Code of Conduct

Community Rules & Etiquette Guidelines

The Rules

• The discussions and comments are meant to stimulate conversation and not to create contention. Let others have their say, just as you may. Don’t attack others.
• Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
• Remember that the discussions and comments are intended to be used for informational and reference purposes only and should not be interpreted as medical advice or a diagnosis of any health issue, condition, or disease; or as a recommendation for a specific procedure, or treatment plan, or course of action. Always exercise your independent clinical judgment as a health care professional. Before you act on any information you've found on the AASLD Communities, you should independently confirm any facts that are important to your decision.
• Disclose relevant conflicts of interest. In your discussion posts, be sure to reveal any relevant conflicts of interest relating to the subject matter of the thread.
• Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.      
• Use caution when discussing products. The information posted on the lists and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws. 
• All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, confidential or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you. 
• When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. 
• Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate lists or libraries. Do not spam several lists or libraries with the same message. All messages must add to the body of knowledge. We reserve the right to reject any message for any reason.
• Do not post commercial messages on any discussion list, resource library entry, or other areas where community members might see them. This includes job recruitment advertisements. Contact people directly with product and service information if you believe it would help them.
• Do not use discussion groups to campaign for any AASLD office or endorse specific candidates. 
• Do not compose posts that contain personal details or private information about any other person, any confidential information, or any information that would infringe upon the proprietary, privacy, or personal rights of others. The Community is not intended to be a place for the exchange of any information or data that would be regulated by the federal Health Insurance and Portability Act (“HIPAA”) of 1996 and its implementing regulations.  Do not post any Protected Health Information, as that term is defined in HIPAA, to the Community.
• Respect the intellectual property rights of others.  Do not post or attach any copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright owner or use any words, logos, or other marks that would infringe upon the trademark, service mark, certification mark, or other intellectual property rights of the owners of such marks without the permission of such owners. Do not post trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information or any other information which might violate the privacy rights of others. If you are uncertain whether posting or attaching certain materials would violate the intellectual property rights of others, refrain from posting or attaching the materials. Instead, provide a link or citation to where the materials can be found.
• The posting of information or discussion about politics, candidates, campaigns, or other election-related issues is not permitted.
• Please read carefully all items in this Code of Conduct, including the Legal Rules and Disclaimers below. 

Discussion Group Etiquette

• Include a signature tag on all messages. Include your name, affiliation, and location. 
• State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject. 
• Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information and put your response before the original posting. 
• Only send a message to the entire list when it contains information that everyone can benefit from. 
• Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals--not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to Sender" link to the left of every message.
• Do not send administrative messages, such as asking to be removed from the list. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings. 
• Warn other list subscribers of lengthy messages either in the subject line or at the beginning of the message body with a line that says "Long Message."  

Enforcement

Remember that AASLD respects the Community. We understand that people make mistakes and prefer not to ban someone from the community following a single violation. However, AASLD reserves the right to deactivate a member account at any time.

AASLD also reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to remove any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal material, and to suspend or terminate a member account at any time for violating this Code of Conduct.

Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy

Any personal information you provide to us including and similar to your name, address, telephone number and email address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below or in accordance with AASLD’s Privacy Policy.

Remember the Risks Whenever You Use the Internet

While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition, other internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.  You can review AASLD’s Privacy Policy.  

Terms of Use / Legal Rules & Disclaimers

AASLD provides the Community for informational, educational and other purposes. The information displayed on the Community may not be used for any purpose except in connection with your personal, direct use as permitted by these Terms of Use, and may not be excerpted, summarized, duplicated, or otherwise removed from the Community. In addition, you represent, warrant and agree that you will not use (or plan, encourage or help others to use) the Community for any purpose or in any manner that is prohibited by these Terms of Use or by applicable law. As a condition of use of the Community, you promise not to use the Community or related services in any manner prohibited by applicable law and regulations. By way of example and not as a limitation, you shall not and shall not permit any third party to either (a) take any action or (b) upload, download, post, submit or otherwise distribute or facilitate distribution of any content on or through the Community, including without limitation any submission, that:

• infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity or other rights of any other person or entity or violates any law or contractual duty;
• you know is false, misleading, untruthful, or inaccurate;
• is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another’s privacy, tortious or obscene;
• constitutes unauthorized or unsolicited advertising, junk or bulk email (“spamming”);
• involves commercial activities (whether or not for profit) and/or sales without AASLD’s prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes;
• contains software viruses or any other computer codes, files, worms, or other malware or programs that are designed or intended to disrupt, disable, damage, limit, or interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment or to damage or obtain unauthorized access to any system, data, password or other information of AASLD or any third party;
• impersonates any person or entity;
• includes anyone’s identification documents or sensitive medical or financial information; or
• violates AASLD’s posted privacy, website, or other policies.

You shall not (directly or indirectly):

• interfere with the proper operation of the Community including, but not limited to, by attacking, hacking into, or otherwise attempting to penetrate any non-publicly accessible elements of the Site, through the use of bots, Trojan Horses, viruses, DNS attacks, or other technology which is designed or intended to interfere with the proper operation of the Site or the use of the website by any Users.
• remove from any such copies our copyright notice or other legends. You may not alter or modify the content.
• use manual or automated software, devices, or other processes to “crawl” or “spider” any page of the Community; or
• harvest or scrape any content from the Community or attempt to interfere with service to any users of the Community, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of submitting a virus to the Community, overloading, “flooding”, “mailbombing” or “crashing”.

