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Clarification of Email from Med Help
Dear Friends,
It seems as if the email we sent to all of you has caused some confusion. Our commitment to the privacy of your information has not changed. We are not going to sell your information to marketers, we are not going to charge a fee to access the site and we are not going to publish your personal information for others to see.
We have received so many touching emails from you over the years that we wanted to be able to upgrade our site and implement many of the suggestions. Accepting advertising revenue as a non-profit is difficult and complicated and so changing entities allows us to use this money to improve our site. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Med Help International
It seems as if the email we sent to all of you has caused some confusion. Our commitment to the privacy of your information has not changed. We are not going to sell your information to marketers, we are not going to charge a fee to access the site and we are not going to publish your personal information for others to see.
We have received so many touching emails from you over the years that we wanted to be able to upgrade our site and implement many of the suggestions. Accepting advertising revenue as a non-profit is difficult and complicated and so changing entities allows us to use this money to improve our site. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Med Help International
Thank you for the clarification.
I thought it might be a means to prevent unsolicited advertising and other spam as you indicated since many posts containing useful informational links have not been wacked. I just thought a clarification would be useful since, as I originally indicated, some recent posts seem to be pushing the threshold of infringement violation by reposting abstracts and such, sometimes in their entirety, without including the copyright notification that often accompanies the original source of the information.
I thought it might be a means to prevent unsolicited advertising and other spam as you indicated since many posts containing useful informational links have not been wacked. I just thought a clarification would be useful since, as I originally indicated, some recent posts seem to be pushing the threshold of infringement violation by reposting abstracts and such, sometimes in their entirety, without including the copyright notification that often accompanies the original source of the information.
Dear GrandOak,
We definitely agree that there is a lot of value in links. What we are addressing in particular is hidden advertising. There are many links that either openly or covertly advertise for a product or service. Some come in the form of a supposed patient praising the benefits of a product, service, etc., when in reality they are affiliated with that company. We take them down as we find them but sometimes a company does it again and again and we need a way to get them to stop doing it. It really takes away from the experience others have on the site and results in a lot of work for us.
So don't worry about putting links to useful information on the site and we will revisit the terms to see if we can make it more specific. Thanks for your question!
Med Help International
We definitely agree that there is a lot of value in links. What we are addressing in particular is hidden advertising. There are many links that either openly or covertly advertise for a product or service. Some come in the form of a supposed patient praising the benefits of a product, service, etc., when in reality they are affiliated with that company. We take them down as we find them but sometimes a company does it again and again and we need a way to get them to stop doing it. It really takes away from the experience others have on the site and results in a lot of work for us.
So don't worry about putting links to useful information on the site and we will revisit the terms to see if we can make it more specific. Thanks for your question!
Med Help International
Could you elaborate more on item 9 in the "Terms"? More specifically the need to have prior written permission from MedHelp prior to posting any links (which I assume includes URL's) to other websites.
The reason I ask is that a quick check will demonstrate that URL's to other sites are frequently posted such that I find it difficult to believe that all have received written permission prior to their posting.
Often times this is convenient to do in that it 1) keeps the posting brief by not having to copy or outline the original content and 2) belies concerns, or lack of, with respect to copyright or intellectual right infringements by avoiding the reproduction of informational content from the source by simply refering readers to original content, which is then responsible for the adherence to copyright and/or intellectual right issues.
This combined with the recent AASLD conference brings to the forefront the reproduction of abstracts in postings in which by doing so may constitute the violation of copy and/or intellectual rights of the author(s) and/or the proceedings of the conference. I specifically reference the recent AASLD conference because there was postings of entire abstracts being made BEFORE the conference was even held and when those abstracts were still submissions for conference itineraries and as such subject to change or possible withdrawal for various reasons.
Many thanks if you choose to address this as it has seemed to me lately, and I probably have been guilty at least to some degree of similar such postings but became more concerned as I seen more and more abstracts being posted from the 2006 AASLD conference, even prior to it being held.
The reason I ask is that a quick check will demonstrate that URL's to other sites are frequently posted such that I find it difficult to believe that all have received written permission prior to their posting.
Often times this is convenient to do in that it 1) keeps the posting brief by not having to copy or outline the original content and 2) belies concerns, or lack of, with respect to copyright or intellectual right infringements by avoiding the reproduction of informational content from the source by simply refering readers to original content, which is then responsible for the adherence to copyright and/or intellectual right issues.
This combined with the recent AASLD conference brings to the forefront the reproduction of abstracts in postings in which by doing so may constitute the violation of copy and/or intellectual rights of the author(s) and/or the proceedings of the conference. I specifically reference the recent AASLD conference because there was postings of entire abstracts being made BEFORE the conference was even held and when those abstracts were still submissions for conference itineraries and as such subject to change or possible withdrawal for various reasons.
Many thanks if you choose to address this as it has seemed to me lately, and I probably have been guilty at least to some degree of similar such postings but became more concerned as I seen more and more abstracts being posted from the 2006 AASLD conference, even prior to it being held.
Got it. Glad you are not going to charge us as many of us are struggling to pay for the meds and paying for the site too would be to much.
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