Terms of use

Last update : 10 juillet 2024

By accessing the website (https://backpainconsortium.ca/) (hereinafter the “Website”) developed and provided by Université de Sherbrooke for the Quebec Pain Research Network (hereinafter the “QPRN”), “our,” “us” or “we” and by using all the related services (hereinafter the “QPRN Services”), you accept all the terms of use of the Website (hereinafter the “Terms of Use”), as either a Member of the QPRN (as defined in section 2.2 below), a person living with pain, a partner of the industry or any other user (hereinafter the “Users”). The QPRN and the Users are collectively referred to as the “Parties” or individually a “Party”.

IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE, YOU UNDERSTAND THAT USING THE WEBSITE IS FORBIDDEN AND, IF YOU HAVE ACCESS, YOU MUST IMMEDIATELY DISCONTINUE YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE.

1. The Website

1.1. This website is intended to provide information on the Quebec Back Pain Study research project. The site also allows you to register for the research project and to be directed to the project’s various questionnaires.

1.2. The Website may contain hyperlinks to third party websites (hereinafter the “Third Party Websites”) and such Third Party Websites may be subject to different terms of use and different practices regarding the use of your personal information. Accordingly, the QPRN cannot be held responsible for the continued availability or accuracy of such Third Party Websites as well as for the content, products and services available on such Third Party Websites. In all cases, the QPRN reserves the right to add or remove hyperlinks to Third Party Websites at any time and without notice.

1.3. Due to the nature of the Internet, the QPRN cannot guarantee the continuous, uninterrupted availability and accessibility of the Website. The QPRN may temporarily suspend the availability of the Website or certain parts or modules thereof if the QPRN deems, in its sole discretion, that modifications should be made to the Website, to protect the security or integrity of its servers or to maintain or improve the Website. You acknowledge and agree that QPRN may improve, enhance or modify the Website or introduce or withdraw new QPRN Services from time to time.

1.4. The Website does not offer any medical advice, nor does it claim to replace in any way services offered by duly qualified professionals such as psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, physiotherapists, nurses and/or any other healthcare professional. We recommend that you always seek the advice of a healthcare professional for any questions regarding your health. You should never dismiss, avoid or delay following the recommendations made by your healthcare professional because of information provided through the Website and its pages, modules and features.

1.5. The QPRN Services including, without limitation, the information provided in the QPRN Content (as defined in section 3.1 below), should not be used if you need immediate help (e.g., acute pain, sudden severe pain, etc.) or in case of emergency. If you have a problem that requires immediate help or urgent assistance, you can:

i) call the Info-Santé 811 telephone line by dialling 811 to communicate with a nurse;

ii) call the information and support line of the Québec Association of Chronic Pain by dialling 1-855-368-5387 and;

iii) for all emergencies, immediately call the emergency services by dialling 911 or go quickly to the emergency room of the nearest health institution.

IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING SUICIDE OR MAY BE DANGEROUS TO YOURSELF OR OTHERS, YOU MUST STOP USING THE QPRN SERVICES AND CONTACT EMERGENCY SERVICES BY DIALLING 911 OR GETTING TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM OF THE NEAREST HEALTH INSTITUTION IMMEDIATELY.

2. Website eligibility

2.1. To access and use the Website, you must be an individual of at least thirteen (13) years of age. Access to and use of certain components of the Website may also be subject to separate policies or standards or may require that you agree to additional terms and conditions before you can access or use such components of the Website. If there is a conflict between the provisions of these Terms of Use and the terms and conditions applicable to another part of the Website, the terms and conditions of such other part of the Website shall prevail, unless otherwise provided for in such terms and conditions.

3. User content

3.1. The QPRN may, in its sole and absolute discretion and from time to time, allow Users to (i) create, upload, publish, transmit, receive or exchange content such as texts, photos, videos or other material and information on or through the Website (the “User Content”); (ii) access and display User Content and any content that QPRN may make available on or through the Website, including content owned by the QPRN, including any content licensed or authorized for use through the QPRN by a third party (hereinafter the “QPRN Content” and collectively together with the User Content, the “Content”).

