Welcome to the user agreement (the "Agreement" or "User Agreement") for Global Artistry LLC. This Agreement describes the terms and conditions applicable to your use of our services available under the domain of www.globalartistry.com (the "Site") and the general principles of our international affiliates. If you do not agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement, do not use or access our services.

If you have any questions, please refer to our User Agreement Frequently Asked Questions or our User Agreement Revision Frequently Asked Questions.

You must read, agree with and accept all of the terms and conditions contained in this User Agreement and the Privacy Policy, which include those terms and conditions expressly set out below and those referenced, before you may become a member of Global Artistry LLC. We strongly recommend that, as you read this User Agreement, you also access and read the information contained in the other pages and websites referred to in this document, as they may contain further terms and conditions that apply to you as a Global Artistry user. Please note: underlined words and phrases are links to these pages and websites. By accepting this User Agreement, you also agree that your use of other Global Artistry websites will be governed by the User Agreement and Privacy Policy posted on those websites.

We may amend this Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on the Site. Except as stated below, all amended terms shall automatically be effective 30 days after they are initially posted on the Site. In addition, we may notify you at the e-mail address you have provided to us, however we are not required to do so. This Agreement may not be otherwise amended except in a writing signed by you and Global Artistry LLC. This Agreement is effective upon acceptance in registration for new registering users, and is otherwise effective on September 1st, 2005 for all users.

Our services are available only to, and may only be used by individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, our services are not available to children (persons under the age of 18) or to temporarily or indefinitely suspended Global Artistry members. If you are a under the age of 18, you can use this service only in conjunction with, and under the supervision of your parents or guardians. If you do not qualify, please do not use our Site. Further, your Global Artistry account (including feedback) and User ID may not be transferred or sold to another party. If you are registering as a business entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind the entity to this Agreement.

Joining Global Artistry as an artist, a seller of art or a shopper is free. We do charge commissions for selling pieces through our Site. As you list a piece you have an opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged. Our Fees and Credits Policy is available and is incorporated into this Agreement by reference. We may change our Fees and Credits Policy and the fees for our services from time to time. Our changes to the policy are effective after we provide you with at least fourteen (14) days' notice of the changes by posting the changes on the Site. However, we may choose to temporarily change our Fees and Credits Policy and the fees for our services for promotional events (for example, free listing days) and such changes are effective when we post the temporary promotional event on the Site. We may in our sole discretion change some or all of our services at any time. In the event we introduce a new service, the fees for that service are effective at the launch of the service. Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in U.S. Dollars. You are responsible for paying all fees associated with using our service and the Site and all applicable taxes.

Global Artistry acts as a venue
Global Artistry acts as a venue to allow anyone to offer, sell, and buy artwork, at anytime, from anywhere with a fixed price format. We are not involved in the actual transaction between shoppers and artists. As a result, we have no control over the quality, safety or legality of the pieces advertised, the truth or accuracy of the listings, the ability of artists to sell pieces or the ability of shoppers to pay for pieces. Any transactions are solely between the artist and the shopper, and Global Artistry shall not be liable in any way for any claims arising out of any transaction.

We use many techniques to verify the accuracy of the information our users provide us when they register on the Site. However, because user verification on the Internet is difficult, Global Artistry cannot and does not confirm each user's purported identity. We encourage you to communicate directly with potential trading partners through the tools available on the Site and outside of the Site.

Because we are a venue, in the event that you have a dispute with one or more users, you release Global Artistry (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees) from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code §1542, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."

We do not control the information provided by other users that is made available through our system. You may find other users' information to be offensive, harmful, inaccurate, or deceptive. Please use caution, common sense, and practice safe trading when using the Site. Please note that there are also risks of dealing with underage persons or people acting under false pretense. Additionally, there may also be risks dealing with international trade and foreign nationals. By using this Site, you agree to accept such risks and Global Artistry is not responsible for the acts or omissions of users on the Site.

As a buyer, you are obligated to complete the transaction with the seller if you purchase a piece through our fixed price formats.
By buying a piece you agree to be bound by the conditions of sale included in the piece's description so long as those conditions of sale are not in violation of this Agreement or unlawful. Unless you and the seller agree otherwise, you will become the piece's lawful owner upon physical receipt of the piece from the seller. Sales are not retractable except in exceptional circumstances, such as: when the seller materially changes the piece's description after you bid; a clear typographical error is made; you cannot authenticate the seller's identity; or when the seller does not confirm your purchase. If you choose to bid on mature audience pieces or pieces that are restricted to adult use, you are certifying that you have the legal right to purchase such pieces.

You must be legally able to sell the piece(s) you list for sale on the Site. You must describe your piece and all terms of sale on the listing page of the Site. Your listings may only include text descriptions, graphics, pictures and other content relevant to the sale of that piece. All listed pieces must be listed in an appropriate category. All pieces in multiple piece listings must be identical.

