Terms of Use

Effective February 15, 2022

General

This website is exclusively owned and operated under the names:

GoodNewsMinnesota.com and McKirdy Media

This Terms of Use Policy defines:

How we expect you to act when you submit articles or information of any type.

What your rights are once you’ve submitted this information.

What we can do with the information you provide to us.

Ownership of the information, photos or news stories found on GoodNewMinnesota.com

What to do when you feel that a piece of information should be changed or has infringed on the copyright of another.

This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that McKirdy Media does not own or control.

Unless specified otherwise on the website, users must be at least 13 years of age and a legal resident of the United States before participation in any activity that requires the submission of Personal Information.

No Warranties – The Internet is a Risky Place

USE THE WEB SITE AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS WEB SITE IS PROVIDED TO YOU “AS IS,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. MCKIRDY MEDIA MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT ANY CONTENT CONTAINED ON THIS WEB SITE SATISFIES ANY APPLICABLE GOVERNMENT LAW, REGULATION OR REQUIREMENT. Neither McKirdy Media nor any of its employees, vendors, merchants, advertisers, third-party information providers, agents, licensors or the like warrant that the Web site or its operation will be reliable, accurate, error-free or uninterrupted. No one has been given the authority to create a warrantee, for any reason, on behalf of McKirdy Media . McKirdy Media reserves the right to change or discontinue at any time any aspect or feature of our web sites for any reason.

Exclusion of Liability – It’s Not Our Fault.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL MCKIRDY MEDIA OR ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING, STORING OR DISTRIBUTING THE WEB SITE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES AND EXPENSES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS, AND DAMAGES ARISING FROM LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH USE OF THE WEB SITE, DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THE WEB SITE, OR FOR ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH THE WEB SITE, WHETHER SUCH DAMAGES ARE BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU SPECIFICALLY AGREE THAT NO LICENSOR, SUPPLIER OR INFORMATION PROVIDER TO MCKIRDY MEDIA OR ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS, OR ANY OF THEIR SUCCESSORS OR ASSIGNS, SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY REASON OR UNDER ANY CONCERN WHATSOEVER, BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON OR THROUGH THE WEB SITE. Because some states do not permit the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, some or all of the above limitation may not apply to you.

Any interactions you have with other organizational or individual users of the site of any type are solely between you and such other users. You cannot rely on GoodNewsMinnesota.com or McKirdy Media to perform due diligence review or otherwise pre-screen all users and associated services and therefore, you are responsible for your own investigations or research before proceeding with any transactions with such users.

If there is a dispute between users of this site or between users and any third parties, you understand and agree that GoodNewsMinnesota.com or McKirdy Media is under no obligation to become involved and you agree to release GoodNewsMinnesota.com or McKirdy Media, its officers, employees, agents and successors in rights from claims, demands and damages of every kind or nature, known or unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related to such disputes.

Indemnification – If you break the rules, you are in trouble, not us.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold McKirdy Media , its officers, affiliated companies, employees and agents, licensors and suppliers harmless from and against any and all claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from your use of the McKirdy Media site, or any content, product or service offered through the McKirdy Media site, in a manner that violates or is alleged to violate these Terms and Conditions. McKirdy Media shall provide notice to you of any such claim, suit or proceeding and shall reasonably cooperate with you, at your expense, in your defense of any such claim, suit or proceeding.

 

Cost

At this time, there is no cost to access the majority of the information provided by the GoodNewsMinnesota.com. From time to time, there may be premium advertising content provided that may include an additional surcharge.

Linking to Us – Go For It but Respect our Stuff.

Unless McKirdy Media tells you differently at a later date, you are hereby licensed to create hyperlinks to the content on the Web site, provided that the hyperlink accurately describes the content as it appears on our web site. McKirdy Media reserves the right to revoke this license generally, or your right to use specific links, at any time, and may normally break any hyperlink. Under no circumstances may you “frame” the Web site or any of its content or copy portions of the Web site to a server, except as part of an Internet service provider’s incidental caching of pages – and even then you cannot change the content in any way. Each page within the Web site must be unchanged and displayed in full (including all trademarks, branding, advertising and promotional materials), without any accompanying frame, border, margin, design, branding, trademark, advertising or promotional materials not originally displayed on the page within the Web site.

Feature Links and Ads – We can’t control what others do.

At GoodNewsMinnesota.com, we expect that our business partners, affiliates, employees, news providers and advertisers will respect the privacy of our users. We don’t control them, however, and these third parties, including our partners, providers of content and services, advertisers and others have their own privacy and data collection policies and practices. This means that if you follow a link or information we provide, and it takes you to a third-party page, or to content created by another companies website, including information, services, software, web sites, features, contests, polls or sweepstakes, McKirdy Media is not responsible for the actions or policies of the third party. You should read their privacy policy when providing any information on a page or link operated by a third-party site.

