Terms of Use

1. Terms

Welcome to Views Heard.

The following Terms of Use state the terms, conditions and regulations users must follow in regards to the Websites www.viewsheard.com, www.viewsheard.org and www.viewsheard.co.uk, (please note the co.uk and .org addresses redirects to the .com), and any apps (regardless of the device you are using), which are under the ownership and management of Views Heard.

The use of the words “we”, “our”, “us” and “Views Heard” refer to Views Heard. In using the Websites you understand, accept and agree to abide by the Terms of Use, and to accept responsibility for these Terms of Use with any governing laws. The Terms of Use apply to your use of any and all parts of the Websites including without limitation, when you access, use, submit, correspond or browse the Websites. In using our Websites you accept and confirm you have the rights to enter this agreement, regardless of whether you represent yourself or others, and understand and agree to follow this agreement as set out in the Terms of Use. Should you not agree to the Terms of Use you must stop all use and access of the Websites at once.

The term “Website” or “Websites” includes all domains and subdomains of our websites and apps under the ownership and management of Views Heard, and any content, marks, data, other materials, code and services available from or accessed by any part, or all of our websites.

For the purpose of these Terms of Use, “Content” and “Materials” refers to and is inclusive of any writing, imagery, design, links, attachments, framework, documentation, software, layout, logos, audio, films, other moving images and visual elements displayed on or used by our Websites.

Please also read our Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice, which explains how we may collect and use information about you via the use of our Websites.

2. Changes to Terms of Use

Our Terms of Use may change at any time without notice and we reserve the right to make any amendments now and in the future. These changes will be reflected along with the amendment date in our Terms of Use. Please regularly check to ensure you’re both informed and happy with any changes. If you continue to access, use, submit, correspond and/or browse our Websites you confirm to have understood, accepted and agree to the current version of the Terms of Use and any amendments.

This Terms of Use was completed on the 10^th of September 2022.

3. Our Registration Details

Our Websites are operated by Views Heard, incorporated in England and Wales. Our company registration number is 13656927. Registered office address: 71-75 Shelton Street, London, WC2H 9JQ, UNITED KINGDOM. Please note this address is for government correspondence only, any other post will not be seen and may be destroyed. Other contact methods are provided: For submissions please see our submissions page, for any other queries please contact us at hello@viewsheard.com along with a clear subject heading.

4. Data Protection

Please also read our Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice, which explains how we may collect and use information about you when you access, use, submit, correspond or browse our Websites. We may disclose your information where we are allowed by law to protect or enforce our rights or the rights of others, including copyright, and for the prevention and detection of crime, such as fraud.

5. Availability

We may update or change our Websites from time-to-time, for example to reflect our users’ needs. We therefore reserve the right to change, erase or amend any part of our Websites at any time and without notice.

Our Websites are made available free of charge. We do not guarantee that our Websites, or any Content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our Websites for business and operational reasons. We will try to give reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

6. Access and Use

We prohibit the following uses and actions of our Websites;

1. to reproduce, republish, archive, distribute, store, modify, change the meaning or appearance of, repurpose, adapt, edit, publicly display or commercially use any Content, code, data or other Materials on or available through the Websites; nor
2. to produce new works based on and closely resembling any Content; nor
3. the erasure, change or removal of any text, mark or notice regarding copyright ownership or intellectual property rights; nor
4. to purposefully create multiple links to our Websites for business reasons; nor
5. robots, crawlers, spiders or other automated software programmes known now or in the future with the intention to duplicate or remove any Materials, code or data from our Websites; nor
6. the attempt to decompile, decrypt, disassemble, access, use any means of reverse engineering, or otherwise alter or interfere with our Websites and any part of the software, codes, functions, databases or other systems used by our Websites; nor
7. “scraping” including but without limit, screen or database scraping to collect or take any data either visible to the public or within the private functions, features, code and texts of our Websites; nor
8. to access the Websites other than through public interfaces and means provided by Views Heard, or in the case of social media accounts through its associated platform; nor
9. any intention or attempt to disable, interrupt, or close our Websites by any means, including but without limitation the sending of mass unsolicited messages, a flood attack, or any other design to overwhelm us; nor
10. the submission of a virus, adware, spyware or any other malware, known now or in the future; nor
11. any attempt to gain any Content or information not intended for public availability or access on our Websites; nor
12. to gain unauthorised access through the Websites; nor
13. to create a database of the Websites in its entirety or part of it.

The provisions of this clause 6) ‘Access and Use’ should be treated as an express reservation of our rights in this regard, including for the purposes of Article 4(3) of Digital Copyright Directive ((EU)2019/790).

