Feature Submission Terms and Conditions
These Terms and Conditions govern the submission of articles, features, opinion pieces, commentary, interviews, case studies, explainers, thought leadership content, and other written material to The Open Forum. By submitting any content to The Open Forum, you confirm you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms and Conditions.
1. About The Open Forum
The Open Forum is a grassroots community platform focused on law, business, ideas, and practical insight. We welcome contributions from a wide range of voices, including professionals, founders, students, campaigners, commentators, and community contributors.
2. Submission of Content
By submitting content to The Open Forum, you confirm your submission is intended for editorial consideration. Submission does not guarantee publication. We reserve the absolute right, at our sole discretion, to accept, reject, decline, remove, delay, edit, archive, unpublish, or refuse to publish any submission at any time and for any reason. We are under no obligation to provide feedback, reasons, or further correspondence in relation to any editorial decision.
3. Editorial Rights
You agree The Open Forum may edit, format, retitle, shorten, excerpt, rearrange, and otherwise prepare your submission so it fits our editorial standards, technical requirements, layout, house style, formatting conventions, SEO requirements, and publication needs. We may correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, structure, headings, metadata, hyperlinks, and presentation. We will not intentionally make material changes to the substance or intended meaning of your content without good reason.
4. Originality and Rights Clearance
By submitting content, you warrant and represent that:
(a) the content is your original work, or you have obtained all rights, permissions, licences, approvals, and consents needed to submit and authorise publication of it;
(b) the content has not been published elsewhere and is not under review, consideration, or option elsewhere;
(c) the content will not be published, licensed, syndicated, republished, or otherwise made available elsewhere, whether before or after publication by The Open Forum, without our prior written consent;
(d) the content does not infringe any copyright, trade mark, database right, privacy right, confidentiality obligation, moral right, or any other legal right of any third party;
(e) all quotations, images, graphics, charts, data, extracts, and third-party materials included in the submission have been lawfully cleared for use;
(f) the content is accurate to the best of your knowledge at the date of submission; and
(g) where you submit content on behalf of an organisation, business, firm, or other person, you are authorised to do so and to bind them to these Terms and Conditions.
5. Licence to Use Submitted Content
Unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing, you remain the copyright owner of your submission. However, by submitting content to The Open Forum, you grant The Open Forum an exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use, publish, reproduce, communicate, display, distribute, transmit, adapt for formatting and presentation, promote, archive, and otherwise exploit the content, in whole or in part, in any format or media now known or developed in future.
This licence includes the right to publish your submission on our website, associated pages, newsletters, email communications, social media channels, partner channels, feeds, and promotional materials.
You also grant The Open Forum the right to use your name, biography, profile details, professional details, and any approved photograph or headshot in connection with publication and promotion of your submission.
6. Non-Republishing Restriction
By submitting content, you agree the content must not have been published elsewhere before submission and must not be published elsewhere after submission or after publication by The Open Forum without our prior written consent. This restriction applies to the article in full and to any substantially similar version of it.
7. Moral Rights
To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to waive any moral rights you may have in relation to the editing, formatting, presentation, layout, headline treatment, excerpting, and publication of your submission by The Open Forum. Nothing in this clause requires The Open Forum to publish your name or author credit, although we may do so at our discretion.
8. Publication Without Further Notice
By submitting content, you agree The Open Forum may publish the submission without further notice, approval, review, or correspondence with you. You agree we may decide whether, when, where, and how the content appears.
9. Content Standards
The Open Forum does not accept and may reject or remove content which, in our view, is unlawful, abusive, threatening, defamatory, misleading, plagiarised, discriminatory, offensive, or otherwise unsuitable for our platform.
This includes, without limitation, content involving hate speech, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, harassment, incitement to violence, extremist material, or promotion of unlawful activity.
We may also reject or remove content containing unsupported legal or factual claims, disguised advertising, undisclosed conflicts of interest, excessive promotional language, excessive external links, keyword stuffing, duplicate publication, or unverified allegations against individuals or businesses.
10. AI-Assisted Content
Any content generated or assisted by artificial intelligence must be clearly disclosed at the point of submission. You remain solely responsible for reviewing and verifying the accuracy, originality, legality, and suitability of any AI-assisted content. The Open Forum reserves the right to reject any submission involving undisclosed or unsuitable use of AI.
11. Sponsored Articles and Promotional Content
Any article which promotes a business, service, product, brand, consultant, chambers, firm, adviser, event, training provider, software provider, or other commercial venture will be treated as a sponsored article.
You must disclose at submission any sponsorship, payment, commercial relationship, business connection, referral arrangement, affiliate arrangement, client relationship, or other conflict of interest connected to the content.
Where you wish to publish a sponsored article and are willing to pay for sponsored placement, promotional support, or visibility, you must indicate this in the submission process. A member of our team may then contact you. Sponsored articles may be subject to separate approval, publication terms, fees, and labelling requirements. The Open Forum reserves the right to label content as sponsored, promotional, advertorial, or similar where appropriate.
12. Warranties
By submitting content, you warrant and represent that:
(a) all information provided in connection with the submission is true and accurate;
(b) the content is not defamatory;
(c) the content does not breach any duty of confidentiality;
(d) the content does not breach any law or regulation;
(e) the content does not infringe any third-party rights; and
(f) all required disclosures relating to sponsorship, promotion, conflicts, or commercial benefit have been made.
13. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and keep indemnified The Open Forum, its owners, operators, editors, affiliates, staff, and representatives against any loss, liability, damage, claim, demand, action, cost, or expense, including reasonable legal costs, arising out of or connected with:
(a) your breach of these Terms and Conditions;
(b) any allegation the submitted content infringes the rights of any third party;
(c) any allegation the content is defamatory, misleading, unlawful, or in breach of confidence; or
(d) any failure by you to obtain required permissions, licences, consents, or approvals.
14. No Obligation to Publish or Retain Content
The Open Forum is under no obligation to publish, retain, host, or keep any content available for any minimum period. We may remove or archive content at any time. We may also add editor’s notes, disclaimers, corrections, updates, or clarifications where we consider it appropriate.
15. Editorial Disclaimer
Publication by The Open Forum does not mean we endorse, verify, approve, or adopt the views expressed in any submission. Unless expressly stated otherwise, all views expressed are those of the contributor. Content published on The Open Forum is for general information and discussion only and does not constitute legal, financial, investment, business, regulatory, or professional advice.
16. Privacy and Related Policies
By submitting content, you also agree to any applicable Privacy Notice, Editorial Standards, Submission Guidance, and other related website policies published by The Open Forum from time to time.
17. Changes to These Terms
The Open Forum may amend these Terms and Conditions at any time. The version in force at the date of submission will apply to the relevant submission unless otherwise stated.
18. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms and Conditions or any submission shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
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