We are:             [Name Riding Club]

Our address is:              [Address]

 

Our email contact is:      [Address]

 

You are:                        a club member or other visitor to our website

 

 

The terms and conditions

 

1          Definitions

 

"Content"                      means the information, photographs, graphics, and other material on the Web Site.

 

“Installation”                   means all of the computer hardware and software and any other machinery and equipment operated in conjunction with it and used by us to provide the Services.

 

"Post"                           means display, exhibit, publish, distribute, transmit and/or disclose information, details and/or other material on the Web Site, and the phrases "Posted" and "Posting" shall be interpreted accordingly;

 

"Services"                     means all or any service provided by us through the Web Site.

 

“Web Site”                     means our web sites, and includes all web pages controlled by us.

 

“User”                           means any person other than you who uses the Services or visits the Web Site for any purpose.

 

“we”, “us”, etc                means us.  Where the context permits it also includes any business company or individual who shares an interest in the sale of any goods or service promoted on the Web Site.  Without limitation, it includes any subsidiary or associated company of ours, together with any licensor, affiliate, or network partner.

 

"you” “yours” etc,           means you, the party to this agreement.

 

 

2          Our contract

 

These terms and conditions regulate the business relationship between you and us.  By joining our club or buying our services or using our web site free of charge, you agree to be bound by them.

 

 

3          Changes to terms

 

We may change these terms from time to time.  The terms that apply to you are those posted here on our web site on the day you join or order Goods / Services.  It may be useful to print a copy now.

 

 

4          Price and Payment

 

4.1                    Prices are inclusive of any applicable value added tax or other sales tax.

 

4.2                    . . . other terms relating to cost of membership or method of payment, but best not actual costs    

 

 

5          Acceptable use Policy

 

You agree to comply with these provisions:

 

5.1                    You will not use or allow anyone else to use the Web Site to post or otherwise publish:

5.1.1                             copyright works;

5.1.2                             commercial audio, video or music files;

5.1.3                             any material which violates the law of any established jurisdiction;

5.1.4                             links to any of the material specified in this paragraph;

5.1.5                             pornographic material;

5.1.6                             any material promoting discrimination or animosity to any person on grounds of gender, race or colour.

 

5.2                    You agree not to assign, transfer, or authorise any other person to use, your membership.  If you try to do so, we have the right to terminate your membership.

 

 

6          Information you give us

 

You agree that you have provided, and will continue to provide accurate, up to date, and complete information about yourself.

 

 

7          System Security

 

7.1                    You agree that you will not, and will not allow any other person to, violate or attempt to violate any aspect of the security of the Installation;

 

7.2                    You agree that you will, in no way, modify, reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile, copy, or cause damage or unintended effect to any portion of the Web Site, or any software used on the Web Site, and that you will not permit any other person to do so.

 

7.3                    The Customer understand that any such violation is unlawful in many jurisdictions and that any contravention of law may result in criminal prosecution.

 

7.4                    Examples of violations are:

7.4.1                             accessing data unlawfully or without consent;

7.4.2                             attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures;

7.4.3                             attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing";

7.4.4                             forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or newsgroup posting;

7.4.5                             taking any action in order to obtain services to which you are not entitled.

 

 

8          Content and Intellectual Property Rights

 

8.1                    Title, ownership rights, and intellectual property rights in the Content whether provided by us or by any other content provider shall remain the sole property of us and / or the other content provider.  We will strongly protect its rights in all countries.

 

8.2                    You may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, transfer or sell, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit any of the Content, in whole or in part, except as is expressly permitted in this agreement.

 

8.3                    You may post into the Services any Content owned by you.  You accept all risk and responsibility for determining whether any Content is in the public domain. You grant to us the right to edit, copy, publish, distribute, translate and otherwise use in any medium and for any purpose any Content that you place on the Service. You represent and warrant that you are authorized to grant all such rights.

 

8.4                    You may download or copy the Content only for your own personal use, provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained in such Content. You may not store electronically any significant portion of any Content.

 

 

9          Indemnity

 

You agree to indemnify us against any claim or demand, including reasonable lawyers’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Services, the breach or violation of this Agreement by you, or the infringement by you, or by any other  User of the Services using your computer, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity, or as a result of any threatening, libellous, obscene, harassing or offensive material contained in any of your communications.

