Terms and Conditions
Introduction
authonomy is an online literary community service provided by HarperCollins Publishers
that allows you to share, review and promote your writing. This term
of use agreement (‘agreement’) contains the legally binding terms for your use of
the Website www.authonomy.com. By using the Website you agree to be bound by this
agreement, whether you are a visitor (which means that you simply browse the Website)
or you are a Member (which means that you have registered with ‘us’ to share and
promote your writing or to review other members’ writing).
The term ‘you’ in this agreement refers to a visitor or a member. You are only authorised
to use the Website if you agree to abide by all applicable laws and by this agreement.
Your Acceptance of this Agreement
If you wish to use the Website you must read this agreement. Your use of the Website
will be considered deemed acceptance of this agreement. Acceptance means that you
agree to be legally bound by the terms and conditions contained in this agreement.
If you are not willing to accept the terms and conditions contained in this agreement
you should leave the Website immediately.
Changes to Terms and Conditions
We may modify this Agreement from time to time and such modification shall be effective
upon the terms being posted on the Website. If you do not agree with such modifications
you should cease to use the Website. If you use the Website after those terms have
been posted on the Website you will be deemed to have accepted them. It is therefore
important that you review this agreement regularly to ensure you are updated as
to any changes.
Privacy Policy
This agreement includes our policy for acceptable use of the Website and content
posted on the Website, your rights, obligations and restrictions regarding your
use of the Website. We reserve the right to reject, refuse to post or remove any
posting by you, or to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to all or part
of the Website at any time without notice.
Eligibility
By using the Website you represent and warrant that (a) all registration information
you submit is truthful and accurate; (b) you will maintain the accuracy of such
information; (c) you are 18 years of age or older; and your use of the Website does
not violate any applicable law. We reserve the right to terminate Membership and/or
take down your profile if we believe you are under 18 years of age.
Term and Termination
This agreement will remain in full force and effect while you use the Website. You
may terminate this agreement by following the instructions on the ‘account settings
page’. We may terminate your use of the Website at any time without warning. Even
after termination the sections headed ‘Warranty’ and ‘Indemnity’ will remain in
effect.
Fees
We reserve the right to alter, depart from or cease offering use of the Website
for free at any time. We will inform you of such a decision and you will then be
able to decide whether you wish to continue to use the Website. Your continued use
of the Website after the proposed fee introduction or modification has been posted
for at least one month will be considered acceptance of the proposed fee modification.
Password
When you sign up to the Website, you will be asked to choose a password. You are
entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. You agree
not to use the account, username, or password of another user of the Website at
any time or to disclose your password to any third party. You agree to notify us
immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account or access to your
password. You are solely responsible for any and all use of your account.
Commercial Use
The Website is for personal use only and may not be used in connection with any
commercial endeavours. Unlawful and/or unauthorized use of the Website, including
collecting usernames or email addresses of other members by electronic or other
means is prohibited. Commercial adverts, affiliate links, and other forms of solicitation
may be removed without notice and may result in termination of this agreement. Appropriate
legal action will be taken for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Website.
Access to the Website
We work hard to ensure that the Website is available and that transmissions will
be error free. However, due to the nature of the internet, this cannot be guaranteed
and accordingly the Website is provided as and when available and on an ‘as is’
basis. Access to the Website may be restricted from time to time to allow for repairs,
maintenance or updating of the Website. We reserve the right to take down the Website
at any time.
Content Ownership
We do not claim any right of ownership in any manuscripts, comments, reviews, files,
images, jackets, covers, photos, or any other material that you post on the Website
(‘Content’). After posting your Content on the Website you will continue to retain
all your intellectual property ownership rights in such Content and you continue
to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose.
AuthonomyTM and the authonomy block lettering logo are trade marks of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Your License to US
By posting Content on the Website you hereby grant to us a license to use, modify,
publicly display, reproduce and distribute such Content on the Website. The license
you grant us is (i) non-exclusive which means you are free to license your Content
to any one else, (ii) fully paid up and royalty free which means you will not be
paid by HarperCollins or anyone else for the use of your Content on the Website,
(iii) sub-licensable for the purposes of enabling us to host and maintain the Website
via third parties and worldwide (which means the Content will be viewed on a global
basis).
This license does not grant us the right to sell your Content.
Reviews
As the Website is a platform for the exchange of creative ideas and views-be it
reviews of your creative work or response to comments posted by you-you may find
that you do not agree with the comments of others. Comments made may be negative
as well as positive. Accordingly, you agree to waive your right to object to derogatory
treatment of your Content.
Warranties
You are solely responsible for the Content posted by you and all other material
you transmit to us or other Members You represent and warrant that (i) you own the
Content posted by you on the Website or have the right to post the Content on the
Website (ii) the Content does not infringe the privacy rights, publicity rights,
intellectual property rights or any other rights of any person (iii) the Content
does not breach any right of confidence (iv) the Content is not libellous or obscene
(v) the Content is not in breach of the Official Secrets Act or any other similar
legalisation or otherwise unlawful (vii) that if followed any recipes or instructions
included in the Content will not cause any harm to any person.
Indemnity
You agree to indemnify us and our affiliates against any loss or damage or expense
we or our affiliates suffer or incur as a result of you being breach of any of the
above warranties. This means that you will be responsible for the loss or damage
we suffer as a result of you being in breach of your warranties to us.