This clause 6) ‘Access and Use’ shall not apply insofar as (but only to the extent that) we are unable to exclude or limit the above-listed activities in clause 6 (1) – (13) by contract at law.

When accessing, using, submitting, corresponding and browsing you must always act responsibly, within the law, and respectfully of other’s rights. We are not liable or responsible if for any reason our Websites become unavailable for use, regardless of the time and length.

The Content on our Websites is for information only and is not intended to constitute advice on which you should rely. We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the Content on our Websites is accurate, complete or up to date. User submissions is authored by users and whilst users must abide by these Terms of Use, we are unable to verify the accuracy of user submissions.

We permit users to download and print parts of our Content but for personal use and short-term viewing only. You must not modify the paper or digital download in any way or use any of its Materials, including but not limited to, illustrations, graphics, photographs, videos, audio clips or any text, without the authors express and provided permission. Content should not be shared, reposted or otherwise reproduced or redistributed online without the authors express and provided permission. The author’s status, including our own, of any Content must always be acknowledged. If you breach our rules in relation to printing, downloading, reposting or sharing Content from our Websites, your right to use our Websites will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy copies of any and all Material you have, including but not limited to, the format of being printed, electronic, or online redistributed.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our Websites through your internet connection are aware of our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice, and that they agree and comply with them.

7. Submissions

Should you choose to submit material to us, whether through the submission form or by any other means, you understand, accept and agree;

1. that any Content submitted to our Websites will be considered non-confidential; and
2. that you grant us a non-exclusive, continual, worldwide, unrestricted, royalty-free license to use, translate, display, copy, reproduce, distribute, collect, store, archive, remove, commercial purposes, change, adapt, alter, edit, publicity purposes, publish, republish and hold the copyright to the materials of your submission(s); and
3. that we may enact any changes, amendments, edits, erasures of the submitted materials at our sole discretion across any or all of our Websites and without notice or worldwide restrictions; and
4. for us to publish the materials of your submission including without limit, the content of your submission (title, content and summary), any affiliated further content you may send, attachments including images, author bio, author picture, your name/pen name, other materials, media links and any image attribution details you provide, including creator’s name(s), title and date of work(s), social media(s)/website link(s), any third-party source(s); and
5. that it is your responsibility entirely to ensure the accuracy of any copyright permission and attribution details you have obtained and the details therewith, we do not accept any liability for copyright permission or the accuracy of any attribution details you provide us; and
6. that we have the right to store and make backups of any Materials you submit to us, and to share these Materials internally with staff and volunteers for verification, editing and any future correspondence with yourself; and
7. that you grant us complete discretion and without notice the option to choose any accompanying image or images for publication or publicity with the materials of your submission, and the right to source these images both externally and internally; and
8. to the disclosure of your submission’s title, summary and topic area to third-parties in sourcing an image or images; and
9. that you own the copyright of your author picture, to be used in your author bio; and
10. to the Terms of Use clause 8 “Copyright Materials/Intellectual Property or Trademarked Content”; and
11. to waiver any liability to us for any materials submitted by yourself; and
12. to the Terms of Use clause 9 “Harmful Content”; and
13. that you are aged 18 and over; and
14. that we do not make any commitment to update the materials, and that we are not responsible for maintaining materials you submit to us; and
15. that we cannot assure the security of your materials and that you are responsible for creating backups of any materials submitted; and
16. not to violate or fail to follow any law, copyright, or our Terms of Use with any part or all of your submission, and accept responsibility should you break this agreement in compensation and securement of Views Heard against any damages, losses, or third-party claims as a result of publishing any materials you submitted to us.

You warrant that any content submitted to us complies with our Terms of Use, including but not limited to clause 9 “Harmful Content” and clause 8 “Copyright Materials/Intellectual Property or Trademarked Content”, and you will liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

We require consent to legally host your materials, and to publish and to promote it. We consider consent a positive opt-in, meaning it’s your active choice to provide us any data including without limitation any materials submitted to Views Heard for publication. Your consent is not an agreement to the sale of your materials or permission to use it outside of our services and/or Websites.

Personal contact details such as your email address or copyright permissions will not be published on Views Heard, but will be stored in line with our Privacy Policy. Please see our Privacy Policy for information on how we handle your data, and your data rights.

At any point you may request the removal or editing of any part or all of your materials. If you request all of your materials to be removed, this will be confirmed and processed. Requests of editing including additions, part removal and amendments and will be reviewed by and decided at our sole discretion. On the rare occasion your request for part removal or editing is not approved, for reasons including but without limitation, that it introduces errors, changes context or creates obscene or harmful content, we hold complete discretion to remove your materials entirely. Where possible we will correspond with you to reach an agreement on any amendments to the materials.

