Muscular Dystrophy Association, Inc.
Terms of Use

The Muscular Dystrophy Association, Inc. (“MDA”) Terms of Use apply to MDA’s main website at mda.org and all other websites operated by MDA (collectively, the “MDA Websites”).  Information contained in the MDA Websites is for informational and educational purposes only.  Except as otherwise provided in MDA’s Privacy Policy, you may use the MDA Websites only if you are 18 years of age or older and comply with and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use.

Your Consent to Terms of Use

By accessing or using the MDA Websites in any manner, you agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms of Use.

All information disclosed and posted on the MDA Websites becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to share any of your or others’ personal information on the MDA Websites.

By agreeing to these Terms of Use you acknowledge that information on the MDA Websites is provided “as is” primarily for informational and educational purposes.  Information on the MDA Websites is not intended as medical advice, and should not be relied upon as a substitute for consultations with qualified health professionals who are familiar with your or others’ health care and medical needs.

The MDA Websites contain material, such as software, text, graphics, images, video, audio, and other material (collectively, “MDA Content”).  Unless otherwise indicated, all MDA Content is copyrighted by and proprietary to MDA, and may not be reproduced, published, transmitted or distributed in any manner without the prior express, written consent of MDA, although you may download one (1) copy of MDA Content for your own personal, non-commercial use.

Opinions and recommendations contained in the MDA Websites are not necessarily those of, or endorsed by, MDA.  Any hypertext link contained in any MDA Website is provided for convenience only.  MDA (i) possesses no control whatsoever over such links or any linked websites, (ii) makes no express or implied warranties, representations or endorsements of any kind regarding any linked website, and (iii) assumes no liability of any kind for any information contained in any linked website.

You agree that (i) under no circumstances shall MDA be liable for any damages whatsoever in connection with, arising out of, or resulting from your use of the MDA Websites or any information contained in the MDA Websites or other websites to which they are linked, and (ii) you will defend, indemnify, save and hold harmless MDA from and against all suits, claims, demands, causes of action, judgments, damages, losses, liabilities and expenses arising out of or resulting from your use of the MDA Websites or other websites to which they are linked – including but not limited to claims for personal injury or because you have found something you have heard, viewed or downloaded to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, or infringing upon your intellectual property rights.  In no event will MDA or any contributors of information to any MDA Website be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken by you in reliance on such information or for any actual, consequential, or special damages.

Included in these Terms of Use is your compliance with MDA’s Privacy Policy, which explains how user information is collected and used by MDA.  A copy of the Privacy Policy can be found at mda.org/privacy and is incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use.  By accessing or using any MDA Website, you acknowledge your acceptance of, and agreement to, MDA’s Privacy Policy as well.

These Terms of Use May Change

MDA is continually improving and adding features and functionality to the MDA Websites.  As a result of these changes, as well as changes in Federal or state laws, or any other reason deemed necessary by MDA in MDA’s sole discretion, these Terms of Use may be updated or revised.  MDA reserves the right to modify these Terms of Use at any time without notice, and it is your responsibility to apprise yourself of the most current Terms of Use.

Participants

Every person who accesses or uses any MDA Website in any manner, including, without limitation, posting or viewing comments, photos, video, personal information, or any other Participant Content (as defined below) on any MDA Website, is a “Participant” and shall comply with these Terms of Use and be subject to liability for failure to comply.

Responsibilities of Participants

Participants must be at least 18 years of age to access any MDA Website.  Each Participant is solely responsible for any information, data, text, music, audio, video, photographs, messages or other materials that he or she posts, uploads, transmits or otherwise makes available to other Participants on any MDA Website (collectively, “Participant Content”).  You also acknowledge, understand, and agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. Registration, Privacy, and Passwords

   You must be at least 18 years old to participate in any MDA Website.

   To use some MDA Websites, you must register by creating an account and selecting a unique password.  You agree to (i) provide accurate and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Registration page, and (ii) maintain your account for such MDA Website to keep it accurate.

   You may change your password at any time.  You may not use your password for any unauthorized purpose.  You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for any Participant Content that is submitted and activities that occur under your password.  MDA is not liable for any loss or damage that arises from your failure to keep your password confidential.

   You must immediately notify MDA of any unauthorized use of your password or identity as documented on the Registration Page of the applicable MDA Website, or other breach of security.  MDA is not responsible for such unauthorized use and makes no warranties as to the correction of such unauthorized use.

2. No Reproduction of MDA Content or Participant Content

   Participants agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell, redistribute, or exploit for any commercial purpose MDA Content or Participant Content from the MDA Websites without obtaining the express prior written consent of MDA.  This restriction includes any attempt to incorporate the information contained in the MDA Websites into any email or other “white pages” directory or database.  Such information includes the names, email addresses and other personal information provided by Participants of the MDA Websites.

3. No Commercial Use of the MDA Websites

   Participants agree not to use the MDA Websites or the information provided on the MDA Websites for any commercial activity or purpose.  By way of example and not of limitation, Participants shall not use the MDA Websites to:

   1. Make a commercial solicitation to any person or send “junk mail” or “spam” to any person;
   2. List as a contact any person they do not know, any person who has expressly informed the Participant that they do not wish to participate in the MDA Websites, or any other person who the Participant knows would be offended or annoyed by being asked to participate in the MDA Websites; or
   3. Recruit other Participants as subjects in a scientific or medical research project of any kind.
4. No Harassment or Objectionable Use of the MDA Websites, or Interference with Others’ Use of the MDA Websites

   Participants agree not to harass, threaten, intimidate, or make any other objectionable communication to, with, or about any person who uses the MDA Websites and further agree to cease such conduct at the request of either MDA, the person to whom the contact is targeted, or applicable government authorities.

