90,353,672 visitors since 2 February 2002 

Legal
Introduction
This is the legal section of The Sims Zone. Everything stated here applies to the whole site and hosted sites. If we find out you break these rules - and we will - then we will take appropriate actions. Send questions, comments and suggestions to this address.

The terms listed here are subject to changes. They can be changed without further notifications.

Last update: 21 July 2010
Glossary
The Sims Zone - This Site
Content - All texts and files at The Sims Zone
Files - All PHP/html pages, images, files in the "Files" section and other files at The Sims Zone
News - Texts and/or posts in the "News" section
Author - The original author of content
Affiliates - Sites listed in the "Affiliates" section, excluding Top-lists (i.e. "Vote for us" links)
Editorial - Texts and/or posts in the "Editorials" section
Articles - Texts and/or posts in a section other than the "News" or "Editorials" sections
The Sims Zone Shop or Shop - The place where a visitor can buy products from The Sims Zone through Amazon, located at http://shop.thesimszone.co.uk
Account - A registered member's account at The Sims Zone
Profile - The details a member has given The Sims Zone in their account
Banner - The banner of The Sims Zone in the "Links" section (Click here to see it)
Button - The button of The Sims Zone in the "Links" section (Click here to see it)
Copyrights
All the content is copyright © 2001-2010 The Sims Zone and/or the author, unless otherwise stated.
Articles, Files and other content posted on or before 16 November 2001 is copyright © 1999-2000 SimsZone UK or copyright © 2000-2001 TheSimsFusion. (Note that both these sites have died in the past, and have moved to what is now known as The Sims Zone (this site).)
The Sims is a trademark of Electronic Arts.
Files are copyright by the authors and The Sims Zone, unless copyrights are explicitly mentioned in the file section's or the file's description.
Other (registered) trademarks mentioned on this site or its content are property of their respective owners.

You cannot use or link to any of the content or files directly, except for the The Sims Zone banner and button, without our written permission. You can link to the front page, (community) news posts, editorials and extras, interviews, the Sim Brother report indexes directly. Linking to any other page at The Sims Zone, including but not limited to a file, a file's information page, is prohibited. You can quote from news posts, editorials or other articles at The Sims Zone without our permission, as long as only part of the item is quoted. You have to mention The Sims Zone as the source of the quote. Only affiliates can copy a news post completely, as long as credit is given to The Sims Zone and the article is properly quoted. For content other than news, affiliates are NOT an exception to this rule. If a news post or other content is too similar to an original article at The Sims Zone (e.g. only a few changes were made), then The Sims Zone will consider it as copied and so against these terms. Wheter content is too similar or not is decided by The Sims Zone.

The houses and skins used in our Sim Brother series are exclusive to The Sims Zone. If it is available as a download, then that is for personal use only. You cannot post pictures of it, or the download itself, on other sites without our written permission. That includes slightly modified versions of the houses. That means you cannot run your own Sim Brother series, or projects similar to Sim Brother, using the house(s) of The Sims Zone. Affiliates are NOT an exception to this rule.

You cannot include into other files, copy, modify, post pictures of or link to any files at The Sims Zone without our written permission. This doesn't include the banner and button on the links page, but those cannot and may not be modified. Affiliates are NOT an exception to this rule.

Any texts, articles, comments, pictures, files or other content submitted to The Sims Zone in any method become property of The Sims Zone. The Sims Zone is allowed to redistribute or publish the submitted items unless the author does not allow that to happen at the time of submitting, or when a written agreement has been made before submitting any items.

If we give permission to use some of the content at this site, you will always have to acknowledge The Sims Zone and/or the author as the source of the content. The Sims Zone and/or the content's author will always have and keep the right to make you remove the content posted. Affiliates again are NOT an exception to this rule.
Privacy
This site uses several features that either store information on the server where The Sims Zone residies, or on the client computer in the form of cookies. These are primarily used to provide a better service to the end-user. IP addresses are only stored when you vote in the poll or when you post a comment or another text (like a Site Update). These are used to block certain IP addresses when somebody misbehaves according to the terms of agreement - e.g. by using profanity language. The Sims Zone will not abuse this information or try to gather additional information about the user, unless the user may be violating legal rules of their country, the UK or the USA. In the case of voting in polls, it is only used to check that one IP can vote only a set amount of times in a poll, to prevent mass-voting. Those IP addresses are stored for a limited time only. In no way, The Sims Zone will try to gather additional information from such IP addresses. No other personal information is stored, unless explicitly entered by the user. Information that will be stored will be marked as such.

