Terms of Service

Last Updated: 11/16/25

1. Acceptance of Terms
Welcome to Civic Loop. By accessing or using our website at theterrain.org (the “Site”), including our online courses, community forums, and services (collectively, the “Platform”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the Platform.

2. Description of Service
Civic Loop provides an online platform for civic education. Our services include:

  • Free Educational Courses: Access to courses on various civic topics. These courses are created through media partnerships which are governed by a separate
  • Community Forums: Discussion spaces for users to engage with course material and each other.
  • INTROs Service: A paid service for organizations to create their own internal training and onboarding courses.

3. User Accounts and Responsibilities

  • You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password.
  • You agree to provide accurate and complete information during registration.
  • You are solely responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

Our Platform may allow you to post content, such as comments in our community forums.

  • You retain ownership of the content you post.
  • By posting, you grant Civic Loop a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, and perpetual license to use, display, reproduce, modify, and distribute that content on our Platform and in our marketing.
  • You warrant and represent that you own or have the necessary rights to all content you post, and that such content does not infringe upon the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or any other legal rights of any third party.
  • You agree not to post content that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, libelous, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable.
  • You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Civic Loop, its operators, and affiliates from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from your violation of these Terms, including the warranties and representations made in this section.
  • Civic Loop reserves the right to remove any user-generated content at our sole discretion and without notice.

5. Intellectual Property & Content Licensing

5.1. Civic Loop’s Original Content
The Civic Loop Platform, its original content (excluding user-generated content and partner content), features, and functionality are owned by Civic Loop and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws.

5.2. User-Generated Content License
Please see Section 4 for the license you grant to Civic Loop for content you post in our community forums.

5.3. Partner Course Content & The Creative Commons License

  • Course content provided by third-party partners (“Partners”) is owned by those Partners.
  • Our Goal: Shared Knowledge. Unless otherwise specified on the course page, our goal is for all course content in our public library (e.g., videos, text, quizzes) to be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
  • What This License Allows: This license allows you to share (copy and redistribute the material) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) for non-commercial purposes only. You must give appropriate credit to the original creator (the Partner), provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
  • Partner Agreement Supersedes: The specific licensing terms for any course are determined by a separate agreement between Civic Loop and the Partner. The final, binding license for a course will be clearly displayed on that course’s landing page. Some Partners may choose to reserve all rights.

6. The INTROs Service

  • Organizations that purchase the INTROs service (“Clients”) enter into a separate service agreement.
  • Clients are responsible for providing all necessary content and ensuring they have the rights to use it.
  • Payment terms and service deliverables will be outlined in a separate INTROs Services Agreement.

7. Donations and Payments

  • Civic Loop may provide links for donations to support our nonprofit partners or our own operational costs.
  • Donations to nonprofit partners are made directly to those organizations and are subject to their own terms and privacy policies.
  • Donations made to Civic Loop are final, non-refundable, and are not tax deductible.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties
The Platform is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. Civic Loop makes no warranties, expressed or implied, regarding the operation or availability of the Platform or the accuracy of the information contained herein.

9. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Civic Loop shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages resulting from your use or inability to use the Platform.

10. Governing Law
These Terms shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

11. Changes to Terms
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will notify users of any changes by posting the new Terms on this page and updating the “Last Updated” date.

12. Contact Us
If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at: info@theterrain.org