Law & You - 2010 No. 24

Discussion guidelines

We welcome your comments and expect your cooperation in following the general rules of respectful civil discourse. To ensure that comments enhance and don't detract from the article/blog, Arabnews.com has a formal comment policy.

In order to keep things respectful and to maintain the integrity of all content/blogs, all comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks are moderated before they are posted. Comments that contain vulgar language, personal insults, offensive comments about people's ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orientation, or any other kinds of attacks on other people will not be posted. Comments that are spam, are clearly off topic, that promote services or products, or that make unsupported accusations will also not be posted.

Blog administrators work to review and approve comments as quickly as possible, but please do not resubmit your comment if it does not appear right away.

You are fully responsible for everything that you submit in your comments, and all posted comments are in the public domain. We do not discriminate against any views, but we reserve the right not to post comment.

We ask that your comments be relevant to the article/blog posting and that they be respectful, be kept brief. Ideally, your comment will be under 200 well-chosen words with paragraphs as necessary; white space makes the content easier to read on a computer screen. inflamed or disrespectful posts will not be tolerated.

Remember: A comment is conversation. A comment that does not add to the conversation, runs off on an inappropriate tangent, or kills the conversation may be edited, moved or deleted.

We cannot accept comments that promote adult behaviors that are inappropriate, illegal, or unsafe or links to sites advertising products or services that are illegal in accordance to the laws in Saudi Arabia. Please use common sense when commenting, so we can allow your comment. We will also not post comments that advocate breaking the law or committing crimes.

Being smart about your privacy is really important online. You should never include any personal information about yourself (such as your phone number or address) in comments you post to an article or blog. Please don't share other people's personal information, either. You are responsible for what you post, so before you submit a comment, be sure you are okay with other people seeing it. Comments that include information like phone numbers, email addresses, etc. will be moderated.

Moderators may:

1. Reject postings containing statements that appear to be defamatory or libelous in nature.

2. Edit or delete comments, as its administrators feel necessary. Serious edits will be notated at the end of the comment. At no time will Arab News attempt to alter the core meaning of a comment.

3. Reject the message, edit the message when the moderators judge it to be a personal attack, defamatory (or potentially defamatory), abusive, incite hatred or otherwise offensive.

4. Reject postings not pertinent to journalism topics or covering health care (i.e. jokes, job ads, etc.)

5. Reject redundant postings

6. Ask the poster to re-post the message with identifying information, such as name and affiliation.

7. Delete comments that are felt to be spam or are inappropriate

8. Reject comments not written in English. Comments linking to non-English language sites may be removed in their entirety.

Your comments may include links of value that are relevant to the posting. Please don't view this as an opportunity to promote or advertise your Web site in the comments. Excessive and/or inappropriate links will be removed. Double check your links, because any link which returns an error, leads to a site under construction, or cannot be loaded by the browser will be removed. Please see our LINKING POLICY & DISCLAIMER OF ENDORSEMENT

In order to keep these platforms (posting comments for articles/blogs) enjoyable and interesting for all our viewers, we ask simply that you follow these minimal rules. These rules are only a minimum; in addition to complying with these rules, we ask that you also exercise common sense and generally be considerate toward your fellow viewers. By participating either in our online discussion and comment posting systems, you are consenting to these rules.

1. You agree that you are fully responsible for the content that you post. You will not knowingly post content that violates the copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of any third party and that you will remove the same should you discover that you have violated this provision. Likewise, you may not post content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, that violates a third party's right to privacy, that otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, or that is otherwise inappropriate. You will indemnify Arabnews.com, its employees, agents, and affiliates from any and all claims and/or damages (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys' fees) resulting from any claim brought by any third party relating to content you have posted.

2. You understand and agree that Arabnews.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties. You further understand that Arabnews.com does not and cannot review all content prior to its posting. Nevertheless, Arabnews.com may monitor the discussion forums as it chooses and reserves the right (but assumes no obligations) to remove, edit or otherwise alter content that it deems inappropriate for any reason without obtaining anyone's consent. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content in our discussion forums.

3. You understand and agree that these discussion forums are to be used only for noncommercial purposes. You may not solicit funds, promote commercial entities or otherwise engage in non-commercial activity in our discussion forums.

4. The discussion forums are for text only. Use of graphics and audio is not appropriate.

5. You acknowledge and agree that you use and/or rely on any information obtained through the discussion forums at your own risk. Arabnews.com is not in any manner endorsing the content of the discussion groups and cannot and will not vouch for its reliability.

6. For any content that you post, you hereby grant to Arabnews.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, exclusive and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part, world-wide and to incorporate it in other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

******

Anyone who violates the Comments Policy may be blocked from future commenting on this blog.

Please identify yourself when commenting. If we have reason to believe an identity is false we reserve the right to remove the comment.

