These Terms of Use set forth the terms and conditions for using all the services (the “Services”) provided by Hatena Co., Ltd. (“Hatena”) on this Website. All users (the “Users”) shall use the Services in accordance with these Terms of Use.
In addition to these Terms of Use, methods of use or notices of the Services are indicated in the “Help” section or various guidelines in the Services. These methods of use or notices also constitute a substantial part of these Terms of Use, and should be carefully read in conjunction therewith.
With respect to the applications, etc. that Hatena provides to promote the use of the Services, the terms of use of each application shall apply in conjunction with these Terms of Use.
The term Users in the Services collectively refers to Registered Users and Guest Users.
Registered Users refers to an individual who has entered and transmitted necessary data in a User registration form and has been approved by Hatena.
Those who have completed the procedure for User registration and tentatively registered as a User shall complete a final registration within one (1) month after he/she has completed the tentative registration. If the User fails to complete the final registration within one (1) month after the completion of the tentative registration, such User’s tentative registration may become null and void.
Guest Users means any person who uses the services which are available to him/her without completing the User registration set forth in the preceding Paragraph, including viewing and searching, and includes any person who uses the services which are approved by Hatena via the authentication system of the external services, and any person who access the services through mechanical means including crawling by systems.
In any of the following circumstances, Hatena may, at its own discretion, (i) refuse to give approval for User registration in respect of any person who wishes to be registered as a User, or (ii) restrict the use of the Services, in whole or in part, or cancel a User registration and disallow the use of any and all the Services thereafter in respect of any person who has already been approved by Hatena for User registration. Hatena shall assume no liability for damages suffered by any User or any third party resulting therefrom.
Where any false information is provided in the User registration;
Where the User himself/herself fails to change the information on the User registration in the event of any changes thereto after the completion of the User registration;
Where the User breaches these Terms of Use;
Where the User fails to use the Services for a certain period of time notwithstanding that he/she has been registered as a User;
Where Hatena determines that the User falls under the category of anti-social forces (an organized crime group, a member of an organized crime group, a related company or association of an organized crime group or its related parties, or any other anti-social forces or persons equivalent thereto; hereinafter the same.), or determines that the User cooperates or is involved with anti-social forces by providing funds or by any other means; or
Where the User engages in any other act which is determined to be inappropriate by Hatena
In any of the following circumstances, Hatena may, at its own discretion, restrict the use or prohibit access by a Guest User. Hatena shall assume no liability for damages suffered by the User or any third party resulting therefrom.
Where the Guest User commits any illegal act including an unauthorized access;
Where the Guest User impedes the operation of the services such as by placing overloads;
Where the Guest User commits any prohibited act set forth in Article 6 (Prohibitions) of these Terms of Use, including sending of spam and involvement in harassment; or
Where the Guest User engages in any other act which is determined to be inappropriate by Hatena.
Any underage person who registers must always obtain the consent of their parent, and the consent of the parent to these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy will be deemed to have been obtained when registration has been completed.
A User who is registered as a User may hold a main account and sub accounts. Regardless of whether the account is the main account or sub account, a User’s name and a password will be established for each account.
The User shall be responsible for managing his/her own User’s names and passwords.
Any act conducted using the User’s name and password shall be regarded as the act of the User who holds the user name.
A Registered User shall only be allowed to have one main account per person unless otherwise permitted by Hatena. Email address and other information registered by the User to obtain a User name and password must be accurate and legitimate.
User’s names and passwords are for individual use, and the User is prohibited from transferring or lending them in any circumstances.
The User must contact Hatena immediately if the User’s name or password is leaked to a third party or is used by a third party. Hatena shall assume no responsibility and shall not be liable for any and all loss and damage incurred by the User as a result of an unauthorized use of the User’s name or password caused by the acts of the User.
Hatena may, when it deems necessary, delete the User’s names and passwords, and prohibit the use of the Services in respect of a certain Registered User.
Hatena shall acquire from the User minimum information required for the provision of the Services. Hatena shall pay utmost care to the protection of privacy information acquired from the User. For the details of Hatena’s policy on privacy, see Hatena’s Privacy Policy.
