Terms of Service

Last updated December 12, 2012

By using Tune Tornado at http://tunetornado.com (the "Service"), a service of Tune Tornado Inc. (the “Company”, “we”, “our”), you (“you”, “user”, “your”) accept the following terms and conditions (the "Terms of Service").  Please also be aware of our Privacy Policy located on the Tune Tornado website (the “Privacy Policy”).  Usage of the Service is also governed by the Privacy Policy.  In case of a material inconsistency between the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, these Terms of Service shall prevail.

Tune Tornado reserves the right to change these Terms of Service, suspend or terminate the Service, suspend or terminate your Account (as further defined below), or prohibit your further use of the Service, at any time, in its sole discretion.

NOTE: IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 YEARS OLD, YOUR PARENT OR LEGAL GUARDIAN MUST REVIEW THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND AGREE TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR COMPLIANCE WITH THE TERMS OF SERVICE.  YOU MAY NOT USE THE SERVICE IF YOU ARE YOUNGER THAN 13.

Ownership of Service

The Service is the property of the Company and its licensors.  All text, graphics, user interfaces, visual interfaces, photographs, trademarks, logos, sounds, music, artwork and computer code (collectively “Content”), including but not limited to the design, structure, selection, coordination, expression, “look and feel” and arrangement of such Content contained in the Service is owned, controlled or licensed by or to the Company, and is protected by trade dress, copyright, patent and trademark laws, and various other intellectual property rights and unfair competition laws.

Except as expressly provided in these Terms of Service, no part of the Service  and no Content may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded,posted, publicly displayed, encoded, translated, transmitted or distributed in any way to any other computer, server, Web site or other medium for publication or distribution or for any commercial enterprise, without the Company’s express prior written consent.  “Tune Tornado” and “Music friends with benefits” are trademarks of the Company.

If you provide any suggestions for improvement of the Service, comments about the Service, or other feedback (“Feedback”), you acknowledge that such Feedback is voluntary, and that Company shall be free to use such Feedback without any obligation to you or restriction of any kind.

Registration & Account Obligations

You agree that any and all information provided by you during the registration process ("Registration Data") is true, accurate, and complete.  You also agree to update and maintain the Registration Data so that it remains true, up-to-date and complete.  By posting your Tune Tornado “Referrals” (as further defined below) on other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., you agree to abide by the terms and policies set by such other platforms for this kind of content.  After completing the registration process, you become a “Member” and have a Member account (“Account”).  At this time and until further notice from the Company, only individuals residing in the USA may become Members.

Earning Rewards

The Company will credit you with a “Reward” as set forth in the Rewards Schedule (as defined below) for a particular song when: 1) you send a Referral, and 2) another person (“Buyer”) purchases the song you refer through the Service.  This process is subject to the following conditions:

• the song is listed on tunetornado.com at the time of purchase by you and the Buyer (if a song is removed from tunetornado.com, then it is no longer eligible for Rewards);
• You purchase the song in the USA and provide proof of purchase to the Company;
• the Buyer receives a link for the song on tunetornado.com from you (“Referral”), or the Buyer receives a Referral from a Member who was previously a Buyer from you;
• the Buyer uses the Referral to visit tunetornado.com and in the same browser session clicks the “Buy” button on tunetornado.com to purchase the song in the USA;
• the Member’s Account is active at the time the Buyer purchases and no Member has engaged in any Prohibited Behavior (as defined below) associated with the Buyer’s purchase;
• if the Buyer is a Member and has received Referrals from various Members for the song, the Buyer must select you (or a Member who was previously a Buyer from you) in order for you to receive a Reward for the purchase;
• the Buyer provides proof of purchase to the Company and at no time attempts to revoke or receive credit for such purchase; and
• The Company receives funds from the copyright owner of the song for the purchase (this may take up to 90 days after the purchase date).

Note that no Buyer is ever required to become a Member, or to provide any additional names of potential buyers, as a condition of purchasing a song through the Service.

Reward Schedule

Rewards are earned as a percentage of the purchase price paid by the Buyer of a particular song.  The “Reward Level” of the Reward is the number of Members between the Member receiving the Reward and the Buyer.  The “Reward Percentage” is as set forth below in the Reward Schedule.  The Reward is the product of the Reward Percentage and the Buyer’s purchase price.

Reward Schedule

Rewards for Referring a New Artist

If you solicit a musician or band (“Artist”) to become the client of the Company (i.e. to contract with the Company to promote one or more songs through the Service) and if such Artist identifies you as the primary influence on their decision to become a client, then you will earn a 1% Reward for all future sales by the Artist through the Service.  This Reward will be credited when the Company receives the corresponding funds from the Artist.

