Terms of Service

Seedrate (seedrate.com) is operated by Vida Technology, LLC, a Colorado company, doing business as Seedrate ("Seedrate", "we", "us"). These terms are a contract between you and Vida Technology, LLC. By creating an account or using Seedrate you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use Seedrate.

1. What Seedrate is

Seedrate is a community site for gardeners: a database of seed varieties and packets, tools for tracking your own seeds and grow logs, planting guidance based on your location, and reviews and ratings written by users. Seedrate does not sell seeds. Links to seed companies take you to their sites, and any purchase is between you and them.

2. Who can use Seedrate

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under 18, you may use Seedrate only with a parent's or guardian's permission. You must give accurate account information, keep your password to yourself, and tell us at support@seedrate.com if you think your account has been used without your permission. You are responsible for what happens under your account. One person, one account; do not create accounts for others or to evade a suspension.

3. Your content

"Your content" means anything you add to Seedrate: reviews, ratings, notes, grow logs, lists, photos, and the seed packets, varieties and companies you submit.

You own your content. So that Seedrate can work, you grant Vida Technology, LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, display, adapt (for example to resize a photo or excerpt a review), and distribute your content on Seedrate and in connection with promoting Seedrate, and to let our service providers do the same on our behalf.

For content you post publicly, such as reviews, ratings, photos, public lists and the packets, varieties and companies you submit, this license is perpetual and irrevocable, because other gardeners rely on that content and may have bookmarked or referenced it. You can still edit or delete any of it yourself while you have an account. If you delete your account, public content may remain on Seedrate without your username and with no link to you, as described in the Privacy Policy. For private content, such as private lists, grow logs and notes, the license ends when you delete the content or your account, and we delete it, apart from copies that persist for a limited time in backups.

Factual data you contribute to the database, such as a variety's days to maturity, planting depth or a company's website, is not creative work you can withdraw; it becomes part of Seedrate's database.

You promise that you have the right to post your content, that it is your own experience and opinion where it is presented as such, and that it does not infringe anyone's rights.

4. Rules for content and conduct

Seedrate is a gardening site, and we keep it civil. Do not post content that is sexually explicit, pornographic, or otherwise adult in nature; that contains profanity, obscenity, slurs, name-calling or personal insults, whether aimed at a person, a company or a variety; that harasses, threatens, demeans or bullies anyone; that is hateful toward a person or group; that is defamatory, deceptive, or invades someone's privacy; that infringes a copyright, trademark or other right; that is spam, commercial solicitation, or an advertisement unrelated to the discussion; or that is illegal. Blunt criticism is welcome; "these seeds did not germinate" and "I disliked the flavor" are fine; abuse is not.

Do not post reviews you were paid or otherwise compensated to write, reviews of products you or your employer sell without saying so, fake reviews, or reviews written by or on behalf of a seed company about its own or a competitor's products. Our Review Guidelines explain what makes a useful review and how we moderate.

Do not interfere with Seedrate: no scraping or bulk copying of the database, no automated account creation, no attempts to get around security or rate limits, no uploading of malware, and no use of Seedrate to build a competing database.

5. Moderation and termination

We may review, edit for formatting, hide, or remove any content, and suspend or close any account, if we believe in good faith that it violates these terms, our guidelines, or the law, or if it harms Seedrate or its users. Where content breaks a civility rule but is otherwise useful, we may remove it and email you so that you can post an edited version. We moderate reviews on the same criteria whatever their rating; we do not remove or hide reviews because they are negative. We are not obligated to monitor content, and we may keep content that a user has reported if we conclude it does not violate our rules.

We close the accounts of repeat copyright infringers, as described in our Copyright Policy.

You can close your account at any time from your settings page. Sections 3 (for content that remains), 8, 9 and 10 survive termination.

6. Seedrate's content and data

Seedrate's database, software, design, text and compilations are owned by Vida Technology, LLC or its licensors and are protected by copyright and other laws. Seed packet images and packet text shown on Seedrate belong to the seed companies that produced them and are shown for identification and reference, attributed to those companies. Data attributions for public datasets we use appear on our About page. You may use Seedrate for your own personal, non-commercial gardening. You may not copy, republish, sell or redistribute Seedrate's database or any substantial part of it without our written permission.

7. Gardening information, links and affiliate relationships

Planting windows, frost dates, hardiness zones, germination and maturity figures and everything else on Seedrate are general information compiled from seed packets, public datasets and user experience. They are estimates, not guarantees. Growing conditions vary; use your own judgment and local knowledge, and do not rely on Seedrate for anything where a mistake would cause serious loss.

Seedrate links to seed companies and other third-party sites. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content, products, prices, shipping or privacy practices. Some links may be affiliate links: if you buy after following one, the company may pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate relationships never affect how varieties are ranked, described or reviewed. Where a company has a paid or sponsored placement on Seedrate, we label it as such.

8. Disclaimers

Seedrate is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, Vida Technology, LLC disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and does not warrant that Seedrate will be accurate, uninterrupted, secure or error-free, or that any seed, variety or growing advice on Seedrate will perform as described.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Vida Technology, LLC and its owners, employees and service providers will not be liable to you for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages, or for any loss of crops, plants, data, profits or goodwill, arising out of or related to Seedrate or these terms, even if we were told such damages were possible. Our total liability for all claims relating to Seedrate is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim (currently nothing, since Seedrate is free) and one hundred US dollars. Some jurisdictions do not allow some of these limitations, in which case they apply to the extent the law permits.

10. Indemnity

If someone brings a claim against Vida Technology, LLC because of content you posted or because you broke these terms, you agree to defend us and cover the resulting losses, including reasonable attorneys' fees.

11. Copyright complaints

If you believe content on Seedrate infringes your copyright, send a notice to copyright@seedrate.com or to the address below with the information required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Our Copyright Policy explains what to include, how we respond, and how a user whose content was removed can file a counter-notice. Sending a knowingly false notice or counter-notice can make you liable for damages.

12. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that we cannot resolve informally will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Denver, Colorado, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction. Before filing a claim, contact legal@seedrate.com and give us thirty days to try to resolve it with you.

13. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms as Seedrate changes. The date at the top tells you when they last changed. For material changes we will email account holders or post a notice on the site before the change takes effect. Continuing to use Seedrate after that date means you accept the new terms; if you do not, close your account.

14. General

These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and Vida Technology, LLC about Seedrate. If a court finds any part unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a term, that is not a waiver. You may not transfer your account or these terms to anyone else; we may transfer them to a successor as described in the Privacy Policy.

15. Contact

legal@seedrate.com

Vida Technology, LLC d/b/a Seedrate, 2401 Valley View Dr., Denver, CO 80221