We hold the right to decide on the publication of any materials or amendment you submit to us. Views Heard including all directors, employees, volunteers and other representatives not thereto named, hold no responsibility or liability to you whatsoever for any loss, consequence or damage arising from being unpublished or for any removals, editing and changes to your materials.

8. Copyright Materials/Intellectual Property or Trademarked Content

Please be aware that the term ‘copyright’ and ‘intellectual property’ is used inclusively of copyright materials and trademark content, and any such associated viewpoints of this.

We are the owner, licensee or been assignee of formal permission of copyright materials, marks (including without limit logos and trade names) and other rights in our Websites, and in the Materials published on them. These rights are protected by copyright laws both locally, nationally and worldwide. You acquire no proprietary interest in the Websites and its Contents except where specifically specified and permitted by these Terms of Use, and you may not use the Websites in any way that could breach or violate the intellectual property rights in them. Any Materials not owned by Views Heard that appear on our Websites have been permitted to us by license, and are under the ownership of their respective owners/licensee and the protection of copyright laws, or have been used under the guidance of Fair Use/Fair Dealing for the purpose of criticism or review.

In submitting materials to us, you understand, accept and agree;

1. all materials are your own original work and not a modification, plagiarism, tailoring, amendment or derivative of another’s; and
2. that no person/persons, organisations or others hold any rights to the materials you submitted; and
3. that any materials you submit to Views heard will not contain any third-party copyright materials, or materials that is subject to third party ownership, unless you have otherwise been made the licensor, or have obtained permission from the rightful owner, or have been given legal rights to submit the materials in question and to assign Views Heard the license. You are solely responsible for acquiring this consent, license or any necessary permissions from the owner prior to submission, and must include proof of permission with your submission; and
4. it is your responsibility entirely to ensure the accuracy of any copyright permission you have obtained and the details therewith. We do not accept any liability or responsibility for copyright permission or the accuracy of any attribution details provided to us; and
5. should any claim be raised regarding the copyright of your materials we may disclose, if required, your personal details to those claimants; and
6. any incorrect, misrepresentative, or untrue information you have provided us shall result in your indemnifying us and continual indemnification against any damages, losses, liabilities, third-party claims and expenses that result from publishing any materials you submit to us.

If you believe in good faith that any materials published on our Websites infringe on your copyright/intellectual property rights, please alert us to the affected materials so that we may investigate and remove with urgency any unauthorised materials. Please contact us at concerns@viewsheard.com along with details of the affected materials, and a subject heading of ‘Copyright Infringement’ so we may flag it as quickly as possible.

9. Harmful Content

We want to create fun and informative Websites free from any harmful content. We therefore have a zero-tolerance policy on any materials that could violate this.

We will not accept any materials that could be viewed;

1. offensive, obscene, discriminatory, pornographic, defamatory, hateful, abusive or bullying (or is associated to these in any way), or discloses personal and confidential information without the individual’s permission; nor
2. illegal, incites violence, or could be viewed as eliciting an action that may be deemed harmful or criminal; nor
3. in any way imitates an individual/group/organisation or misrepresents a known connection between yourself and any other person/persons or other.

If you feel any Content on the Websites violates this or have any other complaints about the content of the Websites, please alert us by either using the report function situated in each article/review/how-to guide and other published posts, or by contacting us at concerns@viewsheard.com along with information of the affected Content e.g. URL page and specific section (if applicable). To flag this sooner please send the email under the subject heading ‘Harmful Content’.

We reserve the right to disclose any materials that may cause concern to the relevant authorities.

We ask that you respect others and yourself by following these agreements.

10. Suggestions

Should you send Views Heard any suggestions in reference to the Websites including without limitation thoughts, opinions, feedback, ideas, concepts or knowledge in regards to the workings, layout and operation of the Websites, you agree to waiver any and all rights of suggestions, and consent to Views Heard all rights of any suggestions. Please do not send anything you view to be your own property or that of someone else’s.

11. Suspend, withdraw and ban access, and deletion of Content

Access and any use of our Websites are permitted on a temporary basis and we reserve the right should you fail to follow any of our Terms of Use; to suspend, withdraw or ban your access of our Websites and services following a review. This can occur at any time without notice and at our complete discretion.

