Terms of Use
Welcome to eMedicine.com! By using our Web Site, you agree to the following terms of use, which constitute an agreement between eMedicine 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.
Scope of These Terms
These terms of use apply to your use of our eMedicine.com Web Site. 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 that Web Site. When you leave one of our Web Sites and go to another Web Site (whether controlled by us or by a third party), different terms may apply.
eMedicine (www.eMedicine.com) is owned and operated by WebMD, Inc. The eMedicine Web Site is one of our Web Sites for physicians and allied health care professionals. When we refer to ourselves as "we" or "eMedicine", we mean our company, WebMD, Inc., including any subsidiary we control (for example, a subsidiary we own). Reference to “eMedicine” or “We” means WebMD, Inc., including any company that we control. Reference to “Web Site” means our internet website, eMedicine.com
Our Information
We include a lot of information on eMedicine, including articles, references, tools, continuing education for medical professionals, and advertising. Please remember that all of the information on eMedicine is meant for adults who are licensed healthcare professionals. While we hope you find it helpful, you should remember that it is not meant to serve as a substitute for your own clinical judgment as a healthcare professional. If you are a consumer who chooses to use the professional-level information on eMedicine, 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 put on eMedicine. However, we don't offer you any warranty or guarantee related to our Web Sites. 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 tools 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 contained on our Web Site 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 Web Site is at your own risk and the Web Site and the content are provided on as “AS IS” basis.
Some information on our Web Site comes from you or from other users. We're not responsible for that information. Whether the information comes from us or from you, we're not liable for any damages resulting from your use of the information on our Web Site.
Although we are selective about the organizations we link to, we don't assume any responsibility for any Web Sites that are linked to our site or that you browse to after following a link from our site.
While we welcome your feedback on eMedicine, we must make the final decisions about the content that is posted on the site to make sure it meets the needs of all our readers. You can use the feedback link on our home page to send us comments and criticisms, but if you are dissatisfied with our response or with the contents of eMedicine, your only remedy is to stop using the Web Site.
Our Tools and Databases
We include clinical tools and databases intended for the use of healthcare professionals on our Web Site. 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 results. 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.
Ownership of eMedicine
Copyright
We or our partners own the information on eMedicine. In fact, the entire contents and design of eMedicine are protected under U.S. and international copyright laws. You may look at our Web Site online, download individual articles to your personal or handheld computer for later reading, and even print a reasonable number of copies of pages for yourself, your family, or friends. You must not remove any copyright notices from our materials. We reserve all our other rights. Among other things, this means you must not sell our information, rewrite or modify it, redistribute it, put it on your own Web Site, or use it for any commercial purpose without our prior written permission.
Trademarks
We also own the names we use for our products and services on eMedicine, and these names are protected by trademark laws in the U.S. and internationally. An ® following a name on our site indicates that the trademark has been registered in the United States. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. If your activities are noncommercial, you may make use of our trademarks by linking to us or discussing us with others, as long as you make it clear that we are the owner of the trademark. Any other uses of our trademarks require our prior written approval.
You may not use eMedicine's trademarks in any of the following ways:
- In a non- eMedicine product name or publication title.
- Within or as part of your own trademarks.
- To identify non- eMedicine products or services.
- In a manner which will likely cause confusion.
- In a manner that implies that eMedicine sponsors, endorses or is otherwise connected with your own activities, products, or services.
- In a manner that disparages eMedicine.
Linking to Us
Usually, we don't mind if you have a simple link from your Web Site to ours. 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 a way that is not clear to our users. You aren't allowed to link to us if you engage in illegal, obscene, or offensive content, or if the link in any way has a negative impact on our reputation.
Information that You Put on Our Web Site
When you place materials or information on our Web Site that are available publicly, 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 on our Web Sites on an individual basis (contact us at the email address we give at the end of this document).
For information and materials you place on our Web Sites that is 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 for 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 offensive or fraudulent content at any time without your consent.
Software Products
We make some software and accompanying documentation available for downloading from our Web Sites. These materials are the copyrighted work of eMedicine or companies that have licensed the software to us. We do not transfer any ownership rights in software our documentation to you when you download it from our Web Sites; rather, you are allowed to use the software and documentation under the terms of a license agreement. You must read the license agreement that accompanies each product 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 on our Web Sites 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
eMedicine has 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 Site the right to transmit, monitor, retrieve, store, and use your information in connection with the operation of the Site. eMedicine 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
If you use a eMedicine service, such as email, bulletin board or community (a “Member 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 Member Service. eMedicine and its licensors are not responsible for the consequences of the Content posted via the Member Service and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. You understand that by using the Member Service, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive or objectionable. In no event will eMedicine 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 Member 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.
In consideration of being allowed to use the Member Service, you agree to not use the Member Service to:
- Violate applicable local, state, national, or international laws;
- 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;
- 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 eMedicine in its sole discretion;
- Harm minors in any way;
- Posting advertisements or solicitations of business;
- Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Member Service;
- Post, upload, email, transmit or otherwise distribute chain letters, pyramid schemes, unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or spam;
- Impersonate another person or stalk or otherwise harass another person;
- 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;
- Harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including email addresses, without their identification for posting or viewing comments; consent;
- Allow any other person or entity to use your identification for posting or viewing comments
- Interfere with or disrupt the Member Service or computers, networks or other hardware connected to the Member Service, or disregard any requirements or policies of networks connected to the Member Service;
- Engaging in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the Member Service, or which, in the judgment of eMedicine, exposes eMedicine or any of its customers or suppliers to any liability or detriment of any type.
eMedicine may (but is not obligated) to do any or all of the following:
- Record or pre-screen the dialogue in public chat rooms.
- 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.
- Remove Content which is abusive, objectionable, illegal, or disruptive, or that otherwise fail to conform with these Terms of Use.
- Terminate your access to any or all Member Services upon any breach of these Terms of Use.
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 eMedicine may investigate your use of the Member 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.
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.
Laws that govern this agreement
WebMD, Inc. controls the eMedicine Web Sites from its offices within the state of New York in the United States of America. The Web Sites 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 Web Sites may differ, by accessing the Web Sites both you and eMedicine 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 Web Sites.
eMedicine makes no representation that materials on these Web Sites 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. eMedicine is intended for United States physicians only.
Acceptance Procedure
By accessing materials on our Web Site or registering you agree with all the terms and conditions of this agreement.
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change the terms and conditions of this Agreement from time to time, and your continuing use of our Web Sites 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 discuss your options for controlling your information. You can review our privacy policy for eMedicine here.
Consequences
If you don't comply with these terms, we have the right to suspend or eliminate your account, and remove any information you have placed on our site. We may also take any legal action we think is appropriate. If your violation of this agreement causes harm to others, you agree to hold eMedicine harmless against any liability for that harm. If there is any dispute between us concerning this agreement our your use of our Web Site, 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 either Oregon or New York at the discretion of the complaining party.
Indemnity.
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold eMedicine, 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 and Conditions.
NOTICE AND TAKE DOWN PROCEDURES; AND COPYRIGHT AGENT:
If you believe any materials accessible on or from the Site infringe your copyright, you may request removal of those materials (or access thereto) from this web site by contacting WebMD'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.
eMedicine’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, eMedicine 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 eMedicine with respect to the use of the Web Site, the Member 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 medscapelegal@webmd.net.
Revision date: These terms of use were last updated on November 6, 2006.
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