Terms of Use

These terms (the “Terms”) govern any use by you of ORCHIDS.ORG (the “Site”) and all of the content, software, services, products and web sites (collectively, the “Services”) offered by the registered 501 (c)(3) public charity, The International Orchid Foundation, Inc (the “Organization”).

By accessing the Site and/or using any of the Services, you agree to be bound by all of the Terms and Conditions of this Agreement. Your activities on the Site or use of the Services may also be governed by additional guidelines, rules or agreements, all of which are incorporated by reference herein. The Organization reserves the right to modify these Terms, at its sole discretion, with or without notice to you.

1. Description of Services

The Services include access to a collection of informational and educational resources, including various communications tools, forums, search services, and personalized content which may be accessed through any various medium or device now known or hereafter developed.

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features that augment or enhance the current Services, shall be subject to the Terms. You understand and agree that the Service is provided "AS-IS" and that the Organization assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, misdelivery or failure to store any user communications or personalization settings. You are responsible for obtaining access to the Service, and that access may involve third-party fees (such as Internet service provider or airtime charges). In addition, you must provide and are responsible for all equipment necessary to access the Service.

2. Eligibility/Registration

You agree that your activities on the Site and any use of the Services shall be in accordance with (a) these Terms, (b) the Site’s Community Guidelines, and (c) any applicable law, regulation or generally accepted practices or guidelines. Use of the Services is limited to parties that lawfully can enter into and form contracts under applicable law. Without limiting of the foregoing, minors may not use the Services without the supervision of a responsible adult.

You agree that you will not engage in any activity that, in the Organization’s sole judgment, interferes with or disrupts the Services, the servers and networks which are connected to the Services, or the activities of others on the Site or the quiet enjoyment of others on the Site. Your failure to comply with this requirement may result in immediate suspension of your right to access one or more of the Services. You acknowledge and agree that in the event of such suspension, you may be prevented from accessing the Services, your account details or any files or other Content (as defined in Section 5) contained in your account.

In order to use certain of the Services, you may have to first register by providing your real name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and/or other relevant information, as appropriate. By registering, you represent that you have all requisite right, power and authority to bind yourself to any applicable agreement(s) and to perform your obligations thereunder. If you are acting on behalf of a company, school or other organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind your company, school or other organization to said Services. You agree to provide accurate and complete information, and to update such information as necessary to keep it up-to-date and accurate. The Organization reserves the right to review all registration applications, and to accept or reject any applicant(s) in its sole judgment. You may not transfer or assign your registration to any other party.

You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any password associated with any account you use to access the Services and for any and all activities that occur under your account. If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or of your account, or of any other breach of security you must notify the Organization immediately at You understand that through your use of the Services you consent to the Organization’s collection and use of your registration data and certain other information about you, all as set forth in the Organization’s Privacy Policy, posted at www.orchids.org/privacy , and updated from time to time.

The Organization may access, preserve, and/or disclose your account information, or Content if required to do so by law, or in a good faith belief that such access, preservation, or disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with legal process, (b) enforce the Terms; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties, (d) respond to your requests for customer services, or (e) protect the rights, property, or personal safely of the Organization, its users, and/or the public.

3. Fees

Certain of the Services may require the payment of fees to the Organization or other users. Any such fees, and acceptable methods of payment, will be detailed in the relevant agreement, rules or guidelines governing such Service(s).

4. Advertising and Other Communications

The Organization may also display advertising in connection with any of the Services, in its sole discretion, and/or in emails to its registered users. You may not opt out of or in any way block such advertisements or any service announcements, administrative messages, or other communications from the Organization, the receipt of which are a condition of your use of the Services.

5. Acceptable Behavior.

Without limiting any other provision of these Terms, you agree that you will not:

1. Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content (as defined in Section 6) that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
2. Harm minors in any way;
3. Impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Organization official, forum leader, host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
4. Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through a Service;
5. Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships;
6. Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
7. Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;
8. Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
9. Act in a manner that negatively affects other users’ quiet enjoyment of the Services;
10. Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;
11. Intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including any regulations having the force of law;
12. “Stalk” or otherwise harass another; and/or
13. Collect or store personal data about other users, except as is explicitly provided for in any applicable agreement or guidelines governing one or more of the Services;
14. Set up additional account(s) to be used for deceptive purposes (“Sock Puppet Accounts”).

6. Content

The Organization is not responsible for any information, data, text, photographs, graphics, video, messages, tags, or other material (collectively referred to herein as “Content”) posted by Users of the Site. The Organization makes no representations with respect to the accuracy, integrity, or quality of any such Content, and shall not in any way be liable for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Service.