It is banned to use the Websites in any way that could be deemed illegal, misrepresentative, pornographic, affects the rights of others including those of third-parties, or is harmful in any way, this includes but is not limited to the actions of linking, uploading, or connecting to materials not under the ownership and management of Views Heard or in changing Content on our Websites. Please see clause 6 “Access and Use” clause 8 “Copyright Materials/Intellectual Property or Trademarked Content” and clause 9 “Harmful Content” for further details.

Should at any time a potential violation of Materials occur, Views Heard reserves the right to remove any and all Content affiliated with this violation, and to investigate and potentially remove any other publications by the associated individual. This can occur at any time without notice and at our complete discretion.

Views Heard including all directors, employees, volunteers and other representatives not thereto named, hold no responsibility or liability to you for any limitation, suspension, withdraw, ban, deletion or removal to your use of our Websites, services and Content.

12. Feedback

We’re delighted to provide the option of feedback for those submitting materials to Views Heard for possible publication.

Please be aware however that our feedback is intended to provide friendly, constructive help and is not a definitive statement of fact, and does not establish nor constitute legal or other professional advice. Feedback is only in the opinion of Views Heard.

By requesting and receiving feedback from Views Heard you accept and agree that we hold no liability and responsibility under any condition, extending to our directors, employees, volunteers and other representatives not thereto named, for any damages and/or losses (perceived or otherwise), that includes financial, data, personal, opportunity, business or future loss that may occur to you or a third-party.

13. External sites

Please be aware that any external websites including the term ‘third-party’ websites that we may provide a link to, are not under the regulation or control of Views Heard. We take no responsibility for and without limitation to; purchases, orders, contact, business dealings or personal information including cookies you may choose to share with them.

The inclusion of these links does not in any way suggest or show a recommendation or approval from Views Heard in regards to these sites or their materials. We do not hold or accept responsibility for any content, products, features, information, services, advertising, uses, code or other materials available on, displayed on, or through such linked sites.

Where we may have links to and from external/third-party websites (including without limit advertisers, sponsors, websites, social media, information relating to the article/review/how-to guide and other published posts and embedded content) it should be understood that they will have their own policies, separate from ours. Please check any external/third-party policies before clicking on any links, buttons and/or submitting any personal data to them, we do not accept any responsibility or liability for them, their policies or procedures. This also applies if reaching us from any external/third-party websites. Should you access these external sites/third-party through any link to our Websites you acknowledge, understand and accept that you do so at your own risk and by your own choice.

We are not responsible or liable for any errors, disruptions, viruses or other malware that may exist on any social media platforms that host our Websites Content or is accessed from our Websites. Should you access these platforms please be aware that they will have their own privacy policy and cookie notice, which may differ from our own and which we cannot accept any responsibility or liability for. Please check their policies before clicking on any links, buttons and/or submitting any personal data to them. Any comments, views, thoughts and opinions expressed on our Websites through these platforms are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent other authors, third-parties and/or Views Heard.

You may link to our home page or to a page displaying your submission, provided that you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage or take advantage of the reputation of Views Heard or its users. You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part without our written permission. Any platform, publication, device, website, social media, or app, which displays a link to our Websites must not contain any harmful content, nor break or infringe copyright permissions, it must also follow legal requirements and the standards set out in our Terms of Use. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission at any time without notice.

14. Advertising and Sponsors

Any advertisement and sponsorship materials shown on our Websites, have been provided to us by the corresponding third-party who assume entire responsibility in checking the material is correct, legal, and can in no capacity be deemed harmful. We cannot accept responsibility for any part or all of the materials, or mistakes contained in the submitted materials.

Any interaction including without limit, financial, business, personal or other between you and any third-party advertiser/sponsor, and any terms of use, services, warranties and conditions between you are not the responsibility of Views Heard. Views Heard cannot accept liability of any type that may occur from any interactions between you and any third-party advertiser/sponsor or as the result of any third-party advertiser/sponsor materials published on our Websites.

15. Donations

Donations are to be used within our objectives as a not-for-profit organisation including without limit, charity support, feedback, publication, editing, verification, moderation and the general functioning of the Websites. Any payments made in accordance with this clause 15 ‘Donations’ will be treated as donations and not payment for our Websites services, which are provided free of charge.

All donations through our Websites are to be made via our online payment provider Stripe. By submitting a donation you confirm your wish to donate and authorise our online payment provider to request funds from the named credit or debit card provider you have provided.

All donations our processed by our online payment provider, who require your personal details in order to process your donation payment. These personal details include contact details (name, postcode and email address) and payment choice (credit/debit card details). It is therefore your responsibility to confirm the accuracy of your payment details.

Your payment details are transferred from our Websites to our online payment provider who processes the details. The online payment provider will have their own terms and conditions, and privacy policy, which you should refer to before making any donation to ensure you’re happy with how they will collect, store and process your details.