Copyright / Trademark

All of the McKirdy Media sites, including GoodNewsMinnesota.com and all of the information it may contain at any time, such as articles, opinions, other text, directories, guides, photographs, illustrations, images, video and audio clips, and advertising copy, as well as the trademarks, logos, domain names, trade names, service marks, and any and all copyrightable material (including source and object code) and/or any other form of intellectual property (collectively, the “Content”), are owned by McKirdy Media or third parties, and are protected from unauthorized use, copying and dissemination by copyright, trademark, publicity and other laws and by international treaties.

You may make single copies of materials displayed on the GoodNewsMinnesota.com or other web sites of McKirdy Media for your own personal and noncommercial use only, provided any copies include the copyright and other notices displayed with the materials on the Web site. You may not distribute such copies to others, whether or not for a charge or other consideration, without prior written permission from McKirdy Media or the copyright owner of the copied material. Requests to reproduce materials on the Web site for distribution or other purposes should be mailed to:

McKirdy Media

Attn:   Bruce McKirdy

3141 Lakecrest RD NE

Alexandria, MN 56308

E-mail:  Stories@GoodNewsMinnesota.com

Copyright Infringement and Take down policy

We provide the following information in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act:

POLICY RELATING TO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND IDENTIFICATION OF DESIGNATED AGENT FOR PURPOSES OF SECTION 512 OF THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT.

If you have reason to believe that material in which you (or any person or entity for which you are an authorized agent) hold the copyright has been posted in the user comment sections of the Site without Appropriate authorization, please contact our Designated Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement:

McKirdy Media

Attn:   Bruce McKirdy

3141 Lakecrest RD NE

Alexandria, MN 56308

E-mail:  Stories@GoodNewsMinnesota.com

 

You must provide Please provide our Agent with the following Notice:

  1. a) Identify the material on the site that you claim is infringing, with enough detail so that we may locate it on the website;
  2. b) A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  3. c) A statement by you declaring under penalty of perjury that (1) the above information in your Notice is accurate, and (2) that you are the owner of the copyright interest involved or that you are authorized to act on behalf of that owner.
  4. d) Your address, telephone number, and email address; and
  5. e) Your physical or electronic signature.

We fully comply with the notice and take-down provisions of Sections 512(c) and (g) of the United States Copyright Act. We also enforce a policy that provides for the termination of access to the Site to contributors who are found to be repeat infringers or who otherwise violate the policies governing use of the Site.

User Content

McKirdy Media may allow you to upload, post or otherwise contribute content including, but not limited to photos, video, audio, comments, articles, blogs, forums and any other such communication. Any such material that is added to the Web Site is considered “User Content.” You are solely responsible for the communications or content you provide.

In consideration for your ability to place User Content on the Web Sites of McKirdy Media, you agree to abide by the following rules and that failure to comply means a breach of the Terms and Conditions of McKirdy Media. Engaging in the following actions (especially those designed to circumvent or attempt to circumvent the security of this site or gain unauthorized access to the site) may also result in our investigating your actions, removing your authorization to access the site and use the services provided and, potentially, referring you to law enforcement authorities for criminal prosecution if your actions constitute criminal activity.

GoodNewsMinnesota.com is designed to be the good stuff

If there is news, information, events, pictures, area video, or content about Minnesota, of a positive nature, you are welcome to submit your information after you’ve registered with GoodNewsMinnesota.com.

That said, keep your opinion to yourself

While you may be able to offer a comment on some of our stories, content submitted must be based on facts, events, times, community activities and the like. This is not an opinion-based site.

 

 

Know that GoodNewsMinnesota.com is not an investigative news site

We publish press releases and news stories that are kind, uplifting and of interest to Minnesota.

While we may publish a story now and then that makes you ponder, we’re not here to publish “got-ya” stories, gossip, deep investigative reports or deep analysis pieces. This site is really designed to be filled with positive stories of interest to people in Minnesota or those who might visit or have lived in our friendly state.

Be Minnesota Nice

Do not insult, stalk, harass or disrespect the views or privacy of anyone. Bigotry, hatred, racism or sexism of any type will not be allowed.

Remember children

Do not provide User Content that is harmful to minors in any way;

Keep it clean.

Do not provide obscene, profane, sexually explicit, libelous, slanderous, defamatory, harmful, threatening, illegal or knowingly false User Content.

Be Truthful

Do not knowingly lie about anyone or anything.

You can’t encourage others to do bad things

Don’t provide User Content that encourages others to break Federal, State, or Local Laws or ordinances, regulations or authority; or that will contribute to a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability.

Be Yourself

You can’t impersonate another person, or use someone else’s identity to post User Content.

