Privacy policy
 
Whilst on line at Gravelroots, you may wish to send your address or an e-mail to submit your site to the links pages, classified or comments etc. Some websites will sell your name, phone number or e-mail address to other companies, resulting in you being bombarded with unsolicited advertising. Gravelroots do not do that. All personal details, unless requested otherwise by the sender, will remain completely confidential to us. Gravelroots reserves the right to contact you so that we can confirm your submission, or regarding content in Gravelroots submitted by you. Further to this, please always state in any communications containing material to be placed on Gravelroots, what degree of anonominity, if any, you require. We will always endeavour to uphold this. We DO NOT collect and store any personal information other than contact details for our use only.
If you suspect any breach of this policy please contact us immediately.

Photographing the Scenery -
In general, you may photograph what and who you like from a Public Highway. This includes buildings, people on adjacent land, other Highway users. There is no concept of privacy on or from the Highway. But do use common sense - photographing people in their back garden over the hedge from a footpath may be legal, but would be met with suspicion or aggression.
One of the few exceptions is under the Official Secrets Act 'prohibited places' - military and secure government sites - then it doesn't matter where you're standing, just don't snap it. In an age cautious of terrorism, suspicion may also be aroused by photography of 'strategic' places - government buildings, railways, bridges etc. Uniformed Police are perfectly entitled to question your motives even when it isn't specifically prohibited.

Private Land -
This includes apparently publicly accessible places like picnic areas, some commons parks, and carparks. The Landowner can dictate what you can do, and can prohibit photography. If you've already taken photos, they CANNOT confiscate cameras or demand you delete photos, attempting to do so by force would be an assault. They can ask you to leave, if you don't you become a trespasser.

Access Land -
Areas designated under 'Right-to-Roam' do NOT carry the same rights as highways, and the Landowner can prohibit photography as per private land. But there are often public highways crossing such land though, and whilst using them it's none of the Landowners business.

Identification -
You do NOT have to blot out number plates or blur faces, if it is on or can be seen from the Highway it's fair game. Under certain circumstances, you may consider doing so if you wish, but the choice is yours.

Children -
Despite many beliefs & myths, there are no special rules about photos of children as opposed to adults. No permission is required where there is 'no reasonable expectation of privacy'. Common sense applies here, snapping other peoples children without asking can provoke problems these days. Judge how comfortable you would feel if the children in question were your own. For publication the Children's Act 2004 prohibits identifying a child under 16 years of age without the parent's permission, but there is a 'photo age' exemption - ie. Where the person photographed is now an adult [old school photos] ...It would also be rather difficult to get permission from a parent of a child photographed in lets say 1906.

Seizure -
If you happen to photo a serious incident, the police may wish to seize your images via your camera, under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act [PACE]. The purpose is NOT to prevent you keeping or using the images, but to assist the police as 'evidence' in any enquiries. Your images and camera must be returned to you within a 'reasonable' time.

Publication -
For example, publication on this website. There wouldn't normally be a problem for photos taken on the Highway. Care should however be taken about Data Protection - if somehow a photo identifies a person's name and their home address, that is to be considered Personal Data and we would not publish without their written consent.

Copyright works -
Art displayed in a window, a registered trademark above a shop, a logo on a tee shirt. Photos can normally include these incidentally to the main view with no problems. Photos concentrating specifically on the 'work' and later published or sold can cause a problem though.

Original images and web designs are copyright of Gravelroots. Other materials in this site are copyright by their respective owners and may not be reproduced without permission from the original owner.
Unauthorised embedding of this site within any other unauthorised site is strictly forbidden. Unauthorised embedding of pages is simple theft.
Illegal embedding of site pages by websites such as 123people.com is a simple confidence trick using other website content to obtain an advertising platform.
 
Private individuals are welcome to download most material they wish for private, non commercial, non website, use. Please be aware that the downloaded material would still contain security tags which would become visible if uploaded at a later date.
 
Any non-commercial, Educational or commercial site is welcome to most material on the Gravelroots site, whilst retaining any credits and accompanied with hyperlink(s) to Gravelroots and obtaining permission. All permissions are recorded. Please note that some content has been specified by the owners as to be only used on our site.
 
