1. Introduction
These Terms of Use ("Terms") include our User Code of Conduct (part of this document) and make reference to our Privacy Policy (a separate document), which we expect you to make yourself familiar with.
These Terms were last updated on 30th June 2016.
These Terms constitute a binding legal agreement between "you" (the user) and “us” (Interests Media Ltd of www.interests.me, together with affiliated websites and applications, trading as and referred here as “interests.me”, a company registered in England at Tiverton, South Road, Woking, GU21 4JS, United Kingdom and company number 8908109).
"You" (the user) may be a visitor to our website, without creating a personal account on interests.me, or you may be a personal account holder, having either created your personal account by entering your email address and choosing a password, or accepted an email invitation to join an organisation as a team member, and chosen a password. These Terms relate to our relationship with you the individual user, not with any organisation you represent or belong to, and we hold individual users personally responsible for their actions in using interests.me.
An organisation may enter into a separate Contract for Services with interests.me, which does not negate these Terms.
If you are a visitor to our website, and you decide to subscribe to an email newsletter provided by one of the organisations using interests.me, or an automated email newsletter for a community, you are not deemed to be a personal account holder unless you have also associated yourself with an organisation and created a password. If you subscribe to an email newsletter provided by one of the organisations using interests.me, you agree that your relationship as an email subscriber is with that organisation, and that you will hold that organisation responsible for any unwanted or inappropriate emails you receive from them. You will always have the opportunity to unusubscribe from any email newsletter sent using the interests.me tool, using an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email, so please do use this facility if there are any email newslettesr you are unhappy to be receiving.
Nothing in the Terms shall confer or purport to confer on any other third party, any benefit or the right to enforce any term of the Terms, and the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply to the Terms.
These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or the subject matter (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be are governed by and construed in accordance with English law.
No failure or delay by us in exercising any right, power or privilege under the Terms shall operate as a waiver of such right or acceptance of any variation of the Terms and nor shall any single or partial exercise by either party of any right, power or privilege preclude any further exercise of that right or the exercise of any other right, power or privilege.
If there is a discrepancy between this English language version and any translated copies, the English version shall prevail.
These Terms apply each time you visit interests.me, on whatever device, and whether or not you have registered for a personal account. By accessing, using or visiting the site, you accept and agree to be bound by the Terms of Use. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT AND AGREE TO THE TERMS THEN YOU MUST NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SITE.
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by proven negligence, or any liability which cannot be limited or excluded by law.
We reserve the right to modify, amend or change the Terms at any time (a “Change”). If we do this then the Changes will be posted on this page and we will indicate the effective date of the updates at the top of the Terms. In certain circumstances, we may send an email to you notifying you of any Change. You should regularly check this page to take notice of any Changes. If you do not accept any Change to the Terms, you should stop using interests.me immediately. Your continued use of interests.me following any Change constitutes your acceptance of the Change and you will be legally bound by the new updated Terms.
If, for any reason, any of the Terms are declared to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by a court of a competent jurisdiction, then to the extent that term is illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted from the Terms and the remainder of the Terms shall survive, remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.
The Terms set out the entire agreement and understanding between us and you in relation to your use of interests.me and this document supersedes all previous agreements, representations and arrangements between us (either oral or written). Nothing in this clause shall limit or exclude any liability for fraudulent misrepresentation.
2. Who Can Use interests.me
You may use interests.me, provided that you warrant that you are 13 years of age or over, and that you have the right, authority and capacity to enter into and be bound by the Terms and that by using interests.me you will not be violating any law or regulation of the country in which you are resident. You are solely responsible for your compliance with all applicable local laws and regulations.
Organisations with a record of terrorist or violent criminal activity are not invited to join interests.me.
If we have told you, for whatever reason, that you or your organisation may not use interests.me, or if we have disabled your personal account, you will not create another personal account without our permission.
3. User Code of Conduct
This section deals with how we expect you to behave when using interests.me and in particular when creating "Content" (any contribution you make to the website or send as part of an email newsletter including stories, messages, email subject titles, organisation names, photographs, images and any other content).
You agree that you will only use interests.me in a manner consistent with its purpose, which is as a collaborative email newsletter tool and related website which is intended as a safe and friendly environment in which to share information within an organisation, between organisations, and with the general public.
