCA notification that meets the below criteria may be subject to account termination at Ontheside’s sole discretion.  Ontheside will not be a party to disputes over alleged copyright infringement.  If you believe that your copyrights have been infringed, or if a notice of copyright infringement has been filed against you, Ontheside advises that you seek legal counsel.  Ontheside is providing the preceding and following information to you for informational purposes only.

Notification of Claimed Copyright Infringement.  If you believe that a web page hosted by Ontheside at ontheside.world is violating your rights under U.S. copyright law, you may file a complaint of such claimed infringement with Ontheside’s designated agent by email to: insertcontactemail@emailaddress.com.  For your complaint to be valid under the DMCA, you must provide the following information when providing notice of the claimed copyright infringement:

1. a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner
2. identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed
3. identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of the infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled as well as information reasonably sufficient to permit Ontheside to locate the material
4. information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address
5. a statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or law
6. a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed

For more details on the information required for valid notification, see 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3).)  You should be aware that, under the DCMA, claimants who make misrepresentations concerning copyright infringement may be liable for damages incurred as a result of the removal or blocking of the material, court costs, and attorneys fees.

Counter-notification to Claimed Copyright Infringement.  If a notice of copyright infringement has been filed against you, you may file a counter-notification with Ontheside’s designated agent at the address listed above.  Such counter-notification must contain the following information:

1. physical or electronic signature
2. identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled
3. a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification
4. your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the federal district in which you are located, and that you will accept service of process from the complainant

If Ontheside receives a valid counter-notification, the DMCA provides that the removed material will be restored, or access re-enabled.  Please be advised that U.S. copyright law provides substantial penalties for a false counter-notice filed in response to a notice of copyright infringement.  Any party seeking to report any other potential violations of this Agreement may contact Ontheside via email at team@support.onthesideworld.com.

When notice will be provided:

Before Ontheside takes any action, reasonable advanced notice will be provided where possible. The notice may include a reason for the action and give you an opportunity to cure the problem, unless in so doing, you will: cause harm or liability to a user, third party, or Ontheside; violate the law or legal enforcement; compromise an investigation; or compromise the platform and its ability to operate as designed. In such cases where a cure is not possible without causing any of the above to occur, Ontheside reserves the right to remove any or all of that content or service in accordance with applicable law.

Our right to terminate:

Ontheside also reserves the right to suspend or terminate an account if breach these terms of service, we are required by law to do so, or your conduct causes harm or liability to a user, third party, or Ontheside (such as hacking, phishing, harassing, spamming, misrepresenting, stalking, or scraping content that does not belong to you). In such cases of termination, you will not be able to complete the remainder of any subscription period where applicable, and no pro rata refund will be provided. As noted above, using Ontheside.com is your choice - you are free to stop using our services at any time.

Your right of withdrawal:

You have the right to withdraw from the agreement that is entered between us within 14 days without giving any reason. The withdrawal will expire after 14 days from the day of the entering of this agreement, or within 14 days from signing up to any additional services provided by Ontheside which you did not sign up to when creating your Ontheside account. To exercise the right of withdrawal, you must inform us of your decision to withdraw by an unequivocal statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail). You can contact us by email at team@support.onthesideworld.com and sending us a filled out standard form in accordance with below.

*****

Ontheside, Inc. [team@support.onthesideworld.com]
703 Pier Ave. Ste B226
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 USA

I hereby give notice that I withdraw from my contract for the provision of the following service: [___].

Ordered on, [____]
Name of consumer, [____]
Address of consumer, [____]
Signature of consumer (only if this form is notified on paper), [___]
Date: [____]

*****

The governing law, courts, and jurisdiction:

California law will govern all disputes arising out of or relating to these terms of service, additional policies and guidelines, or any related services, regardless of conflict of law rules. These disputes will be resolved exclusively in the federal or state courts of Los Angels County, California, USA, and you and Ontheside consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts. In addition, you and Ontheside agree that any and all claims against the other may only be brought in an individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or member of a class or purported class.

On the road again with Ontheside.com Terms of Service:

These terms of service describe our relationship with you and you with us. They do not create any legal rights for other people or entities that may benefit from our relationship under these terms of service.

These terms of service also establish Ontheside.com’s relationship with you. If you do not follow these terms and we do not take action right away, know that it doesn’t mean we give up any of our rights, such as taking action in the future.

Furthermore, these terms of service in no way limit any rights you have that cannot be limited by contract. If it turns out that a particular term may not be valid or enforceable, all other terms will not be affected.

Lastly, we may update these terms of service and any of the above policies and guidelines to reflect changes to our business or services, to account for legal, regulatory, or security reasons, or to prevent abuse or harm. If the changes are material, you will be provided with reasonable advanced notice and the opportunity to review the changes, except in the following cases: a) with the launch of a new feature or service; or b) in urgent situations such as preventing harm or responding to legal requirements. If you do not agree with the updated terms of service, you should delist yourself, remove any content or services, and discontinue using the Ontheside.com platform. As always, it is your choice and your choice alone whether you use Ontheside services or not. So, choose wisely and thank you for reading these terms of service.