Terms of use

Effective Date:                             2009

1.    Definitions

"Applications" means software applications that you may download from the MyHealth section of the Site

"Groups" means groups created by registered users within the Communities section of the Site.  Groups may be open, closed or hidden

"Log In Details" means the email address given by you and the password created by you when you first register with the Site

"our Content" means health information and software applications which we have written or commissioned and which is contained within the Knowledge Centre, BodyWorks and MyHealth sections of the Site

a "registered user" means a user of the Site who has registered with the Site

"the Site" means sixpartswater.org and its directly associated domains

"user" means any user of the Site

"User Content" means written, photo or video messages shared by registered users to Groups, comments posted to Walls of Groups and one-to-one discussions between registered users

"we" or "us" means sixpartswater, a charity registered in England with number 1121732) which is also a company limited by guarantee, registered in England  with number 6399495, with a registered office at Portledge Estate, Fairy Cross, Bideford, Devon EX39 5BX United Kingdom (VAT Group Registration Number: 927 2359 11), and "our" shall be interpreted accordingly

"you" means you, the user of the Site and "your" and "yourself" shall be interpreted accordingly

"your User Content" means User Content that you have posted or created on the Site

2.    Introduction

The following terms constitute an agreement between you and us, the operator of the Site. These Terms of Use govern your use of the Site.  By using the Site, and/or registering with us, you signify that you agree to these Terms of Use, that you consent to the information practices disclosed in our Privacy & Cookies Policy, and that you consent to resolve in the English courts any dispute that you may have with us.

Please note that we offer the Site "as is" and "as available" and without warranties (see paragraph 15 for more details on this). Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the Site is normally available 24 hours a day, we shall not be liable if for any reason the Site is unavailable at any time or for any period. Access to the Site may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for any other reasonable cause.

The Site is for education and information purposes only.  We do not give medical advice.

Additional terms may apply to:

• any purchases you make through the Site
• registration to the Website and/or any other email alert or other related services
• any poll, promotion, competition or draw appearing on the Site.

3.    About the Site

The Site contains a range of health information, related Applications and services and user generated content. This includes our Content and User Content.

For information about how our Content is created, please see our Editorial Policy.

User Content is not reviewed or moderated by us before it is posted.   We are not in a position to verify User Content and can give no warranty that it is true or accurate or not misleading.  The privacy settings of the Groups you are in dictate who has access to your User Content.  You should be aware that the privacy settings of a Group you are in may be changed from time to time by the creator of the Group without reference to you.

Our Content and some User Content can be viewed without registering with us, but to interact with the Site, you must register.

We accept sponsorship on the Site on certain conditions  - see our Support us for more information.

We use cookies on the Site, see our Privacy & Cookies Policy for more information.

4.    Purpose of the Site

The information on the Site, both our Content and User Content, is for education and information purposes only.  It is intended to help you become a more informed health care consumer and to complement, not replace, the care or advice provided by your doctor or other health care professionals.

You acknowledge that whilst we endeavour to ensure that information on the Site and any related material provided to you is accurate and complete, it is provided only for general information, is not intended to address your particular requirements and does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by us. Also, you acknowledge that some of the content may be supplied by third parties and the accuracy and completeness of it will not have been checked by us.

If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always consult your doctor or other healthcare professional(s), who will be trained in observation and interpretation of symptoms and will be able to provide a proper diagnosisThe process of determining which condition a patient may have. based on a knowledge and understanding of all aspects of your condition and your medical history.

Do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health advice from your doctor or other healthcare professionals because of something you may have read on this Site.

You should always speak to your doctor or other health care professionals before beginning, changing or stopping any medication or supplement or adopting any treatment or therapy for a health problem.

You are solely responsible for any health, business or personal decisions or actions you take based on the information on the Site, including choosing to seek or not to seek professional medical care, or choosing or not choosing specific treatments, therapies, medications, supplements or investments,

Developments in medical research and practice may affect the information that appears on the Site.  We cannot guarantee that the information on the Site will always include the most recent findings or developments with respect to any particular subject or condition.

Nothing stated or posted on this Site is intended to be, and must not be taken to be, the practice of medical or counselling care (which expression includes, without limit, psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy, and providing healthcare treatment, instructions, diagnosisThe process of determining which condition a patient may have., prognosis or advice).

