TERMS OF USE
STATE OF VERMONT
PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION (State)
ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM and
ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM (ePUC)
Terms of Use
Your use of the ePUC web portal and the State electronic case and document management and filing system (ePUC) is conditioned upon your agreement with and acceptance of the Terms of Use stated below.
YOUR APPLICATION FOR AUTHORIZATION AND YOUR SUBSEQUENT USE OF ePUC OR ANY FILE INFORMATION, DATA OR MATERIALS AVAILABLE THROUGH ePUC (Content) CONSTITUTES AGREEMENT TO COMPLY WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAINED ON THIS WEBPAGE (Terms of Use). PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY.
Use Constitutes an Undertaking. These Terms of Use govern your use of ePUC and the Content. By accessing or using ePUC, you are acknowledging that you have read and understand these Terms of Use. Your initial, and each subsequent, access to and use of ePUC or any Content constitutes your continuing undertaking to the State to abide by these Terms of Use in respect of your use of ePUC and the Content.
Use and Reliance. The State shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any use of or reliance on ePUC or any Content for any purpose, or for any other loss or damage arising from any use of or reliance on ePUC, any Content or other data, or any software, computer or computer system associated with ePUC. The State does not guarantee or assume any liability for the accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability or timeliness of any file information, data or materials on ePUC. All users of ePUC do so strictly at their own risk.
Prohibited Conduct. You agree not to upload, email, post or transmit to, distribute, disseminate, or otherwise publish or make available through ePUC anything of any nature or kind, and you agree not to otherwise take any action or permit anyone to take any action, that:
a) restricts or inhibits any person from using or accessing ePUC or any Content;
b) is unlawful, threatening, intended to intimidate, abusive, harassing, hateful, tortious, libelous, defamatory, derogatory, discriminatory, disruptive, obscene, vulgar, gratuitously violent, offensive, objectionable, pornographic, profane, sexually explicit or indecent;
c) is, or could reasonably be considered by others as, injurious to minors or their welfare;
d) constitutes, or advocates or encourages conduct that would constitute, a criminal offence, gives rise to civil liability, or otherwise violates any law or governmental regulation;
e) violates or infringes the rights of any person, including copyright, trade-mark rights, patent rights, industrial design rights, trade secret rights, rights of privacy or publicity or any other proprietary right of a person;
f) discloses information you do not have a legal right to disclose to others (whether at law, pursuant to contract or under a fiduciary or other obligation);
g) contains a virus, worm, malicious code, corruption or other harmful or destructive element or item that might damage, disable, overburden, disrupt or limit the operation or functionality of any computer hardware, firmware, software or peripheral devices, including servers and remote devices;
h) interferes with or disrupts or limits the operation or functionality of ePUC or any network or server connected to or accessible via ePUC, or that is contrary to any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to ePUC;
i) contains any information, software or other material of a commercial nature, including any advertising, promotions or solicitations for purchase or sale or that offers any contest, giveaway or sweepstakes;
j) is or contains any spam, junk or other bulk communications, chain letters, multi-level marketing or communications that relate to pyramid or ponzi schemes, or any other form of illegal or unwanted solicitation;
k) constitutes or contains false or misleading author attributions, legal or other notices, proprietary designations, labels or other indicia of origin or source (including email headers and other electronic identifiers), or facts;
l) is designed or intended to collect the personal information of another or that otherwise accesses ePUC or any Content for that purpose using automated means (including, without limitation, harvesting bots, robots, scraper) or that solicits login information or access to an account belonging to another;
m) impersonates any person, including, without limitation, any employee or any ePUC administrator, or another party to a file, or that falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with any person; or
n) facilitates or encourages any breach of these Terms of Use by another.