Don’t Steal

Do not provide User Content that infringes on the copyright, trade secret, patent or trademark or any other intellectual property rights of anyone or any company. Remember, just because you found a piece of content on the internet, even if you found it for free, does not mean that you can post or transmit that content. YOU have great thoughts, use those instead.

 

Respect other people’s privacy

Don’t provide User Content that violates the privacy of others.

Don’t use this site to help plan a terrorist event, start a war or support any organization that wants to. Remember, we’re being Minnesota Nice here.

If you want to see our privacy policy, please visit that page.

No one likes a virus

Do not provide any User Content that contains malicious code that includes but is not limited to computer viruses, Trojan Horses, a mobile virus, or other program that’s designed to disrupt damage or restrict the use of any computer, Tablet, phone or smart phone hardware or software.

Other things you need to know about User Content:

McKirdy Media has the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any User Content of our Web Sites in order to determine compliance with these Terms and Conditions. We may add to or change these rules from time to time.

McKirdy Media’s right to use the User Content you provide

McKirdy Media reserves the right to publish or not publish, to change, alter, repurpose, republish, broadcast, record, reuse or remove any and all User Content contributed to any site of McKirdy Media without notice. By posting User Content, you are granting to McKirdy Media and its licensees a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive and irrevocable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display any posting by you (in whole or in part) and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed.

Our Right to remove User Content

McKirdy Media does not assume any responsibility for the consequences of any User Content that is contributed to any McKirdy Media site. If we are notified by another user or discover that any part or piece of User Content violates the Terms and Conditions set in this section, we can remove the User Content without notice. Moreover, McKirdy Media reserves the right, but is not obligated, to delete or remove any article, picture, part or derivative work of User Content regardless of whether it violates the Terms and Conditions or not. In other words, we don’t have to publish what you send us, and we can delete it at any time.

Responsibility for User Content

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless McKirdy Media and its officers, affiliated companies, employees, agents, licensors and suppliers, from and against any and all claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, your use of any User Generated or Contributed Content or use by others of any User Generated or Contributed Content with respect to you, including, without limitation, any claim of libel, defamation, harassment, violation of rights of privacy or publicity, loss of service or infringement of intellectual property or other rights, or violation of these Terms and Conditions.

And … If you break the rules:

Termination of privileges

McKirdy Media reserves the right to kick you off and terminate your use of all or portions of our Web properties if you break or breach any of the terms and conditions of use. If McKirdy Media notices or receives notice or otherwise discovers that you have posted material that infringes on another party’s copyright or trademark rights or violates another party’s rights of privacy or publicity, McKirdy Media may terminate your access to the Web Sites, including all of your privileges or accounts that you may have established in connection with the Web Site.

General

These Terms and Conditions (including the privacy policy attached hereto, which shall be deemed to be a part of these Terms and Conditions) constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and McKirdy Media with respect to use of the Web site, superseding all prior or contemporaneous communications and/or proposals. These Terms and Conditions also are severable, and in the event any provision is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not in any way affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions. McKirdy Media reserves the right to make changes to these Terms and Conditions immediately by posting the changed Terms and Conditions in this location. By continuing to use the Web site, you are agreeing to all changes made by McKirdy Media . A printed version of these Terms and Conditions shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to use of the Web site to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.

Failure to insist on strict performance of any of the Terms and Conditions of this Agreement will not operate as a waiver of any subsequent default or failure of performance. No waiver by GoodNewsMinnesota.com/McKirdy Media of any right under these Terms and Conditions will be deemed to be either a waiver of any other right or provision or a waiver of that same right or provision at any other time.

No joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and GoodNewsMinnesota.com/McKirdy Media as a result of this Agreement or your use of this website. If any provision of this Agreement is held unenforceable by a court or tribunal of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to effect the intent of the parties, and the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect.

Jurisdiction

The Web site is controlled and operated by McKirdy Media from its offices at 3141 Lakecrest RD NE in Alexandria, MN, United States of America. McKirdy Media makes no representation that materials on the Web site are appropriate or available for use outside of Minnesota. Those who choose to access the Web site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable. The Web site is not intended to subject McKirdy Media to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than Minnesota and the United States of America.

Prohibited Uses

This Site is not intended for use by persons located within the European Economic Area (EEA). We do not request or accept personal information concerning or supplied by persons who are located within the EEA at the time they access this Site. If you have accessed this Site from within the EEA, you should immediately discontinue your use. If you have supplied personal information to us in violation of this provision, whether through the registration of new user accounts or otherwise, please contact us at stories@goodnewsminnesota.com  

Privacy Policy

Changes to Privacy Policy

McKirdy Media will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and customer feedback. McKirdy Media encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how McKirdy Media is protecting your information.

For full details visit our privacy policy page at https://goodnewsminnesota.com/privacy-policy-2

McKirdy Media - Good News Minnesota