#forum.finds.org.uk User Agreement

The following terms and conditions govern all use of the forum.finds.org.uk (“the Forum”) website and all content and services available at or through the Forum. The Forum is owned by The British Museum (“The British Museum”) and operated by the Portable Antiquities Scheme at The British Museum. The Forum is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, forum.finds.org.uk’s Privacy Policy and Community Rules) and procedures that may be published from time to time on this Site by The British Museum (collectively, the “Agreement”).

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Forum. By accessing or using any part of the Forum, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the Forum or use any services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by The British Museum, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms.

1. Your forum.finds.org.uk Account

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your Forum account and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account. You must immediately notify The British Museum of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security via info@forum.finds.org.uk. The British Museum will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

By using this Forum and your user account you agree to the following:

  • The moderation of your posts and management of your user account by Moderators and staff.
  • Not to reveal your password to anyone else.
  • Not to allow anyone other than yourself to use your account.
  • Not to post details of finder names or personal details, grid references and other information that identifies precise findspots.
  • To be sensitive to others opinions, for example avoid blunt or tactless responses such as ‘This identification is wrong. It’s clearly type 10b’.
  • Not to use the forum to sell or solicit goods or services from others for financial gain.
  • Respect and abide by decisions taken by Moderators.

Moderators are Forum users appointed by Portable Antiquities staff to oversee the communication activity of the Forum.

Moderators and site operators do not preview new posts and take no responsibility for any content posted by the community. However, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user for any reason at any time, in order to maintain our Community. Moderators’ decisions are final. Users that continue to make posts that break the Community Rules can expect to be temporarily blocked or permanently banned.

Posts that do not abide by the Community Rules (Spirit of the Forum and Additional Community Rules) can be:

  1. flagged and so removed from view by the Community of users or Moderators until they are edited by the author to become acceptable;

  2. edited by Moderators with a note that they have been edited by the Moderator;

  3. deleted if they are likely to pose a data protection or legal issue or for any other reason deemed appropriate by Moderators.

In addition, each category has its own description of what is intended for discussion within that category. Topics and posts that are in the wrong category can be moved by Moderators into a more appropriate category, or split to create a new topic, without notice.

2. Responsibility of Contributors

If you post material to the Forum, post links on the Forum, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Forum (any such material, “Content”), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:

  • the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
  • if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
  • you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
  • the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
  • the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
  • the Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite violence, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
  • your content is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, blogs and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;
  • your content is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company; and
  • you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by The British Museum or otherwise.

3. User Content License

User contributions are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Unreported License. Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, The British Museum has the right (though not the obligation) to, in The British Museum’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in The British Museum’s reasonable opinion, violates any The British Museum policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in The British Museum’s sole discretion. The British Museum will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

4. Responsibility of Forum Visitors

The British Museum has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the Forum, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Forum, The British Museum does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Forum may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Forum may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. The British Museum disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Forum, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.

5. Content Posted on Other Websites

We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which forum.finds.org.uk links, and that link to forum.finds.org.uk. The British Museum does not have any control over those non-forum.finds.org.uk websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-forum.finds.org.uk website or webpage, The British Museum does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The British Museum disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-forum.finds.org.uk websites and webpages.

6. Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy

As The British Museum asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by forum.finds.org.uk violates your copyright you are encouraged to notify The British Museum in accordance with The British Museum’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Policy. The British Museum will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. The British Museum will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the Forum if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of The British Museum or others. In the case of such termination, The British Museum will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to The British Museum.

7. Intellectual Property

This Agreement does not transfer from The British Museum to you any The British Museum or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with The British Museum. The British Museum, forum.finds.org.uk, the forum.finds.org.uk logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with forum.finds.org.uk, or the Forum are trademarks or registered trademarks of The British Museum or The British Museum’s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Forum may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Forum grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any The British Museum or third-party trademarks.

8. Advertisements

The British Museum reserves the right to display advertisements on your content.

9. Attribution

The British Museum reserves the right to display attribution links such as ‘Powered by forum.finds.org.uk,’ theme author, and font attribution in your content footer or toolbar. Footer credits and the forum.finds.org.uk toolbar may not be removed.

10. Changes

The British Museum reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the Forum following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. The British Museum may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Forum (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Any such change in terms and conditions will be effective once reflected in the text of these terms and conditions and published on this web page. You should check the terms and conditions periodically to ensure that you are aware of and complying with the current version.

11. Termination

The British Museum may terminate your access to all or any part of the Forum at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your forum.finds.org.uk account (if you have one), you should notify The British Museum via info@forum.finds.org.uk. The British Museum reserves the right to disable and or terminate dormant accounts.

All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Forum is provided “as is”. The British Museum and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither The British Museum nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Forum will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, the Forum at your own discretion and risk.

13. Limitation of Liability

In no event will The British Museum, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to The British Museum under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. The British Museum shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

14. General Representation and Warranty

You represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Forum will be in strict accordance with the forum.finds.org.uk Privacy Policy, Community Rules, with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the country in which this website resides or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Forum will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The British Museum, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including legal fees, arising out of your use of the Forum, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.

16. Miscellaneous

The interpretation, construction, effect and enforceability of this agreement and your use of the Forum shall be governed by English Law, and you and We agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts for the determination of all disputes relating to your use of the Forum.

Any queries regarding this Agreement should be directed to info@forum.finds.org.uk.

This document is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Unreported License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). It was last updated 7 July 2016.