Third Party Content. All Content of whatever nature or kind that originates from a source other than the State (collectively, Third Party Content) that is made available on ePUC is the sole responsibility of the third party who filed, transmitted or otherwise made available such Third Party Content. You are solely responsible for all Third Party Content that you file, transmit or otherwise make available via ePUC. Your use of or access to ePUC or any Content does not in any way transfer or assign to you any ownership or other proprietary rights in or to ePUC or any Content. You are prohibited from representing any reproduction of the Content as having been made in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the State. You are prohibited from reproducing multiple copies of any Content for the purposes of commercial redistribution. Your use and reproduction of any Third Party Content may be restricted under applicable copyright laws and/or other legislation. If you wish to rely upon Third Party Content, you should contact the source of that Content. These Terms of Use shall not be construed as conferring any right under any copyright.
Restrictions on Use. You are prohibited from making links of any kind to ePUC without the State's prior written permission. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, deep linking to any ePUC webpage or Content is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the State. Use of ePUC or the Content through a browser that contains any frames displaying contents of other websites is strictly prohibited. The scraping or mining of data from or framing or mirroring of ePUC or any Content by any method is strictly prohibited. You are prohibited from employing or utilizing any collaborative browsing or display technologies in association with ePUC.
Unrestricted Right to Suspend or Limit Use. The State, in the State's sole and absolute discretion, may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of ePUC or any Content at any time, including the availability of any service, feature, database or other Content. The State may also impose limits on services, features and databases, or restrict your access to parts of or the entirety of ePUC or any Content, without notice or liability to you.
Restricted Access. Regardless of whether you are an individual accessing ePUC as a filer in your own right or in a representative capacity, you are only authorized to use and access ePUC and the Content through use of your personal filer identification and password (your personal account). You are responsible to ensure that your personal account is not disclosed to any other person. If you disclose your personal account to any other person or become aware of any unauthorized access to ePUC using your personal account, you must notify the State immediately by contacting the State via electronic mail sent to: puc.clerk@vermont.gov. You are responsible for all claims, proceedings, liabilities, obligations and costs resulting directly or indirectly from the use of your personal account by any person to whom you disclosed such information or by any other person.
Unauthorized Access. Access to ePUC for the purpose of accessing, filing, using or browsing Content via the internet is permitted; ALL OTHER ATTEMPTS TO ACCESS OR USE ePUC, THE CONTENT, THE RELATED COMPUTER SYSTEMS OR THEIR RESOURCES ARE UNAUTHORIZED.
No Assignment or Delegation. These Terms of Use constitute your personal undertaking and you may not transfer or assign your undertaking or delegate your authority hereunder or under your account.
Governing Law. These Terms of Use are governed by and will be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Vermont.
Required Equipment. You are solely responsible for obtaining and maintaining any equipment or ancillary services needed to connect to, access or use ePUC and the Content, including, without limitation, an internet connection, modem, hardware, software, firmware, peripherals, and long distance or local telephone service, if applicable. You are solely responsible for ensuring that such equipment or ancillary services are compatible with ePUC and the Content. You are solely responsible for any fees or costs associated with all such equipment or ancillary services.
Amendments. The State may, in the State's sole and absolute discretion, amend these Terms of Use from time to time, for any reason, without prior notice or liability to you or to any other person; provided, however, that the State will ensure that any such amendment will be made available to you on ePUC. Your access to or use of ePUC or any Content after such amendments are posted signifies your acceptance of those revised Terms of Use as your amended undertaking. You are responsible for periodically visiting ePUC to review the terms and conditions of these Terms of Use. You may not change, modify or amend these Terms of Use in any manner at any time. If you cannot accept or undertake to abide by an amendment to these Terms of Use, you must terminate your account or Your Firm account, as the case may be, by notifying the State forthwith.
Consequences of Breach. If you breach any provision of these Terms of Use, you are no longer authorized to use ePUC and your account may be subject to immediate cancellation.
Termination. The State may, in the State's sole and absolute discretion, for any reason, suspend, cancel or terminate your use of ePUC or any Content at any time without notice, whereupon you are no longer authorized to use ePUC. In the event of such termination, these Terms of Use will nevertheless continue to apply and to bind you in respect of your prior use of ePUC.
Extra-Jurisdictional Use. Use of ePUC and the Content is not authorized in any jurisdiction that does not give full effect to all of the terms and conditions of these Terms of Use.