Your access or use of this Site does not create in any way a doctor-patient, confidential, or privileged relationship, or any other relationship that would give rise to any duties on our part.

We do not recommend or endorse any specific tests, doctors, other healthcare professionals, procedures, treatments, opinions or other information that may appear on the Site.

The Site may allow you to download Applications to your own computer to help you keep track of your own personal health related information in a convenient way and to share it more easily with your health care professionals, carers and family. The accuracy, integrity and completeness of the health information you enter is your responsibility.

The Applications are for education and information purposes only. They do not provide medical advice or diagnoses. You should not make medical, lifestyle, treatment or other health care decisions based solely on the Applications. The Applications should be used in combination with the advice of your doctor or other health care professionals. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you find in the Applications.

If you rely on any of the information or Applications provided by this Site, you do so solely at your own risk and we do not accept any liability for any claims, losses or damages (whether direct or indirect) to you or any other person who does rely on the information or Applications provided by the Site.

5.    Your use of our Content and Applications

All of our Content and the Applications available on or through the Site are owned by us and our contributors, and are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws, other proprietary rights, and international treaties, and also may have security components that protect digital information. See paragraph 9 of these Terms of Use regarding ownership of and our rights to use User Content.

We give you permission to use our Content and the Applications for personal, non-commercial purposes only as long as you credit us as the source and as long as you retain any copyright or trade mark notices on the Content/Applications.  You may print single copies, download and store our Content and User Content you are authorised to view on the hard disk of a single computer and download the Applications for your own convenience, but you may not, without our permission, copy, reproduce, distribute, republish, adapt, edit or otherwise modify, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, broadcast, transmit, sell, rent, sub-licence, mine, exploit, frame, include within a database, news service or archive or scrape any of our Content, the Applications or any User Content, or exploit our Content, any of the Applications or any User Content for commercial gain or any commercial purpose.

Your use of any Application may be governed by the terms of a licence agreement that may accompany or be included with it. Do not install or use any such Application unless you agree to such licence agreement.

6.    Your responsibilities

You confirm that:

• you will comply at all times with these Terms of Use
• all information and details you provide us on registration will be true and complete  and that you will promptly update any information you provide to us, to keep it true and complete
• you will not provide any false personal information on the Site, including claiming false credentials
• when participating in the Communities section of the Site, you will comply with the House Rules
• you will use the Site for lawful, non-commercial purposes only
• you will not use the Site in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair our servers or networks, or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the Site
• you will not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any user accounts, or computer systems or networks, or Groups, through hacking, password mining or any other means
• you will not conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limit scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to the Site
• you will not use the Site to copy, store, hostAn animal or plant that supports a parasite., transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, computer virusA microbe that is only able to multiply within living cells., Trojan horse, logic bombs, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit, other malicious computer software or any material that may interrupt, damage, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment
• you will not use contact information provided by our users, or harvest information about our users, for the purpose of sending, or to facilitate the sending, of unsolicited bulk communications such as SPAM or SPIM
• you will not allow others to use your account to violate any of these Terms of Use.

We may cancel or suspend your registration or access to the Site immediately and take other legal or technical action if you or anyone using your Log In Details (as defined below) breaches the letter or spirit of these Terms of Use.  In addition, we may take any legal and technical remedies to prevent the breach of, and to enforce, these Terms of Use.

7.    Registration

To interact with the Site, you must register.  In the case of a closed Group or hidden Group, you must also be invited to join by the person who created that Group.

You must be 13 years or over to register. If we discover or have any reason to suspect that you are not over 13 years of age, then we reserve our right to suspend or terminate your registration to the Site immediately and without notice.

If you're under 16, please get a parent's or guardian's permission before registering.
You should not register if you are a convicted sex offender.

We shall be entitled to refuse you the right to register on the Site at our absolute discretion and you accept that you will not be entitled to any justification or explanation on our part if we decide to refuse, cancel or suspend your registration.