Don't Misrepresent Yourself
You agree, in your use of organisation name, organisation description, and ‘from’ email address, not to represent yourself on interests.me as anyone or anything you are not, in particular in order to bring those persons or organisations into disrepute.
You agree that you will not create a personal account for anyone other than yourself or an organisational account for an organisation you’re not associated with, without their express permission. By creating an organisational account you warrant that you have permission to represent that organisation and communicate on its behalf.
Don't Spam Anyone
You agree not to spam individuals by sending unwanted emails, or adding any individual’s email address to a mailing list without their express permission to receive email from your organisation.
You agree not to our websites by repeatedly posting the same or very similar Content, and you agree not to spam individuals by emailing the same or very similar Content repeatedly to the same individual.
Don't Post or Email Inappropriate Content
You agree in all your uses of interests.me not to use expletives or language which could be deemed offensive or is likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person, except in the course of normal rational and respectful debate and discussion.
You agree not to post or email Content which is obscene, pornographic or is likely otherwise to offend human dignity.
You agree not to post or email defamatory Content.
Don't Damage or Hack the interests.me Service
You agree that you will not post Content which contains any spy ware, adware, viruses, corrupt files, worm programmes or other malicious code designed to interrupt, damage or limit the functionality of or disrupt any software, hardware, telecommunications, networks, servers or other equipment, Trojan horse or any other material designed to damage, interfere with, wrongly intercept or expropriate any data or personal information whether from interests.me or otherwise, or itself, or the posting of which, infringes any third party’s rights (including, without limitation, intellectual property rights and privacy rights).
Protect Others' Rights, particularly Privacy and Copyright
You agree to only use other interests.me users' personal information including their email addresses and whatever they may post to interests.me to the extent that your use of it matches interests.me's purpose of allowing people to receive communications and Content from your organisation and to share Content between organsiations and with the general public.
You agree not to create Content for emails or post Content on the website that has been written by or belongs to someone else without their express permission, and if you do, you agree to take full responsibility for it and any subsequent sharing of it by other organisations using interests.me. If Content has been made public on the interests.me website by another organisation, it is permissible for you to share it within your interests.me emails on an ‘as is’ basis, and leaving in place any attributions attached to the Content, and it is permissible to link to it from elsewhere (for instance from other social media) but it is not permitted to copy and share it elsewhere (for instance on other social media) without permission.
You agree that you will not use any Content in any manner which may infringe any third party’s rights. In particular you agree that you will not modify, adapt, distribute, publish or sell to anyone else all or any part of the interests.me site or the Content contained on it (other than the Content submitted by you).
You agree that you will not solicit login information or access a personal account belonging to someone else.
You agree that you will not collect users' Content or information, or otherwise access interests.me using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without our prior permission.
Don't Bully or Harass Anyone
You agree not to post any Content or use any Content in your emails which is personally abusive, insulting or threatening, or which promotes or encourages racism, sexism, hatred or bigotry, either towards an individual or a group of people.
You agree that you will not use others' information acquired through interests.me to spam, harass or make threats to them whether on the interests.me service or elsewhere.
Don't Be in Contempt of Court
You agree that you will not post any Content or use any Content in your emails that obstructs, or gets in the way of the course of justice, for instance mentioning previous convictions of anyone on trial, posting photos, audio or video from inside a court room, creating a substantial risk of serious prejudice, or not respecting protected identities.
Don't Use interests.me in Illegal Activities
You agree not to engage in or encourage any illegal activity using interests.me, including, without limitation, terrorism, abuse, or inciting racial hatred. You agree not to post any Content the submission of which in itself constitutes committing a criminal offence. You agree not to promote, plan or celebrate any actions which have resulted, or could result, in financial or physical harm to others including theft, vandalism, violence and terrorism.
You agree that you will not engage in unlawful multi-level marketing, such as a pyramid scheme, on interests.me.
Don't Encourage Self Harm
You agree not to promote or encourage self-mutilation, eating disorders, hard drug abuse or suicide.
Don't Be Age Inappropriate
You agree that you will not post Content which is age inappropriate to mailing lists targeted at users within a vulnerable age group.
Flag Any Inappropriate Content
If you become aware of published or emailed Content which you believe breaks the law or breaches our Code of Conduct, you agree to forward th email or a link to the relevant webpage to complaints@interests.me. Our team will take a view on whether the personal account holder responsible will be warned or removed from interests.me, and whether police should be notified. You may of course notify the police yourself, but we ask that you also notify us.