 

 

10         Interruption to the Service

 

10.1                  If it is necessary for us to interrupt the Services then we may do so without telling you first.

 

10.2                  You acknowledge that the Services may also be interrupted for reasons beyond our control.

 

10.3                  You agree that we are not liable to you for any loss whether foreseeable or not, arising as a result of interruption to the Services.

 

 

11         Our liability

 

11.1                  Your use of the Services is without any warranty or guarantee.

 

11.2                  You are advised that content may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.

 

11.3                  We give no warranty and make no representation, express or implied, as to:

11.3.1                           the truth of any information given on the Web Site;

11.3.2                           any implied warranty or condition as to merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose;

11.3.3                           compliance with any law;

11.3.4                           non-infringement of any right.

 

11.4                  Some of the material provided on the Web Site may be Posted (and thereby published) by Users.  We are under no obligation to monitor, vet, check or approve any such material.  We disclaim all responsibility for information published on the Web Site by any person.

 

11.5                  The Web Site may contain links to other Internet web sites.  We have neither power nor control over any such web site.  You acknowledge and agree that we shall not be liable in any way for the content of any such linked web site, nor for any loss or damage arising from your use of any such web site.

 

11.6                  In no event shall we or our content suppliers be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, loss of data or loss of revenues or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or otherwise, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Web Site or the content available from this Web Site.

 

11.7                  These disclaimers form an essential part of this agreement.  Each sub paragraph in this agreement is independent and severable from each other paragraph and enforceable accordingly.  If any restriction is unenforceable for any reason but would be enforceable if part of the wording were deleted, it will apply with such minimal deletions as may be necessary to make it valid and enforceable.

 

 

12         Modification

 

We reserve the right to modify the Services and to change the terms and conditions of this agreement at any time, without notice.  Your continued use of the Services after such modifications shall be deemed an acceptance by you to be bound by the terms of the modified agreement.

 

 

13         Termination

 

13.1                  You may terminate this Agreement at any time, for any reason, with immediate effect. You may terminate the agreement either by sending notice to us by post or email, or by completing the form on the Web Site and submitting it.   We reserve the right to check the validity of any request to terminate membership

 

13.2                  We may terminate this Agreement at any time, for any reason, with immediate effect by sending you notice to that effect by post or email.

 

13.3                  If you terminate, we shall be under no liability to you whatsoever, and you hereby release us from any such liability.

 

13.4                  Termination by either party shall have the following effects:

13.4.1                           your right to use the Services immediately ceases;

13.4.2                           we are under no obligation to forward any unread or unsent messages to you or any third party;

 

13.5                  In the event of such termination by us, we will within seven days refund to you the balance of your subscription outstanding for any Service, pro rata with time not elapsed;

 

13.6                  There shall be no reimbursement or credit if the Service is terminated due to your violation of the terms of this agreement.

 

13.7                  We retains the right, at our sole discretion, to terminate any and all parts of the Services provided to you, without refunding to you any fees paid if we decide in our absolute discretion that you have failed to comply with any of the terms of this agreement.

 

 

14         Severability

 

If any of these terms is at any time held by any jurisdiction to be void, invalid or unenforceable, then it shall be treated as changed or reduced, only to the extent minimally necessary to bring it within the laws of that jurisdiction and to prevent it from being void and it shall be binding in that changed or reduced form. Subject to that, each provision shall be interpreted as severable and shall not in any way affect any other of these terms.

 

15         Action Limit

 

You and we agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to the Services must commence within one year after the cause of action arose; otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

 

 

16         No Waiver

 

No waiver by us, in exercising any  right shall operate as a waiver of any other right or of that same right at a future time; nor shall any delay in exercise of any power or right be interpreted as a waiver.

 

 

17         Dispute Resolution

 

In the event of a dispute arising out of or in connection with these terms or any contract between you and us, then you agree to attempt to settle the dispute by engaging in good faith with us in a process of mediation before commencing arbitration or litigation.

 

 

18         Governing Law

 

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England.  This agreement shall not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the application of which is hereby expressly excluded.