3.2. The Website, the QPRN Content and the User Content may, in whole or in part, be protected by copyright, trademark and/or other applicable laws of Canada and other countries. You acknowledge and agree that the QPRN Website and Content, including all intellectual property rights associated therewith, are and shall remain the exclusive property of the QPRN and/or its licensors or third parties permitting such use. You will not remove or otherwise alter any copyright, trademark or other proprietary right notice incorporated in or accompanying the Website, the QPRN Content or the User Content. You acknowledge and agree that the trademarks, service marks, logos, trade names and other intellectual property rights of third parties used or in connection with the Website and/or the Content are used for identification purposes only and may be the property of their respective owners.

3.3. You will not use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, transmit or otherwise operate the Website or the Content, except to the extent that you are the rightful owner of the User Content or as provided in these Terms of Use. No licence or right is granted to you implicitly or otherwise under any intellectual property rights owned or controlled by the QPRN or its licensors, except for the licences and rights granted herein.

3.4. Subject to your compliance with these Terms of Use, the QPRN grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-assignable, revocable, non-transferable sublicence to (i) use the Website and (ii) access and view any Content made available to you on or through the Website and available to you for your personal, non-commercial use.

3.5. By creating, uploading, posting, transmitting, receiving or otherwise making User Content available on or through the Website, or through any type of content sharing directly with the QPRN, you grant to the QPRN a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, non-assignable, perpetual and non-transferable licence to access, use, publish and transmit all User Content to provide and/or promote the Website in any media or platform. To the extent that the User Content includes personal information, such User Content shall only be used for such purposes if such use complies with privacy laws in accordance with our privacy policy (hereinafter the “Privacy Policy”). Unless you provide us with specific consent, the QPRN shall not acquire any ownership rights with respect to the User Content and nothing in these Terms of Use shall be deemed to restrict the rights that you may have to use or exploit the User Content.

3.6. You are solely responsible for all User Content that you make available on or through the Website. Consequently, you represent and warrant that (i) you are the sole owner of the User Content that you make available on or through the Website and that you have all the necessary rights, titles and interests, licences and consents to grant the rights in such User Content to the QPRN as contemplated herein, and (ii) neither the User Content nor your posting, uploading, submission or transmission of any User Content or use by the QPRN of the User Content or any part of the User Content as contemplated herein shall infringe any third party intellectual property rights such as copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, moral rights or other intellectual property rights or shall result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation.

3.7. The QPRN complies with all copyright laws and expects its Users to comply with them as well. If you believe that any content on the Website violates any intellectual property rights you own, please notify us at the following email address: info@qprn.ca.

4. Intellectual Property

4.1. The QPRN allows Users to access and display any content that the QPRN may make available on or through the Website such as texts, photos, videos or other material and information, including the content owned by the QPRN and any content licensed or authorized for use by or through the QPRN by a third party (hereinafter the “QPRN Content”).

4.2. The QPRN Website and Content may, in whole or in part, be protected by copyright, trademark and/or other applicable laws of Canada and other countries. You acknowledge and agree that the QPRN Website and Content, including all intellectual property rights associated therewith, are and remain the exclusive property of the QPRN and/or its licensors or third parties permitting such use. You will not remove or otherwise alter any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights incorporated in or accompanying the Website or the QPRN Content. All the QPRN trademarks, brands, logos, trade names and any other intellectual property, if any, used or related to the Website and the QPRN Content are trademarks or registered trademarks of the QPRN in Canada. You acknowledge and agree that the trademarks, service marks, logos, trade names and other intellectual property rights of third parties used or in connection with the Website and/or the QPRN Content are used for identification purposes only and may be the property of their respective owners.

4.3. You will not use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, transmit or otherwise operate the Website and/or the QPRN Content. No licence or right is granted to you implicitly or otherwise with respect to any intellectual property rights owned or controlled by the QPRN or its licensors, except for the licences and rights granted in these Terms of Use. Subject to your compliance with these Terms of Use, the QPRN grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-assignable, revocable, non-transferable licence to:

i) use the Website; and
ii) access and view any content made available to you on or through the Website, including the QPRN Content and accessible to you for your personal, non-commercial use.

4.4. The QPRN complies with all copyright laws and expects its Users to comply with them as well. If you believe that any content on the Website infringes any third party intellectual property rights, please notify us at the following email address: info@qprn.ca.

5. Special conditions governing specific modules of the Website

5.1. Each User, must provide accurate, up-to-date and complete information at all times when registering for or using any module of the Website.

