TERMS OF USE

Version 1.0

Effective Date: 07.07.2026

Welcome

This Platform has been created to foster scientific dialogue, professional collaboration and continuing education among healthcare professionals. It is intended to be a trusted environment in which members can exchange knowledge, discuss clinical experience and contribute to better patient care through respectful and evidence-based communication.

Every member contributes to the quality and credibility of this community. These Rules protect our members, safeguard patient confidentiality, preserve scientific integrity, respect intellectual property and ensure that the Platform remains secure and valuable.

Three Guiding Principles

Respect - treat colleagues, patients and other members with courtesy and professionalism.

Integrity - share information honestly, accurately and transparently. Distinguish facts, opinions and uncertainty.

Confidentiality - protect patient privacy, confidential information and the integrity of professional discussions.

Professional Excellence - contribute in a manner consistent with the standards expected at a scientific congress, clinical conference or peer-reviewed publication.

1. Definitions

In this Manual, the following terms have the meanings set out below. The definitions apply consistently across all four parts.

Platform means the website, forum, databases, software, interfaces, documents, images, discussions, user accounts and related services operated by the Platform Operator.
Platform Operator means the legal entity responsible for operating the Platform (Semi-Live Publishing GmbH, Stadelhoferstrasse 33, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland).
User means any registered person who accesses or uses the Platform.
Professional Contribution means any clinical opinion, scientific comment, expert recommendation, educational note, case discussion, interpretation or other professional statement made by a User.
Content means all text, images, graphics, videos, documents, presentations, comments, forum discussions, metadata, page structure, databases and other material available on or through the Platform.
AI System means any artificial intelligence system, machine learning system, large language model, automated software agent, crawler, scraper, bot, indexing tool, embedding tool, RAG system, data mining tool or similar technology.

2. Scope and Acceptance

These Rules apply to every User and to every use of the Platform. By registering, logging in, accessing or using the Platform, each User confirms that they have read, understood and accepted this Manual.

If a User does not agree with this Manual, the User must not access or use the Platform. The Platform Operator may require Users to accept updated Rules as part of the login or registration process.

3. Registration and User Accounts

Access to the professional forum is restricted to registered Users approved by the Platform Operator. The Platform Operator may verify professional eligibility and may refuse registration where necessary to protect the purpose, security or reputation of the Platform.

Users must provide complete, accurate and current registration information.

Accounts are personal and may not be shared, transferred, sold or made available to another person.

Users must keep their login credentials confidential and must promptly notify the Platform Operator of suspected misuse.

The User is responsible for all activity carried out through the User account.

4. Community Standards

The Platform encourages open professional exchange. Scientific disagreement is welcome when expressed respectfully and in good faith. Members should write online in the same professional manner that would be expected in a clinical conference, academic meeting or scientific publication.

Users shall communicate respectfully, contribute constructively, remain objective and avoid unnecessary personal criticism. They should support professional statements with recognised evidence where reasonably possible and should acknowledge scientific uncertainty.

The following conduct is not permitted:

personal attacks, harassment, intimidation or abusive language;
discriminatory, defamatory, offensive or humiliating comments;
deliberate misinformation or knowingly misleading statements;
spam, unsolicited marketing or unauthorised commercial promotion;
conduct that undermines the safety, integrity or professional character of the Platform.

5. Patient Confidentiality

Patient confidentiality is absolute. No User may publish information that directly or indirectly identifies a patient. Patient names must never appear on the Platform.

Before posting patient names, clinical information, images or documents, the User must ensure that the material is fully and irreversibly anonymised. This includes removal of names, initials where identifying, dates of birth, addresses, hospital numbers, medical record numbers, facial images, pathology labels, radiology annotations, embedded metadata and any combination of information that could reasonably permit identification.

Where there is doubt, the material must not be posted. Consent does not remove the User’s responsibility to comply with applicable professional, ethical and data protection obligations.

Users are solely responsible for ensuring that any information relating to patients that they upload, post, share or otherwise make available through the Services complies with all applicable laws, professional obligations and ethical standards.

