Terms of Website Use

This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of our website (our "site"), whether as a guest or a registered user. Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the site. Using our site indicates that you accept these terms regardless of whether or not you choose to register with us. If you do not agree to these terms of use (or are not authorised to do so on behalf of your business or work), please refrain from using our site. If you use our site in the course of your business or work, you are also agreeing to these terms and conditions on behalf of that business. We only make these terms and conditions available in the English language.

• Information about us
• Accessing our site
• Intellectual property rights
• Reliance on information posted
• User Generated Content
• Our Liability
• Information about you and your visits to our site
• Transactions concluded through our site
• Viruses, hacking and other offences
• Links
• Jurisdiction and applicable law
• Events outside our control
• Written communications and Notices
• General Provisions

 

1. INFORMATION ABOUT US

This site is operated by Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd and its respective divisions (including without limitation Penguin Group (Australia), Pearson Australia and United Book Distributors) and related bodies corporate ("us", "we" and "our"). We are registered in Victoria, Australia under Australian Company Number 004 245 943 and with our registered office at 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3008. Our ABN is 40004245943.

 

2. ACCESSING OUR SITE

You acknowledge that these terms of website use are supported by reasonable and valuable consideration, the receipt and adequacy of which is acknowledged. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you acknowledge that such consideration includes your use of the site and receipt of data, materials and information available at or through our site. We recommend that you print and save a copy of these terms and conditions for your records.

You may access most areas of our site without registering your details with us. Certain areas of the site may only open to you if you register. From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our site, or our entire site, to users who have registered with us.

Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site without notice. We may change or delete the content or any features at any time, in any way, for any or no reason. We will not be liable if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period. We may in exceptional circumstances cease to publish the site, the site content or cease to provide subscription services. If we do so, then we will have no further obligation to you. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.

3. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

All information, materials, functions and other content contained on our site are our copyrighted property or the copyrighted property of our licensors or licensees. All such rights are reserved. All trademarks, service marks, trade names, and trade dress are proprietary to us and/or our licensors or licensees.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to material posted on our site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on our site must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the materials on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

Except as set out above no part of our site may be reproduced or stored in any other website or included in any public or private electronic retrieval system or service without our prior written permission.

4. RELIANCE ON INFORMATION POSTED

Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents. 

5. USER GENERATED CONTENT

Our sites may include discussion forums and blogs that allow interaction between users and between users and our staff (we call these "Forums"). We call the information posted to these forums or blogs by users "User Generated Content" or "UGC".

If you wish to view or participate in a Forum then you must comply with any specific rules posted on the Forum. You will retain ownership of the copyright in any of your UGC that you or we publish on our site so you are free to re-use it as you wish. You agree that if you post UGC to a Forum then you are granting us a right (but not an obligation) unlimited in time to publish, re-use, archive, modify, delete or commercially exploit that UGC in whole or in part as we see fit, whether on our site or otherwise, without any requirement to pay you for this and with or without attribution to you. This means that you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use any UGC you publish in whole or in part in any manner and for any purpose whatsoever and without further obligation to you. You also waive any moral rights that you may have in regard to the UGC.

You are responsible for all the content of any of your UGC that you or we publish. You are financially responsible to us for any claim against us by any third party that your UGC is not in accordance with the bullet points below or that otherwise relates to your UGC.

You agree that you will:

• only publish UGC that is your original content and will not infringe the copyright or other rights of any third party when publishing UGC.
• not post, link to or otherwise publish any UGC containing any form of advertising or promotion for goods and services or any spam or other form of unsolicited communication.
• not post, link to or otherwise publish any UGC with recommendations to buy or not buy a particular share or other investment or which contain confidential information of another party or which otherwise have the purpose of affecting the price or value of any share or other investment.
• not post, link to or otherwise publish any UGC that is threatening, abusive, libelous, indecent or otherwise unlawful.
• not disguise the origin of any UGC and not impersonate any person or entity (including our employees or Forum guests or hosts) or misrepresent any connection with any person or entity.
• not post or otherwise publish any UGC unrelated to the Forum or the Forum's topic.
• not post or transmit any UGC that contains software viruses, files or code designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of our site or any computer software or equipment.
• not collect or store other users' personal data.
• not restrict or inhibit any other user from using the Forums.

The Forums contain UGC submitted by users over whom we have no control so we cannot therefore guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of any UGC. Some users may not behave properly and may post UGC that is misleading, untrue or offensive.

It is not possible for us to fully monitor all UGC published on our sites but where we have actually received notice of any UGC that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review that UGC, decide whether to remove it from our site and act accordingly. If you believe that any UGC published on our site infringes any legal rights that you may have or is not allowed under these terms and conditions, please notify us immediately with specific details by contacting us at privacy.officer@pearson.com.au.

