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Microsoft Collaborate Terms of Use

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Updated: February 2023

1. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS OF USE

Microsoft provides you with access to a variety of resources on this web site, comprised of documents, images, videos and other content ("Content"); software such as pre-release software, developer tools, computer code, and sample code ("Software"); and communication forums and other services ("Services"). For clarity, Software does not include any Content. The Content, Software, Services and all other aspects of this web site are subject to these Terms of Use (“terms”). Microsoft reserves the right to update these terms at any time without notice to you. The applicable and most current version of the terms can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom of our web pages.

By accessing or using this web site in any way, you agree to and are bound by the terms. If you are agreeing to these terms on behalf on an entity, such as your employer, you represent that you have the legal authority to bind that entity. If you specify a company in connection with accessing this website and agreeing to the terms, you will be deemed to agree to these terms on behalf of that organization or company. If you do not agree to all of the terms contained herein, do not access or use this web site.

2. PRIVACY

Your privacy is important to us. By using the Software, Service and Content, you agree that Microsoft may collect, use, and disclose the information as described in the Microsoft Privacy Statement, and as may be described in the user interface associated with the Software or on the web site.

3. SOFTWARE

All Software that is made available from the web site is the copyrighted work of Microsoft or its suppliers and is licensed, not sold. Your use of Software is governed by the license terms, if any, which accompany or are included with the Software. If no Microsoft license is presented to you for Software, these terms apply. The Software or Services may include third-party code. Any third-party scripts or code, linked to or referenced from the software or website, are licensed to you by the third parties that own such code, not by Microsoft. Notices, if any, for the third-party code are included for your information only.

Pre-Release Software: If this web site provides any preview, insider, beta or other pre-release Software (“Pre-release Software”) and does not include a Microsoft license agreement, subject to the terms of this agreement you may use the Pre-release Software on your premises solely to design, develop, and test your programs for use with the Pre-release Software. You may not test the Pre-release Software in a live operating environment unless Microsoft permits you to do so under another agreement. You may not disclose the results of any benchmark tests of the Pre-release Software to any third party without Microsoft’s prior written approval. Pre-release Software may not work the way a final version of it will. Pre-release Software may be substantially different from the commercially released version. Microsoft also may not release a commercial version.

Sample Software: If this web site provides any Software marked as "sample" or “example” (“Sample Software”) and does not include a Microsoft license agreement, then it is licensed to you under the terms of the MIT license set forth below in Section 19.

Other Software Without Separate Terms: If this web site provides any Software other than Pre-release Software and Sample Software and does not include a Microsoft license agreement, subject to the terms of this agreement you may use it solely to design, develop and test your programs to run on Microsoft products and services.

4. CONTENT

All Content is the copyrighted work of Microsoft or its suppliers. Your use of the Content is governed by license terms, if any, which accompany or are included with the Content.

If any Content is made available to you on this web site without a license agreement, then subject to the terms of this agreement you may make a reasonable number of copies of the Content for your internal use, solely for the purposes of our business relationship with each other. You must preserve the copyright notice set forth below in all copies of the Content and ensure that both the copyright notice and this permission notice appear in those copies.

Copyright Notice:
© 2023 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Except as provided above in this section, no portion of the web site may be copied, imitated, published, transmitted, broadcast or distributed, in whole or in part.

5. RESERVATION OF RIGHTS

Microsoft reserves all rights not expressly granted under these terms, and no other rights are granted under these terms of use by implication or estoppel or otherwise.

Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in the Content, Software or Services. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of Content, Software or Services does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

6. CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION, DATA, AND PERSONAL INFORMATION

Certain portions of this web site are accessible only to users who are invited to participate, for example as part of a program for using Pre-release Software and providing feedback to Microsoft. All information available in those portions of this web site or concerning Content or Software available in those portions of this web site are confidential information of Microsoft. In addition, all information concerning the Software, Content, or otherwise provided through this web site is confidential information of Microsoft, or its suppliers, if it is designated as “confidential”, “proprietary” or “secret” or similar legend or information that a reasonable person knows or reasonably should understand to be confidential.

If you have a non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) with Microsoft, then the terms of that NDA govern your confidentiality obligations with respect to confidential information. If no NDA exists between you and Microsoft, you agree that for a period of five years from the time you accessed this confidential information, you may not disclose this confidential information to any third party. This restriction will not apply to any information that is or becomes publicly available without a breach of this restriction, was lawfully known to the receiver of the information without an obligation to keep it confidential, is received from another source who can disclose it lawfully and without an obligation to keep it confidential, or is independently developed. You may disclose this confidential information if required to comply with a court order or other government demand that has the force of law. Before doing so, you must seek the highest level of protection available and, when possible, give Microsoft enough prior notice to provide a reasonable chance to seek a protective order.

