I do not have much time for exhortation, but to the brave a few words are as good as many...
The following are Terms of Service for use of Chiaroscuro as of 1/1/2007.
Although Chiaroscuro is free to play, there are certain conditions that need to be adhered to in order to maintain a comfortable gaming environment for both the people that play it, and those that staff it.
Account
By creating a character account on Chiaroscuro, you take sole responsibility for what happens with that account.
Characters are password-protected, and those passwords are encrypted on the server. However, the staff of Chiaroscuro and Mongoose Online Entertainment offer no warranty or control over your computer and any access someone else might get to your Telnet-friendly client software.
You are held accountable for any and all actions taken by your character. If you feel your account has been compromised, notify the staff immediately via the +str system (+str/help) and request a password change.
Purging
Characters idle longer than 30 days may be purged from the Chiaroscuro database.
Purged characters lose all equipment, experience, accrued money and other benefits achieved in-game.
Purge protection is available to non-subscribers for a one-time fee of 10,000 NecroCredits.
The staff of Chiaroscuro and management of Mongoose Online Entertainment are not held accountable for the loss of character accounts due to inactivity. It is your responsibility as a player to either acquire protection against purging, subscribe, or remain active at least once a month to avoid purging.
ChiaCredits and package deals can be purchased via PayPal at our website:
Services
Anyone can play Chiaroscuro for free. However, various services are available to people wishing to commission the personal time and creative talent in order to attain perks and unique items.
Details of such services can be found upon http://chia.jointhesaga.com/credits.php
Refunds are not available for early termination of subscriptions. Extra content remains accessible until such time as the subscription is no longer current.
Administration
Mongoose Online Entertainment reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to change, modify, add to, supplement or delete any of the terms and conditions of these Terms of Service at any time, including, without limitation, access policies, the availability of any Chiaroscuro feature, hours of availability, content, data, software or equipment needed to access Chiaroscuro, the amount of, or basis for determining, any fees or charges for Chiaroscuro, and institution of new fees or charges for Chiaroscuro, effective upon prior notice as follows: Mongoose Online Entertainment will post notification of any such changes to Chiaroscuro on the Chiaroscuro website and will post any revised Terms of Service in this location, and may provide such other notice as Mongoose Online Entertainment may elect in its sole and absolute discretion, which may include by e-mail, postal mail, or in-game notice. If any future changes to these Terms of Service are unacceptable to you or cause you to no longer be in compliance with these Terms of Service, you may cease to use your Chiaroscuro account and terminate the account. The continued use of Chiaroscuro by you following notice of changes to these Terms of Service will mean you accept any and all such changes. Mongoose Online Entertainment may change, modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of Chiaroscuro at any time. Mongoose Online Entertainment may also impose limits on certain features or restrict your access to parts or all of Chiaroscuro without notice or liability. You have no interest, monetary or otherwise, in any feature, content or availability of Chiaroscuro, any game data or in any terms or conditions of access to or use of Chiaroscuro.
Conduct
Chiaroscuro players are expected to know, understand and abide by rules of conduct set forth by Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC.
These rules are not meant to be exhaustive, and Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC reserves the right to determine which conduct it considers to be outside the spirit of the game and to take such disciplinary measures as it sees fit, up to and including termination and deletion of the character account.
Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC reserves the right to modify these rules of conduct at any time.
Channels
Communicating with other Users and Mongoose Online Entertainment representatives is an integral part of Chiaroscuro and is referred to in this document as "Chat." Your Chat sessions may be subject to review, modification, and/or deletion by Mongoose Online Entertainment without notice to you. Additionally, you hereby acknowledge that Mongoose Online Entertainment is under no obligation to monitor Chat, and you engage in Chat at your own risk.
When engaging in Chat in Chiaroscuro, or otherwise utilizing Chiaroscuro, you may not:
(i) Transmit or post any content or language which, in the sole and absolute discretion of Mongoose Online Entertainment, is deemed to be offensive, including without limitation content or language that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, sexually explicit, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, nor may you use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the content and language restrictions listed above.
(ii) Carry out any action with a disruptive effect, such as intentionally causing the Chat to scroll faster than other users are able to read, or setting up macros with large amounts of text that, when used, can have a disruptive effect on the normal flow of Chat.
(iii) Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue in Chat or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users including without limitation posting commercial solicitations and/or advertisements for goods and service available outside of the Chiaroscuro universe.
(iv) Sending repeated unsolicited or unwelcome messages to a single user or repeatedly posting similar messages, including but not limited to continuous advertisements to sell goods or services.
(v) Communicate or post any user's personal information in or on the Chiaroscuro, or websites or forums related to Chiaroscuro, except that a Chiaroscuro user may communicate his or her own personal information in a private message directed to a single user.
(vi) Use bots or other automated techniques to collect information from Chiaroscuro or any forum or website owned or administered by Mongoose Online Entertainment.
(vii) Harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to any user of Chiaroscuro.
(viii) Cheat or utilize Chiaroscuro "exploits" in any way.
