Terms of use

Terms and conditions

BY ACCESSING, BROWSING AND/OR USING THIS WIKI AND/OR DISCUSSION FORUM (THE "WIKI"), YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE, TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND TO COMPLY WITH ALL APPLICABLE LAWS AND REGULATIONS, INCLUDING EXPORT AND RE-EXPORT CONTROL LAWS AND REGULATIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, DO NOT USE THE WIKI. YOUR FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THE TERMS, CONDITIONS, AND NOTICES ON THE WIKI WILL RESULT IN AUTOMATIC TERMINATION OF ANY RIGHTS GRANTED TO YOU, WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE.

SFSA may at any time without notice revise these terms by updating this posting. By using the Wiki, you agree to be bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit this page to determine the then current terms to which you are bound.

The Wiki is an online open-content collaborative feedback portal made available by SFSA. SFSA assumes no responsibility (and expressly disclaims responsibility) for updating the Wiki to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information.

In addition, the Content may include software, text and/or speech files, code, associated materials, media and/or documentation provided by SFSA or third parties. SFSA Content is owned by SFSA and is copyrighted and licensed, not sold. Third party Content is owned by its respective owner. SFSA’s decision to permit posting of third party Content does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement by SFSA of any particular product, service, company or technology.

SFSA does not guarantee the validity of the information found here at all times. The content of any given comment may recently have been changed, vandalized or altered by someone whose opinion does not correspond with the state of knowledge in the relevant fields. The Content may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors and may be changed, improved or updated without notice. *Use of the Wiki and its Content is at your own risk.

Please be aware that SFSA does not grant any rights or licenses to any copyrights, patents, trademarks, or any other intellectual property rights, except as otherwise expressly stated for the Content. All rights not expressly granted under this agreement are reserved.

SFSA grants you non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited permission to access and display the pages within the Wiki, solely on your computer and for your use of the Wiki. If you use or reference Content from the Wiki, such Content is not provided as "public domain." You may not mirror any of the Content from this site on another web site or in any other media. Product plans or plans concerning Content referenced on the Wiki may change at any time at SFSA's sole discretion based on market opportunities or other factors, and are not intended to be a commitment to future product or Content availability in any way. All statements regarding SFSA future direction or intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

No Formal Review

SFSA provides no assurances that any reported problems may be resolved with the use of the Wiki or any Content. In addition, the Wiki is not uniformly reviewed; while readers may correct errors or engage in casual peer review, SFSA has no legal duty to do so and thus all Content is PROVIDED "AS-IS". SUBJECT TO STATUTORY WARRANTIES, IF ANY, THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED, SFSA, ITS DEVELOPERS AND SUPPLIERS MAKE NO WARRANTIES, REPRESENTATIONS, GUARANTEES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE WARRANTI ES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITATION, SFSA MAKES NO WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE THAT THE WIKI OR THIS WEB SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE. Even documentation that has been vetted by informal peer review processes may later have been edited inappropriately, just before you view them.

Nothing contained in the Wiki is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from SFSA (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of SFSA software.

None of the contributors, sponsors, administrators, or anyone else connected with SFSA in any way whatsoever will be responsible for the appearance of any inaccurate or libelous information or for your use of the information contained in or linked from this web site.

IN NO EVENT WILL SFSA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES OF ANY TYPE FOR ANY USE OF THE WIKI, WEB SITE OR CONTENT, OR FOR ANY OTHER HYPER LINKED WEB SITE AND ITS CONTENT, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY LOST PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF PROGRAMS OR OTHER DATA ON YOUR INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEM OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF SFSA IS EXPRESSLY ADVISED OF OR AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR LOSSES. THIS EXCLUSION AND WAIVER OF LIABILITY APPLIES TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORIES.

Conduct

You may not use the Wiki to communicate in any manner any unlawful or inappropriate information or materials, including without limitation anything that is threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, inflammatory, pornographic or profane. SFSA may investigate complaints or violations of these Terms of Use and, notwithstanding any other terms or policies, it may take any action it deems appropriate including, without limitation, disclosing any information to enforcement agencies or others. In addition, SFSA reserves the right to pursue all remedies available for such violations, and may revoke access to the Wiki at any time.

