The House Rules

Keep your contributions civil, tasteful and relevant.

The Authority reserves the right to delete any comment which it considers inappropriate.

The rules below set out how we can ensure a lively and interactive forum, for your own safety, the safety of others and to avoid causing offence. Violation of these rules may result in suspension of your membership.

Please:

No negative or disrespectful comments about specific groups of people.

No defamatory comments. A defamatory comment is one that is capable of damaging the reputation of a person or organisation.

Avoid contempt of court which means not posting anything that risks prejudicing on-going or forthcoming court proceedings.

Do not incite people to commit any crime, including incitement of racial hatred.

Do not post messages that are unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive.

No swearing. People of all ages read and contribute to these forums. Please don't use profanities or other words which might offend them.

No spamming or flooding. Don't repost the same message, or very similar messages, more than once.

No personal information. It is not acceptable to publicise your or anyone else's full contact details. This is for your own safety and that of everyone who uses this service.

Keep your posts relevant. Posts which aren't relevant lower the value of the debate for everyone and may be removed.

No advertising, promotion of products or services.

No impersonating. Impersonating someone (including other members) is unacceptable.

No infringement of copyright law. It is not acceptable to violate the property rights of others and you can not post any content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party.

No uploading corrupted files. It is not acceptable to upload files, or cause other users to upload files that contain viruses, worms, “Trojan Horses”, corrupted files, or any similar software or programs that may adversely affect the operation of another’s computer.

Complaints about the Authority’s services should be made to through the Authority’s complaint procedure (this can be found at link). 

Copyright and the law

You own the copyright in your postings, articles and pictures, but you also agree to grant the South Downs National Park Authority a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicenseable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to any such work worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content.

If you do not wish to grant such rights to the South Downs National Park Authority, it is suggested that you do not submit your contribution to this site.

By submitting your contribution to this site, you also warrant that such contribution is:

• your own original work and that you have the right to make it available to the South Downs National Park Authority for all the purposes specified above
• is not defamatory
• does not infringe any law
• You also agree to indemnify the South Downs National Park Authority against all legal fees, damages and other expenses that may be incurred by the South Downs National Park Authority as a result of your breach of the above warranty.

You also agree to waive any moral rights in your contribution for the purposes of its submission to and publication on the South Downs National Park Authority site and the other purposes specified above.

You may not post any defamatory or illegal material of any nature. This includes text, graphics, video, and/or audio. Posting a message with the intention of committing or condoning an illegal act is strictly prohibited.

You may not violate, plagiarise, or infringe on the rights of third parties including copyright, trademark, trade secret, privacy, personal, publicity, or proprietary rights.

Violation of these rules

Violation of any of the rules above may prevent your contribution being published in the forum. The South Downs National Park Authority reserves the right to delete any posting, at any time, for any reason, and is under no obligation to publish any work submitted.

Legal Disclaimer

This forum may include hyperlinks to another forum or to external websites.  South Downs National Park assume no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any contents or information provided on any hyperlink or website linked to this forum, and the use of hyperlinks does not indicate that we approve of or endorse any of the information, products or services provided or advertised on any of external websites.

Discussion contents reflect the views of individual participants only and the South Downs National Park Authority shall bear no responsibility or legal liability for the accuracy of participants comments or any discussion results.'  And individual users shall hold South Downs National Park Authority free from any actions, claims, charges, damages, demands or expenses incurred whether legal or otherwise with regard to the use of this discussion forum’.  If you choose to place reliance on any comments placed on this forum, you do so at your own risk. 

We reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you.

You agree that this Terms of Use and any dispute arising out of your use of this web site or discussion forum shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.