Last Updated: March 2008
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING MICROSOFT!
Terms of Service Outline
- What the Contract Covers
- Rights to Use Services
- How You May Use the Services
- How You May Not Use the Service
- Limitations and Conditions of the Services
- Your Content
- Privacy
- Requirements for Placing Advertisements
- How We May Change the Contract
- Your Responsibility
- Reservation of Rights
- Term
- WE MAKE NO WARRANTY
- LIABILITY LIMITATION
- Changes to the Service; Cancellation of the Service
- Interpreting the Contract
- Assignment
- No Third Party Beneficiaries
- Claim Must Be Filed Within One Year
- Consent Regarding Electronic Information
- How You May Use the Services
- Choice of Law and Location for Resolving Disputes
- Terms for Specific Services
- Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication service, and Windows Live ID Web Authentication service
- Windows Live Messenger Library
- Live Search API service
- Windows Live Photos API
- Windows Live Application Based Storage service
- Silverlight™ Streaming by Windows Live
- Exhibit A
1. What the Contract Covers.
This is a contract between you and Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft"). Sometimes Microsoft is referred to as "we," "us" or "our". This contract applies to the Windows Live Platform services identified in Exhibit A (referred to in this agreement as the "Services"). Any use by you of Windows Live services beyond the scope of the Services identified above is governed by the general Microsoft Service Agreement for Windows Live services, which is available at http://help.live.com/help.aspx?project=tou ("Windows Live Service Agreement").
Please note that we do not provide warranties for the service. The contract also limits our liability. These terms are in sections 13 and 14 and we ask you to read them carefully.
Certain services have rights and obligations associated with them that differ in some respects from the general terms provided in sections 1 through 22. You will find the rights and obligations for these services in section 23 below. To the extent that there is any conflict between the general terms and the specific terms in section 23, the specific terms in section 23 will govern.
2. Rights to Use Services.
Subject to your compliance with this agreement, you may:
- use the application programming interfaces described in Exhibit A ("APIs") to access and use the Services; and
- develop or host a web site (intended to be viewed through a general-purpose web browser) that is designed to access and use the Services only via the APIs (an "Authorized Application").
Depending on the Services that you will use, you may need to obtain an application identifier that enables an Authorized Application to access and use the service on a nonexclusive basis ("Application ID"). After you have agreed to the terms of this agreement, and supplied all required information, we may provide you with online access to an Application ID. All information you provide to us as part of the Application ID provisioning process will be accurate. You are solely and entirely responsible for all uses of the Services occurring under your Application ID.
3. How You May Use the Services.
In using the Services and developing or hosting Authorized Applications, you will:
- obey the law;
- comply with any codes of conduct, design guidelines or other notices of rules for the service that we provide;
- comply with the Microsoft Anti-spam Policy, which is available at http://privacy.msn.com/anti-spam
- keep any service account password secret;
- provide a privacy statement for each Authorized Application that accurately informs end users how data related to their use of the Authorized Application will be used; and
- promptly notify us if you learn of a security breach related to the Services.
4. How You May Not Use the Service.
In connection with an Authorized Application, and in using the Services, you may not:
- use the Services except than through an Authorized Application;
- take any action on behalf of an end user unless the end user has expressly granted you permission to take that action;
- use the Services in a way that harms us or our affiliates, resellers, distributors, and/or vendors (collectively, the "Microsoft parties"), or any customer of a Microsoft party;
- encourage or require any end user to breach the terms of the Windows Live Service Agreement;
- encourage or require any end user to provide to you, or any party other than Microsoft, a password to a Windows Live ID or Passport account;
- transmit, offer, sell, advertise, license or deliver any infringing, defamatory, offensive, or illegal products, services or materials;
- use any portion of the Services, or any web site that displays or performs content from the Services, as a destination linked from any unsolicited bulk messages or unsolicited commercial messages ("spam");
- violate any applicable law or regulation, or violate the rights of any third party (including, without limitation, rights of privacy or proprietary rights);
- mislead any end user;
- exploit minors in any way;
- use any unauthorized means to modify or reroute, or attempt to modify or reroute, the Services;
- damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Services (or any network connected to the Services) or interfere with anyone’s use and enjoyment of the Services;
- copy, modify or republish any Microsoft software that is a component of the Services;
- use more than one Application ID in connection with a single Authorized Application; or
- falsify or alter an Application ID or any unique referral identifier in, or assigned to, an Authorized Application, or otherwise obscure or alter the source of queries coming from an Authorized Application.
