Terms and Conditions of Use
CarePlace is a community built on trust and support, so it is important that its members help defend the integrity of these values. In order to become and remain a member of the CarePlace community, you hereby acknowledge that by entering this site (the "CarePlace Community" or the "Site") maintained by CarePlace, Inc. and its affiliates ("CarePlace") you are subject to, and agree to comply with, all of the Terms of Use set forth herein as well as with CarePlace's Privacy Policy (the "Privacy Policy") which explains how we respect and protect your privacy. We may revise the Terms of Use or the Privacy Policy at any time without prior notice to you by updating this page or the Privacy Policy page on our web site, and such revisions will be effective upon posting to this page or the Privacy Policy page, as applicable. We therefore encourage you to check this page and the Privacy Policy page periodically for any changes. Your continued use of the CarePlace web site following the posting of any changes to the Terms of Use will indicate your acceptance of those changes.
Throughout these Terms of Use, the CarePlace Community and the Site refer to the websites CarePlace.com and CarePlace.org. "We," "us," "our," and the rest of the collective first-person nouns refer to CarePlace. "You," "your" and the rest of the second-person nouns refer to the individual member or the members at large of the CarePlace Community.
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE. BY USING THIS SITE, YOU SIGNIFY YOUR ASSENT TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE (THE "TERMS OF USE"). IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THESE TERMS OF USE, DO NOT USE THIS SITE.
Thank you!
The CarePlace Team
CAREPLACE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE.
Medical advice, diagnosis of medical conditions and recommendations for treatment of conditions may only be provided by licensed medical professionals. This Site is not intended to provide, and disclaims any suggestion that it does provide, medical advice of any nature. All of the content displayed on the CarePlace Site (the "Content") is for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Consult the licensed medical professionals of your choosing for appropriate medical advice. CarePlace does not endorse or take responsibility for any medical advice or information appearing on the Site.
Due to the nature of this Site as a forum for members to freely share personal medical information, there may be occasions when members post text or images or other information that may be deemed by some persons as overly graphic, sexually explicit or otherwise offensive. We do not screen or edit such information. So, if any of these types of materials may offend you, you may not want to use our Site.
USE OF CAREPLACE CONTENT.
The CarePlace Community and the Content and materials contained within the CarePlace Community are intended solely for our members personal, non-commercial use. This means you cannot take Content or material that you did not create from the CarePlace Community and repost or redistribute that Content or material in another location, whether on the internet or offline. You may not use the CarePlace Site or services to sell a product or service, or to increase traffic to your own web site for commercial reasons, including, but not limited to, for viewing the advertising that may exist on your site. If you want to make commercial use of CarePlace's Site or services you must enter into a written agreement with CarePlace to do so in advance, and abide by our commercial use policy. Please contact us for more information.
CHILDREN'S PRIVACY.
Protecting the privacy of children is of the utmost concern to CarePlace. As such, it is CarePlace's strict policy that the CarePlace Site is not to be used by children under the age of 13, and we have intentionally designed the Site not to be attractive to children. We do not collect personally identifiable information from any person we actually know is a child under the age of 13. If you are a parent or legal guardian of a child that wishes to provide the child with access to the Site, please contact CarePlace Member Services. Your express advance legal consent will be required to establish a CarePlace membership for an underage child.
PASSWORD PROTECTION.
You are the only person allowed to use your CarePlace account, username and password. We interpret all material contributed by someone using your username as though it were your own material. For this reason, it is very important that you not divulge your password or other information related to your CarePlace account to anyone else. You agree not to allow anyone else to use your account or password, and to take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorized persons from learning your password and using the Site. You will inform CarePlace promptly if you learn of any unauthorized use of your account or password.
PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.
CarePlace promises to use reasonable care to protect the information you provide us that identifies you personally, such as your name, address, phone number, age, email address or medical or financial information ("personally identifiable information" or "PII"). We may provide certain of your PII to third parties if you affirmatively allow us to do so by opting in to an offer we make to you. We may also provide certain of your PII to third parties that provide services to us in operating the Site or our business, such as account services, web hosting, software development and information processing. We may also provide your PII to governmental agencies or under a court order, or as otherwise required by law. We will not rent or sell your PII to a mail house or direct marketing company, so you will never receive email from a third party as a result of your relationship with us, unless you explicitly opt in to do so or you post your own PII on the Site in a manner accessible to third parties. Notwithstanding the foregoing, CarePlace reserves the right to transfer your PII to our successor in interest or sell your PII to a third party in connection with the sale of substantially all of CarePlace's assets or stock, or a merger or consolidation in which CarePlace is not the surviving entity. See also our Privacy Policy for information about you we collect and how we use it.