4. Your Other Responsibilities as a User
Protect Your Own Personal Information
You warrant that all personal information provided by you is true, correct and accurate, and you agree to the processing of such personal and other information by Interests Media Ltd in accordance with our Privacy Policy (a separate document).
You agree to take responsibility for any personal information you choose to reveal to others about yourself to other users, whether via email or otherwise. Revealing any such information is at your own risk. We encourage you to use the same caution in disclosing details about yourself to third parties online as you would under any other circumstances.
You agree to keep your password safe and take reasonable measures to prevent loss of privacy.
Take Responsibility For All Content You Post and Email
You are responsible for everything you post, upload and say on interests.me. You are solely responsible for, and bear all liability in relation to, Content added by you.
In addition, if you email Content 'as is' which has been created by someone else, you may be held responsible in law for the consequences of sharing that Content with your email subscribers, for instance if that Content promotes self-harm, is bullying or harassing, incites violence or otherwise breaks the law or our Code of Conduct.
Take Responsibility For How You Access interests.me
You agree that you alone are responsible for making all the necessary arrangements to ensure you can access interests.me (including, but not limited to Internet provider and mobile internet provider fees and, any other charges associated with such access).
Permit The Sharing of Your Public Content
You give permission for Content that you have made publicly available to be used in other organisations' email newsletters ('as is' and with attribution to your organisation) and to be published on the interests.me website.
Co-operate If There Is A Claim
You agree that in the event of a claim, that is if we are sued as a result of your use of interests.me, and if we choose to defend or settle the relevant claim as we see fit, you will co-operate fully and reasonably as required by us in the defence of any relevant claim, waiving any claims to anonymity or privacy.
5. Content Ownership Rights
You own the Content you post, provided you are the rightful owner in the first place. In other words, if you write original Content or upload your own original images, you continue to own the copyright to that Content.
You represent and warrant to us by posting Content on interests.me that you have the right to do so, and that you are an exclusive author and owner of the Content, or that you own all rights to its use.
For Content that is covered by intellectual property rights ("IP Content"), and which you have made publicly available more widely than your own mailing lists, you specifically grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide licence ("IP Licence") to use any IP Content that you post on interests.me. We need to be granted this IP Licence in order to publish your Content on our website. This IP Licence extends only to our use of the IP Content on the interests.me service.
6. Our Rights
We Can Share Any Content You Make Public
If you choose to make publicly available Content which you create, we reserve the right to share this Content freely on public and private pages of our website, and in automated emails produced by the interests.me service. You agree that other organisations are allowed to share this Content with attribution to your organisation, in their email newsletters. If you subsequently make Content private which was previously publicly available, we cannot be held responsible for email newsletters already sent containing your Content, as these are non retrievable.
We Can Remove Any Content
We reserve the right, if we see or someone alerts us that you have posted some Content to interests.me (either for emailing or publicly available) that we think is inappropriate, duplicative, or where we perceive a risk of physical harm or a threat to public safety, to remove it at our own discretion.
We Can Remove A Name
We reserve the right to remove or reclaim any URL or organisation name if we believe it is appropriate to do so, such as when a trademark owner complains about a name that does not closely relate to a user's or an organisation's actual name, or if there is potential for confusion with another organisation, or when an organisation name is being used inappropriately, without permission or so as to deliberately create confusion.
We Can Suspend Or Terminate Any Account
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, at any time and without liability or the need to give you prior notice, to suspend or terminate your personal account or your organisational account, or an email list, or your ability to post Content, or your ability to use specific features of the service, if you are not, in our sole opinion, complying with these Terms of Use including the Code of Conduct.
If we deem you to be associated with a criminal, terrorist or violent organisation, we may suspend or terminate your personal account without any other reason.
We Can Vary The Service We Provide
We reserve the right to suspend, withdraw, amend, modify or vary the service provided on interests.me without notice and without incurring any liability to you.
Under Certain Circumstances, We Can Reveal Your Personal Information
We reserve the right to reveal your personal information used in interests.me and any Content posted in accordance with our Privacy Policy. (We don't do this unless there are special circumstances).
