Medscape's Terms of Use

Welcome to Medscape.com! By using our Service (as defined below), you agree to the following Terms of Use, which constitute an agreement between Medscape and you. We may change these terms from time to time. You will always be able to view the most current version by clicking on a link at the bottom of any page on our site. By using this Service, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to all of these Terms of Use, do not use this Service!

Scope of these Terms of Use

Medscape provides users with access to a wide variety of resources on the Medscape.com domain including, but not limited to, articles, reference tools, continuing education for medical professionals tools, communication tools, message boards and search services (the "Service"). We have other Web sites that are covered by different terms of use. The terms of use for each of our Web sites are available on the home page of each Web site. The Service is owned and operated by Medscape, LLC. The Service is for physicians and other health care professionals. When we refer to ourselves as "we" or "Medscape", we mean our company, Medscape, LLC, including any subsidiary we control (for example, a subsidiary we own). Reference to "Web site" means our internet Web site, Medscape.com

Our Information

We include a lot of information within the Service, including articles, references, tools, continuing education for medical professionals, and advertising. Please remember that all of the information available through the Service is meant for adults who are licensed healthcare professionals. While we hope you find the Service helpful, you should remember that it is not meant to serve as a substitute for your own clinical judgment as a healthcare professional. Medscape does not provide medical advice. If you are a consumer who chooses to use the professional-level information available through the Service, you should not rely on that information as professional medical advice or use it to replace any relationship with your physician or other qualified healthcare professional. For medical concerns, including decisions about medications and other treatments, consumers should always consult their physician or, in serious cases, seek immediate assistance from emergency personnel. We follow a standard set of editorial procedures for information that we make available through the Service. However, we don't offer you any warranty or guarantee related to our Service. We specifically disclaim any warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It's your job to evaluate the information and results from Service we provide. If you are a healthcare professional, you should exercise your professional judgment in evaluating any information, and we encourage you to confirm the information made available or otherwise obtained through the Service with other sources before undertaking any treatment based on it. If you are a consumer, you should evaluate the information together with your physician or another qualified healthcare professional. The use of the Service is at your own risk and the Service and the content are provided on as "AS IS" basis. Some information made available through the Service may be provided by our users. We're not responsible for that information. Whether the information is provided by us or our user, we're not liable for any damages resulting from your use of the information made available through the Service. Although we are selective about the organizations we link to, we don't assume any responsibility for any Web sites that are linked to or from our Service. While we welcome your feedback regarding the Service, we must make the final decisions about the content made available through the Service. You can use the feedback link on our home page to send us comments. If you are dissatisfied with our response or with the content of the Service, your only remedy is to stop using the Service.

Our Clinical Tools and Databases

Our Service includes clinical tools and databases intended for use by healthcare professionals. Our tools don't give professional advice or recommend particular products. Physicians and other healthcare professionals who use our tools or databases should exercise their own clinical judgment as to the information the tools provide. Consumers who use the tools or databases do so at their own risk. Individuals with any type of medical condition are specifically cautioned to seek professional medical advice before beginning any sort of health treatment. For medical concerns, including decisions about medications and other treatments, users should always consult their physician or other qualified healthcare professional.

Proprietary Rights

You acknowledge and agree that the Service and information, content and software presented to you through the Service or used in connection with the Service contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected under U.S. and international intellectual property laws, including copyright, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. Except as expressly authorized by us or our advertisers, you agree not to sell, rewrite, modify, redistribute, create derivative works, or rent the Service of any information presented to you through the Service, in whole or in part.

You may look at our Service online, download individual articles to your personal or handheld computer for later reading, and even print a copy of an article for yourself. You may not remove any copyright notices from our materials. We reserve all of our other rights not granted in these Terms of Use. You agree not to access the Service by any means other than through the interface that is provided by us for use in accessing the Service.

Linking to Us

Usually, we don't mind if you include a simple link from your Web site to our Service. However, you must first ask our permission if you intend to frame our site or incorporate pieces of it into a different site or product in such a way that is not clear to our users that we are the source of the content. You are not allowed to link to us if you engage in the publication or promotion of illegal, obscene, or offensive content, or if the link in any way negatively impact on our reputation.

Information that You Provide to Our Service

When you upload materials or information to areas of our Service that are publicly available, you give us an irrevocable, perpetual license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display that information. For example, we have the right to display a comment that you post on one of our discussion boards for as long as we want. We will consider requests to remove information that you make publicly available through our Service on an individual basis (contact us at the email address we provide at the end of this document). For information and materials you upload to areas of our Service that are not publicly available, please see our Privacy Policy for an explanation of how we use that information and your rights to change or delete it. We provide the link to our privacy policy later in this document. We ask that you not post any messages with misleading, false, or inappropriate language or statements. We reserve the right to remove any content that we deem offensive or fraudulent at any time without your consent.