You are solely responsible for any Content posted by you on the Site or offered by you through a Service, including, without limitation, for any errors or omissions in any Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted, or otherwise made available via the Services. You represent that you have the right to post or transmit such Content, and, by posting or transmitting such Content, you give the Organization a license to publish and distribute such Content though the Services and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed. You are solely responsible for protecting and enforcing any intellectual property and other rights in your Content; the Organization shall have no obligation to do so on your behalf.

Content presented to you as part of the Services, including but not limited to advertisements in the Services and sponsored Content within the Services may be protected by intellectual property rights which are owned by the sponsors or advertisers who provide that Content through the Services (or by other persons or companies on their behalf). You may not modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on such Content that you do not own unless you have been explicitly granted a license to do so by the owner of that Content, in a separate agreement.

You understand that by using the Services you may be exposed to Content that you may find offensive, indecent or objectionable and that, in this respect, you use the Services at your own risk. The Organization shall have the right, but not the obligation, to remove any Content that is violative of any law, regulation or guideline, or that it deems offensive, in its sole discretion.

With respect to any Content that you have submitted to the Site, you have the right to request the Organization remove such Content, thus revoking any rights the Organization has with respect to such Content. Requests of this kind are to be submitted to

7. Dealings with Advertisers and/or Other Users

You may be exposed to advertising on the Site or through a Service or related communication from the Organization. The Organization may also provide one or more Services through which users can communicate with one another. Other than as explicitly set forth in a particular agreement or governing guideline, your correspondence with, or participation in promotions of, advertisers or other users found on or through a Service, including payment and delivery of related goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such other party. You agree that the Organization shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such advertisers or other users on the Site or Service.

BECAUSE THE ORGANIZATION IS NOT INVOLVED IN TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN YOU AND ANY ADVERTISER OR OTHER USER, IF A DISPUTE ARISES BETWEEN YOU AND AN ADVERTISER OR OTHER USER, EACH OF YOU RELEASE THE ORGANIZATION(AND ITS AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES) FROM CLAIMS, DEMANDS, AND DAMAGES (ACTUAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL) OF EVERY KIND AND NATURE, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, SUSPECTED AND UNSUSPECTED, DISCLOSED AND UNDISCLOSED, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH SUCH DISPUTES. The Organization urges you and all users to cooperate with each other and to resolve any such disputes.

8. Use and Storage of Information

You acknowledge that the Organization may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Site and/or any Service, including without limitation, the maximum number of days that messages are stored, forum postings, or other uploaded Content will be retained by a Service, the maximum number of messages that may be sent from or received by an account on a Service, the maximum size of any message or board posting that may be sent from or received by an account, the maximum disk space that will be allotted on the Organization’s servers on your behalf, and the maximum number of times (and the maximum duration for which) you may access a Service given in a given period of time. You agree that the Organization has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any messages, images and other communications, including but not limited to forum posts, or other Content maintained or transmitted by a Service.

You acknowledge that the Organization reserves the right to log off accounts that are inactive for an extended period of time. There is currently not a limit on the amount of accounts per person with the exception of Sock Puppets (accounts set up by a user to deceive the public as to the account holder’s identity or accounts set up to deceive the public as to the true identity of the user). Attempting to create Sock Puppet accounts may jeopardize your ability to access the Services, and your original account may be banned and/or closed. All accounts will be reviewed and approved by the Organization. You further acknowledge that the Organization reserves the right to modify these general practices and limits from time to time, in its sole discretion.

You acknowledge and agree that the Organization may access, preserve, and disclose your account information, and/or Content if required to do so by law, or, if it believes, in good faith, that such access, preservation, or disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with legal process, (b) enforce these Terms, (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties, (d) respond to your request for customer services; or (e) protect the rights, property, or personal safely of the Organization, its users, and the public.

9. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold the Organization and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, employees, partners and licensors harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content you submit, post, transmit or otherwise make available through the Service, your use of any Service, your connection to the Service, your violation of the Terms, or your violation of any rights of another user.

10. Termination of Your Account

By the Organization. You agree that the Organization may, under certain circumstances, and without prior notice, immediately terminate your account, any associated account(s), and access to any Service indefinitely or for a set period of time. A termination of an account, whether temporarily or permanent, may include limitations to accessing any Service(s), but your profile, including your posts, will not be deleted unless you instruct the Organization to remove your profile. Cause for such termination shall include, but not be limited to, (a) breaches or violations of the Terms or other incorporated agreements or guidelines, (b) requests by law enforcement or other government agencies, (c) a request by you (self-initiated account deletions), (d) discontinuance or material modification to the Service (or any part thereof), (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems, (f) extended periods of inactivity, (g) engagement by you in fraudulent or illegal activities, and/or (h) nonpayment of any fees owed by you in connection with the Services. Further, you agree that any termination by the Organization shall be at the Organization´s sole discretion and that the Organization shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your account, any associated Content or access to a Service.

