Terms of Use

1. Scope and Changes

These Terms apply to the Red Place Acres website and online services that link to them. We may update the Terms as the website, our offerings, or applicable law changes. The date at the top of this page shows when the Terms were most recently revised. Continued use of the website after revised Terms are posted means the revised Terms will apply from that point forward.

2. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how Red Place Acres handles personal information in connection with the website and related Services.

3. Permitted Use

You may use the website for lawful personal, informational, educational, literary, and business-inquiry purposes consistent with these Terms. You may link to public pages in a fair and lawful manner that does not falsely suggest sponsorship, endorsement, partnership, or affiliation.

4. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to misuse the website or interfere with its operation. Among other things, you may not:

• use the website for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive, deceptive, or infringing activity;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to accounts, systems, code, data, or restricted areas;
• introduce malware, malicious code, or technology intended to disrupt or damage the website or another user;
• scrape, harvest, or collect personal information from the website in violation of applicable law;
• impersonate Red Place Acres, Mara Bunsucker, another person, or another organization;
• remove copyright, trademark, attribution, or proprietary notices; or
• use automated systems in a manner that materially burdens, disrupts, or circumvents reasonable website controls.

5. Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise indicated, the website design, branding, text, graphics, original photography and artwork, audio, video, downloadable materials, and other content created for Red Place Acres are owned by or licensed to Red Place Acres LLC and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws.

You may view and use public website content for ordinary personal and informational purposes. No broader license is granted. Unless permission is expressly provided, you may not reproduce, republish, sell, distribute, create derivative commercial works from, or falsely attribute Red Place Acres content.

Book excerpts, cover art, author materials, contributed works, and third-party content may be subject to separate rights and permissions.

6. Submissions and Literary Projects

Red Place Acres may periodically invite submissions for Red Threads, Hope or Mope?, prizes, anthologies, publishing opportunities, community features, or other projects. Each open call may include additional eligibility, rights, judging, originality, AI-authorship, publication, compensation, and submission rules. Those project-specific rules control if they conflict with these general Terms.

You keep ownership of material you submit unless a specific written agreement or published project rule says otherwise. Invited editorial submissions grant only the permissions described in the applicable submission terms. Sending a general inquiry does not transfer ownership of your work to Red Place Acres.

Hope or Mope? submissions are also governed by our Submission Terms. The Hope or Mope? Poetry Prize is not open until separate Official Rules are posted. Please do not send unsolicited full manuscripts, confidential business plans, or other material that you expect Red Place Acres to keep confidential unless we have specifically requested it or agreed in writing to receive it on that basis.

7. Third-Party Services

The website may link to booksellers, social media platforms, video platforms, payment providers, professional networks, or other third-party websites and services. Those services are operated independently. Red Place Acres is not responsible for their content, availability, security, terms, privacy practices, or transactions.

8. Information and Professional Advice

Red Place Acres publishes stories, educational material, research-informed information, practical resources, and general guidance. Website content is provided for general informational and educational purposes unless a separate written professional-services agreement states otherwise.

Nothing on the public website is a substitute for individualized legal, medical, financial, tax, mental-health, or other regulated professional advice. You remain responsible for decisions you make based on public website content.

9. Disclaimers

We work to keep the website useful, accurate, secure, and available, but websites and online services can change or experience errors, interruptions, or delays. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the website and public website content are provided on an "as available" basis without a guarantee that every feature will always be uninterrupted, error-free, or suitable for every purpose.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Red Place Acres LLC will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising solely from use of, or inability to use, the public website. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

11. Responsibility for Your Use

You are responsible for your own conduct while using the website and for material you choose to submit. If your unlawful or unauthorized use of the website causes a third-party claim against Red Place Acres, you may be responsible for resulting losses to the extent permitted by law.

12. Copyright Concerns

Red Place Acres respects intellectual property rights. If you believe material on redplaceacres.com infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to enforce, please email contact@redplaceacres.com with the subject line Copyright Notice and include enough information for us to identify the work, locate the material, understand the basis of the claim, and contact you.

Please make copyright complaints in good faith. We may request additional information before acting on a notice.

13. Applicable Law

These Terms are governed by applicable United States law and other law that applies to Red Place Acres LLC and your use of the website. Nothing in these Terms limits consumer or other legal rights that cannot lawfully be waived.