Microsoft reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to determine whether your use of the Services is in accordance with the terms of this agreement.
5. Limitations and Conditions of the Services.
We may use technology or other means to protect the Services, protect our customers, or stop you from breaching this contract. These means may include, for example, filtering to stop spam or increase security. These means may hinder or break your use of the Services.
We may, in our sole discretion, limit: (i) the rate at which the Services, or any subset of them, may be called, (ii) the amount of storage, if any, made available through the Services, or (iii) the size or duration of individual content segments that may be uploaded to, or served from, the Services (all of the foregoing being forms of "Throttling"). We may perform this Throttling globally across all Services, across individual Services, per end user, or on any other basis. You will not take steps to circumvent any technical measures we may put in place to enforce Throttling.
We reserve the right to include advertising in the results provided to you via the Services, in any user interface we provide for the Services, or in content served through the Services. You will not intentionally omit or obscure such advertising when providing results or displaying such content to end users. Microsoft will not be obligated to account for or share with you any portion of the revenue generated from such advertising.
You will permit us reasonable access to your Authorized Applications for purposes of monitoring compliance with this agreement. If an Authorized Application can only be accessed through accounts that are not generally made available to the public without charge, on request you will provide us with at least one free account in order to facilitate our ability to access the Authorized Application.
Where an Authorized Application seeks permission from a user to access user information from the services, the Authorized Application must provide a link to http://consent.live.com/manageconsent.aspx, or such other location as we may specify from time to time, with a clear indication that users can go to that Microsoft site to revoke such permission at any time. This requirement does not apply where the services are accessed solely through a Microsoft web control that exhibits a Microsoft user interface.
You will clearly identify to users of your Authorized Application those features that make use of the Services, either by using an Icon licensed for such use by Microsoft in the Windows Live Platform SDK License Agreement, or by using text that reflects the incorporation of the Services into the Authorized Application. This requirement does not apply where the Services are accessed solely through a Microsoft web control that exhibits a Microsoft user interface.
6. Your Content.
Except for material that we may license to you, we do not claim ownership of content you post or otherwise provide to us in connection with the Services (called a "submission"). However, by posting or otherwise providing your submission, you are granting to Microsoft free permission to:
- use, copy, distribute, display, publish, transcode and otherwise modify your submission, each in connection with Microsoft services;
- display advertising on or in close association with your submission;
- publish your name in connection with your submission; and
- sublicense these rights to others in order to provide the Services.
This section only applies to legally permissible content and only to the extent that use and publishing of the legally permissible content does not breach the law. We will not pay you for your submission. We may refuse to publish your submission, and may remove your submission from the Microsoft services at any time. For every submission you make, you must have all rights necessary for you to grant the permissions in this section.
7. Privacy.
All access to and use of the Services is subject to the data practices set forth in the Microsoft Privacy Statement available at http://privacy.microsoft.com. In particular, we may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the service; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers or the public.
You are responsible for providing end users with adequate notice of your own privacy practices. At the time you retrieve information from a Service, you will obtain informed consent from the user concerning how you will use their data, and with whom it will be shared.