Our Right to Delete Content
We may delete any Content at any time for any reason including but not limited to
where the Content is offensive, infringes the rights of any third party, threatens
the safety of any person or is otherwise unlawful. We will not be required to give
you any reason for deleting such Content or enter into any dialogue with you. Our
decision will be final.
Our Exclusion of Liability In Respect of Content Posted on the Website
As we are providing a freely hosted platform to promote literature we assume no
responsibility for monitoring the Website for amongst other things inappropriate
or unlawful Content, including but not limited to defamatory content.
Accordingly, we do not endorse or assume any liability for the Content or any damage
you may suffer as a result of the Content nor do we make any representation or give
any warranty express or implied as to the accuracy or lawfulness of the Content.
With the exception of pictures Content is not reviewed by us prior to it being posted
by Users.
The Content does not reflect our opinions, views or policies.
Content Which Is Prohibited
The following is a partial list of the kind of Content that is illegal or prohibited
on the Website. Content which
- 1. is offensive and promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind
against any group or individual;
- 2. harasses or advocates harassment of another person;
- 3. exploits people in a sexual or violent manner;
- 4. contains images of nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter or contains
a link to an adult website;
- 5. solicits personal information;
- 6. provides any telephone numbers, street addresses, postal codes, or email addresses;
- 7. promotes information that you know is false or misleading or promotes illegal
activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libellous;
- 8. promotes an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person's copyrighted work,
such as providing pirated e-books or links to them, providing information to circumvent
manufacture-installed copy-protection devices, or providing pirated music or links
to pirated music files;
- 9. involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass
mailing, instant messaging or "spamming";
- 10. contains restricted or password only access pages or hidden pages or images
(those not linked to or from another accessible page);
- 11. furthers or promotes any criminal activity or enterprise or provides instructional
information about illegal activities including, but not limited to making or buying
illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer
viruses;
- 12. solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful
purposes from other Users;
- 13. involves commercial activities and/or sales without our prior written consent
such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes;
- 14. includes a photograph of another person that you have posted without that person's
consent;
- 15. any photographs containing nudity, or obscene, lewd, violent, harassing, sexually
explicit or otherwise objectionable subject matter.
Despite this prohibition information provided by other users may contain inaccurate,
inappropriate, offensive or sexually explicit material, and we assume no responsibility
or liability for this material.
Activity Which is Prohibited
The following is a partial list of the kind of activity that is illegal or prohibited
on the Website. We reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action
against anyone who in our sole discretion violates these provisions, including but
not limited to reporting you the relevant law enforcement authorities.
Prohibited activity includes, but is not limited to:
- 1.criminal activity, including child pornography, fraud, trafficking in obscene
material, drug dealing, gambling, harassment, stalking, spamming, sending of viruses
or other harmful files, copyright infringement, patent infringement, or theft of
trade secrets;
- 2.advertising to, or solicitation of, any Member to buy or sell any products or
services through the Website. You may not transmit any chain letters or junk email
to other Members. It is also a violation of these rules to use any information obtained
from the Website in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any Member
without their prior explicit consent. Covering or obscuring the banner advertisements
on the Website via HTML/CSS or any other means;
- 3.any automated use of the system, such as using scripts to add friends or send
comments;
- 4.interfering with, disrupting, or creating an undue burden on the Website or the
networks or services that support the Website;
- 5. attempting to impersonate another Member or person;
- 6. using the account, username, or password of another member at any time or disclosing
your password to any third party or permitting any third party to access your account;
- 7. selling or otherwise transferring your profile;
- 8. using any information obtained from the Website in order to harass, abuse, or
harm another person;
- 9. displaying an advertisement on your profile, or accepting payment or anything
of value from a third person in exchange for your performing any commercial activity
on or through the Website on behalf of that person, such as placing commercial content
on your profile, posting comments with a commercial purpose or selecting a profile
with a commercial purpose as one of your friends; or
- 10. using the Website in a manner inconsistent with any and all applicable laws
and regulations.
If you become aware of any misuse of the Website please contact us by clicking on
the ‘Report Abuse’ link on the relevant page.
Copyright Policy
You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce on the Website any material protected
by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right belonging to others without obtaining
their prior written consent.
If you believe your copyright has been copied in a way that constitutes infringement
please follow our ‘Take Down Notice Procedure’.
Defamatory Material
As we only act as a host for what is a creative platform for the exchange of literary
work and ideas we do not review Content. Accordingly, we operate a “notice and takedown”
procedure. If you believe the Website contains a defamatory statement please notify
us by following the ‘Take Down Notice Procedure’. Once this procedure has been followed,
we will make all reasonable endeavours to remove the defamatory content complained
about within a reasonable time.
Third Party Software
In order to make full use of the Website you may need to download software and content
which may include additional terms and conditions. Such terms and conditions will
be deemed incorporated into this agreement to the extent that you download such
software or content.
Events beyond our reasonable control
We will not be liable to you for any delay or other failure to comply with our obligation
(if any) where the delay or failure arises from any event or cause which is beyond
our control.
Entire Agreement
This agreement represents the entire agreement between us relating to its subject
matter, meaning that no other terms expressed or implied apply or govern your contractual
relationship with us.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law
and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.