Website Terms & Conditions
THESE TERMS APPLY TO THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF www.writebuzz.com ("Website") AND TO ANY CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN US AND YOU.
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY.  USING THIS WEBSITE INDICATES THAT YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU CHOOSE TO REGISTER WITH US. 
IF YOU ARE ACCESSING THIS WEBSITE FROM OUTSIDE THE UNITED KINGDOM, PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LAWS OF ENGLAND AND WALES APPLY AND IF YOU DO IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS WEBSITE.
The pages of this Website are subject to © Converse Ltd 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

1. Introduction
1.1 You will be able to access many areas of this Website without registering your details with us.  Certain areas and services provided by this Website are only available to you if you register and these areas may be monitored and tracked by us for Internet security purposes.
1.2 By using any part of this Website you shall be deemed to have accepted the terms in full.
1.3 We may revise these terms at any time by updating this posting.  You should check our Website Terms and Conditions from time to time, because they are binding on you.  Certain provisions of these terms may be superseded by expressly designated legal notices or terms located on particular pages at this Website.

1.4 All Users
1.4.1. Conduct
Users (member and non members) agree to use this Website only for lawful purposes and are prohibited from posting on the Website racist comments, defamatory material, offensive or indecent language; including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law. Users should not include specific data or descriptions which would enable individuals to be indentified.
In the absence of a specific complaint published work is not automatically monitored for compliance with this provision.
Whilst literature is by nature an expression of thought, such use may affect the enjoyment of others. This is a subjective matter and we are not and cannot be responsible or liable in any way whatsoever to any user for material containing such language or content save for use of the procedure at clause 8.
1.4.2. Third Party Content.
 Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content made available by members, visitors and other third parties are those of the respective author(s) We do not endorse it in any way, nor vouch for its accuracy or relevance.
1.4.3 Disclaimer of Endorsement.
Reference/hypertext link to any other information by trade name, trademark, supplier (products or services) or otherwise does not imply its endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation by us.
 
2 Subscribing to Member Only Website areas
2.1 Subscription to and use of the member only areas of the Website are subject to these terms.
2.2 A user name and password will be requested when you register as a member of this site. You will require this user name and password to be able to participate in selected areas.
2.3 Your activities as an individual, or as part of a Subscriber Group, and any material which you post onto the Website, (i.e. work, reviews, The Plot Thickens®, Pen Pal messages) or submit to us, must comply with the following: -
(a) must be legal and we reserve the right to reject or remove any material that we consider might offend other users (or the recipient of an e-card) for defamatory, or in breach of confidence, copyright or other legal right.
(b) avoid racist comments, defamatory material, offensive or indecent language. Whilst literature is by nature an expression of thought, such use may affect the enjoyment of others. This is a subjective matter and we are not and cannot be responsible or liable in any way whatsoever to any user for material containing such language or content save for use of the procedure at clause 8;
(c) Data Protection Legislation within the Laws of England and Wales must be adhered to in order that the collection of Personal Data is not traded or disclosed illegally or in contravention of the Privacy Policy;
(d) not be technically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data;
(e) must not misuse the Website (including, without limitation, by hacking. Illegal activity or for any activity other than the advancement of literary advancement);
(f) be your own original work, or in the case of subscriber groups is the work of one of the members and is submitted with their consent.
(g) All materials submitted for publication on the Schools channel must be suitable for children and must not contain any offensive or indecent language whatsoever. It must also exclude racism, sexism and any offensive content whatsoever.
(h) All materials submitted for publication to this website, or messages via this website,  must not contain personal information about anyone, including but not limited to, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses or any other information which could be used to uniquely identify an individual.
(i) Writer profiles and Pen Pals messages must not contain personal contact details (address, email address, telephone or fax numbers.)
(iv) If a member with FULL writer's membership has their own website which they wish to reference within their profile, this may be accepted, without warranty, at the discretion of the administration of www.writebuzz.com. Clause 11.1. refers.
(v) Members without an active FULL writer's membership subscription may not included website links within their profiles.
(vi) Writer's may publish a photograph of themself as part of their writer's profile. Other images will not be accepted.

