Thank you for being part of the California Medical Association community (the California Medical Association, together with its agents, assigns, subsidiaries, and contracted vendors are referred to herein as "CMA", "We", "Our"). To ensure the best possible experience for all Members, Staff, Guests, Speakers, Exhibitors, Students, Volunteers, Attendees, and others who join, use, attend, contribute to, or otherwise participate in ("You", "Your", "Yourself", or "Participants") the CMA community, website, app, social media, webinars, in-person meetings, in-person events, video-streamed events, discussion forums, councils, committees, or other gatherings or platforms, including online platforms (each a "CMA Forum", together, the "CMA Forums" or the "CMA Community"), CMA has established some basic rules and guidelines ("CMA Content Guidelines").

CMA Forums are intended to facilitate constructive, thoughtful, unbiased, useful, and relevant dialogue, debate, education, networking, and exchange of information in a respectful, professional manner ("Purpose"). By joining, using, entering, attending, listening, contributing, posting, transmitting, promoting, facilitating, or otherwise participating in or to any CMA Forum ("Participate", "Participating", "Participation", "Contribute", "Contributing", or "Contribution"), You agree that You have read and will follow these CMA Content Guidelines for the Purpose. You also agree to reserve comment, discussion, content, opinion, information, data, documentation, material, media, posts, shared files, and all other input ("Content") to that best suited to the medium and format of the particular CMA Forum. Please acquaint Yourself with these important CMA Content Guidelines prior to Your Participation in any CMA Forum. Questions about the CMA Content Guidelines should be directed to Our Member Services Team via the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page.

The Basic Rules

1. Do not harass, intimidate, abuse, or threaten another Participant. If You disagree with the Content Contributed by another Participant, respond respectfully to the subject at issue. Do not personally attack any Participant, whether or not you agree with Content they Contribute
2. All defamatory, libelous, abusive, profane, disparaging, hateful, threatening, harassing, offensive, pornographic, sexually explicit, obscene, indecent, violent, inflammatory, or otherwise objectionable or illegal Content is strictly prohibited.
3. Do not post medical or other professional information that is intended to be, or may reasonably be construed to be intended as Medical or other professional advice, including, but not limited to, information for the diagnosis or treatment of another user of the Site or App.
4. Do not disclose personal health information or individual identifiable medical information in violation of privacy laws, including, but not limited to, the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
5. Use discretion and caution when the Content involves products or services. Do not Contribute commercial messages about products or services in which you have an ownership stake. The CMA Community is not an appropriate place to self-promote commercial ventures, products or services.  
6. Do not impersonate any person, business, or other entity. Doing so in an attempt to deceive, harass, or otherwise mislead another CMA Forum Participant is forbidden.
7. Do not engage in any form of solicitation or spamming.
8. Do not engage in any activity that is unlawful, or promote or solicit any illegal activity, or advocate, promote, or assist any unlawful act.
9. The Content you contribute must, in their entirety, comply with all applicable federal, state, local and international laws and regulations.
10. Recordings of CMA Forums, including screenshots of the CMA Site or App, by any Participant or other third party are strictly prohibited without the express, prior, written permission of CMA.
11. Do not Contribute any Content protected by copyright, trademark, or intellectual property rights without the express, prior, written permission of the copyright, trademark, or intellectual property rights owner. By Contributing Content, You warrant and represent that You own the copyright, trademark, and intellectual property rights with respect to such Content or that You have received express, prior, written permission from the copyright, trademark, or intellectual property rights owner. In addition, You grant, and You warrant and represent that You have the right to grant, CMA the unlimited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual right and license to use, display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and reproduce such Content.
12. You may not use or reproduce Content Contributed by another Participant or third party without obtaining the express, prior, written consent of the Contributing Participant or other appropriate third party.
13. Content should not be Contributed if it encourages or facilitates Participants to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Content that encourages or facilitates an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.
14. You cannot post Content that is meant to or has the likely effect of deceiving any person.
15. You cannot post Content that gives the impression that they emanate from or are endorsed by us or any other person or entity, if that is not the case.
16. You cannot depict private or personal information of any person without their written consent.
17. You cannot request money from, or otherwise defraud other Participants.
18. User Content must not violate the legal rights (including the rights of publicity and privacy) of others or contain any material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under applicable laws or regulations or that otherwise may be in conflict with this agreement, our Privacy Policy, our Policy On The Prohibition Of Harassment, our Policies on Professionalism, and all other CMA Policies.

