Terms of Use

1. Acceptance of Terms and Entire Agreement

Formation of binding contract; scope and effect

Your access to and use of the Site constitutes acceptance of: (a) these Terms of Use; (b) our Privacy Policy; and (c) our Content Policy, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and made an indivisible part of this agreement. Together, these documents are intended to be the complete statement of the legal agreement between you and Dirty Rice with respect to the Site, and supersede all prior and contemporaneous written or oral agreements, representations, warranties, understandings, negotiations, and discussions between you and Dirty Rice regarding the subject matter hereof. No course of dealing, course of performance, or trade usage shall modify or supplement these Terms.

Dirty Rice may modify, amend, update, supplement, or replace these Terms as needed, without prior notice, except where advance notice is required by applicable law. All amendments become effective immediately upon posting to this page with an updated effective date. For amendments that Dirty Rice considers material, Dirty Rice may provide reasonable advance notice via a prominent site notice or an email to the email address associated with your account. Your continued access to or use of the Site following the posting of any revision constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not accept the revised Terms, you should cease access to and use of the Site. It is your independent and continuing responsibility to review these Terms periodically. Dirty Rice expressly disclaims liability for any harm arising from your failure to review updated Terms.

These Terms are entered into solely between you, as an individual legal person, and Dirty Rice. These Terms do not create any third-party beneficiary rights or entitlements in any other person or entity. The rights and obligations under these Terms are personal to you and may not be delegated, transferred, novated, or assigned by you, in whole or in part, without Dirty Rice's prior express written consent.

2. Eligibility Requirements

Mandatory preconditions of access and use

Access to and use of the Site is conditioned upon your continuous satisfaction of each of the following eligibility requirements. You hereby represent and warrant to Dirty Rice, on a continuing basis for so long as you access or use the Site, that:

• Age Requirement: As a site policy, access is limited to users who are at least eighteen (18) years of age as of the date of each access or use. By accessing the Site, you represent and warrant that you are not a minor under the laws of your jurisdiction of residence.
• Legal Capacity: You possess full legal capacity and authority to enter into, perform, and be bound by these Terms as a valid and enforceable contract. If you are accessing the Site on behalf of a legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind such entity to these Terms.
• Legal Authorization to Access: You are not prohibited or restricted by applicable federal, state, local, or international law, regulation, or governmental order from accessing, possessing, or using any aspect of the Site, including any content thereon.
• No Prior Ban: You have not been previously and permanently banned from the Site by Dirty Rice pursuant to enforcement of these Terms or any predecessor terms. An attempt to circumvent a ban through a new account or alternate access method constitutes a material breach of these Terms.
• Accuracy of Information: All information you provide to Dirty Rice in connection with registering for or using the Site is and shall remain truthful, accurate, current, and complete at all times, and you will promptly update such information to maintain its accuracy.

Dirty Rice reserves the right to deny, suspend, or terminate access for any user who fails to meet, or is reasonably suspected of failing to meet, any of the foregoing eligibility requirements, at Dirty Rice's sole and non-reviewable discretion.

3. User Accounts and Account Security

Registration obligations, credential security, and account governance

3.1 Account Registration and Accuracy Obligations

Certain features and functionality of the Site require you to register for and maintain a user account. When registering, you agree to provide accurate, current, complete, and non-misleading information in all required fields, and to maintain and promptly update such information to ensure its continued accuracy. You represent and warrant that the information you provide during registration and at all times thereafter is truthful and does not impersonate or misrepresent your identity or affiliation. You may not register using the name, email address, or identity of another person without that person's express authorization; you may not register using a name intended to mislead other users into believing you are affiliated with Dirty Rice or any other entity; and you may not register if you have previously been permanently banned from the Site. Dirty Rice reserves the right to reject any registration or to retroactively invalidate any account at any time for any reason.

3.2 Account Security and Credential Confidentiality

You are solely and exclusively responsible for: (a) maintaining the strict confidentiality and security of your account credentials, including your email address, password, and any multi-factor authentication credentials; (b) controlling access to your registered devices and preventing unauthorized use of your account; and (c) all activities, transactions, submissions, and conduct that occur under or are associated with your account, whether or not authorized by you. You agree to immediately notify Dirty Rice at support@echoeffect.net upon becoming aware of any actual or suspected unauthorized access to your account, use of your credentials, or any other security breach that may affect your account or the Site. Dirty Rice shall not be liable for any loss, damage, harm, or expense incurred by you or any third party arising from or related to your failure to protect your account credentials or to promptly report a known or suspected security incident.

