Terms and Conditions of Membership

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Data Protection Professionals in Education (DPPE): Registered office: Regent Court, 8 Caroline Point, 62 Caroline Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom, B3 1UF

Email: support@dppe.org.uk

1. Definitions and interpretation

1.1 The following definitions and rules of interpretation shall apply to our Contract.

1.2 In our Contract:

Authorised Users	means the named users authorised by DPPE to use the Services in accordance with the Contract
Member	means the organisation named as the member in the Membership Joining Form;
Data Protection Laws	means all applicable data protection and privacy legislation in force from time to time in the UK including the EU General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679); the Data Protection Act 2018; the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002/58/EC (as updated by Directive 2009/136/EC) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/2426) as amended;
DPPE Forum	means the “forum.dppe.org.uk”, DPPE website, website and all content, services and products available at or through the website, including, but not limited to, discussion forums, private messages and blogs (taken together, the DPPE Forum)
Fees	means the Membership Fees together with any other amounts payable to DPPE under our Contract;
Intellectual Property Rights	means any and all copyright, rights in inventions, patents, know-how, trade secrets, trademarks and trade names, service marks, design rights, rights in get-up, database rights and rights in data, domain names and all similar rights and, in each case: whether registered or not; including any applications to protect or register such rights; including all renewals and extensions of such rights or applications; whether vested, contingent or future; and wherever existing;
Materials	means all services, data, information, DPPE legal advice, DPPE articles, DPPE Newsletters, DPPE documentation, DPPE content, Intellectual Property Rights, websites, software and other materials provided by or on behalf of DPPE in connection with the Services;
Permitted Downtime	means scheduled maintenance which DPPE shall use reasonable endeavours to undertake from 5pm to 9am (UK time) on Business Days or on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays; emergency maintenance; or downtime caused in whole or part by Force Majeure.
Permitted Purpose	means use solely for professional operations and in accordance with our Contract. Permitted Purpose expressly excludes any of the following to the maximum extent permitted by law: (a) copying, reproducing, publishing, distributing, redistributing, broadcasting, transmitting, modifying, adapting, editing, abstracting, storing, archiving, displaying publicly or to third parties, selling, licensing, leasing, renting, assigning, transferring, disclosing (in each case whether or not for charge) or in any way commercially exploiting any part of the Services; (b) permitting any use of the Services  by any third party; (c) combining, merging or otherwise permitting the Services (or any part of them) to become incorporated in any other service, or arranging or creating derivative works based on them (in whole or in part); or (d) attempting to reverse engineer, observe, study or test the functioning of or decompile the Applications or the Services (or any part), except as expressly permitted under our Contract;
Service Period	means the period beginning on the date this Contract is entered into by both parties and ending with the last of the Subscribed Service Periods;
Services	means access to DPPE’s online members-only Forum, receipt of DPPE’s termly Newsletter and DPPE alerts and discount off certain events and services;
Service Levels	the service levels set out in Schedule One;
DPPE	Data Protection Professionals in Education, Company registration no. 12194109 and with its registered office at Regent Court, 8 Caroline Point, 62 Caroline Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom, B3 1UF;
Support Services	the support services provided by the Supplier to the Client as described in Schedule One;
VAT	means United Kingdom value added tax, any other tax imposed in substitution for it and any equivalent or similar tax imposed outside the United Kingdom.

2. The Services

2.1 Subject to the Member paying the required Membership Fee and complying with the terms and conditions of this Contract, DPPE grants the Member a non-exclusive, non-transferable, right to:

(a) use the Services during the subscription Service Period for the Permitted Purpose.

2.2 The Member acknowledges that their access to the Services may take up to 10 Business Days from receipt of the Membership Fee by DPPE and that use of the Services is at all times subject to the Member’s compliance with our Contract (including all minimum system requirements).

2.3 The Member acknowledges that the Services do not include:

(a) any services, systems or equipment required to access the internet (and that the Member is solely responsible for procuring access to the internet and for all costs and expenses in connection with internet access, communications, data transmission and wireless or mobile charges incurred by it in connection with use of the Services); or

(b) dedicated data back up or disaster recovery facilities and the Member should ensure it at all times maintains backups of all member data, or

(c) A guaranteed place at the termly DPPE meeting or any courses, where places are offered on a first come first served basis or such other system which is deemed fair to all members.

2.4 With the exception of the termly meetings which are usually held in person, the Member acknowledges that their access and use of the Services will be via the internet and no software will be provided to the Member in any form of media or installed on any servers or other computer equipment owned by the Member.

