World Wide Web Consortium

Terms of Service for the W3C Validator Suite Service

By creating a W3C Validator Suite account, You agree to the following Terms of Service for the use of the W3C Validator Suite:

§ 1 Legal entity

Completing the W3C Validator Suite account creation creates an agreement between You and

GEIE ERCIM acting as a host of the World Wide Web Consortium W3C

§ 2 Definitions

1. Service means the W3C Validator Suite
2. You and Your means the legal entity that successfully completed the W3C Validator Suite registration and payment. 
3. Payment means the successful completion of W3C's partner payment program for the validation size/class as ticked by You in the request forms.
4. Starting URI means the URI that You entered as the starting point for the validation into the W3C Validator Suite job configuration form.
5. A page is a fetched object of type text/html behind a publicly available HTTP or HTTPS URI with the same fully qualified domain authority component as given by the Starting URI.
6. web site encompasses all HTTP and/or HTTPS resources with the same fully qualified domain authority component as given by the Starting URI that can be crawled from the Starting URI.
7. Assertor means a validation module integrated into the W3C Validator Suite framework to perform a specific category of tests as defined by W3C. Several Assertors can be combined to achieve a combined validation report. The following Assertors exist:
   1. The HTML4/XHTML Validator
   2. The HTML5 Validator
   3. The CSS Validator
   4. The Internationalization Checker
8. Validation means parsing a page and having the result checked by one or more Assertors as selected by You.
9. W3C Staff means all employees of all W3C host organizations and all contractors that are part of the W3C hierarchy under the direction of Sir Tim Berners Lee, W3C Director.

§ 3 The W3C Validator Suite Service

3.1 Account

1. In order to use the W3C Validator Suite, you must apply for an account with the W3C Validator Suite. You promise to use a secure password and react promptly to security incidents. W3C is free to delete your account in case of a security incident in case You do not react in a timely manner.
2. Your W3C Validator Suite account may be erased if unused for more than 9 months.
3. Personal information stored in the account may be stored on servers outside the European Union. Such information will be used only for purposes related to the W3C Validator Suite unless You indicate otherwise.

3.2 Fetching Pages

1. From Your account, You can select the number of pages that will be validated, the Assertors that will be applied to the fetched pages as well as other options. You must indicate a Starting URI.
2. You will be able to start a one-time validation process once the payment has been completed or if you have a subscription to the W3C Validator Suite.
3. Once You start the validation process with the Starting URI, the W3C Validator Suite will crawl and validate all pages linked and publicly accessible directly or indirectly from that Starting URI and with the same fully qualified domain authority component.
4. The crawling will stop when one of the following is reached:
   1. The crawler has validated the maximum number of pages available in the class/size You chose; or
   2. The crawler finds no new or unseen pages with the same fully qualified domain authority component as the Starting URI.
5. The W3C Validator Suite will fetch and cache the content served at the Starting URI and may fetch all associated content, such as style-sheets, images, and embedded content, passing the objects received on to the validation via the chosen Assertors.

3.3 Results

1. While crawling theweb site, the W3C Validator Suite will check crawled content against the selected Assertors.
2. Pages that fail validation will be added to a report about the web site. The validation modules may indicate why the validation has failed.
3. The report will be generated and made accessible to You.
4. The W3C Validator Suite will store results as defined above for 14 calendar days from the day the validation completed. The results will be deleted soon thereafter.

§ 4 Availability

1. W3C makes no guarantee of availability for the one-time validation service of the W3C Validator Suite. In the event the W3C Validator Suite validation service does not deliver any results, You may contact W3C for remedy. In the event that no result is delivered or the service is unavailable for more than 24 hours, W3C will reimburse the validation fee for that W3C Validator Suite one-time request. Additional damages, expressly including consequential damages are hereby excluded.
   
2. During the Beta Test, the time-based subscriptions (monthly and yearly) will be guaranteed up to an availability of 50% of the time unit used for the subscription. For a monthly subscription, this is 50% of the month and for the yearly subscription, it is 50% of the year. If the 50% availability for time-based subscriptions is not met, W3C will reimburse You to a maximum of the amount of your subscription to the W3C Validator Suite of the period of unavailability or for a maximum of 2 months. Additional damages, expressly including consequential damages are hereby excluded.
   

§ 5 Payment

1. The W3C Validator Suite uses fastspring.com, 11 W. Victoria Street, Suite 207A, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, to receive Your payment.
2. fastspring.com offers several ways to execute payments. When you pay via fastspring.com, fastspring.com will also collect personal information to secure the payment. This data is used only for the purpose of fulfilling orders or communicating with customers, partners, or suppliers regarding orders.
3. Validation can only start once the payment process has completed successfully.

§ 6 Abuse

6.1 Definition

Abuses of the W3C Validator Suite include:

• targeting mass validation of sites without authorization with intention to cause harm (such as an attempt to create a denial of service at the target host)
• deliberate submission of protected content or URIs in order to access that content without authorization or to cause harm to W3C or hosts affiliated with W3C
• using W3C Validator Suite to make erroneous or defamatory claims of sites.
  