The User is required to access the Internet in order to use the Services, and is required, at his/her own responsibility and expense, to prepare, install and operate any and all equipment, software, communication tools necessary therefor in an appropriate manner. Hatena shall not be involved in the Internet access environment of the User, and shall not be responsible for the preparation and operation therefor.
If Hatena needs to contact the Registered User, it shall contact the User by means of sending emails to the User’s registered email address. The Registered User shall properly update his/her information in respect of his/her registered email address so that he/she can receive emails from Hatena. The Registered User must promptly change his/her registered email address in an appropriate manner if he/she can no longer receive emails at such email address for any reason. The User shall be responsible for any detriment suffered by him/her resulting from the failure to receive emails from Hatena, and Hatena shall not be liable therefor.
Each User shall be liable for all information disclosed by him/her under the Services including text, sound, video, images, information attached to images, personal information and location information. Hatena shall assume no liability for the details of information disclosed by the User under the Services.
If the User defames others, infringes any privacy right of others, engages in any act in violation of the Copyright Act, or otherwise infringes any right of others, such User shall, at his/her own responsibility and expense, settle the issue, and Hatena shall not be liable therefor.
If there appears to be any person who claims to have suffered inconvenience as a result of the information disclosed by the User, such User shall, at his/her own responsibility and expense, settle the issue, and Hatena shall not be liable therefor.
Under the use of Hatena Antenna, some of the websites existing on the Internet may include pages which refuse automatic patrol by a robot. If any trouble arises as a result of the Registered User registering such pages to his/her own Hatena Antenna, such Registered User shall be liable for any and all disadvantages suffered by the author of the website or the users of Antenna, and Hatena shall not be liable therefor.
Under the Hatena Group (the “Group”), the Group Manager shall be responsible for the compliance with various laws and regulations and these Terms of Use in respect of the information within the Group. In the event that the Group Manager withdraws from the Group, or Hatena is unable to make contact with the Group Manger and finds it particularly necessary, Hatena shall temporarily take the minimum procedures required for the management of the Group.
In using the Services, the User may not engage in any the illegal acts, including but not limited to the following:
Any act which infringes intellectual property rights including copyrights and patent rights;
Any act which infringes the privacy of others;
Any act that is defamatory, libelous or impedes the business of others;
Any fraudulent act;
Any act to establish a Ponzi scheme (pyramid scheme) or solicit and/or operate the same;
Any act in violation of the Act on the Prevention of Unauthorized Computer Access, any act defined in the Obstruction of Business by Damaging a Computer (Penal Code Article 234-2), and illegal access and manipulation of data in computers owned by Hatena and others; and
Any other criminal acts or acts in violation of laws and regulations.
When using the Services, the User shall not engage in socially inappropriate acts, including but not limited to the following:
Giving an advance notice of a crime, providing instructional information about criminal activities, or taking actions that may initiate a crime;
Using any discriminatory expression based on race, nationality, religious belief, gender, social status, place of residence, physical characteristics, medical history, education, assets, income or the like;
Disclosing any ethically vulgar, harmful, or rude contents or offensive subject matter that promotes hatred, or information pertaining to pornography, prostitution or adult entertainment businesses;
Causing nuisance, harassment, slander or defamation of another person, or mental anguish or financial loss without legitimate right;
Impersonating another person, company or group, or using the name of a particular company or group without permission. Claiming to be a fictitious person, company or group, or falsely claiming to have a business association or cooperative relationship with a person, company, or group despite there being no such fact;
Pretending to be another person to use the services, or falsification of information;
Promoting the activities of anti-social forces, or providing benefits to anti-social forces; and
Such other acts, in addition to the above, which disturbs public order and morals or is perceived as socially inappropriate.
