AGREEMENT TO OUR TERMS OF USE
Last updated February 26, 2025
These Terms of Use describe the conditions that govern your use of the Better Atlanta Transit website, its electronic newsletter, and any other product or service that Better Atlanta Transit (“BAT,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provide.
THESE TERMS AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS. PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE OR ANY OTHER BAT PRODUCTS OR SERVICES.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
GENERAL
CONTENT AND REUSE RIGHTS
COMMENTS AND OTHER USER-GENERATED CONTENT
PROHIBITED USE OF THE SERVICES
REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES; INDEMNIFICATION; LIMITATION OF LIABILITIES
REGISTRATION AND SECURITY
FEES AND PAYMENTS
THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES
GOVERNING LAW; JURISDICTION
MISCELLANEOUS
1. GENERAL
1.1 For information on how BAT collects, uses and shares any personal information, please see our Privacy Policy. If you reside outside of the European Economic Area, your acceptance of these Terms of Use (the “Terms”) constitutes your consent to the processing activities described in our Privacy Policy under the laws of your jurisdiction.
1.2 If you choose to use the BAT services (“Services) governed by these Terms, including betteratlantatransit.org (the “Website”) or any other BAT products or services (including but not limited to electronic newsletters, downloads, RSS feeds and APIs), you will be agreeing to abide by all of the terms and conditions of the Terms between you and Better Atlanta Transit Inc.
1.3 We reserve the right, at our discretion, to make any changes, additions or subtractions to these Terms. Any changes to will become effective immediately. It is your responsibility to review the Terms prior to each use.
1.4 These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement made between you, whether personally or on behalf of an entity (“you”), and Better Atlanta Transit Inc., concerning your access to and use of the Services. You agree that by accessing the Services, you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by all of these Legal Terms. IF ANY OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE UNACCEPTABLE TO YOU, THEN YOU ARE EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED FROM USING THE SERVICES AND YOU MUST DISCONTINUE USE IMMEDIATELY.
1.5 The Services are directed to adults and teenagers, and not to children under the age of 13. All users who are minors in the jurisdiction in which they reside (generally under the age of 18) must have the permission of their parent or guardian to use the Services. If you are a minor, you must have your parent or guardian read and agree to these Legal Terms for your records.
1.6 We may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Services at any time, including the availability of any contents of the Services. We may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Services without notice or liability.
2. CONTENT AND REUSE RIGHTS
2.1 The contents of the Services, including the Website, are intended for personal use and public education, as well as open, civil and courteous discussion of matters of public interest. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials published or available on the Services (including, but not limited to text, photographs, images, illustrations, designs, audio clips and – all also known as the “Content”) are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0. International (the “Creative Commons License”).
2.2 Under the terms of the Creative Commons License, you are free to copy and redistribute the material for any purpose, even commercially, providing that you adhere to the following conditions:
You shall give appropriate credit, provide a link to the web page with the original content, and indicate if changes were made. This credit shall include the author or individual creator if supplied, in addition to the following notice: “This [article, photograph, graphic, image, etc.] is republished via Creative Commons from Better Atlanta Transit:,” or a notice with substantially the same meaning.
You may not in any way suggest that the licensor endorses you or your use.
You shall abbreviate the Content as necessary providing that any abbreviation is reasonable and preserves the original meaning or intent of the Content. Any alteration or editing of written Content must only be for the purposes of clarity and brevity, with clear indication via brackets, ellipses or similar means to indicate how the Content was altered. You indicate that the Content was abbreviated by describing the Content as “shortened,” “edited for length” or similar.
You may not distribute modified material that you have remixed, built upon, or otherwise transformed in a fashion that could be considered adaptation under copyright law. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Before republishing any Content, you shall view a copy of the license here.
2.2 Any reuses of the Contents that do not meet the conditions allowed under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivates 4.0 International, or go beyond the uses allowed by the Creative Commons License are protected by copyright, and owned or controlled by Better Atlanta Transit Inc. or the party credited as the provider of the Content. In such cases, you must request reuse rights under terms specific to that content from Better Atlanta Transit Inc., and BAT may or may not grant such rights. Examples of reuses that go beyond the conditions allowed under the License, include:
Content accessed through the Services that contains any additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions. Such notices, information, or restrictions shall supersede the License for the Content so marked.
