Terms of Use:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: YOU MUST CAREFULLY READ AND THEN AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET OUT BELOW BEFORE ACCESSING AND USING THE SITE. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SITE.

Welcome to the The Tuam Herald website (the “Site”) (referred to in these Terms and Conditions as “we” and “us”). The Terms and Conditions form part of an agreement between you, the end-user, and ourselves and sets out the conditions under which you may access the information, products, services and advertisements (the “Material”) available through the Site. By accessing, viewing or using the Material on the Site you have indicated to us that you both understand and agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

Section 1: The Website

1. Terms and conditions:
   These terms and conditions (“the Terms”) govern your use of this website (the “website” or “site”), including community forums, reader comments and blogs. Your attention is particularly drawn to the disclaimers in paragraphs 15 -18. Your use of the website is also subject to our Privacy Policy which follows.
   You must read the Terms and Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the Terms, do not use this website. If you do use the website, your conduct indicates that you agree to be bound by the Terms.
   We reserve the right to amend these Terms from time to time. Any such amendment will be applicable to all persons accessing the web site once the revised Terms have been posted on the website. You should therefore check the website from time to time to review the current Terms.
   We do not actively moderate, monitor or edit contributions to the community forums, reader comments or blogs, but we may intervene and take such action as we think necessary. If you have any concerns over the contents on our site, please either register those concerns as the community and comment tool permits or contact us here.
2. No warranty
   The Site is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis and in particular we do not warrant that:
   1. the Site will continue to be available to you in either its current format or from its current domain name;
   2. the Site or any software available from the Site will be free from viruses or defects;

• the Material contained on the Site will be true, accurate or complete in all respects, except always to the extent otherwise set out in the Terms and Conditions and to any warranties which would be implied by law (including without limitation, warranties as to satisfactory quality and fitness for a particular purpose).

3. Liability
   Except for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, we shall not be liable for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage (including without prejudice to the foregoing generality, any lost business opportunities, loss of profit or goodwill) arising from or in any way connected with the Site, or your inability to use the Site.
4. Downloadable Material
   All our downloadable material is carefully checked for viruses before being uploaded onto the site, however we recommend that, as an extra precaution you run your own virus check on each document you download before saving it to your disk or hard drive.
5. Use of the Web Site
   You undertake:
   1. not to use the Material for any unlawful purpose;
   2. that you shall not make any use of the Site so that the Site is interrupted, damaged, rendered less efficient, or the functionality of the Site is in any way impaired;
      in particular that you shall not run any automated scripts on any part of the site without our express authorisation.

• not to use the Site for the transmission or posting of any computer viruses or any material which is defamatory, offensive or of an obscene or menacing character, or in such a way as to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;

1. not to use the Site in a manner which constitutes a violation or infringement of any person, firm or company (including but not limited to rights of copyright or confidentiality);
2. that you shall not use the Site to transmit any material for the purposes of publicity, promotion and/or advertising without our prior written consent;
3. that in the event that you may have any right, claim or action against any other user arising out of the use of the Site you shall pursue such right, claim or action independently of, and without recourse to, us; and

• that you will indemnify and defend us against all claims, liability, damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees, arising out of a breach of these Terms and Conditions or any use of the Material or the Site.

We shall have the right to immediately suspend your access to the Site if you commit a breach of these Terms and Conditions.

6. Rights
   The design, images and content of the Site are, unless otherwise stated, our property or our licensors’ property.
   We provide Material on the Site solely for your personal use and the reproduction of the whole or any part of the Site, except for any temporary copies made necessarily in downloading the Site, for purposes other than private and personal use, is prohibited, as is distributing, displaying or copying the Site.
   No part of the Site can be reproduced on, transmitted to or stored on any other web site or other form of electronic retrieval system, nor may any part of the site be accessed in such manner as to make it appear part of any third parties web site without our prior written consent.
7. Links to other Sites
   Any web sites to which you link through the Site (including, without limitation, any web site provided by a third party but co-branded web site) are independent of the Site and we have no control over them and accept no liability in respect of your use or inability to use them or any of the content of such web sites.
8. Content
   We accept no liability with respect to any of the products, information, material or services offered or provided by other organisations listed on, or linked to, this Site, nor do we endorse any of those organisations or any of their products or services. Should you decide to contract with any of these organisations, the contract will be directly between you and the relevant organisation. We will have no contractual involvement, and will not be liable in contract or otherwise for any products, information, materials or services provided to you by any of these organisations.
   Please note that, although these organisations have attempted to ensure that any information or prices provided through the Site are as accurate as possible, they are not legally binding in any way.

Section 2: Community

9. Registration
   When seeking access to parts of the website, such as community forums, reader comments or blogs, you may be asked to register if you want to submit a contribution. You must then supply certain details if requested, such as your email address and a password. If you are under 16 you must get the consent of a parent or guardian before registering.
   You can only access the registration areas of the site if:
   1. your email address and password (if requested) are personal and may not be used by anyone else to access the site;
   2. you do not do anything to allow anyone who is not a registered user to access any registration area of the site;

• you do not create additional registration accounts which may cause disruption or abuse of the site; and

1. you do not supply us with false or misleading information or pass yourself off as another user.

If we believe that you have not complied with these requirements, we may cancel your access to the site immediately and without notice.