In using the Services, the User shall not engage in any inappropriate act, including but not limited to the following:
Making advertisements or solicitations for promotional or commercial purposes, except as separately set forth by Hatena in the Help section of each Service;
Performing search engine optimization by means not allowed by search engines;
Sharing the User’s name, holding multiple main accounts without permission of Hatena, or holding sub accounts in excess of the number allowed by Hatena;
Using a User name that is offensive or misleading to the others, or using a User name that is identical with or similar to Hatena or others, or a company’s name, group’s name or product name generally known and that could be misleading;
Continuing the use of the Services without reasonable grounds notwithstanding that he/she has been warned and cautioned by Hatena for acts which are against the guidelines of the use of the Services, inappropriate under general social convention or which may trouble a third party;
Stealing, collecting, accumulating, changing or using personal information and points held by the others, or to fraudulently manipulate or change its own personal information or number of points;
Modifying and displaying the standard format or positions of header, footer, advertisements, copyright notice which are displayed by Hatena by using Page Design Change in the Services, or making them undisclosed without the permission of Hatena; and
Diverting, selling, or re-selling the Services without the consent of the Company;
In using “Hatena Antenna” in the Services, the User shall not engage in any of the acts including but not limited to the following:
Intentionally setting inappropriate content in the Letters Designated to be Removed from Update Checks and the Scope subject to Update Checks;
Registering web pages for the purpose of causing harassment to the webpage administrators and the related parties subject to the update checks;
Registering for the purpose of broadly disseminating any URL which posts illegal information, rights infringement information, information which disturbs the public order and morals, or harmful information including those which could adversely affect the mind of minors.
In using “Hatena Group” in the Services, the User shall not engage in any of the acts including but not limited to the following:
Posting any information in the Key Words and Diary which infringes the copyright or other rights of others
Engaging in any act which is in violation of the requests, demands or other compulsory provisions of the Group Manager.
In using “Hatena Bookmark” in the Services, the User shall not engage in any of the acts including but not limited to the following:
Posting any information in the column of comments or tags which infringes the rights of the others;
Making any inappropriate edits such as rewriting an entry title that is irrelevant to the contents of the entry;
Registering bookmarks for the purpose of optimizing advertisements, promotions and search engines;
Registering bookmarks for the purpose of slandering or defaming, harassing the administrators or related parties of the websites or for any other similar purposes;
Registering for the purpose of broadly disseminating any URL which posts illegal information, information infringing rights, information which disturbs public order and morals, or harmful information including that which could adversely affect the mind of minors.
In addition to the acts set forth in each Paragraph above, the User shall not engage in acts which are determined to be inappropriate by Hatena.
The Registered User shall use the fee-based services of the Services in accordance with the provisions of “Hatena’s Terms of Use” and the “Help” section of each Service, and pay the charges established by the Services.
The fees and charges for the use of the Services shall be separately set forth by Hatena.
Registered Users shall pay Hatena for expenses incurred by Hatena in relation to the fee-based services when using Hatena’s fee-based services. The method of payment shall be separately set forth for each Service.
Under the Services, Hatena establishes “Hatena Points” (the “Points”) as a credit in lieu of expenses required for the fee-based services. Registered Users may use the fee-based services by purchasing the Points in advance unless Hatena otherwise specifically designates the payment method.
Hatena shall obtain the prescribed fees from the Points paid by Registered Users to Hatena. Of the fee-based services, if Hatena intermediates the payment of the Points for Registered Users and other third parties, Hatena shall pay the recipient of the Points the amount after deducting the fees including communication expense, service management fee and other fees from the charges received from the payer of the Points.
Any and all fees incurred in connection with the purchase and exchange of the Points shall be borne by the Registered User.
The Registered User’s Points shall be effective for one (1) year from the last date of use when the relevant Registered User actually paid or received the Points in the Services, and any Points held by the Registered User after such period of one (1) year shall become null and void. However, this shall not apply to the cases where the Registered User holds any negative amount of Points.
The maximum number of points that a Registered User is allowed to hold is 100,000 Hatena Points. A Registered User is allowed to purchase a maximum of 50,000 points per purchase.
A Registered User may not acquire the Points by means other than those prescribed by Hatena. Furthermore, a Registered User may not transfer the Points for the purpose of profit.
