Legal Information & Privacy Policy
This page includes the following:
Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, their event, attraction and area names are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Walt Disney Company and/or Disney Enterprises, Inc. and/or their subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, “Disney”). All Disney characters, including but not limited to, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Pluto, are registered trademarks, trademarks and/or copyrights of Disney. References to other non-Disney registered trademarks, trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property, such as Tarzan, a registered trademark and copyright of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., may be contained herein. For purposes of this Web site, such other intellectual property shall collectively be Disney “affiliates.”
In no case does MousePlanet make any explicit or implicit claim to any intellectual property rights associated with Disney. All other information on the MousePlanet site is authored and copyright © 1995 – 2017 by MousePlanet Inc. All rights are reserved. First site established April 5, 1996.
Feedback
Let us know what you think by writing to us. Please remember any e-mail sent to that address, commenting on or regarding the site, may, at MousePlanet’s discretion, be used within the site itself. For more information regarding submissions to MousePlanet, see Terms of Use for this site. Be patient, as it may take a while to respond due to the large amount of correspondence we receive.
MousePlanet Terms of Use
Access to—and use of—the MousePlanet Web site (“Site”) is provided by MousePlanet, Inc. and its affiliates (“MousePlanet”), subject to the notices, terms and conditions set forth below, including, but not limited to those in these Terms of Use and MousePlanet’s Privacy Policy, below. We may periodically amend these notices, terms and conditions and/or Privacy Policy at any time without notice by posting new or revised terms of use policies and other documents on this Site. Accordingly, it is important for you to check this and other documents governing the use of this Site from time to time.
Please read these terms of use before using this Site, as use of the Site constitutes your assent to these Terms of Use.
Restrictions on Use of Copyrighted Content
Material from MousePlanet, or any Web site owned, operated, licensed or controlled by same, or any of its related, affiliated or subsidiary companies is the property of MousePlanet, Inc. If you wish to use any images from MousePlanet, you must adhere to the policies outlined in the Linking to Us page. Modification of the materials or use of the materials for any commercial purpose without the prior written consent of MousePlanet is a violation of MousePlanet’s copyright and other rights.
In the event you download or otherwise copy any content from this Site, including but not limited to, software, articles and images incorporated into the Site (collectively, the “Content”), such Content is licensed to you by MousePlanet. MousePlanet does not transfer copyright in the Content to you. You only own the medium on which the Content is recorded, but MousePlanet, to the extent applicable, retains all rights to the Content. You may not resell, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, make derivative works from or otherwise reduce the Content to a form perceivable by a human with or without the aid of any artificial device.
Submissions
The tangible embodiment of all e-mail messages, articles, comments, suggestions, ideas, notes, drawings, concepts or other information disclosed or offered to MousePlanet through this Site or in response to solicitations found on this Site or other MousePlanet sites (collectively, the “Comments”) shall be deemed and shall remain the property of MousePlanet. Without limitation of the foregoing, MousePlanet shall be entitled to unrestricted use, including the ability to create derivative works, of the Comments for the full term of any of your rights that may exist in the Comments for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, throughout without compensation or royalty to you. This license is irrevocable.
None of the Comments shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of MousePlanet and we shall not be liable for any use or disclosure of any Comments.
You represent and warrant that any Comments you upload or otherwise transmit do not infringe upon any patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret or other proprietary rights of any party.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold MousePlanet and our subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, co-branders or other partners, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of this Site, your violation of these Terms of Use, or your violation of any rights of a third party in connection with your use of this Site.
Jurisdictional Issues
Unless otherwise specified, the materials in the Site are presented solely for the use of residents of the United States, its territories, possessions, and protectorates. This Site is controlled and operated by MousePlanet from its office within the State of California, United States of America. MousePlanet makes no representation that materials in the Site are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who choose to access this Site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.
These Terms of Use and the agreement made herein shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. This is the entire agreement between the parties relating to the subject matter herein and shall not be modified except in writing, signed by both parties.
Termination
The agreement created pursuant to these Terms of Use is effective until terminated by either party. You may terminate this agreement at any time by destroying all materials obtained from any and all MousePlanet site(s) and all related documentation and all copies and installations thereof, whether made under the terms of this agreement or otherwise. This agreement will terminate immediately without notice from MousePlanet if, in MousePlanet’s sole discretion, you fail to comply with any term or provision of this agreement. Upon termination, you must destroy all materials obtained from this Site and any and all other MousePlanet site(s) and all copies thereof, whether made under the terms of this agreement or otherwise.
Disclaimer of Liability
Under no circumstances, including—but not limited to—negligence, shall MousePlanet be liable for any damages, special, consequential, or otherwise, that result from the use of, or the inability to use, the materials in this site, even if MousePlanet or a MousePlanet authorized representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages. The materials in this site are provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied. To the fullest extent permissible persuant to applicable law, MousePlanet disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including—without limitation—any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, course of dealings and course of performance. Applicable law may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, and to that extent only, the above exclusion may not apply to you.
MousePlanet does not warrant that the functions contained in the materials in this site will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or other harmful components. MousePlanet does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the materials in this site in terms of their correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise. You (and not MousePlanet) assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, or correction.
