Dear Air list members, I'm a Master's degree student in Sociology at the University of Geneva and I'm preparing an article based on my graduation project about online photography, and I'm writing to ask some advice regarding the "ethical" side of such a publication. My research consisted mainly in content analysis of comments written on a photo-sharing website called TrekLens.com. The website's content, so all photos and comments, are freely and publicly accessible to any visitor of the site, with no need for a login or account to view the photos or read the comments. In my analysis, all comments have been anonymized and no usernames are visible. Furthermore, the few examples I give in the final text are hardly identifiable, since they're only small bits from comments and not the entire comments in themselves. In terms of privacy or harm, I don't think I'm running any risks. I have also included a brief description of the site and its tools, features and functionalities. However, the website's terms of use forbid any use of its content without written consent from the webmasters, even if all content is completely public: http://www.treklens.com/tou.php My question is: will I breach any ethical or legal rules if my article is published and do I, by all means, need the moderators' written consent? My doubt in all of this is the possibility of refusal by the webmasters... All advice will be of great value and most warmly appreciated! Thank you all in advance, Nuné Nikoghosyan