The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (hereafter called ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’, ‘ISKCON’) allows the user (hereafter called ‘user’, ‘you’) to use our communication and collaboration system ISKCON.NET according to the terms of this Agreement and according to Google’s terms of service and Google’s G Suite terms of service.
By applying to join or by being a user of ISKCON.NET, you are agreeing to be bound by the terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree to these terms, you are not permitted to access or use ISKCON.NET.
This service is free of cost except for optional chargeable add-ons that are specifically stated as chargeable on this website.
MEMBERSHIP
The purpose of ISKCON.NET is to provide a communication and collaboration platform for members of ISKCON. We reserve the sole and absolute right to determine your eligibility to join the system, and to grant or refuse you admission to the system on these terms.
You should regularly retrieve your email from ISKCON.NET, or otherwise forward your mail to a valid email address at a mail server outside of ISKCON.NET. If you fail to do so, after 12 months of inactivity, any new mail to your mailbox that originates from outside ISKCON.NET will be refused, and the sender will receive a message saying that the message could not be delivered because you are absent. Also ISKCON.NET members will be warned of your absence when they try to send you mail. And after two years of inactivity, your mailbox will be erased without further formalities.
SERVICES
You are allocated an account on ISKCON.NET. We are providing you these services free from cost under Google’s free Google for Nonprofits programme. You agree to abide by Google’s terms and conditions and policies.
Through your ISKCON.NET mailbox, you will be able to communicate with other members of ISKCON.NET, and will have access to the groups on ISKCON.NET according to the rules outlined by the organisers of those groups. You may also subscribe your email address (user@iskcon.net) to mailing lists outside of ISKCON.NET, as well as send mail to and receive mail from standard email addresses of the format name@domain.
We reserve the right to refuse or remove email that we in our sole judgment determine to be spam email as well as email messages that we determine to be grossly unethical, contrary to the published system regulation, or likely to be in violation of national or international law. We also reserve the right to block email from sources that send out such mail.
CONNECTION
You connect to ISKCON.NET via your internet browser or via any compatible email software. For this to function, you must establish an Internet connection through any ISP (Internet Service Provider) of your choice. You must finance that connection yourself. You must do the installation and configuration of the required Internet hardware and software yourself, according to the instructions of your ISP.
If you forward your mail to an email address at a mail server outside of ISKCON.NET, and the forwarded email bounces for longer than one month, then the forwarding may get canceled.
GROUPS
ISKCON.NET allows for Google Groups mailing lists.
External users can be members of the group only if the purpose of the group is to manage something.
Each group has an owner who is fully in charge of it. The group owner is responsible for adding and removing members, and may moderate the group at his sole discretion. The group owner may restrict membership according to certain criteria, which he should make clear in the presentation of the group.
Through the groups directory, you can join a group either by selecting to join (if it is marked as public), or by requesting its owner (if it is marked as private).
By being a member of a group, you agree to the policies of the owner regarding everything that concerns that group. However, if the group is an ISKCON group (when the group name starts with “(ISKCON)”), and you feel that ISKCON law is being transgressed in that group, then you may complain to the GBC committee for email and web content (if the owner is not responding to complaints).
You are free to withdraw from a group at any time. The owner also has the right to refuse you access to the group if you do not comply with its rules.
You may also host one or more groups yourself. You become thus known as the owner of these groups.
The emails in the groups are considered a collection of emails owned by the group owner, therefore the group owner should moderate the group in such a way that the contents of the email in the group meets the standards that we set.
The group owner may delete posts at his sole discretion, and may also choose not to display an online group archive, in which case the only record of that group that exists will be the emails that group members receive.
If for 18 months no new posts are posted in a group, then the group will be erased altogether. A warning will be sent to the group owner one month in advance.
USER SUPPORT
The administrators of ISKCON.NET (support [at] iskcon [dot] net) try their best to answer your questions and help you with problems, but cannot guarantee that they will always reply to every single email they receive, or within any specific time frame. User support is only available through email and is provided at our sole discretion.
TERMINATION OF CONTRACT
You may cancel your membership at any time. If you wish to remove your mailbox right away, you can request us to do so. Otherwise, it will be erased after two years of inactivity.
We reserve the right to terminate your membership or refuse to extend it. We may exercise this right if we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have violated the terms of this agreement, or that you have unduly infringed upon the rights of other users, or that other reasons make such termination right and proper.
In the event that we terminate your membership, we will promptly inform you by sending a notice in your email mailbox and at the latest seven days later, refuse you further access to ISKCON.NET.
We will in most cases duly warn you via email before closing your account.
RESELLING AND CONVEYANCE
You must not resell or convey this contract and/or access to mailboxes on ISKCON.NET without prior written approval from us.
We remain the owner of all rights to the data and services that you are provided with. The system may not be modified, decompiled or reverse engineered, or used for purposes other than intended.
LIMITATION OF RESPONSIBILITY, FORCE MAJEURE
We disclaim all warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to proper working and fitness for the purpose, regarding all of our services and information.
We are not responsible for breach of contract in the event of disaster, fire, lightning damage, explosion, war, riots, flood, strikes, or action or negligence on the side of any of our government authorities and/or service suppliers.
In no event will we be liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use or inability to use ISKCON.NET.
You must guard your password against unauthorised use.
You are responsible for backing up your data. We do not provided backup or data recovery under any circumstances.
REPRESENTATION AND FEES FOR SPAM
You agree to make sure that your conduct always conforms and will conform to all applicable laws and regulations, and do not and will not violate the rights of any third parties. You agree that you remain legally responsible for any illegal or injurious material you transmit through e-mail.
Sending of the following types of emails to external email addresses is not allowed: any periodic emails (newsletters, announcements etc.) to which the recipient did not specifically opt in, comments (reply to all) on emails with many receivers, I-have-to-tell-this-to-everyone emails, any email to a person who might report it as spam, hate mail, any undesired email, emails to a group in your address book or similar.
If you send out spam mail via ISKCON.NET, you agree to pay us a fee of USD 100 for each occurrence. Spam includes all forms of unsolicited mail, i.e. bogus virus warnings, surveys, chain letters, unwanted advertisements, pyramid or “get rich quick” schemes, or any commercially oriented materials not requested by the receivers.
SEVERABILITY
If any provision of this Agreement (or portions thereof) will be held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable either in our jurisdiction or in your country of residence, the validity, legality or enforceability of the remainder of this Agreement will not in any way be affected or impaired.
WAIVER OF CONTRACTUAL RIGHTS
The failure of either party to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver or limitation of that party’s right to subsequently enforce and compel strict compliance with every provision of this Agreement.
ENTIRE AGREEMENT
This Agreement contains the entire Agreement and there are no other promises or conditions in any other Agreement whether oral or written. This Agreement supersedes any prior written or oral Agreements between the parties. There are no amendments.
Because ISKCON.NET has international membership, this Agreement is written in English. As translations to other languages may introduce differences, only this English version is authoritative. You certify that before accepting this Agreement, you have understood every detail of this Agreement.
Any legal disputes must however be dealt with by a court in Los Angeles, USA.