Software Products

We make some software and accompanying documentation available for downloading through our Service. These materials are the copyrighted work of Medscape or companies that have licensed the software to us. We do not transfer any ownership rights in software or related documentation to you when you download it through our Service; rather, you are allowed to use the software and documentation under the terms of the license agreement. You must read this license agreement and indicate your agreement to those terms prior to downloading. You are not authorized to attempt to recreate or reverse engineer our software. In addition, some software available through our Service is subject to United States export controls. By downloading or using such software, you are representing to us that your download of such software complies with these controls.

Passwords

We offer to our users several tools that allow you to record and store information. You are responsible for taking all reasonable steps to ensure that no unauthorized person shall have access to your passwords or accounts. You are responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account. It is your sole responsibility to (1) control the dissemination and use of activation codes and passwords; (2) authorize, monitor, and control access to and use of your account and password; (3) promptly inform us of any need to deactivate a password. You grant us and all other persons or entities involved in the operation of the Service the right to transmit, monitor, retrieve, store, and use your information in connection with the operation of the Service. Medscape cannot and does not assume any responsibility or liability for any information you submit, or your or third parties' use or misuse of information transmitted or received using our tools and Services.

Member Conduct when Using Community and Communication Services

If you use a Service, such as POL Mail or Medscape Mail, bulletin board or community (a "Community and Communication Service"), all communications, information, data, text, music, sound, graphics, messages and other material (the "Content") are your responsibility and you are responsible for all Content that you upload, post, transmit, email or otherwise distribute via the Community and Communication Service. Medscape and its licensors are not responsible for the consequences of the Content posted via the Community and Communication Service and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. You understand that by using the Community and Communication Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive or objectionable. In no event will Medscape be liable in any way for any Content or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content uploaded, posted, transmitted, emailed or otherwise made available via the Community and Communication Service. In cases where you feel threatened or believe someone else is in danger, you should contact your local law enforcement agency immediately. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.

When you use the Community and Communication Service, you agree not to:

  1. Violate local, state, national, or international laws;
  2. Post, upload, email, transmit or otherwise distribute any Content that infringes on the intellectual property rights of others or on the privacy or publicity rights of others;
  3. Post, upload, email, transmit or otherwise distribute any Content that is unlawful, harmful, obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, slanderous, hateful, or embarrassing to any other person or entity as determined by Medscape in its sole discretion;
  4. Harm minors in any way;
  5. Post advertisements or solicitations of business;
  6. Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Community and Communication Service;
  7. Post, upload, email, transmit or otherwise distribute chain letters, pyramid schemes, unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or spam;
  8. Impersonate another person or business entity or stalk or otherwise harass another person;
  9. Post, upload, email, transmit or otherwise distribute viruses or other harmful computer code designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the use of any computer software or hardware;
  10. Harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including email addresses, without their identification for posting or viewing comments;
  11. Allow any other person or entity to use your identification for posting or viewing comments;
  12. Interfere with or disrupt the Community and Communication Service or computers, networks or other hardware connected to the Community and Communication Service, or disregard any requirements or policies of networks connected to the Community and Communication Service;
  13. Engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the Community and Communication Service, or which, in the judgment of Medscape, exposes Medscape or any of its customers or suppliers to any liability or detriment of any type;
  14. Fail to respect other users' privacy. This includes revealing another user's password, phone number, address, instant messenger I.D. or address or any other personally identifiable information;
  15. Create member names, or post solicit or send messages, text or photographs that are sexually explicit, that denigrate, threaten, abuse or harm others in any way; or
  16. Upload, post, email or otherwise send any Content that you are not authorized to send under any law or contractual relationship. This includes proprietary and confidential information learned as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements, and any other inside information.

Medscape may (but is not obligated) do any or all of the following without notice:

  1. Record or pre-screen the dialogue in public chat rooms;
  2. Investigate an allegation that a communication(s) do(es) not conform to the terms of this section and determine in its sole discretion to remove or request the removal of the Content;
  3. Remove Content which is abusive, objectionable, illegal, or disruptive, or that otherwise fails to conform with these Terms of Use;
  4. Terminate your access to any or all Community and Communication Services upon any breach of these Terms of Use; or
  5. Edit Content.

You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content. You acknowledge, consent and agree that Medscape may investigate your use of the Community and Communication Service in order to determine whether a violation of the Terms of Use has occurred or to comply with any applicable law, regulation, governmental request or legal process.

You agree and acknowledge that the processing and transmission of the Community and Communication Service, including your Content, may involve transmissions over various networks and devices and necessary modifications as required for such transmissions.

U.S. Government End Users.

