Website Terms of Use
PLEASE REVIEW BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE - IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF USE, DO NOT USE THIS WEBSITE.

General Description

Welcome to SSRN. SSRN is produced and owned by Elsevier Inc. (together with its affiliates or subsidiaries, "Elsevier"). The mission of SSRN is to provide the services detailed in the SSRN FAQ. These Terms of Use contain ground rules for your use of the Services (the "Terms"). By accessing, using, or contributing to the Services, and in consideration for the Services provided to you, you agree to abide by the Terms. These Terms expressly incorporate and include Elsevier's Privacy Policy, Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy and any guidelines, policies, or additional terms or disclaimers that may be posted and/or updated on the Services or on notices that are sent to you.

Elsevier may change the Terms from time to time, at Elsevier's sole discretion. Your continued use of this website following the posting of such changes will constitute your assent to all such changes. Please periodically visit this section of the site to review the current version of the Terms. These Terms supersede any verbal changes and can only be modified by written agreement signed by an officer of Elsevier.

Account Registration

To utilize the Services, or certain portions thereof, you may be required to complete a registration and submission process and establish an SSRN account ("SSRN Account"). You represent and warrant that all information provided by you is current, accurate, and complete, and that you will maintain the accuracy and completeness of this information on a prompt, timely basis. It is your responsibility to inform Elsevier of any changes to that information. Each registration is for a single individual only, unless specifically designated otherwise on the registration page. Elsevier does not permit a) anyone other than you to use the sections requiring registration by using your name and password; or b) access through a single name being made available to multiple users on a network or otherwise. As a registered user of the Services, Elsevier grants to you a non-transferable, non-exclusive and revocable license to use the Services according to these Terms. Except as expressly granted herein or in any other agreement you have with Elsevier, you acquire no right, title or license in the Services or any content or submission accessed from or incorporated in the Services.

Password and Security

As a registered user of SSRN, you may receive or establish one or more passwords. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your password(s) and SSRN Account(s). Elsevier is in no way liable for any claims or losses related to the use or misuse of your password or account due to the activities of any third party outside of our control or due to your failure to maintain their confidentiality and security. Any accounts you create are not transferrable. You agree to notify Elsevier immediately if you become aware of any unauthorized use of your SSRN Account(s).

Content
Personal Use Only

The Services are provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. You may not take any material from this website and reformat, repost, or redisplay it for commercial purpose. You may not reformat, repost, or redisplay any material from this website for non-commercial purposes provided however that (i) you may redisplay the title, author and/or abstract for an individual document included in the SSRN eLibrary, together with a link to that document's public abstract page on SSRN; (ii) you may exercise any additional rights granted directly by the author or other valid copyright holder, and (iii) you may cite or quote individual SSRN usage statistics, rankings, citations, and similar information with acknowledgment of the source, date, and URL for this information. These exceptions for noncommercial use apply only to specific documents and use of specific SSRN-provided statistics and other information. They do not convey any rights to reproduce or otherwise make use of all or a significant part of the SSRN eLibrary or SSRN-provided information, or all or a significant part of a category of the SSRN eLibrary or SSRN-provided information.

Contributed Content

Contributed content should be relevant to the subject scope of SSRN. Content may not be illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing of intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy or otherwise injurious or objectionable. Elsevier does not pre-screen or regularly review any contributed content, but Elsevier has the right (though not the obligation) to monitor submissions to determine compliance with these Terms and any operating rules to satisfy any law, regulation, or authorized government request.

Copyright and Trade Marks

When you provide material to SSRN, Elsevier asks you to confirm that doing so does not violate other parties' copyright or other proprietary rights. Accordingly, you may only post versions of academic papers or articles (“Academic Papers”), journal articles, or other content on SSRN if you have the right to do so. By way of example, while many journal publishers permit posting of some versions of Academic Papers, most journals restrict the sharing of final versions. To be sure you have the right to upload such content, you should review your publishing agreement, the publisher’s copyright policies, and/or any other applicable information prior to posting any version of an Academic Paper. You may post your paper to SSRN only if you are the copyright owner, have the copyright owner’s permission, are permitted to do so under your publishing agreement or the publisher’s copyright policies or your institution’s license agreement or under a Creative Commons license.

