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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Terms & Conditions

Published September 2015

We encourage visitors to read and contribute to this website. Your use of this site is subject to the following Terms and Conditions.

Acceptance of terms:

By accessing this website, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and all applicable laws and regulations. If you do not agree with any of the provisions of these Terms and Conditions, please do not use or access this site. The materials contained in this website are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law.

Modifications of terms of use:

Amendments to these Terms and Conditions may be made and effected by us at our discretion from time to time and will become effective immediately when posted to the site unless otherwise specified.

Use of the site and description of service:

The goal of Spectrum is to provide comprehensive news and analysis of advances in autism research. This site allows all visitors to post comments on articles, but comments are expected to meet standards described in the Commenting Guidelines. This website is not intended for use by persons under 18 years of age.

You are solely responsible for all content that you post, communicate, edit or otherwise transmit via, or to, the website, including the submission of, or links to, text, photographs, graphics, video, audio, messages, ratings, forum postings, comments or other materials. You acknowledge that we shall have the right at any time to modify or remove from the site any user content, including yours, that in our sole opinion is inconsistent with the Commenting Guidelines or violates any applicable law.

You acknowledge that we shall not be liable for any damages of any sort caused by user content provided by you or any other users.

You understand that by using the site, you may be exposed to content that may include technical, typographical, scientific or photographic errors or that may be offensive, indecent or objectionable. You acknowledge if you find any inaccurate, out-of-date or incomplete information or content on this website, or if you suspect that any content posted on this site is an infringement of another’s intellectual property rights or is otherwise unlawful, you should let us know immediately by contacting [email protected]. We will take reasonable measures to review and investigate all inquiries, and we reserve the right to take any action (or to refrain from action) as we deem appropriate under the circumstances.

Intellectual property rights:

All content on this site is the property of the Simons Foundation or its affiliates, licensors or third-party content providers, including our visitors. The Simons Foundation reserves all right and title to all original and copyrightable materials on the site of which we are the author or for which we have otherwise obtained title, including but not limited to the text, design, manuals, information, content, graphics, images, pictures, sound and other files, and the selection, compilation and arrangement thereof in its collective sense. You will not copy, modify, redistribute, broadcast, publish, adapt, translate, prepare derivative works from, commercially exploit, sell, license, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise attempt to derive source code from any of our services, software, content or documentation, or create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product through use of or access to this site or any related site or proprietary information related thereto, without our prior written consent. Reprinting or any other public display of our original content without express written permission is prohibited. Furthermore, you may not remove or obscure the copyright notice or any other notices contained in the site or in anything retrieved or downloaded from it.

The names, trademarks, service marks and design marks (including logos) used on this site are the property of the Simons Foundation or its affiliates, licensors or third-party content providers, and you will not use any such name or mark in any advertising or publicity or otherwise to indicate the sponsorship of or affiliation with any product or service, without the prior written consent of the owner of any such name or mark.

Acknowledgment of user rights: 

You acknowledge that you are the author of or otherwise have rights in the materials you post or upload to the public forums hosted on this website. By making any posting to any part of this website, you hereby grant us permission to access, use, adapt, copy, distribute, store, transmit, reformat and publicly display your content for the purpose of providing our services and tools to you and other visitors to Spectrum.

User Conduct:

We encourage visitors to contribute to this website, but to do so responsibly. You agree to abide by the Commenting Guidelines and agree not to:

  • upload, post or submit material to this website for which you do not own the rights or have the permission of the rights holder to post or distribute;
  • impersonate anyone else or represent falsely that you are connected to, or affiliated with, any individual or entity;
  • knowingly violate any law or regulation while using our website;
  • use our website to collect personal data about other individuals;
  • submit, or create a link to, any file that contains any virus, corrupted data, Trojan horse or anything else that might damage, destroy or render inaccessible any data or files on any computer; or
  • attempt to circumvent the security features of this website, or tamper with, hack into, or in any other way disrupt or disable any computer system, server, website, router or other device used to host this website or make it available to our visitors.

Revisions and errata; non-reliance; and waiver of liability:

The materials appearing on Spectrum may include technical, typographical, scientific or photographic errors. We do not warrant that any of the materials on our website are accurate, complete or current, or that the site will operate error-free or without interruption. We shall not be liable to you or any third party for any loss or damage of any kind arising from your use of this site, or dissemination of or reliance on any content contained on this site, and you hereby waive any claim against us and our employees, officers, directors and agents regarding your use of, dissemination of or reliance on this site.

Spectrum may make changes to the materials contained on its website at any time without notice. However, we do not make any commitment to update the materials.

You acknowledge and agree that we have no responsibility for the information, content, products, services, advertising, code or other materials which may or may not be provided by or through other websites that are linked to this site, even if they are owned or run by affiliates or partners of ours. We have no control over their content or availability.

Our staff has not reviewed all of the sites linked to this website. The inclusion of any link on our site does not imply endorsement by the Simons Foundation of the linked site. Use of any such linked website is at the user’s own risk, and we recommend that you review the terms of use and privacy policies of those sites, as they may differ from those of this site.

Any opinion, advice, statement, service, offer, or information or content provided or made by any third party on this website, or on any website to which this website is linked, is that of the author or provider, and not of the Simons Foundation. You should direct any concern about any other website to that site’s website administrator or webmaster.

Privacy policy:

Your privacy is very important to us. Accordingly, we have developed this policy in order for you to understand how we collect, use, communicate, disclose and make use of personal information. The following outlines our privacy policy.

  • We do not maintain users’ personal information for any purpose, except with permission under separate agreement. You may provide personal information such as name and email address to post comments in our public forums or to provide us with feedback, but we do not store that personal information.
  • We will protect personal information by reasonable security safeguards against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.
  • We will make information about our policies and practices relating to the management of personal information readily available to site visitors.
  • We may use ‘cookies’ that automatically collect anonymous, non-personal information when visitors access the site. We may use anonymous, non-personal information to track the success of the site with its visitors, and to better tailor the site to visitors’ needs.
  • We do not share personal information about our visitors with third parties (other than our affiliates and service providers assisting in the operation of this website), except with your permission or as otherwise required by law or legal process or as otherwise specified herein.

Please be aware that information you post in any of our public-information-sharing forums on this website are accessible by members (and in certain cases by the public) and are not covered by this privacy policy.

We are committed to conducting our site in accordance with these principles in order to ensure that the confidentiality of personal information is protected and maintained. 

Waiver:

Failure of the Simons Foundation to insist upon strict performance of any of the terms, conditions and covenants herein shall not be deemed a relinquishment or waiver of any rights or remedies that we may have, nor shall it be construed as a waiver of any subsequent breach of the terms, conditions or covenants hereof, which terms, conditions and covenants shall remain in full force and effect.

Entire agreement:

These Terms and Conditions describe and encompass the entire agreement between you and us and supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, warranties and understandings with respect to the site, the contents and materials provided by or through the site, and the subject matter of these Terms and Conditions.

Governing law and jurisdiction:

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the substantive laws of New York, without any reference to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute, controversy or difference that may arise between the parties out of, in relation to or in connection with these Terms and Conditions is hereby irrevocably submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New York, to the exclusion of any other courts, without giving effect to its conflict-of-laws provisions or your actual state or country of residence.

If any of these Terms and Conditions are (for any reason) held to be unenforceable, illegal or in some other way invalid, the unenforceable, illegal or invalid provision will not affect the remainder of these Terms and Conditions; and they will continue in full force and effect.

No addition to or modification of any provision of these Terms and Conditions that you propose will be binding on us unless made in writing and signed by our duly authorized representative. ‘Writing’ includes email.