If you are affiliated with the U.S. government, then you should know that the software and documentation available on our Web Sites are "commercial items," as that term is defined in 48 C.F.R. 2.101 (October 1995), consisting of "commercial computer software" and "commercial computer software documentation," as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. 12.212 (September 1995). Consistent with 48 C.F.R. 12.212 and 48 C.F.R. 227.7202-1 through 27.7202-4 (June 1995), all U.S. government end users acquire the software and documentation with only those rights set forth herein.

Dealing with Advertisers

Your correspondence or business dealings with, or participation in promotions of, advertisers found on or through the Service, including payment and delivery of related goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such advertiser. You agree that we shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such advertisers on the Service

Children's Privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. You should be aware that the Service is not intended or designed to attract children under the age of 13.

Laws that Govern this Agreement

Medscape, LLC, controls the Service from its offices within the state of New York in the United States of America. The Service can be accessed from any of the United States and from other countries worldwide. Since the laws of each State or country able to access the Service may differ, by accessing the Service both you and Medscape agree that the statutes and laws of the state of New York, without regard to choice of laws principles, will apply to all matters relating to use of our Service. No waiver of any of these Terms and Conditions shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or any other term or condition. Medscape makes no representation that materials made available through the Service are appropriate or available for use in other locations, and accessing them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access these sites from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws. The Service is intended for United States health care professionals only.

The following provisions survive the expiration or termination of these Terms of Use for any reason whatsoever: Liability, Member Conduct, Proprietary Rights, Indemnity, Laws that Govern this agreement and Consequences.

Acceptance Procedure

By accessing materials through our Service or registering you agree with all the terms and conditions of these Terms of Use. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change these Terms of Use from time to time, and your continuing use of our Service constitutes your acceptance of and agreement to any changed terms and conditions.

Privacy Policy

Because we are in the healthcare area, we pay special attention to privacy issues. The purpose of our privacy policy is to identify the information we may collect about you, describe the uses we may make of your information and the security measures we take to protect it, and describe your options for controlling your information. You can review our privacy policy for the Service at http://www.medscape.com/pjsp/public/privacy.html.

Consequences

We may also take any legal action we think is appropriate. If your violation of these Terms of Use causes harm to others, you agree to hold Medscape harmless against any liability for that harm. If there is any dispute between us concerning these Terms of Use or your use of our Services, we both agree to submit the dispute to non-binding mediation, followed by binding arbitration. Both the mediation and the arbitration will be governed under the rules of the American Arbitration Association, and the venue for the arbitration will be New York.

Termination and Modification

You agree that Medscape may, under certain circumstances and without prior notice, discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) or eliminate your account, any associated email address, and remove any information you uploaded or provided to our Service with or without notice. Cause for termination shall include, but not be limited to, (a) breaches or violations of these Terms of Use or other incorporated agreements or guidelines, (b) requests by law enforcement or other government agencies, (c) a request by you (self-initiated account deletions), (d) discontinuance or material modification to the Service (or any part thereof), (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems, (f) extended periods of inactivity, and/or (g) engagement by you in fraudulent or illegal activities. You agree that all terminations for cause shall be made in Medscape's sole discretion and that Medscape shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your account, any associated email address, or access to the Service.

Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Medscape, its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and suppliers, harmless from and against any claims, actions or demands, liabilities and settlements including without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, your violation of these Terms of Use.

Notice and Take Down Procedures and Copyright Agent

If you believe any materials accessible on or from the Service infringe your copyright, you may request removal of those materials (or access thereto) from our Service by contacting Medscape's copyright agent (identified below) and providing the following information:

  1. Identification of the copyrighted work that you believe to be infringed. Please describe the work, and where possible include a copy or the location (e.g., URL) of an authorized version of the work.
  2. Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and its location. Please describe the material, and provide us with its URL or any other pertinent information that will allow us to locate the material.
  3. Your name, address, telephone number and (if available) e-mail address.
  4. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the complained of use of the materials is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
  5. A statement that the information that you have supplied is accurate, and indicating that "under penalty of perjury," you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.
  6. A signature or the electronic equivalent from the copyright holder or authorized representative.

Medscape's agent for copyright issues relating to this Web site is as follows:

WebMD, Inc.
Attn: Office of Privacy
1175 Peachtree Street, Suite 2400
100 Colony Square
Atlanta, Georgia 30361
copyright@webmd.net

Or call: 866-788-3097

In an effort to protect the rights of copyright owners, Medscape maintains a policy for the termination, in appropriate circumstances, of subscribers and account holders of the Site who are repeat infringers.

Complete Agreement

Except as expressly provided in a particular "legal notice" on the Web Site, these Terms of Use constitutes the entire agreement between you and Medscape with respect to your use (and prior use) of the Service, the Community and Communication Services and Content.

Questions or Concerns about Our Terms of Use

For questions or concerns about these terms of use, please send an email to MedscapeCustomerSupport@webmd.net

Revision date: These Terms of Use were last updated on October 14, 2008