Website Terms of Service

Effective Date: 11/20/2023

1. Introduction

Our aim is to provide you with the best of Buddhist wisdom, teachings, practices and experiences, as well as products and services in support of that aim. We hope you find inspiration, wisdom, and enjoyment as you browse the site. 

Lionsroar.com and its subdomains (store.lionsroar.com; learn.lionsroar.com; promo.lionsroar.com; and other subdomains which may exist now or may be added in the future, collectively the “Site”) are published by the Lion’s Roar Foundation (“Lion’s Roar”), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in the United States and a Registered Charity in Canada, with business offices located at 2403 Clifton St. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3K 4T9. 

Lion’s Roar also makes the same or similar content available to mobile users through iOS and Android apps; various social media platforms; in our print publications Lion’s Roar magazine, Buddhadharma: the Practitioner’s Guide a variety of single-issue special publications; and as podcasts, courses or online events.

2. Purpose

These Terms and Conditions of Service (“Terms”, “Terms and Conditions”) govern your relationship with Lion’s Roar, any affiliated websites or social media accounts, and any electronic communications (“Online Platforms”) as well as your use of our services. These Terms provide you with your rights and responsibilities when using and interacting with our Site.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY

These Terms and Conditions constitute a legally binding contract between Lion’s Roar, the proprietor of all rights in and to the Site, and you. It is therefore recommended that you carefully read these Terms. 

These Terms apply to all users of our Site, including Lion’s Roar Site subscribers. If you are using the Site on behalf of another person or legal entity, you represent and warrant that you are an authorized representative of such person or entity. The term “user”, “you” or “your” refers to the individual or legal entity, as applicable, accessing or otherwise using the Site. 

By accessing or using the Site you agree to be bound and comply with these Terms and our Privacy Policy and accept all legal consequences. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, in whole or in part, please do not use the Site.

3. Modification of Terms 

We reserve the right in our sole discretion to revise and update these Terms from time to time. Any and all such modifications are effective immediately upon posting. You agree to periodically review the terms and conditions in order to be aware of any such modifications and your continued use shall be your acceptance of these. 

The information and material on this Site may be changed, withdrawn, or terminated at any time at our sole discretion without notice. We will not be liable if, for any reason, all or any part of the Site is restricted to users or unavailable at any time or for any period.

4. Privacy Policy

By submitting your personal information and using our Site, you consent to the collection, use, reproduction, hosting, transmission, and disclosure of any such user content submissions in compliance with our Privacy Policy, as we deem necessary for use of the Site and provision of services.

We make reasonable efforts to uphold industry-standard security measures to protect personal information under our control from loss, misuse, and alteration. 

Online credit card transactions are transmitted through a secure server using Secure Socket Layering (SSL) encryption technology directly to our payment processors. Lion’s Roar does not store your credit card information and our staff and partners do not have access to your card information unless you provide it to us over the phone or in an email, which we do not recommend.  

Important information about Lion’s Roar’s practices on the collection, use and disclosure of users’ personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which forms a part of this agreement. 

5. Purchasing Subscriptions & Subscriber Support

This Site allows users the option to purchase subscriptions which allow you greater access to content and/or access to special subscriber-only content. While Lion’s Roar is a non-profit, we rely significantly on paid subscriptions to support our work. Lion’s Roar subscriptions are offered on an annual basis, and subscriptions purchased online renew automatically by default. We will notify you by email two weeks in advance of your renewal date indicating the rate and term in effect. You may opt out of automatic renewal by contacting us at [email protected] or by logging into your account at lionsroar.com and disabling auto-renew.

If you choose a subscription that includes a print edition of Lion’s Roar magazine or Buddhadharma, please note that your first issue will arrive 6-8 weeks after you place your order.

In purchasing a subscription or product on our Site, you may be asked to supply certain information relevant to your purchase including, without limitation, your first and last name, your email address, your credit card details, your billing address and your shipping information. Any such collection and use of your personally identifiable information is governed by our Privacy Policy. Please ensure you read our Privacy Policy on this Site before sharing any personally identifiable information with us. 

We reserve the right to refuse or cancel your order if fraud or an unauthorized or illegal transaction is suspected. We will not be held responsible or liable for any failure for the purchase to complete, or any resulting loss or damages to you. 

