Privacy Policy

MUDDY RIVER NEWS LLC

Privacy and Use Policy

Muddy River News LLC offers this privacy and use policy (the “Policy”) both to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy and provide other terms of use. This Policy discloses our practices for our website information and content gathering and dissemination, along with other information.  This Policy applies to all practices of Muddy River News, Muddy River Sports, Muddy River TV+, and other sites or services of Muddy River News LLC.  

This Policy addresses our privacy and use practices by anyone who visits, browses, or otherwise uses our sites.  By visiting, browsing, or using any sites, submitting information or content, making sponsorship contributions, or using any of our products or services, or those advertised, you acknowledge that you accept this Policy.  If you do not agree to this Policy, do not use any of our sites.

Muddy River News LLC is a news gathering and publication company.  We value and claim all protections afforded under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Site Ownership

Unless otherwise noted, the design and content features on our sites, including without limitation, information and other materials, illustrations, product layout and design, icons, navigational buttons, images, artwork, graphics, photography, text, data, audio sound, videos, software, URLs, and the like, as well as the selection, assembly, and arrangement thereof (collectively, the “site information”), are owned by Muddy River News LLC.  The sites, as a whole and in part, are protected as relevant or applicable by copyright, trademark, service mark, trade name, common law, and other intellectual property and proprietary rights, and all these and other applicable rights are reserved.  Unless otherwise provided, no portion of the sites or site information may be reprinted, republished, modified, or distributed in any form without our express written permission. All rights are reserved.  You may not, and this Policy does not give you permission to, reproduce, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, modify, transmit, sell, distribute, license, or create derivative works with respect to the sites or site information or content.  We do not claim any intellectual property rights properly belonging to our advertisers.

Permission is granted to share or link information or content for non-commercial purposes provided the source as being a Muddy River News LLC site is clearly identified.  Examples would be sharing articles through social media or by copying, pasting, and sharing an article URL. 

Ownership of Submitted Information or Content

We consider for publication submissions of information or content.  Submitted information or content may include but is not necessarily limited to press releases, stories, ideas, photographs, videos, images, and similar items.  We reserve the right to decline any submissions.  If accepted, you consent to its use by Muddy River News LLC in its existing and future operations and businesses without payment. 

By submission of information or content you represent that such items do not violate the copyright, intellectual, or any other rights of others.  

You retain all ownership rights of submitted information or content for which we make no payment.  However, by submitting information or content you grant to us with respect to such information or content worldwide, royalty-free, payment-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, and transferable rights and licenses: to host, cache, store, archive, index, crawl, create algorithms based thereon, modify, or transcode the information or content to appropriate media formats, standards or mediums as part of the services provided; to in whole or in part use, distribute, reproduce, print, publish, modify, revise, edit, supplement, remix, excerpt, adapt, prepare derivative works of, publicly present and publicly display the information or content on our sites or publications and, including without limitation, in connection with any distribution or syndication arrangement thereof with third parties or third party sites, in any media format or medium and through any media or publication channels; and to use the information for advertising, promotional or commercial purposes, including without limitation, the right to publicly present, perform, reproduce and distribute the information or content in any media format or medium and through any media methods or channels.

The foregoing licenses granted by you shall not terminate if or once you remove or delete your information or content from any location.  Consequently, even if you delete your information or content, it may still exist in our back-up copies or archives.  You understand and agree, that we may retain, display, distribute, or perform, server copies of your information or content that have been removed or deleted by you should we so choose.  The licenses granted by you are perpetual and irrevocable.

Information or content for which we make payment is a “work for hire” and all rights to such information or content belongs to Muddy River News LLC.

Links to Other Sites

We are a news gathering and dissemination company supported primarily by advertising and sponsorships.  In addition to original content, our sites contain links to other sites including advertisers, sponsors, and news sources. Muddy River News LLC is not responsible for the privacy practices, terms of use, or the content of such sites, or their products or services.  Further, any links to other websites are provided as merely a convenience to you.  We have no responsibility for the content of such other sites and are not to be liable for any damages or injury arising from the content from these other sites, the advertisers, the sponsors, or any dealings you may have them any of them. 

Credit Related Information

You may submit personal or credit card information to us for the purposes of sponsorships, advertising, ordering products or services, and other designated purpose.  This information is used only for the purpose for which submitted.  Refer to additional privacy policies regarding credit cards.

Sponsorships

Muddy River News LLC accepts sponsorships or contributions.  Please note that we are not a tax-exempt organization.   Accordingly, we make no representation as to whether all or any portion of sponsorships are tax deductible.  Consult your own tax advisor. 

Customer Information

Our online inquiry forms may solicit users to voluntarily provide contact information such as name, email address, phone number, and mailing address and demographic information such as age and how you learned about us. Pursuant to our Policy, we use this contact data and information to facilitate communications with users.  Among these is a newsletter but information may be requested for other reasons.  Users providing information may receive follow-up emails after submitting our online inquiry or submission form and may be further contacted by the means specified in the form.  

