Modifications

Last modified on 12/11/23. Recent changes to the Terms of Service are highlighted.

Introduction

Please read these Terms of Service ("Terms") carefully. They contain the legal terms and conditions that govern game play provided to you by Furry Paws, including information, text, images, graphics, data or other materials ("Content") , products and services provided through http://www.furry-paws.com ( FP ), and software, programs and code forming or incorporated in to http://www.furry-paws.com (the "Game"). Furry Paws ("www.furry-paws.com", "FP", "site") is owned privately by me ("I"). FP is an online dog simulation comprised of fake kennels, fake dogs, fake shows, fake shops, and many more fake things, intended for use by those at least 13 years of age or older. Anyone who is under the age of 13 must first obtain the permission of a parent or guardian before signing up for or playing FP.

By using our Game, you agree to be bound by Section I of these Terms ("General Terms"), which contains provisions applicable to all users of our Game which apply to everyone, "basic" accounts and "elite" accounts alike. If you choose to log into Furry Paws, you will be expected to have read, and agree to be bound by, the additional terms set forth in Section II of these Terms ("Additional Terms").

I try to keep FP as clean as possible, but please note that there are certain areas of the site that are determined strictly by user ("member"), defined as someone who has signed up for an account on FP, input, hence, I cannot always control everything that goes on the site. Therefore, FP will not accept any responsibility for the distress that some of the aforementioned areas might hold.

Furry Paws will be enforcing a ZERO TOLERANCE SCAMMING POLICY. If a player is found to be attempting to maliciously and/or knowingly collect funds (real life or in-game) and/or taking credit for work that is not theirs, they will be at risk of having their account immediately frozen.

Section I: General Terms

1. Availability

FP reserves the right to shut down at any time for any length of time or permanently without any warning or reason given. In other words, if I decide to close down FP, I can. If I decide to close FP for a while for renovations, bug fixes, anything else, or no reason at all, I can. You agree that Furry Paws is not and will not be liable to you for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Game.

2. Privacy

Furry Paws ("FP", "site") obtains a user's IP address, user agent, and email. FP uses the IP address and user agent information to track users on the site, and the email address to send account notices and password retrieval help.

FP uses "cookies" for several purposes, including personalizing a user's experience, allowing a user to stay logged in, and tracking a user between multiple accounts.

FP will not distribute any of your information to any third party.

Should you wish to withdraw your consent, you may delete your account via the Delete Account link on your Kennel Settings page. Please note that if you add any information (including, but not limited to, updating your kennel description, posting on the forums/chat/guild/cassos, etc) it is your responsibility to edit or delete this information when you delete your account.

3. Trademarks & Copyright

The images, text, and code of this site belong to FP. You agree not to plagiarize, steal, or otherwise pilfer any of these materials without the sole permission of me, the owner.

4. Copyright Violations

A user is responsible and accepts complete liability for any content he or she uploads onto Furry Paws and agrees that Furry Paws is not responsible for it. This includes, but is not limited to pictures posted or linked to without the permission from holder of the Copyright, and programming code that is copyrighted by another party.

Art Theft, including but not limited to selling, displaying, giving away or submitting to the Image Bank artwork which is not your own without the original artist's permission; using photographs which are subject to copyright; creating derivative works based on photographs or artwork that is not your own without permission is not allowed. Artwork you have made yourself depicting copyrighted materials may be sold for FP currency (FPD/FPP) only.

Any use found to be in direct connection with uploading, selling, or tracing copyrighted material will result in serious consequences and may result in a banned ("frozen") account. The level of punishment is solely up to Myself and the procedures I have set for the Moderating ("Mod") team.

If you, as a player of FP, find a player in violation of copyrights, the following information is requested to be submitted along with your ModBox Report to assist the mod team in investigating the claim: (1) link(s) to the art in question, (2) a link to the original if known, (3) proof of ownership if the art is owned by you, and (4) any other information that you believe may aid in investigating the matter. If you are not a Furry Paws member and you believe your art has used without your permission, you may email us at copyright@furry-paws.com and provide as much of the above information as possible along with reason to how or why you believe this is occurring on Furry Paws.

5. External Links

Furry Paws may provide links to third-party websites or resources. You acknowledge and agree that Furry Paws is not responsible or liable for: the availability or accuracy of such websites or resources; or the Content, products, or services on or available from such websites or resources. Links to such websites or resources do not imply any endorsement by Furry Paws. You acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from your use of any such websites or resources.