Hatena may void any Points which are fraudulently acquired by means other than those prescribed by Hatena. In the event Hatena finds that a Registered User is engaged in any fraudulent act in acquiring or using the Points, thereafter, Hatena may suspend the use of the account by the relevant User who committed the fraudulent act, or restrict his/her purchase or use of the Points.
If a Registered User does not fulfill the payment obligations it owes to Hatena under these Terms of Use and for using the Services by the due date established by Hatena, such User shall pay Hatena delay damages as stipulated by Hatena, for the period of time beginning from the day immediately following the due date until the payment is made.
Hatena may revise the charges of the Services without prior notice. Furthermore, Hatena may change the procedures for the purchase and use of the Points without prior notice.
Hatena shall hold the property rights for the information, services and software included in the Services.
All the software used in the Services includes property rights and trade secrets protected under the laws and regulations in relation to intellectual property rights.
The User shall have the copyright in respect of any article created by him/her in the Hatena Diary, Hatena Blog or Hatena Group, the contents of Key Words of Hatena Groups using fee-based options, and pictures sent by him/her in the Hatena Photo Life.
For the purpose of providing the Services, promoting the use, and advertising and promoting the Services, Hatena may, on a non-exclusive basis and at no charge, post and distribute the information sent by a User holding the copyrights to the Services in a manner described below, and the User shall accept Hatena doing so.
Posting on the Website;
Posting on the client software by using the Internet;
Disclosing and distributing as an API or RSS feed; and
Providing as academic research data.
If the User intends to transfer any copyright of the information sent to the Services held by such User to a third party, the User shall have such third party to agree with the details of this Article, and may not transfer the copyrights unless the User obtains the consent from the third party.
Hatena shall exert its utmost efforts to make the Services useful to all Users. Hatena shall not be liable for any and all damages incurred by the User or others resulting from or due to defects, suspension, partial deletion, changes and termination of the contents of the Services, unless it is caused by a willful act or gross negligence on the part of Hatena.
A significant portion of the information disclosed on the Services is disclosed by the Users, and Hatena shall not be responsible for monitoring the Services. Hatena shall not be liable for any and all damage incurred by a User or others resulting from the use of the Services by the User, unless it is caused by a willful act or gross negligence on the part of Hatena.
Notwithstanding that Hatena is not responsible for monitoring the Services, if a User commits any act or discloses any information which is in breach or likely to be in breach of these Terms of Use, Hatena may delete such information, change the place of information being posted, exclude such information from the target of the crawler patrol of external websites, or cancel the registration of the Registered User who committed the relevant act. In addition, Hatena may notify the police when the User discloses any information which is likely to cause imminent danger, in particular, to the life, health, or property of an individual including disclosing advance notice of crime. In such cases, the User may not make any objection to the measures taken by Hatena.
Hatena shall not be responsible for the legality, morality, copyright permission, credibility or accuracy of the information disclosed in the Services and the services provided by the links contained in such information. Furthermore, Hatena shall not be responsible for the availability of the links contained in the said information.
Hatena shall not be liable for any and all damage suffered by the User including any disputes with the other Users or any third party, slandering and defaming, harassment, fraud and stalking behavior as a result of the User disclosing information at his/her discretion, unless it is caused by a willful act or gross negligence on the part of Hatena. Each User shall pay the utmost care and exchange information with the other Users or any third party at his/her own responsibility.
Hatena may revise these Terms of Use without prior notice. Hatena does not notify the User of the changes individually. When using the Services, the User should refer to the latest version of these Terms of Use on a timely basis.
The contents of the Services are subject to future changes, additions, or deletions without prior notice.
Should the User lose his/her User’s name and password, find others in breach of the User’s compliance requirements in connection with the use of the Services, or otherwise need to make an inquiry to Hatena, please contact at the following email address. Should the User request for the deletion of the descriptions in the Services, please follow the claim procedure linked below:
These Terms of Use shall be governed by the laws of Japan, and all the disputes in relation thereto shall be submitted to the exclusive agreed jurisdiction of the Tokyo District Court.
