Some thoughts on copyright, servicemark, and permitted uses…

At Soundings, LLC, we wish to sincerely thank you for being sufficiently motivated, responsible, and concerned enough about your own privacy, to visit and review this webpage. We believe it says something significant about your integrity, which we as an organization, and, as members and employees of the company, deeply value, respect, and appreciate.

Our website is the result of many hundreds of hours of creative sweat by our design team, along with considerable time invested by our special contributors. While the content you see here on our website is free for your review, enjoyment, interacting with, sharing with everyone you know, and in general, educating individuals and professionals alike, it is not free to pilfer, pirate or simply take (and that includes the images and photo's). This includes the use of our servicemarks (or those servicemarks owned by others who have given us permission to use them) without our express written consent.

We appreciate in advance, your respect for all of the hard work and creative talent that has gone into making our website what it is. If you want to use or physically share any portion of our site, just ask. In most cases, we’re going to trip over ourselves to accommodate you and/or your organization. Why? Because we are both dedicated and passionate about doing what we can to make this world just a little bit better for us all. If there is a reasonable way of supporting you or your organization with your request, we’re likely going to do just that. It’s that simple.

Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement

Last Updated March 26, 2016

By reviewing, reading, or using the material from any website owned and operated by Soundings, LLC (Owners), you agree to the following Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement:

1. The Owners agree to grant you access to the website in accordance and within these Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement.

2. You agree to use the Owners website in a manner consistent with any and all applicable rules, regulations, and International Copyright and Trademark law.

3. You accept and agree that the Owners are providing access to their website on an “as is, as available” basis. No guarantees as to the availability of its use are made or inferred.

4. All articles and material displayed by the Owners on their website are for information and illustrative purposes only and are absolutely no replacement, substitute, or alternative for specific advice. It is your responsibility to seek competent advice, be it legal, professional or otherwise, from a competent source.

5. Your right of entry into and use of the Owners website may be terminated at any time for any reason or for no reason by you or by the Owners by the sending of notice to the other party, where this is applicable, necessary or appropriate, in accordance with applicable law.

6. The Owners may, for marketing purposes, collect, process and transmit data obtained from and about you in the course of accessing the Owners website; no identifying information will be used however. The information collected will enable us to more successfully market our website to potential clients, patients, and healthcare professionals.

7. When you are authorized in writing by the Owners or their designated agents, you may download one copy of the material from the Owners website to one computer for personal, non-commercial use only, but you may not delete, eliminate, take away, revise, or modify any trademark, servicemark, copyright or other proprietary notice, without the express written consent of the Owners.

8. In accordance with, and subject to the aforementioned, you are not allowed in any manner to alter, duplicate, distribute, re-author, re-publish, transfer, or upload any of the content or material (text, written, audio, visual, trademarks, or servicemarks) from the Owners websites without the Owners express and explicit prior written consent or from their authorized agents. No intellectual property or other rights shall be conveyed to you or your organization unless otherwise agreed in writing by all parties.

9. The Owners website may allow Discussion Boards (e.g., forums, blogs, etc.), allowing users the chance to exchange opinions, information, or ideas (e.g., Posts). As a visitor to the Owners website you are forewarned that any opinion, idea or information displayed or expressed on the Owners website as part of any kind of Discussion Board are not necessarily indicative or reflect of the Owners views. To the maximum extent possible and permitted by applicable laws, the Owners hereby and forever rejects and waives any/all responsibility and liability for any/all Posts, or for any losses or expenses resulting from their use and/or appearance on the Owners website. Additionally, you agree not to Post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material under any circumstances, nor violate any laws be it of your country, the country where the Owners website is hosted, or International law. Doing so may lead to your being immediately and permanently banned, with notification to your Internet Service Provider and legal authorities if and where appropriate. The IP address of all Posts are recorded to aide in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the Owners have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they deem necessary or see fit.

10. To the maximum extent possible and permitted by applicable laws, the Owners hereby on behalf of itself, employees, members, officers, agents, suppliers and contractors forever rejects and waives any/all responsibility and liability for any/all Posts, or for any losses or expenses arising from, and including without limitation, any direct, indirect, special, punitive, or consequential damages, loss of use, loss of data, data compromised by hacking attempts, or, loss caused by a virus, loss of income or profit, loss of or damage to property, claims of third parties, or other losses of any kind of character. You hereby acknowledge and agree to assume all responsibility for establishing as you deem necessary, such practice or methods for backing up all data, and checking for any viruses from any form, media or content downloaded from or from accessing the Owners website.

11. The Owners reserve the right to monitor all matters posted by you on Discussion Boards, and to remove any which they consider in their unlimited judgment to be offensive or otherwise in breach of these Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement.

12. You hereby agree, acknowledge, and warrant that the Owners retain all rights in and to all Posts and material provided or Posted by you, and warrant that such Posts shall not infringe any proprietary or other rights of third parties.

13. Where the Owners provide hypertext links to other websites not wholly owned in part or in total, they do so for information and illustrative purposes only and shall not be held responsible for any content contained therein or problems associated whatsoever with other websites.

14. The Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement contain the entire understanding between the Owners. It is explicitly acknowledged and agreed by you that the Owners may change these policies at any time and without any notice. While the Owners agree to do their utmost in informing you of these changes, it is expressly and forever agreed that your continued usage of the Owners websites after changes have been made mean you agree to be legally bound by these terms as they are updated and/or amended from time to time. You agree to periodically review these Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement.

15. In the unlikely event any part of the Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement be declared invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, this shall not affect the validity of any remaining portion and such remaining portion shall remain in full and complete force and effect as if the invalid portion of the Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement had forever not existed or had been eliminated.

16. Any additional disputes shall be resolved as follows: If in the unlikely event of a dispute under this Terms of Use Policy & Intellectual Property Agreement, the Owners agree to first try to resolve said dispute between the parties and/or with the help of a mutually agreed-upon mediator. Any costs and fees other than fees associated with the mediation shall be shared equally by all the parties.