Adaptations or remixes as described by Creative Commons.
Content furnished by other content creators that contains any additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions.
Reuse that does not in some way meet the conditions described in Section 2.1 of these Terms.
2.3 The Creative Commons License in no way affects your rights of fair use, fair dealing or any other exceptions or limitations to copyright law.
3. COMMENTS AND OTHER USER GENERATED CONTENT
3.1 If you upload, post or submit any content to the Website, including but not limited to comments on Website posts, you represent to us that you have all the necessary and legal rights to upload, post or submit such content and it will not violate any law or the rights of any person. You shall not upload to, distribute or otherwise publish to the Website any libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, or illegal material. You shall not impersonate anyone else or otherwise misrepresent your identity, affiliation or status. You agree not to provide material and misleading information knowingly and with intent to defraud. You shall not upload to, or distribute or otherwise publish to the Services any malware, viruses, spyware or other malicious software or files. You shall not use automated means to upload to, or distribute or otherwise publish any content to the Services.
3.2 By commenting on the Website or uploading any other content to the Website, you agree to adhere to the following Rules of Conduct intended to encourage civil discourse:
You agree to be civil and courteous. BAT encourages candid discussion and open disagreement, but does not permit personal attacks.
You agree not to threaten or verbally abuse other members, use defamatory language, or deliberately disrupt discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or “spam.”
You agree to use respectful language, and not to use language in a way that abuses or discriminates on the basis of race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual preference, age, region, disability, etc.
You agree not to post any comments or upload content of any kind containing any advertising or any solicitation of funds, goods or services.
Any or several violations of these rules, or any other conduct that BAT considers detrimental to the spirit of open discussion, may result in your comment being removed, as well as you being banned from making future comments on the site.
3.3 The Services may be used only in a noncommercial manner.
3.4 You acknowledge that any submissions you make to the Services (i.e. user generated continent including but not limited to: comments, forum messages, text, video, audio, photographs and graphics, as well as computer code and applications) (each, a “Submission”) may be used, edited, removed, modified, published, transmitted, and displayed by BAT and you waive any rights you may have in having the material altered or changed in a manner not agreeable to you. Submissions made to BAT may also be included in our RSS feeds and social media, and made available for republishing through other formats.
3.4 You grant BAT a perpetual, nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licensable license to the Submissions, which includes without limitation the right for BAT, or any third party it designates, to use, copy, transmit, excerpt, publish, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, communicate to the public, create derivative works of, host, index, cache, tag, encode, modify and adapt (including without limitation the right to adapt to streaming, downloading, broadcast, mobile, digital, thumbnail, scanning or other technologies) in any form or media now known or developed at any time, any Submission posted by you on the Website or any other BAT Services, including Comments posted on or to the Services through a third party.
3.5 You are solely responsible for the content of your Submissions. However, while BAT does not and cannot review every Submission and is not responsible for the content of these messages, BAT reserves the right to delete, move, or edit Submissions that it, in its sole discretion, deems abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright or trademark laws, in violation of these Terms of Use, or otherwise unacceptable.
3.6 By submitting content, you are consenting to its display and publication on the Site and in the Services and for related online and offline promotional uses.
4. PROHIBITED USE OF THE SERVICES
4.1 You may not access or use, or attempt to access or use, the Services to take any action that could harm us or a third party. You may not use the Services in violation of applicable laws, including export controls and sanctions, or in violation of our or any third party’s intellectual property or other proprietary or legal rights. You further agree that you will not attempt (or encourage or support anyone else's attempt) to circumvent, reverse engineer, decrypt, or otherwise alter or interfere with the Services, or any content of the Services, or make any unauthorized use of the Services. Without BAT’s prior written consent, you shall not:
access any part of the Services, Content, data or information you do not have permission or authorization to access or for which BAT has revoked your access;
use robots, spiders, scripts, service, software or any manual or automatic device, tool, or process designed to data mine or scrape the Content, data or information from the Services, or otherwise use, access, or collect the Content, data or information from the Services using automated means;
use services, software or any manual or automatic device, tool, or process designed to circumvent any restriction, condition, or technological measure that controls access to the Services in any way, including overriding any security feature, bypassing or circumventing any access controls or use limits of the Services, or failing to abide by exclusionary protocols such as the Robots Exclusion Protocol or the Automated Content Access protocol;
take action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our network or infrastructure;
do anything that could disable, damage or change the functioning or appearance of the Services, including the presentation of advertising; and
perform text and data mining activities under Art. 4 of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.