License to Your Contributions

By uploading, submitting or otherwise making available or contributing to SFSA or the Wiki any Content, you grant SFSA an unrestricted, worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free, fully paid up, license to use, make, have made, reproduce, display, perform, publish, upload, post, modify, create derivative works from, transmit, distribute, sell, offer for sale and sub license or otherwise transfer those materials or information or their modifications, and to authorize third parties to do any, some or all of the foregoing including, but not limited to, sub licensing others to do any some or all of the foregoing indefinitely. You represent and warrant that you have sufficient rights in those materials or information to grant these rights and licenses. You also agree that SFSA and its sub-licensees as described above are free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques that you send us for any purpose.

Further, you hereby give permission to SFSA to release your name or otherwise publicize the fact that you submitted materials or other information to us, and SFSA may do so without the need of further notice to you. Notwithstanding any other terms in this agreement, SFSA is under no obligation to use, post or upload any contribution you make to the Wiki or otherwise, and SFSA may remove any posting or upload you make at SFSA's sole discretion.

No Confidential Information

SFSA does not want to receive confidential or proprietary information or material from you through the Wiki. Information that you submit to SFSA or the Wiki may be posted publicly without notice to you. Please note that any information or material sent to SFSA or the Wiki will be deemed not to be confidential.

Unless otherwise stated in this agreement, personally-identifiable information that you submit to SFSA in the Wiki or otherwise will be handled in accordance with our privacy policies. Please click here for information regarding SFSA's privacy policies. If you request something from the Wiki, we will use the information you provide to fulfill your request. To help us do this, we may share information, with others, for instance, other parts of SFSA, SFSA's Business Partners, financial institutions, shipping companies, postal or government authorities (for example, Customs authorities) involved in fulfillment.

You agree to allow SFSA and its subsidiaries to store and use your business contact information, including names, business phone numbers, and business e-mail addresses, anywhere they do business. Such information will be processed and used in connection with our business relationship which will include using your information for marketing, research, and other purposes; and may be provided to contractors acting on SFSA's behalf, SFSA Business Partners who promote, market, and support certain SFSA products and services, and assignees of SFSA and its subsidiaries, for uses consistent with such business relationship. You agree that we may use your information to send you information about SFSA and others' products and services, including by email.

General

All trademarks or logos presented on the Wiki are and remain the property of SFSA. No licenses or other rights in or to such trademarks or logos are granted. The Wiki may contain other proprietary notices and copyright information, the terms of which must be observed and followed.

If you link to the Wiki, the link and pages that are activated by the link must not: (a) create frames around any page on the Wiki or use other techniques that alter in any way the visual presentation or appearance of any content within this site; (b) misrepresent your relationship with SFSA; (c) imply that SFSA approves or endorses you, your web site, or your service or product offerings; or (d) present false or misleading impressions about SFSA or otherwise damage the goodwill associated with the SFSA name or trademarks. Any other links to the Wiki must be approved in writing by SFSA. As a further condition to being permitted to link to the Wiki, you agree that SFSA may at any time, in its sole discretion, terminate permission to link to this web site. In such event, you agree to immediately remove all links to this web site and to cease using any SFSA trademark.

Policy on Use of Materials

The following policy has been adopted concerning the use of photographs, sketches, slides and related data:

Advertising artwork consisting of photographs, sketches and other items originated by and the property of SFSA is available to members at the direct cost of photocopies and/or shipping charges.

Printed literature and electronic material issued by SFSA is copyrighted as far as possible. Subsequent use of such literature or quotations therefrom shall be made only with the written permission of SFSA.

Photographs and related data (including slides made from same), may be used for the purposes listed below if such use is authorized in writing by SFSA, and if due acknowledgement is given to SFSA where appropriate.

• in connection with duly authorized SFSA programs and activities.
• by lecturers and authors.
• by universities and other educational institutions.

