Terms of Service

Last modified: January 20, 2015

Article 1. Using our Services

  1. These Terms and Conditions (the "Terms") set forth the terms between SHIFT Inc.(“SHIFT”) regarding the usage of the service under the name of "Chibineko" (the "Service") provided by SHIFT. The User shall use the Services in accordance with the contents of the Terms.
  2. The Terms apply to all acts of Users in their use of the service.
  3. Users are considered to have agreed to all the content stated in the Terms upon using the service.

Article 2. Definition

  1. "Chibineko" means the WEB service (https://chibineko.jp) that SHIFT owns and operates. Chibineko includes the followings:
    (a) similar or related Chibineko Website (including subdomain, different languages, widgets, smartphones, and so on), (b) a platform operated by SHIFT, (c) social plug ins, (d) software (e.g. toolbar), devices, and networks, existing or not-yet existing.
  2. "The other Terms and regulations" mean agreements other than the Agreement that specify the Terms of the Services, regardless of their titles, including use agreements for fee-based services and use agreements for any other services.
  3. "Platform" means a set of APIs and services (such as contents) that enable others, including application developers and website operators, to retrieve data from Chibineko or provide data to us.
  4. "Information" mean facts and other information about you, including actions taken by Users and non-Users who interact with Chibineko.
  5. "Development Information" means programs, contents and materials related to software, Web sites, applications or the like that Users of the Services or others involved with Chibineko use this Services to plan, develop, store and manage; records of development-related communication; information obtained by using any of the Services; facts or the like of their being engaged in development; and any other development-related facts or information.
  6. "Other contents" mean every information posted by Users and the third parties, and it.
  7. "User information" mean the information related to Users, development information, and all or a part of other contents.
  8. "data" means any data, including a user's contents or information that you or a third party can retrieve from Chibineko or provide to Chibineko through Platform.
  9. "post" means to post on Chibineko or otherwise make available by using Chibineko.
  10. "use" means to use, run, copy, publicly perform or display, distribute, modify, translate, and create derivative works of.

Article 3. Scope of the Terms

  1. The conditions of the Service use is published in the Terms and other Terms and regulations. The Other Terms of Use shall make-up a part of the Terms, regardless of the title.
  2. If provisions of the Term and the other Terms (and regulations) are not consistent, the Term shall prevail the other Terms.

Article 4. Changes of the Terms

  1. SHIFT reserves the right to change the Terms at its discretion without providing prior notice to Users.
  2. The modification will become effective once the modified Terms are posted on an appropriate location within Chibineko Website, unless otherwise specified by SHIFT.
  3. Users shall be deemed to have granted valid and irrevocable consent to the modified Terms by continuing to use the Service.

Article 5. Responsibility of Uses

  1. SHIFT believes Users’ privacy is very important.
  2. SHIFT handles personal information properly based on our privacy policy.

Article 6. Preparation of Computer Environment

  1. Users shall supply the necessary computer environment (hardware, software, data connection) for using the Service under Users' own responsibility and at Users' own expense.
  2. Users shall, with its own costs and responsibilities, prepare and maintain security systems suitable for the Users' environment for use of the Service to avoid computer virus attacks, unauthorized access, information leakage, etc.
  3. SHIFT will not be responsible for preparation of computer environment.

Article 7. Users' Responsibility

  1. Users use this service on their own responsibility.
  2. Users are responsible for all the information they provide to this service. SHIFT is not responsible for the information.
  3. The User understands that SHIFT is not responsible for damages and loss of the data, and the User shall take backup of the data.
  4. In the event of defamation of character, violation of privacy rights, the unauthorized disclosure of a third party's personal information, the Copyright Act of Japan violations or any other infringement on the rights of individuals, the User shall bear all responsibility in those cases.

