Welcome to Crosstalk. These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Crosstalk ("Crosstalk," "we," "us" or "our") and govern your use of our website and related services (the "Services"). By using the Services, applying to contribute or submitting recordings, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.
Please read Section 9 carefully. It requires most disputes to be resolved through individual binding arbitration rather than in court, and waives your right to take part in a class action. You can opt out as described in Section 9.6.
1. Definitions
- "Website" means the Crosstalk website and any pages we link to it.
- "Contributor" means a person we accept to submit recordings to Crosstalk.
- "Participant" means any person whose voice, image or words appear in a recording, including the contributor.
- "Submitted Content" means recordings, transcripts, metadata and other materials a contributor submits to us.
- "Data Customer" means an organization that licenses datasets from Crosstalk under a separate written agreement.
2. Eligibility and accounts
2.1 Eligibility. You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Services. If you use the Services on behalf of an organization, you confirm that you have authority to bind it to these Terms.
2.2 Accounts. If we accept your contributor application, we may give you an account. You must provide accurate information, keep your login details secure and tell us promptly about any unauthorized use. You are responsible for activity under your account.
3. Privacy
Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use personal information, including information about participants in recordings. By using the Services, you acknowledge that we will process information as described there.
4. Contributing recordings
4.1 Applications. Applying to contribute does not guarantee acceptance. We may accept or decline any application, recording or contributor at our discretion.
4.2 Consent from every participant. You may only submit a recording if every participant in it has given informed consent to be recorded and to have the recording licensed through Crosstalk, using the consent process we provide. You must not submit any recording made in secret, any recording that includes a person under 18 without verifiable parental consent, or any recording where a participant has refused or withdrawn consent.
4.3 Your promises. For each item of Submitted Content, you represent and warrant that: (a) you created it or have all rights needed to submit it; (b) every participant has consented as described in Section 4.2; (c) it does not contain confidential information you are not authorized to disclose, such as an employer's trade secrets; (d) its recording and submission comply with all applicable laws, including laws requiring the consent of all parties to a recording; and (e) it does not infringe or violate anyone's rights.
4.4 License to Crosstalk. You keep ownership of your Submitted Content. By submitting it, you grant Crosstalk a worldwide, royalty-free (apart from the payments described in Section 4.5), transferable and sublicensable license to store, copy, edit, redact, transcribe, annotate, combine with other data, and license Submitted Content to Data Customers, who may use it for research, product development and the training and evaluation of machine learning models. This license continues for each recording until a participant withdraws consent as described in Section 4.6.
4.5 Payment. We pay contributors for accepted recordings on the terms shown to you in your contributor account before you submit. Unless those terms say otherwise, we only pay for recordings we accept, and we may withhold or reverse payment for content that breaches these Terms. You are responsible for any taxes on payments you receive.
4.6 Withdrawal of consent. Any participant may withdraw consent for a recording at any time. When that happens, we will stop including the recording in new datasets and instruct Data Customers who received it to delete it under the terms of their agreements. Withdrawal does not undo uses that happened before it, and does not entitle anyone to a refund of payments already made.
4.7 Our review. We may review, redact, edit or remove any Submitted Content, but we are not obligated to monitor it. Rejected recordings are deleted.
5. Using the Services
5.1 Right to use. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to access and use the Services for their intended purpose.
5.2 Restrictions. You agree not to: (a) submit false information or content; (b) record or submit anyone without the consent required by Section 4.2; (c) attempt to identify, contact or profile participants in any dataset; (d) copy, scrape, resell or redistribute the Services or any part of our datasets except as allowed in a written agreement with us; (e) interfere with or disrupt the Services, or try to gain unauthorized access to them; (f) reverse engineer any part of the Services except where the law allows; (g) use the Services to break any law or infringe anyone's rights; or (h) help anyone else do any of these things.
5.3 Dataset licensing. Requesting a dataset through the Website does not grant any license. Datasets are licensed only under a separate written agreement between Crosstalk and the Data Customer, which controls if it conflicts with these Terms.
5.4 Beta features. We may offer features labeled beta, preview or early access. They are provided as-is, may change or end at any time and may be less reliable than other features.
6. Ownership and feedback
6.1 Our property. Apart from Submitted Content, we and our licensors own all rights in the Services, including the Website, our datasets as compiled, annotations, software, text and design. Nothing in these Terms transfers those rights to you.
6.2 Trademarks. "Crosstalk," our logo and related names are our trademarks. You may not use them without our prior written permission.
6.3 Feedback. If you send us suggestions or feedback, you grant us the right to use it for any purpose without payment or obligation to you.
6.4 Copyright complaints. If you believe content on the Services infringes your copyright, send us a notice with the information required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, including identification of the work and the material at issue, your contact details and a statement made under penalty of perjury that you are authorized to act. We may remove material and terminate repeat infringers.
7. Third-party services
The Services may rely on or link to third-party services, such as recording platforms you use to export files. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party services, and your use of them is governed by their own terms.
8. Disclaimers, limitation of liability and indemnification
8.1 Disclaimers. THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, CROSSTALK AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS AND LICENSORS (THE "CROSSTALK PARTIES") DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY APPLICATION OR RECORDING WILL BE ACCEPTED.
8.2 Limitation of liability. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, THE CROSSTALK PARTIES WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, DATA OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THEIR POSSIBILITY. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS WE PAID YOU IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THESE LIMITATIONS, SO THEY MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
8.3 Indemnification. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Crosstalk Parties from any claims, losses, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your Submitted Content, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any law or the rights of any third party, including any participant.
9. Arbitration and class action waiver
9.1 Informal resolution first. Before starting arbitration, you and Crosstalk agree to try to resolve any dispute informally for at least 30 days, starting when one side sends the other a written description of the dispute.
9.2 Agreement to arbitrate. If the dispute is not resolved informally, you and Crosstalk agree that any claim arising from or relating to these Terms or the Services will be resolved by final, binding, individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court.
9.3 Exceptions. Either side may bring an individual claim in small claims court, or seek an injunction in court to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property.
9.4 Class action waiver. YOU AND CROSSTALK AGREE THAT CLAIMS MAY ONLY BE BROUGHT ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.
9.5 Costs. Payment of arbitration fees will be governed by the AAA rules. If you show that the costs of arbitration would be prohibitive compared to litigation, we will pay as much of the filing and hearing fees as the arbitrator finds necessary to prevent that.
9.6 Opt out. You may opt out of this Section 9 by emailing us at the address in Section 11 within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, with your name and a clear statement that you are opting out of arbitration.
9.7 Time limit. To the extent the law allows, any claim must be brought within one year after it arises, or it is permanently barred.
10. General provisions
10.1 Changes to these Terms. We may update these Terms from time to time. We will change the "Last updated" date and, for material changes, give additional notice. Continuing to use the Services after changes take effect means you accept them.
10.2 Termination. We may suspend or end your access to the Services at any time, including if you breach these Terms. You may stop using the Services at any time. Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including Sections 4.3, 4.4 (for recordings already licensed), 6, 8, 9 and 10, will survive.
10.3 Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of [State] and applicable U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict of law rules. Subject to Section 9, disputes will be heard in the state or federal courts located in [County, State].
10.4 California residents. Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California users may contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.
10.5 Export laws. You agree to comply with all applicable U.S. and international export control and sanctions laws when using the Services.
10.6 Miscellaneous. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any written agreement you have with us, are the entire agreement between you and Crosstalk about the Services. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them freely. There are no third-party beneficiaries.
11. How to contact us
Questions about these Terms can be sent to:
CrosstalkEmail: [legal contact email]
Mailing address: [company mailing address]