2.4. Members only areas of the website can be accessed via the member's your writebuzz menu when the member has a valid subscription for the the service concerned. Should the relevant subscription be allowed to expire, by the member, the operable service for the subscription concerned will become unaccessible.
2.5 Minors may not become members without permission from a parent or guardian.
2.6 Minors may not submit personal profiles without permission from a parents or guardians.
2.7 Photographs of minors included with profiles must conform to the following: -
2.7.1 for individual members, under the age of 16, the photograph must be of head and shoulders only and must be approved by a parent or guardian before submission.
2.7.2 for a School group membership, or any other group including members under the age of 16, the photograph must be an official photograph approved by the parents or guardians of all members aged under 16 in the group concerned.
2.8 We will fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity or locate anyone posting any material or acting in breach of paragraph 2.3.
2.9 Certain areas of the Website are only available to over 16´s. You will be asked to verify that you are over the age of 16, during the registration process. In the event that we consider the age declaration is incorrect we reserve the right to suspend your username and password until further notice and/or apply the correct restrictions on your use of the Website.
2.10 If minors are using the site, parents, guardians or teachers should monitor the materials that they are reading.

3. Payments and refunds.
3.1 Quarterly or annual membership and charges for e-cards and services may be paid for by Visa, American Express, MasterCard or Switch. We never see your credit card details. We contract WORLDPAY, wholly owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group RBSG, to handle your payment transaction with secure encryption.
3.2 Payment for all services, except subscription to Erotica, may also be made using SPLASH PLASTIC. Please see www.SplashPlastic.com for details including terms and conditions of use.
3.3. Payment (in UK sterling only) for all services may also be made by cheque. Cheques must clear before the service subscribed to becomes active.
3.4 We conform to The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (UK), by providing;
(a) Our full name and address (see Contact Us);
(b) Details of fee inclusive of VAT to comply with the UK regulations;
(c) a 7 day cooling off period to cancel membership; you must notify us in writing if you wish to cancel your membership (initial subscription only) within 7 working days. You will waive this right if you submit any material to us, contribute to feedback, enter a competition or otherwise make use of the Website other than browsing before expiry of the 7 day period;
(d) Full reimbursement (within 30 days) of membership fee in the event of cancellation (as per (c) above) or a fraudulent credit or debit card incident.
3.5 All payment events are positively credit card sanctioned. Deduction of funds from your account does not constitute acceptance of your transaction. Acceptance will be confirmed by email. If a transaction is rejected after funds have been deducted from your account, full reimbursement will be made promptly.

4. Membership categories and benefits
4.1 The membership categories are:
(a) Guest Membership - This enables a member to send free real-time e-cards. To schedule e-cards by calendar dates full membership is required.
(b) ONE  Membership- This enables members to publish one piece of work for £5. Mutiples are available up to 4 pieces of work. A ONE subscription expires after 180 days. Published work remains on site (subject to clause 6.5). ONE membership does not qualify for entry to competitions or The Plot Thickens.
(c) Full Membership - This enables a member to review published work and to subscribe to one or more of the following services: -
1] Writers Membership - for individual writers who wish to publish their work on-line. (Subject to 2.5)
  Includes: -
. the (optional) inclusion of a personal profile and photograph of themself (Subject to 2.6).  Other images will not be accepted.
. submission of work to the writebuzz® database subject to our terms and conditions: up to a maximum of 30 pieces of work per quarter; 
.free entry to competitions, subject to the competition rules.
.use of e-mail news to alert you of relevant competitions - subject to your email address being valid and our privacy policy.
.ability to contribute to The Plot Thickens®. 
.Membership fee
  Per quarter  £20
  Annual        £50
 
2] Group Membership - Suitable for writers associations, clubs, forms, classes or courses in schools and colleges, wishing to publish work on behalf of their group on line. Please also see clause 2.3.
  A primary contact should be nominated to submit work on behalf on the group concerned.
  Includes: -
. the (optional) inclusion of a group profile and group photograph. (Subject to 2.6) Other images will not be accepted.
. submission of work to writebuzz® database subject to our terms and conditions: up to a maximum of 120 pieces of work per quarter;
.free entry to competitions, subject to the competition rules: Up to 8 free entries per quarter. (Additional competition entries may be applied for if required).
.use of e-mail news to alert you of relevant competitions - subject to your email address being up-to-date and valid and also subject to our privacy policy.
.ability to contribute to The Plot Thickens®. 
.Membership fee
  Per quarter  £40
  Annual     £100
3] Erotica Readership -  for adults only (over the age of 16) who wish to subscribe to the erotica category. Please note this category is not available on the Schools channel or to groups with any members under the age of 16.
 