5.2. The QPRN namely reserves the right to accept, refuse, cancel or not process any request for information from a User if any information provided as part of the registration is inaccurate or not updated.

5.3. By providing the information required for the purposes of using or registering for any module of the Website, you agree to do so on a voluntary basis, without payment of any consideration, without any obligation or consequence in the event of refusal on your part.

5.4. The only people who will have access to the information provided are members of the QPRN scientific team.

5.5. Each User acknowledges that the mere fact of being duly registered or using a module of the Website does not in itself create any promise or commitment from the QPRN.

5.6. By choosing to register or use a module of the Website, any User shall not become a contractual party transacting with the QPRN. Also, nothing in these Terms of Use shall be deemed to create or likely to create a relationship, between Users and the QPRN, of principal and agent, employer and employee, a company or a joint venture, it being understood and agreed that no provision provided herein or any action of the Parties shall be deemed to create a relationship between them other than a relationship between independent parties.

6. Prohibited activities and conduct

6.1. As a User of the Website, you acknowledge that you are solely responsible for complying with all laws, rules, regulations and obligations that may apply to you in connection with your use of the Website.

6.2. As part of your use of the Website, you agree not to:

a) violate or circumvent any applicable law or regulation, any agreement related to the rights of employers, partners, third parties or the Terms of Use or the policies or standards adopted by the QPRN;

b) use the Website or the QPRN Content for any commercial or other purpose not expressly permitted by these Terms of Use or in a manner that falsely involves or otherwise misleads third parties about your affiliation with the QPRN;

c) copy, store or otherwise access or use any information, including any personal information about another User contained on the Website, in any way that violates the QPRN’s privacy policy or these Terms of Use or which otherwise violates the privacy of Users and third parties;

d) use, display the Website or the QPRN Content or any other individual element found within the Website, the name of the QPRN, any trademark of the QPRN, the logo or any other intellectual property rights or the design of any page contained on the Website, without having obtained the prior written consent of the QPRN;

e) dilute, affect or otherwise violate any trademark owned by the QPRN in any way including unauthorized use of the QPRN Content by registering and/or using the QPRN name or derived terms within domain names, trade names, trademarks or others or by registering and/or using domain names, trademarks or other identifiers which closely imitate or cause confusion with the domain name or trademark of the QPRN;

f) use any malware to access and/or collect any data about any User of the Website and/or the QPRN Content found on the Website;

g) attempt to decipher, compile or reverse engineer or perform any similar action with respect to any software used to provide the Website;

h) take any action that could cause damage or affect the performance or proper functioning of the Website; or

i) violate or infringe the rights of any person or otherwise cause harm to any person.

6.3. You acknowledge that the QPRN has no obligation to monitor the access or use of the Website by any User or to review or modify any QPRN Content or to block access to anyone but has the right to do so to (i) operate, secure and improve the Website; (ii) ensure compliance with the Terms of Use by Users; (iii) comply with any applicable law, order or requirement of a court or any other governmental organization; or (v) otherwise as more fully set forth in these Terms of Use. Users agree to cooperate and assist the QPRN in good faith and to provide the QPRN with any information and to take any action that may be reasonably required by the QPRN to comply with any investigation undertaken by the QPRN or a representative of the QPRN in relation to the use or abuse of the Website.

7. Warranty exclusions

7.1. The QPRN makes no representation and gives no warranty regarding the proper functioning of the Website, its suitability for use or the absence of errors or interruptions during its use. The QRPN makes no representation and gives no warranty as to the accuracy, veracity and representativeness, if any, of the QPRN Content or any other content that the QPRN may make available on or through the Website.

7.2. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, considering that the Website contains hyperlinks leading to Third Party Websites and that the QPRN has no control over the content of these Third Party Websites, the QPRN does not provide any warranty nor can it be held responsible for the validity of the content, products and services offered, as the case may be, on the Third Party Websites, of any problem of compatibility of the Third Party Websites with your devices and computer systems, of the contamination by computer viruses attributable to the use of Third Party Websites or the lack of data protection of the Third Party Websites, of the collection of your personal information and its use and communication on these Third Party Websites.