8. Requirements for Placing Advertisements.
You may be able to place advertisements in or through the Services. We have no obligation to accept, publish or display any part of the advertising content. With respect to any advertising content you provide, you represent to Microsoft that:
- all advertising content is accurate, complete and current;
- you have all necessary rights, power and authority to publish the advertising content;
- you possess documents substantiating all claims, express and implied, contained within the advertising content; and
- the advertising content, and any web site listed or linked to from the advertising content:
- complies with all applicable laws and regulations;
- does not infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate any copyright, patent, trademark, service mark, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any third party;
- o does not breach the rights of any person or entity, including rights of publicity or privacy, and is not defamatory; and
- does not result in consumer fraud (including being false or misleading), product liability, tort, breach of contract, injury, damage or harm of any kind to any person or entity.
9. How We May Change the Contract.
If we change this contract, then we will provide notice as provided in section 20 below at least thirty (30) days before the change takes place. If you do not agree to these changes, then you must stop using the Services before the change takes place. If you do not stop using the Services, then your use of the Services will continue under the changed contract.
We may choose in the future to charge for use of the Services. If we choose to establish fees and payment terms for such use, Microsoft will provide advance notice of such terms as provided in section 20 below, and you may elect to stop using the Services rather than incurring fees.
10. Your Responsibility.
You will indemnify and hold the Microsoft parties harmless from and against any and all loss, liability, and expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) suffered or incurred by reason of any claims, proceedings or suits based on or arising out of any breach by you of any obligation, representation or warranty under this agreement. You will be solely responsible for defending any claim, subject to Microsoft's right to participate with counsel it selects, and you will not agree to any settlement that imposes any obligation or liability on the Microsoft parties without Microsoft's prior written consent.
11. Reservation of Rights.
Except for the licenses expressly granted under this or any other agreement, Microsoft and its suppliers retain all right, title and interest in and to the Services, the APIs and all intellectual property rights therein.
This agreement does not grant you any rights in any Microsoft logo, trademark or service mark, and you will not use any logo, trademark or service mark of Microsoft for any purpose without the prior written approval of Microsoft. You will not claim or imply any sponsorship or endorsement of your Authorized Application by Microsoft. If you use a Microsoft web control in accordance with the terms and conditions of this agreement, and the user interface of the web control is set by Microsoft, then your use of the web control in an Authorized Application is not deemed to be a use by you of any Microsoft logos, trademarks and service marks included by Microsoft within the user interface of such web control.
12. Term.
This agreement will become effective on your first use of the Services or APIs. This agreement may be terminated immediately for any reason and without notice by Microsoft. If this agreement terminates, all rights granted to you by this agreement will automatically terminate and you will cease to have any rights to use the Services or APIs.
13. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY.
We provide the Services "as-is," "with all faults" and "as available." We do not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of information available from the Services. The Microsoft parties give no express warranties, guarantees or conditions. You may have additional consumer rights under your local laws that this contract cannot change. We exclude any implied warranties including those of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, workmanlike effort and non-infringement.
14. LIABILITY LIMITATION.
You can recover from the Microsoft parties only direct damages up to an amount equal to fees you have paid to us for the Services for one month. You cannot recover any other damages, including consequential, lost profits, special, indirect, incidental or punitive damages.
This limitation applies to anything related to:
- the Services,
- content (including code) on third party Internet sites, third party programs or third party conduct,
- viruses or other disabling features that affect your access to or use of the Services,
- incompatibility between the Services and other services, software and hardware,
- delays or failures you may have in initiating, conducting or completing any transmissions or transactions in connection with the Services in an accurate or timely manner, and
- claims for breach of contract, breach of warranty, guarantee or condition, strict liability, negligence, or other tort.
It also applies even if:
- this remedy does not fully compensate you for any losses, or fails of its essential purpose; or
- Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages.
Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you. They also may not apply to you because your province or country may not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential or other damages.
15. Changes to the Service; Cancellation of the Service.
We may change the Services or APIs at any time and for any reason, with or without notice. Such changes may include removal of features, or the requirement of fees for previously-free features. Some changes to the Services may cause existing Authorized Applications to stop working. We may cancel or suspend your use of the Services at any time. Our cancellation or suspension may be without cause and/or without notice. Upon cancellation or suspension, your right to use the Services or APIs stops right away. Once the Services are cancelled or suspended, any data you have stored on the Services may not be retrieved later.