License to Elsevier

Users grant to Elsevier (and those we work with) a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty free, revocable license to perform the Services. By contributing content to SSRN, you grant Elsevier a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide, revocable license to use your content in connection with the Services, including, without limitation, the rights to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, print, allow others to print, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate, and reformat your digital and non-digital content, and/or to incorporate it into a collective work.

Except as otherwise provided herein or in any additional terms for a product or the Services, we do not claim ownership of any content, application or other material that you or third parties provide to us (including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit on or through the Services, including our blog pages, message boards, comment or discussion features, chat rooms and forums, for review by the general public, registered users of the Services or by the members of any public or private community ("Submission"), and you retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in the Submission. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy or compliance with relevant laws or regulations of any Submission that contains content that is not owned by Elsevier.

Elsevier Ownership and Rights

All materials on SSRN are the copyright of Elsevier or are reproduced with permission from other copyright owners. All rights are reserved. The materials on this web site may be retrieved and downloaded solely for personal non-commercial use. No materials may otherwise be copied, modified, published, broadcast or otherwise distributed. Social Science Research Network, SSRN, SSRN.com and/or any other names of products or services provided by Elsevier or referred to on this web site are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Elsevier.

Community Participation Browsing

You understand that the abstracts made available via the Website are the work of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the view of Elsevier. Elsevier assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, suitability, or completeness of any content provided.

Linking

Elsevier welcomes you to link to the Services. You may establish a hypertext link to the Services, provided that the link does not state or imply any sponsorship or endorsement of your site, company, product, and/or service by Elsevier. You may not use on your site any trademarks, service marks, or copyrighted materials appearing on the Services, including but not limited to any logos, without the express written consent or an explicit license of the owner of the mark or right. You may not frame or otherwise incorporate into another site any of the content or other materials on the Services without prior written consent of Elsevier.

You understand that Elsevier has not and cannot review all material made available through websites linked or linking to any part of this site. You also understand that no such linking implies in any way that Elsevier endorses or is affiliated with any third-party website. You agree that Elsevier bears no responsibility or liability for any content accessed or harm caused from any third-party website.

User Representations and Warranties

By posting any content, you represent and warrant that you have all right, title, and interest to such posted content, including but not limited to any consent, authorization, release, clearance or license from any third party (such as, but not limited to, any release related to rights of privacy or publicity) necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input or submit the content, and that posting such content does not violate or constitute the infringement of any patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of privacy, right of publicity, moral rights, or other intellectual property right recognized by any applicable jurisdiction of any person or entity, or otherwise constitute the breach of any agreement with any other person or entity. You represent and warrant that you will not use any software, which sends repeated queries to SSRN, or otherwise send automated queries of any sort to SSRN. You further represent and warrant that you shall not make any Submission anonymously, that you are who you say you are, that you have not submitted fictitious, false or inaccurate information about yourself, and that all information contained in the posted content is true, original and your own work or work you are authorized to submit, and that the posted content does not contain any threatening, harassing, libelous, false, defamatory, offensive, obscene, or pornographic, material, or other material that would violate any other applicable law or regulation. You agree that you will not knowingly and with intent to defraud provide material and misleading information. You represent and warrant that the content you supply does not violate the Terms. You agree to comply with relevant laws and regulations that apply to your use of the Services.

Indemnities

You acknowledge and agree to indemnify and hold Elsevier, its affiliates, officers, employees and agents, harmless, including costs and attorneys' fees, from any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of SSRN or the Services, your violation of these Terms, or the infringement by you or made under your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

Complaints/Failure to Comply with these Terms of Use

To raise complaints regarding alleged copyright or other intellectual property infringement, you must follow the instructions set forth on the Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy page. For publishing ethics issues such as plagiarism, please contact us at ethics@ssrn.com, and for all other complaints about the use of our Site or Submissions posted to our Site, please contact us at support@ssrn.com. We request that you provide a sufficiently detailed description of the basis of your complaint and your contact information in case additional information is necessary. We will then review your complaint and decide whether there has been a failure to comply with our Terms. We will inform you of the outcome of our review within a reasonable time of receiving your complaint.