The online payment provider complies with the standards of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) which was created by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, JCB and American Express. We do not accept liability or responsibility for the online payment provider’s policies and procedures.

We strongly suggest that if at any point you suspect your payment card has been compromised (fraudulent use, lost, copied, or stolen) that you contact your card provider immediately.

We have disabled the storing of user details (IP address & user agent) from donations, believing donations should be treated as the gift they are intended to be. In order for payments to be processed we will be able to see the name provided, postcode, email address, date of donation, amount donated, transaction ID (this is automatically provided after payment) and card details; card name, issuer & type e.g. Visa/Mastercard/American Express/Discover, expiry date, and the last four digits of the card.

If for any reason you wish to have your donation refunded, you agree to provide the above information (excluding card details) along with the reason for the refund and to contact us at concerns@viewsheard.com under the subject heading ‘Donation Refund’. In some cases we may require postcode, card name, issuer & type, expiry date, and the last four digits of the card, but we will never request full card details and will never request your card verification code – do not give these out and please do not include these details in your email. Please see our Privacy Policy for further details on how we handle information you provide to us.

Should you request your donation to be refunded, it must be done within 90-days from the date of donation. Please be aware some payment methods may not support refunds, may require additional information or may only be refunded through the original payment method (card) used.

Please also note that where refunds are possible, processing times may vary depending on the payment method used.

16. Exclusions of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in using our Websites, you confirm that you understand, accept and agree that Views Heard (including all directors, employees, volunteers and other representatives not thereto named), hold no responsibility or liability to you for any damages and/or losses (perceived or otherwise) that may occur to you or a third-party you represent, in using, accessing or visiting our Websites and its services, or the inability to do so. This is not intended to exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

16.1) We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage (perceived or otherwise) arising under or in connection with:

1. use of, or inability to use, our Websites; nor
2. use of or reliance on any content displayed on our Websites
   Including, but not limited to, we will not be liable for:
   2.1 loss of profits; nor
   2.2 loss of sales, business, or revenue; nor
   2.3 business interruption; nor
   2.4 loss of anticipated savings; nor
   2.5 loss of opportunity, goodwill or reputation; nor
   2.6 any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

In addition to the above-listed conditions in clause 16.1 (1) – (2) for those who are business users: We further exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our Websites or any content on it. We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with the above-listed conditions in clause 16.1 (1) – (2).

16.2) The Content of our Websites is for your general information and enjoyment only. In using our Websites you understand, accept and agree, that our Content is not;

1. In any perception a guarantee or warranty; nor
2. to address concerns, requirements or establish any form of advice including without limit, financial, legal, personal, business; nor
3. to be used or to inform you in choosing/making or not choosing/making any specific decisions whether for yourself or on behalf of someone else; nor
4. an endorsement, recommendation, confirmation of accuracy, reliability or suggestion to any items, services, companies or products mentioned or included in our Websites.

16.3) In using our Websites you understand, accept and agree not to hold us accountable, responsible or liable for;

1. unavailability, inability, inaccessibility or operation of the Websites; nor
2. any prevention or interference to your business; nor
3. third-party/external links connected to or on our Websites; nor
4. any untrue, misrepresentative or incorrect Materials on our Websites; nor
5. any dependence on any Materials connected to the Websites; nor
6. for any potential infiltrations, disruptions, computer viruses including but without limit trojan, worm or other malware (known now or in the future) which may happen in relation to your use of the Websites.

It is also understood that the views, thoughts and opinions expressed in our Websites are those solely of the authors and do not necessarily reflect or represent other authors, agency, organisation and/or Views Heard.

17. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify Views Heard (including directors, employees, volunteers and other representatives of Views Heard not thereto named) from and against any damages, losses, liabilities, third-party claims and expenses that result from any action that violates, damages, interrupts, disables, erases, changes, hinders, or puts unreasonable pressure on our systems or that of our providers, or breaks any condition and agreement by you of our Terms of Use.

18. Further contact details and complaints

Should you have any questions regarding our Terms of Use please contact us by email on hello@viewsheard.com with the subject title ‘Terms of Use’. (Please note we do not accept any submissions sent to this email address, and any received will be subsequently deleted.)

We work hard to provide safe, fun and informative Websites. If you feel we have fallen short of this and wish to complain, please email us at concerns@viewsheard.com with the subject heading ‘Complaint’ so that we may investigate with urgency, thank you.

19. Applicable law

These Terms of Use, their subject matter and formation (and any non-contractual disputes of claims) are governed by English law. You agree that the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.