By You. You may terminate your account and delete your account data at any time for any reason by navigating to the "My Account" tab, selecting "Edit profile" and using the “Cancel my account” link at the bottom of the page.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

You expressly acknowledge and agree that:

1. Your use of the Service is at your sole risk. The Services are provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. The Organization expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.
2. The Organization makes no warranty that (i) a Service will meet your requirements; (ii) a Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free; (iii) the results that may be obtained from the use of a Service will be accurate or reliable; (iv) the quality of any products, services, information or other material purchased or obtained by you through a Service will meet your expectations; and (v) any errors in the Site, a Service or any software will be corrected.
3. Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of a Service is accessed at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material.
4. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from the Organization or through or from the service shall create any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.

12. Limitation of Liability

THE ORGANIZATIONWILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS, THE SITE, THE SERVICES, THE INABILITY TO USE ANY SERVICE, OR THOSE RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH THE SERVICES.

13. Copyright

If you believe that the Organization or any user of ORCHIDS.ORG has infringed your copyright in any material way, please notify us at and provide the following information:

1. An identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed.
2. An identification of the material on americanswhotellthetruth.org that you claim is infringing or is subject to infringing activity, with enough detail so that we can locate the material on our site.
3. Your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.
4. A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law.
5. A statement by you declaring that the above information in your Notice is accurate, made under penalty of perjury, and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest involved.
6. Your physical or electronic signature.

14. Miscellaneous

Entire Agreement. These Terms and any agreements, guidelines, policies etc, incorporated by reference herein or applicable to particular Services constitute the entire agreement between you and the Organization and govern your use of the Services and Content, superseding any prior agreements between you and the Organization with respect to the Services and Content.

Proprietary Rights. You acknowledge and agree that the Services and any necessary software used in connection with the Services contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws. You further acknowledge and agree that Content or other information presented to you through the Services or by advertisers is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. Except as expressly authorized by the Organization, you agree not to modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on the Services, the software, or any Content, whether in whole or in part.

Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with the Organization, nothing in these Terms gives you a right to use any of the Organization´s trade names, trade marks, service marks, logos, domain names, or other distinctive brand features.

Without limiting the foregoing, the International Orchid Foundation logo, trademarks, and any other service marks and other Organization logos and product and service names are trademarks of the Organization. You agree that you shall not display or use these marks in any manner, and that you will not remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary rights notices (including copyright and trade mark notices) which may be affixed to or contained within the Services.

Governing Law; Disputes; Consent to Personal Jurisdiction. This Agreement will be governed by the Laws of the State of Florida without regard to its principles regarding conflicts of law. In the event of any dispute between you and the Organization, you agree to take all reasonable steps to resolve the dispute quickly and efficiently first, through good faith negotiations, and then, through formal mediation or arbitration if requested by the Organization in its sole discretion. In the event of a dispute that cannot be resolved in accordance with the foregoing principle, the state and federal courts of Florida shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any matter arising hereunder, and you hereby consent to personal jurisdiction in those.

Waiver and Severability of Terms. The failure of the Organization to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms or any agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of these Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Terms shall remain in full force and effect.

Links/Other Web Sites. The Service may provide, or third parties may provide, links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Because the Organization has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that the Organization is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that the Organizations hall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource.

No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your account is non-transferable and any rights to your ID or Content within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.

Notice. Any notice under this Agreement shall be sent by email to

Limitations Period. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of any Service or these Terms must be filed within one hundred and eighty (180) days after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

Severability. If any one or more of the provisions in this Agreement are deemed void as a matter of law, then the remaining provisions will continue in full force and affect.

Service Levels. The Organization does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to the Service or the Site.

Headings. Section headings are included in the Agreement for convenience only. They are not to be considered a part of this Agreement, and are not intended to be a full and accurate description of the contents hereof.

Additional Acknowledgments. You acknowledge that: (a) You are entering into this Agreement voluntarily and without any duress or undue influence; (b) You have carefully read this Agreement and fully understand its terms, consequences, and binding effect; (c) You have sought the advice of an attorney of Your choice if so desired prior to entering into this Agreement; and (d) You understand that by performing under this Agreement, You agree to be bound by its the terms.