. Service fee
  Per quarter  £15
  Annual     £40
 
4] Annual E-card Scheduling - enables full members to set up an annual calendar of up to 20 dates when e-cards will automatically be sent to recipients on their behalf.
.Service fee
  Annual       £10

 
4.2 Sponsors and publishers may register their details with us (free of charge) and view material on the Website. We reserve the right to verify your status as a publisher In the event that you are interested in contacting a contributor, we shall forward your contact details / message as appropriate and subject to the contributors use of the Privacy Policy.

4.3 Corporate membership is available for Schools, Colleges, Universities, and organisations. Corporate membership is suitable for groups of more than 30 individuals. Corporate membership rates and terms and conditions are available on request from corporate@writebuzz.com


5) Premium Support services - enables members to contact our support team and request the correction of minor errors and typos to work post publication. Maximum 10 support requests per quarter, 35 support requests per year.

Support service fee
  Per quarter  £20
  Annual     £50

6. Subscribers Responsibilities
6.1 You are solely responsible for the accuracy, legality, currency and compliance of your own material and will be solely liable for false, misleading, inaccurate, infringing or other actionable material contained or referred to in your material.
6.2 You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password, and for its use.

7. Submission of material for the Website
7.1 Other than personally identifiable information, which is covered under the Privacy Policy you retain all intellectual property and other ownership rights in material you transmit or post to the Website. By submitting material to us you automatically grant us an exclusive, royalty-free, freely-transferable, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable licence to use, delete, amend, reproduce, publish, distribute, edit, modify, translate, perform, display or otherwise exploit in any way through any media (including media owned or operated by third parties) of all of such material submitted by you. To the fullest extent permitted by law you hereby irrevocably waive any and all moral rights that you may have in and/or to the material. 
7.2 Subject to 6.1 above any such material selected by us for use in e-cards will result in a royalty payment as set out in clause 13.
7.3 Material must be in English language and text only. Material must not include any graphics or photo files. Each piece of work must contain a maximum number of 30,000 characters (approx 3000 words).
7.4 Material must be submitted using the Website editor only. Written material is not accepted. Versions of your work previously written using some software packages may be incompatible and make require reformatting by you using the editor provided by us before submission. It is your responsibility to ensure that the material is submitted to us in a relevant format and readable form.
7.5 We reserve the right to select for inclusion on the Website, remove, amend, edit or other material provided to us.
7.6 You are responsible for retaining copies of Material submitted to the Website and we shall not be liable for any losses in accordance with clause 10.3.
7.7. Materials published on the Website are automatically published and accessible in the public domain.
7.8. Once material is published on the Website you do not have the facility to edit or remove the material.


8. Our responsibilities
8.1 We may monitor your use of the Website and we reserve the right to edit or remove any work or reviews submitted by you and/or suspend your access to the Website if (without limit): -
(a) you use the Website in breach of these terms;
(b) you are a minor and have accessed a restricted area.
8.2 We will be responsible for administering The Complaints and Sanctions Procedure specified in Section 9 below.

9. Complaints and Sanction Procedure
9.1 The member´s only areas are a self-regulatory facility and we will in the first instance, deal with any complaint by you, and our decision will be final (i.e. acting with all powers of an arbitrator).
9.2 We shall deal with complaints promptly and contact or call upon evidence of any subscriber in dispute.
9.3 Sanctions available to us include any and all of the following, without limitation: -
(a) Suspension or cancellation of your username and password or that of any other subscriber connected to the dispute.  In this case you shall not be entitled to any refund of your membership fee;
(b) referral of the matter to the appropriate law enforcement agency (criminal or illegal matters);
(c) referral of the matter to the appropriate court.

10. Indemnity and Waiver
10.1 You agree to indemnify and keep indemnified us, our successors and assigns, and each of our or their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all liability, costs, damage, losses, claims (including reasonable legal fees) resulting in any way from your use of the Website and from any materials posted by you onto this Website or posted by you as a collaboration of other subscribers.
10.2 The indemnity provided by you in 10.1 extends to the use of the Website by any person who may be authorised by you or for whom you are responsible (for example as the parent or guardian of a child or the leader of a group of minors).
10.3 You waive the right to bring any claim or action against us for any loss or damage arising from use of the Website or any material available on the Website.

