Terms of Service

Last updated: November 5, 2026

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a legally binding agreement between you and the San Luis Obispo County Mock Trial Committee (the “Committee,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). The Committee operates the official MockScores-hosted service. MockScores is the name of the software and service; it is not identified in these Terms as a separate legal entity. These Terms govern your access to and use of the official MockScores websites, applications, and related services operated under the Committee’s direction that link to these Terms, including the service available at mockscores.org (collectively, the “Service”).

By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you use the Service for a school, tournament, team, employer, or other organization, you represent that you have authority to accept these Terms on that organization’s behalf. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Scope: Hosted Service and Open-Source Software

The MockScores source code is separately licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 (“GPL-3.0”) and is available at https://github.com/curtisjbradley/Mock-Scores. GPL-3.0 (not these Terms) governs your right to obtain, run, study, copy, modify, and distribute that source code. These Terms govern only your use of the official hosted Service and do not add restrictions to rights granted under GPL-3.0.

Curtis Bradley is the principal developer and retains copyright in his contributions to the MockScores software. Other contributors retain copyright in their respective contributions unless they agree otherwise. Copyright ownership and broad public use are compatible: the copyright holders use GPL-3.0 to give everyone the license rights described above while preserving GPL-3.0’s conditions.

An installation of the MockScores software operated by a third party is not part of the Service governed by these Terms. Its operator is independently responsible for that installation, its users, its data practices, and any terms that apply to it.

1. Eligibility and Users Under 18

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account or directly submit information through the Service.

If you are at least 13 but have not reached the age of majority where you live, you may use the Service only with permission from a parent or legal guardian and, when applicable, authorization from your school or tournament organizer. Your parent or guardian should review these Terms with you.

The Service may be used to administer middle-school competitions and may contain limited information about participants under 13 that is entered by an authorized adult, school, coach, or organizer. A child under 13 may not create an account, share another person’s account, or directly submit personal information unless the Committee has expressly enabled a legally compliant parental-consent or school-authorization process for that child.

2. The Service

MockScores provides tools for administering mock trial tournaments, including managing tournaments, schools, teams, participant names and pronouns, organizer-defined participant fields, roles, rounds, assignments, ballots, scores, rankings, results, and related communications. Typical organizer-defined fields may include grade level, number of years participating in mock trial, shirt size, or similar tournament-related information.

The Service is an administrative tool. Tournament organizers remain responsible for tournament rules, eligibility decisions, pairings, assignments, scoring procedures, publication decisions, dispute resolution, and the accuracy and official status of tournament results. Information displayed through the Service is not an official record unless the responsible tournament organizer designates it as one.

We may add, remove, or modify features from time to time. We do not guarantee that every feature will always be available or that the Service will meet the rules or requirements of every competition.

Tournament Responsibility and Assumption of Risk

MockScores is provided as an administrative tool to assist with organizing mock trial tournaments. You use and rely on the Service at your own risk. Tournament organizers remain solely responsible for planning and operating their tournaments, verifying assignments and results, maintaining appropriate records and contingency procedures, communicating with participants, applying tournament rules, and resolving scoring or other disputes.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Committee and its members, volunteers, contractors, software developers, and contributors are not responsible for tournament delays, cancellations, disruptions, incorrect assignments, inaccurate or lost scores or ballots, publication errors, connectivity or equipment failures, third-party service failures, or other problems arising from the use of or reliance on the Service.

Organizers should independently verify critical assignments, scores, ballots, and results and maintain reasonable backup procedures, particularly during time-sensitive tournament operations. Nothing in this section excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

3. Accounts and Account Security

You agree to:

• Provide accurate and current account information;

• Maintain the confidentiality of your credentials;

• Use only your own account and assigned permissions;

• Promptly update information that becomes inaccurate;

• Promptly notify us if you suspect unauthorized access; and

• Accept responsibility for activity conducted through your account to the extent permitted by law.

You may not share credentials to avoid role restrictions or allow a person under 13 to use your account. Tournament organizers are responsible for assigning appropriate access roles and removing access when it is no longer needed.

We may rely on instructions submitted through an authenticated account. We are not responsible for losses caused by your failure to secure an account or maintain accurate contact information.

4. Tournament and Student Information

Authority to submit information

If you enter, upload, or otherwise provide information about a student, participant, coach, scorer, or other person, you represent and warrant that:

• You are authorized to provide and use that information for the tournament;

• You have given all notices and obtained all permissions or other authority required by applicable law, school or district policy, and tournament rules;

• The information is accurate to the best of your knowledge; and

• You will submit only information reasonably necessary to administer the tournament.