3.3 Suspension and Termination of Accounts

You may request deletion of your account at any time via our contact form or by emailing us. Upon receiving a valid deletion request, Dirty Rice will process the request in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable data retention obligations. Dirty Rice reserves the right, in its sole and unreviewable discretion, to suspend, restrict, or permanently terminate your account and access to the Site at any time, with or without prior notice and without liability, for any reason including but not limited to: (i) breach of any provision of these Terms; (ii) violation of our Content Policy; (iii) conduct Dirty Rice determines, in its sole judgment, to be harmful to other users, Dirty Rice, or the integrity of the Site; (iv) suspected fraudulent, illegal, or abusive activity; (v) extended periods of account inactivity; or (vi) technical or operational necessity. Termination of your account does not relieve you of any obligations accrued prior to termination, and Dirty Rice reserves all rights to pursue claims against you for pre-termination breaches.

3.4 Sole Account Per User; No Account Transfer

Each user may maintain only one active account. You may not create supplemental, duplicate, or secondary accounts, including for the purpose of circumventing enforcement actions or violating these Terms. Accounts are personal to the registered user and may not be transferred, sold, gifted, or otherwise conveyed to any other person or entity under any circumstances.

4. License Grant; Permitted and Prohibited Use

Scope of granted rights and comprehensive prohibited conduct

4.1 Limited License

Subject to your continuous compliance with these Terms, Dirty Rice grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use the Site solely for your own personal, non-commercial purposes, which include reading blog posts, submitting comments, rating content, and contacting Dirty Rice. This license grant does not convey any ownership interest in or to the Site, its underlying intellectual property, or any of its content. Any use of the Site beyond the scope of this license, any commercial exploitation, or any exploitation for purposes not expressly permitted herein is strictly prohibited and constitutes a material breach of these Terms.

4.2 Comprehensive Prohibited Conduct

The following conduct is expressly prohibited. By using the Site, you agree NOT to do any of the following, directly or indirectly, by yourself or through any agent, affiliate, tool, or mechanism:

• Use the Site for any unlawful, fraudulent, deceptive, or unauthorized purpose, or in violation of any applicable local, state, federal, or international law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or treaty.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion or feature of the Site, any other system or network connected to or accessible through the Site, or any Dirty Rice server, database, or account.
• Introduce, upload, transmit, or enable the execution of any malware, virus, trojan horse, worm, spyware, ransomware, adware, rootkit, keylogger, backdoor, or any other malicious, destructive, or harmful code or program.
• Engage in any automated or programmatic data collection, scraping, extraction, indexing, crawling, or harvesting of information, content, or data from the Site without Dirty Rice's prior express written authorization, except as expressly permitted by a publicly accessible robots.txt file or standard RSS feed reader.
• Circumvent, disable, reverse-engineer, tamper with, or otherwise interfere with security-related features of the Site, including authentication mechanisms, access controls, or content protection measures.
• Use the Site to transmit, distribute, or facilitate any unsolicited commercial communications (“spam”), chain letters, pyramid schemes, or other mass unsolicited communications.
• Post, upload, transmit, or distribute any User Content that is defamatory, obscene, offensive, obscene, hateful, threatening, harassing, abusive, or otherwise objectionable, as further detailed in our Content Policy, which is incorporated herein by reference.
• Impersonate Dirty Rice, any Dirty Rice staff member, moderator, partner, or any other user, person, or entity, or falsely state or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
• Collect, harvest, compile, or otherwise use any personally identifiable information available on or derived from the Site for any unauthorized purpose, including building contact lists, directories, or databases.
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity, security, availability, or performance of the Site, its servers, databases, networks, or infrastructure, including through denial-of-service or distributed denial-of-service attacks.
• Use the Site to engage in any unsolicited commercial solicitation, advertising, or promotion without Dirty Rice's prior written consent.
• Frame, mirror, inline-link, or embed any portion of the Site in any other website, application, or user interface without express prior written authorization from Dirty Rice.
• Access, use, monitor, copy, or extract any portion of the Site using any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means or device not expressly permitted.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, decode, or attempt to derive the source code of any underlying software, algorithm, or component of the Site.
• Use the Site to develop, improve, train, or assist any competing product, service, or artificial intelligence system without Dirty Rice's express prior written consent.
• Remove, alter, obscure, or tamper with any copyright, trademark, service mark, proprietary notice, or legend appearing on or within any portion of the Site or its content.