Users must not disclose any information that directly identifies a patient. Any clinical information, case reports, images or other patient-related material must be fully anonymised or, where legally permissible, irreversibly pseudonymised before submission so that no individual patient can reasonably be identified, whether directly or indirectly.

By submitting any patient-related information, the User represents and warrants that all identifying information has been removed or lawfully pseudonymised, that all necessary authorisations and consents (where required) have been obtained, and that the submission complies with all applicable legal and professional requirements.

The Platform Operator is entitled to rely conclusively and without further inquiry on the User's representation that any patient-related information submitted through the Services has been properly anonymised or lawfully pseudonymised. The Platform Operator has no obligation to verify, investigate, monitor or independently assess whether any content contains identifiable patient information or otherwise complies with applicable data protection, medical confidentiality or professional secrecy laws.

The User shall be solely liable for any breach of this Section and shall indemnify and hold harmless the Platform Operator, its directors, officers, employees and affiliates from and against any claims, actions, proceedings, liabilities, damages, fines, penalties, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to the User's failure to comply with this Section or any applicable law or professional obligation.

6. Professional Contributions

Professional Contributions must be transparent and attributable. A User who posts a clinical opinion, scientific analysis, expert recommendation or professional interpretation must do so under the User’s true and complete legal name. Pseudonymous or anonymous expert commentary is not permitted.

Users should disclose relevant financial, academic, institutional or professional relationships where these could reasonably be perceived as influencing the contribution. Transparency strengthens trust and protects the scientific value of the discussion.

7. Scientific Integrity

The credibility of the Platform depends on the integrity of its content. Users shall not fabricate cases, falsify data, manipulate images, misrepresent research findings, invent citations, falsely attribute statements or omit material information in a way that changes the meaning of scientific results.

If generative AI has been used solely to improve language or grammar, the User remains fully responsible for the final text and for all scientific, professional and legal consequences. AI must never replace professional judgement and must not be used to generate fake clinical cases, fake literature, fake expert opinions or misleading medical images.

8. Intellectual Property

All Content on the Platform is protected by copyright and, where applicable, database rights, trade secret protection, rights of confidence, contractual restrictions and other intellectual property rights. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

Unless the Platform Operator gives prior written consent, Users may not copy, reproduce, download, store, redistribute, republish, translate, modify, adapt, sell, license, publicly display or otherwise exploit Platform Content outside the Platform, except where mandatory law provides otherwise.

This restriction applies in particular to images, clinical photographs, diagnostic images, illustrations, presentations, forum threads, comments, compilations, databases and screenshots.

9. User Content Licence

Users retain ownership of their own contributions, subject to any rights held by third parties. By posting content, a User grants the Platform Operator a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, display, reproduce, archive, moderate and make the contribution available solely for operating, securing, documenting and improving the Platform.

This licence does not transfer ownership to the Platform Operator and does not authorise third parties to use the content for artificial intelligence training, automated extraction, commercial reuse or publication outside the Platform.

10. No Licence Granted by the Platform

Access to the Platform does not grant any licence or permission to use Platform Content outside the Platform. In particular, no licence is granted for automated access, scraping, indexing, machine learning, model training, embeddings, retrieval-augmented generation, dataset creation or text and data mining.

11. Confidential Professional Discussions

Forum discussions are intended for registered professional Users only. Unless a discussion is expressly marked as public or the Platform Operator gives written consent, Users must not disclose, forward, publish, quote extensively, screenshot, export or otherwise distribute forum discussions outside the Platform.

Limited reference to one’s own ideas or professional conclusions is permitted where this does not reveal patient information, confidential information, third-party content or the identity or contribution of another User without permission.

12. Images, Screenshots and Downloads

The Platform may contain sensitive clinical, educational or scientific material. Users must not download, copy or reuse images, videos, case materials, screenshots or documents for external publication, teaching, commercial use, social media, AI processing or third-party distribution without prior written consent.

Where a User is permitted to upload images, the User must ensure that the User has the necessary rights and that all patient-identifying information has been removed.