Registering to this site is optional. However, a valid email address must be given and that will be stored in The Sims Zone's database. This email address is used for verification purposes, and for sending out a newsletter. The email address signed up with is always stored. If a different email address is given after registering, then that will be stored too, along with the original one. In the case of violation with the terms of agreement, e.g. by using profanity language, The Sims Zone may decide to deny access of a user, and/or to prevent the person from registering again using the provided original (and optionally later provided) email address, as well as any IP addresses used during the period since registering for posting comments and/or other texts (like a Site Update). Any personal information besides a valid email address is optional and thereby the user decides whether to provide personal details or not.

The Sims Zone does not send spam. A newsletter may be received by members if they choose to allow us to email it to them in their profile when registering. The Sims Zone will never sell or give away any personal information provided to The Sims Zone to third parties, including IP addresses, unless requested for legal reasons by the proper authorities (e.g. police).

Registering as member, and voting in polls, as well as posting any texts either when registered or not, is optional while browsing this site. By doing any of these actions, the user agrees that The Sims Zone may store the IP address or any personal information provided directly by the user. The Sims Zone is allowed to provide certain features or files only to registered members or donators.

The person who registers is responsible for their account. If another person uses, abuses or misuses the account, then the person who registered the account will be held responsible for all the actions taken by that person.
Member Accounts
The Sims Zone has the option to register as member to gain access to special parts of the website. These sections may allow users to post content on the site, e.g. comments or site updates. The privacy terms apply to membership accounts too. The registering user is responsible for the account and whatever happens or is done using that account. It is not allowed to share an account with more people, or to give away your password to others. Abuse, misbehaviour, discrimination, spam and other unwanted content posted using an account may result in the account being restricted or blocked without warning. The Sims Zone will decide if the account is blocked or not.

Posting links to illegal sites or sites containing illegal content, content not copyrighted by the website or its owner, or explicit content (e.g. porn), or having such links in a member's profile (either the Website link, signature, or anywhere else) is not allowed. Such links can be removed by The Sims Zone, and The Sims Zone is allowed to restrict or block the account. The Sims Zone is also allowed to remove links from a member profile pointing to websites not related to The Sims or its expansion packs, The Sims: Get a Life, The Sims Bustin' Out, The Urbz: Sims in the City, The Sims 2, The Sims Online, or other games The Sims Zone focusses on.

The Sims Zone is always allowed to edit or remove content written by members. This will be done in case the content is irrelevant to the topic, or if the content is of abusive, discriminating or other unwanted nature, or if the same post was made a multiple number of times. This can be done without warning. The Sims Zone is also allowed to restrict or block an account for any reason, without warning.
Disclaimer
All content is provided "as is", without any warranties of any kind, express or implied. The Sims Zone and/or the content's author cannot be held responsible for any damage caused by any content at The Sims Zone. This includes but is not limited to files and the pages.

The Sims Zone tries to make sure news and/or other articles contain true facts, unless otherwise stated. However, we cannot guarantee that everything is correct. The Sims Zone and/or the author of content at The Sims Zone cannot be held responsible if given information is false.

The Sims Zone cannot be held responsible for the opinions expressed by anybody in any of the content. This includes but is not limited to the opinions of authors of an item or visitors of The Sims Zone.

This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved.

The Sims Zone Shop is possible in association with Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. Prices and release dates are retrieved from Amazon every 15 minutes, and will be cached until the next time the details are retrieved from Amazon. Amazon prices are subject to change. Amazon's legal, privacy, and any other terms apply when buying items from The Sims Zone through Amazon. Images and names of products shown at The Sims Zone may differ from the images and names shown at Amazon or the actual product. Availability is shown on the Amazon details pages, and not all products listed at The Sims Zone may be available on either Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com, or both. The Sims Zone attempts to keep all information in the shop up-to-date and accurate, but not all displayed information may be correct.

By entering The Sims Zone, you automatically agree to the terms listed in this document. If you do not agree, you must leave this site immediately.
Other stuff
If you think that we have violated any copyrights from other sites, please contact us. We have no intentions to break copyright laws. However, if this (accidentally) happens, we'll remove the content in question as soon as possible, after we've seen that we were indeed violating copyright laws.
If you find another site or resource that has violated any of the rules mentioned above, please contact us at the same address, so we can take appropriate actions. We try to make these rules as solid as possible. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact us.
Written at 00:08 2002n Sunday 13 January 2002 by ChEeTaH.
Last updated at 09:55 2010n Wednesday 21 July 2010.

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