A. Introduction

Welcome to the World Wide Web site of the Cyber Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA). We are excited about this new service and what it can offer all of our members. In order to provide a responsible service which complies with ALA guidelines, the Chapter requires that each of its members who wishes to make use of this service agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. This agreement is in addition to the membership obligations. Obviously, it is conditioned on your access to this system and on you continuing to abide by the terms and rules of membership in the Chapter and remaining a member in good standing of both ALA and the Chapter.

If you agree to what you read below, welcome to our system! An instruction screen at the end of the contract will show you how to sign up.

If you have any questions about any part of the contract, please let us know. You may reach us as follows:

Elizabeth S. ("Betsy") Widdop (Chapter President)

e-mail to president@cyberala.org

Frank Gould (Webmaster)

e-mail to webmaster@cyberala.org

We will be glad to explain why these contract provisions are important for our system. We are willing to work with you on making changes if you can show us you have a better approach.

Please remember that until you and we have an agreement in place, you may not use our system.

B. Access and Services

We will give you access to all information files and message areas on our system. Currently, these include:

Public message areas --

reading and posting messages.

Chapter information --

committee and meeting schedules, meetings directories publications.

File transfer areas --

for uploading, downloading certain files and browsing files.

Local e-mail --

sending and receiving messages (please see the section on privacy, below).

Chat areas --

real time discussions with other callers who are online at the same time as you.

Internet e-mail --

permitting you to send e-mail to systems on other computer networks.

Chapter inquiry areas --

where you may ask questions of your Chapter board members and committee chairs.

Committee inquiry areas --

where members of committees can share issues related to committee work.

News and bulletin boards --

providing access to news and information which we believe will be of interest to our members.

We may change or discontinue certain access or services on our system from time to time. We will try to let you know about such changes in advance, but reserve the right to make such changes without notice.

C. Price and Payment

Membership in the Cyber Chapter is restricted to current members of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA). ALA members in good standing who wish to join the Cyber Chapter should forward annual dues payment of Fifty Dollars US (USD 50.00) to the current chapter membership chair. Please see the "Officers" page for the name and address of our current chapter membership chair.

D. System Rules

In order to keep this system attractive and useful for all users, we need you to follow the rules we set for use of the system. You will find some of our rules here in this contract, and the rest in bulletins posted at various points in the system.

Here are some of the basic rules for our system:
 

• Respect other callers of the system. Feel free to express yourself, but do not do anything to injure or harm others. In particular, if you dislike someone else's ideas, you can attack the ideas, but not the person.
  
  
• We want people to speak freely on our system. But if you misuse that freedom to abuse others, we will take the liberty of cutting that discussion short.
  
  
• Do not use our system for anything that might be illegal. This system may not be used to encourage anything to do with illegal drugs, gambling, pornography, prostitution, child pornography, robbery, spreading computer viruses, cracking into private computer systems, software infringement, trafficking in credit card codes, or other crimes.
  
  
• Do not use the system to defame or disparage any person or member of the Chapter or of ALA.
  
  
• Do not use the system to communicate with competitors about prices, terms of service or otherwise communicate in a way that may violate the anti-trust laws.
  
  
• The system may not be used to violate any rules of membership in the Chapter or the by-laws of the Chapter.
  
  
• The Chapter reserves the right to modify or change the rules as it determines from time-to-time in the best interests of the Chapter.
  
  
• Respect the security of our system. Do not try to gain access to system areas private to ourselves, or to other callers. Some callers try to crack system security just to show it can be done. Don't try to demonstrate this on our system.

E. Privacy

• We offer private electronic mail on our system as a service to our callers. We will endeavor to keep all of your e-mail private, viewable only by you and the person to whom you address it, except:
  
  
• We, as system operators, may need to look at your electronic mail if we believe it is necessary to protect ourselves or other callers from injury or damage. For example, if we have reason to believe a caller is involved in activities which violate our rules or applicable law, which could lead the authorities to seize or search our system, we may review his or her electronic mail for our own protection. We will not, however, monitor electronic mail unless we believe it is being misused.
  
  
• We will not deliberately disclose electronic mail to other callers. If we believe certain electronic mail is connected with activities which violate our rules or applicable law, we may disclose it to the authorities to protect our system, ourselves and other callers.
  
  
• Remember that the person to whom you send electronic mail is not legally required to keep it secret. The sender or receiver of electronic mail has the right to make it public.
  