11. Exclusions of Warranties and Liabilities
11.1 We do not warrant the content, accuracy or veracity of any material or other information on this Website, the responsibility for which rests with each subscriber as provided in paragraph 5 and 6 above.
11.2 You accept this Website "as is" with any faults or failings or without any representation, warranty or guarantee whatsoever, express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranty of accuracy, completeness, quality, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement.
11.3 We, any other party (whether or not involved in creating, producing, maintaining or delivering this Website) and any of our officers, directors, employees, shareholders or agents of any of them exclude all liability and responsibility for any amount or kind of loss or damage that may result to you or a third party (including without limitation, any direct, indirect, punitive or consequential loss or damage or any loss of income, profits, goodwill, data contracts, loss of money and whether in tort including without limitation (negligence) contracts or otherwise) in connection with this Website, any Website linked to this Website or the material on such Website.
11.4 Nothing in these terms shall exclude our liability for any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

12. Links to and from other Websites
12.1 All links to third party websites on this Website are provided solely for your convenience.  If you use these links, you leave this Website.  We have not reviewed, do not control and are not responsible for these websites or their content.  We do not endorse or make any representation about them, or any material found there, or any results that maybe obtained from using them.  If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to this Website, you do so entirely at your own choice.
12.2 If you would like to link to this Website, you may do so only on the basis that you link to, but do not replicate, the home page of this Website, and subject to the following conditions;
(a) you do not remove, distort or otherwise alter the size or appearance of the writebuzz® logo;
(b) you do not create a frame or any other browser or border environment around this Website;
(c) you do not in any way imply that we are endorsing any products or services other than our own;
(d) you do not misrepresent your relationship with us nor present any other false information about us;
(e) you do not otherwise use any writebuzz® logos and trademarks displayed on this Website without our permission;
(f) you do not link from a Website that is not owned  by you;
(g) your Website does not contain content that is distasteful, offensive or controversial, infringes any other person or otherwise does not comply with all applicable laws or regulations.
12.3 We reserve the right to revoke the right granted in 12.2 above in the event of breach and to take any action we deem appropriate.
12.4 You shall fully indemnify us for any loss or damage suffered by us for a breach of 12.2 above.

13. Licence
13.1 Unless otherwise stated, the copyright and other intellectual property rights in all material on this Website (including without limitation photographs and graphical images) are owned by us and you must not remove or obscure these marks or notices in any way whatsoever.  Any use of extracts from this Website is prohibited.  If you are in breach these terms, your permission to use this Website automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloads or printed extracts from this Website.
13.2 No part of this Website may be reproduced or stored in any other Website or included in any private or public electronic retrieval system or service without our consent.
13.3 Any rights not expressly granted in these terms are reserved.

14. E-cards
14.1 E-card Delivery
14.1.1 Whilst we shall use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your e-card using the information you provide to us, we make no warranty or guarantee that delivery will be effected. We are not liable to you in the event of non-delivery or delivery in an amended format and refunds will not be made. However, you are free to contact us with your comments using the Contact Box on the website should a problem occur.
14.1.2 Non - delivery can result from many factors which are out of our control such as (but not limited to);
-incorrect recipient address
-incompatible recipient email server
- security levels on recipient equipment and server which do not permit e-cards (for example; schools and colleges, and some employers use fire walls which filter out e-cards).

14.2 E-card Royalty Payments
14.2.1. E-cards include a suitable poem or piece of prose which originates from the material submitted to the writebuzz® database. Material nominated for e-card use may be selected by members for forward scheduling and therefore may not be subsequently changed, or withdrawn from the site.
14.2.2 Real-time e-cards can be requested free of charge, by Quick or Full members as part of their membership benefits. No royalties are payable on real-time e-cards.
14.2.3 Scheduled e-cards may be requested by any registered user subject to payment of an annual charge. Royalties are payable on scheduled e-cards subject to 13.2.4. below. 
14.2.4. The writebuzz® database will record the frequency of use of chosen material in e-cards against your user name. Each time your material is chosen as a (confirmed and pre-paid ) scheduled e-card selection your account will be credited with 10p at the time the e-card concerned is delivered. The monies concerned will be displayed in your writebuzz® on an accrued basis each quarter. Payment of royalties will be made on or around the following quarter dates by cheque to your registered membership name and address. If the former details are invalid we will be unable to make payment.  Payment will only be made if your accrued credit exceeds £10, and if you have been a member for four weeks prior to the quarter date concerned.