AASLD reserves the right to make changes or modifications to the Community and this Code of Conduct. You will be notified of any changes by a notice of changes displayed on the Community.  The display of notice shall constitute effective notice of the changes on the day the notice is posted, and your continued use of the Community thereafter shall constitute your acceptance of such changes or modifications.

Your use of the Community, including your reliance on any content, is at your sole risk.  The Community is provided on an “as is” and “as available basis.”  AASLD disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by commenters in the Community are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or positions of AASLD, any entity thereof, or any other organizations with which an individual is affiliated. AASLD is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. AASLD makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, suitability or validity of any information presented by individual commenters. Any statements made in AASLD Communities reflect only the views of their authors. Before you act on any information you've found on the AASLD Communities, you should independently confirm any facts that are important to your decision.

Notwithstanding the presentation of any third-party information on the Community, no such presentation shall be considered an endorsement, representation or warranty, either express or implied, by AASLD on behalf of or any third party. In addition, AASLD does not endorse, warrant or otherwise guarantee the substance of any information posted by Users or third parties on the Community. AASLD shall have no liability or responsibility whatsoever for the content, subject matter or substance of any information accessed or obtained from a third-party website accessed from the Community. We encourage you to review the applicable terms of use and privacy policy of such third-party websites.

AASLD makes no representations or warranties regarding the truthfulness, accuracy, completeness, timeliness or reliability of any information submitted by Community users, or of any other form of communication engaged in or information exchanged by Community users. Information on the Community may contain inaccuracies or typographical errors. You acknowledge that any reliance on information submitted by users or on any other form of communication with users will be at your own risk.

You acknowledge and agree that AASLD and its associated entities, and their respective officers, directors, employees, members, and agents shall not be liable to you for any damages whatsoever, including, without limitation, any special, direct, indirect, punitive, or consequential damages or any damages resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with (1) the use or performance of any information posted on the Community; (2) the statements or conduct of any third party using the Community; (3) the unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmission or data; or (4) any other matter relating to your use of the Community.

IN NO EVENT WILL AASLD BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR ANY LOSSES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE COMMUNITY OR THE DOWNLOADING FROM, UPLOADING TO, AND/OR PRINTING MATERIAL DOWNLOADED FROM THE COMMUNITY WEBSITE.  WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, EVERYTHING ON THE COMMUNITY WEBSITE IS PROVIDED “AS-IS, WHERE-IS, WITH ALL FAULTS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND WITH NO GUARANTEE THAT THE COMMUNITY WILL BE ERROR-FREE OR THAT ANY ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED.  SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW OR MAY LIMIT THE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.  CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS FOR ANY RESTRICTIONS OR LIMITATIONS REGARDING THESE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS.

ANY ATTEMPT BY ANY PERSON TO DAMAGE ANY WEBSITE ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMMUNITY OR ITS AGENTS OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE COMMUNITY IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAW, AND AASLD AND ITS AGENTS RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

AASLD shall not be liable for any use or disclosure of Protected Health Information in violation of HIPAA through the Community, including, but not limited to, the transmission of Protected Health Information to an unintended recipient.  By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that the material does not infringe upon the privacy or personal rights of others, and further warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the party posting any information or material grants AASLD the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or material.

You acknowledge and agree that AASLD has the exclusive rights and privileges in and to the intellectual property rights of and with respect to providing the Community. You acknowledge and agree that the Community is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. The Community is provided solely for your personal, noncommercial use. Unless explicitly authorized in this Code of Conduct, by the owner of the materials, or in additional terms and conditions that may apply to the Community, you may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, download, post, transmit, translate, sell, create derivative works, exploit, or distribute in any manner or medium (including by email or other electronic means) any material from the Community.

You acknowledge and agree that AASLD has proprietary rights to the AASLD Communities, its logo, and service marks (the “AASLD Communities Marks”) and that you will not use the AASLD Communities Marks in a manner that has not been authorized by us.

Additional terms and conditions, including, without limitation, AASLD’s Governance Codes & Site Data Policy, may apply to the use of the Community.  If there is a conflict between this Code of Conduct and any other terms regarding the Community, this Code of Conduct governs to the extent of the conflict.     

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

AASLD does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not, on its own, undertake editorial control of postings. In the event that any inappropriate posting (including posting that contains any prohibited defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal material) is brought to the attention of AASLD, we will take all appropriate action at our sole discretion, including, without limitation, removal of the offending post, and account suspension or termination. While under no obligation to do so, AASLD may in its discretion review information submitted to the site for any purpose whatsoever and it reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject any information submitted to the site for any reason whatsoever.  

AASLD reserves the right to suspend or terminate access to any user who does not abide by this Code of Conduct for any reason at any time, in its sole discretion.

You agree to indemnify and hold the AASLD and its associated entities, and their respective officers, directors, employees, members, and agents harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, made by any third party due to or arising out of: (i) content you made available through your use of the Community; (ii) your violation of this Code of Conduct; or (iii) your violation of any rights of another.

The failure of the AASLD to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Code of Conduct shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision and shall not prevent its later enforcement. If any provision of the Code of Conduct is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Code of Conduct remain in full force and effect.

These Terms of Use are governed by the internal substantive laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without respect to its conflict of laws principles. Jurisdiction for any claims arising under these Terms of Use shall lie exclusively with the state and federal courts within the Commonwealth of Virginia.