S&P Dow Jones Indices

These Terms of Use were last updated on December 6, 2016. By accessing and using this web site, you agree to be legally bound by these Terms of Use and you represent that you are 18 years or older. If any of these terms are unacceptable to you, you may not access this web site until agreement has been reached between you and S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC as to the applicable terms of use.

The terms “you” and “User” refer to anyone who accesses this web site. The terms “we”, “us”, and “S&P Dow Jones Indices” refer to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC.

Subject to applicable laws and regulations, S&P Dow Jones Indices may change these Terms of Use at any time without notice. Changes will be posted to this URL. Your use of this web site after any changes have been posted will constitute your agreement to the modified Terms of Use and all of the changes. Therefore, you should read these Terms of Use from time to time for changes.

1. USE OF THE WEB SITE

S&P Dow Jones Indices grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited, revocable license to access and use the web site and its Content (as defined below) subject to the terms set forth below.

The content of the Web includes, but is not limited to, text, data, reports, images, photos, graphics, graphs, charts, animations, and videos (collectively, the “Content”).

You agree not to copy, reproduce, modify, display, perform, publish, distribute, transmit, broadcast, circulate, create derivative works from, store, or link to the web site or any Content without the express prior written consent of S&P Dow Jones Indices (which may be in the form of an email).  To request consent for uses such as linking to Content on your Web site, please contact S&P Dow Jones Indices at index_services@spglobal.com. Without limiting the foregoing, the Content may not be used in connection with the creation, structuring, development, calculation, compilation, publication or distribution of any financial instrument or product or any index or investment strategy.

2. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF S&P DOW JONES INDICES

The web site and the Content are the property of S&P Dow Jones Indices, its affiliates, or their third party licensors, and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. All trade names, trademarks, service marks and other product and service names and logos on the web site and within the Content are proprietary to their respective owners and are protected by applicable trademark and copyright laws. Any of the trademarks, service marks or logos (collectively, the “Marks”) displayed on the web site may be registered or unregistered marks of S&P Dow Jones Indices, its affiliates, or their third party licensors. Nothing contained on this web site should be construed as granting any license or right to use any of the Marks displayed on the web site without the express written permission of S&P Dow Jones Indices or the third party owner of such Marks.

3. THE USER’S CONTENT

Material that appears on the web site that is entered by you or other Users is referred to as “User Content” or “Other Content”).

You grant to S&P Dow Jones Indices the non-exclusive worldwide right to use, publish, distribute, and/or repurpose all material entered, submitted, uploaded, or transmitted into the web site by you (other than third-party material transmitted through private electronic mail) in any of S&P Dow Jones Indices’ or its affiliates print or electronic publications. You will not receive any compensation from S&P Dow Jones Indices or its affiliates in connection with your submission of Other Content to the web site.

Users submitting Other Content into the web site are responsible for the content of that material. Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices nor any of its affiliates have any responsibility for Other Content, including the content of any messages or information posted by Users, or for the content of information accessible via direct or indirect hyperlinks from the web site. However, S&P Dow Jones Indices retains the right, which it may or may not exercise in its sole discretion, to review, edit, or delete Other Content that S&P Dow Jones Indices deems to be illegal, offensive, irrelevant, or otherwise inappropriate.  Further, S&P Dow Jones Indices will act expeditiously to remove any Other Content from the web site that is alleged to be infringing.  See Section 10 below.

You may not input or distribute any material through the S&P Dow Jones Indices’ web site that is promotional in nature, including solicitations for funds or business, without the prior written authorization of S&P Dow Jones Indices.

