Terms of Service

Publication date:   June 1, 2020

  1. Your Acceptance
    1. By using or visiting the Upstart website or any Upstart products, software, data feeds, and services provided to you on, from, or through the Upstart website (collectively the “Service”) you signify your agreement to these terms and conditions (the “Terms”) and the Upstart Privacy Policy incorporated herein by reference. If you are using the service on behalf of a company or organization, they must accept this agreement.
    2. You acknowledge that failure to abide by these terms can result in disciplinary action, including reversal of a particular sale or suspension of your account.
  2. Terminology
    3. Pronouns “we, us, ours” etc. refer to Upstart Hosting, Inc. and “you, your” etc. refer to the user agreeing to these Terms. This service facilitates the sale and distribution of digital content. In the context of this service, an “item” refers to:
    • A file, group of files, data streams, etc. that are provided by a user (the “creator”), and
    • Data associated with the publication, sale, distribution, rating, user commentary, etc. of these files
  3. Access
    4. Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to create an account or use the service. You must follow the age requirement laws in your region.
  4. Use
    5. You will not attempt to abuse the service or cause interruption to its functioning. Neither will you harass users or otherwise create a hostile environment.
  5. Content
    1. Truthful representation of product
      The title, description, and any preview materials associated with an item should accurately reflect the paid (or unpaid) contents of the item. Severe or deliberate misrepresentation could lead to disciplinary action, including reversal of sale and suspension of your account.
    2. Illegal content
      We strive to allow freedom of expression, but we will also follow the laws of countries we operate in. In addition to some types of content that are disallowed site-wide, some items may be unavailable depending on your region (see our Global & Regional Laws page).
      1. When you upload a file you are given options on how you want your content to be distributed, used, and displayed. By uploading the files to our site, you are agreeing to allow us to distribute them according to the selection indicated in the copyright settings section of the upload page. In general, you keep the copyrights to content you post on our site. These are nonexclusive transfers, so you can still use your content however you like outside of our site. Note that each file within an item has its own copyright settings, so you must indicate your preferences for each. For your convenience, you can also select your ‘default’ copyright settings, which sets the initial values for new files.
      2. We do not tolerate copyright infringement. This includes posting things you do not own, or making derivative works, without permission.
        1. For existing content on this site, you may have implicit permission to make derivative works depending on the settings the creator chose when they uploaded a file. These will be visible when visiting a file. Creators can also allow other users to request permission through the website.
        2. For content from outside of this site, we cannot easily tell if you have obtained permission for your use. You must certify when you upload it that you have permission.
        3. You will respect the owner’s policy on the public display and performance of their work.
        4. In the “other works” section of a file’s copyright settings you will indicate any and all other works that are present in your submission. If the file is on Upstart, you will provide the link or ID of the file. If the file is not on Upstart, you will provide a short textual description, such as a title and author, or a link to another site where the work is hosted.
    4. Duplicate Content
      For content whose origin or copyright is unclear, we make an effort to preserve original copies and reduce the proliferation of duplicate content. We will remove files which are found to be identical to an existing file, or which are nearly identical but of reduced quality. You will not upload files you know to be already present on the site unless they are of superior quality or belong to you. Users found to repeatedly or intentionally violate this rule may be subject to disciplinary action.
    5. Adult and Graphic Content
      When uploading items you have the opportunity to mark them as containing adult content and/or graphic content. You are required to mark these accurately, to your best judgement. For guidelines on these distinctions, visit our Content Guidelines page. As a corollary: we cannot guarantee that applying adult or graphic content filters will prevent the appearance of all instances of such content. Browse with discretion in the presence of minors.
    6. Hosting and Permanence
      At Upstart we strive for the preservation of works and their interrelationship. For items that are hosted privately, you have the right to request their removal at any time. For items that are hosted publicly: after an item has been released for one week, it will remain available to users and will not be removed. An exception to this is when the item is found to be in violation of these Terms, in which case the item will be removed and buyers will be refunded.
  6. Reporting
    7. As it is difficult to review all content and actions for all possible violations, we encourage users to report violations of these Terms. We may offer incentives for reporting, such as the funds from a reversed sale to users who purchased and reported, or fees transferred from violators to reporters. (See our Reporting page.) You will not knowingly file false reports.
  7. Balance
    8. The service tracks a monetary balance associated with your account which is primarily used for purchasing and selling content, and secondarily for covering fees associated with your use of our service. Money is credited to your account primarily through deposits or through the sale of content. By depositing money into your account you allow us, without other notice, to draw from your balance to cover your purchases and fees associated with your use of the service, described on the Fees page. You are free to withdraw your credited balance at any time, except when (i) we encounter technical difficulties in processing the payment, or (ii) your account is under investigation for a violation of these Terms that would have financial impact (e.g. fraud, copyright infringement, etc.) You will be notified if any of these exceptions apply. Note that an outstanding balance, e.g. from a pending sale, is not yet credited and will be indicated separately.
  8. Sale
    9. Items posted for sale are purchased on behalf of many users at once when a satisfactory solution is found between the asked revenue and the bids placed. If you are a Verified User, the revenue from items sold on your behalf will be credited immediately. Otherwise, the revenue will be credited to your account after a specified evaluation period unless the item is suspected of violating these Terms. In either case, violations discovered after your account has been credited can result in the reversal of the sale and removal of your funds. If the funds are not available in your balance, you are obligated to deposit the necessary funds and will be notified. If the funds are not made available, your account may be suspended and you may be pursued for legal action.
  9. Taxes
    10. You are responsible for paying your government any taxes associated with the sale of your content. If you are a Verified User, you may have the option of having your taxes withheld automatically.
  10. Nano Cryptocurrency
    11. We use the Nano cryptocurrency as a means of depositing and withdrawing funds quickly and feelesly across the world. The nature of this currency is such that transactions cannot be undone and funds once sent cannot be recovered without the consent of the receiving party. While transactions within the website can be reversed, Nano that has been withdrawn from Upstart is not accessible to us. We will not be held financially responsible for funds which have been legitimately withdrawn from Upstart. For instance, in the case of fraudulent advertising by a Verified User, the funds from a sale can be withdrawn immediately; while we will attempt to retrieve the funds, we cannot guarantee a refund to users who bought this item. Similarly, a fraudulent item sold by a non-Verified user which is not reported within the evaluation period would be subject to the same risk.