 

 

 

The notes

 

General comments

 

19         The document has been marked in blue at all points where you may need to insert, amend or choose an alternative.  You should delete the blue colour as you insert.

 

20         This document is drawn so far as possible to protect the site owner from civil claims in an English court.  A second consideration is to deter would be claimants from action.  There are a number of issues peculiar to any one business which will affect the drafting of Internet terms and conditions.  Many of the conditions will appear, or not appear, as a matter of management policy.  Marketing decisions may dictate that the conditions shall not be too strict!

 

21         The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations and other consumer protection legislation apply to contracts for sales of goods and services.  It is important that you are aware of the provisions of the legislation.  However, there are no special legal provisions relating to the terms you offer to people who have not paid. 

 

Note however, that statements made and information given on your web pages will be regarded by a judge as “representations”  which may have induced your customer to enter into a contract with you.  You cannot therefore avoid a claim for misrepresentation merely by using your terms and conditions to deny the truth of everything on your web site.

 

22         It is essential that terms and conditions are incorporated into the contract.  If they are not drawn to the buyer’s attention until after the contract has effectively been made, then they do not form part of the contract and the member is not bound by them.  It is therefore important that the membership join system is such that the new member has to take some positive step to confirm that he has read the terms and conditions.  If the usual device of a check box is used, it is important that it is not “pre-ticked”.  It is essential that references made to these terms and conditions immediately before a new user can click to activate a purchase or join up.  Here is an example:

 

“I have read and understood [your name]’s terms and conditions, and I agree that they form part of the contract between us.  If I am under the age of 18 years, I confirm that I have brought the terms and conditions to the notice of my parent or guardian, and that person has agreed that I may join.”

 

Where the business involves sale of goods or services to consumers, the preferred acceptance device is one which compels the buyer to go to a page containing the terms and conditions, and where the confirmation of acceptance is on that same page.

 

23         Your attention is drawn to the question of membership.  It is likely that precise differentiation will be required in the terms and conditions between a “member” and a “user”.  It will then be necessary to assess which of the terms apply to which category.

 

24         Because prices and services change from time to time, it is not usually convenient to include these or any other likely variables in a terms and conditions document.  It is therefore important that precise reference is made in the terms and conditions as to where the subject matter of the contract and the price are to be found.

 

25         It is not necessary for your customer to be identified by name.  “You” is enough.  However, you do have to be accurately identified.  A web site name is not enough.  You must clearly state the real name of you or your club and some representative person, such as secretary or chairman. (Electronic Commerce Regulations).

 

26         Avoid placing an email address openly in the website.  It will be picked up by professional spammers. Email addresses may of course safely be entered by a new member or advertiser, for sending to you.

 

 

We now refer to the document, using the document paragraph numbers:

 

2          Establishes the contract, namely the provision of the Services.  To complete the contract, it is essential that the Services are presented on the web site in the manner of a menu or a package, so that it is indisputably clear what the customer has bought.

 

9          The indemnity to you by your customer is very important.  As the network operator you are open to questions by any Governmental authority in any question of misuse by any customer of yours.  This term has therefore been drawn widely, so as to cover all the situations where indemnity might be relevant.  In any claim it is often extremely difficult to obtain compensation for management time lost.  The law recognises financial loss, but only if it is proven.  The final sentence of this term is intended to assist in the claim for the staff time involved in the event of an enquiry or investigation.

 

10         Provides for you to give notice of down time, but only “reasonable notice”, and “where this is possible”.  A provision for notice is desirable since otherwise you could be negligent or in breach of contract if a customer suffered as a result of down time.

 

11.4      It is important that you do not formally monitor, because if you do you may be liable for any failure to identify a problem.  If conversely, it is clear that you have taken no responsibility for monitoring, then it is unlikely that he would be found to be liable to a third party, or guilty of a criminal offence.  Of course, what you do in practice may be different.  Clearly, if a problem can be “nipped in the bud” much time and money may be saved.  This paragraph does not prevent the host from monitoring openly.

Copyright Andrew Taylor and Net Lawman Ltd 2002.  May be reproduced only for the business of a client of Net Lawman Ltd.