6. Programming

You agree that you will not interfere with or disrupt (or attempt to interfere with or disrupt) the game play or servers. You agree that you will not provide any information to Furry Paws that is false or misleading that attempts to hide your identity.

7. Disclaimer of Warranty and Limitation of Liability

FURRY PAWS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED AS TO THE AVAILABILITY OF THE GAME. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT FURRY PAWS IS NOT LIABLE FOR YOUR DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT, AND YOU EXPRESSLY ASSUME ALL RISKS AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGES AND LOSSES ARISING FROM SUCH CONDUCT. FURRY PAWS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INJURIES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM USE OF THE GAME, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, AND EMOTIONAL DAMAGES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF OR LIMITATIONS ON CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR INJURY. THEREFORE, SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

8. Amendment of the Terms

We reserve the right to amend these Terms at any time at our sole discretion. If you have registered as a member, we shall notify you of any material change to these Terms (and the effective date of such changes) by posting any and all changes to the news feed and having the new news post notification appear upon first log in after any change. If you continue to play Furry Paws after the effective date of the revised Terms, you will be deemed to have accepted those changes. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, your sole remedy shall be to discontinue use of the Game.

9. General

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between Furry Paws and you with respect to your playing of the Game. Furry Paws' failure to enforce any right or provision in these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If a court should find that one or more provisions contained in these Terms is invalid, you agree that the remainder of the Terms shall be enforceable. These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Colorado. Any disputes arising under or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts of the State of Colorado.

Section II: Additional Terms

10. Registration

Each user is granted a certain set of privileges. Please note that they are only privileges, not rights, and can be taken away at any time for any reason without explanation being necessary. Privileges include, but are not limited to: logging on to your user account; interacting with other users through messages and message boards; owning virtual dogs; personalizing virtual kennel pages; personalizing owned virtual clinic/shop pages; personalizing virtual dog descriptions; posting on message boards, chat, or guild boards; and creating virtual competitions. One or all of these privileges may be and will be taken away or restricted if a member does not strictly adhere to the Terms of Service. FP also reserves the right to take away any of the above privileges and restrict access to the site for any reason without any explanation. These rules apply to everyone, "basic" accounts and "elite" accounts alike.

You will not own more than three user accounts, active or inactive, on FP. Ownership of an account is defined as, but not limited to, possessing the username and password of an account. Frozen and inactive accounts are still considered as one of the three accounts you are permitted. Should you possess more than three user accounts for any reason, you must notify a moderator through the ModBox and the excessive accounts will be closed.

You agree to allow FP to collect your IP address and time of login. You agree to allow FP to place cookies on your computer.

11. Password

When you register as a member you will be asked to provide a password. You are responsible for safeguarding the password and you agree not to disclose your password to any third party. You agree that you shall be solely responsible for any activities or actions under your password, whether or not you have authorized such activities or actions. You shall immediately notify Furry Paws of any unauthorized use of your password.

Shared accounts, accounts that are used by two users, are prohibited. By logging in to an account that is used by more than one individual, you agree that FP forfeits all responsibility in consequences that may result because of untrustworthy partners.

12. Submitting Content

Chat Rooms and Forums - As a registered member of Furry Paws, you will be granted the privilege of participating in chat rooms and forums on the FP website as part of the game, which means you may post Your Content in the form of text and Artistic Materials for display in these areas of the game, subject to your compliance with the Terms.

Artistic Materials – Digital art, including tags, dog images, layout images, and characters; Kennel layouts

Excessive use of caps or bright/light colors on the boards and chat room is not permitted. Limited use of caps to bring attention to small details of posts is allowed. Entire posts, sentences or post titles in capital letters are not permitted. The definition of bright/light colors is subject to common sense so text is visible and easy to read for fellow players.

Users with upgraded accounts are allowed to use images ("tags") in their nicknames and kennel names as long as they do not violate any part of the Terms of Service. Nickname Tag sizes may not exceed 150 x 150 pixels. Kennel Tag sizes may not exceed 150 x 150 pixels. Nickname Tags and Kennel Tags which include any kind of animation such as flashing/blinking or rapid movement that may cause medical issues are not allowed. This will be at the discretion of the Mod team. In addition, movie gifs are not allowed.

13. Monitoring Content

Furry Paws has no ability to fully control the Content you may upload, post or otherwise transmit using the Game and does not have any obligation to monitor such Content for any purpose. You acknowledge that you are solely responsible for all Content and material you upload, post or otherwise transmit using the Game.

