SDCVMA Websites Agreement & Terms of Use
Agreement Between SDCVMA and User
This Agreement describes the terms and conditions (“Terms”) pursuant to which you may access and use any of the San Diego County Veterinary Medical Association® (“SDCVMA”) websites including, without limitation, any site containing the URL SDCVMA.org, and any other websites operated by the SDCVMA (collectively referred to as the “SDCVMA Websites”) from time to time. Please read this Agreement carefully as well as the SDCVMA’s Privacy Policy which is incorporated herein by reference. Your use of the SDCVMA Websites constitutes your binding acceptance of these Terms, including any modifications we may make. If you do not agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy, you must immediately terminate use of the Websites.
In consideration of the SDCVMA granting you access to the SDCVMA Websites, you hereby agree as follows:
1. Modification of the Terms and SDCVMA Websites; Disclosure of Information. SDCVMA reserves the right at its sole discretion to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms at any time without notice or liability, and such modification shall become effective upon posting on the SDCVMA Websites. Your use of any SDCVMA Website following any such modification shall be conclusively deemed to be your acceptance of such modification. SDCVMA reserves the right to disclose aggregated information about use of SDCVMA Websites to the public or media, or more specific data that you separately and specifically agree that SDCVMA can disclose. SDCVMA may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the services provided at the SDCVMA Websites at any time without notice or liability, including the availability of any feature, blog, database or other content.
2. Use of Content; Intellectual Property Rights. The SDCVMA Websites contain a combination of content that SDCVMA creates, its partners create, and that its users create. All materials published on the Site including but not limited to text, images, video, graphics and multimedia files (“Content”) are protected by all applicable intellectual property laws, including without limitation copyright and trademark laws, and owned by SDCVMA or the party credited as the provider of the Content. All rights in the Content are expressly reserved by the applicable copyright and trademark owner. All SDCVMA trademarks, service marks, and membership marks (“SDCVMA Marks”) appearing on the SDCVMA Websites are the property of SDCVMA, and all rights in the SDCVMA Marks are reserved. Members of SDCVMA using the collective membership mark or any other SDCVMA Mark are bound by and should refer to the rules and regulations governing use of those SDCVMA Marks to assure proper usage. You may not sublicense, transfer or otherwise make any Content available to any third party for commercial purposes or financial gain or use the Content in any other media or in any other location other than as permitted under these Terms.
3. Educational and Information Use. The information provided on the SDCVMA Websites is for educational and informational purposes only. The information should not be construed as a recommendation by SDCVMA for any course of action regarding veterinary medical, financial, legal or accounting matters. It is not meant as a substitute for professional advice from a qualified veterinary medical, legal, accounting or financial professional.
4. License; Restrictions; No Unlawful or Unauthorized Use. You are granted a personal, revocable, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the SDCVMA Websites conditioned on your continued acceptance of, and compliance with, these Terms. As a condition of your use of the SDCVMA Websites and the Content, you warrant that all such use is solely for your noncommercial personal use and for no other purpose, and that you will not use the SDCVMA Websites or the Content for any unauthorized or illegal purpose or activity. SDCVMA reserves the right to bar, restrict, suspend, or terminate any user’s access to the SDCVMA Websites, and/or terminate this license at any time for any reason. SDCVMA reserves any and all rights not explicitly granted in these Terms. Unless otherwise expressly stated in these Terms, or unless you receive SDCVMA’s prior written consent, you may not modify, translate, create derivative works of, copy, distribute, market, display, remove or alter any proprietary notices or labels from, lease, sell, sublicense, transfer, decompile, reverse engineer, or incorporate into any information retrieval system (electronic or hard copy), the SDCVMA Websites, any Content, or any portion thereof.