2.5 The Services and any Newsletter or meeting are provided to the Client on an ‘as is’ basis.

2.6 DPPE shall use reasonably commercial endeavours to meet the Service Levels specified.

3. Authorised Users

3.1 The Member shall ensure that only Authorised Users shall use the Services and that such use is at all times in accordance with our Contract. The Member shall ensure that Authorised Users are, at all times whilst they have access to the Services, the employees or contractors of the Member.

3.2 The Member shall keep a list of all Authorised Users and shall notify DPPE within two Business Days if any updates to that list are made or required, including when Authorised Users cease to be employed or engaged by the member such that they are no longer entitled to be Authorised Users.

3.3 The Member shall provide DPPE with basic details relating to the Authorised Users including their full name, job title, employment address, telephone number and their employer’s email address. This information together with any other information about a Member, provided to DPPE, must be true, accurate and up to date.

3.4 Authorised User accounts cannot be shared ether internally within the Member’s organisation or externally, or used by more than one individual at the same time. Once a user ID has been generated it is deemed activated and cannot be transferred to another user.

3.5 Unused user accounts cannot be carried forward to subsequent subscription periods.

3.6 Without prejudice to any other right or remedy of DPPE, in the event the Member is in breach of clause 3.1, 3.3 or 3.4 then the warranties in clause 7.1 shall cease to apply to the Services for the duration of the period during which the Client is in breach.

3.7 The Member shall:

(a) be liable for the acts and omissions of the Authorised Users; and

(b) procure that each Authorised User is aware of, and complies with the obligations and restrictions imposed on the Member under our Contract including all obligations and restrictions.

3.8 The Member warrants and represents that it, and all Authorised Users shall,  keep confidential and not share with any third party either within or outside their organisation, their password or access details for the Services.

3.9 The Member warrants and represents that it, and all Authorised Users  shall not use the Services to procure information or services on behalf of a third party that is not a fully paid up Member of DPPE.

3.10 This clause 3 shall survive termination or expiry of the Contract.

4. Support

4.1 Support Services shall be available to the Member for the duration of the respective Subscribed Service Period as specified in Schedule One.

4.2 DPPE will use reasonable endeavours to notify the Member in advance of scheduled maintenance, but the Member acknowledges that it may not receive advance notification for downtime caused by Force Majeure or for other urgent maintenance.

5. Changes to Services

5.1 The Member acknowledges that DPPE shall be entitled to modify the features and functionality of the Services provided that any such modification does not adversely affect the use of the Services by the Member.

6. Fees and payment

6.1 The Membership Fees shall be paid by the Member immediately upon joining,

(a) for the first 12 months’ subscription or where joining part way through a DPPE-membership year, a prorated amount depending upon the month of joining and

(b) for each subsequent year, by the Renewal Date.

6.2 Membership Fees shall be paid electronically using DPPE’s preferred method of BACS. DPPE reserves the right to impose an administrative charge where Membership Fees are not paid by the preferred method of BACS.

6.3 DPPE shall invoice the Member in advance of the Renewal Date, in respect of the Fees.

6.4 DPPE shall invoice the Member for any additional payments agreed by the parties as they arise.

6.5 All invoices shall be paid within 30 calendar days of the date on the invoice unless otherwise agreed in writing.

6.6 The Fees are exclusive of VAT which shall be payable (where applicable) by the Member at the rate and in the manner prescribed by law.

6.7 DPPE shall have the right to charge interest on overdue invoices at the rate of 4% per year above the base rate of the Bank of England, calculated from the date when payment of the invoice becomes due for payment up to and including the date of actual payment whether before or after judgment.

6.8 If DPPE has not received payment of an invoice, within 30 days after the due date, it may, without liability to the Member, disable the Member’s access to any or all of the Services and DPPE shall be under no obligation to provide any or all of the Services while the invoice(s) concerned remain unpaid.

6.9 DPPE shall be entitled to increase the Fees at the start of each Renewal Period upon 30 days’ prior notice to the Members.

7. Warranties

7.1 Subject to the remainder of this clause 8, DPPE warrants that:

(a) The Services shall operate materially when used in accordance with the Contract under normal use and normal circumstances during the relevant Subscribed Service Period; and

(b) it will provide the Services with reasonable care and skill.

7.2 The Services may be subject to delays, interruptions, errors or other problems resulting from use of the internet or public electronic communications networks used by the parties or third parties. The Member acknowledges that such risks are inherent in cloud services and that DPPE shall have no liability for any such delays, interruptions, errors or other problems.