Furry Paws does hold the right to:

remove any posts, kennel pages, etc. with content that violates the Terms of Service and the right to warn, fine, and/or ban the offending player.

14. Conduct

You agree to be subject to and to conduct yourself in accordance with the following guidelines. You are responsible for all of Your Content you upload and otherwise copy, distribute and display using the FP Game. You must have the legal right to copy, distribute and display all parts of any content that you upload and otherwise copy, distribute and display. Content provided to you by others, or made available through websites, are protected by copyright and should not be uploaded, downloaded, or otherwise copied, distributed or displayed without the consent of the copyright owner.

English is the only language which may be used on FP's forums and chat. For any content posted in a language other than English an English translation must be provided in the same post/content area. The use of a language other than English can be used in guilds. However, it is the responsibility of the guild leader to provide a translation at the request of a Mod. It is also the discretion of the guild leader as to what languages other than English that can be used in the guild.

If you find any bugs, defined as errors in the code of FP, you agree to post it on the Bug Board, describing the location of the bug and what you were doing at the time of it. Any user who abuses a bug may be warned, fined, and/or banned.

You agree not to use the game/boards/chat/or any other function of Furry Paws:

(a) for any unlawful purposes;

(b) to upload, post, or otherwise transmit any material that is obscene, offensive, blasphemous, pornographic, unlawful, threatening, menacing, abusive, harmful, an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, defamatory, libelous, vulgar, illegal or otherwise objectionable;

(c) to upload, post, or otherwise transmit any material that infringes any copyright, trade mark, patent or other property right or artist's right

(d) to upload, post, or otherwise transmit any material which is likely to cause harm to Furry Paws or anyone else's computer systems, including but not limited to that which contains any virus, code, worm, data or other files or programs designed to damage or allow unauthorized access to the Game which may cause any defect, error, malfunction or corruption to the Game;

(e) to mention, allude to or discuss puberty, sex, sexual innuendo, self-harm (including cutting, eating disorders and suicide), illegal substances, and alcohol or drug abuse.

(f) to post any scripts outside of the www.furry-paws.com domain, including but not limited to private chat boxes, music, glitter graphics and counters. Only HTML and CSS are permitted.

(g) for public discussion of inflammatory issues such as Politics including but not limited to: elections, political debates, and issues. You are allowed to discuss these topics privately in guilds (at the guild leader's discretion) and private messages as long as the content is kept PG-rated and non-abusive. Self-affirming tags/statements on nicknames, kennel pages, shop pages, etc. are acceptable as long as they do not directly insult a group of people.

(h) for cursing. Cursing includes but is not limited to: all words blocked by the site's bad word filter, usage of symbols to represent curse words or to evade the bad word filter. Topics with more than three censored words will be removed.

(i) for griefing, including but not limited to interfering with or degrading ones ability to play the game in a friendly and hassle free environment, deliberately causing one to feel unwelcome on any publicly accessible parts of the Game, publicly destroying the reputation of another player (including public black listing), name calling (including N00b and other offensive terms for newer players), making accusations of theft or scamming in public, and threatening behavior including fake acts of violence towards others is not permitted. In addition, posting content with the intent of intentionally antagonizing other players or starting a flame war is not allowed.

(j) for player harassment, defined as the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands.

(k) to impersonate moderators, including but not limited to pretending to have been a mod in the past or present or threatening other players with fines/punishments. A player may politely request a player in chat to change their color, stop posting in all caps, or stop flooding when a moderator is not present. Should you encounter another player who you believe is violating the Terms of Service, you have two options: report the offending material or incident to the Mod Box or ignore it.

(l) to post personal information such as full names, contact information, or the specific location of anyone, even yourself. Posting links to outside websites or kennels is allowed as long as the website is kid-friendly, but starting a flame war for any outside website is considered trolling and is not permitted.

(m) for role-playing on the board or in chat. Role-playing is permitted in private messages by mutual consent of both parties. Role-play in guilds may be allowed based on guild owner's discretion.

(n) for hotlinking images (defined as linking directly to an image or file without permission) on topics, dog pages, kennels or any other FP page as this consumes bandwidth on the host website.

