Terms of use

Forum user policy – Blog (Sciencecity), Teachers’ Whiteboard and GTAC social media channels

Safe User Environment: GTAC forums are designed to be positive, safe environments where all users must be treated with respect and tolerance.

When submitting content or participating in forums on GTAC’s website or social media sites, you agree to ensure that the information you provide is useful to others using the site by:

Providing balanced feedback on your experience where possible.
Providing information only about your own experience.
Not submitting content that is unsubstantiated or which is designed to negatively impact the reputation of a school, institution, staff or students or any aspect of these.
Not submitting information that is known by you to be false, inaccurate or misleading.
Not submitting information that is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any individual, institution or corporation.
Not posting material containing profanity, vulgarity, hate speech or threats of violence.
Not submitting information for which you were compensated, granted any consideration or instructed by any third party.
Not submitting information that includes references to named individuals (where written permission has not been first obtained to use their name) and/or their contact details (electronic or otherwise).
Not seeking to influence other users within or outside the forums.
The community understands that members may have varying levels of English competency and as such, will not criticise the language or typing skills of other members. Members should also be mindful of miscommunication that can occur when using CAPS exclusively, shorthand and other non-conventional communication methods.
Members may only have a single account at one time.
The administrators of this site reserve the right to remove posts where they are considered to be in breach this policy and/or appear to contradict the Safe User Environment spirit which users have agreed to uphold.

Prohibited content

The following content will not be deemed acceptable to appear on forums on GTAC’s website or social media forums:

Content that slanders or seeks to injure the reputation of an individual, organisation or corporation.
Content suspected to be have been written or solicited by an interested third party.
Content that does not meet the minimum standard of utility, by being based on conjecture or bias that is unfounded.
Content that includes references to named individuals (where the author does not have written permission to use their name) and/or their contact details (electronic or otherwise).
Content that links out to external resources which may breach the conditions of this policy. This may be considered spam, non-sense or off-topic.
Content that contains single worded responses.
Content that may be considered advertising.

For further information, please contact us at gtac@gtac.edu.au.

Copyright/Disclaimer

This site has been compiled from information developed by GTAC and its associated biosciences and educational resource partners, and is subject to change without notice.

GTAC has used its best endeavours to ensure that the information is correct and current at the time of publication but takes no responsibility for any error, omission or defect therein. To the extent permitted by law, GTAC and its employees, associates and consultants exclude all liability for any loss or damage (including indirect, special or consequential loss or damage) arising from the use of, or reliance on, the information whether or not caused by any negligent act or omission. If any law prohibits the exclusion of such liability, limits its liability to the extent permitted by law, to the resupply of the information.

Disclaimer - downloadable documents

GTAC makes available to you the provision to download particular documents, on the conditions set out below. If you do not agree with these conditions, then you should not download the material.

Conditions:

1The information is provided on the basis that upon downloading you will conduct such virus scanning and other checks as may be necessary to ensure that the downloaded material will not corrupt in any way your data, software or systems or those of any other person.
You acknowledge and agree that GTAC will not be under any liability to you for any loss or damage including consequential loss or damage however caused, whether by negligence or otherwise, that arises in any way from the use of the downloaded material.
If you provide the downloaded material to another party, then you should bring to the attention of that other party these conditions and only provide the downloaded material on the same conditions and under the same terms as those on which the original downloaded material was provided to you by GTAC.

Discussion groups & blogs

This site includes among its services discussion forums and comment areas in which users are invited to submit comments. In some cases, personal identifier information such as name or email address is requested or required. This information is posted for public access by site users along with the submitted comments and messages which it accompanies. GTAC endeavours to prevent improper use of the discussion forums and chat areas but GTAC will not be under any liability for any consequential damage however caused. GTAC may terminate the user’s access to the GTAC website or GTAC-run social media sites immediately if the user breaches any provision of this notice.

Use of information

Any information, ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques provided by, or obtained from, you or your use of GTAC’s website or social media sites shall be deemed to be non-confidential and GTAC shall be free to reproduce, use, disclose and distribute the information to others without limitation.

Applicable law

This web-site (excluding any linked third party sites) is controlled by GTAC from its offices at University High School, 1H Royal Parade, Parkville Victoria 3052. By accessing this site, you accept that any disputes about this website or its contents are to be determined by the courts having jurisdiction in Victoria, Australia in accordance with the laws in force in Victoria (except any principle of conflict of laws inconsistent with this requirement).
This website may be accessed throughout Australia and overseas. GTAC makes no representation that the content of this website complies with the laws (including intellectual property laws) of any country outside Australia. If you access this site from outside Australia, you do so on your own responsibility and are responsible for ensuring compliance with all laws in the place where you are located.

Copyright

© Gene Technology Access Centre 2013
GTAC respects the intellectual property rights of others, and we ask that our users do the same.

This website and its contents including pages, documents, online graphics, audio and video are subject to copyright under the laws of Australia and, through international treaties, other countries. The copyright is owned by GTAC, or in the case of some materials, by third parties (third party materials).

Educational users
An educational institution situated in Australia which is not conducted for profit, or a body responsible for administering such an institution, may copy and communicate the materials, other than third party materials, for the educational purposes of the institution.

All other users
You may view the contents of this website and save an electronic copy, download, or print all or part of this website, other than third party materials, for your own personal information, or personal research or study, but only if you:

do not modify the copy from how it appears on the GTAC website, and

Other uses of the contents of this website, other than those permitted by an exception in the Copyright Act 1968, require permission. This permission may be sought from the GTAC by emailing gtac@gtac.edu.au
Permission, if given, will be subject to conditions that will include a requirement that the copyright owner's name, GTAC be acknowledged when the material is reproduced or quoted, either in whole or in part.

Trademark notice and Gene Technology Access Centre / GTAC name

This site includes registered trademarks (or trademarks in the process of being registered) which are otherwise protected by law including, but not limited to, the word GTAC (Gene Technology Access Centre) and the GTAC logo. Unless otherwise indicated, they are owned by GTAC.

You may not use GTAC’s trademarks or the name GTAC except

by saving, or printing out, a copy of GTAC's website as permitted by the Copyright notice
as part of a fair reference to GTAC or applicable sub-site with proper recognition of the trademark's status, or
otherwise with GTAC's or copyright owner's prior written consent.

Third party sites
Third party material linked from the GTAC pages, or discovered via the GTAC search engine, is subject to the copyright conditions of the third party. Users will need to consult the copyright notice of the third party sites for conditions of usage.

The documents posted on this server contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organisations and institutions. These links and pointers are provided for the user's convenience.

GTAC does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to particular items in hypertext is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered, on these outside sites, or the organisations sponsoring/owning the sites. You access those sites and use their products and services solely at your own risk.

You must not reproduce, distribute, transmit, publish, copy, transfer or commercially exploit any information accessed through or received from the GTAC website that would
be an infringement of any copyright, patent, trademark design or other intellectual property right.

Related information
For further information about intellectual property for schools, see Department of Education and Early Childhood Development – Copyright guidelines for Victorian Government Schools V4 2008.