5. User-Generated Content

Rights, responsibilities, and moderation authority over submitted content

5.1 License Grant to Dirty Rice

By submitting, posting, uploading, or otherwise transmitting any comment, rating, message, text, image, or other material to the Site (“User Content”), you hereby grant Dirty Rice a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, translate, publish, display, distribute, broadcast, perform, and otherwise exploit such User Content in any medium, format, or platform now known or hereafter developed, in connection with operating, maintaining, promoting, and improving the Site and Dirty Rice's business. This license survives the termination of your account and the removal of User Content from active display. You represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to grant the foregoing license.

5.2 Your Representations, Warranties, and Indemnity Regarding User Content

In submitting any User Content, you represent, warrant, and covenant that: (a) you are the sole and exclusive owner of all rights in and to such User Content, or that you have obtained all necessary authorizations, licenses, and consents from relevant rights holders to grant the license set forth above; (b) the submission, publication, display, and use of your User Content as contemplated herein does not and will not infringe, misappropriate, or violate any copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent, moral right, right of publicity, right of privacy, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right of any third party; (c) your User Content does not and will not violate any applicable law, regulation, court order, or governmental directive; (d) your User Content does not contain any false, defamatory, misleading, deceptive, or tortious statement or depiction; and (e) your User Content complies in all respects with our Content Policy incorporated herein. You agree to indemnify and hold Dirty Rice harmless from all claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses arising from any breach of the foregoing.

5.3 Content Monitoring, Moderation, and Removal Authority

Dirty Rice reserves the right, but does not assume the obligation, to review, screen, monitor, edit, refuse to post, or remove User Content when Dirty Rice determines that moderation is appropriate under these Terms, the Content Policy, or applicable law. Dirty Rice's exercise or non-exercise of this right in any instance does not constitute a waiver or modification of Dirty Rice's right to exercise it in any other instance, and does not create an obligation to monitor any User Content or to remove specific User Content. Dirty Rice assumes no liability for the accuracy, completeness, safety, or lawfulness of any User Content, and the presence of any User Content on the Site does not constitute Dirty Rice's endorsement or adoption of the views expressed therein.

5.4 Moral Rights

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you hereby irrevocably and unconditionally waive any and all moral rights, droit moral, rights of integrity, rights of attribution, and any other analogous rights you may have in any User Content submitted to the Site, to the extent such rights cannot be assigned, and you consent to all acts and omissions by Dirty Rice and its licensees that would otherwise constitute a violation of such rights.

6. Intellectual Property Rights

Dirty Rice ownership, trademarks, and permitted use

The Site and all content, materials, features, and functionality thereof, including but not limited to all editorial text, blog posts, descriptions, articles, reviews, guides, graphics, logos, icons, images, photographs, audio and video recordings, data compilations, user interface designs, underlying source code, and software (collectively, “Dirty Rice Content”), are owned exclusively by Dirty Rice Gaming or its respective content suppliers and licensors, and are protected by the copyright, trademark, trade dress, patent, trade secret, moral rights, and other intellectual property laws of the United States and all applicable foreign jurisdictions, as well as applicable international intellectual property conventions and treaties to which the United States is a party. All rights not expressly granted herein are fully and unconditionally reserved by Dirty Rice and its licensors.

“Dirty Rice Gaming,” “Dirty Rice,” all associated logos, service marks, trade names, and other identifying marks used in connection with Dirty Rice's products and services are proprietary trademarks or service marks of Dirty Rice Gaming. Nothing in these Terms or your use of the Site shall be construed as granting you any right, license, or sublicense to use these marks in any manner without Dirty Rice's prior express written permission. Any unauthorized use of Dirty Rice's marks may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition under applicable federal and state law.

Subject to these Terms, Dirty Rice grants you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable permission to access and view Dirty Rice Content for your own personal, non-commercial informational use only. You may share links to Dirty Rice Content with proper source attribution. You may not, without Dirty Rice's prior express written consent: reproduce, republish, download, copy, store, print, extract, transmit, distribute, broadcast, sublicense, sell, exploit commercially, create derivative works from, or otherwise use any Dirty Rice Content for any commercial, competitive, or unauthorized purpose. Any unauthorized reproduction or exploitation of Dirty Rice Content constitutes copyright infringement and may give rise to civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, your User Content, as licensed to Dirty Rice under Section 5, remains your property subject to the grant of rights therein, and nothing in this Section 6 transfers ownership of User Content to Dirty Rice.