(ix) Participate in any action that, in the sole and absolute opinion of Mongoose Online Entertainment, results or may result in an authorized user of Chiaroscuro being "scammed" or defrauded out of credits, weapons, armor, or any other items that user has earned through authorized gameplay in Chiaroscuro.
Gameplay
Some acts taken by players go beyond what is "fair" and are considered serious violations of these Terms of Service. Those acts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
(i) Using or exploiting errors in design, features that have not been documented, and/or "coding bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players.
(ii) Using tools that hack or otherwise alter the Chiaroscuro server software.
(iii) Anything that Mongoose Online Entertainment considers contrary to the "essence" of Chiaroscuro.
Names
When you choose a character name, form a clan/guild, or otherwise create a label that can be seen by other players of Chiaroscuro, you must abide by the following guidelines as well as the rules of common decency. If Mongoose Online Entertainment finds such a label to be offensive or improper, it may, in its sole and absolute discretion, change the name, remove the label, and/or suspend or terminate your use of Chiaroscuro.
In particular, you may not use any name:
1. Belonging to another person with the intent to impersonate that person, including without limitation a staffer or any other employee or agent of Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC.
2. That incorporates "swear" words or which are otherwise offensive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable.
3. Subject to the rights of any other person or entity without written authorization from that person or entity.
4. That belongs to a popular culture figure, celebrity or media personality.
5. That is, contains, or is substantially similar to a trademark or service mark, whether registered or not.
6. Belonging to any religious figure or deity.
7. Taken from Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC's products, including feature character names from OtherSpace, OtherSpace: New Journeys and Chiaroscuro, as well as from any derivative creative works thereof.
8. Related to drugs, sex, alcohol or criminal activity.
9. Comprised of partial or complete sentence (e.g. Imagod, Crymorenoob)
10. Comprised of gibberish (e.g. Axhdgd, Xljjst)
11. That uses "leet" or "dudespeak"
12. That incorporates titles indicating rank, monarchistic titles or religious titles.
You may not use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the name restrictions listed above, nor can you have a first and last name that, when combined, violate the above name restrictions.
Consequences
Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC may, in its sole and absolute discretion, take whatever action it deems necessary to preserve the integrity of Chiaroscuro. Violation of any of the terms and conditions set forth herein may result in actions being taken by Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC, effective immediately or at a time determined by Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC, which may include without limitation: (i) temporarily suspending your access to Chiaroscuro, or (ii) permanently terminating your access to Chiaroscuro. Without limiting the foregoing, Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC retains the right to decline service to any user who violates the Chiaroscuro Terms of Service.
Limitations
Limitations on your rights pertaining to Chiaroscuro may include, but are not limited to, the following:
A) Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC reserves the right to produce any and all derivative work based on the realms of Chiaroscuro. No one else may create derivative works without prior expressed, written permission from Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC.
B) You may not institute, assist, or become involved in an attack upon any RPG-Works server or otherwise attempt to disrupt the Chiaroscuro server. You may not institute any such attack which results in the disruption of any other player's Chiaroscuro experience. ANY ATTEMPT BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PLAYER ON AN ACCOUNT TRACEABLE TO YOU TO DAMAGE Chiaroscuro OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF Chiaroscuro IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND, SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE OR ASSISTANCE FOR SUCH AN ATTACK BE PROVIDED, MONGOOSE ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH USER TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. You may not, whether intentionally or unintentionally, violate any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation in connection with your use of Chiaroscuro.
Miscellaneous
The Service is further subject to United States export controls. No software from this site and/or service may be downloaded or otherwise exported or re-exported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Iran, Syria or any other country to which the U.S. has embargoed goods; or
(ii) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Commerce Department's Table of Deny Orders. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list.
If any provision of this Agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this Agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
This Terms of Service Agreement is the complete and exclusive statement of the agreement between you and Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC concerning the Service, and this Agreement supersedes any prior or contemporaneous agreement, either oral or written, and any other communications with regard thereto between you and Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC.
Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC will cooperate fully with all governmental authorities and any lawful orders of the court or other legal process with regard to the release of information that relates to you and/or your use of Chiaroscuro, including without limitation user Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, associated personal information and all other user information on file.
Online
Mongoose Online Entertainment agrees to provide access to Chiaroscuro until such time as Chiaroscuro is "Out of Publication." Chiaroscuro shall be considered "Out of Publication" following the date that Chiaroscuro is no longer available for public access. Thereafter, Mongoose Online Entertainment may, in its sole and absolute discretion, continue to provide the Service or license to third parties the right to provide the Service. However, nothing contained herein shall be construed so as to place an obligation upon Mongoose Online Entertainment to provide the Service beyond the time that Chiaroscuro is Out of Publication. Neither the Service nor Mongoose Online Entertainment's agreement to provide access to the Service shall be considered a rental or lease of time on or capacity of Mongoose Online Entertainment's server or other technology.
Ownership
All title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to Chiaroscuro (including without limitation any user accounts, titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogue, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, methods of operation, moral rights, any related documentation, transcripts from the game, character profile information) are owned by Mongoose Online Entertainment LLC. Chiaroscuro is protected by the copyright laws of the United States, international copyright treaties and conventions, and other laws. All rights are reserved.
