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Terms of Use

SPECIAL NOTE: This is an ARCHIVED site. Content is no longer updated and community functions are disabled. Visitor access to and use of the archived version of SharingStrength continues to be subject to the policies and terms outlined below.

SharingStrength is intended for all those whose lives have been touched by breast cancer. Before using this website, please read the following Terms of Use carefully to understand how the services SharingStrength are provided and how you can best use SharingStrength. By visiting SharingStrength you automatically accept the conditions outlined in the Terms of Use.

This website (“SharingStrength”) is operated by Healthwise Creative Resource Group Inc. (the “Company”). Your access to and use of SharingStrength is subject to these Terms of Use. By accessing SharingStrength, you (“you”) agree to be bound by these Terms of Use whether or not you have read them. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, do not accessSharingStrength. Company may at its sole discretion modify these Terms of Use at any time and such modifications will be effective immediately upon being posted on SharingStrength. Please check these Terms of Use on a regular basis to see the latest modifications. Your continued use of SharingStrength will indicate your acceptance of these modified Terms of Use. If you do not agree to any modification of these Terms of Use, you must immediately stop using SharingStrength.

1. Introduction

SharingStrength is a public space that provides access to support resources for a vibrant community concerned about breast cancer. It is also a social network where users can find emotional support and share experiences.

SharingStrength is a Canadian website. World-wide participation is welcome, however, you should keep in mind that the content is tailored for Canadian residents using the Canadian health care system.

Changes may be made at any time to any aspect of SharingStrength.

If you believe that a posting or other online communication violates these Terms of Use, please contact SharingStrength at editor@sharingstrength.ca.

2. Reliance on Information

SharingStrength may include inaccuracies or typographical errors that may be corrected as they are discovered at Company's sole discretion.

Information provided on or via SharingStrength should not be used in place of consultation with, or the advice of, your doctor or other member of your health care team. SharingStrength does not recommend self-management of health problems.

3. Links

SharingStrength contains links and references to third-party websites. These links are provided for your convenience only. No endorsement of any third-party products, services or information is expressed or implied by any information, material or content of any third party contained in, referred to, included on or linked from or to SharingStrength.

Any information, data, opinions, recommendation, products or services provided by such third parties through links to other websites or otherwise made available through their websites are solely those of such third parties and not of Company or its licensors. Your use of such third-party websites is subject to the terms and conditions of use and the privacy policies of such websites.

4. Registration

Accessing the information and viewing the social networking communications (discussion forums, blogs etc.) on SharingStrength is free and does not require registration.

You may also wish to participate in and contribute to the SharingStrength social network. This requires registration. As a registered member, you can contribute to all SharingStrength online communications, such as posting to the Community Circle discussion forums and the Bulletin Board, writing your story in Stories and making resource recommendations for SharingStrength.

When you register with SharingStrength, you agree to

• provide accurate, current and complete information,
• maintain the security of your password and identification,
• maintain and promptly update the registration information, and any other information you provide to SharingStrength, to keep it accurate, current and complete,
• be solely responsible for your account and the security of your password relating to your account and not disclose it to any third parties, and
• promptly advise Company of any unauthorized use of your password.

Once registered, registrants can control the degree of anonymity of their user profile information and site contributions.

You may wish to receive printed information and resources from SharingStrength, such as the print version of the SharingStrength Journal. Registration is not required to receive the SharingStrength Journal or other print communications, but you will need to provide your full name and mailing address.

5. User Contributions

SharingStrength welcomes the participation of its members and relies on them to help us keep the site a respectful and welcoming place on the Web.

As a registered member, you are solely responsible for the profiles, messages, notes, text, information and other content that you upload, publish or display (hereinafter, “Post”) on SharingStrength, or transmit to or share with other users (collectively the “User Content”).

You understand and agree that SharingStrength may, but is not obligated to, review and delete or remove (without notice) any User Content that in the sole judgment of SharingStrength violate the Terms of Use or any applicable laws or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm or threaten the safety of users or others.

You will not Post any User Content that

• is unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, obscene, harmful, tortious, libelous or invasive of another's privacy;
• infringes or violates any party's copyright, trade-mark, trade secret, patent or other proprietary rights;
• you do not have the right to disseminate or transmit under law, or contractual or fiduciary relationships; or
• contains personally identifiable information not belonging to you including personal information belonging to minors.

You will not

• use SharingStrength to Post, disseminate or transmit advertising, promotional materials, chain letters, junk mail or any other type of unsolicited mass email to individuals or entities who have not agreed to be part of such mailings;
• omit, delete, forge or misrepresent transmission information, including headers, return mailing and Internet protocol addresses, or otherwise manipulate identifiers to disguise the origin of any content;
• impersonate any individual or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent an affiliation with any individual or entity;
• engage in any activities intended to withhold or cloak identity or contact information;
• send harassing and/or threatening messages to others;
• post excessive (20 or more copies of the same article in a 45-day period) or repeated off-topic articles to newsgroups; or
• engage in 'flooding', i.e., ICMP flooding and mail bombing (sending large amounts of email repeatedly to the same email address).

To the extent that any of the following activities materially interfere with SharingStrength or the network and systems of Company or a Company service provider ("Third-Party Services"), you will not

• Post, disseminate or transmit any worm, viruses or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files, code or programs on SharingStrength or the Third-Party Services;
• use Internet Relay Chat (IRC) bots or other programs that utilize excessive resources by connecting to an IRC network and running 24 hours per day;
• hinder the ability of others to use IRC;
• disrupt the normal flow on SharingStrength or the Third-Party Services or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in real time exchanges;
• interfere with, disrupt, or harm in any way the servers or networks connected to SharingStrength or the Third-Party Services;
• use SharingStrength or the Third-Party Services to access the accounts of others without permission;
• attempt to penetrate security measures of SharingStrength, the Third-Party Services or another entity, or obtain or bypass others’ passwords; or
• engage in denial of service attacks or take actions designed to impair network access by flooding a site or the Internet with useless traffic.