Payment of Rewards

Once earned and available for distribution as described herein, credited Rewards will be delivered to you upon your request either: 1) via a PayPal transfer to the email address associated with your Account, or 2) via email delivery of an electronic Amazon gift card to your email address.  The Company reserves the right, in Company’s discretion, to impose additional options, requirements and restrictions on transfer in order to ensure that Rewards are properly delivered to the individual who is associated with the Account.

You agree to provide the Company with information to enable delivery of your Rewards.  For cumulative rewards above $600 per calendar year, this information will include a certified IRS Form W-9 which includes:

• Legal name of the Member
• Mailing address of the Member
• Social security number of the Member

Rewards will appear in your Account as they are earned, but they will not be available for delivery until they have been credited as described in the “Earning Rewards” section of these Terms of Service.

PLEASE NOTE THAT MINORS OVER THE AGE OF 13 WHO HAVE RECEIVED PERMISSION FROM THEIR PARENTS OR LEGAL GUARDIAN(S) TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SERVICE, MAY HAVE DIFFERENT THRESHOLD AMOUNTS AND TAX FILING OBLIGATIONS MANDATED UNDER APPLICABLE STATE AND FEDERAL TAX LAW.  YOU AGREE TO ABIDE BY ALL SUCH APPLICABLE TAX LAWS AND TO FULLY COOPERATE WITH THE COMPANY IN PROVIDING THE COMPANY WITH ANY TAX INFORMATION REASONABLY NECESSARY TO ALLOW THE COMPANY TO COMPLY WITH ALL OF ITS RELATED TAX OBLIGATIONS, AS APPLICABLE.

Security, Password, and Member Account

During the registration process you must create a password.  You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password.  You agree that you are responsible for any and all activities that may take place, or occur under your password and Account.  You agree to notify the Company in the event your password or Account has been used without the proper authorization or there are other breaches of security of which you become aware.  The Company will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage incurred, or later arising from your failure to comply with this section.  The Company prohibits the sale, assignment or transfer of control of any Account by you to any other individual or party.

You may terminate your Account at any time for any or no reason.  An Account is considered inactive if you do not purchase any songs on the Service or send any Referrals through the Service for a period of 12 months.  The Company reserves the right to terminate any inactive Account without notice.

If your Account is terminated for any reason, no new Rewards can be earned.  Rewards earned based on purchases made prior to Account termination will be settled as allowed under applicable law, and may include delivery in the form of an Amazon gift card sent to the email address of record on the Account when all pending Rewards on such Account have been credited.  Rewards for terminated Accounts with a Rewards balance less than $1.00 shall not be delivered to you, but shall be donated to Habitat for Humanity International.

Federal Trade Commission Endorsement Guidelines

You acknowledge that you have access to, and will abide by, the FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (the “FTC Guides”; available at http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf).  

You acknowledge and agree that your violation of any of the FTC Guides is a material breach of the Terms of Service and that we may pursue any and all available legal and equitable remedies against you, including an immediate termination of your Account and the pursuit of all available civil or criminal remedies.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its affiliates, officers, agents, partners, and employees from any claim, action, demand, loss or damages (including attorneys' fees) made or incurred by any third party arising out of or relating to your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms of Service, or your violation of any rights of a third party related to any transaction related to the Service.

Limitation of Liability & Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is made available to you for your convenience on an "as is" and "as available" basis.  THE COMPANY DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, RELIABILITY OR NON-INFRINGEMENT) REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE SERVICE.  The Company does not represent or warrant that the Service will be free of technical glitches, including viruses. You understand that the Service is still an alpha/beta version and may not perform with complete functionality, may require additional testing, may be inconsistently available, may have software viruses or "bugs" and may have other issues affecting availability and functionality (“Technical Issues”).  In addition to all other disclaimers and limitations of liability contained in these Terms of Service, you specifically agree that the Company is not liable for any Technical Issues.  Moreover, you understand that the Company does not represent or warrant that the Service will work on all or any platforms, will be compatible with all wired or wireless networks and/or will be available in any particular geographical areas.

THE COMPANY SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE, WHETHER DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF (OR THE INABILITY TO USE) THE SERVICE, OR THE RESULTS OR THE CONTENTS THEREOF, TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

If you are dissatisfied with the Service, or feel you have any other disputes or claims with or against the Company with respect to the Service or these Terms of Service, then your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the Service and terminate your Account.