For all pieces you list, you are obligated as the seller to complete the transaction, unless there is an exceptional circumstance, such as: (a) the buyer fails to meet the terms of your listing (such as payment method), or (b) you cannot authenticate the buyer's identity.

Without limiting any other remedies, Global Artistry may suspend or terminate your account for any reason, including if we suspect that you (by conviction, settlement, insurance or escrow investigation, or otherwise) have engaged in fraudulent activity in connection with the Site.

Global Artistry's Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program works to ensure that listed pieces do not infringe upon the copyright, trademark or other rights of third parties. VeRO program participants and other rights owners can report listings offering infringing pieces, and request that such pieces be removed. VeRO program participants and other rights owners may have limited access to some of your personal information as described in the Privacy Policy at (http://www.globalartistry.com/privacy/.

Neither you, bidders nor artists may manipulate the price of any piece nor may you interfere with other user's listings or transactions.

1. Definition.
   "Your Information" is defined as any information you provide to us or other users in the registration, bidding or listing process, in any public message area (including the biography or any feedback area) or through any email feature. You are solely responsible for Your Information, and we act as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of Your Information.
2. Restricted Activities.
   Your Information (or any pieces listed) and your activities on the Site shall not:
   1.   - be false, inaccurate or misleading;
   2.   - be fraudulent or involve the sale of counterfeit or stolen pieces;
   3.   - infringe any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;
   4.   - violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, antidiscrimination or false advertising);
   5.   - be defamatory, trade libelous, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing;
   6.   - be obscene or contain child pornography or, if otherwise adult in nature or harmful to minors, shall be posted only in the Mature Audiences section and shall be distributed only to people legally permitted to receive such content;
   7.   - contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, easter eggs or other computer programming routines that may damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information;
   8.   - create liability for us or cause us to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our ISPs or other suppliers; and
   9.   - link directly or indirectly to or include descriptions of goods or services that:
      1.    -- are prohibited under this Agreement;
      2.    -- are identical to other pieces you have up for sales but are priced lower than your other piece's sales price;
      3.    -- are concurrently listed for sale on a web site other than Global Artistry's (this does not prevent linking to or advertising an Global Artistry piece from another web site); or
      4.    -- you do not have a right to link to or include.
   Furthermore, you may not list any piece on the Site (or consummate any transaction that was initiated using our service) that, by paying to us the listing fee or the final value fee, could cause us to violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, or that violates our current Prohibited, Questionable and Infringing Pieces.

Solely to enable Global Artistry to use the information you supply us with, so that we are not violating any rights you might have in that information, you agree to grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in Your Information, in any media now known or not currently known, with respect to Your Information. Global Artistry will only use Your Information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

You agree that you will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Site for any purpose without our express written permission. Additionally, you agree that you will not:

1.   - take any action that imposes, or may impose in our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
2.   - copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute or publicly display any content (except for Your Information) from the Site without the prior expressed written permission of Global Artistry and the appropriate third party, as applicable;
3.   - interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site or any activities conducted on the Site; or
4.   - bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Site.

1.   - Integrity.
   You may not take any actions that may undermine the integrity of the feedback system. We may limit the number of bids and listings you may place on the Site based upon the level of your feedback. If you earn a net feedback rating of -4 (minus four), your membership may be suspended, and you may be unable to list or bid.
2.   - Export.
   You acknowledge that your feedback consists of comments left by other users and a composite feedback number compiled by Global Artistry, and that the composite number without the comments does not convey your full user profile. Because feedback ratings are not designed for any purpose other than for facilitating trading between Global Artistry users, you agree that you shall not market or export your Global Artistry feedback rating in any venue other than an Global Artistry operated website.
3.   - Import.
   We do not provide you the technical ability to import feedback from other (non-Global Artistry operated) websites to Global Artistry because a composite number, without the corresponding feedback does not reflect your true online reputation within our community.

Without limiting other remedies, we may limit your activity, immediately remove your bids or piece listings, warn our community of your actions, issue a warning, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership and refuse to provide our services to you if:

1.   - you breach this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by reference;
2.   - we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide to us; or
3.   - we believe that your actions may cause financial loss or legal liability for you, our users or us.

We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent and we only use your information as described in the Privacy Policy. We view protection of users' privacy as a very important community principle. We understand clearly that you and your information is one of our most important assets. We store and process your information on computers located in the United States that are protected by physical as well as technological security devices. We use third parties to verify and certify our privacy principles. Our current Privacy Policy is available at http://www.globalartistry.com/privacy/. If you object to your Information being transferred or used in this way please do not use our services.

WE, OUR SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, MANAGERS, MEMBERS, EMPLOYEES AND OUR SUPPLIERS PROVIDE OUR WEB SITE AND SERVICES "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. WE, OUR SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, MANAGERS, EMPLOYEES AND OUR SUPPLIERS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. Some states do not allow the disclaimer of implied warranties, so the foregoing disclaimer may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other legal rights that vary from state to state.

