Microsoft – Terms of Use

Last Updated: February 7, 2022

Acceptance of Terms

The services that Microsoft provides to you are subject to the following Terms
of Use ("TOU"). Microsoft reserves the right to update and modify the TOU at
any time without notice to you. The most current version of the TOU can be
reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom
of our Web pages. When we make updates to the TOU, Microsoft will update the
date at the top of this page. By using the website after a new version of the
TOU has been posted, you agree to the terms of such new version.

Description of Services

Through its network of Web properties, Microsoft provides you with access to a
variety of resources, including developer tools, download areas, communication
forums and product information (collectively "Services"). The Services,
including any updates, enhancements, new features, and/or the addition of any
new Web properties, are subject to these TOU.

Personal and Non-Commercial Use Limitation

Unless otherwise specified, the Services are for your personal and
non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display,
perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer,
or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the
Services.

Privacy and Protection of Personal Information

See the Privacy Statement disclosures relating to the collection and use of
your personal data.

Content

All content included in or made available through the Services, such as text,
graphics, logos, icons, images, sounds, music, digital downloads, data
compilation, software, and documents is the exclusive property of Microsoft or
its content suppliers and is protected by the various applicable trade dress,
copyright, trademark, patent, and other intellectual property and unfair
competition laws in the United States and internationally. All rights not
expressly granted to you in this TOU are reserved and retained by Microsoft or
its licensors, suppliers, publishers, rightsholders, or other content
providers.

Software

Any software that is made available to download from the Services ("Software")
is the copyrighted work of Microsoft and/or its suppliers. Use of the Software
is governed by the terms of the end user license agreement, if any, which
accompanies or is included with the Software ("License Agreement"). An end user
will be unable to install any Software that is accompanied by or includes a
License Agreement, unless he or she first agrees to the License Agreement
terms. Third party scripts or code, linked to or referenced from this website,
are licensed to you by the third parties that own such code, not by Microsoft.

The Software is made available for download solely for use by end users
according to the License Agreement. Any reproduction or redistribution of the
Software not in accordance with the License Agreement is expressly prohibited
by law, and may result in severe civil and criminal penalties. Violators will
be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible.

Without limiting the foregoing, copying or reproduction of the software to any
other server or location for further reproduction or redistribution is
expressly prohibited, unless such reproduction or redistribution is expressly
permitted by the license agreement accompanying such software.

Restricted Rights Legend. Any Software which is downloaded from the Services
for or on behalf of the United States of America, its agencies and/or
instrumentalities ("U.S. Government"), is provided with Restricted Rights. Use,
duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions as
set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and
Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 or subparagraphs (c)(1) and (2)
of the Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights at 48 CFR 52.227-19, as
applicable. Manufacturer is Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond,
WA 98052-6399.

Documents

Permission to use Documents (such as white papers, press releases, datasheets
and FAQs) from the Services is granted, provided that (1) the below copyright
notice appears in all copies and that both the copyright notice and this
permission notice appear, (2) unless explicitly covered by another license or
agreement, use of such Documents from the Services is for informational and
non-commercial or personal use only and will not be copied or posted on any
network computer or broadcast in any media, and (3) no modifications of any
Documents are made. Accredited educational institutions, such as K-12,
universities, private/public colleges, and state community colleges, may
download and reproduce the Documents for distribution in the classroom.
Distribution outside the classroom requires express written permission. Use for
any other purpose is expressly prohibited by law, and may result in severe
civil and criminal penalties. Violators will be prosecuted to the maximum
extent possible.

Documents specified above do not include the design or layout of the
Microsoft.com website or any other Microsoft owned, operated, licensed or
controlled site. Elements of Microsoft websites are protected by trade dress,
trademark, unfair competition, and other laws and may not be copied or imitated
in whole or in part. No logo, graphic, sound or image from any Microsoft
website may be copied or retransmitted unless expressly permitted by Microsoft.

Representations and Warranties

Software is warranted, if at all, only according to the terms of the license
agreement. Except as warranted in the license agreement, Microsoft corporation
hereby disclaims all warranties and conditions with regard to the software,
including all warranties and conditions of merchantability, whether express,
implied or statutory, fitness for a particular purpose, title and
non-infringement. For your convenience, Microsoft may make available as part of
the services or in its software products, tools and utilities for use and/or
download. Microsoft does not make any assurances with regard to the accuracy of
the results or output that derives from such use of any such tools and
utilities. Please respect the intellectual property rights of others when using
the tools and utilities made available on the services or in Microsoft software
products.

Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers make no representations about the
suitability of the information contained in the documents and related graphics
published as part of the services for any purpose. All such documents and
related graphics are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Microsoft
and/or its respective suppliers hereby disclaim all warranties and conditions
with regard to this information, including all warranties and conditions of
merchantability, whether express, implied or statutory, fitness for a
particular purpose, title and non-infringement. In no event shall Microsoft and
/or its respective suppliers be liable for any special, indirect or
consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use,
data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious
action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of
information available from the services.

The documents and related graphics published on the services could include
technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically added
to the information herein. Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers may make
improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described
herein at any time.

Limitation of Liability

In no event shall Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers be liable for any
special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting
from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence
or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use or
performance of software, documents, provision of or failure to provide
services, or information available from the services.

Member Account, Password, and Security

If any of the Services requires you to open an account, you must complete the
registration process by providing us with current, complete and accurate
information as prompted by the applicable registration form. You also will
choose a password and a user name. You are entirely responsible for maintaining
the confidentiality of your password and account. Furthermore, you are entirely
responsible for any and all activities that occur under your account. You agree
to notify Microsoft immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any
other breach of security. Microsoft will not be liable for any loss that you
may incur as a result of someone else using your password or account, either
with or without your knowledge. However, you could be held liable for losses
incurred by Microsoft or another party due to someone else using your account
or password. You may not use anyone else's account at any time, without the
permission of the account holder.

No Unlawful or Prohibited Use

As a condition of your use of the Services, you will not use the Services for
any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and
notices. You may not use the Services in any manner that could damage, disable,
overburden, or impair any Microsoft server, or the network(s) connected to any
Microsoft server, or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of any
Services. You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any Services,
other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to any Microsoft server
or to any of the Services, through hacking, password mining or any other means.
You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through
any means not intentionally made available through the Services. You may not
attempt to copy or change, alter or otherwise attempt to modify the Services or
these TOU.

Use of Services

The Services may contain e-mail services, bulletin board services, chat areas,
news groups, forums, communities, personal web pages, calendars, photo albums,
file cabinets and/or other message or communication facilities designed to
enable you to communicate with others (each a "Communication Service" and
collectively "Communication Services"). You agree to use the Communication
Services only to post, send and receive messages and material that are proper
and, when applicable, related to the particular Communication Service. By way
of example, and not as a limitation, you agree that when using the
Communication Services, you will not:

  • Use the Communication Services in connection with surveys, contests,
    pyramid schemes, chain letters, junk email, spamming or any duplicative or
    unsolicited messages (commercial or otherwise).

  • Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal
    rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.

  • Publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate any inappropriate,
    profane, defamatory, obscene, indecent or unlawful topic, name, material or
    information.

  • Upload, or otherwise make available, files that contain images,
    photographs, software or other material protected by intellectual property
    laws, including, by way of example, and not as limitation, copyright or
    trademark laws (or by rights of privacy or publicity) unless you own or
    control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consent to do the
    same.

  • Use any material or information, including images or photographs, which are
    made available through the Services in any manner that infringes any
    copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary right of
    any party.

  • Upload files that contain viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs,
    cancelbots, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that
    may damage the operation of another's computer or property of another.

  • Advertise or offer to sell or buy any goods or services for any business
    purpose, unless such Communication Services specifically allows such
    messages.

  • Download any file posted by another user of a Communication Service that
    you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally reproduced,
    displayed, performed, and/or distributed in such manner.

  • Falsify or delete any copyright management information, such as author
    attributions, legal or other proper notices or proprietary designations or
    labels of the origin or source of software or other material contained in a
    file that is uploaded.

  • Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the
    Communication Services.

  • Violate any code of conduct or other guidelines which may be applicable for
    any particular Communication Service.

  • Harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including e-mail
    addresses.

  • Violate any applicable laws or regulations.

  • Create a false identity for the purpose of misleading others.

  • Use, download or otherwise copy, or provide (whether or not for a fee) to a
    person or entity any directory of users of the Services or other user or
    usage information or any portion thereof.

Microsoft has no obligation to monitor the Communication Services. However,
Microsoft reserves the right to review materials posted to the Communication
Services and to remove any materials in its sole discretion. Microsoft reserves
the right to terminate your access to any or all of the Communication Services
at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever.

Microsoft reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as
Microsoft deems necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal
process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any
information or materials, in whole or in part, in Microsoft's sole discretion.

Always use caution when giving out any personally identifiable information
about yourself or your children in any Communication Services. Microsoft does
not control or endorse the content, messages or information found in any
Communication Services and, therefore, Microsoft specifically disclaims any
liability with regard to the Communication Services and any actions resulting
from your participation in any Communication Services. Managers and hosts are
not authorized Microsoft spokespersons, and their views do not necessarily
reflect those of Microsoft.

