Last updated on July 24, 2026.
We're Developmental Research Institute ("we", "us", or "our"), a company registered in Montana, USA, and these Terms and Conditions (our "Terms") form a legally binding agreement between you and us.
The Developmental Research Institute (DRI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that conducts and shares research on human development across the lifespan. Through this website, DRI provides access to research studies, theoretical writing, and educational resources related to the STAGES developmental model and related frameworks, and offers visitors the opportunity to sign up for newsletter updates and make charitable donations in support of DRI's work.
"Services" means services provided by us that link to these Terms, including our website; the content provided, generated, or made available for or in relation to our Services (our "Materials"); and any services connected to or relying on Third-Party Services.
"You" ("your", the "customer", or the "user") means any individual using our Services, including any employees, agents, contractors, or other persons accessing our Services with your authorization.
"Using our Services" means interacting with our Services in any way, including: accessing, browsing, providing or transmitting any other information, content, materials, or instructions through our Services, integrating with our Services, or doing so directly or through automated tools, scripts, software, or third-party applications.
By using our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and any other policies referenced and expressly incorporated within, and you consent to electronic communications and contracting as permitted under applicable laws. If you do not agree, you may not use our Services.
Our Services are intended for users aged 18 or older, or above the age of majority in their jurisdiction, whichever is higher. Persons below this age may not use our Services. If we become aware that a user is below the required age, we may suspend or terminate their access to our Services immediately and without liability.
By using our Services, you acknowledge and agree that:
If you do not meet these requirements, you must not use our Services.
By using our Services, you warrant on behalf of yourself, your users, and other parties you represent that you will not:
Failure to comply with these limitations may result in the suspension or termination of your access and rights to our Services, as well as any other legal remedies available to us.
We reserve the right to amend, remove, or vary these Terms at any time. Non-material changes may be effective immediately. For material changes, we may require you to re-accept the Terms to continue using our Services. We will provide you with reasonable notice as legally required, by any reasonable means, and such changes will become effective after the notice period. Changes required by applicable law or emergency may take effect immediately regardless of materiality.
Your continued access to or use of our Services after the effective date of any modifications constitutes your acknowledgment of and agreement to be bound by the revised Terms.
Every clause in these Terms applies in full, except where a mandatory provision of applicable law requires otherwise. Nothing in these Terms limits, excludes, or modifies any mandatory rights, protections, or remedies you may have under the laws that apply to you.
Our Services may include features, tools, and integrations (collectively, "Third-Party Services") that rely on, are built by, are connected with, or are supported by companies that are independent from us. By using Third-Party Services, you agree to comply with the applicable terms and conditions, usage rules, and policies of the respective providers.
We do not endorse, are not liable for, and make no representations or warranties about any Third-Party Services. We have no control over these services and are not responsible for how they work or what they do. If a Third-Party Service stops working or changes how it connects with our Services, we may need to discontinue that connection without liability to you, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
Where an issue with our Services originates from a Third-Party Service, our responsibility is limited to using commercially reasonable efforts to resolve or mitigate the impact on our Services. We are not obligated to fix, replace, or compensate for failures, outages, or changes caused by Third-Party Services, except where required by applicable law.
By using our Services, or any Third-Party Services in connection with our platform, you agree not to hold us responsible for any issues that arise directly from those Third-Party Services, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
We may update, modify, or improve our Services from time to time. These updates may include technical adjustments, security enhancements, performance improvements, changes to features, or adaptations required to comply with legal or regulatory requirements. We reserve the right to implement updates at any time and for any reason, whether temporarily or permanently, with or without notice, and without liability to you or any third party, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
You acknowledge that our Services may contain errors, bugs, or interruptions. We have no obligation to provide notice of, or correct, update, modify, maintain, or repair any aspect of our Services, except as required by applicable law.
We reserve the right to suspend or discontinue all or part of the Services where reasonably necessary for legal, security, operational, or business reasons. Where practicable, we will provide reasonable notice before discontinuing a Service.
We aim to keep the Services available and reliable. However, the Services may occasionally be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance, updates, technical issues, or circumstances beyond our reasonable control. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from temporary interruptions to the Services, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
By accessing our Services, you acknowledge our collection and analysis of usage metrics, service interaction patterns, and operational data across our user base in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws. We may aggregate and anonymize this information for analytical purposes, research, product development, and industry insights. All such aggregated and anonymized data, once processed to remove identifying characteristics, becomes our proprietary information and may be utilized, disclosed, or published at our discretion. This aggregated data will not include information that could reasonably identify you as an individual user. Additionally, we reserve the right to leverage non-identifying information you provide through the Services to enhance functionality, promote our services, optimize user experience, and refine our service offerings.
