Terms of Use

This Statement governs the terms of use for this Portal and all applications & content, available on this site at the time of acceptance of this statements, as well as content that may be added subsequently. By using or accessing this portal and by accepting this statement, you agree to abide by these terms. Please familiarize yourselves with the Terms of Use of the site and also with the kinds of content we treat as inappropriate as mentioned below.
 

Definitions:

1. The words site, Portal, platform interchangeably refer to this website www.saistudents.org  and all applications and interaction facilities available on this site
2. By "information" we mean facts and other information about you, including actions you take.
3. By "content" we mean anything you post on this site that would not be included in the definition of "information."
4. By "post" we mean any content that you make available on this site by creating anew or by inserting from external sources.
5. By "use" we mean use, copy, publicly perform or display, distribute, modify, translate, and create derivative works of the content available on this site

Membership :

Membership of the Sai Students Portal is open to alumni from the institutes named below:

• Sri Sathya Sai Primary School (Prasanthi Nilayam & formerly at Ooty) - Boys only
• Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, Prasanthi Nilayam - Boys only
• Prasanthi Nilayam and Brindavan campuses of the Sri Sathya Sai University (formerly called Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning)
• Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri College of Music
• Erstwhile Sri Sathya Sai Arts & Science College, Brindavan

Membership to the portal is open only to those who have completed their studies at Sai Institutes. Currently studying/researching students are also not eligible for membership on the portal. 

The words Institute and University interchangeably refer to these educational institutions.

Sharing your Content & Information:

You are free to use the applications and forums available on this site to post your views, articles, links, pictures and files However, You agree that you will not post any of the following material on any service, which currently form and /or which may in future be part of this website:

1. Material that advocates illegal activity and/or Material that discusses illegal activities with/without the intent to commit them.
2. Controversial subjects which could hurt sensibilities of other alumni. Examples could be Slighting of any religion / race/ caste / creed and content about sex, women, drug abuse, alcoholism. This is not an exhaustive list of such subjects.
3. Advertising or any form of commercial solicitation  and/ or files containing advertisements or solicitations aimed at persuading other members to use certain goods or services, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," "multi-level marketing" etc.  
4. Material which is based on rumours and /or Material not authenticated or not from reliable sources (unless specifically stated to be so).
5. Messages referring to the Institute / portal in a way to imply that the idea is endorsed by or belongs to the Institute / Portal, unless such content is backed up by an official source or a site announcement.
6. Usage of Institute logo in any of the group sites / personal websites to indicate that the site is endorsed/affiliated to the institute. 
7. Messages and postings made within the mailing lists, discussion forums and extended services are for the groups themselves and should not be forwarded or re-posted without the explicit permission of, or with appropriate reference of & credit to the person who originally posted them.
8. Messages which may belittle or go against the philosophy of Sri Sathya Sai University, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust or any of the other sai Institutions or projects.
9. Content or links to external sources ( whether past or present) with any negative inferences about Bhagwan Baba or any of the activities conducted by the sai organisation.
10. Content or messages defaming, accusing or belittling any individual(s) or group(s) whether or not associated with Sri Sathy Sai Organisation/Bodies.

Please follow basic internet usage guidelines while browsing this portal too. Do not post your or others’ contact information publicly unless such information is meant for public use, like in the case of helpdesk. Please do not give away personal information like phone number, credit card number etc to someone whom you do not know personally.

Please do not paste links that lead to content that might be in violation of the Terms of Use of this site.

The portal does not encourage or discourage people coming together to start business ventures. That said, we take no responsibility financially or otherwise for any consequences resulting from such agreements between individuals/groups. We do not extend help, advice or suggestions relating to any business plans explored/started here.

You understand that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages or other materials ("Content"), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person from which such Content originated. This means that you, and not the Portal, are entirely responsible for all Content that you upload, make available, post, email or otherwise transmit via the Portal.

Sharing Information Outside the Portal :

The members in this portal are Alumni of Sathya Sai Educational Institutions. This community may discuss may topics and issues, which may be open to mis-interpretation or misuse if shared with anyone, outside this community, who may not have complete knowledge of the context or background of such discussions. It is therefore advisable that

1. Members should exercise discretion before forwarding any content /material to the friends /devotees
2. Any content which is not meant for public viewing ( as defined by the person posting the content) should not be shared without explicit permission from the contributor. 

Safety :

To ensure the safety of the member information as well as the content on this site  

1. You will not send or otherwise post unauthorized commercial communications (such as spam) on this site.
2. You will not collect users' content or information, or otherwise access this site, using automated means such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers.
3. You will not upload viruses or other malicious code. You will not upload softwares of applications which on clicking may cause disruption of services.
4. You will not solicit log-in information or access an account belonging to someone else.
5. You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.
6. You will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic images, descriptions or violence.
7. You will not offer any contest, giveaway, or sweepstakes ("promotion").
8. You will not use this portal to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.
9. You will not do anything that could disable, overburden, or impair the proper working of this portal, such as a denial of service attack. 
10. You will not impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Portal employee, moderator or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
11. You will not intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law.

Recognizing the global nature of the Internet, you agree to comply with all rules for your local areas regarding online conduct and acceptable Content. You further agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the country in which you reside.

Copyrighted Material:

It is assumed that You own all of the content and information, belonging to you, that you post on this portal, and you can control how it is shared through the privacy and viewing rights that you assign to each material. While posting content and material that are not originally yours, you will ensure that Unauthorized copies of copyrighted photographs, drawings, graphics, text or other writings, computer programs or other software, recordings or designs, sound, video and music and any other IP protected material may not be placed on this site without the express permission of the author or owner of the copyright on the material. Proper reference and details of source need to be quoted for any material which is posted from any other public domain.

Moderation:

This portal has a moderation policy wherein a team of moderators will randomly scan the content posted for any violation of the terms of use. As a user you can also report any violation by using the report abuse feature. Any content reported to moderators, will be blocked for all users till the matter is examined & resolved by moderators. Users who violate the Terms of Service will receive a warning from portal moderators stating that User has committed a violation and that further violations may result in the blocking of user's right to post. After one or more warnings, depending on the nature of the violation, the moderators at their sole discretion may block user's right to post.

The site does not have full-time staff for moderation and all moderation and admin tasks are taken up by the mods visiting the site from time to time. So, the Portal, to a large extent, will depend on its members to be auto-regulating and to report abuse when they find inappropriate content. A post flagged as abuse, in some cases, might be disabled automatically and immediately from public view, if and until it qualifies to be re-instated after moderation.  Therefore, we expect , the users to exercise reasonable discretion while reporting abuse, in line with these Terms of Use and not misuse the “Report Abuse” feature for frivolous flaming of members.

You acknowledge that the Portal does not pre-screen Content, but that the Portal and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or move any Content that is available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, the Portal and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable.

You also acknowledge that when there is a dispute or difference between members or moderators on whether a particular piece of content is appropriate or not, the site admin’s decision would be final, whether it is a decision to retain, remove or edit the content.

The portal also reserves the right to temporarily suspend members or ban some members temporarily based on their offensive or inappropriate actions at the portal and the Site Administrator’s decision regarding the same will be final.