5. Passwords and Account Security. You agree and understand that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of passwords associated with any account you use to access the SDCVMA Websites. You further agree that you will be solely responsible to SDCVMA for all activities that occur under your account. If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or your account, you agree to notify SDCVMA immediately at: sdcvma@aol.com
6. Use of Communication Services. The SDCVMA Websites may contain bulletin board services, chat areas, news groups, forums, communities, personal web pages, calendars and/or other message or communication facilities (collectively, “Communication Services”) designed to enable you to communicate with the SDCVMA, the public at large or with a group.
a. You agree to use the Communication Services only to post, send, and receive messages and material that are proper and related to the particular Communication Service. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree that when using a Communication Services, you will not:
· Advertise, endorse, or offer to sell or buy any goods or services for any commercial or business purpose;
· Conduct or forward surveys, contests, pyramid schemes or chain letters;
· Download any file posted by another user of a Communication Service that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such manner;
· Publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate any inappropriate, offensive, threatening, vulgar, sexually explicit, abusive, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, or unlawful topic, name, material or information;
· Upload Content or files that contain software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy of publicity) unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents and authorizations;
· Upload files that contain viruses, corrupted files or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer;
· Harvest or otherwise collect information about others without their consent, including without limitation e-mail addresses and other information about SDCVMA members from the online member directory;
· Engage in or promote any anticompetitive conduct or inappropriate conversations or conduct that could have anticompetitive effects or could constitute a restraint on trade;
· Violate any applicable laws or regulations.
b. SDCVMA has no obligation to monitor the Communication Services. SDCVMA reserves the right but not the obligation to refuse, move, or remove, at any time for any reason and in SDCVMA’s sole discretion, Content posted or uploaded by you to any SDCVMA Website. By way of example and not of limitation, SDCVMA may remove content that, in SDCVMA’s sole discretion, does not comply with the Terms or any of the items listed above under subsection “a”.
c. Individual sections of the SDCVMA Websites may have additional rules and regulations specific to the subject matter being covered in that section. You agree to abide by the rules and regulations of individual sections on the SDCVMA Websites.
d. All Content provided by you or any other party other than SDCVMA must identify the party who provided that Content. Anonymous posting or uploading of any Content is strictly prohibited.
e. If you upload Content to any of the SDCVMA Websites, you agree to the following:
· You agree to indemnify and hold harmless SDCVMA, its officers, directors, employees, and agents, from any and all liability, damages or expenses whatsoever due, directly or indirectly, to any cause of action arising out of the Content posted by you;
· You warrant and represent that you either own or otherwise control all of the rights to that material, including without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input, or submit the material, or that your use of the material is a fair use as defined by applicable law;
· You grant SDCVMA, its partners, and third party licensees a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free license to use, store, display, publish, transmit, transfer, distribute, reproduce, and aggregate your material with other content, create derivative works of and publicly perform that content for any purpose on and through each of the services provided by any SDCVMA Website. This license shall apply to the distribution and the storage of your Content in any form, medium, or technology now known or later developed;
· You acknowledge that no compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Content, as provided herein.
f. SDCVMA disclaims responsibility and liability for the Content and opinions expressed by others on any SDCVMA Website including, but not limited to, Content or opinions regarding any products or service mentioned on any SDCVMA Website. Views expressed using the Communication Services are not necessarily those of the SDCVMA.
7. Reprints. Reprinting Content from the San Diego County Veterinary Medical Association Intercom shall be subject to the reprint policy for those publications.
8. Claims of Copyright Infringement. It is SDCVMA's policy to promptly process and investigate notices of alleged copyright infringement, and to take appropriate actions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Title 17, United States Code, Section 512 ("DMCA"). If you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated by SDCVMA or by a third party who has uploaded Content on one of our Sites, please provide the following information to the SDCVMA-designated copyright agent listed below:
a. A description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
b. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on an SDCVMA Website;
c. An address, a telephone number, and an email address where SDCVMA can contact you and, if different, an email address where the alleged infringing party, if not SDCVMA, can contact you;
d. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright or other intellectual property rights owner, by its agent, or by law;
e. A statement by you under penalty of perjury that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or are authorized to act on the owner's behalf;
f. Your electronic or physical signature.
g. SDCVMA may request additional information before removing any infringing material. SDCVMA may provide the alleged infringing party with your email address so that that person can respond to your allegations.
h. SDCVMA expects all users of SDCVMA Websites to comply with applicable copyright laws. However, if SDCVMA is notified of a claimed copyright infringement, or otherwise becomes aware of facts and circumstances from which infringement is apparent, it will respond appropriately, which may include removing or disabling access to the material that is claimed to be infringing. SDCVMA will follow the procedures outlined in the DMCA with regard to appropriate notifications of the user and the complaining party, acceptance of counter notifications, and, where indicated, "putback" of the alleged infringing material.
i. If you believe your copyright-protected material is being used on any SDCVMA Website without permission, please notify the designated agent:
Pauline White, Executive Director
San Diego County Veterinary Medical Association
4620 Alvarado Canyon Road #15
San Diego, CA 92120
9. RSS and Syndication. SDCVMA blogs and certain other SDCVMA Content are syndicated for RSS aggregation. You have permission to subscribe to any or all SDCVMA-offered RSS feeds via an RSS reader.