You may cancel your subscription at any time by contacting [email protected]; you will receive a pro-rated refund for the remaining months and/or issues of your subscription. Please allow 3 weeks for your refund to be processed.

You may also contact Support regarding missing or damaged issues, to renew an expiring subscription, or with any technical support questions you may have related to your use of the services.

6. Purchases, Product Warranties and Return Policy  

In addition to subscriptions, Lion’s Roar offers a range of products for purchase through our Online Store (store.lionsroar.com) and our Online Learning portal (learn.lionsroar.com).

Unless we indicate otherwise, purchases of courses, summits, online events and related resource packages (collectively, “Online Learning Products”) are refundable in full for 30 days from the date of purchase and at our sole discretion after that. Not all content included in Online Learning Products is downloadable; if you intend to download content, please carefully review the individual product descriptions before purchase, which will indicate what content is downloadable.

Unless we indicate otherwise, Online Store purchases are returnable for a full refund if return authorization is requested within 30 days of purchase. If you wish to make a return, please Contact Us as quickly as possible after receiving your item. If your package arrives damaged, photograph the package from all angles before opening it and save the packaging; if your article was damaged in transit we may require the photos and/or damaged packaging in the claim process. If we approve your return, we’ll provide specific instructions about how to make the return. All returned articles must be returned unused and undamaged, and without visible signs of wear. 

CDs, DVDs, and other digital storage devices are not returnable once opened, unless defective. Unfortunately, we are not able to refund shipping costs, nor do we cover the cost of return shipping. We do not accept returns of magazines. 

For service standards, shipping policies, detailed return instructions, and answers to frequently asked questions see store.lionsroar.com/pages/policies.

As a non-profit, donations to Lion’s Roar can also be made on our Site. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. No goods or services are provided in exchange for your generous contribution. You may be asked to supply relevant information to your donation including, without limitation, your first and last name, your email address, your credit card details, and your billing address. Any such collection and use of your personally identifiable information is governed by our Privacy Policy.

7. Linked Sites

Please exercise discretion while browsing the internet. Lion’s Roar is not responsible for the content of any third-party website and does not endorse the information contained therein or guarantee its quality, accuracy, reliability, or completeness. 

Some of our services contain third party advertising with links to pages outside of our services. None of our advertising is placed in an automated fashion; that is, we consider each advertiser’s suitability for our audience before accepting their ads. Our content may also contain links to content on other sites (for example, a reference within a story) that we believe may be useful or interesting to the reader.

If you decide to visit any linked site, you do so at your own risk, and it is your responsibility to take all protective measures to guard against viruses and other destructive elements. Lion’s Roar is not responsible for the content of any such linked sites or any other web page which is not part of the Site and under Lion’s Roar’s control. Unless otherwise expressly provided, Lion’s Roar makes no representation or warranty regarding and does not endorse any linked site or information, products or services appearing thereon. Accordingly, you agree that Lion’s Roar will not be responsible or liable in any way for the accuracy, relevancy, copyright compliance, legality, or decency of material contained in any site linked from the Site. 

8. Security

Any information sent or received over the internet is generally not secure. Lion’s Roar maintains reasonable security precautions but cannot guarantee the security of any communication to or from the Site. 

9. Intellectual Property Rights 

The Site and its entire contents, features, and functionalities, including but not limited to information, photos/video, software, artwork, names, words, titles, phrases, the selection and arrangement thereof, logos and marks displayed on the Site are owned by Lion’s Roar, our licensors, and/or other providers of such material and are protected in all forms by intellectual property laws including without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and any other proprietary rights. 

10. Intellectual Property Ownership

You may only use our Site for your personal and non-commercial use. You shall not directly or indirectly reproduce, compile for an internal database, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store, or transmit any of the material on our Site, in any form or medium whatsoever except:  

a) your computer and browser may temporarily store or cache copies of materials being accessed and viewed; 

b) a reasonable number of copies for personal use only may be printed keeping any proprietary notices thereon, which may only be used for non-commercial and lawful personal use and not for further reproduction, publication, or distribution of any kind on any medium whatsoever; or

c) we grant you written permission by writing to [email protected]; however, granting permission is solely at the discretion of the copyright(s) holder(s). 

You acquire absolutely no rights or licences to the Site other than the limited right to use the Site in accordance with the Terms. You shall not use the Site for any purpose except as expressly provided therein.  

Lion’s Roar handles allegations of copyright infringement according to the procedures laid out in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA).