15. Advertisement & Soliciting

Advertisement and soliciting of activities mean the offering, solicitation or sale of goods or services by anyone other than Furry Paws. Advertisement and soliciting activities with respect to in-game goods and Artistic Materials are permitted for in-game currencies for registered members acting as individuals. Users with the Player Recommended Artist status may sell Artistic Materials which they possess Sole Rights to for USD on the USD Art Sale board only. No other forms of advertisement may be done without the consent of myself.

Sole Rights – Can only be held by one individual and gives that individual the ability to sell and modify the Artistic Material. Sole Rights can only be held by the original artist or the commissioner of the Artistic Material who has been granted Sole Rights by the original artist. Upon a player obtaining the art past the aforementioned owners, will not obtain Sole Rights.

Advertising is not permitted in chat, in messages, or on any board not in the following list: Advertising Board, Dog Sales, Art Sales, USD Art Sales, Breeding Board, Canine Association (Casso) Board, and Other Sites Board. Advertisements for external sites are only allowed on the Other Sites Board and on Kennel pages. Players wishing to sell and/or advertise items or virtual goods not allowed on other boards may post on the “Other Sites Board” with the following requirements/restrictions: (a) No amounts or pictures of items may be posted, but users can provide a simple list indicating what they are selling and (b) an off-site link should be provided where additional information can be found. Any post found to be containing any information not allowed will be removed and poster may be warned or banned.

16. Warning, Suspension & Banning of Accounts

You agree that Furry Paws may at any time and without notice warn, suspend, or freeze any or all of your accounts if you fail to comply with the Terms or applicable law. I reserve the right to suspend or ban any account that I feel is not using the Game as I intended. I, as the owner of the site, have selected individual players ("Moderators", "Mods") who are current on the procedures and Terms of Service that I have outlined and have my full support to monitor and enforce those regulations. You agree not to intentionally provide misleading or untruthful information to the Moderators.

17. Selling & Trading

The sale of Furry Paws Dollars (“FPD”), Furry Paw Points (“FPP”), items, dogs, or accounts for any form of "real life" currency, which includes but is not limited to USD, CD, etc., is strictly prohibited. You agree not to participate in the sale or purchase of such. Players' FPP, FPD, and FP accounts are allowed to be traded/sold for other game currency and accounts (and only if the other game allows the same). Sales of pets or items from any game including FP are not allowed. Selling non-FP products is not permitted. These include but are not limited to code, gaming platforms, art programs, games and live animals.

Buying, Selling and Trading FP accounts is permitted for in-game currencies, however players are reminded that: the history of an account's rule-breaking is permanent, regardless of if accounts are sold, traded or handed on; players are responsible for at no time owning more than 3 accounts, and ownership is defined as but not limited to access to the username and password via email or otherwise for any active, inactive, or frozen account; players are responsible for making sure that the passwords and email address listed to an account is changed upon transfer; any existing PRA, Image Bank Rater, and Newbie Helper status on the account will be revoked.

18. Selling of Art

Suitable Evidence – A private message on Furry Paws (including archived messages) with information including, but not limited to: details of the art being sold; sale completion time; restrictions on use, re-sale, breeding, etc.

You agree to only sell art that you are the sole owner of and have full permissions to sell, with the exception of co-owned art explained below. As such, selling art on behalf of another player is not permitted. Should your right to sell a particular piece of be challenged, you must be able to provide Suitable Evidence that you are the sole owner of the art and that you have full permissions to sell the art. If you are unable to do so, you will be unable to sell the art and you may also receive a warning. Artistic Materials generated in whole or in part by Artificial Intelligence ("AI") is considered to have used copyrighted materials from the art used to train the AI and may not be sold on Furry Paws.

Artistic Materials may be co-owned by more than one user. Should the owners wish to sell the art, one owner must take full responsibility for selling the art, including posting the sale, collecting payment, completing the sale, and fulfilling any terms agreed to regarding the sale. Prior to listing the art for sale, all other owners must FP private message the selling owner indicating under what conditions they are giving the selling owner permission to sell the art.

Should you wish to challenge another user's right to sell a piece of art, you must provide Suitable Evidence proving that they either are not the sole owner of the art or that they do not have full permissions to sell the art. Should you wish to challenge another user's right to use a piece of art in a particular way, you must provide Suitable Evidence that the user has violated an art use agreement between you and the user.

