By accepting these Terms of Use and submitting material to the site, you agree that:

1. You may only access and use this site if you agree to be legally bound by these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to be legally bound by these Terms of Use, please do not access and/or use the site. You will be deemed to have accepted these Terms of Use if you commence or continue to access and use this site, and you will continue to be bound by these Terms of Use for as long as you access or use this site.

2. The Department of Health (the Department) may make changes to the site, including these Terms of Use, or terminate the site, at any time. You agree that you will be legally bound by the updated or amended Terms of Use from the first time you use the site after the updated version is published on the site.

3. You are welcome to post comments, ideas and discussion points on any relevant theme or topic, provided that you comply with these Terms of Use. You can respond to the original post or to comments from other users. The Department may choose to edit or remove your topic, as outlined below.

4. The Department may publish on the site any material uploaded, posted, emailed or otherwise submitted by you (User Generated Content). This includes text, photos, graphics, audio, video or any other material generated by you. It also includes documents or attachments that you upload with your post.

5. All User Generated Content published on the site remains published at the sole discretion of the Department. It may remain on the site for an indefinite period or may be removed at any time, at the sole discretion of the Department.

6. The Department may monitor, moderate or exercise editorial control over User Generated Content and reserves the right but not the obligation to assess or examine the User Generated Content after it is submitted or after it is posted on the site.

7. The Department will edit User Generated Content or remove User Generated Content from the site if, in the opinion of the Department of Health, that User Generated Content:
a: is incompatible with any Department or State of Victoria policy;
b: is misleading or false, or impersonating another living person;
c: is potentially libellous or defamatory;
d: is abusive, threatening, harassing, hateful, insulting, offensive, obscene, blasphemous or racially vilifying;
e: is of nuisance value, inappropriate, off topic or vexatious;
f: is spam, promotes a product or commercial services, or solicits business;
g: compromises your privacy or that of someone else, or breaches confidentiality; or
h: is deliberately provocative of other community members.

8. All intellectual property rights in this site (except User Generated Content) are owned by the State of Victoria.

9. All intellectual property rights in User Generated Content are owned by the user that contributes that content to the site. You acknowledge that content not owned by you is used with the permission or used under licence of the owner for the purposes of contributing the content to the site.

10. In relation to any User Generated Content that you contribute to this website in which you or a third party has a moral right, you consent and will procure the consent of any third party, to the State of Victoria and the Department doing or omitting to do anything that, but for this consent, would constitute an infringement of your moral rights in the material (as defined by the Copyright Act 1968). This includes reproducing, publishing, performing, transmitting, exhibiting, adapting, altering or in any way changing or using the material that you submit to or post on the site:
a: with or without attribution of authorship;
b: with or without any other materials comprising copyright;
c: with or without any other text, data, sounds or images;
d: with no title, the same title or any other title;
e: in any medium or context; or
f: in any way that the State of Victoria or the Department sees fit.

11. In submitting your User Generated Material to the site, you grant to the State of Victoria and the Department a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable worldwide licence to use, reproduce, edit, modify and exploit any User Generated Content that you submit to or post on the site, including but not limited to:
a: editing the User Generated Content to remove any content described in paragraph 10 above;
b: using the User Generated Content for reference purposes in the development of public policy related to preventative health; and
c: reproducing the User Generated Content in reports, publications or promotional material about this site.

12. In submitting your User Generated Content to the site, you warrant to the Department and the State of Victoria that:
a: you have the right, including but not limited to all necessary intellectual property rights, to post the content on the site and the right to grant the licence outlined in paragraph 11 above; and
b: by publishing your content on this site, the Department and the State of Victoria will not be infringing the intellectual property rights of any third party.
This means that if you post or upload any material that you have not written yourself, you have obtained all necessary permissions or licences to upload or post that material on the site.

13. You consent to the Department collecting and storing your IP address for security purposes. See our Website Privacy Statement for more information about how we protect and manage information about our users.

14. You agree to indemnify the Department and the State of Victoria against all loss, legal fees, damages and other expenses incurred as a result of a breach by you of these Terms and your submission of any content to the site. This means that if a third party makes a claim against the State of Victoria or the Department that relates to the material that you have posted on, submitted to or uploaded to the site, you agree to reimburse the State of Victoria and the Department for any loss or damage that they suffer as a result of the claim. Examples of when this might occur include: if the material you post is inaccurate or defamatory, or if the dissemination of the material constitutes a breach of privacy or an infringement of the intellectual property rights of a third party.

15. Notwithstanding paragraph 10 above, the Department of Health reserves the right to edit, reject or delete any comments that have breached these Terms of Use.

16. The Department retains the right to deregister or suspend the membership of any user whose use of the website does not comply with these Terms of Use.