During registration you will provide an e-mail address and create a password. These are your log in details for accessing those parts or functions of the Site that are only available to registered users. You will also select a on-screen name that will be your "On-screen name" on the Site. You may not use an On-screen name that is vulgar, attempts to impersonate another person, or violates the rights of others.  If you wish to maintain your anonymity, we recommend that you do not include your real first or last name in your On-screen name and that you identify yourself at all times only by your On-screen name.

You accept full responsibility for all use of your account and for any actions that take place on the Site by anyone using your Log In Details so you must not share your Log In Details with anyone else, let anyone else use your Log In Details or do anything that jeopardises the security of your Log In Details. You will notify us immediately of any authorised use of your Log In Details or any other breach of security of which you become aware.

You will not create multiple registrations.

When you register, you must give us and thereafter keep up to date a valid personal email address that you access regularly so that moderation emails can be sent to you.

Registrations using someone else's email address, or with temporary email addresses, may be closed without notice. We may require users to re-validate their account if we believe they have been using an invalid email address.

We ask you to update the voluntary information element of your user profile as and when your circumstances change.

We reserve the right to suspend or cancel registrations if any user is seen to be using proxy IPs (Internet Protocol addresses) in order to attempt to hide the use of multiple registrations, or if a user from one country pretends to be a user from another country, or disrupts any of our services in any way.

You may terminate your registration at any time.  You may delete any of your User Content before terminating your registration, but please be aware that once you have terminated your registration, you will no longer have a profile and will not be able to remove any of your User Content.

8.    Groups

A Group may be open, closed or hidden depending on the privacy settings selected from time to time by the creator of the Group.  This is a very important selection as it dictates to whom a Group is visible, who may interact with it and who may view its User Content.  You should be aware that the privacy settings of a Group you are in may be changed from time to time by the creator of the Group without reference to you.

An "open" Group is a Group visible to all, which any registered user can interact with and whose User Content can be viewed by any user of the Site.

A "closed Group" is a Group whose name and description is visible to any user.  However, only registered users invited to join that Group by the person who created it may view the User Content within the Group and interact with it.  Registered users may request an invitation to join a closed Group.

A "hidden Group" is a Group that is visible only to registered users who have been invited to join that Group by the person who created it.  Only registered users who are members of that Group can see the Group on the Groups page, view the User Content within the Group and interact with it.

9.    User Content

You are solely responsible for your User Content. You may not post User Content that violates these Terms of Use or the House Rules, and we reserve the right to block your ability to post User Content and/or to access any part of the Communities Section of the Site if you do. No User Content may contain any defamatory or illegal material of any nature. This includes text, graphics, video, programs or audio. Posting User Content to the Site with the intention of committing or promoting an illegal act is strictly prohibited.

We respect the intellectual property rights of others and we prohibit users from including in any User Content any materials that violate another party's intellectual property rights. When we receive notification of a potential copyright infringement, we will promptly remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material and terminate the registration of repeat infringers.

We may remove User Content from the Site for any reason, including User Content that:

• in our sole judgment violates these Terms of Use or the House Rules
• may be offensive, defamatory, illegal, or that may violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of other visitors or users, or other people in general
• has generated a complaint which warrants further investigation.

We are not, however, responsible for any failure or delay in removing User Content.

You may not include in User Content material that you did not create or that you do not have permission to post. You understand and agree that we are not obliged to review the Site for copyright infringement and are not responsible for content posted by third parties.

When you post User Content to any part of the Site, you authorise and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of that content.

By posting User Content to any open Group on the Site, but not to closed Groups or hidden Groups, you grant, and you promise that you have the right to grant, to us an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty free, worldwide licence to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, adapt, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such content in any existing or future media for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such content.  You also waive all of the moral rights that you have under Chapter IV of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 in respect of any User Content. These rights end when you delete your User Content or terminate your registration, except to the extent your User Content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.  Copyright in any of your User Content remains with you, and these permissions are not exclusive, so you can continue to use the material in any way, including allowing others to use it.

When you post User Content to any Group, you authorise each member of that Group to use it for personal, non-commercial purposes only and to print, download and store it.

When you delete any of your User Content from the Site, the deleted content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time, but will not be available on the Site to others.