13. Artificial Intelligence and Automated Access

The Platform is created for interaction between human healthcare professionals. Access or use by AI Systems is prohibited unless the Platform Operator has given prior express written consent.

Without such consent, no person or entity may use the Platform or any Content for:

training, fine-tuning, testing, evaluating or benchmarking an AI system or large language model;
retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector databases, semantic indexing or knowledge extraction;
web scraping, crawling, harvesting, automated monitoring, API-based collection or browser automation;
dataset creation, data enrichment, synthetic data generation, machine learning or text and data mining;
copying, summarising or processing forum discussions through an AI service in a way that discloses confidential, patient-related or third-party content.

This prohibition applies whether access is direct, indirect, manual-assisted, outsourced, performed through a third-party provider or carried out by a tool acting on behalf of another person.

14. Text and Data Mining Reservation

The Platform Operator expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining. In particular, the Platform Operator opts out of text and data mining under Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 and any corresponding national implementation, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

This reservation applies to the entire Platform, including visible content, restricted content, metadata, databases, page structure, images, comments, forum discussions and any machine-readable representation of such material.

15. Technical Protection Measures

The Platform Operator may use authentication, access controls, rate limits, robots instructions, metadata notices, monitoring tools and other technical measures to protect the Platform. Users and third parties must not circumvent, disable, overload or interfere with these measures.

The absence or failure of a technical measure does not constitute permission to access or use the Platform in a prohibited manner.

16. AI Upload Restriction for Users

Users must not upload Platform Content, patient-related information, confidential forum discussions, third-party content or identifiable clinical material to public or external AI services unless they have all necessary rights and the upload is lawful, confidential and expressly permitted by the Platform Operator.

This rule does not prevent a User from using AI for private language improvement of the User’s own original text, provided that no patient information, confidential information or third-party protected material is disclosed.

17. Moderation Principles

Moderation protects the professional value of the Platform. Moderation decisions are intended to be fair, proportionate and consistent with the purpose of the Platform.

The Platform Operator may review, edit, move, close, restrict or remove content where reasonably necessary to protect patient confidentiality, scientific integrity, legal compliance, security, intellectual property rights, the reputation of the Platform or the interests of the community.

18. Notice and Takedown

Users should report content that may breach this Manual, infringe rights, identify a patient, contain unlawful material or undermine the professional character of the Platform. Reports will be reviewed in good faith. The Platform Operator may request further information and may take interim measures while a report is assessed.

Where content is removed or restricted, the Platform Operator may, where appropriate, inform the relevant User and provide an opportunity to respond. Immediate action may be taken where delay could cause harm, legal exposure or security risk.

19. Suspension and Termination

The Platform Operator may suspend or terminate access where a User breaches this Manual, provides inaccurate registration information, compromises security, violates patient confidentiality, infringes intellectual property rights, uses automated access or acts in a manner inconsistent with the professional purpose of the Platform.

Measures may include a warning, removal of content, temporary restriction, permanent exclusion, preservation of evidence, legal notice, claim for damages or notification to competent authorities where lawful and appropriate.

20. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by applicable law, a User shall indemnify and hold harmless the Platform Operator against reasonable losses, liabilities, costs and expenses arising from the User’s breach of this Manual, unlawful content, infringement of third-party rights, breach of patient confidentiality or unauthorised automated or AI-related use.

21. Educational Purpose and Medical Disclaimer

The Platform supports professional education and scientific discussion. It does not provide individual medical advice, diagnosis or treatment recommendations to patients. User contributions reflect the views of their authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Platform Operator.

Healthcare professionals remain solely responsible for their own clinical decisions, professional duties and compliance with applicable laws, guidelines and ethical obligations.

22. Availability and Security

The Platform Operator will use reasonable efforts to operate the Platform securely and reliably. However, uninterrupted availability is not guaranteed. The Platform may be modified, suspended or discontinued for maintenance, security, legal, operational or strategic reasons.

