World Community Grid Terms of Use

World Community Grid Terms of Use

These Terms of Use are effective as of September 20, 2021. The previous version of our Terms of Use is available here.

Thank you for your interest in World Community Grid ("WCG"). World Community Grid started as an IBM philanthropic initiative that enables anyone with a computer, smartphone, game console or tablet to donate their unused processing power to scientific research on health and other research benefiting humanity. World Community Grid was transferred to Krembil Research Institute ("Krembil Research") at University Health Network and below are the updated terms of use.

The Terms of Use apply to your use of the World Community Grid website (the "WCG Site" or "Site") and your participation in World Community Grid Research projects ("WCG Research Projects"). Please read the Terms of Use so you will know what to expect. In addition, please read the information here to learn how World Community Grid works.

By participating on the WCG Site or in WCG Research projects, you agree that:

  1. You are at least 18 years old and, if you are accepting these Terms of Use on behalf of a company or other entity as well as for yourself, you are authorized to do so. The information you submit in your registration with World Community Grid (e-mail address) is accurate and current. Such information will be included in your World Community Grid profile. You may include, if you so choose, additional information in your profile. You agree to maintain the security of, and not allow others to use, your member name or password. You are responsible for your profile and activities on this Site, and it is up to you to decide what information you disclose about yourself on this Site. The World Community Grid privacy statement shall apply to your information collected through the WCG Site, including User Content that you post or provide. "User Content" consists of content, such as pictures, information and opinions, that you post using the social communication features on the WCG Site, such as forums, wikis and blogs.
  2. This WCG Site contains proprietary notices and copyright information, which you must observe and follow. Krembil Research owns World Community Grid and the WCG Site. Krembil Research owns, or has authority to post, all content on the WCG Site (other than the Required Software (as hereinafter defined) and User Content ("Site Content"). Krembil Research grants you non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited permission to access the WCG Site and the Site Content and to participate in WCG Research Projects. You may not copy, reproduce, upload, post, modify, transmit, mirror on another site or in any other media, distribute or create derivative works of the WCG Site or the Site Content. Krembil Research does not grant you any express or implied rights or licenses under any patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other proprietary or intellectual property rights. "Required Software" is software from Krembil Research or a third party that you will need to run on your device to participate in WCG Research Project.
  3. You are responsible for all User Content that you upload, post, display, submit or otherwise transmit ("post") to the WCG Site.
    1. You agree to only post User Content that you created or developed or that you have permission or authorization to post. Krembil Research may, in its sole discretion, for any reason or no reason at all, access, delete, edit or remove any User Content posted on this Site, without permission of or notification to the participant who posted the User Content. Krembil Research may (but is not obligated to) monitor the activities and postings of participants (or be alerted to the same) on this Site for any reason, such as if Krembil Research believes such action is necessary to comply with any law or act in an emergency.
    2. User Content may be made available to third party search engines on the Internet as well as though the Site’s search engine. User Content that you post will be available for use on a global basis by Krembil Research, other participants and others, who are not participants, but who view the User Content on the Internet without royalties or restrictions.
    3. The social communication features on the WCG Site are effective ways to interact with others and share such items as stories, motivation, project news, milestones, technical support and troubleshooting information. Remember that these tools are intended for individuals who wish to share and discuss their participation in World Community Grid. They are not intended for personal or non-World Community Grid related topics or agendas, for sharing confidential or restricted information, for aggregating lists of contacts for sale or distribution, for soliciting sales or employment, or for human resources related subjects. The World Community Grid Communication Guidelines provide additional direction.
    4. Krembil Research, other participants and others who are not participants but who view the User Content on the Internet may use User Content, in whole or in part, for any purpose, may create derivative works thereof and may sublicense others to do the same.
    5. You may cease being a participant on the WCG Site or any WCG Projects at any time for any reason or no reason at all. If you cease your participation in WCG, your member name will be deactivated (so you cannot access the site anymore), but your User Content will remain on the Site visible to other participants. Krembil Research will disassociate your User Content from your member name. Krembil Research and other participants may continue to use User Content as provided in Section 3.b and 3.d above.
    6. Krembil Research is not responsible for User Content or the accuracy of any User Content or the accuracy of any User Content posted. Participants shall remain solely responsible for the User Content they post. User Content does not represent the views or opinions of Krembil Research. Krembil Research does not guarantee that any User Content is correct or accurate and Krembil Research does not endorse any User Content.
  4. Your use of the WCG site and your participation in any WCG Research project are subject to, and you agree to read and comply with, this Terms of Use and the World Community Grid Communication Guidelines.
    1. You will not use any team or individual name or ID or content or hyperlink to another site in connection with World Community Grid or the WCG Site that could be considered offensive or objectionable in any way. Krembil Research will have the sole discretion to decide whether a Name, ID Content or Hyperlink to another site is offensive or objectionable in any way. At Krembil Research’s request, you will immediately change the Name or ID, remove the content, and end the hyperlink. In the event you include a hyperlink to another site, you will make it explicit that World Community Grid is not responsible in any way for that site or its content.
  5. Krembil Research may, at any time, modify, change, discontinue or terminate World Community Grid or the WCG Site or any WCG Research projects in whole or in part.