7. Copyright Compliance and DMCA Notice Procedures

Reporting infringement and counter-notification rights

Dirty Rice respects the intellectual property rights of copyright holders and complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (17 U.S.C. § 512 et seq.) (“DMCA”). If you have a good-faith belief that any content available on or through the Site infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to act on behalf of, you may submit a written DMCA takedown notice to Dirty Rice's designated copyright agent. To be effective, your written notice must contain the information identified in 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), specifically:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works;
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Dirty Rice to locate the material;
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit Dirty Rice to contact you, including your name, physical address, telephone number, and email address;
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or applicable law; and
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner of the allegedly infringed work.

Send DMCA notices to our designated agent at: support@echoeffect.net.

Upon receipt of a complete and valid DMCA notice, Dirty Rice will promptly investigate and, where appropriate, remove or disable the allegedly infringing material and notify the User who posted such material. Users whose content is removed in response to a DMCA notice may submit a counter-notification under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3) if they believe the removal was made in error. Dirty Rice reserves the right to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances in accordance with the DMCA's repeat-infringer policy provisions.

8. Disclaimers of Warranties

As-is provision; comprehensive warranty exclusions

Blog posts, reviews, articles, and all editorial content on the Site represent the personal opinions, views, and experiences of individual authors only. Such content does not constitute and shall not be construed as professional advice of any kind, including without limitation legal, financial, investment, medical, technical, safety, or mental health advice. Dirty Rice expressly disclaims any and all liability for any reliance you place on any editorial content on the Site. You rely on any Site content entirely at your own risk.

Dirty Rice further expressly disclaims all liability for the content, accuracy, availability, security practices, or privacy practices of any third-party websites, platforms, applications, or services linked from or embedded in the Site. The presence of any hyperlink or embedded content does not constitute Dirty Rice's endorsement, sponsorship, or adoption of the linked or embedded service.

9. Limitation of Liability

Damage caps, exclusions, and jurisdictional carve-outs

10. Indemnification and Defense

Your obligation to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Dirty Rice

You hereby agree, at your sole cost and expense, to defend, indemnify, protect, and hold harmless each of the Dirty Rice Parties (as defined in Section 9) from and against any and all claims, demands, causes of action, suits, allegations, proceedings, judgments, orders, decrees, losses, damages, liabilities, deficiencies, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees, court costs, expert witness fees, discovery costs, and all other litigation expenses) of any kind and nature, whether known or unknown, foreseen or unforeseen, that arise out of or are in any way related or attributable to: (a) your access to or use of the Site or any services provided thereon; (b) any User Content submitted by you or through your account; (c) your violation or alleged violation of any provision of these Terms, our Privacy Policy, or our Content Policy; (d) your violation or alleged violation of any applicable law, statute, regulation, rule, or governmental order; (e) your infringement or alleged infringement of any intellectual property right, right of publicity, right of privacy, moral right, or any other proprietary right of any third party; (f) any misrepresentation, false statement, or breach of warranty or representation you have made to Dirty Rice; or (g) any activity conducted through your account, whether or not authorized by you.

Dirty Rice reserves the right, at its own expense and at any time, to assume exclusive control of the defense and settlement of any claim, action, or proceeding otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you agree to cooperate fully, at your own expense, with Dirty Rice in asserting all available defenses and in providing Dirty Rice with any information, documentation, testimony, or assistance reasonably requested in connection with such defense. You may not settle any claim subject to indemnification hereunder without Dirty Rice's prior written consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.

11. Governing Law, Jurisdiction, and Venue

Florida law; Hillsborough County exclusive venue; dispute resolution

Governing Law: These Terms, your access to and use of the Site, and any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of, relating to, or in connection with these Terms or the Site (including but not limited to questions of the formation, validity, interpretation, performance, enforcement, or breach of these Terms) shall be governed by, construed under, and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida and applicable federal law of the United States. Florida statutes are available through the official Online Sunshine statute portal, without giving effect to any choice-of-law, conflict-of-law, or renvoi rule or provision that would require or permit the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction.