Article 8. Prohibited Matters

Users shall be prohibited from engaging in any of the following activities with respect to the use of the Service. In cases where SHIFT determines that the act of the Users to transmit information in the Service falls or is likely to fall under any of the items of Article 8, SHIFT may delete all or part of such information without any prior notice to Users. SHIFT shall in no event be responsible or liable for any damage incurred by the User as a result of an action taken by SHIFT pursuant to this Article 8.
（1） Infringement or possible infringement of SHIFT or any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, intellectual property, privacy or proprietary right.
（2） Any conduct which defames, harasses, disadvantages, damages or discredits (including slander and libel) a third party or SHIFT.
（3） Use this Service by pretending to be someone else or misrepresenting that he/she has authority of representation or agency when in fact he/she has no such authority or that he/she has a tie-up with or in a collaborative relationship with another person or organization.
（4） Any conduct which induces or tends to criminal acts, such as a fraud, drug abuse, child prostitution, illegal trade of saving accounts or mobile phone.
（5） Performance of any of the following acts related to the information of obscene, child pornography, or child abuse, develop information, and contents("these information" hereafter)
　　1. Acts to post or to indicate the information.
　　2. Acts to sell media saved the information.
　　3. Acts to post or to indicate advertisements that induce to spread (send, indicate, sell) the information.
（6） Acts that utilize the Service for the purpose of sexual activity or other sexual or obscene activities.
（7） Acts that lead Users to gamble illegally or to join it.
（8） Acts that take on, intermediate, and induce illegal acts(transfer of guns, production of the explosive substance, offer of the child porno, forgery of an official document, murder, threats, and so on).
（9） Acts to induce a suicide or to seduce into it.
（10） Acts to post or to indicate information related to followings.
　　1. Pictures and information of murder and crime scene.
　　2. Pictures and information of corpses.
　　3. Pictures and information of other cruelties.
（11） Acts to post information related to following contents.
　　1. Any content that discriminates or defames SHIFT, any other person or any entity, encourages discrimination against and/or damage the reputation of SHIFT, any other person or entity.
　　2. Information enabling identification of a specific person, such as names, addresses, where to work, phone number. It includes the case that enabling identification by collating with other information.
　　3. False information and contents that are difficult to check the facts.
　　4. Information that should be reported to proper public institution, such as problems in sanitary management.
　　5. Information related to troubles or claims.
　　6. Other information that SHIFT considers inappropriate.
（12） Acts to post or send message to others about following information.
　　1. Information of commercial advertisement, publicity, and campaigns except for what SHIFT approved.
　　2. Information includes affiliates.
　　3. Information that induce others to.
　　4. Information that includes a bank account number.
　　5. Information that lead Users to websites that SHIFT considers inappropriate, which intend to circulate harmful programs (i.e. website for adults, child pornography, internet virus), one-click fraud website, illegal gambling (especially including posting the links).
　　6. Acts that cause discomfort to other users, such as posting grotesque images.
　　7. All other acts that SHIFT considers inappropriate.
（13） Acts that post personal information enabling specific person on this website where every user can see it.
（14） Acts that randomly disseminate messages to unsolicited Users and/or invites unsolicited Users.
（15） Acts that SHIFT considers as a spam(postings, message, word, and URL), chainmail or multi-post, which randomly sends other Users email message and comments, etc.
　　1. spam word; randomly posting more than one word that has no or little relevance to such space, extremely lengthy sentence or a large number of words to any space of the site where a User can post.
　　2. spam URL; posting or transmitting identical URL to any space of the site where a User can post.
　　3. Other acts that SHIFT considers as a spam act.
（16） Illegally change or delete data on this site.
（17） Send or post computer viruses.
（18） All acts that may cause trouble to the Service and our network, including mass data transfer that give too much load on the server.
（19） Act that provides links to encourage an action, knowing that the action may fall under any of the preceding items.
（20） Act that is deemed by SHIFT to be against any law, ordinance, public order, standards of decency, Terms of Service or other Terms and regulations, or to be an infringement of any right of others.
（21） Other activities that SHIFT thinks not acceptable.

Article 9. Changes of Services

SHIFT reserves the right to modify or cease, at the SHIFT's own discretion, the Service at anytime without any prior notice to Users.

Article 10. Right of the User information and its use

  1. Users shall guarantee the User information not to violate any third party right. In case any dispute occurs among the User and the third party, the Users must solve at users' own responsibility.
  2. All the intellectual property rights, such as copyright, moral rights of authors of the Contents belong to the original creator.
  3. Users may, from time to time, be provided with features that may enable them; to the extent the User sets, to share with other users; let other multiple users to edit or the like; or open to the general public, pieces of the User information posted by users on the Services. In that case, it is understood that the User uses those features on his/her own responsibility, without any responsibility whatsoever on the part of SHIFT.
  4. SHIFT can browse, use, and save the User information and other contents contributed by Users as needed to operate its business, build and improve systems, and for its maintenance.
  5. The User information in the form as determined in the preceding paragraph and when the User uses the User information, the name or part of the Information displayed can be omitted.
  6. When SHIFT utilizes the User information by the Article 4, we respect the publication range of the Information that the User sets.

Article 11. Delete of Information

Under the following circumstances, SHIFT approves and agrees to be able to delete all or a part of the contents whether it is illegal or breaches of the Terms. However, SHIFT is not obligated to implement such measures.
（1） If Information containing photographs or depictions of (partially or fully) naked people (including characters from anime/manga, regardless of whether the person is real or not) is posted.
（2） If a public organization or an expert (i.e. the nation, a local public body, reliability assurance body that is defined by the guideline under the Act on the Limitation of Liability for Damages of Specified Telecommunications Service Providers and the Right to Demand Disclosure of Identification Information of the Senders, Internet Hotline Center and lawyers) points out or expresses its opinion saying Contents is illegal, against public moral or violates rights of others.
（3） If a right holder, makes a claim that Contents violate the rights of the right holder. However, this is limited to situations in which documentation is shown by the right holder, it can be reasonably concluded that the right holder have the rights, and SHIFT has deemed the right holder to have proprietary rights after careful consideration.