  
• If a governmental authority ever searches or seizes our system, it may gain access to your private electronic mail. In that case, we cannot assure they will not review it. Remember that you have personal rights of privacy that even the government cannot legally violate, though you may have to go to court to enforce those rights.
  
  
• All electronic messages are copied as a routine matter and destroyed on a regular basis. The Chapter disclaims any responsibility either to maintain copies of any such communication or to ensure that such information is deleted.

F. Editorial Control

We want our system to be a worthwhile place for all of our members. This does not mean everyone can do whatever they choose on this system, regardless of its effect on others. It is our job to accommodate the common needs of all members while we strive to meet our own goals for the system and the Chapter.

We will not monitor all messages and file transfers. We want to keep the message and file traffic moving quickly and smoothly; this goal would be defeated if we monitored everything on the system. However, if we see (or hear about) messages or other activities that violate the rules, threaten the order or security of the system, or otherwise misuse the system, we will take appropriate action.

Our editorial control includes normal housekeeping activities like changing subject headers and deleting profanities in public messages and selecting among uploaded files for those we wish to make available for download. It also goes beyond that.

If a caller persists in posting messages or transferring files that we previously warned should not be on the system, those messages will be deleted, and he or she may be locked out. If we discover any caller violating the rules, especially the prohibition against illegal activities, we will act firmly and swiftly. Depending on the circumstances, the caller involved will be warned, or simply locked out. If the caller has done anything to put us or other callers in jeopardy, we may contact the authorities.

We do not plan on doing any of these things. If all callers act with respect and regard for us and for other callers, there will never be any problems. But if problems arise, we will assert control over our system against any caller who threatens it. And in this Agreement, you consent to our taking such action in our sole and absolute discretion.

G. Ownership of Materials

You may not post or upload any messages or files unless you own them, or you have full authority to transmit them to this system.

You hereby consent to the reproduction of any messages which are sent to this system. Unless indicated otherwise, you may freely copy any materials posted by the Chapter for your use. You may not make any other copies unless expressly authorized nor may you use any information for any other wrongful purpose.

We own certain things you will find on this system, including the "look and feel" of the system, the name of our system, and the collective work copyright in sequences of public messages on our system. You cannot reproduce any message thread from our system, either electronically or in print, without our permission and the permission of all participants in the thread.

The Chapter owns the trademarks Cyber Chapter, Cy Bear, Cyberala.org, and the Cy Bear logo, and these may not be used or reproduced except as expressly permitted by the Chapter.

This is not a complete list other things on the system are also our property. Before you copy anything from our system with plans of reproducing it or distributing it, contact us about it.

H. Limitations of Liability and Indemnity

The great danger for us, and for all operators of online systems, is that we might be held accountable for the wrongful actions of our callers. If one caller libels another caller, the injured caller might blame us, even though the first caller was really at fault. If a caller uploads a program with a computer virus, and other callers' computers are damaged, we might be blamed even though the virus was left on our board by a caller. If a caller transfers illegal credit card information to another caller through private electronic mail, we might be blamed even though we did nothing more than unknowingly carry the message from one caller to another.

We did not start this system to take the blame for others' actions, and we cannot afford to operate it if we must take that blame. Accordingly, we need all callers to accept responsibility for their own acts, and to accept that an act by another caller that damages them must not be blamed on us, but on the other caller. These needs are accomplished by the following paragraph:

I. Choice of Law

Our website can be accessed by individuals in all fifty states of the United States of America ("USA"), and around the world. Each of these places has a different set of laws. Since we cannot keep track of all these laws and their requirements, you agree that the law of our own state and country, the State of Illinois in the USA will apply to all matters relating to this Agreement and to our bulletin board system. In addition, you agree and consent that if there is ever any legal action against us, the state and federal courts of Cook County, Illinois, USA, will have exclusive jurisdiction and be the exclusive venue for any such legal actions.

J. General

This agreement is the entire understanding between you and us regarding your relationship to our bulletin board system. If either you or we fail to notify the other of any violations of this agreement, this will not mean that you or we cannot notify the other of future violations of any part of this agreement.

Cyber Chapter of Association of Legal Administrators

By:

 

  Authorized signatory

If you agree to comply with this agreement, click on the first button below, and then click on the "submit" button.

I agree to abide by this agreement. Check this button if you accept the terms of this agreement; you will advance to the registration page for access to the members' portion of our site.

I do not agree or accept this agreement. Click this button if you do not agree to comply with this agreement; you will return to the welcome page of the public portion of our site.

Press the "exit" button to leave our site without applying for access.