GRANT OF RIGHTS TO CAREPLACE.
You grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licenseable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use, copy, distribute, modify, translate, create derivative works of, publicly perform and display in any media currently available, or any media which may be developed in the future, any content, images, text and other materials that you submit, post or display on the Site or through the CarePlace services on the Site (the "Materials"). Note that some of the Materials may contain your PII if you post it on the Site. Notwithstanding the license granted herein to us, CarePlace's use of your PII will be governed by these Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and by the privacy settings that you set for the CarePlace Community to be able to access to your PII.
OUR RIGHTS TO CONTACT YOU.
You agree that we have the right to communicate with you by email to sending you noncommercial messages about your account. We will not send you unsolicited commercial email, unless you opt in to an offer from us. You can always opt out from receiving commercial messages from us later by unsubscribing by email or by contacting us by email or postal mail at our address at the bottom of these Terms of Use. Please note that even if you opt out from receiving unsolicited commercial messages, we retain the right under law to contact you with noncommercial messages, for example to provide you with information about your Community account. You understand and agree that as part of the CarePlace services, you may receive certain communications from CarePlace, such as account creation confirmations, invitation requests, and private message receipts, administrative announcements, and the like. You will be able to opt out of many of these communications, but not from messages critical to your privacy and security, or the privacy and security of other members.
YOUR SUBMISSIONS TO THE SITE.
You are solely responsible for the Material that you and anyone using your username contribute to the CarePlace Community. You agree that any submission you make to the Site is non-confidential and not protected by any privacy or intellectual property laws.
You are responsible for restricting who can view the Material you contribute to the CarePlace Community. Please remember that if you choose to provide personal or medical information on CarePlace Community message boards, or in CarePlace Community or other on-line discussions, access to that information is governed by the privacy rules of that specific CarePlace group or part of the website, and others reading it may use or disclose it to other individuals or entities without your knowledge. Therefore, we urge you to think carefully about including any medical or other personal information about you or your family in postings that identify you or your family members or which might allow others to identify you or you family members.
Once you enter the CarePlace Community, you will have the option to alter your privacy settings. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that you know your privacy settings, because they determine who can see the Material you contribute to the CarePlace Community. Nothing you contribute will be accessible through CarePlace to people or institutions outside of the CarePlace Community unless you explicitly choose to allow it. You will find that you have great control over the people to whom you make your Material accessible. Please make sure to review and exercise this control as needed.
You are also responsible for the truthfulness of your CarePlace profile. You may not intentionally or deceitfully misrepresent yourself in your profile. Misrepresentation and other acts that CarePlace reasonably deems are intended to deceive or prey upon other members is grounds for immediate expulsion from the CarePlace Community and may lead, at CarePlace's discretion, to the involvement of the appropriate law enforcement agency or department.
CODE OF MEMBER CONDUCT.
You are solely and personally responsible for your conduct and for the content that you create or add to the CarePlace Community. Offensive, rude or obscene behavior cannot be tolerated.