Quarter Dates:
28th March
27th June
27th September
28th December

15.1  Competitions - The following rules shall apply to any competition on the Website unless otherwise stated.
(a) All entries must be submitted using the Website editor and you must ensure that the material is available in eye readable format before submitting;
(b) All entries must be received before 12.00GMT on the stated date;
(c) Winners and runners up will be notified by e-mail. We shall check the address for delivery of the prize (if  the prize requires delivery by land postal services) at this time;
(d) All results will be posted on the Website as soon as reasonably possible. Identification will be your username, or by pseudonym, if the judges deem this to be acceptable;
(e) Our  decision or the decision of any appointed judge will be final and we will not enter in to any correspondence concerning this issue;
(f) Prizes must be accepted as is and no cash alternative is available where the prize is a product or service;
(g) We shall use all reasonable endeavours to deliver any prizes for goods or of cash within a reasonable period. You will be responsible for any costs associated with delivery of any prizes outside the United Kingdom.
(h) All delivered prizes will be subject to signature upon delivery. If we cannot effect delivery by this means we shall not be obliged to take any further measures.
(i) Competition entry credits included as part of writers membership must be used within the eligible period of the membership only, and are not transferrable beyond the membership expiry date. 
(j) All competition entries (subject to our terms and conditions) will be published on www.writebuzz.com following the announcement of the competition winners.
(k) Competition sponsors may reproduce the winning entries. The copyright remains with the author.

16. Refer a friend commission (Payments in U.K. sterling only)

16.1. To qualify for refer a friend commission :-
16.1.1. Obtain permission from your friend(s) concerned.
16.1.2. Register for a new membership for your friend(s)
16.1.3. Enter RF1 as the promotion code
16.1.4. Enter  your own name and user name in the promotion description box.
16.1.5. Complete the registration process.
16.2 If your friend subscribes to any of our services, within one month (including writer, e-card scheduling, premier support and erotica), then subject to clause 16.1, we will pay you a commission of 25% of their first subscription transaction only.
16.3. Commission payments
16.3.1. Your commission will accrue each time the conditions in 16.1 and 16.2 are met.
16.3.2 Commission records will be maintained by writebuzz accounts department. (Commissions will not be displayed in "'your writebuzz').
16.3.3 Commission payments will be made on a monthly basis (following the clearance of the qualifying transaction funds).
16.3.4 Commission payments will be paid by cheque (currency U.K. sterling only),  to your registered membership name and address. If the former details are invalid we will be unable to make payment.  Payment will only be made when your commission credit exceeds £10.

17. Love Buzz anthology - print publication
17.1  A submission must be your own work and must be unique (i.e. must not have been published anywhere else). You may, however, submit suitable work that has previously published on www.writebuzz.com, for consideration. 
17.2 Submitted work must be well presented, pre-edited and be free from grammatical and spelling errors. 
17.3 Work can be of any genre. The maximum number of words, for each submission, is 500.
17.4 The anthology will be a further showcase of the works concerned offering you an additional way to publicise your work.
17.5 A critical element of the selection criteria will be 'good' reviews' from fellow members. 
17.6  The final selection of works for inclusion in the anthology and the decision whether or not to print and publish the anthology will be at the sole discretion of www.writebuzz.com and www.arimapublishing.co.uk and our decision will be final.
17.7  No royalties will be available for contributors to the Love Buzz Anthology.

18. Reviewing work on site All members can use the review work facility. Review must constitute constructive criticism about the piece of work being reviewed only.  Dialogue with the author is not allowed via this facility and will be removed. Personal comments are not allowed and will be removed.

19. Termination of Membership
19.1 In addition to our rights to terminate or suspend your access to the Website as set out in these terms, you may terminate you membership at any time provided that written notice is provided quoting your user name, and email address, together with your full name and address. Please see clause 3.4. 
19.2 Refunds cannot be made on a pro rata basis for any unexpired period.
19.3 Terminating your membership will not trigger the removal of your work from the site.

20. Misuse of services and information
You must not misuse in any way the service or any information available on the Website or via our communication channels.
20.1 If in our reasonable opinion, any information posted or otherwise transmitted by you is damaging or potentially damaging to our business, our members or our users, then, without prejudice to any other remedies we may have, clause 20.2 below shall apply.
20.2 If any of the events set out in clause 20 above occur in relation to you then we may immediately and without notice suspend and/or terminate your membership and subscriptions of the Website and you will not be entitled to any refund of monies paid and nor shall you attempt to use our services again nor shall you attempt to rejoin as a member neither in your own name nor using an alias.

21. Applicable Law
You agree that these terms and any dispute arising any way in relation to the Website will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

22 General
22.1 In the event that any provision in these terms is determined to be unenforceable or invalid, such provision shall be served and the remaining provision that shall be enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by law.
22.2 These terms represent the entire agreement between us and they supersede any prior understanding or agreements regarding the Website.

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