1. Introduction
The Forum, http://www.futureofscotland.org/forum/ (the “Forum”) is operated by or on behalf of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (“SCVO”). We are a charity registered in Scotland, with charity no. SC003558 and we have our registered office at Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place’ Edinburgh, EH3 6BB.
Your access to, viewing of and/or use of the Forum is regulated by these Terms and Conditions (the “Terms”). By either clicking the box stating that ‘you agree to the Forum Terms of Use’ or by accessing, viewing or otherwise using the Forum, you are demonstrating that you accept the Terms and agree to be bound by them. If you do not accept the Terms either in whole or in part, you should stop accessing, viewing and/or using the Forum immediately.
In these Terms, when we refer to “you”, we are referring to you, as the person or entity accessing, viewing and/or using the Forum. Any reference to “we”, “our”, “us” is a reference to SCVO.
2. Purpose of the Forum
The purpose of the Forum is to allow people to discuss and debate issues relevant to the referendum regarding Scotland’s independence. In using the Forum you should be courteous to other users at all times. If you are not comfortable in sharing content with others under these Terms then don’t share.
3. Your account
In order to post messages, comments and respond to other users comments, you will have to create an account. When creating your account, you must provide accurate and complete information. You must keep your account password secure and confidential. You are responsible for safeguarding your password. You must notify us immediately of any breach of security or unauthorised use of your account of which you become aware. You agree that you will be solely responsible (to us, and to others) for all activity that occurs under your account.
When creating an account you agree not to impersonate others or in any way create a user account that would mislead or misinform or intends to mislead or misinform other users including, without limitation, using a business name or logo on an account that is misleading. In the event that you do so we reserve the right (at our sole discretion) to terminate your user account. The use of any inappropriate, obscene, indecent or pornographic images as part of your avatar is strictly prohibited.
Mass, duplicate or similar multiple account creation is strictly prohibited and will result in termination of all such accounts.
4. Your personal information
By registering, submitting postings, or emailing us, you will be supplying us with “personal information”. The information that we collect via the Forum includes any personal details you type and submit for example your email address, name and telephone number. The information we collect via the Forum may also include your IP address: this is the individual identification number that is assigned to your computer when it is connected to the Internet. You consent to the collection and use of this information which will be stored on a UK based secure server. We collect this information to administer and help you use the Forum, to allow us to contact you and to carry out statistical analysis. Your user name will be visible to other users. The details which you submit to us shall be dealt with in accordance with our privacy policy which is available here.
5. Forum use
Everyone who visits the Forum will be able to view the Forum together with any posts made on the Forum. You will only be able to post messages and comments and respond to other users comments if you have created an account.
You agree to use the Forum only to post messages and comments and respond to other users comments that are proper in consideration of the purposes of the Forum. In light of the purpose of the Forum, your ideas and information may be used by us, by other users and by third parties. Therefore, if you have an idea which you don’t want other people to use, please do not post it on the Forum.
The posting of spam on the Forum is strictly prohibited. SCVO, at its sole discretion shall decide what constitutes spam; it may, include, but will not be limited to, posting misleading links in threads and posting the same links repeatedly. In the event that you are found to be posting spam we reserve the right (at our sole discretion) to terminate your user account.
You further understand and acknowledge that in using the Forum, you may be exposed to user submissions that are factually inaccurate, offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable to you. You agree to waive, and hereby do waive, any legal or equitable rights or remedies you have or may have against us with respect to any such user submissions.
You are responsible for all postings made on the Forum under your account. You agree not to post (or otherwise send) any materials (or links to material) which:
- are threatening, abusive, malicious, defamatory, obscene, indecent, pornographic or otherwise sexually explicit, blasphemous, profane, intended or likely to incite racial or religious hatred, or is otherwise objectionable or offensive in any way in terms of standards prevailing from time to time in the United Kingdom;
- misleads or misinforms other users;
- harasses any person;
- contains personal attacks on others;
- relates to gambling;
- is unlawful or which encourages the commission of a criminal offence;
- contains a virus, worm, trojan or other hostile computer program;
- infringes any intellectual property rights or data protection rights of any third party (including, without limitation, using the Forum to send unsolicited e-mails for the purposes of direct marketing or posting on the Forum personal details or private information about any other person); or
- is intended to advertise any goods or services or is otherwise commercial in nature.