   Participants shall use the MDA Websites solely for lawful purposes.

   Participants shall not contribute to the delinquency of a minor or solicit a minor in any way through use of the MDA Websites.
   Participants shall not engage in any conduct that, as determined in MDA’s sole discretion, inhibits any other Participant from using or enjoying the MDA Websites.

   Participants shall not post, provide, or otherwise make available Participant Content containing photographs, images, video, or other material that portrays other persons without permission from the owner of such material and the person(s) portrayed in such material.

5. Provision of Truthful, Accurate and Non-Injurious Participant Content

   Participants agree that any information provided by them will be truthful, accurate, not misleading, and not injurious to another person.

6. No Defamatory, Objectionable, or Infringing Material

   Participants shall not post, upload, transmit, provide, or otherwise make available on any MDA Website any Participant Content of any sort (including Participant information, such as names and usernames, postings and other publicly viewable information) that:

   1. Is defamatory or libelous or would violate or infringe in any way upon the rights of others;
   2. Is protected by copyright, patent, trademark, service mark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy, without the express written permission of the owner of such rights (MDA is not responsible for knowing if Participant Content represents copyright or other intellectual property, and it is the sole responsibility of a Participant who provides Participant Content to ensure that such Participant Content does not violate or infringe any copyright or other intellectual property rights);
   3. Violates any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, or gives rise to criminal or civil liability of any kind whatsoever;
   4. Is illegal or promotes illegal activity;
   5. Is deliberately false or misleading;
   6. Is indecent, pornographic, obscene, objectionable, sexually-oriented, or offensive;
   7. Promotes or provides access to online gambling;
   8. Promotes bigotry, racism, or hatred;
   9. Is threatening or abusive or promotes physical harm or violence against any individual or group; or
   10. Contains any software viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other harmful computer code, files, scripts, agents or programs or any other programming routines that may intentionally or unintentionally damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data, or personal information.
7. Remedies

   Violations of any of these Terms of Use may result in immediate termination of the Participant’s right to use the MDA Websites and MDA reserves the right to invoke any and all remedies available to it.

Your Acknowledgment of MDA’s Rights and Obligations

1. MDA Is Not Responsible for Participant Content:  Participants are solely responsible for the Participant Content they post.  MDA makes no warranties, express of implied, as to the Participant Content contained on any MDA Website, or to the accuracy or reliability of information or materials contained therein.  All statements, advice, and opinions made by any Participant in such Participant Content are those of the Participant only, and MDA neither endorses nor shall it be held responsible for the reliability, accuracy, usefulness, or fitness for any particular purpose.
2. Removal of Participant Content:  MDA shall have the right, exercisable in its sole discretion, but not the obligation, to refuse or delete any Participant Content or data which MDA becomes aware of which MDA determines, in its sole discretion, to be offensive, racist, lewd, profane, obscene, pornographic, hateful, rude, abusive, disruptive, defamatory, or otherwise in violation of these Terms of Use.
3. Right to Monitor, but No Obligation:  MDA shall have the right, exercisable in its sole discretion, but not the obligation, to monitor Participant Content of the MDA Websites provided by Participants in order to determine compliance with these Terms of Use, to satisfy any law, regulations or authorized government request, or for any other reasonable purpose.
4. Termination of Access: MDA has the right, in its sole discretion, with or without notice, to restrict or terminate, either temporarily or permanently, any Participant’s use of or access to any or all of the MDA Websites.
5. Limited Resources:  MDA may not have sufficient resources to respond in a timely manner to each and every request made by a Participant to MDA for information or help, and MDA shall have no liability for failure to respond to a communication or to respond in what a Participant may view in an untimely manner.  Questions and requests for help that may constitute an emergency should be made to local medical professionals or emergency response personnel.

MDA’s postal address is 3300 E. Sunrise Drive, Tucson, AZ  85718.  Questions about these Terms of Use may be directed to mda@mdausa.org or you may reach us by telephone at (520) 529-2000.

Third Party Application Service Providers

Certain technology, hosting, and other services for aspects of the MDA Websites are provided by one or more third party application service providers (collectively, the "Service Providers").  However, MDA controls the MDA Content, membership, and policy of the MDA Websites, including those pages served by a Service Provider on behalf of any MDA Website. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, by participating on an MDA Website you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the applicable Service Provider on all matters related to your interaction with others using such MDA Website and participation with such MDA Website, including your representation that you are at least thirteen years old.  As such, each Service Provider is a third party beneficiary to your agreement with MDA as set forth in these Terms of Use.

You acknowledge and agree that MDA has granted one or more Service Providers a worldwide, royalty free license to (i) reproduce, store, display, distribute and perform Participant Data (as defined below) on or through the MDA Websites in order to operate the MDA Websites, (ii) use and analyze the Participant Data on an aggregated basis in furtherance of a Service Provider’s internal business purposes and reporting, (iii) disclose the Participant Data and related metrics on an aggregated basis for marketing and business development services, provided that such aggregated Participant Data does not identify any Participant individually.  “Participant Data” means personally identifiable registration data, transaction history data, and demographic data collected through the operation of any MDA Website.

Revised February 24, 2012