Legal Information

Here’s all of the really important stuff the lawyers made us promise to share with you

Introduction

By accessing this website, You (that’s you) agree to be bound by the following Terms of Service, so please read these terms and conditions carefully before using this site or our services. If you do not agree to these Terms of Service and all of the information outlined below, please do not use this website or our services.

Some of this legal information is written in what we like to call plain English. When you run across this text, you’ll know that we’re really trying hard to make sure you understand what we’re trying to say. Make sense?

Here are a few links to some really fun reading that is a little more formal and really important.

This SteveSpangler.com website and its aliases (the “Service”) is owned and operated by Steve Spangler, Inc. (“SSI”) and contains material that is protected by state, national and international copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws. Unless otherwise specified, the Service is intended for your personal, noncommercial use only. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit or distribute in any way any material, including code and software, from the Service. You may download material from the Service and may use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices.

Use of Science Experiments, Videos and Demonstrations

The science demonstrations, experiments, projects, object lessons, tricks, effects, stunts and ideas offered by SSI are intended for professional educators who are using the content to enhance their classroom science curriculum only. If You meet this criteria, You may present this material in a non-recorded, non-broadcast, live, teaching, classroom setting only. This material may not be repurposed in any form by non-traditional educators, including but not limited to informal science educators, science enthusiasts, museums, online content aggregators, online content creators and providers, performers, actors, television shows, producers, publishers, trainers, education companies or professional development providers without the express written consent of SSI.

You are not permitted to translate, or otherwise use, demonstrate, display, or perform any of the content on this website in anything other than a live, first person classroom setting. All broadcasts, narrowcast, Internet, Intranet, YouTube, and any and all other uses are strictly withheld by SSI and permission for all other uses by anyone must be obtained in writing first.

Just a word about Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) and other similar services. Our lawyers have a thing about people stealing (or borrowing) SSI content (created and licensed from hundreds of educators over the years) and posting it up on sites that do or do not charge a fee for the content. It’s simple… this is not your content to post. Even if you are posting the content out of the goodness of your heart, and you think that the content is in the public domain, it’s not. The educators who licensed their ideas to us over the years require us to protect their content.

SSI retains all manufacturing rights for the content presented on this website and and all of its subsidiary websites.

If you print anything from this website, you are required to include all trademark, copyright and other proprietary notices. No links may be established to any part of this site and no information on this site may be framed without our prior written approval. Members who are in good standing with the Everyday STEM Teacher Membership Club are permitted to use the shareable link feature in the video library to share an ad-free link with their students, parents, and employees (if the membership is owned by the school district or organization). Any questions concerning the use of the trademarks or to request approval for linking should be referred to [email protected].

License to Steve Spangler, Inc.

By posting messages, experiment ideas, product review, blog entries, uploading files, or otherwise providing any material to us for display on the Service, you are representing that you are the owner of the material, or are making your submission with the express consent of the owner of the material. In addition, when you post a message, upload a file, or otherwise provide us with material for display on the Service, you are granting SSI a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to:

  • Use, copy, sublicense, adapt, transmit, publicly perform or display any such communication.
  • Sublicense to third parties the unrestricted right to exercise any of the foregoing rights granted with respect to the communication.

The foregoing grants shall include the right to exploit any proprietary rights in such communication, including but not limited to rights under copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws under any relevant jurisdiction.

Trademarks

The term “Steve Spangler” and the “Steve Spangler” logo are trademarks of SSI. Additional trademarks owned by SSI include, but are not limited to the following:

Everyday STEM® Teacher Workshop – Reg. No. 6,390,047
Be Amazing® Experiences- Reg No. 3301784
STEM Starters™ Lesson
Science at Sea™ Teacher Experience
Science of Iceland™ Teacher Experience
Science in the Rockies™ STEM Conference
STEM Boot Camp™ Teacher Training

Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.

  • Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the Service.
  • Use the Service to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law.
  • Use the Service to post or transmit any information, software or other material that violates or infringes upon the rights of others, including material that is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights or that is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, or derivative works with respect thereto, without first obtaining permission from the owner or rights holder.
  • Use the Service to post or transmit any information, software or other material that contains a virus or other harmful component.
  • Use the Service to post, transmit or in any way exploit any information, software or other material for commercial purposes, or that contains advertising.
  • Use the Service to advertise or solicit to anyone to buy or sell products or services, or to make donations of any kind, without the express written approval of SSI.
  • Gather for marketing purposes any email addresses or other personal information that has been posted by other users of the Service.

Interactive Features of This Website

This Service may include a variety of features, such as email services, blog posts, membership services, bulletin boards, web logs, chat rooms, and video conferencing, which allow feedback to SSI and real-time interaction between users, and other features, such as personalized homes pages and email services, which allow users to communicate with others.

Responsibility for what is posted on bulletin boards, web logs, chat rooms, commenting features, video forums and other public posting areas on the Service lies with each user – you alone are responsible for the material you post. SSI does not control the messages, information or files that you or others may provide through the Service. It is a condition of your use of the Service that you do not:

You understand that SSI has no obligation to monitor any bulletin boards, chat rooms, web logs, commenting, membership service interactions or other areas of the Service through which users can supply information or material. However, SSI reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or governmental request, or to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in SSI’s sole discretion are objectionable or in violation of these Terms of Service.

Registration

To access certain features of the Service, SSI may ask you to provide certain demographic information including your gender, year of birth, zip code and country. In addition, if you elect to sign-up for a particular feature of the Service, such as chat rooms, web logs, or bulletin boards, you may also be asked to register with SSI on the form provided and such registration may require you to provide personally identifiable information such as your name and email address. You agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service’s registration form. If SSI has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, or incomplete, we have the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof). Our use of any personally identifiable information you provide to us as part of the registration process is governed by the terms of our Privacy Policy.

