External Linking Policy

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Effective May 1, 2009

Purpose

It is the purpose of the City of Carlsbad's government website to advance the public's health, safety and welfare by providing information about the services, operations and projects of Carlsbad city government. This includes promoting tourism and economic development within the city and region.

External links from City of Carlsbad government website

The City of Carlsbad permits the establishment of links to external websites on the city's official website solely in conformance with this administrative website and linking policy ("Policy"). In the establishment and maintenance of its official website, the city does not intend in any manner to create nor does it create a forum or other means by which public discourse, exchange of opinions, or discussion on issues of any nature may occur. The city is not responsible for, does not endorse and cannot assure the accuracy of information on these outside websites. (See Disclaimer of Endorsement below.)

The city manager for the City of Carlsbad has designated its communications manager as the person responsible for the management and oversight of the City of Carlsbad website. Organizations wishing to establish external links on the city's website must submit an external link application to the communications manager or may send electronically an external link request to: Contact Us | Communications. The application must contain all information necessary to verify the facts as stated and is necessary to determine whether the proposed link is in compliance with this policy. The communications manager will review the merits of the requested external link, keeping in mind the criteria and examples listed below, to determine whether the link serves the overall purpose of the city's website. A request will not be denied because of a viewpoint espoused by the person or entity.

At its discretion the city may provide links to external sites that fall into one of the following categories:

News organizations serving Carlsbad.
Other governmental agencies.
Utilities that provide service in the city.
Public and private, bona fide educational institutions as defined in Education Code §210.3 or as described in Education Code §66010 (a) and (b).
Carlsbad tourist attractions serving the public generally which receive over 60,000 attendees annually.
Organizations as defined in the Internal Revenue Code §§501(c)(6) and 501(c)(3) that support the city’s strategic or operational goals.
Any association located in or managing a location which has received a historical site designation by the Carlsbad City Council pursuant to the California Public Resources Code §§ 5020 et seq.
Organizations that partner with the City of Carlsbad to meet the city's strategic or operational goals.
City of Carlsbad created pages on social media websites, such as YouTube and Facebook.

The City of Carlsbad reserves the right to: (1) deny an external link application to any person, business or organization when it is determined, following review of a complete application, that the entity or organization for which application is made does not meet the criteria set forth in this policy; and/or (2) deny an external link application to any person, business or organization that fails to provide all required information, or fails to provide truthful information.

Examples of the type of websites that the city's website will not provide an external link to include sites:

Promoting or exhibiting hate, bias, discrimination, pornography, nudity as defined by the Carlsbad Municipal Code § 11.28.020, alcohol, firearms, tobacco, religion, or libelous or otherwise defamatory content
Associated with, sponsored by or serving a candidate for elected office, any political party or organization supporting or seeking to defeat any candidate for elective office or any ballot proposal
Associated with political organizations or other organizations advocating a position on a local, state or federal issue
Furthering the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office
Furthering the non-charitable agenda of a labor union
Violating any of the city's equal opportunity or norms and values policies
That are individual or personal websites

Appeal process

The denial of the request to place an external link on the city website may be appealed, in writing, to the city manager within five business days of the date the denial was mailed. The city manager, whose decision will be final, will review the appeal and render a decision within 10 business days of receiving the appeal.

Removal of external link from city website

The city's communications manager reserves the right to immediately and without notice to any person or organization: (1) remove any external link if the nature of the organization or business to which the link relates no longer complies with the city's external link policy or (2) to revise this policy without prior notice when to do so is deemed to be in the best interests of the City of Carlsbad.

Location and appearance of external links

The city reserves the right to determine the look, how and where external links will appear on its website; i.e. what page the link appears on and where the link is placed on the page.

Copyright/trademark

The city seal is the property of the City of Carlsbad. Any use of the materials stored on the city's website is prohibited without the expressed written permission of the City of Carlsbad. The City of Carlsbad retains all intellectual property rights, including copyrights on all text, graphic images and other content on its website, unless duly noted as Third Party Materials. This means that the following acts or activities are prohibited without prior, expressed written permission from the City of Carlsbad: (1) modification and/or re-use text, images or other website content from a city server; (2) distribution of the city's website content; or (3) "mirroring" the city's information on a non-city server.

Third party materials

Some materials and information used on the City of Carlsbad's website were generated by third parties who have consented to the city's use or placement of such materials on this site. These materials are owned by those parties. Use of these third party materials for any purpose is prohibited. Persons seeking to use or modify third party materials for any purpose should contact the owner of such materials directly. These materials include text, icons and graphic images used as standalone or in links to other organizations' sites, as well as various items of general content.

Indemnification

To the extent permitted by applicable law, by using the city of Carlsbad's website, the user agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless, the city of Carlsbad, its agencies, officers, employees, representatives, and agents from and against all claims and expenses, including attorney's fees, arising out of the user's use of this website or materials and information contained on this site.

Disclaimer of endorsement

External links made available through the City of Carlsbad's website will redirect users away from the city's website. Please be aware that the Internet sites available through these links, and the materials that are found at those sites are not provided by, endorsed by or under the control of the City of Carlsbad. Therefore, the city cannot and does not make any representation about these sites or the appropriateness of the materials available on those sites. The fact that a user may be able to access these additional sites from the city's website is not an endorsement, approval or recommendation by the city of any of these sites or any material found there. The city is providing these links only as a convenience to users, and access to these additional sites is done at the user’s own risk. If you have any concerns, you should not click on the external link.

General disclaimer

The materials and information contained on or obtained from this website, are distributed and transmitted "AS IS" without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, including without limitation, warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Information contained on this website, including information obtained from external links thereon, is provided without any representation of any kind as to accuracy or content and should be verified by the user. The City of Carlsbad is not responsible for any general, direct, special, indirect, incidental or consequential damages that may arise from the use of, or the inability to use, the city’s website and/or the materials contained on its website whether the materials contained on the website are provided by the City of Carlsbad or a third party.

Links to the City of Carlsbad's website

Advance permission to link to the city's website is not necessary. However, the organization linking to the City of Carlsbad's website should understand that content and internal Web links may change at any time without notice.

Entities and individuals shall not link to the city's website nor capture pages within frames and present the city's website content as its own, or otherwise misrepresent this website's content or misinform users about the origin or ownership of its content.