While there may be very emotional moments in the CarePlace Community, it is your responsibility to behave in a considerate manner towards other members. Just as you have the right to report the obscene or inappropriate behavior of others, you are also subject to social guidelines and may be suspended or expelled for the repeated or outrageous violation of them. In addition to social guidelines, you may not use the CarePlace Community or its services for any illegal or unauthorized purpose. Members from outside the United States agree to comply with local rules and regulations regarding online conduct and acceptable content, including laws regulating the export of data from the United States to your country of residence. Examples of conduct that will not be tolerated include, but are not limited to the following:
Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
Harming minors in any way, or harming any member of the CarePlace Community;
Impersonating any person or entity, including, but not limited to, an official, forum leader, medical professional, guide, or host, or falsely stating or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity;
Forging headers or otherwise manipulating identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any content transmitted through the service;
Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party, and
Uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available any content that advocates the breaking of any local, state, federal, or international law;
Attempting to bypass CarePlace's privacy settings and privacy measures whether to gain information about a member or for any other purpose;
Transmitting content in breach of a confidentiality or fiduciary obligation you may have;
"Meta-searching" the CarePlace Community by any means, including indexing and automatic information retrieval;
Attempting to gain access to, reverse engineer, translate, adapt, modify or otherwise infringe upon the normal functioning of the CarePlace service by any means;
Attempting to reformat, redesign, alter, or prevent the display of information or advertising, or attempting to otherwise change the appearance of the Site, including, but not limited to, the general appearance of journal and discussion board content or tools, banner advertisements, and logos;
Creating user accounts or adding "friends" by automated means or under false or fraudulent pretenses;
Creating or transmitting unwanted electronic communications, whether "spam", chain letters or otherwise that may interfere with a Member's enjoyment of CarePlace;
Submitting the materials of a third party without that party's consent, or redirecting to those materials without consent, or infringing upon any and all rights held by that third party over those materials; and
Transmitting items or code of a destructive and harmful nature, including viruses and worms, as well as those items or code that may be emotionally harmful to members.
You agree that we are not responsible for the behavior of others in the CarePlace Community. You may find other members' information to be offensive, harmful, inaccurate, or deceptive. By using the CarePlace Community, you agree that we are not responsible for the acts or omissions of the members of the CarePlace Community.
LINKS OUTSIDE THE COMMUNITY.
We neither endorse nor accept responsibility for links to sites outside the CarePlace Community. We cannot and have not reviewed all the external sites that our users link to from within the CarePlace Community. The CarePlace Community is constructed by its members and consequently contains links that those members, rather than we, feel appropriate to share. We encourage you to review the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy of any and all sites that you may visit.
REMOVING CONTENT.
We reserve the right in our sole discretion to refuse to post or to delete materials, including your Materials, from the CarePlace Community without notification or recourse. There are two primary applications of this right. First, just as we are constantly adding new functions and creating new communities within the CarePlace Community, we are similarly removing obsolete or redundant components. Second, as we are facilitating communication and the sharing of information, we are removing material that is detrimental to these goals, creates mistrust or otherwise offends our membership, in our own view or in the view of other members as reported to us. Furthermore, we retain the right to keep back-up copies of any materials we delete from the CarePlace Community.
SUSPENSION AND EXPULSION OF MEMBERS.
We reserve the right in our sole discretion to revoke or suspend your membership in the CarePlace Community, or any other member's membership, at any time without notification or liability to you or any other person.
Suspension or revocation of a membership generally would result from a member's abuse of the CarePlace Community and the principles to which you are currently agreeing in these Terms of Use. Actions that are detrimental to the CarePlace Community such as spamming or issuing abusive remarks aimed at other members or groups in the CarePlace Community can lead to temporary or permanent expulsion from the CarePlace Community. While we retain this right, CarePlace shall have no responsibility to exercise it or otherwise moderate disputes between members.
SITE UPTIME AND DOWNTIME.
While we will make every effort to keep the site accessible, you agree not to hold us liable for any downtime or inaccuracy that may occur. We have many systems in place to ensure that CarePlace is always at your disposal, but we cannot guarantee that it will always be accessible, timely or accurate. You agree that under no circumstances will CarePlace be held liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from acts of nature, forces, or causes beyond our reasonable control, including, but not limited to: Internet failures, computer equipment failures, telecommunications equipment failures, other equipment failures, electrical power failures, strikes, labor disputes, riots, insurrections, terrorism, civil disturbances, shortages of labor or materials, fires, floods, storms, explosions, acts of God, war, governmental actions, orders of domestic or foreign courts or tribunals, non-performance of third parties, hacks or denial of service attacks, or loss of or fluctuations in heat, light or air conditioning.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.
You agree that you have no license or right to use CarePlace's and its licensors' trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets, Content and other intellectual property rights (collectively, "Intellectual Property"), except while logged in as an authorized member of the Site, and then only in connection with your use of the Site. You may print out one copy of any page of the Site for your personal, non-commercial use, but any other use or distribution is prohibited. You agree to retain on such printouts any trademark, copyright or other notice that appears on that page as is displays when using the Site.
