Terms and Conditions: NK News, NK Pro and KCNA Watch

These terms and conditions were last updated on Friday, December 13, 2019

You agree to the following “Terms” when using the  “Websites”, NK News (https://www.nknews.org/) and NK Pro (https://www.nknews.org/pro/), each owned and run by NK CONSULTING, INC. (DBA: Korea Risk Group), a corporation registered in Delaware, United States.  If you do not agree, you are required to stop using the Websites immediately as any unauthorized use is a violation of the Terms:

What is the purpose of the Websites and what is your permission to access them?

You acknowledge the “Purpose” of the Websites is for personal, educational, and research-focused consumption of information about North Korea that we have sourced in a highly unique manner, and that in order to consume that information, you require “Permission”.  Without Permission, you are not allowed to use the Websites.  Two scenarios exist where you may have Permission.

One scenario is where we offer subscription-free content subject to restrictions we set, and if you do not agree to the Terms, then you are required to stop using the Websites immediately and any information you may have retrieved from them must be permanently deleted. When we say “restricted”, we mean that it is possible to access some of our content on a preview-only basis. We determine the mechanism behind your ability to preview our content – we apply a “paywall”, but we may implement whatever other mechanisms as we determine is appropriate, including blocking subscription-free access. Then, after you have attempted to access our content at a level, amount, frequency, or any other measurement that we decide meets our requirement to prevent your ability to access our content further, then your access will be restricted and you will not be permitted to view content without a subscription.

The second scenario is described as follows. Once your access is restricted and not permissible for you to access in our view, we require you to obtain a subscription in order to have Permission to access more content. We have the sole authority to determine when a subscription is required to have Permission to access our content. This applies whether you use the NK News or NK Pro Websites, so once we determine you require a subscription to have Permission to access content, the only scenario in which you can access content is with a subscription. For the avoidance of doubt, we have the sole authority to grant or terminate subscriptions.

Additionally, with KCNA Watch in particular, the Website exists for research purposes, and all of the content used on this Website contains links to the original source material.  KCNA Watch offers tools such as Search, Advanced Search, Charts, and Chart Generator, which require Permission to use, but the content that is visible on the Website is accessible outside of KCNA Watch without a subscription. KCNA Watch reserves the right to maintain a paywall on the Website for the specific purpose of protecting access to its proprietary tools.

Regardless of whether you have Permission either to access the content or to use the Websites, if your intention in using our services includes either attempting to target or actually to target our services for any purpose other than consuming the content and using the tools of the services, your Permission is revoked and you must immediately stop using the Websites.

What are “Content/Information/Materials/Media/Property”?

We have invested a lot of time and money to create materials worth reading. The articles, the expressed opinions, the analysis, however we have put all of this information together – all of the materials are our copyright, and our copyright has value not just for our business but also for our paid subscribers whom have chosen to pay our monthly or annual subscription fee. Additionally, the Permission we give applies to copyright, trademarks, patents, or any other form of “Intellectual Property Rights” that we have.

Whatever information you may find on our Websites, ranging from words, sentences, and paragraphs, to images, links, videos, and other media – it is our intellectual property unless we have noted otherwise. When you visit the Websites, if you have Permission as mentioned in the previous section, we are the ones with the authority to provide that Permission – we provide a limited license to let you view that content and only with our Permission.

If you access our content without our Permission, then we would view this as an infringement of our copyright, and we reserve the right to take action against any and all infringers of our copyright in accordance with the law. Accordingly, if you use any trademarks or other Intellectual Property Rights we have in an unauthorized manner, we reserve our rights.

Do we let you share our content?

Under U.S. federal copyright law, we respect “fair use” of our work, so be sure that when you have grounds for “fair use” of our content, that you link back to the source (either the NK News Website link or the NK Pro Website link from where you obtained the content material), and that you make it clear to anyone accessing material you are sharing, that NK News, or NK Pro as appropriate, is the source. This is the only scenario in which we provide Permission to use our materials outside of the Websites. If you desire other Permission to use our content, you must obtain written approval by us, and such approval may be subject to a fee. We do not restrict your ability to share content sourced from third parties on KCNA Watch, but would expect you to respect “fair use” of those third parties’ work as we do.

How do subscriptions work?

If you pay for a subscription, we provide you a limited license to access our content. Payment works on a monthly or annual basis, and we may change our prices from time to time, though we will provide you 30 days’ notice before the price change takes effect. Payment of invoices must be paid within 30 days of invoice receipt, and if the invoice is not paid within a reasonable time we may terminate your subscription. This agreement with any associated subscription may be terminated by either of us with 30 days’ notice, unless you violate the Terms of this agreement, in which case we may immediately terminate the agreement, revoke any and all Permissions, and continue to reserve our rights in accordance with the law.