Mandatory Informal Dispute Resolution: Prior to commencing any formal legal action or arbitration proceeding, you agree to make a good-faith effort to resolve any dispute informally by providing Dirty Rice with written notice of your dispute via email to support@echoeffect.net, describing your claim in reasonable detail, and the relief sought. Dirty Rice will endeavor to respond and to engage in good-faith discussion within thirty (30) calendar days of receiving your notice. Compliance with this mandatory informal resolution requirement is a prerequisite to initiating any formal proceeding, unless emergency equitable relief is necessary to prevent irreparable harm.

Class Action Waiver: TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU AND Dirty Rice EACH IRREVOCABLY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE AS A PLAINTIFF, CLASS MEMBER, OR CLASS REPRESENTATIVE IN ANY CLASS ACTION, MASS ACTION, CONSOLIDATED ACTION, REPRESENTATIVE ACTION, COLLECTIVE ACTION, OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION BROUGHT AGAINST Dirty Rice. ALL PROCEEDINGS SHALL BE CONDUCTED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS ONLY.

12. General Provisions

Miscellaneous legal provisions of general applicability

• Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Content Policy, and any supplemental terms, guidelines, or policies incorporated herein by reference, constitute the entire, complete, and exclusive agreement between you and Dirty Rice with respect to your access to and use of the Site, and supersede and replace all prior or contemporaneous written or oral agreements, representations, warranties, negotiations, promises, undertakings, and understandings between you and Dirty Rice regarding the subject matter hereof. No extrinsic evidence of prior negotiations, drafts, or discussions shall be used to interpret these Terms.
• Severability: If any provision of these Terms is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, unenforceable, or void under applicable law, such provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable, and the validity, legality, and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired. If a provision cannot be modified to be enforceable, it shall be severed, and the remaining Terms shall continue in full force and effect as if the severed provision had not been included.
• No Waiver: Dirty Rice's failure to exercise or enforce any right, power, or remedy under these Terms in any instance shall not constitute, and shall not be construed as, a waiver of that right, power, or remedy in that or any other instance. No waiver of any provision or breach of these Terms shall be effective unless made in writing and signed by an authorized representative of Dirty Rice, and any such waiver shall be strictly limited to the specific provision and breach expressly identified therein.
• Assignment: You may not assign, delegate, sublicense, novate, or otherwise transfer any of your rights, duties, obligations, or liabilities arising under or related to these Terms, in whole or in part, by operation of law or otherwise, without Dirty Rice's prior express written consent. Any purported assignment in violation of this restriction is null and void. Dirty Rice may freely assign, delegate, or transfer its rights, duties, obligations, and liabilities under these Terms, in whole or in part, at any time and in its sole discretion, without your consent or notice to you, including in connection with a corporate merger, acquisition, consolidation, reorganization, or asset sale.
• Force Majeure: Dirty Rice shall not be liable or responsible to you, nor be deemed to have defaulted or breached these Terms, for any failure or delay in fulfilling or performing any obligation under these Terms when and to the extent such failure or delay is caused by events beyond Dirty Rice's reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, fires, floods, storms, earthquakes, epidemics, pandemics, acts of war, terrorism, riots, civil unrest, governmental embargoes or sanctions, actions of governmental authorities, labor disputes, power failures, telecommunications failures, or Internet infrastructure outages or disruptions.
• Interpretation of Headings: Section headings, titles, captions, and subtitles are included for organizational reference and convenience only and shall have no substantive legal or contractual effect, and shall not be used in the construction or interpretation of these Terms.
• No Third-Party Beneficiaries: These Terms are entered into solely between, and are for the exclusive benefit of, you and Dirty Rice. Except as expressly stated in Section 10 with respect to Dirty Rice Parties, no other person or entity shall be deemed a third-party beneficiary of, or shall have any right to enforce any provision of, these Terms.
• Electronic Communications: By using the Site, you consent to receive communications from Dirty Rice electronically, including via email, in-Site notifications, and browser notifications where applicable. You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that Dirty Rice provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.
• Survival: All provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination shall survive any termination, cancellation, expiration, or deletion of your account or access rights, including without limitation Sections 5.1 (License Grant), 6 (Intellectual Property), 8 (Disclaimers), 9 (Limitation of Liability), 10 (Indemnification), 11 (Governing Law), and 12 (General Provisions).

13. Contact Information

How to contact Dirty Rice regarding these Terms

For questions, concerns, legal notices, DMCA requests, or other inquiries relating to these Terms of Use, please direct all correspondence to Dirty Rice using the contact information below. Dirty Rice will endeavor to respond to all legitimate legal inquiries within a reasonable time.