Any Services designated pre-release Services (such as through use of the terms "Community Technology Preview" or "Beta") may not work the way a final version of the Services will. We may change them for any final, commercial version. We also may not release a commercial version.
16. Interpreting the Contract.
All parts of this contract apply to the maximum extent permitted by law. A court may hold that we cannot enforce a part of this contract as written. If this happens, then you and we will replace that part with terms that most closely match the intent of the part that we cannot enforce. The rest of this contract will not change. This agreement, together with any associated SDK license agreement, constitutes the entire agreement between you and us regarding your use of the Services. It supersedes any prior contract or statements regarding your use of the Services. If you have confidentiality obligations related to the Services, those obligations remain in force (for example, you may have been a beta tester). The section titles in the contract do not limit the other terms of this contract.
17. Assignment.
We may assign this contract, in whole or in part, at any time with or without notice to you. You may not assign this contract, or any part of it, to any other person without our prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld. Any attempt by you to do so is void. You may not transfer to anyone else, either temporarily or permanently, any rights to use the service or any part of the service.
18. No Third Party Beneficiaries.
This contract is solely for your and our benefit. It is not for the benefit of any other person, except for permitted successors and assigns under this contract.
19. Claim Must Be Filed Within One Year.
Any claim related to this contract or the service may not be brought unless brought within one year. The one-year period begins on the date when the claim first could be filed. If it is not filed, then that claim is permanently barred. This applies to you and your successors. It also applies to us and our successors and assigns.
20. Notices; Consent Regarding Electronic Information.
This contract is in electronic form. We have promised to send you certain information in connection with the Services and have the right to send you certain additional information. There may be other information regarding the Services that the law requires us to send you. We may send you this information in electronic form. You have the right to withdraw this consent, but if you do, we may cancel your Services. We may provide required information to you:
- by e-mail at the e-mail address you specified when you signed up for your Services;
- by posting to a Microsoft web site that will be designated in an e-mail notice sent to you at the time the information is available; or
- by posting to a Microsoft web site that will be generally designated in advance for this purpose (such as http://dev.live.com/terms/).
21. Notices provided to you via e-mail will be deemed given and received on the transmission date of the e-mail.
As long as you can access and use the Services, you will ensure that you have the necessary software and hardware to receive these notices. If you do not consent to receive any notices electronically, you must stop using the Services.
Any notice from you will be sent electronically to: WLServ@microsoft.com
22. Choice of Law and Location for Resolving Disputes.
Washington state law governs the interpretation of this contract and applies to claims for breach of it, regardless of conflict of laws principles. All other claims, including claims regarding consumer protection laws, unfair competition laws, and in tort, will be subject to the laws of your state of residence in the United States, or if you live outside the United States, the laws of the country to which we direct your service. You and we irrevocably consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state or federal courts in King County, Washington, USA for all disputes arising out of or relating to this contract.
23. Terms for Specific Services.
This section 23 contains additional or different terms for some of the Services. To the extent that there is any conflict between the general terms stated elsewhere in this agreement and the specific terms in this section 23, the specific terms in this section 23 will govern.
Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication service, and Windows Live ID Web Authentication service
The Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication service may provide delegation control information to you. Delegation control information is system data such as authentication tokens, delegation tokens, identifiers for users, and other data not normally exposed to users. You may use the delegation control information only as part of the Authorized Application to which the information was first sent. This information is sent to a single Authorized Application and may not be shared with other applications or websites. Also, you may only use the delegation control information for a particular user to obtain access to that user's data.
You may not use any automated process or service to access or use the Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication service or the Windows Live ID Web Authentication service, other than in direct response to an interactive request from an end user to authenticate in the Authorized Application.
Any Authorized Application that makes use of the Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication service or Windows Live ID Web Authentication service must provide a prominent link in order to permit end users to easily sign out of their Windows Live ID. All applications under your control, including without limitation the Authorized Application, will respect an end user decision to sign out and will not cache or otherwise retain an association between a user who has signed out and any identity that is based on the results returned from the service.