Where you use SharingStrength to communicate with and share information with other individuals, however, you cannot remove such communications, for example, postings to a discussion forum.

You may modify or remove any of your profile information at any time by logging into your account and Company will update your information. Individuals who wish to deactivate their SharingStrength account may do so on your account profile page. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be generally available to members of SharingStrength.

You hereby grant to Company and its content providers a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, produce, reproduce, create derivative works from, modify, adapt, publish, translate and display all materials and information submitted by you to SharingStrength and to sub-license any such rights.

6. Intellectual Property

The materials displayed on or contained within SharingStrength, including, without limitation, all software, design, text, editorial materials, informational text, photographs, illustrations, artwork and other graphic materials, names, logos, trade-marks and service marks (the “Materials”), are the property of Company and its licensors and are protected by copyright, trade-mark and other intellectual property laws.

Company hereby grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-assignable and non-transferable license to use and display the Materials for non-commercial and personal use only; provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained in such Materials. You agree not to produce, reproduce, republish, modify, create derivative works from, display, perform, translate, distribute, adapt, broadcast, communicate to the public by telecommunication or circulate any Materials to any third party (including, without limitation, the display and distribution of Materials via a third-party website) without the express prior written consent of Company. Unless expressly permitted herein, any use of Materials is only permitted with the express written permission of Company and its licensors. You further agree that you will not disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer or otherwise modify the Materials.

7. Privacy Policy

The personal information practices on SharingStrength are governed by the Privacy Policy. Please review the Privacy Policy and print a copy for your records.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties

SHARINGSTRENGTH IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND ON AN "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. COMPANY AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARISING FROM STATUTE, COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE OF TRADE OR OTHERWISE, WITH RESPECT TO SHARINGSTRENGTH, ITS CONTENTS, OR SUCH SOFTWARE, LINKS, TOOLS, TIPS, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES REFERRED TO HEREIN, AND DISCLAIM ALL SUCH REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES AND CONDITIONS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABLE QUALITY, QUALITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS, ERROR-FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE, ACCURACY, AVAILABILITY, RELIABILITY, SECURITY, CURRENCY AND COMPLETENESS ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO SHARINGSTRENGTH, ITS CONTENT OR ANY LINKS, ANY SOFTWARE, TOOLS, TIPS, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES PROVIDED THROUGH SHARINGSTRENGTH. IN ADDITION, COMPANY AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT PROVIDE ANY REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY, GUARANTEE OR CONDITION THAT THE INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE VIA SHARINGSTRENGTH IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE OR CURRENT. ALL REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, GUARANTEES AND CONDITIONS ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAWS.

9. Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPANY AND ITS LICENSORS AND ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVES BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR AGGRAVATED DAMAGES OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH: THESE TERMS OF USE; SHARINGSTRENGTH; ANY MATERIALS, INFORMATION, QUALIFICATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS APPEARING ON SHARINGSTRENGTH; ANY SOFTWARE, TOOLS, TIPS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH, CONTAINED IN OR ADVERTISED ON SHARINGSTRENGTH; ANY LINK PROVIDED ON SHARINGSTRENGTH; AND YOUR ACCOUNT AND PASSWORD, WHETHER OR NOT COMPANY AND/OR ITS LICENSORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

THE LIABILITY OF COMPANY AND ITS LICENSORS FOR DIRECT DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH: THESE TERMS OF USE; SHARINGSTRENGTH; ANY MATERIALS, INFORMATION, QUALIFICATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS APPEARING ON SHARINGSTRENGTH; ANY SOFTWARE, TOOLS, TIPS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH, CONTAINED IN OR ADVERTISED ON SHARINGSTRENGTH; ANY LINK PROVIDED ON SHARINGSTRENGTH; AND YOUR ACCOUNT AND PASSWORD, WHETHER OR NOT COMPANY AND/OR ITS LICENSORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, SHALL IN NO EVENT EXCEED ONE CANADIAN DOLLAR (CDN$1).

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU WILL BE FULLY LIABLE FOR ALL DAMAGES RESULTING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FROM YOUR USE OF SHARINGSTRENGTH.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Company and its licensors and their respective directors, officers, employees, agents or other representatives from and against all claims, liability and expenses, including all legal fees and costs arising from or relating to (a) your breach of these Terms of Use; (b) your use of SharingStrength; and (c) your User Content.

11. Termination

Company may at any time and at its sole discretion terminate your right to use SharingStrength.

12. Governing Law

These Terms of Use shall be governed by, construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario and the laws of Canada applicable therein and the parties irrevocably attorn to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Province of Ontario.

13. General

These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and Company with respect to your use of SharingStrength and supersede all previous agreements, understandings and representations relating thereto. No failure by Company or you to exercise any rights, powers or remedies hereunder or its delay to do so shall constitute a waiver of these rights, powers or remedies. The single or partial exercise of a right, power or remedy shall not prevent its subsequent exercise or the exercise of any other right, power or remedy. If any provision of these Terms of Use or part thereof is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, the illegality, invalidity or unenforceability of that provision will not affect the legality, validity or enforceability of the remainder of the provision or the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use, as the case may be, or the legality, validity or enforceability of that provision or part thereof in any other jurisdiction. It is the express wish of the parties that these Terms of Use and all related documents be drawn up in English. C’est la volonté expresse des parties que la présente convention ainsi que tous les documents qui s’y rattachent soient rédigés en anglais. Sections 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13 shall survive the termination of your right to use SharingStrength.

Last Updated: December 9, 2008

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