You agree (a) to use the web site in accordance with these Terms, and (b) that you will not: (i) post or transmit any Other Content that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, tortious, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, harassing, profane, invasive of another’s privacy, indecent, bigoted, hateful, or racially, ethnically, sexually or otherwise offensive; (ii) impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your professional or other affiliation with any person or entity; (iii) post or transmit any Other Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any party; (iv) disrupt others’ normal use of the web site; (v) post or transmit any information, software or other material which contains a virus or other harmful component; (vi) post, transmit, or in any way exploit any information, software or other material for commercial or political purposes; (vii) post or transmit any information, software or other material which contains advertising (including but not limited to “junk mail” or “pyramid schemes”), or any other form of solicitation; (viii) access (or attempt to access) another User’s account or access (or attempt to access) areas to which you are not authorized access; or (ix) use the web site to violate or attempt to violate, or assist any other person or entity in violating or attempting to violate, any contractual obligations you have with S&P Dow Jones Indices, including, without limitation, any confidentiality, non-solicitation or non-competition agreements between you and S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Be advised that S&P Dow Jones Indices, at its sole discretion, shall determine whether any Other Content submitted into the web site violates these Terms of Use. While S&P Dow Jones Indices has no obligation to monitor or pre-screen the Other Content, Other Content on this web site may be pre-screened and otherwise monitored to ensure compliance with these Terms of Use. S&P Dow Jones Indices reserves the right to discontinue your access to this web site either with or without notice if S&P Dow Jones Indices has a reasonable basis to believe that you are accessing or using the web site or the Content in violation of these Terms of Use.  You also agree and understand that S&P Dow Jones Indices may preserve and disclose Content and Other Content if, in S&P Dow Jones Indices’ sole discretion, such action is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with applicable law; (b) enforce these Terms of Use; (c) respond to claims that a User has violated the rights of third parties; or (d) protect the rights, interests, property, or safety of S&P Dow Jones Indices, Users, or others. Your use of the web site constitutes your consent to such monitoring and disclosure.

You agree to indemnify S&P Dow Jones Indices, its affiliates, and any third party Content providers from all damages, liabilities, costs, charges and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, that S&P Dow Jones Indices, its affiliates, and any third party Content providers may incur as a result of either: (i) your breach of these Terms of Use; or (ii) the submission of Other Content into the web site with the use of your screen name or password.

4. ANTI-HACKING PROVISION

You expressly agree not to:

• use or attempt to use any “deep-link,” “scraper,” “robot,” “bot,” “spider,” “data-mining,” “computer code” or any other automated device, program, tool, algorithm, process, or methodology or manual process having similar processes or functionality, to access, acquire, copy, or monitor any portion of the web site, or Content found on or accessed through the web site or any Other Content without the prior express written consent of S&P Dow Jones Indices;
• obtain or attempt to obtain through any means any materials or information on the web site that have not been intentionally made publicly available either by their public display on the web site or through their accessibility by a visible link on the web site;
• violate the restrictions in any robot inclusion headers on this web site or in any way bypass or circumvent any other measure employed to limit or prevent access to the web site or its Content;
• violate the security of the web site or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the web site, its Content and Other Content, or the computer systems, networks or servers of S&P Dow Jones Indices, through hacking, password mining or any other means;
• interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the web site or any activities conducted on or through the web site, including accessing any data, content or other information prior to the time that it is intended to be available to the public on the web site; and/or
• take or attempt any action that, in the sole discretion of S&P Dow Jones Indices, imposes or may impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load or burden on the web site or S&P Dow Jones Indices’ infrastructure.

5. REGISTRATION

As part of the registration process, you may be required to select a user name and password.  In connection with the registration process, you must provide S&P Dow Jones Indices with accurate, complete, and updated information. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of these Terms of Use, which may result in immediate termination of your access. Please see our Privacy Notice for information regarding how this information will be used and maintained.

6. SPICE AND IDP

You may be required to enter into a license agreement or subscription agreement with S&P Dow Jones Indices in order to access certain Content on the web sites (including, specifically but without limitation, via SPICE and IDP). In the event that you have entered into a separate agreement with S&P Dow Jones Indices regarding your access to, use, and distribution of the Content, the terms of such separate agreement will govern in the event of a conflict with these Terms of Use, to the extent of such conflict. If you wish to access subscription-only Content, please contact Client Services at index_services@spglobal.com.

7. LIMITATION ON WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY

You are entirely liable for activities conducted by you in connection with browsing and using the web site. If you are dissatisfied with the web site or with these Terms of Use, your sole and exclusive remedy is to stop using the web site. Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices nor any third party provider will pay you any damages in connection with your browsing or use of the web site.