7.3 If there is a breach of any warranty in clause 7.1 DPPE shall use reasonable endeavours to repair or replace the impacted Services within a reasonable time. To the maximum extent permitted by law, this clause 7.3 sets out the Member’s sole and exclusive remedy (however arising, whether in contract, negligence or otherwise) for any breach of any of the warranties in clause 7.1.

7.4 The warranties in clause 7.1 are subject to the limitations set out in clause 13 and shall not apply to the extent that any error in the Services arises as a result of:

(a) incorrect operation or use of the Services by the Member;

(b) use of any of the Services other than for the purposes for which they are intended;

(c) use of any Services with other software or services or on equipment with which it is incompatible;

(d) any act by any third party (including hacking or the introduction of any virus or malicious code);

(e) any modification of Services (other than that undertaken by DPPE or at its direction); or

(f) any breach of this Contract by the Member.

7.5 DPPE does not warrant that the Services will be completely uninterrupted or error-free.

7.6 Other than as set out in this clause 7, and subject to clause 13.3, all warranties, conditions, terms, undertakings or obligations whether express or implied and including any implied terms relating to quality, fitness for any particular purpose or ability to achieve a particular result are excluded to the fullest extent allowed by applicable law.

8. Member’s responsibilities

8.1 The Member shall at all times comply with this contract and shall, where relevant ensure that its Authorised Users shall:

(a) comply with all applicable laws relating to the use or receipt of the Services, including but not limited to, laws relating to privacy, intellectual property (e.g. copyright), data protection and use of systems and communications.

(b) be responsible for maintaining the security of their DPPE Forum account, for all activities that occur under their DPPE account and any other actions taken in connection with their use of the Service.

(c) immediately notify DPPE of any actual or suspected unauthorised use of their DPPE account or any other breaches of security.

8.2 Where  Members  post material or links to the DPPE Forum, or otherwise makes (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the DPPE Forum, the Member is entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software. By making Content available, the Member represents and warrants that:

(a) the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;

(b) if the Member (or other third party) has rights to intellectual property he or she creates, the Member has either (i) received permission to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from their employer (or such other third-party) a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;

(c) they have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;

(d) the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;

(e) the Content is not spam, is not machine or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or third-party commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third-party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);

(f) the Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite violence, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;

(g) they have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by DPPE or otherwise.

(h) The Content is not unlawful.

9. Responsibility of DPPE Forum Visitors

9.1 DPPE has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, posted to the DPPE Forum, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects.

9.2 By operating the DPPE Forum, DPPE does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. The Member is responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect themselves,  and their or their employer’s  computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The DPPE Forum may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The DPPE Forum may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. DPPE disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.

10. Content Posted on Other Websites

10.1 DPPE has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the DPPE Forum and webpages to which forum.dppe.org.uk links, and that link to forum.dppe.org.uk. DPPE does not have any control over those non-DPPE websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their content or their use. By linking to a non-DPPE website or webpage, DPPE does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage.

(a) The Member is responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect themselves and their computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. DPPE disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-DPPE websites and webpages.

11. Intellectual Property

11.1 Any Intellectual Property Rights owned by either party prior to the date of the Contract shall be vested in and remain with that party.

11.2 All Intellectual Property Rights in and to the Services (including in all Applications, Documentation and all Materials) belong to and shall remain vested in DPPE.

11.3 To the extent that the Member acquires any Intellectual Property Rights in the Materials or any other part of the Services, the Member shall assign or procure the assignment of such Intellectual Property Rights with full title guarantee to DPPE.

11.4 The Member hereby grants a royalty-free, non-transferable, non-exclusive licence for DPPE to use, copy and otherwise use the Member’s data and Member’s systems to the extent necessary to perform or provide the Services or to exercise or perform DPPE’s rights, remedies and obligations under the Contract.

11.5 This clause 11 shall survive the termination or expiry of the Contract.

11.6 Any infringement of the Intellectual Property Rights of either party shall constitute an irremediable material breach of this Contract.

12. Data Protection

12.1 This clause 12 shall survive the termination or expiry of the Contract.

12.2 DPPE may collect and process Personal Data in relation to the Member, Authorised Users and  Member’s employees for the purpose of managing, promoting and delivering the Services. 

12.3 Where DPPE processes personal data in accordance with clause 12.2, it is a Data Controller of such information and will process personal data strictly in accordance with:

(a) Data Protection Laws, and

(b) the terms of DPPE’s Privacy Notice, a copy of which can be read at www.dppe.org.uk or read here.