Prohibited Behavior

You shall not, and shall not authorize or encourage any third party to do any of the following: Each is a “Prohibited Behavior”:

• open more than one Account for any person;
• send unsolicited emails with Referrals to anyone other than a USA resident that you personally know;
• create Referrals for more than 5 new songs each calendar month;
• post Referrals on message boards or other online venues in violation of such venues’ terms of use;
• engage in spam linking -- spam linking is defined as multiple consecutive submissions of the same or similar content into blogs, wikis, guest books, websites or other publicly accessible online discussion boards or forums and is not allowed. This includes blog spamming, blog comment spamming and/or spamdexing.  Any comments you make on blogs, forums, guest books, etc., must be unique, informative and relevant.
• use discourteous, profane or otherwise offensive or inappropriate language connected to a Referral, the Company or its websites, or other Members;
• directly or indirectly generate clicks on any Company Referral or “buy” link through any automated, deceptive, or fraudulent means, including, but not limited to, repeated manual clicks, the use of robots or other automated query tools and/or computer generated requests;
• edit, modify, filter, or truncate any Referral or other link associated with the Service;
• frame, minimize, remove or otherwise inhibit the full and complete display of any webpage accessed by an end user on the Service;
• redirect an end user away from any webpage on the Service;
• directly or indirectly access, launch, and/or activate any part of the Service in any software application, website, or other means other than your property(ies) and social networking accounts and then only to the extent expressly permitted by the Terms of Service;
• "crawl", "spider", index or in any non-transitory manner store or cache information obtained from any URL associated with the Service;
• create a new Account to use the Service after the Company has terminated your Account for any Prohibited Behavior;
• violate or misuse any Content trademarks or any intellectual property of the Company
• engage in any action or practice that reflects poorly on the Company or otherwise disparages or devalues its reputation or goodwill;
• willfully violate the terms and conditions of any of the platforms the Service works with now or in the future, including Facebook and Twitter;
• attempt to interfere with the relationship between the Company and its Members or its Artists;
• participate in the Service where doing so would be prohibited by any applicable law or regulation;
• when presenting or discussing the Service to prospective Members, you may not make income projections or income claims other than examples of the same posted on the Service, or engage in any unlawful behavior; OR
• act in any way that violates any of these Terms of Service, as they may be revised from time to time, or any other agreement between you and the Company.

If you engage in any Prohibited Behavior, the Company may immediately terminate your Account, void some or all of your earned Rewards, and you must return any Rewards which were previously delivered to you if they were earned as a result of, or while engaging in any Prohibited Behavior.

Communications and Notices from the Company

From time to time, the Company may send official “Notices” or information about your Account or the Service to you via email or regular mail related to your Account and these Terms of Service, and you give us explicit permission to do so by creating an Account.  The Company may also display Notices to Members or links to such Notices on the Service.  We encourage you to read these Notices and check for them on a regular basis, because these Notices will apply to you and your Account immediately upon delivery or posting, whether or not you actually review them.  

We are continuously developing the features and functionality of the Service.  Consequently, we reserve the right to modify these Terms of Service at any time at our sole discretion.  If you are dissatisfied with or do not agree to abide by any modified Terms of Service, you acknowledge and agree that your sole remedy is to close your Account and discontinue use of the Service.  

When the Company makes changes to these Terms of Service, the 'last updated' date at the top of this document will be revised accordingly.  If there are material changes to the Terms of Service, we will send Notice to you of such modifications by posting a message on the Service and/or sending a Notice to the email address associated with your Account.  You agree to be bound by such modifications when you use the Service and the modifications shall be effective at the time of delivery to you or posting on the Service, whichever is earlier.  Your continued use of the Service after any modifications to the Terms of Service will indicate your agreement with the modifications.

Adherence to Laws and Ordinances

You acknowledge and agree to comply with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations in your activities related to the Service and conduct as a Member.  Many cities and counties have laws regulating certain home-based activities that can potentially generate income.  In most cases these ordinances are not applicable to Members because of the nature of their Membership.  However, Members must obey those laws that do apply to them.  If a city or county or other government official tells a Member that an ordinance applies to him or her, the Member shall be polite and cooperative, and immediately send a copy of the ordinance to: legal.

Independent Parties

You acknowledge and agree that your legal relationship with the Company will at most be that of an independent contractor, and nothing herein will make you an agent or legal representative of the Company, nor will you be considered a joint venturer or partner with the Company for any purpose.

Income Taxes

Each Member is responsible for paying local, state, and federal taxes on any income generated as a Member.  Every year, the Company provides an IRS Form 1099 MISC (Non-employee Compensation) earnings statement to each U.S. Member who had earnings of over $600 in the previous calendar year.  Failure to cooperate with the Company in providing all reasonable tax information requested to facilitate and complete this process will be deemed a material breach of your obligations hereunder.

Miscellaneous

In the event that any portion of these Terms of Service is held to be invalid or unenforceable, then such portion will be construed in accordance with the applicable law as nearly as possible to reflect the original intentions of the parties, and the remainder of the Terms of Service will remain in full force and effect.  No waiver will be effective unless in writing.  These Terms of Service will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California.  Except for proceedings commenced by us to protect our intellectual property or confidential information which may be brought in any court of competent jurisdiction, you agree that any and all disputes arising hereunder will be resolved exclusively by state or federal courts located in San Jose, California.  These Terms of Service contain the entire agreement between you and the Company concerning the subject matter hereof and supersede all existing agreements and all other oral, written or other communication between you and the Company concerning the subject matter hereof.