Materials uploaded to the Communication Services may be subject to posted
limitations on usage, reproduction and/or dissemination; you are responsible
for adhering to such limitations if you download the materials.

AI Services.

”AI services” are services that are labeled or described by Microsoft as
including, using, powered by, or being an Artificial Intelligence (“AI”)
system.

  • Reverse Engineering. You may not use the AI services to discover any
    underlying components of the models, algorithms, and systems. For example,
    you may not try to determine and remove the weights of models.

  • Extracting Data. You may not use web scraping, web harvesting, or web data
    extraction methods to extract data from the AI services.

  • Limits on use of data from the AI Services. You may not use the AI
    services, or data from the AI services, to create, train, or improve
    (directly or indirectly) any other AI service. 

  • Use of Your Content. As part of providing the AI services, Microsoft will
    process and store your inputs to the service as well as output from the
    service, for purposes of monitoring for and preventing abusive or harmful
    uses or outputs of the service.

  • Third party claims. You are solely responsible for responding to any
    third-party claims regarding your use of the AI services in compliance with
    applicable laws (including, but not limited to, copyright infringement or
    other claims relating to content output during your use of the AI
    services).

Materials Provided to Microsoft or Posted at any Microsoft Website

Microsoft does not claim ownership of the materials you provide to Microsoft
(including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit to any
Services or its associated services for review by the general public, or by the
members of any public or private community, (each a "Submission" and
collectively "Submissions"). However, by posting, uploading, inputting,
providing or submitting ("Posting") your Submission you are granting Microsoft,
its affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your
Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses
(including, without limitation, all Microsoft Services), including, without
limitation, the license rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly
display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your
Submission; to publish your name in connection with your Submission; and the
right to sublicense such rights to any supplier of the Services.

No compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Submission, as
provided herein. Microsoft is under no obligation to post or use any Submission
you may provide and Microsoft may remove any Submission at any time in its sole
discretion.

By Posting a Submission you warrant and represent that you own or otherwise
control all of the rights to your Submission as described in these Terms of Use
including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide,
post, upload, input or submit the Submissions.

In addition to the warranty and representation set forth above, by Posting a
Submission that contain images, photographs, pictures or that are otherwise
graphical in whole or in part ("Images"), you warrant and represent that (a)
you are the copyright owner of such Images, or that the copyright owner of such
Images has granted you permission to use such Images or any content and/or
images contained in such Images consistent with the manner and purpose of your
use and as otherwise permitted by these Terms of Use and the Services, (b) you
have the rights necessary to grant the licenses and sublicenses described in
these Terms of Use, and (c) that each person depicted in such Images, if any,
has provided consent to the use of the Images as set forth in these Terms of
Use, including, by way of example, and not as a limitation, the distribution,
public display and reproduction of such Images. By Posting Images, you are
granting (a) to all members of your private community (for each such Images
available to members of such private community), and/or (b) to the general
public (for each such Images available anywhere on the Services, other than a
private community), permission to use your Images in connection with the use,
as permitted by these Terms of Use, of any of the Services, (including, by way
of example, and not as a limitation, making prints and gift items which include
such Images), and including, without limitation, a non-exclusive, world-wide,
royalty-free license to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly
perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Images without having
your name attached to such Images, and the right to sublicense such rights to
any supplier of the Services. The licenses granted in the preceding sentences
for a Images will terminate at the time you completely remove such Images from
the Services, provided that, such termination shall not affect any licenses
granted in connection with such Images prior to the time you completely remove
such Images. No compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your
Images.

Notices and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement

Pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2), notifications of
claimed copyright infringement should be sent to Service Provider's Designated
Agent. All inquiries not relevant to the following procedure will not receive a
response.

See Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement.

Links to Third Party Sites

The links in this area will let you leave Microsoft's site. The linked sites
are not under the control of Microsoft and Microsoft is not responsible for the
contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, or any
changes or updates to such sites. Microsoft is not responsible for webcasting
or any other form of transmission received from any linked site. Microsoft is
providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any
link does not imply endorsement by Microsoft of the site.

Unsolicited Idea Submission Policy

Microsoft or any of its employees do not accept or consider unsolicited ideas,
including ideas for new advertising campaigns, new promotions, new products or
technologies, processes, materials, marketing plans or new product names.
Please do not send any original creative artwork, samples, demos, or other
works. The sole purpose of this policy is to avoid potential misunderstandings
or disputes when Microsoft's products or marketing strategies might seem
similar to ideas submitted to Microsoft. So, please do not send your
unsolicited ideas to Microsoft or anyone at Microsoft. If, despite our request
that you not send us your ideas and materials, you still send them, please
understand that Microsoft makes no assurances that your ideas and materials
will be treated as confidential or proprietary.