When buying Artistic Materials for in-game currencies, players are required send payment as attachments through the private messaging tool. When the recipient of the message collects the attachment, they are bound by the terms detailed in the message. Should the recipient wish to decline for any reason, the recipient should return the attachment to sender. The message the payment is attached to should include the following details at minimum:

a. Copy of the application form found on artist Art Sales Board post. If the artist did not provide a form, include a detailed description of what is being purchased

b. When the commission should be completed (Ex: 2 weeks)

The seller may impose additional restrictions on the art, including but not limited to: restrictions on resale of the art; restrictions on character breeding; restrictions on use. Should the seller wish to impose additional restrictions that are not included in the buyer's original message, the seller must reply to the buyer with all such conditions and wait for the buyer to reply in agreement prior to accepting payment. Failure to do so will render all such conditions unenforceable by the moderator staff. Upon resale of art, it is the seller's responsibility to communicate any and all previously agreed to restrictions to the new buyer. Failure to do so may result in the seller's account being banned should an issue arise.

Players should not collect the payment from any message containing terms they are not willing or are unable to fulfill. If a seller collects the payment and is unable to fulfill the request, a prompt refund should be issued. Note that failure to do so could result in the seller's account being banned. Upon completion of the art and/or sale, a link to the art should be sent on the same message where the original payment was made.

Once a transaction is complete, we advise both buyers and sellers to Archive the message containing the transaction details. This is to protect all parties involved from scamming claims and/or art theft.

A character is defined as a creature with a particular backstory and a unique design illustrated by a reference image. A unique design is defined as a full-body image of a creature with a particular, complex set of markings not found in nature. Furry Paws will consider a copyright violation of a character to have occurred if:

a. A character is used for a breeding without permission from the character owner

b. A character duplicates the existing unique design of a previously existing character

c. A particular backstory is plagiarized

Artistic Materials may only be sold for real life currencies on the “USD Art Sales Board”. All other Artistic Materials must be sold on the “Art Sales Board” for in-game currencies only. In order to sell on the “USD Art Sales Board”, a player must obtain a “Player Recommended Artist” (PRA) status. This may be obtained by submitting an application through the ModBox. To be eligible for this status a player must be at least level 10, have no previous warnings for art issues, and have a positive player rating in the game. Additionally, activity on the “Art Sales Board”, non-art related player warnings, and contributions to the site Image Bank may also be considered.

The PRA is NOT A SITE RECOMMENDATION as to who you should buy from. The PRA status will be given at the sole discretion of the admin of the site. PRA status is a privilege, not a right, and may be revoked at any time for any reason. If a user's PRA is revoked, they cannot re-apply to obtain a PRA for at least 6 months. If an account with a PRA status is sold to another user, the PRA status and any ratings will be revoked. It is the responsibility of the user who earned the PRA to submit a modbox report regarding the sale of the account prior to completing the sale of the account. Failure to do so may result in a warning.

Any and all sales of Artistic Materials on FP that is done for USD, or any other real life currencies, are not the responsibility of FP. However, FP has a zero tolerance policy for scamming, and should we find what we consider to be conclusive evidence of scamming having occurred, we will IP ban and freeze the offending player(s). Should you decide to purchase art on FP with USD, we recommend that you do the following:

a. Prior to sending payment, message the artist on FP with details of the commission. We strongly advise that you follow the practices outlined in the in-game currency sales section above.

b. Upon sending payment through the payment site, include a copy of the FP message with your payment

c. If work/art piece fails to be completed you must go though the payment site used to get a refund. However if Messages showing that both parties agree the work/art piece would be delivered by a certain date, proof of payment is provided, and the artist cannot show that the art was delivered, repercussions for scamming will be investigated by the Mod team. If no evidence is provided which indicates that a clear timeline was agreed upon, the commissioner must just wait, with a maximum wait time of 30 days from commission date at that time. After that point, if the commissioner can show Suitable Evidence that the agreement between the commissioner and artist was violated, repercussions can be taken but a refund will not be the responsibility of FP.

Any transaction that is not directly covered by the above outline will be at the discretion of the Mod Team to allow and will be at the seller's/buyer's own risk if they proceed.

19. Donations

FP does not allow for players to ask for donations in the form of “real life” currency which include but are not limited to USD, CD, etc. However the in-game donation of FPP, FPD, or items to another player is allowed. However, players are allowed to provide a link on the “Other Sites Board” to off-site charitable organizations or fundraisers, as long as they are open any individual who wishes to donate.

ANY ISSUE NOT CLEARLY EXPRESSED BY THE ABOVE TERMS WILL BE HANDLED AT MY DISCRETION AND THE DISCRETION OF MY MODERATORS.