You represent and warrant that you have (and will continue to have during your use of the Forum) all necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions which are required to enable us to use your posts for the purposes of the provision of the Forum by us, and otherwise to use your posts in the manner contemplated by the Forum.
We do not moderate the Forum; it is a self-regulatory facility. We reserve the right to remove any postings that are defamatory, infringing or otherwise unlawful. We also reserve the right to read, disclose or access any postings or other material provided by you in order to enforce the Terms. Please see our complaints procedure below which should be used to report any inappropriate content.
We reserve the right (at our sole discretion) to delete any postings and to terminate your account and your access to the Forum at any time without notice if you do any of the things listed above or if you breach the Terms.
6. Intellectual property
We do not claim ownership of the materials you provide to us (including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit to our Forum. However, by providing such material you grant an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free worldwide licence to allow us to share, use, edit, alter or adapt these materials as we see fit including the right to sublicense to others at our discretion. You also grant us a licence to deal with your postings as necessary to perform technical and administrative functions in running the Forum. Without this licence we would be unable to provide the Forum.
You may also have moral rights, so you consent to the material being altered, edited or adapted to use them under our licence in any way we see fit. You consent to us not attributing authorship to you at all, or only attributing it to your registered username. We will not publish your real name without your permission.
If you do not want material to be used as set out above, do not provide it to us. Once you have provided it, you cannot withdraw or retract the posting or your licence and consents.
If you believe any material on the Forum infringes your intellectual property (or any of your other legal rights), please contact us as soon as possible in line with our complaints procedure.
If you are relying on any material posted on the Forum you do so at your own risk. The material posted on the Forum represents the opinions and experience of users and does not represent the opinion or experience of SCVO. We will not be liable for any loss or damages arising from your use of any material posted on the Forum.
Do not post copyrighted material or trademarks which belong to other people without permission of the owner. If you want to use or copy other users’ postings, you will need permission from the user who has made this posting.
SCVO’s intellectual property may not be used in any way or for any purpose without our permission.
The copyright in the Forum is either owned by us or is otherwise licensed to us. This includes the text and graphics used, contained or displayed on the Forum and any material which is available to download from the Forum. The distribution or copying of the content of the Forum (or any part of it) for any commercial purpose whatsoever is expressly prohibited other than with our prior written consent. We also own or have otherwise licensed any trade mark, service mark or other intellectual property contained in or relating to the Forum. The use of such trade marks, service marks or other intellectual property without our permission is strictly forbidden.
7. Links to external sites
The Forum may contain links to other websites (“External Sites”). These links are suggested for information only. The External Sites are not under our control and we are not responsible for their contents. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by us of the External Site nor any association with its operators. Use of such External sites and external content is entirely at your own risk. We give no warranty in relation to the content and accept no responsibility or liability for any use you may make of the content of any External Sites. If you think that the content of any External Site linked from the Forum is illegal, immoral or offensive please let us know by following our complaints procedure.
8. No unlawful or prohibited use
You must not use the Forum for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. You must not use the Forum in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Forum or interfere with any other person’s use and enjoyment of the Forum.
9. Liability
This section restricts the extent to which we are liable for any losses which may be suffered in connection with your use of the Forum or any of the content. It also requires you to compensate us for any loss we suffer as a result of your failure to comply with these Terms.
The information on the Forum is published “as is” for general informational purposes only and SCVO expressly disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of any of the content provided on the Forum, its security, its quality or as to the fitness of the information for any purpose whatsoever.
Nothing in the Terms shall exclude or limit our liability for losses which may not be lawfully excluded or limited by applicable law.
