Blog Terms of Use

These Terms of Use constitute an agreement between you and the Province of British Columbia, represented by the Minister of Environment (the “Province”) with respect to your use of the Blog (as defined below). By accepting these Terms of Use, you are deemed to have read and agreed to the terms and conditions set out below.

The Living Water Smart Blog (the “Blog”) is a public forum that welcomes candid dialogue and diverse views about water stewardship including water law reform.

To contribute to the Blog, you must be either of the age of majority or have obtained legal parental or guardian consent, in which case your legal parent or guardian will be responsible for your use of the Blog.

Submission and Review of Content: Questions, comments, ideas and other contributions to the Blog (collectively, the “Content”) will be screened before they are published and we hope the Blog will be self-governing. We are confident that contributors will not submit Content that offends any law or includes information about other people.

The Province reserves the right to edit or delete Content for any reason to ensure that all Content is reasonable and appropriate. In particular, defamatory, indecent, obscene, illegal, immoral and sexually-explicit Content will be removed. We will also remove: (a) Content that potentially or actually infringes any third party’s copyright, trademark, right of privacy, publicity or any other intellectual property or other right; and (b) Content containing information about other identifiable individuals, including their names, e-mail addresses, images of them or comments about them. If you are concerned about inappropriate content please e-mail [email protected], citing the date and author of the Content in question.

Ownership and License: You retain ownership of all Content you submit to the Blog (“Your Content”). You represent and warrant that: (a) Your Content is your original work, or has been provided to you or obtained by you from the rightful owner with all necessary permissions; and (b) Your Content does not infringe on the copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity or other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity.

By submitting Your Content to the Blog, and in consideration of the opportunity to participate in the Blog and other valuable consideration (the receipt and sufficiency of which you hereby acknowledge), you grant to the Province a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, reproduce, publish, communicate to the public by telecommunication, modify, display and distribute Your Content in any and all formats for any and all purposes associated with the Blog. You agree that the Province may engage independent contractors and service providers to assist the Province to exercise the rights you grant to the Province under these Terms of Use.

You agree that the Province may reformat, rearrange or otherwise modify Your Content, and you understand that the Province has no obligation to acknowledge you by name or pseudonym as the author of Your Content or to ensure that you remain anonymous.

With the exception of Your Content and Content submitted to the Blog by other contributors, all intellectual property in the Blog, including but not limited to copyright, official marks or trademarks, is owned by the Province. Copying or unauthorized use of any such intellectual property without the express written consent of the Province is prohibited.

Use of any material from or links to third party websites must be in accordance with these Terms of Use. The Province does not control such third party websites and is not responsible for their contents. The inclusion of hyperlinks to such third party websites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or any association with these third parties.

Freedom of Information: Since most government information, including the contents of this Blog, may be the subject of a freedom of information request, it is possible that some or all of the information you submit will be disclosed publically under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“FOIPPA”). Please consider this when commenting.

Collection of Personal Information: Your name, e-mail address and your opinions are characterized as “personal information” under FOIPPA. In order to hear your thoughts on Living Water Smart and water law reform, and to facilitate discussion with other users, we are collecting this personal information from you and we will share it with the Ministry of Environment, which is responsible for Living Water Smart for government. Your e-mail address may be used to contact you for clarification of your comment(s), to notify you of future opportunities to participate in public consultations, and to keep you updated on the progress of the Living Water Smart Program.

We also are collecting details of your visit to this website such as your IP address, and date and time of your visit, and your acceptance of the Terms of Use for the purpose of administering this site.

The authority to collect personal information comes from Section 26(c) of FOIPPA. If you have any questions about the collection of your personal information, please contact: Ian Graeme, Manager, Water Stewardship Division; by mail: to Po Box 9362, Victoria B.C. V8W 9M2; phone: 250 356-6663 or e-mail: [email protected].

Access and Disclosure: By accepting the Terms of Use, you consent to the use of your personal information for the purposes outlined above, the public disclosure and access in or outside of Canada of your name, comments and/or opinions and any other Content submitted by you, and the date/time of your submission for the purpose of participating in the conversation on Living Water Smart. You also consent to the administrators of this Blog sharing this personal information with the Ministry of Environment for their use in relation to Living Water Smart.

Limitation of Liability and Indemnity: You agree that under no circumstances will the Province or any of its respective servants, employees or agents be liable to any person or entity for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or other damages based on: (a) use of any of Your Content under these Terms of Use; (b) any use by you of the Blog; or (c) any failure by you to abide by these Terms of Use.

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Province and all of its respective servants, employees and agents from and against all claims, demands, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable legal fees) arising from: (a) your use of the Blog; (b) your violation of any provision of these Terms of Use; (c) your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any claims or action based on infringement or violation of intellectual property rights, libel or slander or other defamation, rights of privacy or rights of publicity; and (d) any claim that any of Your Content caused damage to a third party.

Additional Terms: These Terms of Use also incorporate the contents of the Copyright, Disclaimer, and Privacy notices at the bottom of the page. Please read them carefully.

If any term or provision of these Terms of Use is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, all other terms and provisions of these Terms of Use shall nonetheless remain in full force and effect.

These Terms of Use will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of British Columbia.