23. Limitation of Liability

Nothing in this Manual excludes liability where exclusion is prohibited by mandatory law. Subject to that principle, the Platform Operator shall not be liable for user-generated content, professional opinions expressed by Users, indirect or consequential losses, loss of data, loss of profit, interruption of service or unauthorised third-party activity.

The Platform Operator’s liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

24. Changes to the Manual

The Platform Operator may update this Manual from time to time. Material changes should be communicated in an appropriate manner, such as through the Platform or during login. Continued use after notification constitutes acceptance of the updated Manual.

25. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms and any disputes arising out of or in connection with them shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Switzerland, excluding its conflict of laws rules.

The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be Zurich, Switzerland, subject to any mandatory jurisdiction provisions under applicable law.

26. Severability and Interpretation

If any provision of this Manual is invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain effective. The invalid provision shall be interpreted or replaced so as to achieve, as closely as possible, its lawful commercial and professional purpose.

Headings are for convenience only. The English version should prevail unless the Platform Operator publishes a binding translation.

Appendix A - AI Notice for Login, Footer and Forum Pages

The following notice should be placed on the login page, in the footer and, where technically feasible, on each forum page containing protected content:

NOTICE TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS, WEB CRAWLERS AND AUTOMATED AGENTS

This Platform is intended exclusively for human professional use by authorised healthcare professionals. Any access, crawling, scraping, indexing, downloading, copying, monitoring or processing by artificial intelligence systems, large language models, retrieval-augmented generation systems, machine learning systems, autonomous software agents, bots or similar technologies is strictly prohibited without the Platform Operator’s prior written consent.

The Platform Operator expressly reserves all rights under copyright law, database rights, trade secret law, contract law and Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790. Unauthorised use may result in civil claims and, where applicable, referral to competent authorities.

Appendix B - Short Footer Notice

© Semi-Live Pubishing GmbH. All rights reserved. Platform content may not be copied, downloaded, redistributed, screenshot, used for AI training, processed by automated tools or subjected to text and data mining without prior written consent.

Appendix C - Registration Checkbox

I confirm that I have read and accept the Platform Governance Manual. I understand that the Platform is for authorised human professional use only; that patient information must be fully anonymised; that professional comments must be posted under my true full name; and that copying, downloading, redistributing, scraping or AI-related use of Platform content is prohibited without prior written consent.

Appendix D - Robots.txt / Machine-Readable Notice

The following wording may be adapted for robots.txt or equivalent machine-readable notices. Technical implementation should be reviewed by the website developer:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

# No AI training, no scraping, no crawling, no text and data mining.

Appendix E - Metadata Notice

Where supported, the Platform may add machine-readable metadata to pages and files stating: noai; noimageai; noarchive; nosnippet; noindex for restricted pages; no text and data mining; no AI training. Such metadata does not replace the contractual prohibition in the Manual.

Appendix F - Patient Anonymisation Checklist

Before posting clinical content, the User should confirm that the following have been removed or irreversibly anonymised:

patient name and initials where identifying;
date of birth, address, contact details and precise dates where identifying;
hospital number, medical record number, accession number and barcode;
faces, tattoos and other recognisable features;
DICOM, EXIF and other embedded metadata;
labels on pathology, radiology, laboratory or clinical images;
rare combinations of information that could identify the patient.

If identification remains reasonably possible, the content must not be posted.

Appendix G - Moderator Checklist

Moderators should assess whether content is respectful, scientifically appropriate, anonymised, non-commercial, rights-compliant and consistent with the purpose of the Platform. Where there is doubt, content may be held for review or removed pending clarification.

Appendix H - Implementation Notes

Before publication, the Platform Operator should insert the full legal name of the operator, registered address, contact email, applicable law, competent courts, privacy policy link, imprint/legal notice link and effective date. The Manual should be integrated into the registration process and linked from the website footer.

The AI-related rules should be supported by technical measures, including authentication for forum access, rate limiting, log monitoring, robots instructions, metadata notices, no public indexing of protected pages and contractual acceptance by Users.