13. Limitation of liability

13.1 This clause sets out the extent of DPPE’s liability under or in connection with this Contract, regardless of whether such liability arises in tort, contract or in any other way and whether or not caused by negligence or misrepresentation or under any indemnity.

13.2 Subject to clause 13.3:

(a) DPPE shall not be liable whether in tort, contract, misrepresentation, restitution or otherwise for any loss of profits, loss of business, depletion of goodwill and/or similar losses or loss or corruption of data or information, loss or corruption of software or systems or pure economic loss, or for any special, indirect or consequential loss, costs, damages, charges or expenses however arising under this Contract; and

(b) DPPE’s total aggregate liability in contract, tort, misrepresentation, restitution or otherwise, arising in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of this Contract shall be limited to the total Fees paid for the Services during the 12 months immediately preceding the date on which the claim arose.

13.3 Notwithstanding any other provision of the Contract, DPPE’s liability shall not be limited in any way in respect of the following:

(a) death or personal injury caused by negligence;

(b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or

(c) any other losses which cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law.

14. Suspension

14.1 DPPE may suspend the Member’s access to all or part of the Services if:

(a) DPPE suspects, on reasonable grounds, that there has been any misuse of the Services or breach of the Contract; or

(b) the Member fails to pay any sums due to DPPE by the due date for payment.

15. Renewals

15.1 Subject to 15.2 below

(a) all memberships shall expire on 31 March, and then

(b) on 1 April (the Renewal Date), automatically renew for a further period of twelve months and,

(c) thereafter renew for a further period of twelve months on each anniversary of the first Renewal Date.

15.2 If the Member wishes their membership to expire on the next Renewal Date, they may serve notice upon DPPE to say that they wish their membership not to automatically renew at the next renewal date provided such notice is served at least 30 days prior to that Renewal Date. If notice is not served within the timeframes set out in this clause 15, the Services shall renew at the next Renewal Date in accordance with clause 15.2.

16. Term and termination

16.1 The Contract shall come into force on the Commencement Date and, unless terminated earlier in accordance with its terms, shall continue for the duration of the Service Period after which it shall automatically expire.

16.2 Either party may terminate the Contract immediately at any time by giving notice in writing to the other party if:

(a) the other party commits a material breach of the Contract and such breach is not remediable;

(b) the other party commits a material breach of the Contract which is not remedied within 20 Business Days of receiving written notice of such breach; or

(c) the other party has failed to pay any amount due under the Contract on the due date and such amount remains unpaid within 20 Business Days after the other party has received notification that the payment is overdue.

16.3 Without prejudice to clause 18 (Force Majeure), DPPE may terminate the Contract on notice, without liability to the Member, on giving not less than four months’ notice to the Member at any time.  If DPPE terminates this Contract under this clause 16.3, it will refund any money paid by the Member in respect of the period after termination.

17. Consequences of termination

17.1 Immediately on termination or expiry of the Contract (for any reason), the rights granted by DPPE under the Contract shall terminate and the Member shall:

(a) stop using the Services.

17.2 Termination or expiry of the Contract shall not affect any accrued rights and liabilities of either party at any time up to the date of termination or expiry and shall not affect any provision of the Contract that is expressly or by implication intended to continue beyond termination.

18. Force Majeure

18.1 In this Contract Force Majeure means an event or sequence of events beyond a party’s reasonable control preventing or delaying it from performing its obligations under the Contract (provided that an inability to pay is not Force Majeure), including, without limitation to:

(a) acts of God, flood, drought, earthquake or other natural disaster

(b) epidemic or pandemic;

(c) terrorist attack, civil war, civil commotion or riots, war, threat of or preparation for war, armed conflict, imposition of sanctions, embargo, or breaking off of diplomatic relations;

(d) nuclear, chemical or biological contamination or sonic boom;

(e) any law or any action taken by a government or public authority, including without limitation imposing an export or import restriction, quota or prohibition [, or failing to grant a necessary licence or consent];

(f) collapse of buildings, fire, explosion or accident;

(g) any labour or trade dispute, strikes, industrial action or lockouts;

(h) non-performance by suppliers or subcontractors; and

(i) interruption or failure of utility service.

18.2 Provided it has complied with clause 18.4, if a party is prevented, hindered or delayed in or from performing any of its obligations under this agreement by a Force Majeure Event (“Affected Party”), the Affected Party shall not be in breach of this agreement or otherwise liable for any such failure or delay in the performance of such obligations. The time for performance of such obligations shall be extended accordingly.