While some Groups are monitored for topicality, we have no obligation to pre-screen or moderate User Content, and are not responsible for its content. We encourage you to notify us of inappropriate or illegal content by using the Report as inappropriate link in the relevant Group.  Keep in mind that User Content of others is simply their opinion and you should not rely on it.

For everyone's safety, we reserve the right to review, either manually or using systematic or automated means, all User Content.  This applies to all Groups, whatever their status, whether open, closed or hidden, and includes those belonging to a Partner.

In addition to your User Content, we welcome your feedback and suggestions regarding our Site. You agree that we may use them without any obligation to compensate you for them, and that we will own all intellectual property that we create based upon or incorporating them.

10.    Privacy

Your security and that of all our registered users is very important to us.  Our Privacy & Cookies Policy explains the information practices that apply to the personal information we have about you, as well as the choices you can make about the ways this information is used.

11.  Links to other sites

The Site may include links to other websites, including links provided as automated search results. If you use these links you leave the Site. Some of these sites may contain materials that are objectionable, unlawful, or inaccurate. These links are provided for your convenience only and do not mean that we endorse these sites or the products and services they provide. We do not review these third party sites and do not control them, their content or availability. You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible or liable for the content or accuracy or availability of these other sites. . If you decide to access any of the third party sites linked from the Site, you do so entirely at your own risk.

12.    Services offered on the Site

We currently offer the services on the Site for free but do not guarantee this will always be the case.

Certain services on the Site may have additional terms (such as policies, guidelines, and rules) that will further govern your use of that particular service and supplement these Terms of Use. If you choose to register for or access any such service, you will be presented with any relevant additional terms and conditions at that time. By using those services, you agree to comply with such additional guidelines and rules.

We may from time to time add new services, substitute a new service for an existing service, or discontinue an existing service. Information about new services will be included on the Site, and the use of new services will be governed by these Terms of Use

13.    Linking to sixpartswater.org

You generally do not need to obtain our permission to put a text link on your site that links back to the Site. We reserve the right, however, to revoke permission to the link at any time in our sole discretion. If we revoke such consent, you agree to immediately remove and disable any and all of your links to the Site. In the absence of a written agreement with us specifying how you may link to the Site, use the following guidelines for adding one or more links to the Site from your website:

• the link must be a text-only link that clearly includes the phrases "sixpartswater.org" or "sixpartswater" and you must not reproduce any of our logos or branding on your website
• the link must "point" to a page on sixpartswater.org
• if the link points to any page on the Site other than the home page, the text link must also include the title of the target landing page
• the appearance, position and other aspects of the link may not be such as to damage or dilute the goodwill associated with our good name and trademarks
• the appearance, position and other aspects of the link may not create the false impression that an entity is associated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by us
• the link, when activated by a user, must display the Site full-screen and not within a "frame" on the linking website and linking may not trigger any interstitial or pop-up or pop-under windows
• the link may not be used in connection with or appear on a website that a reasonable person might consider offensive, obscene, defamatory or otherwise malicious

14.    International use

We cannot confirm that use of the Site outside of the United Kingdom is lawful and we cannot be held responsible for any consequences that follow if users access the Site outside of the United Kingdom. Accessing the Site from territories where the content is illegal is prohibited.

15.    No Warranties

We will use all reasonable endeavours to correct any errors or omissions in our Content as soon as reasonably practicable once they have been brought to our attention.

We give no warranty whatsoever concerning User Content, including, but without limit, as to its accuracy, truthfulness or completeness.

We will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that the Site does not contain or promulgate any virusesMicrobes that are only able to multiply within living cells. or other malicious code. However, we do not warrant that functions available on the Site will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that the Site or the server that makes it available are free of virusesMicrobes that are only able to multiply within living cells. or bugs. You acknowledge that it is your responsibility to implement sufficient procedures and virusA microbe that is only able to multiply within living cells. checks (including anti-virusA microbe that is only able to multiply within living cells. and other security checks) to satisfy your particular requirements for the security of data and we recommended that you should virusA microbe that is only able to multiply within living cells. check all hardware and regularly check for the presence of virusesMicrobes that are only able to multiply within living cells. and other malicious code.

Access to the Site and the information on it and its services may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, necessary maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond our control.

