Effective Date: September 1, 2024
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY. BY USING THIS WEBSITE OR THE INFORMATION OR SERVICES AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF USE, YOU MUST EXIT THIS WEBSITE IMMEDIATELY AND DISCONTINUE ANY USE OF INFORMATION OR SERVICES AVAILABLE AT THIS WEBSITE.
1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS
These Terms of Use constitute a legally binding agreement between you and WRDS, and govern your use of the on-line, web-based service provided by WRDS via the S&P Global Academic Research Essentials website (the "Service"), and any data, information and materials made available through the Service (the "Instructional Materials"). WRDS may modify these Terms of Use at any time, and will post the modified Terms of Use on this website. Any modification is effective immediately upon posting. Your continued use of this website or the information or services available at the website, will be conclusively deemed to signify your acceptance of such modifications.
2. REGISTRATION
The services offered at this website are available only to those who createaccount ("createaccounted Users"). createaccounted Users must be eighteen (18) years of age or older and must complete the registration. You agree that the registration information you provide is accurate, complete and current, and you further agree to promptly update that information to keep it accurate, complete and current. If you createaccount on behalf of a college, university or other organization, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to provide the information required and to bind the organization to these Terms of Use.
Once you have createaccounted, you will receive a user ID and password. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your user ID and password, and are responsible for all activities that occur using your user ID and password, whether or not expressly authorized by you. WRDS will not be responsible for any damages resulting from the unauthorized use of your user ID or password. You agree to notify us immediately of any such unauthorized use or any other breach of security.
3. PROPRIETARY RIGHTS IN WEBSITE AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
This website contains copyrighted material, trademarks, and other proprietary material belonging to WRDS, its licensors, createaccounted Users and others, including but not limited to software, data, text, photos, graphics and other images, specifications, audio and video files, the Service and the Instructional Materials (collectively, "Proprietary Material") that are protected by patent, copyright and other intellectual property laws. You should assume that everything you see or read and everything available on this website is protected by these laws. createaccounted Users, both students and faculty, are hereby granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited license to access and use the Service, to electronically display the Instructional Materials on one computer or other device at a time, and to download and/or make a copy of such Instructional Materials. In addition, faculty members may modify syllabi for class use. You may exercise the foregoing rights for the limited purpose of research and other educational uses, including conducting or participating in a class, seminar, course, project, research project or other educational endeavor for which credit is offered by your school, college or university, and provided that if you download or print a copy of any Proprietary Material, you retain all copyright and other proprietary notices thereon. All other rights are reserved to us and our affiliates, if any. Except as provided above, you may not reproduce, distribute, modify, adapt, create derivative works of, publicly display, transmit, broadcast, sell, license or in any way exploit the Proprietary Material, in whole or in part, or use the Proprietary Material in connection with any business or commercial activity, or personal investing, without our advance written consent. You agree to use Proprietary Material provided by another createaccounted User only for the purpose for which it was made available.
All trademarks, service marks, trade names and trade dress, whether createaccounted or uncreateaccounted (collectively the "Marks") that appear on this website are proprietary to WRDS or their respective owners. You may not display or reproduce the Marks without the prior written consent of WRDS, and you may not remove or otherwise modify any trademark notices from any Proprietary Material received through the website.
4. USER CONTENT - OWNERSHIP AND USE
By submitting, uploading or transmitting any transactions, messages, information, questions, submissions or other materials ("User Content") to this website, you represent and warrant that you own or have all rights necessary to submit, upload or transmit such User Content and otherwise use it for your intended purpose. You hereby grant WRDS an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, unrestricted license to reproduce, distribute, sub-license, modify, edit, adapt, translate, create derivative works of, publicly display, transmit, broadcast or otherwise exploit all or any portion of your User Content, for any purpose, in any and all media now known or later developed. You waive all rights to any claim against WRDS for any actual or alleged infringement of any proprietary rights, rights of privacy or publicity, moral rights and rights of attribution in connection with the User Content, and you acknowledge and agree that you are not entitled to receive any compensation for any User Content you submit, upload or transmit in connection with this website.