Users may opt-out of receiving future contacts.  A site may give users the options to opt-out or unsubscribe.  In addition, a written notice to no longer receive our service may be sent by First Class U.S. Mail to: Muddy River News LLC, 535 Maine, Suite 4A, Quincy, Illinois 62301.

Sharing Your Personal Information

Muddy River News LLC may share your personal information submitted within our company, with any subsidiary or affiliate worldwide, or with authorized third parties (e.g., business partners, suppliers, advertisers, and financial institutions). We may also disclose information in response to subpoenas, governmental requests, or other legal process or to otherwise protect our legal or contractual obligations or interests. We do not sell or otherwise transfer your personal information to individuals or entities outside of our company or one of our authorized third parties.

Third Party Service: Contests, Events and Webinars

From time to time, Muddy River News LLC may collect personal information for contests, events, and webinars. This information may be disclosed to our third-party partners for the limited purpose of awarding prizes and/or developing business opportunities.

Security

We have instituted security measures to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control. 

Children’s Guidelines

Muddy River News LLC does not normally collect the personal information of children under the age of 13. If we do, we require verifiable parental consent, prior to collection. If we learn that we have collected children’s personal information without parental consent, we will delete it from our systems.

Passive Gathering of Information Electronically

Pursuant to our Policy, we use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer our websites.  Your IP address and associated information is used to gather broad demographic information. Our sites automatically collect other information such as browser type, platform, location, and connection speed, among other analytics.

During any visit to a site, the pages you see, along with something called “cookies,” are downloaded to your computer. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies in themselves do not personally identify the individual user, but rather the computer that is being used to access the site along with certain statistical information. You may have the opportunity to set your computer to accept all cookies, to notify you when a cookie is issued, or to not receive cookies at any time. Different browsers may address cookies differently. If you set your browser to not accept cookies, it may result in certain access to our sites not being provided to you when you use that computer. 

A web beacon is a transparent image file. Web beacons enable us to track website usage information, such as the number of times a given web page has been viewed, what is viewed, and other impersonal analytics.  Web beacons are invisible to you and (unlike cookies) are not placed on your computer. They may be used in association with cookies to understand how visitors interact with the pages and content on the pages of a site.  We do not use web beacons to collect or otherwise record any type of personal identifiable information provided by or about any user but only to gather analytics.

Email Communications

If you email Muddy River News LLC or those affiliated with us, we may retain your email address and the contents of the email you send.  

Digital Millennium Copyright Act; Copyright Complaints

Muddy River News LLC respects the intellectual property rights of others and requires those that visit our sites and use our sites do the same.  We may, in appropriate circumstances and at our discretion, remove or disable access to material on our sites that infringe or alleged to infringe upon the copyright, intellectual property, or other rights of others.  We also may, at our discretion, remove or disable links or references to an online location that contains infringing material or infringing activity. 

If you believe that your work has been used on any of our sites in any manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify Muddy River News LLC by written notice. The notice should include the following information: 

• An electronic or physical signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or rights allegedly infringed;
• A description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed, including a copy of the copyrighted work or the web page address where the copyrighted work may be found;
• Identification of the site or location on the site of the material you claim has been infringed, or the link or reference to another website that contains the material you claim has been infringed;
• Your name, address, telephone number and email address;
• A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the material at issue is not authorized by the copyright owner, the agent of the copyright owner or the law; and
• A statement by you that the information in this notification is accurate and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner of the material allegedly infringed or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

Muddy River News LLC’s copyright agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement on our sites may be reached at bgough@muddyrivernews.com or by writing to us at Muddy River News LLC, 535 Maine, Suite 4A, Quincy, Illinois 62301.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE USING THE SITES OF MUDDY RIVER NEWS LLC AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SITES AND SITE INFORMATION ARE PROVIDED “AS IS,” AND TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, MUDDY RIVER NEWS LLC EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED.  WE ALSO DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT ACCESS TO OUR SITES, SITE INFORMATION, OR LINKS WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, RISK FREE, OR THAT  NO VIRUSES WILL BE TRANSMITTED THROUGH ACCESS TO OR USE OF SITES, SITE INFORMATION, OR LINKS.

Jurisdiction and Governing Law

We make no representations that the sites, site information, links, or the services or products offered through advertisers or otherwise, are appropriate, available, or legal in any particular location. Those who choose to access any site, site information, links, or the services and products offered do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with applicable laws. You agree that these terms, for all purposes, shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois and any action based on or alleging a breach of our Policy must be brought in a state or federal court located in or having jurisdiction with respect to Adams County, Illinois. 

Changes

Muddy River News LLC reserves the right to change this Policy at any time and from time to time. If such changes occur, this Privacy Policy will be updated. Users of our sites should check back periodically to confirm the then-current terms of this Policy. This Policy is not intended to and does not create any contractual or other legal rights in or on behalf of any party.

Contacting the Web Site and Publisher

If you have any questions about this Policy, our practices, or your dealings with our sites or company, you may contact us as follows: Muddy River News LLC, bgough@muddyrivernews.com, 535 Maine, Suite 4A, Quincy, Illinois 62301.

Updated: April 2, 2022