The Intellectual Property is protected under both United States and foreign laws. Title to the Intellectual Property remains with CarePlace or its licensors. You will not infringe upon, misappropriate, reverse engineer, data mine, resell, or misuse CarePlace's Intellectual Property. The Intellectual Property may not be used in connection with any product or service that is not CarePlace's or in any manner that disparages or discredits CarePlace. Nothing contained in this Site shall be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license to use CarePlace's Intellectual Property in connection with any product, service, publication or web site of you or any third party without our express written permission.
If you violate any of these provisions regarding CarePlace's Intellectual Property, your permission to use the Intellectual Property automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any copies you have made of any portion of the Intellectual Property. You agree that because of the unique nature of the Site and its Content, and the proprietary rights of CarePlace, your breach of these provisions would irreparably harm CarePlace or its licensors and that monetary damages would be inadequate compensation. You further agree that CarePlace shall be entitled to, in addition to any other damages, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief to enforce these provisions and you hereby waive the objection in such case to an adequate remedy at law.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES.
We provide the Site, and the material and tools on the CarePlace Site "as is". OTHER THAN AS EXPLICITLY SET FORTH IN THESE TERMS OF USE, CAREPLACE DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, GUARANTIES, AND CONDITIONS TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE LEGALLY PERMISSIBLE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, SUITABILITY, ACCURACY, CURRENCY TIMELINESS, EFFICACY, AVAILABILITY, RELIABILITY, COMPLETENESS, NON-INTERRUPTION AND COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS OF THE MATERIALS AND CONTENT CONTAINED ON THE SITE.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
Our liability regarding damages occurring from your use of the CarePlace Site is limited. Your use of the Site is at your own risk. To the fullest extent allowed under applicable law, you agree that CarePlace shall not be liable, and covenant not to sue CarePlace, for any damages arising out of or in connection with your access or use of the Site and its services, any information contained in the Site, or of any web sites referenced in or linked to this Site. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree that CarePlace shall not be liable for any direct damages exceeding the aggregate amount of any subscription fees you have paid us for using the Site or $100, whichever is more. Further, CarePlace shall in no event be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential or exemplary damages, including, but not limited to, property damage; loss or misuse of data, business, revenue or profits, reputational damage, loss of privacy or other damages, however they arise, whether or not CarePlace has been advised of the possibility of such damages, and on any theory of liability whether in tort, contract or otherwise. CarePlace shall not be liable for any personal injury, including death, arising from or related to your or any other persons' use of the Site and its Content. Any claims arising in connection with your use of the Site must be brought with one (1) year of the occurrence of the event giving rise to such claim.
INDEMNIFICATION.
By using the Site, you agree to indemnify CarePlace and any parent, subsidiary or affiliated entities, and our and their directors, officers and employees, and hold them harmless from and against any and all claims and expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees, directly or indirectly arising from your breach of these Terms of Use, your use of our Site and any services or products available through our Site, any Material you submit to the Site, and any third party claims in connection with your use of the site or any Material you submit to he Site.
GENERAL LEGAL TERMS.
This Web site is created and controlled by CarePlace in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The laws of Massachusetts will therefore govern these Terms of Use, without reference to any principles of conflicts of laws. If any provision or portion of this Agreement is held illegal, invalid, or unenforceable, in whole or in part, it shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to correct any deficiencies and shall not affect the legality, validity or enforceability of any other provisions or portions of this Agreement. No waiver of any of these Terms of Use will be effective unless made in a writing manually executed by an authorized officer of CarePlace and email shall not constitute effective waiver. The Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between the you and CarePlace and its affiliates with respect to its subject matter, and supersede any oral agreements, proposals, negotiations, representations or communications relating to the subject matter of the Terms of Use.
Thank you for your cooperation. We hope you find the CarePlace Site informative, useful and easy to use. If you have any comments or questions regarding CarePlace or this site, or you want to report a malfunction or problem, please use our Contact Us Form or send us snail mail to our postal address of CarePlace, Inc., 1166 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, Attn: Member Care. We will try our best to respond to you quickly, but cannot always do so due to the volume of requests.
© 2006 CarePlace, Inc. All rights reserved.
Last Revised April 17, 2006