6.2 Consequences

1. W3C reserves the right to suspend use of its service while investigating potential abuse.
2. In case of abuse, all remaining validation rights and account credit are forfeited. If your account is terminated for abuse or non-payment of fees, W3C reserves the right to retain identifying information and information correlated to it as well as other information about your account for a period of five years.
   

§ 7 Intellectual Property Rights

7.1 Copyright

1. You hereby grant W3C the necessary rights to fetch and process the fetched content according to the directions You give to the W3C Validator Suite. You also grant W3C the rights to store, cache and process information submitted by You or fetched as a result of a Starting URI given by You to the W3C Validator Suite.
2. You warrant that You have all the rights necessary to grant the above rights to W3C. 
3. Copyright to the page with the validation results as triggered by Your request, insofar as it is copyrightable, will be held by You. You hereby grant W3C a royalty-free world-wide license to copy, reproduce, perform, process the fetched content and create derivative works to as necessary to display the results. You explicitly permit W3C to produce statistics and anonymized aggregate results of all Your validations and to publish, use and copy those statistics and aggregate results. You further agree that any derivative works prepared by W3C shall be solely owned by the W3C .
   

7.2 Trademarks

1. W3C is a registered trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As the European host of W3C, ERCIM has the rights necessary to grant sub-licenses for that trademark limited to the validation results.
2. "W3C Validator Suite" and the Validator logo are trademarks of MIT. ERCIM has the rights necessary to grant sub-licenses for those trademarks that are limited to the validation results.
3. Except as provided below, the W3C marks may not be used to indicate any endorsement by W3C, official status with respect to W3C, or any kind of relationship with W3C:
4. After validating Your content with the W3C Validator Suite, You may claim: We have used the W3C Validator Suite and use the following W3C Validator Suite badge on Your Web site:

   

     <p>
       <a href="http://www.w3.org/2013/ValidatorSuite/"><img
         src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/VSbadge" alt="W3C Validator Suite" /></a>
     </p>

5. Additionally, to show your readers that you have taken the care to create interoperable Web pages, you may display the appropriate validation icon on any page that validates.

When the above criteria cease to apply, You MUST remove the logos.

§ 8 Privacy and Confidentiality

8.1 Privacy of Personal Data

1. When You create Your account, W3C will collect personal data from You. This data will be used to provide the W3C Validator Suite's services to you.
2. Our payment partner fastspring.com will also collect personal data from You. For data collection of fastspring.com, their privacy policy applies. W3C will have access to this data and may add it to your account for a more convenient user experience.
3. Unless otherwise explicitly agreed by You, W3C will use Your personal data only for the purpose of fulfilling the service, whatever that may require.
4. W3C has 4 hosts. You agree that W3C Staff of all four hosts may have access to the information.

8.2 Privacy and Confidentiality of validated content data

1. If You submit files to the W3C validation service for validation, or if you submit a URI thus triggering the fetching of content for validation purposes, W3C will store and process those files or fetched resources for validation. W3C may also store some of the content in caches for a limited time. Content may be cached for longer if repeated validations involve the same content. The content will be stored under safe harbor conditions in the USA. If You reside in the European Union, You hereby agree to the transfer of the data outside the European Union.
2. W3C and W3C Staff from other W3C hosts may examine the content of the validation to maintain and improve the service. Such information will remain confidential to the W3C Staff.

8.3 Traffic data

1. W3C will collect HTTP-protocol logging information. This includes IP addresses and other data. For certain services W3C may offer a stateful service that will make the use of cookies necessary (e.g. for language preferences). Log data unrelated to accounting purposes will be erased or anonymized according to W3C's then current Privacy Policy.
2. W3C will record requests for accounting purposes. Once the accounting is reconciled, the raw traffic data will be aggregated and anonymized according to the then-current log-anonymization policy.

§ 9 Terms & Conditions

9.1 Unilateral Termination

W3C may terminate a subscription for any reason upon 10 days notice. In that event, remaining requests and subscription time will be reimbursed, pro-rated to the remaining subscription time.

9.2 Liability

W3C's liability is totally excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law, except in the case of gross negligence or deliberate acts causing damage. W3C expressly excludes consequential and indirect damages. In general, W3C's liability is limited to the cost of subscription.

9.3 Assignments

This Agreement shall not be assigned by either party without the prior written consent of the other. Any attempted assignment in violation of this provision shall be null and void.

9.4. Governing Law

This Agreement shall be construed and controlled by the laws of France. The place of Trial will be Grasse/France.

9.5 Entire Agreement

This is the full and final agreement between the parties concerning the W3C Validator Suite. This agreement supersedes any earlier or contemporaneous promises, representations or agreements relating to the subject of this Agreement. The terms of this Agreement may not be varied or waived unless agreed to in a signed writing between the parties hereto. Should any provisions or portions thereof of this Agreement be ruled unenforceable, all remaining provisions or portions thereof, to the fullest extent possible, shall remain valid and binding.