We retain sole ownership of all intellectual property ("IP") rights in and to our Services, our Materials, and any proprietary rights inherent in and to our Services. These rights are protected by international intellectual property laws and treaties and apply worldwide.
Nothing in these Terms shall be interpreted as transferring to you any rights, interest, or title in our company or Services, except as explicitly stated in these Terms.
Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use our Services solely for your personal or internal business purposes.
All rights not expressly granted to you are reserved by Developmental Research Institute and its licensors.
If you publicly publish or distribute materials generated by or exported from our Services, you must include reasonable attribution to us, such as a visible credit or link to our website, unless we provide specific attribution guidelines, in which case those guidelines apply.
You may refer to our company name and brand in a factual and truthful manner. You must not use our name, logo, trademarks, or other brand assets in any way that implies endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation with us without our prior written consent.
We respect the intellectual property rights of others, and we ask that everyone using our Services does the same. If you believe that your work has been reproduced on our Services in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify us using the process outlined below.
Please be aware that under Section 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be liable for damages. If you're unsure whether your claim is valid, we recommend that you seek legal advice before proceeding.
To submit a claim, please provide us with the following information:
Please send all copyright infringement notices to:
If you believe that content you posted was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification, you may send us a counter-notification containing the following information:
Upon receipt of a valid counter-notification, we will restore the removed content within 10 to 14 business days, unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the content provider. We reserve the right to remove content that violates these Terms regardless of any counter-notification.
For more information about United States of America (the)'s copyright law, please visit https://www.copyright.gov.
"User-Generated Content" refers to any content, materials, information, feedback, ideas, suggestions, feature requests, reviews, or communications that you submit, post, upload, share, or otherwise provide to us or through our Services, whether publicly or privately.
By submitting User-Generated Content to us or through our Services, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly display, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of your content in a manner that is consistent with your privacy preferences and our Privacy Policy. This includes, without limitation, the right to use feedback, ideas, suggestions, and feature requests to develop, improve, and promote our Services without any obligation or compensation to you.
You retain your intellectual property ownership rights over your User-Generated Content. By submitting User-Generated Content, you represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights, licenses, and permissions to grant the license above, and that your content does not infringe, misappropriate, or violate the rights of any third party.
We reserve the right to review, edit, refuse, or remove any User-Generated Content at our sole discretion and without notice.
We aim to ensure that all information found on our Services is accurate and up to date. However, occasional errors, inaccuracies, or omissions may occur. We reserve the right to correct such errors and update information at any time. We do not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the materials on this website, or otherwise relating to such materials or on any resources linked to this website.
We are committed to ensuring that our Services are accessible to everyone. This includes making an active and ongoing effort to remove accessibility barriers from our Services and to maintaining our compliance with global accessibility standards and regulations.
To guide us in making our Services more inclusive and accessible, we follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2) level AA, with which we strive to comply as best as possible.
As our Services evolve, new content or updates may unintentionally introduce accessibility issues that we are not yet aware of. We actively monitor our Services to identify and resolve such issues. If you encounter an accessibility barrier, please let us know using the contact details at the base of these Terms.
Please send all accessibility feedback to our team using the contact details at the base of these Terms. You can share a description of the accessibility barrier you encountered, the specific webpage or URL where it happened, details about your device and any assistive technology you're using (if relevant), and anything else you think might help us understand and fix the problem. We will respond to you as quickly as possible.
We may provide links to third-party websites, applications, or resources ("Linked Sites") for your convenience. However, we don't control, review, monitor, or endorse these Linked Sites or their content, and we can't make any promises about their availability, accuracy, reliability, or suitability. When you access and use Linked Sites, you're doing so at your own risk, and we won't be responsible for any damages or losses that arise from your use of or reliance on any Linked Site.
We reserve the right to remove or disable links to any Linked Site at any time without notice or liability. When you access any Linked Site, you acknowledge that you're leaving our platform and that different terms of use and Privacy Policies may apply to your use of those Linked Sites.
We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under these Terms that is caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control ("Force Majeure Events"). Force Majeure Events include, but are not limited to, acts of God, natural disasters, internet outages, cyberattacks, strikes, and failures of third-party services.
Our Services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we make no warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied, and we disclaim all implied warranties and conditions, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.
Without limiting the foregoing, we do not warrant that our Services will be uninterrupted, error-free, timely, secure, free of viruses or other harmful components, or that any defects will be corrected; that the Services will meet your requirements or expectations; or that any information or content available through the Services is accurate, complete, or reliable.