Tournament organizers are responsible for every custom participant field they create, including its wording, purpose, whether it is required, who can view it, and whether they have authority to collect the response. Custom fields may not request highly sensitive information—such as precise birth dates, home addresses, personal phone numbers, medical information, government identification numbers, financial information, account passwords, or biometric information. Organizers must not condition a child’s participation on providing more personal information than is reasonably necessary for the competition.

Access and confidentiality

Participant profile information—including names, pronouns, custom-field responses, school associations, and role assignments—is intended to be viewed only by authorized coaches, organizers, and scorers who need the information for tournament responsibilities. You may not access, use, disclose, download, or distribute participant information except as authorized for the tournament.

Tournament organizers control role assignments and are responsible for reviewing access permissions. A scorer may use information made available for an assigned round only to perform scoring duties and may not reuse it for another purpose.

School-controlled information

If you use the Service on behalf of a school or district, you are responsible for confirming that the use complies with applicable student-privacy requirements, including any contract, consent, notice, records-management, or approval requirements. These Terms alone do not designate MockScores as a “school official” under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”). Any such designation may require a separate written agreement.

5. User Content and License

“User Content” means information, text, tournament data, scores, ballots, comments, and other material submitted to the Service by or for a user or organization.

As between you and MockScores, you or the applicable organization retain any rights you have in User Content. You grant MockScores a limited, nonexclusive, worldwide license to host, copy, process, transmit, display, and otherwise use User Content only as reasonably

necessary to provide, secure, support, and improve the Service; comply with law; and enforce these Terms. This license ends when the content is deleted from our active systems, except for limited backup copies and information we must retain for security, legal, or dispute resolution purposes.

You are responsible for User Content you submit and for resolving disputes about its accuracy, ownership, or authorized use. Do not submit sensitive information that the Service does not request, such as Social Security numbers, medical information, financial account details, or copies of identity documents.

If you provide suggestions or feedback about the Service, you grant us permission to use that feedback without restriction or compensation, provided that we do not publicly identify you without permission.

6. Acceptable Use

You may use the Service only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You may not:

• Access or use information without authorization or outside your assigned tournament role;

• Harass, threaten, impersonate, or deceive another person;

• Manipulate scores, assignments, permissions, or results without authorization;

• Submit false, unlawful, infringing, or malicious content;

• Attempt to discover another user’s password or bypass access controls;

• Probe, scan, disrupt, overload, or interfere with the Service or its infrastructure;

• Upload malware or use automated means to scrape or extract information without written permission;

• Use student or tournament information for advertising, solicitation, profiling, or another unrelated purpose;

• Sell, rent, sublicense, or commercially exploit an account or access to the official hosted Service without written authorization; or

• Help another person do any of the above.

Nothing in this section restricts your GPL-3.0 rights to use, study, copy, modify, distribute, or independently operate the MockScores software. Operating an independent installation does not authorize access to our infrastructure, user accounts, databases, credentials, private data, domains, or branding.

We may investigate suspected violations and cooperate with tournament organizers, schools, service providers, or law enforcement when reasonably necessary and legally permitted.

7. Communications

You agree that we may send transactional communications necessary to operate the Service, including messages about accounts, security, assignments, scoring, results, and tournaments. You are responsible for maintaining a current email address.

Tournament organizers and other users are responsible for the content of communications they initiate through the Service and for ensuring they have authority to contact the recipients.

8. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and retain personal information. By using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read the Privacy Policy. If you use the Service for an organization, you are responsible for making the Privacy Policy available to individuals whose information you submit when required by law or policy.

9. Open-Source License and MockScores Intellectual Property

The MockScores software is free and open-source software licensed under GPL-3.0. Copyright in Curtis Bradley’s contributions is retained by Curtis Bradley, and copyright in other contributions is retained by the applicable contributors unless assigned. Your rights to use, study, copy, modify, and distribute the software are governed by GPL-3.0. If these Terms conflict with GPL-3.0 concerning the licensed software, GPL-3.0 controls. Nothing in these Terms imposes an additional restriction on the exercise of rights granted by GPL-3.0. GPL-3.0 applies to the materials identified as covered by that license. It does not, by itself, grant rights to private tournament data, user accounts, hosted infrastructure, domain names, or MockScores trademarks and branding. The MockScores name, logos, and branding may not be used in a way that falsely suggests sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation. Any documentation, artwork, or other material not covered by GPL-3.0 remains subject to its stated license or applicable copyright law.

Access to the official hosted Service is provided under these Terms and is distinct from possession of a copy of the open-source software. You may operate your own installation in accordance with GPL-3.0, but you are responsible for its hosting, security, privacy notices, legal compliance, and support.