Article 12. Disclaimers

  1. When a dispute occurs among Users, the Users shall resolve it and SHIFT bears no responsibility for it. User shall take some reasonable measures to prevent dispute among Users on their own.
  2. In any of the following events, SHIFT may temporarily stop operation of Services without prior notice to or approval by users. The same applies to damages emerging from a loss in display speed due to overloaded access or other unforeseen factors.
  3. SHIFT has no obligation to observe and delete the User information that users provide.
  4. SHIFT has no obligation to save the User information that users provide.
  5. SHIFT can post advertisements of SHIFT or third party's on the website.
  6. SHIFT does not guarantee the Contents in the Service or other related service for their legality, morality, reliability, accuracy, appropriateness, completeness, etc. The User information posted by the users concerning the internal rules of propriety for corporations and organizations they belong to, SHIFT assumes no responsibility.
  7. SHIFT is not responsible for any offensive, inappropriate, obscene, unlawful or otherwise objectionable content or information the User may encounter on Chibineko.
  8. In cases below, SHIFT can disclose the information to others without any responsibilities for losses.
    （1） To elucidate the causes of technical failure of the Service, if necessary cancellation.
    （2） Inquired by public organization(such as court, police).
    （3） In the case of a violation of Terms has occurred and SHIFT considered that we need to check the User information.
    （4） If SHIFT judges that there is an urgent need to prevent damages to a person's life, body, or property.
    （5） If it is necessary to properly operate this Service more.
  9. SHIFT, shall not be liable if it determines there is sufficient probable cause to believe that an act done or conduct may violate the Terms or other Terms and regulations as the registered user who performed the acts will be punished with cancellation of the account, removal of all or part of information, and even in cases for changes in the public that caused loses.
  10. In any of the following events, SHIFT may temporarily stop operation of services without prior notice to or approval by Users, which Users in advance approve. Even if a temporary stop of operation of Services causes damages of Users, SHIFT shall not be liable for it.
    （1） SHIFT performs maintenance of a server for Services, modifies or changes specifications of Services, fix a defect in Services, etc.
    （2） Operation of Services becomes difficult or impossible because an act of God or other emergency event has occurred or threatens to occur or a relevant law, regulations or the like has been revised or newly established.
    （3） Otherwise, SHIFT judges that it is necessary to temporarily stop operation of services, due to any compelling reason.
  11. If this Terms or the other terms and regulations fall under a consumer contract provided for in paragraph 3 of Article 2 of the Consumer Contract Act of Japan, the provisions of the Terms or other terms and conditions that completely exclude liability of SHIFT for damages shall not apply. In such cases, if any loss or damage is caused to a Developer as a result of default or tort committed by SHIFT, SHIFT shall be liable for damages only if such default or a tort is committed intentionally or through gross negligence, and the SHIFT’s liability shall be limited to the actual loss or damage suffered by the said Developer.

Article 13. Validity of the Terms and other Terms and regulations

  1. When a part of the Terms becomes invalid or is cancelled due to the change of law etc., the validity of the other Terms and regulations would stay valid.
  2. When a part or entire Terms is considered to be invalid or cancelled with a particular user, the Terms is still valid to other users.

Article 14. Measures for violation of this Agreement and other Terms and regulations

  1. If a violation is discovered, Users can report the violation using the query form. However, SHIFT takes no responsibility for answering, solving or handling the inquiry.
  2. If a user is found to violate these Terms, or in any other situation the Service has deemed necessary, SHIFT may take the following action against that user.
    （1） Request that the conduct that is in violation of these Terms be ceased and that the same conduct not be repeated.
    （2） Act to require the User to delete or modify the User information.
    （3） Act to delete whole or a part of the User information, and to change its areas open to limited or private.
    （4） Act to force suspension disposal.
  3. The user can't object to SHIFT's measure.

Article 15. Disputes

  1. These Terms shall be governed by the laws of Japan.
  2. Any dispute arising out of the Terms shall be subject to the exclusive venue of the Tokyo District Court in Japan, and the parties hereby consent to the venue and jurisdiction of the courts.
  3. If anyone brings a claim against SHIFT related to users' actions, contents or Information on this service, the user will indemnify and hold SHIFT harmless from and against all damages, losses, and expenses of any kind (including reasonable legal fees and costs) related to such claim. Although SHIFT provides rules for user conduct, it does not control or direct users' actions on this Service and are not responsible for contents or Information transmit or share on Chibineko. SHIFT is not responsible for any offensive, inappropriate, obscene, unlawful or otherwise objectionable content or information you may encounter on Chibineko. SHIFT is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any user of Chibineko.

Article 16. General

  1. If any portion of this Statement is found to be unenforceable, the remaining portion will remain in full force and effect.
  2. If we fail to enforce any of this Statement, it will not be considered a waiver.
  3. The Users are not allowed to transfer the rights and obligation of the Terms without SHIFT's approval.
  4. All of our rights and obligations under this Statement are freely assignable by us in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, or by operation of law or otherwise.
  5. Nothing in this Statement shall prevent us from complying with the law.
  6. This Statement does not confer any third party beneficiary rights.
  7. SHIFT reserves all rights in and to this service not otherwise granted in this Agreement.
  8. The User will comply with all applicable laws when using or accessing this service.

Article 17. Language

  1. In the event of discrepancy between the English version and the Japanese version of this Terms, the Japanese　version shall prevail.

Supplementary Provision

  1. This Terms of Use is effective since January 20th 2015.
  2. This Terms is applied to activities of users before the release date.