FTC Mandated Disclosure
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to crack down on advertisers by requiring bloggers (and that term can be interpreted to include anyone with both a pulse and a keyboard) to disclose “important connections” between writers and the companies or products they write about. This actually gives MousePlanet, Inc. the opportunity to clear up come common misconceptions readers may have:
1) Disney does not usually pay for our admission media, though there are some exceptions. MousePlanet’s writers pay for their own Annual Passes, and do not accept complimentary admission except in very limited and specific situations like press events or private functions, which are usually held before or after park hours when the turnstiles are closed, or when we come in from a “backstage” entrance. Usually these events end with us being escorted right back out of the parks – Disney wants us to go back to our computers and write, not ride Midway Mania all day.
2) Disney does not usually pay for our travel, though there are some exceptions. Disney occasionally offers airfare and/or lodging to writers when attending major media events. Beyond these infrequent trips, our writers pay for most of their business-related travel and all of their personal/leisure travel themselves.
3) Review copies of Disney DVDs are sent to us about a week before the film comes out, whether we asked for the title or not. Most of the unsolicited DVDs (read: Baby Einstein DVDs) donated to local children’s charities, the ones we review are usually retained by whichever writer did that review. (Direct-to-DVD Winnie the Pooh releases are FAR, FAR more common than Pixar films, so we use those rare gems to bribe writers into reviewing the other stuff…) Same with review copies of books, most of which are sent to us unsolicited.
4) Our movie reviewers attend press screenings of films before they are released to the public. When you consider that Alex Stroup not only had to sit through, but then had to write about When In Rome, this suddenly seems like much less of a perk.
5) It is not unusual for Disney to offer media some sort of souvenir at the end of major events. These items can range from tote bags (American Idol Experience), promotional watches (Finding Nemo opening day), non-alcoholic wine (Blue Sky Cellar debut) and even socks (Hanes Design-A-Tee). We don’t generally mention these gifts in articles because then we really sound like Disney geeks. “Ooooh, look at this super-awesome Disney hard hat I got at the World of Color tour!!!” Disney frequently feeds the media at press events, because cranky reporters do NOT write happy articles. We often offer these items for auction via the eBay Charity program, with 100% of the proceeds going to local children’s charities, or use the items as contest prizes.
6) Like many Web sites, MousePlanet has an affiliate program set up through Amazon.com, which means we receive a small commission for items you purchase from Amazon.com when you click through from our Web site – including items we don’t link to. This means that yes, we might make money when you decide to buy something we’ve discussed, which means we take back everything we said about Baby Einstein DVDs, Direct-to-DVD Winnie the Pooh releases and When in Rome.
To comply with Amazon’s policies, here’s their mandated disclosure:
MousePlanet is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
In short, MousePlanet receives some “perks” and “freebies” from Disney – more than some, not as much as others. Some may question whether this allows us to be truly “unbiased,” and our best answer to that is “people who weren’t already somewhat biased about Disney wouldn’t spend SO MUCH TIME writing about it.” We tell it like we see it, and we think our track record speaks for itself. A silly souvenir hard hat isn’t going to change that.
Privacy Policy
“The magic… made easy” / “Wish You Were Here!” Web site interface, columnists and guides are part of MousePlanet, Inc., a privately held California corporation. Our policy is to respect and protect the privacy of our visitors. This policy statement tells you how we collect information from you and how we use it.
Personal Information
You do not have to provide personal information to use our Site.
We collect personal information only when you provide it to us; for example, to participate in discussion forums, chat rooms, contests, e-mail update lists, to conduct travel or merchandise transactions, or use other services on this Site. You may be asked to provide your contact information (such as your name, postal address, telephone numbers and/or e-mail address), financial information (such as credit card numbers), and demographic information (such as your zip code, age, or income level). You are not required to provide us with this information, but if you choose not to, you may not be able to participate in some of the activities on this Site.
Contact information is used to respond to your inquiries, to notify you if you have won a contest or a quiz, and to send products and services ordered from our sites. We may also offer you the opportunity to receive periodic mailings from us with information on new products and services, updates to our Web sites or upcoming events.
Financial information that is collected is used only to process orders for products and services purchased through our web sites and is never shared with third parties for any other reason.
Demographic information is shared with advertisers and third parties only on an aggregated basis. (See Aggregate Information below.)
You may be asked to provide information about your interests (such as occupation, hobbies, short biography, your home page) in creating a user profile in our public discussion forums. If you choose to provide this information, it may be accessible to other users of the Web site (See Public Discussion Forums below).
Whenever we request your personal information on our Web sites, we will try to explain to you how we intend to use it and provide you with a choice to decline certain uses. In addition, if we plan to post any of your personal information on our Web sites (for example, your name and home town to identify you as the winner of a quiz), we will also notify you of this possibility either when you provide information to us or prior to posting the information.
We may be required to disclose personal information pursuant to valid legal process.
Please keep in mind that whenever you give out personal information online (such as in discussion forums or chat), that information can be collected and used by people you do not know. While we strive to protect your personal information and privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose online and you do so at your own risk.