The following limitations apply to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Where any limitation is partially or wholly unenforceable, it applies to the maximum extent that is enforceable.
In no event will we, our affiliates, suppliers, licensors, agents, officers, directors, or employees be liable to you or any third party for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill, opportunity, savings, reputation, use, or data, arising out of or in connection with these Terms or your use of (or inability to use) our Services, regardless of whether the claim is brought in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, indemnity, equity, or otherwise, and even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or (c) any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain warranties or liabilities. In such jurisdictions, some of the above limitations may not apply to you in their entirety, and our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless our company, our affiliates, and our respective officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors, and assigns ("Indemnified Parties") from all claims, losses, damages, penalties, fines, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees and costs) arising out of or related to:
This indemnification obligation includes, without limitation, claims related to: (a) allegations of non-compliance with data protection, privacy, or consumer protection laws; (b) infringement or misappropriation arising from customized content, configurations, or implementations; and (c) any representations, warranties, or guarantees you make regarding our Services to third parties.
You will cooperate promptly and fully in the defense of any such claim at your own expense. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which case you agree to assist and cooperate with us in asserting any available defenses and to promptly reimburse us for all reasonable costs and expenses incurred in connection with such defense. You may not settle, compromise, or make any admission of liability in connection with any claim subject to this indemnification without our prior written consent.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, this indemnification obligation (a) survives the termination or expiration of these Terms or your use of our Services, and (b) is independent of any other rights or remedies available to the Indemnified Parties. In jurisdictions where such indemnification provisions are limited or unenforceable, this section applies only to the maximum extent permitted by law and does not affect any non-excludable statutory rights you may have. The Indemnified Parties reserve all rights and remedies available at law or in equity and may seek injunctive relief or specific performance in addition to monetary damages.
By accepting these Terms, you agree that any disputes, claims, or issues related to these Terms, our Services, or your use of them (collectively, "Disputes") will be governed by the laws of United States of America (the) ("Governing Law"), without regard to conflict of law principles, and resolved in accordance with this section.
Before commencing litigation, you must first provide written notice of the Dispute to us using the contact details at the base of these terms, including a detailed description of the nature of the Dispute and the relief sought. We will attempt to resolve the Dispute informally through negotiation within 30 days days from the date of your written notice. If the Dispute cannot be resolved within this period, either party may proceed with litigation.
Notwithstanding the other terms in this section, we have the right to seek injunctive relief against any unauthorized use or abuse of our Services, unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, or intellectual property infringement, and the right to pursue an enforcement action without first engaging in the dispute resolution process described in this section.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to resolve any and all Disputes on an individual basis and not as part of a class, representative, or consolidated action.
If any provision of these Terms is found by a court or competent authority to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision shall be deemed removed to the extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.
If the removal of a provision materially affects the balance of rights and obligations under these Terms, we may amend the affected provision to the extent necessary to make it lawful, while preserving its original purpose as closely as possible.
No waiver of any breach, default, or right under these Terms shall be effective unless expressly made in writing and signed by an authorized representative of the waiving party. Our failure or delay in exercising any right or remedy under these Terms shall not operate as a waiver, impair future rights to strict performance, or affect any other available rights or remedies.
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any mandatory pre-contractual information, form the agreement between you and us regarding our Services. They replace any prior discussions or communications relating to the same subject matter.
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any rights you have under applicable consumer protection, unfair commercial practices, or data protection laws. If any information we provide to you before entering into the contract is required by law to form part of the contract, it will remain binding.
We may update these Terms in accordance with the "Changes to Our Terms" section. We are not bound by any other term or condition you propose in any correspondence, purchase order, or document, regardless of whether we expressly object to it. Any other changes must be agreed in writing.
You may contact us at any time using the contact details at the base of these Terms. Where these Terms require notice in writing, email is sufficient unless mandatory law requires another method. A notice is considered received when it is sent, provided there is no indication that delivery has failed.
You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms to another person without our prior written consent, unless such transfer is permitted by applicable law.
We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to another company, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganization, or sale of assets. If we do so, we will ensure that your rights under these Terms are not reduced as a result of the transfer. Where required by law, we will inform you of such transfer.
In these Terms, "including" means "including but not limited to."
The authoritative version of these Terms is the original English (US) version, which shall prevail over any translation in the event of a conflict. Any translations are provided purely for convenience, and we are not responsible for errors or inconsistencies in them.
Headings in these Terms are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation of any provision.
Any provision of these Terms that by its nature or express terms should survive the expiration or termination of these Terms will survive, including any accrued rights and obligations.
Please direct all communications regarding these Terms to: placeholder
https://www.developmentalresearchinstitute.org/terms