IN NO EVENT SHALL WE, OUR SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR OUR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH OUR SITE, OUR SERVICES OR THIS AGREEMENT (HOWEVER ARISING, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE).
OUR LIABILITY, AND THE LIABILITY OF OUR SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND SUPPLIERS, TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTIES IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT OF FEES YOU PAY TO US IN THE 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACTION GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY, AND (B) $50. Some States do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.

You agree to indemnify and hold us and (as applicable) our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, managers, members, agents, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by reference, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

You shall comply with all applicable domestic and international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding your use of our service and your bidding on, listing, purchase, solicitation of offers to purchase, and sale of pieces.

You and Global Artistry are independent contractors, and no agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement.

Except as explicitly stated otherwise, any notices shall be given by postal mail to Global Artistry Attn: Legal Department 1716 North Hudson, Chicago, IL 60614 (in the case of Global Artistry) or to the email address you provide to Global Artistry during the registration process (in your case). Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid. Alternatively, we may give you notice by certified mail, postage prepaid and return receipt requested, to the address provided to Global Artistry during the registration process. In such case, notice shall be deemed given 3 days after the date of mailing.

In the event a dispute arises between you and Global Artistry, our goal is to provide you with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. Accordingly, you and Global Artistry agree that any claim or controversy at law or equity that arises out of this Agreement or our services ("Claims") shall be resolved in accordance with one of the subsections below or as otherwise mutually agreed upon in writing by the parties. Before resorting to these alternatives, we strongly encourage you to first contact us directly to seek a resolution and we will consider reasonable requests to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation, as an alternative to litigation.

For any Claim (excluding Claims for injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of the award sought is less than $10,000, you or Global Artistry may elect to resolve the dispute through binding arbitration conducted by telephone, on-line and/or based solely upon written submissions where no in-person appearance is required. In such cases, the arbitration shall be administered by the American Arbitration Association or JAMS in accordance with their applicable rules, or any other established ADR provider mutually agreed upon by the parties. Any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.

Alternatively, any Claim may be adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Cook County, Illinois or where the defendant is located (in our case Chicago, Illinois, and in your case your home address or principal place of business). You and Global Artistry agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of Chicago, IL.

Alternatively, Global Artistry will consider use of other alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as binding arbitration to be held in Cook County, Illinois or another location mutually agreed upon by the parties. All Claims (excluding requests for injunctive or equitable relief) between the parties must be resolved using the dispute resolution mechanism that is selected in accordance with this Section by the first party to file a Claim. Should either party file an action contrary to this Section 19, the other party may recover attorneys' fees and costs up to $1000, provided that the party seeking the award has notified the other party in writing of the improperly filed Claim, and the other party has failed to withdraw the Claim.

The following policies are incorporated into this Agreement by reference and provide additional terms and conditions related to specific services offered on the Site:

•   - Privacy Policy: http://www.globalartistry.com/privacy/
•   - Outage Policy: http://www.globalartistry.com/outage.php
•   - Board Usage Policy: http://www.globalartistry.com/board_policy.php
•   - Listing Policy: http://www.globalartistry.com/listing.php
•   - Investigations Policy: http://www.globalartistry.com/investigations.php
•   - Prohibited, Questionable & Infringing Piece Policy: http://www.globalartistry.com/prohibited.php
•   - Unpaid Piece Policy: http://www.globalartistry.com/unpaid.php

Each of these policies may be changed from time to time and are effective immediately after we post the changes on the Site. In addition, when using particular services on the Site, you agree that you are subject to any posted policies or rules applicable to services you use through the Site, which may be posted from time to time. All such posted policies or rules are hereby incorporated by reference into this Agreement.

This Agreement shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of Illinois as such laws are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within Illinois between Illinois residents. We do not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to our services, and operation of the Site may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. You agree that this Agreement and all incorporated agreements may be automatically assigned by Global Artistry in accordance with Section 16 "Notices", in our sole discretion, Headings are for reference purposes only and in no way define, limit, construe or describe the scope or extent of such section. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to the subject matter hereof. Sections 2 (Fees and Services) with respect to fees owed for our services, 3.3 (Release), 6 (License), 7 (Access and Interference), 12 (Liability Limit), 13 (Indemnity) and 17 (Resolution of Disputes) shall survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement.

The services hereunder are offered by Global Artistry LLC, located 1716 N Hudson, Chicago, IL 60614. Commercially available parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that may assist you in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors. If you are interested in learning more about these protections, information is available at http://www.safetysurf.com/ or other analogous sites providing information on such protections. The preceding link is provided for information purposes only, and is not intended as an endorsement of SafetySurf.com's Internet site, services, or policies. Global Artistry is not affiliated with SafetySurf.com. Disputes between you and Global Artistry regarding our services may be reported to Customer Support by going to http://support.globalartistry.com. We encourage you to report all user-to-user disputes to your local law enforcement, postmaster general, or a certified mediation or arbitration entity. Additionally, you may report complaints to the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 400 R Street, Sacramento, CA 95814, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.