7.3. THE COMPONENTS OF THE WEBSITE, ITS CONTENT AND/OR THE QPRN SERVICES (IF ANY) ARE PROVIDED TO YOU “AS IS” AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE QPRN DECLINES ALL WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS, WHETHER WRITTEN OR VERBAL, LEGAL OR CONVENTIONAL, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, DURABILITY, SUITABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

7.4. The QPRN cannot be held responsible for any damage resulting from your use of the Website, the QPRN Content and/or the QPRN Services offered on the Website. The QPRN makes no representations or warranties and hereby expressly excludes any liability for any processing or action based on the information offered, or submitted directly or indirectly, as the case may be, through the Website.

7.5. Use of the QPRN Website and Services is at your own risk.

8. Limitation of liability

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE AGGREGATE RISK RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS AND USE OF THE WEBSITE AND THE QPRN CONTENT, THE PROVISION OF QPRN SERVICES OR THE USE OF ANY OTHER SERVICE OR ANY OTHER INTERACTION YOU CAN HAVE, WHETHER IN PERSON OR ONLINE, REMAINS YOURS. NEITHER THE QPRN NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION OR DELIVERY OF THE WEBSITE OR THE QPRN CONTENT WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INCIDENT OR SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR INDIRECT DAMAGE, INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, DAMAGE TO COMPUTERS, SYSTEM FAILURE, REPLACEMENT COSTS OR FOR ANY DAMAGE, INCONVENIENCE OR PREJUDICE RELATING TO (I) THESE TERMS OF USE; (II) THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE QPRN WEBSITE OR CONTENT; OR III) ANY COMMUNICATION, INTERACTION OR MEETING, AS THE CASE MAY BE, WITH ANY PERSON WITH WHOM YOU MAY COMMUNICATE, INTERACT OR MEET BECAUSE OF YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE (INCLUDING HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS AND MEMBERS), WHETHER BASED ON LEGAL WARRANTY, CIVIL AND EXTRA-CONTRACTUAL LIABILITY (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY AND WHETHER OR NOT THE QPRN WAS INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

9. Indemnification

9.1. To the maximum extent permitted by any applicable law, you agree to release, defend (at the option of the QPRN), indemnify and hold the QPRN including, without limitation, its officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claim, liability, damage, loss and expense including, without limitation, all legal and accounting costs, resulting from or being in any way related to:

i) your violation of these Terms of Use or any other QPRN policy or standard;

ii) your inappropriate use of the Website or the QPRN Services,

iii) your violation of any law, regulation or third party rights.

10. Confidentiality

10.1. The QPRN may collect personal information that you provide when you visit the Website. Access to and use of personal information is subject to the terms and conditions of the QPRN’s privacy policy.

10.2. The QPRN may provide hyperlinks to Third Party Websites on the Website. These Third Party Websites may contain terms and conditions and privacy policies that are different from those of the QPRN. The QPRN is not responsible for the personal information that is collected, used or disclosed by any Third Party Website and the QPRN expressly disclaims any liability related to such collection, use or disclosure.

11. Changes to Terms of use

11.1. In general, we reserve the right to modify these Terms of Use at any time and without notice. You can verify if the Terms of Use have been modified and updated by referring to the “Last Update” indicated at the top of this document. In any case, your continued use of the Website after any modification to the Terms of Use constitutes your acceptance of such modification.

12. General

12.1. These Terms of Use will be governed by the applicable laws of the province of Quebec.

12.2. If any provision of these Terms of Use is or becomes invalid or unenforceable, the Parties will continue to be bound by the other provisions of these Terms of Use. In such case, the Parties will replace the invalid or unenforceable provision with provisions which are valid and which have, to the greatest extent possible, an effect similar to the provisions which have been invalidated or deemed unenforceable, considering the content and purposes of these Terms of Use.

12.3. You agree that these Terms of Use and all the agreements that are an integral part thereof may be automatically assigned by the QPRN at its sole and absolute discretion without notice to you, subject to applicable laws.
12.4. The headings in these Terms of Use are for reference purposes only and may not be used in any way to interpret such section. The word “including” is deemed to be followed by the words “without limitation.”

12.5. Failure of a Party to act because of a violation by another Party does not constitute a waiver of that Party’s rights to act in connection with subsequent or similar violations.

12.6. These Terms of Use govern your use of the Website and take precedence over any understanding and/or agreement, if any, between the Parties, whether oral or written.

12.7. Any notice to be sent under the Terms of Use, any question related to the Website or the QPRN Services must be sent to the QPRN by email at the following email address: info@qprn.ca.