Carfax TOS

Viper GTS

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
38,107
433
136
I agree to pay $19.99 (USD) according to my card issuer agreement. This 30 days Unlimited CARFAX Reports Plan is valid for 30 days from the date the first report is run, and is intended for my personal use only. Commercial use, resale and redistribution of CARFAX Reports is strictly prohibited and may lead to deactivation of my account and the imposition of additional charges for CARFAX Reports. I also understand that I am limited to one (1) purchase of this 30 days Unlimited CARFAX Reports Plan per household, each 6-month period. I agree that my CARFAX Report purchase shall be governed by all the Terms and Conditions of use of the CARFAX Web Site. I understand and agree that CARFAX may not have the complete history of every vehicle as CARFAX depends on its sources for the accuracy and reliability of its information.

The key word there is COMMERCIAL, Carfax apparently does not prohibit the use of an unlimited account to provide reports to friends or family.

This issue was raised by Millenium in an OT thread, he reached the same conclusion when reviewing their TOS and confirmed it with Carfax via e-mail.

Why are people being banned for this?

Viper GTS
 

Mill

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
28,558
3
81
From sections two of carfax's terms and conditions:


2. Restrictions on Use. The Site contains copyrighted material, trademarks, and other proprietary information, including, without limitation, text, software, photos, graphics (the "Content"). The Content of the Site, as well as the organization, layout, arrangement and design elements of the Site and each individual page of the Site, are the property of CARFAX and its affiliates and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark and other applicable intellectual property laws. You may not modify, publish, transmit, display, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the Content, in whole or in part. Except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law, no copying, redistribution, retransmission, publication or commercial exploitation of downloaded material will be permitted without the express written permission of CARFAX or the copyright owner. In the event of any permitted copying, redistribution, or publication of copyrighted material, no changes in or deletion of author attribution, trademark legend, or copyright notice shall be made. You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading or printing the copyrighted material, or by using the Site.

CARFAX offers you access to the Site and to the Content available on the Site solely for your own personal and non-commercial use. You may not resell or make any commercial use of the Site or the Content. You may not make use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices. You may not download or copy any account information for the benefit of any other merchant. You may not make use of any robots, spiders, or similar data mining, data gathering or extraction tools or manual processes to collect, gather or copy any of the Content in an unauthorized manner. You may not engage in the practices of "screen scraping," "database scraping," or any other practice or activity the purpose of which is to obtain lists of users, portions of a database, or other lists or information from this Site, in any manner or in any quantities not authorized by CARFAX. You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of CARFAX or its affiliates without prior express written consent. You may not use meta tags or any other "hidden text" utilizing CARFAX name or trademarks without the express written consent of CARFAX.

Systematic retrieval of the Content or other data from this Site to create or compile, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, a collection, compilation, database or directory without the express written permission of CARFAX is strictly prohibited.

You may not use the Site in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Site or interfere with any other person's use and enjoyment of the Site.

The foregoing provisions of Section 2 are for the benefit of CARFAX, its subsidiaries, affiliates, and its third party content providers and licensors, if any, and each shall have the right to assert and enforce such provisions directly or on its own behalf.

Illegal and/or unauthorized uses of this Site, including, but not limited to, unauthorized framing of or linking to the Site, or unauthorized use of any robot, spider, or other automated device on the Site, or any manual process to monitor or copy any portion of the Content, will be investigated and appropriate legal action will be taken, including without limitation, civil and criminal proceedings, and proceedings for restraining orders and injunctions.
 

Mill

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
28,558
3
81
The only time carfax restricts an account is when there are hundreds of inquiries being run a day. My beef is that people should be able to get carfaxes run without being banned. Nowhere on their site do they restrict use except for commercial or when an account is way overused. I understand that you want to err on the side of catious, but I brought this issue up in a PM before and I was told that I was wrong. I e-mailed carfax after that(several months ago) and they told me I could use my account for family or friends all that I wanted.

Mods, why not PM carfax again an see if anything has changed or they lied to me? People being banned for using Carfax is crazy.
 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
5
81
If I understand that, then if one member signs up, he/she sould be able to run carfax'es for everyone in the forums, as ling as there is no charge. AFAIK the mods were banning for charging. I remember way back on the first post I got a carfax run on my truck just for fun. And yes, I did pay $1 for it IIRC.