4.2 Engaging in a prohibited use of the Services may result in civil, criminal, and/or administrative penalties, fines, or sanctions against the user and those assisting the user.
5. REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES; INDEMNIFICATION; LIMITATION OF LIABILITIES
5.1 You represent, warrant and covenant that: (1) no materials of any kind submitted through your account will: (a) violate, plagiarize, or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary rights, or (b) contain libelous or otherwise unlawful material; (2) if you are under eighteen years old, your parent or legal guardian has read these Terms of Use and agreed to them and your use of the Service. You hereby indemnify, defend and hold harmless BAT and all officers, directors, agents, employees, volunteers, information providers, affiliates, licensors and licensees (collectively, the “Indemnified Parties”) from and against any and all liability and costs, including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' fees, incurred by the Indemnified Parties in connection with any claim arising out of: (1) any breach by you or any user of your account of these Terms of Use or the foregoing representations, warranties and covenants; or (2) your gross negligence or willful misconduct. You must cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defense of any such claim. BAT reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you.
5.2 BAT does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information displayed, uploaded, or distributed through the Services by any user, information provider or any other person or entity. BAT will not be liable to you or any other person as a result of a user’s interactions with other users. You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, memorandum, or information will be at your sole risk. THERE MAY BE DELAYS, OMISSIONS, INTERRUPTIONS, AND INACCURACIES IN THE CONTENT OR OTHER MATERIAL MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES. YOU SHOULD NOT RELY ON THE CONTENT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR, NOR DOES IT REPLACE, PROFESSIONAL LEGAL, FINANCIAL, TAX OR MEDICAL ADVICE. WE WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR INVESTMENT DECISIONS BASED UPON, OR THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM, THE CONTENT PROVIDED IN THE SITE, THE CONTENT, OR THE SERVICES. NOTHING CONTAINED IN THE SITE WILL BE CONSTRUED AS INVESTMENT ADVICE. YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.
5.3 IN NO EVENT WILL BAT, ITS AFFILIATES AND THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, DONORS, SPONSORS, SUPPLIERS, CONTENT PROVIDERS AND LICENSORS (“BAT PARTIES”) BE LIABLE (JOINTLY OR SEVERALLY) TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON AS A RESULT OF YOUR ACCESS OR USE OF THE SERVICES, SUBMISSIONS OR CONTENT FOR INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, LOST REVENUES, LOST GOODWILL, OR COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION (COLLECTIVELY, THE “EXCLUDED DAMAGES”). THESE LIMITATIONS APPLY WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON NEGLIGENCE, TORT, CONTRACT, OR OTHER THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF ANY OF THE BAT PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF OR COULD HAVE FORESEEN ANY OF THE EXCLUDED DAMAGES, AND IRRESPECTIVE OF ANY FAILURE OF AN ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF A LIMITED REMEDY. IF ANY APPLICABLE AUTHORITY HOLDS ANY PORTION OF THIS SECTION TO BE UNENFORCEABLE, THEN THE BAT PARTIES' LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE FULLEST POSSIBLE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
6. SUBSCRIPTION AND SECURITY
6.1 As part of the subscription process to the BAT newsletter, you may provide an email address and other information. You consent to receive notifications from us electronically to the e-mail address you provide to us. You agree that all notices, disclosures, and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.
6.2 Please notify us of any known or suspected unauthorized use(s) of your account, or any known or suspected breach of security, including loss, theft, or unauthorized disclosure of your password or credit card information.
6.3 If you are less than 18 years of age and would like to use, subscribe or register to any part of the Services, please ask your parent or legal guardian to review and agree to these Terms of Use before you use any part of the Services or ask them to complete the purchase and/or registration on your behalf.