We Own All The Intellectual Property Rights To interests.me
We own, control and license the copyright, trademark and intellectual property law rights of all text, graphics, user interfaces, trademarks, logos, sounds and artwork on interests.me which do not fall into the category of Content.
You agree not to use our copyrights, trademarks or trading names (including Interests and interests.me), or any confusingly similar marks, except with our prior written permission.
We Will Defend And Enforce These Terms
We reserve the right, if we are sued or subject to any claim as a result of your use of interests.me, to defend, settle, compromise and pay any and all claims or causes of action which are brought against us as we see fit and without your prior consent.
We reserve the right at our sole discretion, at any time and without liability or the need to give you prior notice, to make use of any operational, technological, legal, or other means available to enforce the Terms (including without limitation blocking specific IP addresses).
7. Full List of Disclaimers
We are not responsible for proactively monitoring all Content on interests.me.
We are not responsible for anything that you post, upload or say while you are using interests.me. We expressly disclaim any and all responsibility and liability for your conduct or the conduct of any other user of interests.me, and expressly disclaim any liability for Content created or uploaded by you or by any other user.
We do not give any warranty about the quality, accuracy, functionality, availability or performance of interests.me, which is provided on an "as is" basis.
We shall not be held responsible for any reduced functionality you may encounter as result of or in connection with accessing interests.me through mobile services or any similar service currently known or developed in the future.
We shall not under any circumstances be liable for any service provider or access charges incurred by you in accessing the site.
We shall not be held responsible for the contents of any third party sites, resources or purchasing opportunities accessed via a link from interests.me, including (but not limited to) the third party site’s compliance with any applicable laws or regulations. These links, where provided by interests.me, are provided to you for your information only. Links may also be posted on interests.me as Content by other users. If you access these links you may be directed to third party sites. These third party sites will have their own terms of use and privacy policies, which may differ from the Terms. The display of links to third party sites does not constitute an endorsement by us of any of the third party content information, sites, or resources provided.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we expressly exclude: all conditions, representations, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity; and any liability incurred by you arising from use of interests.me, its services or these terms and conditions, including without limitation for any claims, charges, demands, damages, liabilities, losses or expenses of whatever nature and howsoever direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, punitive or consequential damages (however arising including negligence), loss of use, loss of data, loss caused by a computer or electronic virus, loss of income or profit, loss of or damage to property, wasted management or office time, breach of contract or claims of third parties or other losses of any kind or character, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages or losses, arising out of or in connection with the use of interests.me. This limitation on liability applies to, but is not limited to, the transmission of any disabling device or virus that may infect your equipment, failure or mechanical or electrical equipment or communication lines, telephone or other interconnect problems (e.g., you cannot access your internet service provider), unauthorized access, theft, bodily injury, property damage, operator errors, strikes or other labor problems or any act of god in connection with interests.me including, without limitation, any liability for loss of revenue or income, loss of profits or contracts, loss of business, loss of anticipated savings, loss of goodwill, loss of data, wasted management or office time and any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including, but not limited to, negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable whether arising directly or indirectly.
We have taken reasonable steps to ensure the currency, availability, correctness and completeness of the information contained on Interests and we provide that information on an "as is", "as available" basis. We do not give or make any warranty or representation of any kind about the information contained on interests.me, whether express or implied. Use of interests.me and the materials available on it is at your sole risk. We cannot be held responsible for any loss arising from the transmission, use of data, or inaccurate Content posted by users. You are responsible for taking all necessary precautions to ensure that any material you may obtain from interests.me is free of viruses or other harmful components. You accept that interests.me will not be provided uninterrupted or error free, that defects may not be corrected or that interests.me, or the server that makes it available, are free of viruses or bugs, spyware, Trojan horses or any similar malicious software. We are not responsible for any damage to your computer hardware, computer software, or other equipment or technology including, but without limitation damage from any security breach or from any virus, bugs, tampering, fraud, error, omission, interruption, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer line or network failure or any other technical or other malfunction.
You agree to hold harmless and indemnify us and our officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives and licensors from and against any third party claims, damages (actual and/or consequential), actions, proceedings, demands, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses (including reasonable solicitor’s fees) suffered or reasonably incurred by us arising as a result of, or in connection with, your access to and use of interests.me, the uploading or submission of Content to interests.me by you or your conduct, other than in accordance with the Terms or any applicable law or regulation.