Perhaps we just need a mod to spell it out for us. Remember, the rule was posted, no carfaxes at all. Even if carfax alows it, it is still breaking AT's rules. Maybe with your post we can get it changed?
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
13,346
0
0
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
I agree to pay $19.99 (USD) according to my card issuer agreement. This 30 days Unlimited CARFAX Reports Plan is valid for 30 days from the date the first report is run, and is intended for my personal use only. Commercial use, resale and redistribution of CARFAX Reports is strictly prohibited and may lead to deactivation of my account and the imposition of additional charges for CARFAX Reports. I also understand that I am limited to one (1) purchase of this 30 days Unlimited CARFAX Reports Plan per household, each 6-month period. I agree that my CARFAX Report purchase shall be governed by all the Terms and Conditions of use of the CARFAX Web Site. I understand and agree that CARFAX may not have the complete history of every vehicle as CARFAX depends on its sources for the accuracy and reliability of its information.

The key word there is COMMERCIAL, Carfax apparently does not prohibit the use of an unlimited account to provide reports to friends or family.

This issue was raised by Millenium in an OT thread, he reached the same conclusion when reviewing their TOS and confirmed it with Carfax via e-mail.

Why are people being banned for this?

Viper GTS

Viper, I have alot of respect for you but I have to disagree strongly in this case (in fact I'm suprised your even asking). The key word there is *NOT* commercial. Your trying to make it sound as if that says 'Commercial use, Commercial resale, or Commercial redistibution'. It does not, the license is very clear. It says 'intended for MY personal use. Commerical use OR resale OR redistribution.

Any post here offering to run for another user is in obvious violation of 'personal use' AND redistribution. How could you possibly argue otherwise?

Bill


 

Mill

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
28,558
3
81
Originally posted by: bsobel
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
I agree to pay $19.99 (USD) according to my card issuer agreement. This 30 days Unlimited CARFAX Reports Plan is valid for 30 days from the date the first report is run, and is intended for my personal use only. Commercial use, resale and redistribution of CARFAX Reports is strictly prohibited and may lead to deactivation of my account and the imposition of additional charges for CARFAX Reports. I also understand that I am limited to one (1) purchase of this 30 days Unlimited CARFAX Reports Plan per household, each 6-month period. I agree that my CARFAX Report purchase shall be governed by all the Terms and Conditions of use of the CARFAX Web Site. I understand and agree that CARFAX may not have the complete history of every vehicle as CARFAX depends on its sources for the accuracy and reliability of its information.

The key word there is COMMERCIAL, Carfax apparently does not prohibit the use of an unlimited account to provide reports to friends or family.

This issue was raised by Millenium in an OT thread, he reached the same conclusion when reviewing their TOS and confirmed it with Carfax via e-mail.

Why are people being banned for this?

Viper GTS

Viper, I have alot of respect for you but I have to disagree strongly in this case (in fact I'm suprised your even asking). The key word there is *NOT* commercial. Your trying to make it sound as if that says 'Commercial use, Commercial resale, or Commercial redistibution'. It does not, the license is very clear. It says 'intended for MY personal use. Commerical use OR resale OR redistribution.

Any post here offering to run for another user is in obvious violation of 'personal use' AND redistribution. How could you possibly argue otherwise?

Bill

Because I talked to carfax and they said any use other than commercial was fine.
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
13,346
0
0
Because I talked to carfax and they said any use other than commercial was fine.

Well we are getting conflicting stories, because when I talked with them I was definately not told this. Don't you see that even if you allow for 'helping a friend', you can't reasonably expect them to allow some user to pull reports for the random subset of the 100k users here that want them? It's theft of service, plain and simple. Something tells me when you asked, you didn't quite make the situation overly clear.
Bill


 

Gaard

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
8,911
1
0
"Sure. Just don't overdo it." That was the answer I got when I e-mailed them about running reports for others.

If it's such a big deal here, maybe someone from Anandtech can just ask them. End of discussion.

People aren't banned for requesting/running Carfax reports, they're banned for breaking AT rules.