10. Cancellation or suspension
    We can suspend or cancel this agreement and your ability to use the website and its community forums, reader comments and blogs with immediate effect at any time for any reason, including but not restricted to your serious or repeated breach of these Terms or any conduct in connection with your use of this site that we consider inappropriate or disruptive and which is serious or persistent. We will notify you of such termination at your registered email address and invalidate your access to the site.
11. Your responsibilities
    You are legally responsible for material you post or submit and you understand that by doing so you intend it to be published on the website. Such material may include without limitation words, artwork, pictures (still or moving) and sound. You give us free of charge the non-exclusive, sub-licensable right to edit, delete, copy, translate, create derivative works from, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, make available to the public or otherwise use and re-use material contributed by you (or not use it) on the website and its community forums, reader comments and blogs and associated publications, and in any other media (now known or later developed) worldwide for the full term of any rights that may exist in your contribution (including any renewals or extensions) and you waive any moral rights in your contribution for these purposes.
12. By publishing or posting material on this website, you warrant to us that:
    You do not infringe the rights of any individual, corporation or organisation, including but not restricted to the owners of any copyright and other intellectual property, confidentiality or privacy right, and you have obtained any necessary permissions.
    The material is your own original work or you have the right to make it available to use for the purposes in 11 above.
    You have not defamed any individual, corporation organisation or otherwise affected their legal rights. This may include but is not restricted to: comment which cannot be justified; facts which are untrue or unprovable; statements breaching an individual’s privacy; statements which may prejudice a court case; images or statements which are obscene, pornographic or illegal; statements which are offensive on grounds of race, religion, creed, colour or which may incite hatred or disrespect in any third party; statements which breach the criminal law, whether or not known to be illegal; statements which may breach professional ethics or standards.
13. Copyrights
    You acknowledge that all rights, including copyright and database rights, for any content on the website (including trade names and logos) or which is submitted by you belong to us or are licensed by you to us for the purposes in 11 above. You may read and contribute to the website and its communities, comments and blogs for your own private purposes but not for any advertising or other commercial purpose (which includes junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes or any other form of solicitation or commercial exploitation). For private purposes, you may download and use reader-generated content on a single PC and you may print out (but not photocopy) one hard screen copy of contributions to the website and its communities, comments or blogs for your personal use only. But you will not otherwise copy, store, distribute, publish, broadcast, transmit, show in public, create a database (in electronic or any other medium) from downloaded materials or otherwise use any part of this website without our written permission, except that you may reproduce reasonable extracts of any contribution to the website and its community, comments and blogs without our prior permission for non-commercial purposes provided that you deal fairly with the material and you properly accredit any original work to its author and the name of this site.
14. Indemnity
    You indemnify and will keep indemnified The Tuam Herald, its holding companies and subsidiaries of The Tuam Herald or any of its holding companies, together with their respective directors, employees and shareholders, from and against all claims, actions, proceedings, liabilities, losses, damages, expenses and costs (including legal costs) arising from any breach of these Terms by you or from the publication of any posting or submission whatsoever contributed by you or on your behalf. We reserve the right to take over the exclusive defence of any claim, action or proceeding for which you shall be financially responsible, and for which we are entitled to indemnity from you. In such event, you shall provide us with all co-operation as may reasonably be requested by us.
15. Contents
    You acknowledge that:
    1. the contributions to the website and its community forums, reader comments and blogs are the statements and views of the contributors and not of us or any of our connected companies, directors employees or shareholders;
    2. it is your sole responsibility to check the accuracy of any facts and opinions given on this website before entering into any commitment based upon them;

• we do not, as a matter of course, actively moderate, monitor or edit the contributions to the website and its community;

1. any third parties advertising on our websites, or external (or link) sites accessible via our websites, are not under our control and we are not responsible in any way for any of their contents or for any agreement you may enter into with a third party arising from your visit to our websites.

16. Loss or damage – disclaimer

We are not liable for any loss or damage, howsoever arising, from contributions to the website and its community by other parties, your use of this site or inability to use this site, or any errors and omissions on this site, whether in contract, tort or otherwise and whether such loss or damage is foreseen or forseeable. This includes but is not restricted to indirect, consequential, special or exemplary damages, loss of business, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of opportunity, loss of reputation, loss of data and loss suffered by third parties. This does not exclude our liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited by law.

17. We make no representations and give no warranties with regard to the quality, suitability, reliability, compatibility, accuracy, non-infringement or completeness of the contents of this website, and any implied warranties are excluded to the extent permitted by law.
18. We do not warrant that this website, the server that supplies it or any other of our systems will be uninterrupted or free of errors, viruses or bugs and we shall not be liable if this site is inaccessible at any time. Access may be suspended temporarily without notice for technical reasons or for reasons over which we have no control.
19. Data protection
    We will use your personal details to administer this site. From time to time, we may send direct marketing or promotional material information from us or selected third parties. You can indicate you do not wish to receive such material by electing a preference at the time of supplying details or by contacting us.
20. Conduct
    If we find your use of this site seriously inappropriate, offensive or disruptive, we may use information we have about you to stop such conduct, and this may include informing relevant third parties such as your employer, school, email provider or, in the case of any suspected unlawful activity, the police.
21. Further privacy terms are given in the Privacy Policy.
22. Jurisdiction
    These Terms & Conditions shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with Scottish Law and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Scotland.
23. If any of these terms are determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by any court then, to the extent to which that term is illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted from these Terms and the remaining terms shall remain in full force and effect.