18.3 The corresponding obligations of the other party will be suspended, and its time for performance of such obligations extended, to the same extent as those of the Affected Party.

18.4 The Affected Party shall:

(a) as soon as reasonably practicable after the start of the Force Majeure Event but no later than 21 days from its start, notify the other party in writing, if reasonably possible, of the Force Majeure Event, the date on which it started, its likely or potential duration, and the effect of the Force Majeure Event on its ability to perform any of its obligations under the agreement; and

(b) use all reasonable endeavours to mitigate the effect of the Force Majeure Event on the performance of its obligations

18.5 If the Force Majeure Event prevents, hinders or delays the Affected Party’s performance of its obligations for a continuous period of more than four months the party not affected by the Force Majeure Event may terminate this agreement by giving three months’ written notice to the Affected Party.

18.6 DPPE shall have no liability to the Member under this Contract if it is prevented from or delayed in performing its obligations under this Contract, or from carrying on its business, for reasons of Force Majeure, provided that the Member is notified of such an event and its expected duration.

19. Entire agreement

19.1 The Contract constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and supersedes all previous agreements, understandings and arrangements between them in respect of its subject matter, whether in writing or oral.

19.2 Each party acknowledges that it has not entered into the Contract in reliance on, and shall have no remedies in respect of, any representation or warranty that is not expressly set out in the Contract.

19.3 Nothing in the Contract shall limit or exclude any liability for fraud.

20. Notices

20.1 Any notice or other communication given by a party under the Contract shall be in writing and sent to the other party at the address set out in these Terms and Conditions.

21 . Variation

21.1 No variation of the Contract shall be valid or effective unless it is in writing, refers to the Contract and is duly signed or executed by, or on behalf of, each party.

22. Set off

22.1 Each party shall pay all sums that it owes to the other party under the Contract without any set-off, counterclaim, deduction or withholding of any kind, save as may be required by law.

23. Waiver

23.1 No failure, delay or omission by either party in exercising any right, power or remedy provided by law or under the Contract shall operate as a waiver of that right, power or remedy, nor shall it preclude or restrict any future exercise of that or any other right, power or remedy.

23.2 No single or partial exercise of any right, power or remedy provided by law or under the Contract shall prevent any future exercise of it or the exercise of any other right, power or remedy.

24. Third party rights

24.1 A person who is not a party to the Contract shall not have any rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of its provisions.

25. Authority

25.1 Each party represents and warrants to the other that it has the right, power and authority to enter into the Contract and grant to the other the rights (if any) contemplated in the Contract and to perform its obligations under the Contract.

26. Governing Law

26.1 The Contract and any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, it, its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of England and Wales.

27. Jurisdiction

27.1 The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, the Contract, its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims).

Schedule One

Support Services

1. DPPE will use commercially reasonable endeavours to make the Services available for 99.5% of the Service Hours during the Service Period.

2. For the purposes of this Contract, ‘availability’ exists unless the Services are not accessible to the Member due to: (i) a hardware failure of the Server(s) at the third-party site where the Services are hosted; or (ii) a connection failure between the server hosting the Services and the closest internet router, in each case excluding Permitted Downtime.  Software bugs and errors are not relevant to availability and are expressly excluded.

3. The Member shall raise any support issues or queries with DPPE by email at support@dppe.org.uk . DPPE will use commercially reasonable endeavours to respond within 5 clear Business Days of receiving the Member’s communication.  

4 . DPPE will provide email support only to the Member during the Service Period during Support hours which are Business Days 9.00am to 5.00pm UK time.

5. The Member acknowledges that due to the nature of technology and software, DPPE cannot guarantee to resolve every issue that may arise.  However, subject to the other terms of this Contract, where any issues arise with the Services of which DPPE becomes aware or which are notified to DPPE by the Member, DPPE will use reasonable endeavours to resolve the issues as quickly as is reasonably practicable.

Schedule Two

DPPE Members Acceptable Use Policy

1. This Members “Acceptable Use Policy” (AUP) applies to  use of the DPPE Services by Members and their Authorised Users,  including,  but not limited to, forum posts, private messages and blogs.  The objective of this AUP is to protect the interests of DPPE and its Members but also the personal interests of our individual Authorised Users. By following it, each user is protecting each other.

2. DPPE encourages Members and Authorised Users to contribute to the DPPE platform but also to do so responsibly and in accordance with this AUP.