As previously explained, both NK News and NK Pro are the Websites, but the eligibility to obtain a subscription for each Website is different. To be eligible to subscribe to NK News, you can be either an Institution or an Individual. To be eligible to subscribe to NK Pro, you must be an Institution – there are no Individual subscriptions allowed. In our opinion, which is the sole criteria for determining your eligibility, an “Institution” is any organization which we determine focuses on North Korea / DPRK issues as a matter of its professional duties whether through either its staff or its other associations. If you do not meet the eligibility requirements we set for an Institution, then you, as one person, are an “Individual”. Institutions do not have our Permission to subscribe Individuals to access our content. Institutions violating the Terms should note that we reserve the right to cancel their subscriptions and retain their already-paid subscription fee, and we may defend our rights in accordance with the law.

Institutions must apply adequate security and auditing measures to protect their facilities from unauthorized access and harm, and they must notify us of any loss or theft of login credentials in addition to any unauthorized use of such credentials. If you are an Institution, then users you authorize to use your facilities because they work for your Institution have Permission to access our content unless we have revoked the Permission granted to you. As an Institution, you may not in any way mislead any users as to the Intellectual Property Rights. If you are an Institution and would benefit from having further Permissions, then you must obtain written approval by us as described in the previous section.

The ability to access KCNA Watch content on the Website is determined by paywall mechanisms, but note that this is done for the protection of KCNA Watch proprietary tools, and that the content is still accessible outside of KCNA Watch without a subscription.

Are you allowed to share your subscriber login details or any content with others?

Under no circumstances may you share your or anyone else’s subscriber login details nor any information whatsoever relating to subscription-required content unless we at NK CONSULTING, INC. have agreed otherwise in writing. We will view any unauthorized sharing as copyright infringement, and we will seek enforcement of our rights in accordance with the law. If we reasonably determine that you are sharing your login details, and our analysis gives us legitimate reason to determine that you are sharing those details, we will defend our rights. If you have any doubts, you cannot share your login details with a friend or with anyone else, and no one else can share their login details with you, either. We will take action if we detect any reasonably suspicious activity, which is essentially any frequent, repetitive, and nearly simultaneous access far in excess of what a typical user would have or could have been capable of engaging in. We will also take action if any of our content is shared without Permission.

You are also responsible for maintaining the security of your own systems and should be maintaining confidentiality of any information that comes into your possession. We also require that you cooperate with us as much as it is reasonable in helping us investigate any copyright infringement.

DISCLAIMERS, WAIVERS, AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

We do not provide any warranties of any form in respect of our materials nor of those that we reference, such as the material on KCNA Watch, so we disclaim to the extent permitted by law any and all warranties regarding the suitability of our materials for any purpose whatsoever. We provide our materials solely for users interested in it, so we will not take any responsibility for any losses you may endure as a result of using our services, even if you have advised us that such a loss might happen. If the law would require us to be liable for any reason, our liability will not exceed the amount you paid for a subscription within the 12-month period before any legal claim is raised. When our services face interruption beyond our reasonable control, we will not be liable for any issues that may arise as a result of the interruption. Overall, when you are permitted to access our materials, you use or rely on them at your own risk.

KCNA Watch makes use of publicly available signals for the purposes of research and private studying, and does not in any way derive income from content sourced from those signals. KCNA Watch is available given there is public interest for these materials to be available in highlighting potential or actual risks pertaining to North Korea. KCNA Watch through its services in no way provides any financial benefit or otherwise to any person or institutions tied to North Korea and maintains compliance with international sanctions regulatory requirements. NK Consulting, INC. does not condone nor does it support any activity that runs contrary to international sanctions regulatory requirements, and has procedures in place to ensure it maintains compliance.

Can we update our own Terms, and will they apply to you?

If you access or use the Websites, you must comply with the Terms. If you do not access or if you do not use the Websites, all of our rights are reserved. If you breach any of the Terms or infringe our intellectual property rights, we can obtain enforcement of the Terms as well as our intellectual property rights under the governing law and jurisdiction of relevant state and federal courts in Delaware, United States. We may update these Terms from time to time to ensure our rights are protected and to ensure that our customers’ interests are protected as well. For avoidance of any doubt, assignment of these Terms may be done subject to our written approval, there are no waivers of any rights, no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationships created by the Terms, and the Terms are enforceable unless a court as specified above indicates otherwise, in which case any enforceable Terms will remain in force. These Terms are our agreement and unless we have approved in writing, this is the entire agreement between us.

In what way do you recommend visitors and subscribers use the Websites?

If the Terms appear unclear, please do not hesitate to contact us at this URL (https://www.nknews.org/contact/) and we will be glad to clarify.

If you need to send us any notices, send them to NK Consulting, INC. 427 N Tatnall St #83747 Wilmington DE, 19801.