5. RESTRICTIONS ON USE
The website is provided solely as a convenience to you. You agree that you will not:
a. access or attempt to access any systems or servers on which the website is hosted, or modify or alter the website in any way;
b. submit, display or transmit any images, photographs, graphics, links, audio files, video files or similar User Content that exceeds this website's capacity limits;
c. submit, display or transmit any spam, duplicative messages, unauthorized promotions or advertisements, surveys, contests, chain letters or pyramid schemes;
d. forge headers, misrepresent your identity or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to deceive others or disguise the origin of any User Content transmitted to or via the website;
e. use any automated means to access or collect any information from the website (including, without limitation, robots, spiders, scripts or other automatic devices or programs); frame the website, utilize framing techniques to enclose any Proprietary Material, place pop-up windows over this website's pages, or otherwise affect the display of this website's pages; engage in the practices of "screen scraping," "database scraping" or any other activity with the purpose of obtaining content or other information;
f. use the website or the services to threaten, defame, abuse, assault, stalk, harass or otherwise violate the rights of any other person or entity, including, without limitation, rights of privacy or publicity;
g. to post, upload, publish, display, transmit, share, store or otherwise make or attempt to make publicly available on the website or on any other website, or in any email, blog, forum, medium or other communication of any kind, any private or personally identifiable information of any createaccounted User or other third party, whether such private or personally identifiable information is displayed on or ascertainable from the website, or obtained or obtainable from sources unrelated to the website;
h. publish, post, display or disseminate any User Content that is, or offer, sell, broker, purchase or seek any products or services that are, profane, obscene, pornographic, indecent, unlawful, threatening, or that promote racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual, or are otherwise offensive or objectionable;
i. upload or otherwise transmit files that contain viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, sniffers, corrupted files or other computer code designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer hardware, software or telecommunications equipment;
j. "mirror" any material or User Content contained on this website;
k. restrict or prevent any other visitor or createaccounted User of the website from using the website and/or the services; or
l. use this website to violate any applicable local, state, national or international ordinance, law, rule or regulation or use this website in a manner that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability.
6. MATERIAL POSTED BY THIRD PARTIES
WRDS does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy, reliability or appropriateness of any statement, information or material displayed or distributed through this website by parties other than WRDS. You acknowledge that by using this website you may be exposed to information that is inaccurate or unreliable, and in this respect your use of the website and your reliance upon any such third party material is at your own risk. WRDS will have no responsibility for the conduct, on-line or off-line, of any user of this website and no obligation to monitor use of the website. However, we reserve the right to review any User Content, and remove, delete, redact or otherwise modify such User Content in our sole discretion, at any time, without notice or other obligation to you. WRDS reserves the right to disclose, at any time, any User Content that WRDS deems necessary or appropriate to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, contract obligation, legal or dispute resolution process or government request.
7. COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
We expect users of this website to respect the intellectual property rights of others. We may remove material that appears in our sole discretion to infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others and we will terminate the access rights of any repeat infringer. If you believe a work protected by a U.S. copyright you own has been posted on this website without authorization, you may notify our copyright agent, and provide the following information:
a. a physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
b. identification of the copyrighted work or works claimed to have been infringed;
c. a detailed description of the material you claim is infringing, together with information sufficient to enable us to locate it, including the URL where the infringing material appears;
d. your name, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address;
e. a statement by you that you believe in good faith belief that the copyrighted material identified is being used in a manner that is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
f. a statement by you that the above information is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright allegedly infringed.
To notify WRDS of claimed copyright infringement, please contact:
Joshua Beeman, Copyright Agent
3401 Walnut Street, Suite 265C
Philadelphia, PA 19104
USA
Phone: (215) 898-2172
E-mail: dmca@isc.upenn.edu
8. LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES
This website may contain links to websites controlled, owned, and operated by third parties. WRDS cannot control and has no responsibility for the accuracy or availability of information provided on such third-party websites. You acknowledge that use of any third-party websites is governed by the terms of use for those websites, and not by these Terms of Use. Links to third-party websites do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by WRDS of such websites or the content, products, advertising or other materials presented on such websites, but are only for your convenience and you access them at your own risk. Such third-party websites may have a privacy policy different from that of WRDS and may provide less security than this website. WRDS is not responsible for the content of any third-party websites, nor does WRDS make any warranties or representations, express or implied, regarding the content (or the accuracy of such content) on any third-party websites, and WRDS shall have no liability of any nature whatsoever for any failure of products or services offered or advertised at such websites or otherwise.
9. TERM; TERMINATION OF ACCESS AND USE
a. If you are a matriculating student participating in a class, seminar, course, project, research project or other educational endeavor for which credit is offered by your school, college or university, you may access and use the Service as described in these Terms of Use, for a period of six (6) months, starting on the date you first log on to this website with your user ID and password. After the expiration or earlier termination of such term, you may access the Service for the limited purpose of viewing your fictitious portfolio and the results related to your past use of the Service for a period of one (1) year.
b. If you are a member of the faculty or administration of, or conduct a class, seminar, course, project, research project or other educational endeavor for which credit is offered by, your school, college or university, you will be able to access and use the Service as described in these Terms of Use, for a period of thirty-six (36) months, starting on the date you first log on to the Service with your user ID and password. This term will automatically renew for an additional period of thirty-six (36) months.
c. If you are a createaccounted User who would like to terminate your subscription to the Service, please contact us by email at S&P Global Academic Research Essentials-support@wharton.upenn.edu. You agree that WRDS, in its sole discretion and without notice or other obligation to you, may suspend or terminate your access to and use of this website if we believe that the information you provide is inaccurate, incomplete or not current, or if you violate any of these Terms of Use.