10. Linked Sites. The SDCVMA Websites may contain links to other Internet sites operated by third parties. These links are provided as a convenience to access the information contained therein, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by SDCVMA of the site or any association with its operator. SDCVMA expressly disclaims any responsibility or liability for the content of any other site. You should direct any concerns regarding any external link to the site administrator or webmaster of such other site.
11. Liability Disclaimer. SDCVMA MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON ANY SDCVMA WEBSITE FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH CONTENT, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. SDCVMA AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THE CONTENT, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SDCVMA AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF ANY SDCVMA WEBSITE, WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE ANY SDCVMA WEBSITE OR RELATED SERVICES, THE PROVISION OF OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY CONTENT, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS OBTAINED THROUGH ANY SDCVMA WEBSITE, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF ANY SDCVMA WEBSITE, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF SDCVMA (OR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS) HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME STATES/JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY PORTION OF ANY SDCVMA WEBSITE, OR WITH ANY OF THESE TERMS, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING SDCVMA WEBSITES.
12. Your dealings with advertisers and third-party vendors found on or through the Site, including your participation in promotions, the purchase of goods, and any terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such activities, are solely between you and the third party. SDCVMA does not make any representations or warranties with respect to any goods or services that may be obtained from such third parties, and you agree that SDCVMA will have no liability for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of any activities you undertake in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, services, information or other materials available, or through such third parties, on the Site. You acknowledge that such third-party sites usually have their own terms and conditions, including privacy policies, over which SDCVMA has no control and which will govern your rights and obligations with respect to the use of those sites.
13. As part of the registration process to use certain portions of the site, including but not limited to “members-only” areas of the Site, you may select a user name and/or password. You may change your password at any time in accordance with the procedure on the Site. You agree that you are exclusively responsible for maintaining the security of your password. You agree to provide SDCVMA with accurate, complete, and updated registration information. Failure to do so shall constitute a breach of this Agreement, which may result in immediate termination of your access to the Site.
14. SDCVMA reserves the right, but not the obligation, to send electronic mail to any and all users of the Site for the purpose of informing them of changes or additions to the Site or any related services or products. Your registration on the Site constitutes your consent to receive such electronic mail unless it is subject to any right you may have to opt-out of receiving said messages and you have opted out as provided for in SDCVMA’s Privacy Policy.
15. The SDCVMA Websites include numerous discussion venues for SDCVMA members, other veterinary professionals, and members of the general public interested in veterinary medicine and animal health. All use of these discussion venues and other social media on SDCVMA Websites is governed by these Terms and the SDCVMA Social Media Moderation Policy. In addition, SDCVMA offers a widget service to allow dynamic content to users and administrators of websites, blogs, and other third-party Internet-based services. All use of the widget service is governed by these Terms and the Widget Terms of Use.
16. Choice of Law; Venue. To the maximum extent permitted by law, this Agreement, its Terms, and use of SDCVMA Websites are governed by and will be interpreted under the laws of the State of California, United States of America, without reference to conflicts of laws and without regard to the location of execution or performance of this Agreement. You hereby agree that any and all disputes which may arise and any litigation that may arise from such disputes will be litigated before a court located in the State of California, County of San Diego, U.S.A., to the exclusion of the courts of any other country, state or county.
17. General Legal Terms. Use of SDCVMA Websites is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these Terms, including without limitation this paragraph. If any part of this Agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the Agreement shall continue in effect. Unless otherwise specified herein, this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the user and SDCVMA with respect to SDCVMA Websites, and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between the user and SDCVMA with respect to SDCVMA Websites. A printed version of this Agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this Agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. You agree that SDCVMA may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms, by email, regular mail, or postings on SDCVMA Websites. You agree that if SDCVMA does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy which is contained in the Terms (or which SDCVMA has the benefit of under any applicable law), this will not be taken to be a formal waiver of SDCVMA’s rights and that those rights or remedies will still be available to SDCVMA.
5/2013