The fine print
Conditions of use
The ground rules, written to be read.
Last updated:
A few conditions come with every visit to PicaLook, whether you are reading a story, leaving a comment or running a blog. Using the site means accepting them; if you would rather not, please don’t use it.
What PicaLook is
A blogging platform for visual, story-first writing. Anyone may read, free and without registering. Blogs are given out by invitation, and there is no way to sign yourself up. PicaLook is not fixed in place: any part of it, single features included, can be changed, paused or switched off whenever we decide.
Reading and commenting
A name is all it takes to comment. Each guest comment is checked before it is shown, and we can decline or take down any comment. When you post one, you allow us to display it alongside the story it answers. Commenters are responsible for what they write.
Running a blog
If you have been invited, keep your sign-in details to yourself; whatever is done through your account is your responsibility. Suspect someone else has got in? Tell us at once through the contact page. An invitation can be withdrawn, and an account suspended or closed, if it breaks these conditions or the posting rules.
What you post, including every image and link, is your responsibility, and you need the right to publish it. Posts are not checked one by one before they go out, and the opinions in a post are its writer’s, not ours.
Who owns the pictures and words
Writers remain the owners of their words and their photographs. Publishing here gives us permission to host, store, display and distribute that work as running PicaLook requires: on your blog, on topic pages, as thumbnails and tiles, and through RSS. That permission lasts as long as the work stays published. Ask us and we will remove a single post or your whole blog; copies already delivered to feed readers are beyond our reach.
When we take things down
Posts, images and comments can be removed, and blogs closed, if they break these conditions, the posting rules or the law, or if we reasonably think they put readers at risk. To point something out to us, go to the contact page and pick “Flag a post or comment”.
Your work, used without permission
If something on PicaLook is yours and was posted without your say-so, send it to us under “My work used without permission”. Show us which work it is, the link where it appears and your connection to it. We will look into it and may take it down.
Fair play with the site
Do not try to disrupt or overload PicaLook, test or break its security, slip past its spam limits, or flood the comment or contact forms. Automated traffic that makes the site slower for everyone else is not permitted.
Other websites
Stories regularly link away from PicaLook. What you find at the other end is run by someone else, and we cannot answer for its content or how it behaves.
No guarantees
PicaLook comes “as is” and “as available”, with no warranty of any kind, express or implied. We do not promise it will always be up, free of errors or right for a particular purpose, nor that what writers publish is accurate or complete.
Limits on our liability
As far as the law permits, the PicaLook team accepts no liability for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for lost data, that comes from using the site or from being unable to use it. Nor are we liable for what writers publish or what commenters post.
Revisions
These conditions can be revised, and the date at the top of the page shows the latest version. Carrying on with PicaLook after a revision means you accept the revised conditions.
Something unclear?
Ask on the contact page and we will walk you through it.