As part of the Content or Services, Microsoft may, at its discretion, provide you with error reporting or other data (“Data”). If you have an applicable agreement with Microsoft that governs sharing of Data and Personal Information (“Data Terms”), then the Data Terms govern your obligations with respect to such exchange. If no Data Terms exist between you and Microsoft, then:

  • You agree to use Data solely for the purpose of testing and resolving compatibility or quality issues related to how your product works with Microsoft products or services, and not to disclose Data for any purpose;
  • If Microsoft exposes you to any Personal Information, then between you and Microsoft, that Personal Information is confidential information of Microsoft;
  • If the Data provided to you includes any Personal Information, you agree to delete such Personal Information within thirty (30) days after receipt, and to return to Microsoft or destroy that information immediately upon Microsoft’s request;
  • During such thirty (30) days, you must store any Personal Information only on a secure server with access to such server limited to you, or if an entity, your regular employees. In addition, you must take any action reasonably requested by Microsoft related to this Data if necessary for Microsoft to comply with its legal obligations;
  • If you are served with a court order compelling disclosure of any Personal Information, you will oppose the order, will notify Microsoft of such order, and will provide Microsoft the opportunity to intervene before you file any response to the order; and
  • You agree to conduct an audit on at least an annual basis to verify your compliance with the terms of this section.

In addition, you may not provide Personal Information to Microsoft through the Services other than, at your discretion, business contact information, unless Microsoft permits you to do so under the Data Terms or another agreement. As used herein, “Personal Information" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

7. 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 are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account. and for 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.

8. PROHIBITED USES

As a condition of your use of the Software, Content, and Services, you will not use them for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or work around technical limitations in the Software, Content and Services, except to the extent that applicable law permits it despite these limitations. You may not disable, tamper with or otherwise attempt to circumvent any restriction or mechanism that limits your use of the Software, Content, and Services. You may not use the Software, Content, and 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 publish, rent, lease, lend, sell, distribute, transfer, or sublicense any Software, Content, and Services or portion thereof, except as explicitly permitted herein or in license terms that accompany any Software or Services component.

The Services may contain communities, notification services, and/or other message or communication facilities designed to enable you to communicate with others or share Submissions ("Communication Services"). You agree to use the Communication Services only to 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 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 and business sensitive information in any Communication Services. Microsoft does not control or endorse the content, messages or information found in any Communication Services, and Microsoft specifically disclaims any liability with regard to the 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 or dissemination. You are responsible for adhering to such limitations if you download the materials.

Some of the services on this site may be provided by a third party not Microsoft through third party software or otherwise. Additional terms provided by the third party will govern your installation and use of such services and software. Microsoft is providing access to these third party services as a convenience, and access to them does not imply endorsement of these by Microsoft.

10. WARRANTIES

The Software, Content and Services may contain preliminary information or inaccuracies, and may not correctly represent any associated Microsoft product as commercially released. THE SOFTWARE, CONTENT AND SERVICES ARE WARRANTED, IF AT ALL, ONLY ACCORDING TO THE TERMS OF A SEPARATE AGREEMENT THAT COVERS THEM. EXCEPT AS WARRANTED IN THAT SEPARATE AGREEMENT (IF ANY), ALL SOFTWARE, CONTENT AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND MICROSOFT CORPORATION AND ITS RESPECTIVE SUPPLIERS HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO SOFTWARE, CONTENT AND SERVICES, INCLUDING ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT OR ITS 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 THIS AGREEMENT, SOFTWARE, CONTENT, SERVICES OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SOFTWARE, CONTENT OR SERVICES. THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF MICROSOFT ARISING UNDER THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED $5.00 USD.

12. SUBMISSIONS

Microsoft does not claim ownership of code, content, comments, feedback, suggestions, information or materials that you provide Microsoft related to this web site, the Content, Software or Services ("Submission") under these terms. However, unless otherwise agreed to in a separate agreement between the parties, by providing a Submission you irrevocably grant Microsoft and its affiliated companies the right to make, use, modify, distribute and otherwise commercialize the Submission in any way and for any purpose and no compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Submissions. Unless otherwise agreed to in a separate agreement between the parties, by providing a Submission you warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your Submission and that your Submission is not subject to a license or other obligation that requires Microsoft to grant or pass through any rights or make any disclosures or payments to third parties. These rights survive these terms and are granted under all applicable intellectual property rights you own or control. You may not deliver any Submission on this web site to Microsoft, or any third party, in whole or in part, that is governed by an Excluded License. “Excluded License” is any license that requires, as a condition of use, modification and/or distribution of software subject to the Excluded License, that such software and/or other software combined and/or distributed with such software be:

  • disclosed or distributed in source code form;
  • licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or
  • redistributable at no charge.

Microsoft is under no obligation to post or use any Submission, and Microsoft may remove any Submission at any time.

13. TERMINATION

Microsoft reserves the right to terminate your access to any or all of the Services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever.

14. CHOICE OF LAW & JURISDICTION

The laws of the State of Washington govern these terms. If federal jurisdiction exists, we each consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the federal courts in King County, Washington. If not, we each consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the Superior Court of King County, Washington.

15. ASSIGNMENT

You may not assign these terms by operation of law, or otherwise without Microsoft’s written approval. If you are an entity and (a) merge into another entity or (b) a controlling ownership interest in you changes, your right to use the Content, Software, and Services automatically terminates and you must destroy them.

16. DAMAGES

Each of us acknowledges that money damages may not be sufficient compensation for breaches of these terms. Each of us agrees that the other may seek court orders to stop confidential information from becoming public in breach of these terms.

17. ATTORNEY FEES

In any dispute relating to these terms the prevailing party will be entitled to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.

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.

19. SAMPLE SOFTWARE UNDER MIT LICENSE

The MIT license set forth below governs use of Sample Software available on this web site without a separate license agreement. If you use Sample Software, you accept this license. If you do not accept this license, do not use the Sample Software.

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.