Terms of Service

1. Agreement

These Terms apply to everyone who visits or uses the Service. Creating an account requires accepting these Terms and the Privacy Policy. We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the date at the top of this page and may notify you through the Service or by email. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the Service and, if you have an account, you may request deletion as described in the Privacy Policy.

2. Who we are

The Service is operated by Poorman's Ascent. Brand names, logos, and product names of distilleries and third parties appear for identification and catalog purposes only. We do not claim ownership of those third-party marks. Support the distilleries and brands you love by purchasing through legitimate channels.

3. Eligibility and alcohol

The Service is intended only for adults of legal drinking age in their place of residence (21+ in the United States, or the higher age required where you live). By using the Service you represent that you meet that requirement. Alcohol-related content is for informational and entertainment purposes. Drink responsibly and obey all laws where you live. We do not sell or ship alcoholic beverages through the Service unless we clearly state otherwise for a specific product. Affiliate and partner links may send you to licensed third parties; those sales are between you and them.

4. Accounts and security

You must provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date. You are responsible for your password, passkeys, and activity on your account. Notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, appear fraudulent, or pose risk to the Service or other users. Accounts are personal licenses to use the Service—they are not property you can sell or transfer without our written consent.

5. Our Service and intellectual property

The Service—including software, design, layout, databases, catalog structure, rankings, recommendations, algorithms, trademarks (other than third-party marks), and the selection and arrangement of content—is owned by us or our licensors and protected by law. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your own non-commercial enjoyment of whiskey discovery, collection tracking, and community features. You may not copy, scrape, crawl, bulk-download, resell, reverse engineer, or use the Service or its data to build a competing product, train machine-learning models, or create derivative databases, except as allowed by mandatory law or with our written permission. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

6. Your content — you keep ownership; we need a license to run the Service

"User Content" means anything you submit, upload, post, or transmit through the Service—for example reviews, tasting notes, forum posts, comments, messages, profile text and photos, collection notes, images, barcode links, whiskey or distillery suggestions, price reports, sightings, event content, and similar materials.

You retain whatever ownership rights you already have in your User Content. These Terms do not transfer ownership of your personal photos or original writing to us.

To operate Whisk(e)y Notebook we need broad permission to use what you contribute. By submitting User Content, you grant Poorman's Ascent a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, perpetual, and irrevocable license to host, store, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works from, publish, publicly perform and display, distribute, and otherwise use your User Content in connection with the Service and our business—including operating and improving features, moderation, search and discovery, recommendations, analytics, marketing of the Service, and training or improving models and systems that power personalization and catalog quality (including in aggregated or de-identified form). This license continues even if you delete content or your account, to the extent copies remain in backups, the content was already shared with others, or we reasonably need it for legal compliance, security, dispute resolution, or residual model improvements that no longer identify you.

Community catalog contributions. Content that is meant to improve the shared catalog for everyone—such as bottle submissions, descriptions, barcodes and links, price submissions, sightings, ratings used in averages, and similar structured data—is licensed as above and may remain part of the public or shared catalog after you close your account, because removing it would break the Service for others. We may credit contributors where we choose, but we are not required to.

You represent that you have the rights to submit your User Content, that it does not infringe others' rights, and that it complies with these Terms. You are solely responsible for your User Content. We do not endorse user opinions. We may remove, edit, refuse, or restrict User Content at any time, without obligation to monitor everything in advance.

7. Feedback

If you send ideas, suggestions, or other feedback about the Service (separate from ordinary User Content like reviews), that feedback is non-confidential and becomes our exclusive property. We may use it without restriction or compensation.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Break the law, infringe intellectual property, or violate others' privacy or publicity rights.
• Harass, threaten, defame, or post hateful, pornographic, or otherwise abusive content.
• Manipulate ratings, reviews, barcodes, prices, or sightings (including fake bottles, toy UPCs, paid undisclosed reviews, or multi-account schemes).
• Spam, scrape, overload, or interfere with the Service; bypass rate limits, security, age gates, or paywalls.
• Use bots or automated means except ordinary search-engine indexing that respects robots.txt.
• Misrepresent your identity, age, or affiliation with brands or distilleries.
• Use the Service to train AI systems or build competing datasets from our content without permission.

9. Advertising, affiliates, Pro, and shop

Free accounts may see alcohol-related advertisements. We label ads (for example "Ad" or "Sponsored"). We may earn commissions from affiliate "where to buy" links at no extra cost to you solely because of our referral; partner prices and taxes are set by partners. Paid Pro may remove ads we control; third-party sites are not ad-free. Merchandise and Pro billing are handled through our payment processors (for example Stripe). Digital features and physical goods may have separate checkout terms shown at purchase. Refunds follow the process we publish or applicable law.

• "Ad" or "Sponsored" means a commercial placement or material connection to an advertiser or affiliate program.
• Clicks or purchases through sponsored or affiliate links may generate compensation for us.
• Alcohol ads are intended for legal-age users only.
• Partner programs set their own terms, stock, shipping, and regional restrictions.
• Pro removes ads we control where stated; external sites may still show ads.

10. Affiliate product links

Some whiskey pages include "Where to buy" buttons through affiliate programs.

• Those buttons are labeled "Affiliate" (or similar). We may be paid if you buy through them.
• Using an affiliate link does not by itself raise the price you pay because of our referral.
• We generally do not sell alcohol ourselves via those links. Availability and legality depend on the retailer and your location.

11. Third-party services

The Service may link to retailers, ad networks, payment providers, app stores, maps, analytics, or other third parties. Their terms and privacy policies apply when you leave our Service. We are not responsible for third-party content, products, or practices.

12. Copyright complaints

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice with: (a) your contact information; (b) a description of the work and where the material appears on the Service; (c) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorized; (d) a statement under penalty of perjury that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act; and (e) your physical or electronic signature. Send notices using the contact methods for Poorman's Ascent published on poormansascent.com. We may remove content and, in appropriate cases, terminate repeat infringers.

13. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE AND ALL CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not warrant that catalog data, prices, ratings, recommendations, barcodes, or user content are accurate, complete, or current. Your use of alcohol-related information is at your own risk.

14. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE AND OUR AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, AND SUPPLIERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US $100). Some places do not allow certain limits; in those places our liability is limited to the maximum allowed by law.

15. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend and indemnify us against third-party claims, damages, and reasonable legal fees arising from your User Content, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of these Terms or others' rights.

16. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or end access if you violate these Terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the Service. Provisions that should survive (including licenses already granted, disclaimers, limits of liability, and indemnity) will survive termination.

17. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except that mandatory consumer protections in your place of residence still apply where they cannot be waived. Courts in Delaware (or, if not permitted, courts where Poorman's Ascent may be lawfully sued) will have jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory rights you have to bring claims in your home courts.

18. General

These Terms are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service (plus any separate terms for a specific purchase). If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains 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 in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

19. Contact

Questions about these Terms: Use the contact options on poormansascent.com or the email published for Whisk(e)y Notebook support. Operator: Poorman's Ascent. https://poormansascent.com

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