The Legal Rules

1. Content You Contribute in any CMA Forum is available to all with access to the CMA Community to see and is subject to libel, slander, antitrust, and other laws and regulations. 

2. CMA Forums are provided as a service for CMA Members and other Participants in the CMA Community for the Purpose.  CMA is not responsible for the Content Contributed by Participants. CMA retains the right to actively monitor the CMA Forums for inappropriate Content and to exercise editorial control of Content. However, CMA does not confirm or verify the Content posted by Participants and therefore cannot validate or invalidate its accuracy. CMA recommends that all Participants independently research and verify the accuracy of any and all Content in any CMA Forum before taking any action thereon. We also rely on Our Participants to report abuse and inappropriate Content, action, or behavior by notifying CMA immediately via the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page. In the event that any abuse or inappropriate Content, action, or behavior is brought to Our attention, CMA will take all appropriate action.

3. CMA retains the right to create an official audio, video, documentary, and/or other form of recording of proceedings and Contributions at and in any or all CMA Forums ("Official Recordings"). By Participating in any CMA Forum or making any Contribution to a CMA Forum, You agree to CMA's right to create Official Recordings and consent that Your image, name, likeness, voice, affiliations, location, potential conflicts of interest, Content, and/or Contribution may be recorded by CMA and included and reflected in the Official Recordings.

4. CMA disclaims all warranties with regard to Content Contributed or otherwise made available in the CMA Forums, whether Contributed by CMA or any Participant or third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. CMA does not endorse any particular product or service.

5. In no event shall CMA be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages, or any damages whatsoever resulting from use or loss of use, use or loss of data, or use or loss of profits, arising out of or in connection with the Contribution of, use, or performance of any Content Contributed or otherwise contained on or in any CMA Forum.

6. CMA reserves the right, in our sole discretion, without limitation to that which is expressly stated in these CMA Content Guidelines and in Our Terms Of Use, Privacy Policy, CMA Policy On The Prohibition Of Harassment, and all other CMA Policies, to moderate or remove any Content at any time, and to limit or ban any Participant at any time, for any reason. If Content speaks to illegal activities, CMA will contact appropriate authorities as required by law. CMA has no obligation to delete Content Participants find personally objectionable or offensive.

7. In addition to these CMA Content Guidelines, We ask that You read and abide by Our Terms Of Use as well as read and understand Our Privacy Policy, our Policy On The Prohibition Of Harassment, our Policies on Professionalism, and all other CMA Policies.

8. CMA reserves the right to take any action concerning any Content that we consider necessary or appropriate in our sole discretion. Violation of these CMA Content Guidelines, the CMA Terms Of Use, Privacy Policy, CMA Policy On The Prohibition Of Harassment, and/or any other CMA Policy, may result in Your Content being removed, Your Participation being limited, Your membership being revoked, and/or You being banned from access to, Participation in, and/or Contribution to CMA Forums altogether, or other action in the sole discretion of CMA.

9. CMA reserves the right to take appropriate legal action, including referral and disclosure of Content to law enforcement, if we believe in good faith that it is reasonably necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request (for example, subpoenas or warrants), (ii) enforce or administer our agreements with users (such as these terms), including investigation of potential violations hereof, (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect the rights, property or safety of CMA, our users, others, or the public.

10. CMA will fully cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity or other information of anyone posting any Content through our Forums. You hereby waive and hold harmless CMA and each of our respective employees, affiliates, licensees, Third Party Contractors, and service providers from any claims resulting from any action taken during, or taken as a consequence of, investigations by either CMA, its designees, or law enforcement authorities.

11. CMA do not undertake to review Content before it is shared in the Forums and cannot ensure prompt removal of objectionable Content after it has been posted. Accordingly, we and each of our respective employees, affiliates, licensees, Third Party Contractors, and service providers assume no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications, or content provided by any user or third party. We have no liability or responsibility to anyone for performance or nonperformance of the activities described in this Section.

12. CMA retains the right to change or modify these CMA Content Guidelines, Our Terms Of Use, Privacy Policy, and/or any other CMA Policy at any time without notice.