If we receive a complaint from someone else about something that you have posted or uploaded, we will investigate the complaint carefully, following the procedures determined above. Similarly, if we ourselves consider that you have not complied with these Terms, we will investigate. In either case, if we determine, in our sole discretion and judgment, that you have failed to comply with these Terms, we reserve the right at any time to take all or any of the following actions (and any other action we reasonably deem appropriate): issue a warning to you; temporary or permanent removal of any posting or Submission uploaded by you to our Site; temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our Site and/or closure of your account; legal action against you including proceedings for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach; and/or disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities or to a third party complainant as we reasonably feel is necessary or required (and in exceptional circumstances and only where we consider a complaint is justified, this may include disclosure of your identity to the complainant); and/or use any technological, legal, operational or other means available to us to enforce the provisions of these Terms.

General Terms

Termination of Service

Elsevier disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Services or any software provided through the Services. Elsevier reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Services or access to the Services without any notice at any time and without any liability to you.

Extent of Terms

The Terms apply to use of and contribution to SSRN and any account provided therefore. Elsevier may operate additional projects or services that require separate or additional terms. Such different terms are made available through the individual project or service and are not addressed further herein. If there is a conflict between these Terms and the terms that are posted for or applicable to a specific portion of the Services, for any service offered on or through the Services, or set forth in an institutional subscription or license agreement, the latter terms shall control with respect to your use of that portion of the Services, the specific service or the subscribed or licensed product.

No Waiver of Terms

Failure of Elsevier to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision in that or any other instance. No part of these Terms shall be deemed waived, and no breach consented to, unless such waiver or consent shall be in writing and signed by the party claimed to have waived or consented. No waiver of any rights or consent to any breaches shall constitute a waiver of any other rights or consent to any other breach.

Abstract Usage Statistics and Automated Querying

Elsevier strives to maintain the integrity of the SSRN download counts and other usage statistics as a measure of readership and other use of the SSRN site by authors and readers. It is a violation of Elsevier policy for an author or other person to directly or indirectly use SSRN with a view to affecting SSRN downloads and other usage statistics, or to encourage others to do so. As part of its general right to refuse or terminate service and remove or edit site content, Elsevier reserves the right in its sole discretion to limit access, remove content, and adjust usage statistics to respond to any activity that appears likely to have such an effect.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY and LIMITATION OF LIABILITIES

SSRN IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. ELSEVIER MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE SITE'S OPERATION OR THE INFORMATION, CONTENT OR MATERIALS INCLUDED ON THIS SITE. TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY APPLICABLE LAW, ELSEVIER HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ELSEVIER WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SITE. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOU USE THIS SITE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL ELSEVIER OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, ECONOMIC, CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA OR LOSS OF USE DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS), OR SIMILAR DAMAGES, PERSONAL INJURY (INCLUDING DEATH, LOSS OF PROFITS, CORRUPTION OR LOSS OF DATA, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES) ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH THE SITE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ITS OPERATION, ITS CONTENTS OR THE INFORMATION OR MATERIALS CONTAINED THEREIN, OR THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE ANY OTHER SITE LINKED TO THE SITE, OR ANY CONTENT CONTAINED IN ANY SUCH SITE, OR THESE TERMS, OR THE COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY POLICY, OR THE PRIVACY POLICY APPLICABLE TO THIS SITE) EVEN IF ELSEVIER, ITS SUPPLIERS, OR LICENSORS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY DAMAGES THERESPECTIVE LIABILITY OF ELSEVIER, ITS SUPPLIERS AND LICENSORS SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. This exclusion and limitation only applies to the extent permitted by law and is without prejudice to any express provisions to the contrary in any written license or subscription agreement from Elsevier in respect of the use of any online service provided via this web site.

Export Controls

Where the Services, its content or any Submission consist of software that is subject to US, EU, or any other Export Controls, you represent and warrant that (i) you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government, EU or other embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government or the EU as a "terrorist supporting" country; and (ii) you are not listed on any U.S. Government, EU or any other list of prohibited or restricted parties.

 

Last updated June 2017