Because comments are moderated, there may be a slight delay before your comment appears on the site. Don't worry! All comments that follow the rules above will eventually appear.

Arabnews.com has the right, at its sole discretion, to remove comments that contravene our guidelines and terms. Arabnews.com is under no obligation to post or reinstate any comments.

[2] LINKING POLICY & DISCLAIMER OF ENDORSEMENT

The views expressed on Arabnews.com are those of independent individuals and bloggers. These views and posted comments do not necessarily reflect those of the Arabnews.com.

Arabnews.com blogs may include useful hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations and individuals' blogs. Arabnews.com's website provides these links and pointers solely for our viewers'/users' information and convenience.

When you follow a link to an outside website, you are leaving Arabnews.com and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners/sponsors of the outside website.

Arabnews.com does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of information contained on a linked website.

Arabnews.com does not endorse the organizations sponsoring linked websites, and we do not endorse the views they express or the products/services they offer.

Arabnews.com cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked websites. Users must request such authorization from the sponsor of the linked website. Those who provide comments are responsible for the copyright of the text they provide.

Arabnews.com is not responsible for transmissions users receive from linked websites.

Arabnews.com does not guarantee that outside websites comply with Kingdom's/Shariah laws.

COMMENTS POLICY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Arabnews.com reserves the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments. They also have the right to block access to any individual or group from commenting.

HOLD HARMLESS

All comments on Arabnews.com including blogs, are the responsibility of the commenter, not the blog owner, administrator, contributor, editor or author. By submitting a comment on website, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold Arabnews.com, its website, and all subsidiaries/affiliated organizations and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages or liability.

These guidelines are subject to discussion and change. If you have thoughts about how to improve them, please send a message to the relevant email in the contact section.

Please keep the following policies in mind. Arabnews.com reserves the right to update these policies at any time.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Please read this carefully. These are the terms and conditions on which you may use the Arabnews.com website and the content/services available on it. These terms apply to your use of Arabnews.com (including its content) irrespective of the delivery platform you use - e.g. desktop PC, laptop, mobile device or otherwise - and irrespective of how Arabnews.com content is delivered to you - e.g. via web browser, Mobile Internet browser, email, SMS or otherwise. By accessing Arabnews.com you are agreeing to the terms and conditions below. If you use Arabnews.com in the course of your business, you are also agreeing to these terms and conditions on behalf of that business.

If you do not agree with the terms and conditions (or are not authorized to do so) you should not use Arabnews.com. We recommend that you print, store or save a copy of these terms and conditions for your records.

COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS

Content published on Arabnews.com including articles, photos, graphics, bulletin board postings, audio and video clips, and other content, is copyrighted, or by other information providers who have licensed their content for use on Arabnews.com. Additionally, the entire content of Arabnews.com is also copyrighted as a collective work under Saudi Arabia's copyright laws; the owner of the collective work holds the copyright. You cannot reproduce, republish or redistribute material from Arabnews.com, and other news services and syndicates in any way without the written consent of the copyright owner.

These rules also apply:

1. You will not in any way violate the intellectual property laws protecting the content accessible through Arabnews.com. This means you agree not to copy, modify, publish, transmit, create derivative works from, transfer, sell or display the content, including logos, trademarks or service marks, or otherwise violate the proprietary rights of Arabnews.com or others.

2. You will not reuse, republish or otherwise distribute the content or any modified or altered versions of it, whether over the Internet or otherwise, and whether or not for payment, without the express written permission of Arabnews.com or a third-party copyright holder.

3. You will cooperate promptly and completely with any reasonable request by Arabnews.com related to an investigation of infringement of copyright or other proprietary right.

To obtain permission to reuse or republish any material copyrighted by Arabnews.com, please go to the contact section for the relevant email. For permission to reuse or republish Arabnews.com's copyrighted material in printed formats, please go to the contact section for the relevant email. Arabnews.com cannot grant permission to reuse or republish material from other information providers, such as the Associated Press or New York Times News Service. Please contact them directly.

Member Content is any information, including photographs, you provide to us or other users in the registration process, in any public message area (including the forums area) or through any email feature. You are solely responsible for Member Content, and we act as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of Member Content. Member Content must conform to the guidelines set forth under Guidelines. Arabnews.com reserves the right to remove any material that it believes may violate these Terms or Use, or any copyright or third-party rights.

SUBMISSIONS

By submitting any Member Content to Arabnews.com, including photographs, you automatically grant Arabnews.com a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), license to use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, create derivative works of, distribute, transfer or sell any such content, for any purpose, including commercial purposes, without any payment to you, in any type of media or in any form now known or later developed. In addition, you automatically waive and give up any claim that any use of such content violates any of your rights, including privacy rights, publicity rights, moral rights or any other right, including the right to approve the way Arabnews.com uses such content.