Due to previous plagiarism and content theft we have unfortunately had to install certain security features to the site.
 
Almost all images are 'tagged', ie: a jpeg code [or invisible electronic watermarking] is installed in the image or deliberate 'flow coding' is added to some text. Regular searches are made for the tags, by a third party, automated Bot, and Gravelroots will act on unauthorised use by any websites. Note that even copied, resized, images still carry the tag and even re-written text will transfer the tag when you upload. see below.

Photo & image info-
Technology is available from The Digimarc Corporation which enables an invisible digital watermark [tag] to be embedded into the image, this company has a robot that scans the Web looking for images with such a watermark. It then notifies the registered owner of the image and the URL address where it was found.
We also use a similar method called 'flow texting' which tags text. see Digimarc.com
Gravelroots also actively employs COPYSENTRY to protect against plagiarism and content theft.
 
In November 2008 at Brighton County Court, 'Gravelroots Websites' successfully completed an action against 'Hyperdirectories, South Coast' over copyright issues. As a result 'Gravelroots Websites' was awarded a 'backdated fee' and obtained compensation for the same. Substantial costs were also ordered by the court. 'Hyperdirectories, South Coast' has now ceased trading.

Photo & image info-
Technology is available from The Digimarc Corporation which enables an invisible digital watermark [tag] to be embedded into the image, this company has a robot that scans the Web looking for images with such a watermark. It then notifies the registered owner of the image and the URL address where it was found.
We also use a similar method called 'flow texting' which tags text. see Digimarc.com
 
 
It is obviously easier, to apply by the usage. We invariably agree to the use of most material, freely, on our terms, but usage of 'donated materials' must have the permission of the donator as they have only given permission for their material to be used within the Gravelroots sites. This may be applied for through Gravelroots who will contact the owner on your behalf.

Gravelroots websites publish historical information, as presented to us, in good faith. The authors of researched family history have invariably attempted to create an accurate account or no purpose would have been served in researching it. Although we do seek to ensure that information contained throughout the website is accurate it is impractical to check the accuracy of all the information contained therein. As with all historical work, you should check other sources for corresponding data, rather than rely on any one source.
 
Gravelroots websites shall not be liable to any person for any loss or damage, which may arise from the use of any of the information contained in any of the materials on this web site.
 
Certain (hypertext) links in this Site will lead to web sites, which are not under the control of Gravelroots websites . When you activate any of these you will leave the Gravelroots web site. We have no control over and will accept no responsibility or liability for the material on any web site which is not under our direct control. We do inspect all sites prior to linking for content and will not approve any which may offend.
 
In order to prevent improper use of email addresses by third parties we will not display contributors' email addresses on the boards unless asked to do so. If you need to contact a contributor without an email address then email Gravelroots and we shall pass your message on.
 
Whilst we have made every effort to preserve copyright on any material used in these pages, it may be possible some has been used without consent as some of the content may have been trawled from the internet when contributed by readers.
If this is the case, please contact us so that, if correct, we may alter the layout of this site to the satisfaction of all concerned
All contributed material is checked for 'security tags' and copyright watermarking.
By uploading an image to www.gravelroots.net you declare that you are the copyright owner, or have permission from the copyright owner to publish the image on this site. Your email address and-or computers IP address may be logged to prevent abuse and to help resolve any infringement issues that may arise.
 
Furthermore it remains the duty of the contributor to assess copyright. If any doubt occurs Gravelroots will install a possible source and/or hyperlink with the material and attempt to contact the possible owner.
 
Gravelroots websites attempts to contact everyone listed within the directories etc. on this site at least once a year. However, we cannot take responsibility for those organisations or individuals who do not respond and who do not update their information.
 
Gravelroots websites reserves the right to remove, or ammend, at any time, without notification or reason, any text, links, images or information at our sole discretion.
Gravelroots websites also reserves the right to ammend, at any time, without notification or reason, the above policies.
 
Viewing the Gravelroots site indicates acceptance of these terms and conditions