Such material is not to be used for advertising purposes by any person, firm or corporation without the written consent of SFSA.

SFSA publications and materials shall not be redistributed outside of the membership of SFSA.

• SFSA Wiki access by SFSA members is permitted only for the individual member to which the account is assigned, while the company/plant membership is in good standing.
  • If the individual to which an account is assigned is no longer employed by an SFSA member company, their access will be terminated.
  • If an SFSA member company's membership is dropped or lapses due to non-payment of dues, their access will be terminated.
• SFSA member companies with multiple locations may only share SFSA Wiki contents between company locations that are also SFSA members - transfer of materials to non-member plants is prohibited.
  • For example, if a member company has three locations - Plant 1, Plant 2, and Plant 3, and the company's membership includes Plants 1 and 2, but not Plant 3, SFSA Wiki materials may not be shared with Plant 3 by either Plant 1 or 2.

Use by Researchers

1. SFSA-sponsored researchers may use the wiki to support their SFSA-sponsored steel casting research and to support SFSA and its members.
2. Researchers may not retain copies of any material from the wiki, beyond what is necessary as mentioned in item 1 above.
3. Researchers may not share any material from the wiki.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Prohibited

Users of the Wiki may not use any contents of the Wiki, including text, graphics, photographs, other documents found on the Wiki, or any other publications of SFSA as input into any Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) system (for example, but not limited to: ChatGPT, Google Bard, etc.) or cause any such AI system to access the Wiki without the express written consent of SFSA. In addition, Wiki or other SFSA login or access credentials may not be shared with any AI system.

Membership and Limited Use Rights Policy

The Steel Founders’ Society of America (SFSA) Board of Directors has formalized this policy covering membership participation. SFSA membership is based on dues paid for the steel foundry production by location. Employees of the steel foundry location are considered able to participate in SFSA. All services including publications shall only be available to a current employee of the member steel foundry location. Access to member services such as the SFSA wiki and SFSA publications are considered proprietary and granted to employees at the steel foundry location of a member in good standing, and shall not be further disclosed in any manner without written permission from SFSA unless openly published by the Society.

Membership for multi-site corporations is for the steel foundry location(s) for which the dues are paid. The membership of each individual location is subject to SFSA’s bylaws.

Active members that are part of a larger corporation, including but not limited to an OEM, may be granted additional participation for persons within the corporation who support the member foundry location. This individual participation is at the discretion of the Board, and is contingent on information provided for each individual such as background, need, and value back to the Society. The individual is granted use of SFSA material along with participation in meetings with no further disclosure of information permitted.

Personnel that are currently employed by the Government, such as civilian or active duty, may be permitted participation based upon request and currently funded government programs. For a Government employee, the above policy applies. Pursuant to government policies and applicable laws, SFSA material outside of government funded research is considered proprietary, or Distribution B, unless otherwise marked; thus, shall not be disclosed beyond the Government. Government contractors may be authorized participation; however, no further disclosure of information beyond the individual is permitted.

Casteel Technology Associates (CTA) may be authorized individual participation but shall abide by not disclosing information.

Retention of SFSA materials after leaving SFSA membership prohibited

Employees who are no longer at the active steel foundry location shall not retain any SFSA material or benefits. A steel foundry location who does not remain active in the Society, shall be permitted to only retain material published during such timeframe that they were a member in good standing. An individual that is granted participation shall not be permitted to retain any SFSA material unless purchased, openly published, or with written permission when participation is withdrawn. Any person with current or past participation, shall report, destroy or return any member benefit that is not compliant with this policy.

Jurisdiction and Legality of Content

Laws in your country or jurisdiction may not protect or allow the same kinds of speech or distribution. SFSA and the Wiki do not encourage the violation of any laws, and SFSA is not responsible for any violations of such laws, should you link to this domain or use, reproduce, or republish the information contained herein. This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Illinois and the intellectual property laws of the United States of America, without regard to conflict of law principles. No party to this agreement may bring a legal action under agreement more than one year after the cause of action arose. You waive your right to a jury trial in any resulting litigation.