10. Third-Party Services and Links

The Service relies on third-party providers for functions such as hosting, storage, and email delivery and may link to third-party websites. We do not control third-party websites or services offered directly to you, and their terms and privacy policies govern your use of them.

11. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. You may request account deletion by contacting us at jfricks@ogdenfricks.com.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate access if we reasonably believe that:

• You violated these Terms;

• Your use creates a security, privacy, legal, or operational risk;

• Suspension is necessary to protect students, users, MockScores, or a third party;

• We are required to do so by law; or

• The Service or relevant feature is discontinued.

When practical, we will provide notice and an opportunity to address the issue. We may act without advance notice when immediate action is reasonably necessary.

Termination does not automatically require deletion of all tournament records. Records may be controlled by a school or tournament organizer, and limited information may be retained as described in the Privacy Policy. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination —including ownership, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and dispute terms—will survive.

12. Service Availability and Changes

We work to keep the Service available and accurate, but outages, delays, errors, data loss, or unauthorized access may occur. You are responsible for maintaining any exports, copies, or alternative procedures reasonably necessary to operate a time-sensitive tournament.

We may perform maintenance, change usage limits, or discontinue all or part of the Service. When reasonably practical, we will provide advance notice of a material discontinuation.

13. Disclaimers

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” THE COMMITTEE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AVAILABILITY, AND SECURITY.

THE COMMITTEE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS; THAT INFORMATION OR RESULTS WILL BE ACCURATE OR PRESERVED; OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL SATISFY ANY PARTICULAR TOURNAMENT RULES. THE COMMITTEE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR JUDGING, SCORING, PAIRING, ELIGIBILITY, DISCIPLINARY, OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BY TOURNAMENT ORGANIZERS OR USERS.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty disclaimers, so some of the above may not apply to you.

Copies of the MockScores software are also subject to the warranty disclaimers and other terms contained in GPL-3.0. The hosted-Service disclaimers in these Terms do not replace or modify the GPL-3.0 license applicable to the software.

14. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE COMMITTEE AND ITS MEMBERS, OFFICERS, VOLUNTEERS, CONTRACTORS, SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS, CONTRIBUTORS, AND AFFILIATES WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOSS OF DATA, REVENUE, PROFITS, GOODWILL, OR USE, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS, EVEN IF ADVISED THAT SUCH DAMAGES WERE POSSIBLE.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF THE COMMITTEE AND THE RELATED PARTIES FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SERVICE DURING THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM OR (B) $100.

These limitations do not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

15. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, if you use the Service on behalf of a tournament, school, team, business, or other organization, that organization agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Committee and its members, officers, volunteers, contractors, software developers, contributors, and affiliates from third-party claims, damages, losses, and reasonable costs arising from:

• The organization’s User Content;

• Its unauthorized or unlawful collection, submission, use, or disclosure of personal information;

• Its tournament administration or decisions;

• Its violation of these Terms or applicable law; or

• Its infringement of another person’s rights.

This section does not require an individual minor to indemnify the Committee or any other protected party.

16. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Before filing a legal claim, you and MockScores agree to make a good faith effort to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days after written notice of the dispute is received.

Unless applicable law requires otherwise, any legal action arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service must be brought exclusively in the state courts located in San Luis Obispo County, California , and each party consents to those courts’ personal and subject matter jurisdiction and venue.

Nothing in these Terms prevents either party from seeking immediate injunctive or equitable relief when necessary to protect security, privacy, confidential information, or intellectual property rights.

17. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms to reflect changes in the Service, our practices, or applicable law. We will post the revised Terms and update the effective date. If changes are material, we will provide additional notice when reasonably required.

Changes will apply prospectively. Your continued use of the Service after revised Terms take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to a change, you must stop using the Service.

18. General Terms

These Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and the Committee concerning the official hosted Service unless a separate written agreement applies. GPL-3.0 separately governs the covered source code and is not replaced or modified by these Terms. If a separate written agreement with a school, district, or organization conflicts with these Terms, the separate agreement controls to the extent of the conflict, but it

does not alter GPL-3.0 rights in the covered software unless permitted by that license and agreed by the relevant copyright holders.

If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted and the remaining provisions will remain effective. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them as part of a merger, reorganization, sale of assets, or by operation of law.

Headings are for convenience only. The word “including” means “including without limitation.” Electronic notices and agreements satisfy any requirement that they be in writing to the extent permitted by law.

19. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be sent to:

San Luis Obispo County Mock Trial Committee
Attn: John W. Fricks, Committee Chair
Email: jfricks@ogdenfricks.com
Mailing address: 656 Santa Rosa St #2B, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401