Legal
Terms of Use.
These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) are an agreement between you (“you” or “User”) and The Public Contracts & Grants Institute of Washington D.C. (the “Institute,” as further defined below).
These Terms govern access to and use of pub-k.org, related Institute websites, free publications including Pub K Weekly, accounts used for those free features, and community features such as the calendar, job board, and public event information pages (collectively, the “Services”). Paid Ask Pub K access is not a public Service; it is governed by the Member Agreement.
Paid Offerings (including Briefings, Ask Pub K, Event registrations, Sponsorships, Institutional packages, and Credit Packs) are governed by the Institute’s Member Agreement and the applicable Order Form. These Terms do not grant a license to a paid Offering. If these Terms conflict with the Member Agreement as to a paid Offering, the Member Agreement controls. The Institute’s Privacy Policy describes personal-information practices and is incorporated into these Terms.
By accessing or using the Services, creating an account, or clicking “I agree,” you accept these Terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.
1.Who may use the Services
If you use the Services on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, and “you” includes that organization. The Services are offered only to persons who can form binding contracts and who are at least 18 years of age.
2.What these Terms cover
These Terms cover the public website, Pub K Weekly and other free email publications, free account features, and community features available without an Order Form. New free website features are covered unless the Institute says otherwise.
A third-party event or payment platform may impose its own terms on a registration or payment transaction. Those platform terms apply to use of the platform. The Member Agreement governs the Institute–Member relationship for any Event, Sponsorship, or other paid Offering.
3.Accounts and credentials
Free accounts require accurate information. Keep credentials confidential. You are responsible for activity under your account. Notify the Institute promptly of unauthorized use at admin@pub-k.org. The Institute may restrict or close an account that is compromised or used in violation of these Terms. An individual free account terminates upon the account holder’s death after actual notice.
4.License to Institute content
“Institute Content” means the text, graphics, compilation, headlines, abstracts, free publications, software, logos, and other material the Institute or its licensors make available through the Services. The Institute and its licensors retain all right, title, and interest in Institute Content.
Subject to these Terms, the Institute grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access Institute Content for your own internal professional use, receive email delivery of free publications you subscribe to, and quote brief excerpts with attribution as permitted by United States fair use or a comparable exception.
Except as that license allows, or as a Member Agreement separately allows for a paid Offering, you may not:
- copy, scrape, harvest, crawl, mine, bulk-download, or otherwise extract Institute Content;
- sell, resell, syndicate, or operate a competing publication or clipping service using Institute Content;
- forward, post, or redistribute a Briefing or other paid publication;
- remove copyright notices or circumvent access controls; or
- use Institute Content to train, fine-tune, evaluate, or ground a machine-learning or artificial-intelligence system, or to build a competing corpus.
5.User conduct
You may use the Services only for lawful purposes. You may not abuse or impersonate others; use another person’s credentials; send spam; attempt unauthorized access; probe systems except with prior written authorization; upload malware; or use the Services in violation of U.S. export-control or sanctions laws. The Institute may refuse, suspend, or block access for conduct it reasonably believes violates these Terms.
6.User Content
“User Content” means material you post on a public website feature, including job listings, comments, speaker biographies, and calendar submissions. You retain ownership of User Content. You grant the Institute a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, reproduce, edit, publish, and display that User Content in connection with operating and promoting the public feature. This license does not apply to Member Content submitted under the Member Agreement.
Do not post to a public feature material you wish to keep confidential. Posted material on public features may be public. You represent that you have the rights to post the User Content, that it is accurate and lawful, and that it does not contain sealed, classified, or similarly restricted information. The Institute may edit, decline, or remove User Content and has no duty to back it up.
7.No legal advice; third-party material
The Institute is a publisher and the operator of a professional institute. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Use of the Services does not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship. Do not act on site content without independent professional judgment.
Third-party materials express their authors’ views. Links to courts, agencies, sponsors, payment processors, and event platforms are not endorsements. Your use of those sites is subject to their terms. Link to the Institute home page unless a deeper link is authorized; the Institute may disallow a link at any time.
8.Advertising on the site
The Services may display advertisements or sponsorship identifications. Purchased Sponsorships and advertising placements are Offerings under the Member Agreement.
9.Availability
The Institute may modify, suspend, or discontinue any free feature with or without notice and is not liable for interruption or loss of data on the public site.
10.Privacy
Collection and use of personal information is described in the Privacy Policy. Where the Privacy Policy and these Terms address the same subject, the Privacy Policy controls personal-information practices and these Terms control licenses, acceptable use, and liability for the public Services.
11.Disclaimers
THE SERVICES AND ALL CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE INSTITUTE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE INSTITUTE DOES NOT WARRANT UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION OR THE ACCURACY OF ANY CONTENT.
12.Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE INSTITUTE AND ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AND CONTRACTORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, GOODWILL, OR DATA. TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO THE INSTITUTE FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICES GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS (US $100). LIABILITY FOR A PAID OFFERING IS GOVERNED BY THE MEMBER AGREEMENT.
13.Indemnity
You will defend and indemnify the Institute and its directors, officers, employees, and agents against claims arising out of your use of the public Services, your User Content, or your violation of these Terms. This section does not apply to a U.S. government subscriber acting in an official capacity through a “.gov” or “.mil” address, to the extent that subscriber is not legally authorized to indemnify.
14.Copyright notices
The Institute responds to good-faith notices of alleged copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 512. Send notices by mail to Attn: President, The Public Contracts and Grants Institute of Washington D.C., 655 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 425, Washington, DC 20005, in a form that substantially complies with § 512(c)(3). The Institute may remove claimed material and may terminate repeat infringers.
15.Termination
Either party may stop the free Services at any time. The Institute may disable credentials or terminate access if it reasonably believes you have violated these Terms. License, conduct, User Content, disclaimer, liability, indemnity, and dispute provisions survive.
16.Entire agreement; changes
These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and (if you purchase a paid Offering) the Member Agreement and Order Form are the entire agreement on their respective subjects and supersede prior website terms. The Institute may revise these Terms. The “Last updated” date will change when it does. Material changes will be signaled by a site notice or email. Continued use of the public Services after a revision takes effect is acceptance of the revised Terms. Changes to the Member Agreement are governed by that agreement.
17.Governing law and disputes
If a Member Agreement applies to the dispute, that agreement’s dispute-resolution terms control. Other disputes under these Terms are governed by the laws of the District of Columbia, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.
Your use of pub-k.org and/or any of the Institute’s offerings is conditioned on your agreement to resolve any and all disputes with the Institute by binding arbitration administered by the AAA under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, before a single arbitrator, seated in the District of Columbia, with judgment on the award entered by any court of competent jurisdiction. Each party bears its own costs and attorneys’ fees except as the arbitrator may award under applicable law or these Rules. The existence, content, and result of the arbitration are confidential. Any claim must be brought within one (1) year after the claim accrued, or it is permanently barred, except where applicable law prohibits such a limitation.
18.Definition
The “Institute” means The Public Contracts & Grants Institute of Washington D.C., Inc. PBC, a Delaware public benefit corporation. Ask Pub K Inc., a Delaware corporation and an affiliate of the Institute, is bound by these Terms only to the extent the public Services include content it supplies.
19.Notices
Notices to the Institute: Attn: President, The Public Contracts & Grants Institute of Washington D.C., 655 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 425, Washington, DC 20005, with a copy to admin@pub-k.org. Notices to you may be sent to the email on your account. Headings are for reference only.