  6. You agree to indemnify Krembil Research and its affiliates and their respective directors, officers, agents, contractors and employees from and against losses, claims, costs and expenses, including attorney’s fees, arising out of or relating to (i) your User Content, (ii) your violation of these Terms of Use or violation of applicable law and (iii) your activities on the WCG Site.
  7. Krembil Research is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of any sites linked to or from the WCG Site.
  8. Krembil Research may change the Terms of Use at any time. Krembil Research will give notice of material changes to these Terms of Use by posting a notice outlining such changes on the WCG Site for thirty days. Your continued use of the WCG Site after changes are made will constitute your acceptance of any changed or new terms. If you do not accept such changed or new terms, you may terminate this agreement as provided in Section 19 below.
  9. From time to time, Krembil Research may add specialized sections or areas of this Site (such as those targeting specific topic for discussion or specific participants) or may offer for download software or other materials, for which additional terms and conditions may be applicable. Prior to your participation in such specialized sections or areas or your download of such materials, your acceptance of such additional terms and conditions will be required.
  10. You may terminate this agreement with Krembil Research at any time by providing written notice to Krembil Research in accordance with Section 19 below. If you terminate, you will uninstall, or remove, any Required Software or Site Content you might have downloaded. Krembil Research may, for any reason (such as violation of these Terms of Use or the WCG Guidelines) or no reason at all, terminate this agreement with you with or without notice. Upon termination, your member name will be deactivated and you will no longer be able to access the log in portions of the WCG Site or participate in WCG. Your User Content will be disassociated with your member name and remain available on the WCG Site, as provided in Section 3.e above.
  11. To participate in World Community Grid, you will need to run Required Software on your device including software made available for grid computing from third parties, such as the University of California. Depending on your device settings, you may receive automatic software updates. You agree to comply with the software license for any such software, and you will use the software only as permitted by such licenses. The term "your device" means a device you own or for which you have the owner's permission to use for participating in WCG or running WCG Research projects. You agree that you will only run the software on your device.
  12. If World Community Grid is run in an environment where you are charged for the use of any of central processor power, graphics processing unit, storage space, memory or network bandwidth, then running World Community Grid may cause you to incur higher charges than you otherwise would. You agree that those costs and any other costs or expenses you may incur in running World Community Grid are your responsibility and will not be reimbursed by Krembil Research or anyone else.
  13. Krembil Research may make available certain materials intended for you to share with third parties in order to spread the word about World Community Grid, for example on the Spread the word page. Krembil Research grants you a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use the marketing materials solely for the purpose of spreading the word about World Community Grid.
  14. USE OF THE WCG SITE AND PARTICIPATION IN WORLD COMMUNITY GRID AND WORLD COMMUNITY GRID RESEARCH PROJECTS ARE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. WORLD COMMUNITY GRID, THE WCG SITE, SITE CONTENT AND REQUIRED SOFTWARE (WHETHER PROVIDED BY KREMBIL RESEARCH OR A THIRD PARTY), INCLUDING ALL MATERIALS, INFORMATION, PRODUCTS, SOFTWARE, SERVICES AND PROGRAMS PROVIDED ON THIS SITE, ARE PROVIDED "AS IS," WITH NO WARRANTIES OR GUARANTEES WHATSOEVER. KREMBIL RESEARCH EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, AND OTHER WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES, OR REPRESENTATIONS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. KREMBIL RESEARCH DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, THAT THE WCG SITE IS SECURE, OR THAT THE WCG SITE OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES THE WCG SITE AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT IF YOU DOWNLOAD OR OTHERWISE OBTAIN MATERIALS, INFORMATION, PRODUCTS, SOFTWARE (INCLUDING REQUIRED SOFTWARE), PROGRAMS, OR SERVICES, YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT MAY RESULT, INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA OR DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
  15. IF YOU SUFFER ANY HARM OR LOSSES AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE WCG SITE, SITE CONTENT, REQUIRED SOFTWARE, USER CONTENT OR YOUR PARTICIPATION IN WCG RESEARCH PROJECTS, YOU MAY CEASE BEING A PARTICIPANT IN WCG OR ON THE WCG SITE OR ANY WCG RESEARCH PROJECTS, WHICH SHALL BE YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR SUCH HARM OR LOSSES. IN NO EVENT WILL KREMBIL RESEARCH BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY TYPE WHATSOEVER RELATED TO OR ARISING FROM THE WCG SITE, SITE CONTENT, USER CONTENT, REQUIRED SOFTWARE, ANY USE OF THIS SITE OR ANY WCG PROJECT, OR OF ANY SITE OR RESOURCE LINKED TO, REFERENCED, OR ACCESSED THROUGH THIS SITE, OR FOR THE USE OR DOWNLOADING OF, OR ACCESS TO, ANY MATERIALS, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE (INCLUDING REQUIRED SOFTWARE), PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY LOST PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOST SAVINGS OR LOSS OF PROGRAMS OR OTHER DATA, EVEN IF KREMBIL RESEARCH IS EXPRESSLY ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS EXCLUSION AND WAIVER OF LIABILITY APPLIES TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORIES.
  16. This agreement will be governed by the substantive laws of the Province of Ontario, and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein.
  17. This is the entire agreement between the parties relating to your participation in World Community Grid, and it supersedes any prior oral or written agreements or understandings about it.
  18. If any provision of these Terms of Use is found by competent judicial authority to be unenforceable in any respect, the validity of the remainder of these Terms of Use will be unaffected. These Terms of Use (and the documents referred to in these Terms of Use) constitute the entire agreement between you and Krembil Research with respect to your use of this Site.
  19. Krembil Research may give you notice by posting on the WCG Site or by email to you at the email address you provided to Krembil Research (if you provided one). Krembil Research
  20. You agree to comply with all applicable laws, including, without limitation, privacy laws and export (and re-export) and import laws, regulations, orders, and policies.
  21. Krembil Research will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf). Krembil Research will terminate without notice participants who are "repeat infringers" of copyrights.
  22. Krembil Research may offer features that allow you to opt-in to link your World Community Grid activities to social media networks, like Twitter. It is entirely up to you whether or not to use such features.