Access to the web site and all Content is provided “as is”. Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices, nor its affiliates, nor their third party providers guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of any information provided through this web site including the Content and Other Content. S&P Dow Jones Indices, its affiliates or their third party providers and their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents are not responsible for any errors or omissions, regardless of the cause, or for the results obtained from the use of the website, the Content and/or Other Content. S&P DOW JONES INDICES, ITS AFFILIATES AND THEIR THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE WITH RESPECT TO THE WEBSITE INCLUDING the Content and Other Content. In no event shall S&P Dow Jones Indices, its affiliates or their third party providers and their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents be liable to any party for any direct, indirect, incidental, exemplary, compensatory, punitive, special or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without limitation, lost income or lost profits and opportunity costs) in connection with any use of the website, the Content and/or Other Content even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

The opinions, observations, and analysis of S&P Dow Jones Indices and its affiliates contained in the Content are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or make any investment decisions. S&P Dow Jones Indices assumes no obligation to update any Content following publication. Users of the Content provided through this web site should not rely on any of it in making any investment decision. S&P Dow Jones Indices’ opinions, observations and analyses do not address the suitability of any security. S&P Dow Jones Indices does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor. While S&P Dow Jones Indices has obtained information from sources it believes to be reliable, S&P Dow Jones Indices does not perform an audit and undertakes no duty of due diligence or independent verification of any information it receives. S&P Dow Jones Indices keeps its activities separate from the activities of its affiliates in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of each of these activities. As a result, certain affiliates of S&P Dow Jones Indices may have information that is not available to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

8. ADDITIONAL LEGAL TERMS

Subject to applicable laws and regulations, S&P Dow Jones Indices may discontinue or change the S&P Dow Jones Indices web site or its availability to you, at any time. These Terms of Use will survive any such discontinuation.

Unless you have entered into a separate license agreement or subscription agreement with S&P Dow Jones Indices related to your access to, use, and/or distribution of the Content (see Section 6 above), these Terms of Use constitutes the entire agreement between you and S&P Dow Jones Indices relating to the web site, the Content, and Other Content and supersedes any and all other agreements, oral or in writing, with respect to the web site, the Content, and Other Content. The failure of S&P Dow Jones Indices to insist upon strict compliance with any term of these Terms of Use shall not be construed as a waiver with regard to any subsequent failure to comply with such term or provision. If any provision in these Terms of Use is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. These Terms of Use, your rights and obligations, and all claims or actions related to these Terms of Use shall be governed by the laws of the United States of America and New York State. The parties agree that the State and Federal courts located in New York, NY shall be the exclusive forums for any dispute arising out of these Terms of Use and the parties hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts. A printed version of these terms of use shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings.

As you browse through this web site, you may access other web sites that are subject to different terms of use. When you use those sites, you may be legally bound by the specific terms of use posted on such sites. If there is a conflict between these Terms of Use and those other terms of use, the other terms of use will govern with respect to use of such other sites.

9. Blog Comment Guidelines

Our Blogs are intended to serve as a vehicle to post interesting and topical articles, reports, and commentary on indexing topics. It is also intended to create an intellectual forum for varying ideas and views so that you, the reader, can express your opinion. Blogs, after all, are about creating and sharing content that results in conversations. Comments are moderated and may be reviewed before posting. We ask you to use the following guidelines to promote thoughtful and productive discussions. Thank you for your patience while your comment is being reviewed.

• Comments are Encouraged: The comment section is designed for you to voice your opinion. We welcome debate, dissent and discussion. We ask you to articulate your arguments citing sources and to refrain from personal attacks or abuse. We do reserve the right to accept or reject comments. Please be respectful.
• Keep Comments On-Topic: Try to keep all comments in line with the original post. We understand some threads diverge significantly from the original post, but all comments should relate back to the original idea.
• No Spam Please: Spam kills conversations so please do not use this blog to post unrelated links and do not use the blog for promotional purposes of any kind.
• Your Email Address Is Kept Private: Email addresses are required for commenting. They are not published on spindices.com or on our blogs, nor shared. To view our Privacy Notice, visit www.spindices.com/privacy-notice.
• Read spindices.com Terms of Use: Participation in our blogs is subject to these Terms of Use. Please read the entire Terms of Use.
• Finally, please remember that opinions, statements or views posted by bloggers and other participants on this site are communications by the persons posting them, and they are not adopted or endorsed by S&P Dow Jones Indices and do not represent the views of &P Dow Jones Indices or its affiliates.

10. Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notification of Claims of Infringement.

If you believe that Content or Other Content published on this web site is infringing, please CLICK HERE to contact S&P Dow Jones Indices’ agent.  You may also send a notice to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, 55 Water Street, 39^th Floor, New York, NY 10041 Attn. Legal Department or via email to index_services@spglobal.com. We will respond expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of the infringing activity.