Passwords

To use certain features of the Service, you will need a username and password, which you will receive through the Service’s registration process. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the password and account, and are responsible for all activities (whether by you or by others) that occur under your password or account. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security, and to ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session. SSI cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your password or account information.

Information Collection and Data Usage

We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

Usage Information

We may also collect information on how the Service is accessed and used (“Usage Data”). This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

Tracking & Cookies Data

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and we hold certain information.

Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Other tracking technologies are also used such as beacons, tags and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyse our Service.

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.

Examples of Cookies we use:

  • Session Cookies. We use Session Cookies to operate our Service.
  • Preference Cookies. We use Preference Cookies to remember your preferences and various settings.
  • Security Cookies. We use Security Cookies for security purposes.

Use of Data

Steve Spangler Inc. uses the collected information for various purposes:

  • To provide and maintain our Service
  • To notify you about changes to our Service
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so
  • To provide customer support
  • To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Service
  • To monitor the usage of our Service
  • To detect, prevent and address technical issues

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are from the European Economic Area (EEA), Steve Spangler Inc. legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Privacy Policy depends on the Personal Data we collect and the specific context in which we collect it.

Steve Spangler Inc. may process your Personal Data because:

  • We need to perform a contract with you
  • You have given us permission to do so
  • The processing is in our legitimate interests and it is not overridden by your rights
  • To comply with the law

Retention of Data

Steve Spangler Inc. will retain your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

Steve Spangler Inc. will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer periods.

Transfer of Data

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction.

If you are located outside United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to United States and process it there.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.

Steve Spangler Inc. will take all the steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

Disclosure of Data

Business Transaction

If Steve Spangler Inc. is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Disclosure for Law Enforcement

Under certain circumstances, Steve Spangler Inc. may be required to disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Legal Requirements

Steve Spangler Inc. may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • To comply with a legal obligation
  • To protect and defend the rights or property of Steve Spangler Inc.
  • To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
  • To protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
  • To protect against legal liability

Security of Data

The security of your data is important to us but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Our Policy on “Do Not Track” Signals under the California Online Protection Act (CalOPPA)

We do not support Do Not Track (“DNT”). Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked.

You can enable or disable Do Not Track by visiting the Preferences or Settings page of your web browser.

Your Data Protection Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. Steve Spangler Inc. aims to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete or limit the use of your Personal Data.

If you wish to be informed about what Personal Data we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us.

In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights:

  • The right to access, update or delete the information we have on you. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of your Personal Data directly within your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact us to assist you.
  • The right of rectification. You have the right to have your information rectified if that information is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your Personal Data.
  • The right of restriction. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.
  • The right to data portability. You have the right to be provided with a copy of the information we have on you in a structured, machine-readable and commonly used format.
  • The right to withdraw consent. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where Steve Spangler Inc. relied on your consent to process your personal information.

Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.

You have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about our collection and use of your Personal Data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Service Providers

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service (“Service Providers”), provide the Service on our behalf, perform Service-related services or assist us in analysing how our Service is used.

These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

Analytics Providers

We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyse the use of our Service.

  • Google Analytics Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
    You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.
    For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

Behavioral Remarketing

Links to Other Sites

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 (“Children”).

We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Limitation of Liability

Under no circumstances, including, but not limited to, negligence, shall SSI, its subsidiary and parent companies or affiliates be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, SSI materials, products, or services, or third-party materials, products, or services made available through the Service, or any part of the Service, even if SSI is advised beforehand of the possibility of such damages. (Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain categories of damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. In such states, the liability of SSI, its subsidiary and parent companies or affiliates is limited to the fullest extent permitted by such state law.) You specifically acknowledge and agree that SSI is not liable for any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any user. If you are dissatisfied with any SSI materials, products, or services, or with any of SSI’s terms and conditions, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the Service.

Termination

SSI may cancel or terminate your right to use the Service or any part of the Service at any time without notice. In the event of termination, you are no longer authorized to access the part of the Service affected by such cancellation or termination. The restrictions imposed on you with respect to material downloaded from the Service, and the disclaimers and limitations of liabilities set forth in these Terms of Service, shall survive.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold SSI harmless from and against any claims, damages, costs and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising from or related to your use of the web site or your violation of any of these Legal Notices.

Miscellaneous

Seriously, the lawyers said to call this section “miscellaneous,” which sounds like a true lack of creativity. But that’s what they said to do. These Legal Notices shall be construed according to Colorado law, without regard to conflicts of laws. Any dispute arising under or relating to these Terms, the Contents, the use of the web site, or products or services purchased using this web site, shall be resolved exclusively by the state and federal courts of the State of Colorado. Your use of the web site constitutes your consent to the jurisdiction and venue of said courts with respect to any such dispute.

Questions

Who doesn’t have a good question now and then? Don’t worry. We’re nice people. Give us a call and let’s chat. That’s much better than firing off a mean letter from your attorney (if you’re mad for some reason) and then having to talk to the firm that represents SSI.

Here’s how you can get in touch with us. Oh, by the way, you’ll notice we didn’t suggest posting your legal questions on social media. Steve’s loyal followers usually see this stuff even before our social media team wakes Steve up and shows it to him. You don’t have to use those tactics to get our attention. Just reach out through any one of these methods and give us 24 hours to respond (or a little longer if you’re trying to reach us over the weekend).

This content was updated on January 26, 2024.