10. ACCESS OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES
Your personal information will be hosted and processed by WRDS (or service providers acting on behalf of WRDS) in the United States, where data protection and privacy regulations may not afford the same level of protection as the laws of certain other countries, such as the member nations of the European Union. WRDS makes no claims that our website or any of its contents are appropriate or may be downloaded or accessed outside of the United States. If you access our website from outside the United States, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with the laws of your country. You consent to the transfer of your personal information to the United States and to its collection, storage, use and sharing, as described in our Privacy Policy. You agree that all transactions relating to this website and our services will be deemed to have occurred in the United States.
11. INTERACTIONS WITH OTHERS
You are solely responsible for your interactions, both on-line and off-line, with other visitors to or createaccounted Users of this website, and with persons you meet through such visitors or createaccounted Users. You understand and acknowledge that we do not screen createaccounted Users, inquire into their backgrounds or attempt to verify the information they provide. In all interactions, whether on-line or off-line, with other visitors to or createaccounted Users of this website and with persons you meet through such visitors or createaccounted Users, you agree to take all precautions necessary to protect yourself, your property and your personal and financial information. IN NO EVENT SHALL WRDS BE LIABLE FOR AND YOU AGREE TO RELEASE WRDS FROM LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, WHETHER DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGE TO OR LOSS OF PROPERTY, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, BODILY INJURY OR DEATH RESULTING FROM YOUR COMMUNICATIONS OR OTHER CONTACT, WHETHER ON-LINE OR OFF-LINE, WITH VISITORS OR createaccountED USERS OF THIS WEBSITE, OR PERSONS YOU MEET THROUGH SUCH VISITORS OR createaccountED USERS.
12. PRIVACY POLICY
For information on our data collection practices, please read our Privacy Policy. You agree to the use of your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
13. MODIFICATIONS TO WEBSITE; SERVICE
WRDS may, directly or indirectly, make improvements or changes in the website or any portion thereof at any time without notice or obligation to you. WRDS may modify or discontinue the Service offered on the website at any time, without notice or obligation to you.
14. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
THIS WEBSITE AND ALL INFORMATION AND SERVICES AVAILABLE AT THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITH NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WRDS DISCLAIMS ALL REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THIS WEBSITE AND THE INFORMATION AND SERVICES AVAILABLE AT THIS WEBSITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, FREEDOM FROM ERRORS OR OMISSIONS, COMPUTER VIRUSES OR OTHER MALICIOUS OR UNAUTHORIZED CODE, AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR PERFORMANCE. IN ADDITION, WRDS DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, THAT THE INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE VIA THIS WEBSITE IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE OR CURRENT, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.
15. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
NEITHER WRDS, ITS AFFILIATES OR THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, REPRESENTATIVES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS OR THIRD PARTY SUPPLIERS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (EVEN IF WRDS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), WHETHER IN AN ACTION UNDER CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS, VIRUSES OR OTHER MALICIOUS OR UNAUTHORIZED CODE, THE USE, INABILITY TO USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE WEBSITE, THE INFORMATION OR SERVICES AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS WEBSITE, OR ANY LOSS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR OTHER DAMAGE SUSTAINED IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE OR THE INFORMATION OR SERVICES AVAILABLE AT THE WEBSITE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, THE LIABILITY OF WRDS OR ITS AFFILIATES IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE OR THE INFORMATION OR SERVICES AVAILABLE AT THE WEBSITE SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID IN CONNECTION WITH SUCH USE OR SUCH INFORMATION OR SERVICES. THESE LIMITATIONS WILL APPLY NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY.
16. INDEMNIFICATION
You agree, at your expense, to indemnify, defend and hold harmless WRDS and its officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, suppliers, licensors and third party partners from and against all claims, losses, expenses, damages and costs (collectively, "Damages"), including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of your use of this website or the information or services available at the website, including but not limited to the unauthorized use of your ID or password, material you access, download, submit, post, transmit or make available through this website, your violation of these Terms of Use, any business or other transaction between you and another createaccounted User of this website, and your violation of any rights of a third party.
17. GOVERNING LAW
All disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms of Use or our operation of this website shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and of the United States without regard to conflict of law principles. You agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Pennsylvania, provided that WRDS shall be entitled to apply for injunctive relief in any jurisdiction.
18. MISCELLANEOUS
These Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and WRDS with respect to this website and the information and services available at the website, and they supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between you and WRDS with respect to the website, and the information and services available at the website. If any provision of these Terms of Use is held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable under applicable law, then the invalid, illegal or unenforceable provision shall be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision, and the remainder of these Terms of Use shall continue in effect. You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and WRDS as a result of these Terms of Use, or your use of this website or the Service. The section titles in these Terms of Use are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. A printed version of these Terms of Use and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial, arbitration or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to these Terms of Use to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.
19. CONTACTING WRDS
If you have questions regarding these Terms of Use, please contact us at WRDS, 3819 Chestnut Street, Suite 217, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.