Aswat Site Terms and Usage Policy

This document describes the terms by which you may access and use services on Aswat (www.aswat.com), as well as outlining usage policies for individuals accessing the site. It is applicable to all users and refers to all resources, links, forums and other content available on the Aswat site. In order to use these services, you must accept all of the terms and conditions of this agreement.

Aswat reserves the right to modify these terms and policies at any time, without prior notice, by making changes to this page. Your continued use of the site after these changes serves as your acknowledgement and acceptance of the modified terms and policies.

Membership Eligibility

Anyone may view public information and download available materials from the site. To become a member with the right to post information, participate in dialogues and contact other users, you must agree to these terms. By doing so, you indicate your right, authority and capacity to enter into the agreement and abide by its terms and conditions.

In addition to accepting these terms, the only other membership stipulation is a username and working email address for direct communication. Other information may be provided voluntarily by users. Please see Aswat’s Privacy Policy for more on how this personal information is used.

As a registered user, you agree to:

• Provide accurate, current and complete information about yourself as required in the member registration process;
• Update registry information to ensure accuracy and completeness;
• Maintain the confidentiality of your password and username; and
• Accept full responsibility for all activity that takes place under your account.

Users are solely responsible for notifying the Aswat administrator of unauthorized use of their password and username and for ensuring log off from their accounts at the end of each session.

User Conduct

Aswat has been developed for and by users to promote networking, dialogue and collaboration. As such, its use is based on the ability of users to balance open discussion with respect for other users, which requires a commitment to mutual trust. The website exists to nurture and promote constructive debate, access to a wide range of information, opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of experiences and quality resources – it is not intended for promoting ideology or winning an argument at all costs. The site has been developed to allow the user community to self-police with minimal administrator involvement beyond spot checks on editing and response to complaints.

In the spirit of this approach, users agree not to use the site to:

• post, transmit or otherwise make available any content or resources that are unlawful, harmful, violent, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, threatening, obscene, infringing of another’s privacy, or racially, religiously, ethnically or otherwise offensive;
• harass or insult the dignity and honour of other Aswat users or administrators;
• post, transmit or otherwise make available any content or resources that they do not have a right to make available under any law or any other contractual agreements;
• conceal the origin and copyright holder of any content posted, transmitted or otherwise made available through Aswat;
• post, transmit or otherwise make available any content or resources that violates patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
• post, transmit or otherwise make available any unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, ‘spam’ or any other form of solicitation;
• post, transmit or otherwise make available any content or resources that contains software viruses or any other files or programs designed to interrupt, damage or constrain the functionality of any computer software or hardware or any communications equipment;
• disrupt the functioning of the Aswat;
• intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international laws and agreements using Aswat.

Users agree that Aswat may, under any circumstances and without prior notice, terminate a user account and access to the Aswat site due to the following reasons:

• breaches or violations of this and the Aswat privacy policies;
• a self-initiated user request to terminate the account;
• unforeseen technical or security problems;
• involvement by a user in illegal activities.

Users will receive a warning for a breach of Aswat policies, including the possible removal of a posting in question. A second violation will require administrative approval for individual postings. A third violation will lead to the termination of an account.

Should you feel you were unduly terminated or wish to report a breach of the policy, please contact the site administrators at contact@aswat.com.

Non-Commercial Use

Aswat is intended only for non-commercial use. Companies and businesses are forbidden to set up accounts. Posting, emailing or uploading content intended for selling or marketing goods or services is prohibited.

Aswat and its members both agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes any part of the site or content, including resources that are posted.

Copyright

The Aswat website includes copyrighted material and other proprietary information that may be copyrighted by Aswat or third parties and, thus, protected by copyright laws and international intellectual property regulations. Postings should acknowledge original sources and authors. Users are responsible for securing any permissions necessary for the sharing and dissemination of resources that they post.

Aswat does not claim the ownership of any content submitted or made available by users and members. However, with regard to content submitted or made available for inclusion on publicly accessible sections of the Aswat website, users and members grant Aswat the non-exclusive right to 1) use and public display of such content solely for the purposes of promoting the goals of the site; and 2) use and public display of any photos, graphics, audio or video solely for the purposes of promoting the goals of the site.

Links

The Aswat site may include links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Since Aswat administrators have no control over such sites and resources, users and members acknowledge and agree that Aswat is not responsible for the content available from such sites or resources, including any images, graphics, video or audio materials, advertising products or other materials.

Indemnity and Limitation of Liability

Aswat users and members agree to indemnify and hold Aswat and other users and members harmless from any claims, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, inflicted from the claims of a third party due to any content posted, transmitted or otherwise made available through the Aswat website.

Aswat users and members expressly acknowledge their understanding and agreement that the Aswat website shall not be liable to them for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses.

Disclaimers of Warranties

MEMBERS AND USERS EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR UNDERSTANDING AND AGREEMENT THAT:

THE USE OF THE ASWAT WEBSITE IS AT THEIR SOLE RISK; THE SERVICE PROVIDED THROUGH THE SITE IS ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS; ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE WEBSITE IS AT THE USERS’ OWN DISCRETION AND RISK, AND THEY WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL; ASWAT MAKES NO WARRANTIES THAT (i) THE SERVICES WILL MEET EACH USERS’ REQUIREMENTS; (ii) THE SERVICES OF ASWAT WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE; (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE ASWAT WEBSITE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE; OR (iv) THE QUALITY OF ANY SERVICES, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIAL OBTAINED THROUGH ASWAT WILL MEET EACH MEMBER OR USER’S EXPECTATIONS.

At the time that this site is effective, Aswat had been validated for use with Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0, as well as Firefox 3.0.

Contact

If you have any questions about these terms and policies or to report any violations, please contact us at contact@aswat.com.

Updated February 2009