We will not be liable to you or anyone else for any loss, damage, liability, cost or expense suffered in connection with the use of the Forum, its content or any material which is available to download from the Forum. Without limitation we make no warranties (express or implied) or representations about the Forum and its content (making no claims as to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or otherwise) and exclude, to the maximum extent permitted by law, any liability which may arise as a result of the use of the Forum. We will not be liable to you or anyone else for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or loss of business profits or revenue arising out of the use of the Forum, its content or any material which is available to download from the Forum. You will fully indemnify us against any claim, action, proceeding, judgment, damage, loss, expense or liability incurred or suffered by, or brought, made or recovered against us in connection with any breach by you of these Terms.
You shall be personally held liable for any reasonable costs and expenses incurred by us as a result of breach of these Terms by you.
We have taken, and will continue to take, reasonable steps to ensure that the Forum and all information which is published, by us, on the Forum is accurate and virus-free. We cannot however guarantee (and make no representations whatsoever):
- that material, information or data obtained from or through the Forum is complete, accurate or not an infringement of any party’s intellectual or other property rights; or
- that material, information and data submitted via the Forum will be fully secure; or
- that material, information and data obtained from or through the Forum will meet your requirements; or
- that your access to or use of the Forum will be uninterrupted, timely or error-free; or
- that the Forum, its content and/or any material which is available to download from the Forum is free of viruses, bugs or Trojans.
SCVO recommends that you employ your own virus detection and protection measures when accessing the Forum.
10. Viruses, hacking and other offences
You must not misuse the Forum by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not hack or otherwise attempt to gain unauthorised access to: any other user’s account, the Forum, the server on which the Forum is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our Forum. You must not attack the Forum via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.
By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use the Forum will cease immediately and your account will be permanently terminated.
11. Complaints procedure/reporting abuse
We take copyright, trade mark, defamation and other laws seriously. If you think a post or any other material on the Forum is infringing the Terms or anyone’s legal rights, let us know immediately. We will endeavour to investigate all complaints as quickly as possible and where the dispute is of a criminal or otherwise illegal nature, refer the matter to the appropriate body. We will take the action which we think is necessary, including removing the posting or banning the relevant user.
To let us know about your complaint please follow the complaints procedure below:
- Contact us by sending an email to the following email address: hello@futureofscotland.org
- In your email complaint please: identify the posting or material in issue; identify the right which is being infringed by the posting, provide details of your complaint as thoroughly as possible; and provide information so that we can easily contact you. • We reserve the right to obtain additional information regarding this complaint from you.
- We will investigate your complaint and reply to you where appropriate.
- Removal of postings is at our discretion, except if the content is illegal.
- If you’re not happy with the outcome of the complaint please contact Ann Rowe by emailing ann.rowe@scvo.org.uk
12. Amendment to the terms
We reserve the right to amend the Terms from time to time without providing prior notice to you. You may find the most up to date version of these Terms here at [insert URL]. We may contact you to inform you of any material changes to our Terms however we are not required to do so. Your continued use of the Forum will constitute acceptance by you of all of the new terms.
We do not make any guarantees that the Forum will be available on an uninterrupted, secure or error-free basis. We reserve the right to cease the provision of the Forum at any time whether on a temporary or permanent basis. We also reserve the right to restrict your use of the Forum at our sole discretion.
13. Termination
Use of the Forum is subject to compliance with these Terms. You acknowledge and agree that, at our sole discretion; we may terminate and/or suspend your access to the Forum if you fail to comply with the Terms. We also reserve the right to restrict or terminate your use of the Forum at our sole discretion.
14. General legal
The Terms describe the entire agreement between you and us and supersede any prior understandings or agreements.
If either you or we ignore any breach of the Terms this does not mean that any further breach cannot be enforced. Similarly, if any part of the Terms is deemed to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason, then it will be replaced with a provision which, as far as possible, achieves the same purpose as the original, and the remainder of the Terms will still be binding.
The Terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with Scots law. If any party wants to take court proceedings in relation to the Forum, it must do so in Scotland. You are responsible for compliance with any applicable laws of the country from which you use or otherwise access the Forum.
