The rules governing your access to and use of SwimmersItch.com. Please read these Terms carefully — by using the site, you agree to them.
These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) form a binding agreement between you (“you” or “User”) and Happyness Ventures, LLC, an Illinois limited liability company (“we,” “us,” “our,” or “SwimmersItch.com”), governing your access to and use of the website located at swimmersitch.com and any related pages, features, content, or services we provide (collectively, the “Site”).
By accessing or using the Site, submitting a case report, uploading a photograph, subscribing to lake alerts, or otherwise interacting with any feature of the Site, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.
You must be at least 13 years of age to use the Site. If you are between 13 and the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you may use the Site only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to these Terms on your behalf. By using the Site, you represent and warrant that you meet these requirements and that your use of the Site does not violate any applicable law.
SwimmersItch.com is an informational and community-reporting resource about swimmer's itch (cercarial dermatitis). The Site provides general educational content, user-submitted case reports, and optional lake alert notifications.
The Site does not provide medical, legal, environmental, or professional advice. Content on the Site — including case reports, maps, prevention tips, and relief suggestions — is provided for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for diagnosis, treatment, or advice from a qualified professional. If you have or suspect a medical condition, consult a licensed healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice because of something you read on the Site.
We do not warrant that the water at any location is or is not safe for swimming. Decisions about entering any body of water are made at your own risk.
Some features — such as subscribing to lake alerts or submitting a case report — require you to provide your email address and, in some cases, to confirm it via a link we send you.
The Site allows users to submit reports of suspected swimmer's itch incidents, including a location, date, severity, narrative description, and one or more photographs (collectively, “User Submissions”). By making a User Submission, you represent and warrant that:
We reserve the right, but do not assume the obligation, to review, moderate, edit, reject, remove, or refuse to publish any User Submission at our sole discretion, for any reason or no reason, including submissions that we believe violate these Terms.
This section is important — please read it carefully, especially with respect to photographs.
By making a User Submission (including any photograph, text, location data, or other content), you grant Happyness Ventures, LLC and its successors and assigns a worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, non-exclusive, sublicensable, transferable, and irrevocable license to host, store, reproduce, modify (including cropping, resizing, color-correcting, and redacting for privacy), create derivative works from, publish, display, distribute, publicly perform, and otherwise use your User Submission, in whole or in part, in any media now known or later developed, for any purpose related to operating, promoting, improving, or expanding the Site and our mission to educate the public about swimmer's itch.
Permitted uses include, without limitation: display on the Site and in the interactive case map; use in email alerts and newsletters; inclusion in social media posts, press materials, research summaries, and educational content; and sublicensing to our service providers (such as our hosting, email, and image-storage vendors) to the extent necessary to operate the Site.
You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights you hold in your User Submission. You are not transferring ownership to us — you are licensing the content to us on the terms above.
You represent and warrant that you are the author and sole copyright owner of every photograph you upload, or that you have obtained all rights, licenses, and permissions necessary from the actual copyright owner and from every identifiable person depicted in the photograph to grant the license in Section 5.1. You further represent that you have the full legal right and authority to grant this license, and that our exercise of the rights you grant will not infringe any third-party right or violate any law.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you waive, and agree not to assert, any “moral rights,” rights of attribution or integrity, or similar rights in your User Submission. We are not obligated to credit you by name when displaying a User Submission, although we may choose to do so.
If you send us suggestions, ideas, or feedback about the Site, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, and incorporate that feedback for any purpose, without any obligation or compensation to you.
If you want a User Submission removed from the Site, contact us at privacy@swimmersitch.com. We will make commercially reasonable efforts to remove the content from active display, but removal may not extend to cached copies, backups, search-engine indexes, or materials already distributed to third parties. The license you granted in Section 5.1 continues to apply to any residual or derivative copies until they are retired in the ordinary course.
You agree not to:
The Site, including its design, text, graphics, logos (including “SwimmersItch.com” and “Swimmer's Itch 1-2-3™”), software, and compilations of content, is owned by Happyness Ventures, LLC or its licensors and is protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.
We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Site for your personal, non-commercial use in accordance with these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, or create derivative works based on the Site or any portion of it without our prior written permission, except as expressly permitted by law.
The Site uses and links to third-party services, including but not limited to hosting (Cloudflare Pages), database and storage (Supabase), email services, form handling (Formspree), mapping libraries (Leaflet / OpenStreetMap), and anti-abuse services (reCAPTCHA). We do not control these third parties, and their services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies. Your use of third-party services is at your own risk.
THE SITE AND ALL CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Happyness Ventures, LLC disclaims all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, and quiet enjoyment.
Without limiting the foregoing, we do not warrant that: (a) the Site will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free; (b) case reports, maps, or other content are accurate, complete, or current; (c) any lake or location is safe for swimming or free from swimmer's itch; or (d) alerts or notifications will be timely or delivered. Use of the Site is at your sole risk.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL HAPPYNESS VENTURES, LLC OR ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, MEMBERS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, including without limitation damages for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, personal injury, property damage, or medical expenses, arising out of or relating to your use of or inability to use the Site, whether based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence), statute, or any other legal theory, and whether or not we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Our aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Site or these Terms will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100.00). Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you; in such cases, our liability will be limited to the smallest extent permitted by law.
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Happyness Ventures, LLC and its officers, directors, members, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your access to or use of the Site; (b) your User Submissions; (c) your violation of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any third-party right, including any intellectual property, privacy, or publicity right.
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site — in whole or in part, including your lake-alert subscriptions and the visibility of your User Submissions — at any time, for any reason or no reason, with or without notice. You may stop using the Site at any time. Sections 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, and 16 survive termination.
We respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that content on the Site infringes your copyright, please send a notice to our designated agent at privacy@swimmersitch.com that includes: (i) a physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner; (ii) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed; (iii) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and its location on the Site (e.g., URL); (iv) your contact information; (v) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (vi) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner. Misrepresentations in a DMCA notice may result in liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. You and Happyness Ventures, LLC agree that the exclusive venue for any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site will be the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois, and each party submits to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.
Any claim you bring must be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action arose; otherwise, it is permanently barred.
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last Updated” date above and, if the changes are material, we will provide a more prominent notice (such as a notice on the Site or an email to subscribers). Your continued use of the Site after an update means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, your sole remedy is to stop using the Site.
Entire Agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Site and supersede any prior agreements.
Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force.
No Waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms without restriction.
No Agency. Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between you and us.
Headings. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.
Questions about these Terms can be directed to:
Happyness Ventures, LLC
Attn: SwimmersItch.com — Legal
Email: privacy@swimmersitch.com
Or use our contact form.