Dear LMR Friends and Family:
Yesterday we sent our new (first!) terms and conditions (T&Cs) for the LMR website (outside of the Marketplace, which was already governed by T&Cs) to all LMR members.
We’ve received mixed feedback. While most of you recognize the need to put T&Cs in place (when RobotShop recently purchased the site these were not in place), some feel that some of the conditions are a little heavy. Others have misinterpreted the scope of the T&Cs and RobotShop’s intent.
The template used for the T&Cs are the T&Cs that were already put online by the previous owner for the Marketplace segment of the LMR site. The template was very generic (not always relevant and sometimes outright contradictory with the purpose of the LMR site) and we adapted it to suit the forum segment of the LMR site. However, we recognize that we may have missed the mark on a few points and we apologize for any confusion. Please also note that the T&Cs for the Marketplace will also be completely revised shortly.
This being said, we appreciate every member’s comments as those comments are useful to help us improve the T&Cs by further removing superfluous elements and by clarifying certain terms that may have been misunderstood. The T&Cs have been revised, are now posted on the site and can be found here.
This being said, we wish to address what we think are the most relevant or recurrent comments posted by some members regarding the T&Cs.
It is not RobotShop’s intent to acquire the ownership of member materials, claim it as its own or use it as promotional purpose without giving proper credit to the owner. The content you create is clearly yours and our mission to help you share it efficiently within the robot enthusiast community. RobotShop merely wants to ensure that it has all the necessary authorizations to adapt, if necessary, and manage the member materials to make them accessible and/or suitable for viewing. Some members feel that granting a “perpetual” license may be asking a little too much, and we understand their point. We have therefore revised the T&Cs to deal more openly with requests to remove materials from the LMR site.
Another concern raised by members is the possibility for LMR to modify member materials. The purpose of this is to allow LMR to modify content that is not necessarily in line with the T&Cs or proper netiquette; it was never our intent to modify the substance of the user content. For example, very relevant content may otherwise contain some profane language and we want to have the liberty of removing the profane language rather than having to remove the entire content, which would result in a loss to the community.
Finally, a few comments pertain to the use by members of LMR’s intellectual property. This has also been clarified such as to clearly allow the use of LMR’s logo by members in certain conditions.
Once again, we thank all of those who helped us by commenting on the T&Cs and we look forward to hearing for all members of this wonderful community.