6.4 You are responsible for all usage or activity on your subscription with BAT. Any fraudulent, abusive, or otherwise illegal activity may be grounds for termination of your account, at our sole discretion, and we may refer you to appropriate law-enforcement agencies.
6.5 We cannot and do not guarantee that any of the Services will be free from viruses or other code that may have contaminating or destructive elements. It is your responsibility to implement appropriate IT security safeguards (including anti-virus and other security checks) to satisfy your particular requirements as to the safety and reliability of the Services.
6.7. If there is a dispute between participants on this site, or between users and any third party, you agree that BAT is under no obligation to become involved. In the event that you have a dispute with one or more other users, you release BAT, its subsidiaries, its officers, employees, agents, and successors from claims, demands, and damages of every kind or nature, known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and/or our Services.
7. THIRD-PARTY CONTENT AND LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES
7.1 The Services contain links to third-party websites, services, resources, and others (collectively, “Linked Content”). BAT does not control, endorse, sponsor, recommend or otherwise accept responsibility for any of this Linked Content. Because we are not responsible for the availability of these outside resources, or their contents or privacy practices, you should direct any concerns regarding any Linked Content to the party that owns, manages or represents that site. When you access Linked Content, you accept that there are risks in doing so, and that BAT is not responsible for such risks. We encourage you to be aware when you leave the Services and to read the terms and conditions and privacy policy of each third-party website or service that you visit or utilize. Because we are not responsible for the availability of these outside resources, or their contents or privacy practices, you should direct any concerns regarding any Linked Content to the party that owns, manages or represents that site.
In addition, BAT will not and cannot monitor, verify, censor, or edit the content of any third-party site or service. By using the Services, you release and hold us harmless from any and all liability arising from your use of any third-party website or service.
Your interactions with organizations and/or individuals found on or through the Services, including payment and delivery of goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties, or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such organizations and/or individuals. You should make whatever investigation you feel necessary or appropriate before proceeding with any online or offline transaction with any of these third parties. You agree that BAT shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings.
8. TERMINATION AND SURVIVAL
8.1 You may terminate your BAT subscription by using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email newsletter.
8.2 BAT may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Services for any reason, including, without limitation, breach or assignment of these Terms of Use.
8.3 The provisions of these Terms of Use will survive the termination of your account or access to all or part of the Services.
9. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION
9.1 These Terms have been made and will be construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the United States of America and the State of Georgia as an agreement wholly performed in the State of Georgia. Any action to enforce these Terms of Use must be brought in the federal or state courts located in Atlanta, Georgia.
9.2 Any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Services or these Terms of Uses must be filed within one year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.
10. MISCELLANEOUS
10.1 Nothing in these Terms of Use will serve to preempt the promises made in our Privacy Policy.
10.2 Correspondence should be sent to contact@betteratlantatransit.org.
10.3 You agree to report any violations of the Terms of Use to BAT as soon as you become aware of them. In the event you have a claim of copyright infringement with respect to material that is contained in a Service, please notify contact@betteratlantatransit.org.
10.4 Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms of Use or to respond to a breach by you or other parties will not in any way constitute a waiver of our right to enforce subsequently any terms or conditions of these Terms of Use or to act with respect to similar breaches.
10.5 If a provision of these Terms of Use is held invalid or unenforceable for any reason, that provision will be deemed severable and must be construed in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as nearly as possible, the intention of the parties. The validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions will not be affected and those provisions will remain in full force and effect.
10.6 If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide us the following information in writing to BAT's contact@betteratlantatransit.org (see 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) for further detail). Please be advised that to be effective, the Notice must include ALL of the following:
a physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive copyright that is allegedly infringed;
a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Site
your address, telephone number, and email address and all other information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you;
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;
a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
If you believe that any content or materials you uploaded, posted, or submitted to the BAT Service, that were subsequently removed from the BAT Service, or to which access was disabled, improperly removed or disabled, please provide the following Counter-Notification to BAT's Copyright Agent (see 17 U.S.C. § 512(g) for further detail):
your physical or electronic signature.
a description of the materials that have been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
your name, address and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.
Notices of claimed copyright infringement should be directed to:
By mail: 352 Sheppard Place, Atlanta GA 30307 Attention: President, Better Atlanta Transit
By email: contact@betteratlantatransit.org