Windows Live Messenger Library
In an Authorized Application that makes use of the Windows Live Messenger Library service, you will not:
- insert into any instant messages sent by end users any advertisement or promotion for any product or service that is not your own product or service;
- send instant messages on behalf of the end user or publish the end user’s presence state unless the end user has expressly granted you permission to take that action;
- make a record of instant messages sent to or from the Authorized Application, unless the end user has clearly given express permission to you take make such a record; or
- route messages between a Microsoft instant messaging network and another instant messaging network.
Live Search API service
You may develop, distribute and host web sites, intranet sites, applications for mobile devices or personal computer applications that are designed to access and use the Live Search API service, provided such access only takes place via the associated APIs. For purposes of the Live Search API service only, such applications are Authorized Applications.
In using the Live Search API service, you may not:
- display in the Authorized Applications any results returned from the service (including maps, photographic imagery, legends, digital watermarks, advertising, user interface elements, text, graphics, colors, logos and such other elements as we may choose to make available via the service from time to time) in a manner that modifies, adds to, minimizes, alters, obscures, blocks or misrepresents any portion of the results;
- cause advertising from a third party to appear in close proximity to a display of results returned from the service; or
- copy, store, archive, republish, sell or create a database of results returned from the service, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, except that an Authorized Application may store results in a temporary cache for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days solely for the purpose of using those results to carry out a specific user-requested action.
Windows Live Photos API
Windows Live Photos API may only be used for testing purposes, and if an Authorized Applications uses the Windows Live Photos API you may not make that Authorized Application available to the public.
In using the Windows Live Photos API, you may not store with the service or retrieve from the service data in formats other than those that are explicitly supported by the service.
Windows Live Application Based Storage service
Windows Live Application Based Storage service may only be used for testing purposes, and if an Authorized Applications uses the Windows Live Application Based Storage service you may not make that Authorized Application available to the public.
Silverlight™ Streaming by Windows Live
You will not upload to the Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live service, or use the service to display or perform on a web site, any content:
- for which you do not have all necessary permissions from the copyright holder or holders;
- which includes nudity or is obscene, indecent or pornographic;
- which incites, advocates, or expresses hatred, bigotry, racism, or gratuitous violence; or
- which is intended to threaten, stalk, defame, defraud, degrade, victimize, or intimidate an individual or group of individuals for any reason, including on the basis of age, gender, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, race, or religion, or to incite or encourage anyone else to do so.
You will not attempt to make a local non-cache copy, or help a third party attempt to make a local non-cache copy, of any content provided through the Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live service.
You will not display or perform on your web site any content provided through the Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live service that includes an advertisement or promotion for any product or service that is not your own product or service.
The Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live service permits you to upload and have streamed to end users video that has been encoded in compliance with the VC-1 standard ("VC-1 video"). A third party patent license may be necessary for distribution of VC-1 video, and no such license is hereby granted or shall be implied. Additional information may be obtained from MPEG LA, L.L.C. See http://www.mpegla.com.
Exhibit A
Windows Live Platform Services
Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication service, available at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287637.aspx
Windows Live ID Web Authentication service, available at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb676633.aspx
Windows Live Messenger Library documented at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298458.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303092.aspx
Windows Live Messenger IM Control documented at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb936682.aspx
Windows Live Presence API, available at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb936691.aspx
Live Search API service is documented through the WSDL file at:
http://soap.search.msn.com/webservices.asmx?wsdl
Windows Live Photos API service documented at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb932323.aspx
Windows Live Photos Control, available at:
http://dev.live.com/spacescontrol/
Windows Live Application Based Storage service documented at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc305108.aspx
The Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live documented at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb851621.aspx
Windows Live Contacts API documented at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb463989.aspx
Windows Live Contacts Control, available at:
http://dev.live.com/contactscontrol/
Windows Live Alerts API documentation can be found here:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb259752.aspx