11. Social Media

We may use social media channels, such as Instagram, “X” (Twitter), YouTube, and Facebook, to promote the content of the Site and the services of Lion’s Roar. Our use of social media serves as an extension of our web presence. Social media accounts are public and are not hosted on our servers. Users who choose to interact with us via social media should read the applicable terms of service and privacy policies of the third-party service providers and those of any application you use to access them.

Contents or comments posted by individuals on social media can be read by anyone. We strongly advise you not to post any personal information. We reserve the right to remove, edit, modify, publish, or otherwise transmit any content or comments at our discretion. We reserve the right to block or ban users. Content or comments posted on our social media channels do not reflect the opinions of Lion’s Roar.

You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights you have to content that you post to our services. When you upload or submit content, you give Lion’s Roar a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, communicate, publish, publicly display, create derivative works and distribute this content. This license continues even if you stop using our services. You should make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services. Don’t post content to the services that you don’t own, without permission from the owner of the content.

12. Cookies

By using our Site,  you consent to the use of cookies and agree to the Cookie Policy of our hosting provider. A “Cookie” is a small text field containing a unique identification number that is transferred (through your browser) from a website to the hard drive of your computer, for the purpose of identifying your browser, etc. 

These Cookies are used to store information including visitors’ preferences, and the pages on the Site that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimize user experience by customizing our web page content based on visitors’ browser type and/or other information. We recommend setting your browser to notify you before you receive a Cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it. You can also set your browser to turn off Cookies. If you do, however, you may experience a less than satisfactory experience with us. 

13. Right to Refuse Service 

We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone demonstrating inappropriate behaviour towards Lion’s Roar or other users of its services. 

14. Indemnification

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Lion’s Roar, its respective directors, officers, employees, agents, service providers, contractors, licensors, suppliers, successors, and/or assigns from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgements, awards, losses, costs, expenses, or fees (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to your breach of these Terms and Conditions or your use of the Site, including, but not limited to, any use of the Site’s content and services other than as expressly authorized in these Terms and Conditions. 

15. Warranties and Limitation of Liabilities

This Site is provided on an “as-is” and “as available” basis, and we expressly disclaim any and all warranties and conditions of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including all warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, quiet enjoyment, accuracy, or non-infringement. We do not guarantee that the Site will meet your requirements, will be available on an uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free basis, or will be accurate, reliable, free of viruses or other harmful code, complete, legal, or safe. 

We shall not be responsible for any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damage or any other damages whatsoever and howsoever caused, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Site or reliance on the information available on the Site, including the loss of use, lost data, lost business profits, business interruption, personal injury, or any other personal or pecuniary loss, whether the action is in contract, tort (including negligence) or other tortious action. Access to and use of the Site is at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your device or computer system, or loss of data resulting therefrom. 

Our services are for educational, spiritual, and entertainment purposes only. Nothing contained within our services constitutes medical advice, and Lion’s Roar accepts no liability for any actions you may take, nor the results of those actions, based on the content offered in our services.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, our liability to you for any damages arising from or related to these Terms, will at all times be limited to a maximum the amount you paid to Lion’s Roar to use our services. The existence of more than one claim will not enlarge this limit.

16. Governing Law

You expressly agree that any disputes, claims, complaints or actions you may choose to advance arising from your use of the Site will be decided by the Courts established under and applying the laws of Nova Scotia excluding the law relating to choice of law and forum conveniens. You further expressly agree that you have attorned to the jurisdiction of the Courts of Nova Scotia for the purpose of resolving any such dispute, claim, complaint, or action.  The Site is intended for use only in jurisdictions where it may lawfully be offered for use. 

17. Additional Terms

In addition to these Terms and the Privacy Policy, users may be subject to additional terms agreed upon in separate agreements with Lion’s Roar. 

18. Entire Terms

Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the other provisions of these Terms will be unimpaired, and the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed modified so that it is valid and enforceable to the maximum extent permitted by law.  These Terms, and your rights and obligations herein, subcontracted, delegated, or otherwise transferred by you without our prior written consent, and any attempted assignment, subcontract, delegation, or transfer in violation of the foregoing will be null and void.

19. Contact Us

You may Contact Us concerning any questions about the Terms and Conditions.

Last Modified: 11/20/2023

I HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL OF THE PROVISIONS CONTAINED ABOVE.