Our privacy policy does not extend to anything that is inherent in the operation of the Internet, and therefore beyond our control.
Public Discussion Forums and Chat Areas
We make discussion forums and chat areas available to our visitors. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information, and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.
To register for the public forums, you must select a user name and provide your e-mail address. A password is required to log into the public forums. You will receive an e-mail notification from us with a randomly generated temporary password.
Whenever you contribute to a public forum, your screen name automatically appears with your post and links to your profile. When you log into the discussion forums, you are be able to set up your profile, which you may edit at any time. You have the ability to change your password within the profile. Your password is never visible to other users as part of your profile. Providing information as part of the profile is entirely optional.
If you have indicated as part of your profile that you would like to accept private messages, other users will be able to communicate with you by sending you “private messages,” without actual knowledge of your e-mail address.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998
Our activities on this Site are carried out in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. Under that Act, we may not ask a child to provide more personal information than is reasonably necessary in order to participate in an activity on this site.
We will not collect information from children under the age of 13 without first gaining consent or giving direct notification to a parent or guardian. We will not use this information to contact the child for other purposes, distribute this information to third parties, or give the child the ability to post publicly or otherwise distribute personally identifiable information without a parent’s or guardian’s consent.
Although visitors under 13 years of age may be allowed to participate in some contests and promotions, if such a visitor wins, notification and prizes are sent to the parent or guardian identified in the initial registration process. Publication of names, ages, or images for contest winners under 13 require parental or guardian consent.
We do not allow visitors under 13 years of age to be listed on our membership directory or to receive direct marketing communications from MousePlanet or to be sent third-party offers.
Aggregate Information
We share aggregate information about our visitors, which does not personally identify you, with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties. For example, we may report the percentage of visitors in each age category or the percentage of visitors interested in visiting Walt Disney World. This data is used to customize our content and to offer advertising and services that better serve our visitors.
IP Addresses
An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are on the Internet. The IP address number is used to route requests from your computer and Web pages to your computer while you are on the Internet.
We collect IP addresses for the purposes of system administration, to report aggregate information to our advertisers and partners, and to audit the use of our site. When visitors request pages from our site, our servers log the visitors’ IP addresses. We do not normally link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a visitor’s session will be logged, but the visitor remains anonymous to us. We can and will use IP addresses to identify a visitor when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with our house rules or to protect our service, site, visitors, or others.
Cookies
Cookies are data that a Web site transfers to an individual’s computer for record-keeping purposes. Cookies, which are an industry standard used by most Web sites, including ours, can facilitate a user’s ongoing access to, and use of, a site.
By showing how and when visitors use a site, cookies help us see which areas are popular and which are not. Many improvements and updates to the site are based on such data as total number of visitors and pages viewed. This information is most easily tracked with cookies. We use the information from cookies to provide services better tailored to our visitors needs.
We may use a temporary cookie to track the products you have chosen to purchase while shopping on our Web sites. The cookie expires once you are done shopping. The cookie saves you the trouble of entering information over and over again during a single visit. We also use cookies in our discussion areas to eliminate the need to log in every time you use the discussion forums on our Web sites.
If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to decline the cookie feature. You should note, however, that declining cookies may make it difficult for you to make purchases or use other services on our Web sites, and will make entering our discussion forums more cumbersome.
Advertising
In addition to online banner advertisements displayed by MousePlanet, MousePlanet also allows other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to display advertisements on MousePlanet Web sites. To do this, ad networks place a persistent cookie on your computer. Doing this allows the ad network to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement. In this way, ad networks may compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw their advertisements and determine which ads are clicked on. This information allows an ad network to deliver advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. MousePlanet does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third-party ad servers or ad networks.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
If you want to prevent one of these third-party companies from sending and reading cookies on your computer, you will need to visit each ad network’s Web site individually and request that you be removed from its system.
Links to Other Sites
Visitors should be aware that when they are on a MousePlanet site, they could be directed to other sites that are beyond our control. There are links to other sites from our pages that take you outside our service. For example, if you “click” on a banner advertisement, the “click” may take you off our site. This includes links from advertisers, sponsors, and business partners that may use our logo as part of a co-branding agreement. These other sites may send their own cookies to visitors, collect data, or solicit personal information. We are not responsible for the privacy of personal information furnished by you to these advertisers. Visitors to our site who provide personal information to these other sites are advised to check the privacy policies of those sites. Look for the link on their main pages.
Security
We have security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Any time we ask for a credit card number we transmit that credit card number in an encrypted format. We use industry-standard, SSL (secure-socket layer) encryption. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our online products or services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. We may use third parties to host and maintain our Web sites.
Correcting, Updating, or Removing Personal Information
In case you wish to correct, update, or remove your personal information, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to find a way to correct, update, or remove the personal data you give us as it is used on our Web sites and to the extent we control the use of such data. You can do this at supplied member profile pages. In addition, you may contact us at the following address:
MousePlanet Inc.
921 N. Harbor Blvd. #472
La Habra, CA 906316
Acceptance of These Terms
By using this Site, you signify your consent to the MousePlanet Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our sites. Your continued use of our sites following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.