3. This AUP applies in addition to those other obligations and responsibilities identified in this Contract. It forms part of the Contract between Members and  DPPE and breach of it will amount to a breach of this Contract.

4. The Member and the Authorised User is  responsible for maintaining the security of their DPPE account, information, passwords and files. Passwords must be kept confidential and never shared with others. If the Member or Authorised User knows or suspects that someone else is aware of their password, they must let DPPE know immediately by contacting support@dppe.org.uk. DPPE may suspend or change any password if there is a breach of security or misuse of the DPPE Forum, or if it suspects that this may be the case.

5. We do not undertake to keep or make available any material that you or anyone else has contributed to the DPPE Forum for any length of time, and you are advised to make a copy of any material that you wish to keep.  We may delete, archive, make unavailable, modify or comment on any material, and close or suspend any discussion topic without prior notice.

6. Responsibility of Contributors: If a Member/Authorised User posts material to the DPPE Forum, the Member/Authorised User is entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content.

7. DPPE may, at our discretion, edit, block, delete or remove from the DPPE Forum any information or other material that the Member/Authorised User may have posted or accessed, for any reason (whether or not in breach of this Contract or AUP), at any time and without informing the Member/Authorised User.

8. When contributing to the DPPE Forum (including the Forum, website, private messages and blogs) any  submissions* must comply with the terms of this Contract including this AUP and specifically the rules set out below:

* Any reference to a Submission also includes any links to third party content, websites etc.

A. No Unlawful, Offensive or Defamatory Content:

• Submissions  must not contain: profanity, indecency, lewdness, obscenity, pornography, abusiveness, offence, insults, blasphemy (even if disguised with asterisks);
• Submissions must not contain threats of any kind, be harassing,  bullying or incite violence, nor violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party or be otherwise unlawful;
• Submissions must not contain material that is an invasion of privacy, a breach of data protection legislation, a malicious falsehood or libel, defamatory, a contempt of court, or that is likely to incite or be capable of inciting violence, racial hatred, sadism or cruelty or that encourages any unlawful or illegal act or omission;
• Use of the DPPE Forum by the Member and Authorised User must not breach any law or regulation.

B. Be Respectful to Others:

• Submissions  must be respectful, polite and professional to DPPE Members, DPPE and others;
• Do not make personal attacks against other individuals or organisations.

C. No Impersonating or Cross Posting:

• Keep to the discussion topic or the subject of the current article or theme;
• Don’t impersonate any person, whether a public figure or not;
• Don’t make false representations about being connected to, or affiliated with, any individual, organisation or entity;
• Don’t use oversized fonts, JavaScript, tables, headings or other advanced HTML commands use only bold or coloured fonts to emphasize your points.

D. No Marketing:

• Submissions must not contain promotional, fundraising or marketing messages (whether for commercial gain or not) and even if you are acting on behalf of a charity or non – profit making organisation, without the consent of DPPE. For example, please do not advertise jobs, training courses, conferences, pyramid selling or chain letters;
• Submissions must not contain commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites.

E. No Collection or Harvesting of Personal Data

• Do not collect, harvest or otherwise process personal data of any other DPPE Member (or other individual captured from the DPPE Forum), regardless of your purpose.

F. Respect Intellectual Proprietary Rights:

• Use of the Service must not infringe third party intellectual property rights, including the rights of DPPE. For example, copyright, database rights or other intellectual property rights unless you are the owner of those rights, or you have the permission of the lawful owner to publish that material in any way.

G. No Harmful, Misleading Content or Spam etc:

• Use of the Service must not (whether deliberately or not) install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
• Submissions must not include or create a link to any file that contains a virus, corrupted data,  Trojan Horse or anything else that might damage, destroy or render inaccessible any data or files on any computer.
• Posts and Content must not be spam or be machine, or randomly-generated.
• Posts and Content must not contain unethical or further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
• Submissions must not include any material that is intentionally false or that is misleading, or that causes annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety, or that is potentially damaging or harmful.

H. No Repurposing or External Distribution of DPPE Content etc.

• You must not, nor attempt to, (i) resell; (ii) make available on a local or wide area network; (iii) link to or frame; (iv) make mass, automated or systematic extractions from; (v) include within an archival or searchable database; (vi) access remotely; or (vii) distribute externally, any information accessed or received via the DPPE Forum (in whole or in part).  Any data which you access or download must be held securely in your possession and control, free from any third-party access and with all credits, legends, notices or markings maintained in full.