 

6. OUR LIABILITY

The material displayed on our site is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we, other members of our group of companies and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude:

• All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.
• Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our site, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for:
  • loss of income or revenue;
  • loss of business;
  • loss of profits or contracts;
  • loss of anticipated savings;
  • loss of data;
  • loss of goodwill;
  • wasted management or office time; and for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable, provided that this condition shall not prevent claims for loss of or damage to your tangible property or any other claims for direct financial loss that are not excluded by any of the categories set out above.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree that any cause of action you may have arising out of or related to these terms of website use or of our sites must commence within one (1) year after the cause of action accrues; otherwise, such cause of action shall be permanently barred.

 

7. INFORMATION ABOUT YOU AND YOUR VISITS TO OUR SITE

We process information about you in accordance with our privacy policy. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

On registration, you must provide us with accurate, complete registration information and it is your responsibility to update and maintain changes to that information on the applicable registration or subscription pages. We are entitled to rely on any information you provide to us.

You are responsible for all use of our site made by you or anyone else using your ID and for preventing unauthorised use of your ID. If you believe there has been any breach of security such as the disclosure, theft or unauthorised use of your ID or any payment information, you must notify us immediately. We recommend that you do not select an obvious user password (such as your name) and that you change it regularly.

If you provide us with an email address that will result in any messages we may send you being sent to you via a network or device operated or owned by a third party (e.g. your employer or college) then you warrant that you are entitled to receive those messages. You also agree that we may stop sending messages to you without notifying you.

 

8. TRANSACTIONS CONCLUDED THROUGH OUR SITE

Contracts for the supply of goods or services formed through our site or as a result of visits made by you are governed by our terms and conditions of supply. 

 

9. VIRUSES, HACKING AND OTHER OFFENCES

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.

By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

 

10. LINKS

You may link to our site, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

Our site must not be framed on any other site. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

 

11. JURISDICTION AND APPLICABLE LAW

These terms of use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by the law of the State of Victoria, Australia. Any dispute or claim shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Victoria although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country. We make no representation that the site or the content on the site is appropriate or available for use in any particular location. If you choose to access our site you do so your own initiative and you are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws including any applicable local laws. 

 

12. EVENTS OUTSIDE OUR CONTROL

We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under a Contract that is caused by events outside our reasonable control ("Force Majeure Event").

A Force Majeure Event includes any act, event, non-happening, omission or accident beyond our reasonable control and includes in particular (without limitation) the following:

• Strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action.
• Civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war.
• Fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic or other natural disaster.
• Impossibility of the use of railways, shipping, aircraft, motor transport or other means of public or private transport.
• Impossibility of the use of public or private telecommunications networks. The acts, decrees, legislation, regulations or restrictions of any government.

Our performance is deemed to be suspended for the period that the Force Majeure Event continues, and we will have an extension of time for performance for the duration of that period. We will use our reasonable endeavours to bring the Force Majeure Event to a close or to find a solution by which our obligations under the Contract may be performed despite the Force Majeure Event. 

 

13. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS AND NOTICES

Applicable laws require that some of the information or communications we send to you should be in writing. When using our site, you accept that communication with us will be mainly electronic. We will contact you by e-mail or provide you with information by posting notices on our website. For contractual purposes, you agree to this electronic means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communications that we provide to you electronically comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.

All notices given by you to us must be in writing and addressed to The Legal Counsel, Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd at 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3008. A notice required to be given to us under these Terms of Website Use shall not be validly given if sent by e-mail. We may give notice to you at either the e-mail or postal address you provided us. 

 

14. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Variations: We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site. Severability: If any of these terms and conditions are determined by any competent authority to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, such term, condition or provision will to that extent be severed from the remaining terms, conditions and provisions which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Waiver: If we fail to insist upon strict performance of any of your obligations under any of these terms and conditions, or if we fail to exercise any of the rights or remedies to which we are entitled, this shall not constitute a waiver of such rights or remedies and shall not relieve you from compliance with such obligations. A waiver by us of any default shall not constitute a waiver of any subsequent default. No waiver by us of any of these terms and conditions shall be effective unless it is expressly stated to be a waiver and is communicated to you in writing.

Interpretation: Headings in these conditions shall not affect their interpretation. A reference to a statute or statutory provision is a reference to it as it is in force for the time being, taking account of any amendment, extension, or re-enactment and includes any subordinate legislation for the time being in force made under it.

Changes to Terms of Website Use: These terms and conditions were published on 10 March 2010.