16.    General disclaimer and limitation of liability

We refer you to the specific provisions of paragraph 4 of these Terms of Use regarding the purpose of the Site and the medical disclaimers those paragraphs contain.

We accept liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or that of our employees and we do not seek to exclude liability for fraudulent misrepresentation by us or our employees.  Subject to the first sentence in this paragraph we shall not be liable for any of the following losses or damage (whether such damage or losses were foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise): (a) loss of data; (b) loss of revenue or anticipated profits; (c) loss of business; (d) loss of opportunity; (e) loss of goodwill or injury to reputation; (f) losses suffered by third parties; or (g) any indirect, consequential, special or exemplary damages arising from the use of the Site regardless of the form of action. Subject to the first and second sentences in this paragraph, any liability of ours arising in respect of your use of the Site (whether in tort, contract or otherwise) shall be limited in aggregate to five hundred pounds sterling (£500) per event.

17.    Breaches of these Terms of Use

Without prejudice to our other rights under these Terms of Use, if you breach, or we reasonably suspect that you have breached, these Terms of Use or other policies or terms in any way, or if there is any such breach or suspected breach by someone else using your Log In Details, or if you create any legal exposure for us, we may:

• delete any or all of your User Content
• send you one or more formal warnings
• temporarily suspend your registration
• cancel your registration
• temporarily or permanently prohibit you from accessing the Site
• block computers using your IP address from accessing the Site
• contact your internet services provider and request that they block your access to the Site, and/or
• bring court proceedings against you for breach of contract or otherwise.

Where we suspend or prohibit or block your access to a part of the Site, you must not take any action to circumvent such suspension or prohibition or blocking (including creating and/or using a different registration).

We may also cancel or suspend your registration for any other reason, including inactivity for an extended period. Your right to use those services requiring registration will end once your registration is cancelled, terminated or suspended.

18.    Indemnity

You agree to indemnify us and hold us harmless against any claim or damages (including any legal fees and costs in relation to such claim or damages) made by a third party in respect of any matter in relation to or arising from your use of any part of the Site and registration with us or arising from any breach or suspected breach of these Terms by you or your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.

19.    Changes to these Terms of Use

These Terms of Use and the various policies published from time to time on the Site govern your relationship with us. We may change these Terms of Use and policies at any time, as we deem appropriate. If we make changes that we believe will have a material impact on your use of the Site, we will let you know by noting on the Site that the Terms of Use or appropriate policy have been updated. If you disagree with the changes to these Terms of Use or policy, discontinue your use of the Site, or if you have registered, terminate your registration. We will note the last effective date of any change to these Terms of Use and policies. Your ongoing use of the Site after the changes take effect signifies your agreement to the new terms. We encourage you to review the Terms of Use and policies regularly.

20.    Entire agreement

These Terms of Use and any supplemental terms, policies, rules and guidelines posted on the Site constitute the entire agreement between us and supersede all previous written or oral agreements. If any part of these Terms of Use is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as nearly as possible, the original intentions of the parties, and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect.

21.    Trademarks

All trademarks appearing on the Site (including the sixpartswater name and associated logos) are the property of their respective owners, including us. No right, license or interest to such trademarks is granted by these Terms of Use and neither those trademarks nor any confusingly similar versions may be used by you including (but not limited to) as part of any trade marks and/or domain names without the prior written consent of their respective owners.

22.    General

If we fail to enforce any of these Terms of Use, it will not be considered a waiver.

We shall not be liable for any failure or suspension of the Site, or for termination of access to the Site or access to any Site content, which arises from an event which is beyond our reasonable control. An event beyond our reasonable control shall include, without limitation, failure of infrastructure, government intervention, wars, civil commotion, hijacking, fire, flood, accident, storm, strikes, lockouts, terrorist attacks, or industrial action affecting us or our suppliers.

In the event of any dispute between you and us concerning these Terms of Use, the relevant law of England will apply. If you wish to take court proceedings against us you must do so in England.

All of our rights and obligations under these Terms of Use are freely assignable by us without your consent. You may not transfer any of your rights and obligations under these Terms of Use to anyone else.

23.    Contact

If you need to contact us about anything on the Site please write to us at the address that we give at the beginning of these Terms of Use or Contact Us.