DIPLOMABANK TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Please read these Terms and Conditions (the “User Conditions”) and Privacy Policy carefully as they govern your use of the diplomabank website (the “Site”). The Site can be accessed via the following URLs; http://www.diplomabank.co.uk, http://www.ocrdiplomabank.co.uk, http://www.edexceldiplomabank.co.uk and http://www.aqa-cityandguildsdiplomabank.co.uk. By using the Site you are agreeing to the terms that appear below. The Site is currently a free to access Beta version. Hodder Education reserves the right to also make available paid-for services via this Site.

These terms were last updated on the 16th July 2008.

(1) GENERAL TERMS

This site is owned and operated by Hodder and Stoughton Limited (registered number 651692) on behalf of its Education division. whose registered office is at 338 Euston Road, London, NW1 3BH.

Hodder Education will provide you (as a user of the Site) with access to the diplomabank website (which includes all of the content and any search facilities, directory services, downloads, links and other internet services provided by Hodder Education from time to time) located at www.diplomabank.co.uk or any subsequent or related URL which may replace it in accordance with these terms and conditions together with the Privacy Policy.

The Site is provided for the benefit of the United Kingdom If you are not a UK resident or do not agree to be bound by these User Conditions, you may not access or use this Site and Hodder Education has the right to restrict or prevent your access to the Site. By accessing the Site you agree to be bound by and comply with all the User Conditions (as defined above) and any Additional Rules (as defined in paragraph 5 below) in order to become and remain an authorised user of the Site.

2. DURATION OF THE USER CONDITIONS:

The User Conditions and any Additional Rules will continue to regulate your use of the Site until either you or Hodder Education terminate them in accordance with paragraph 12.

3. NOTICES:

You may serve a notice on Hodder Education for the purposes of this agreement by sending it by e-mail to diplomabankwebmaster@hodder.co.uk. Hodder Education may serve a notice on you by sending it to your e-mail address appearing on the User Registration Form. As proof of sending does not guarantee the receipt of your notice, you must ensure that you have received an acknowledgement from Hodder Education. If notice is sent outside normal business hours (9am-6pm Monday-Friday), acknowledgement will not be sent until the next working day. Notices will be deemed to have been served one hour after transmission by e-mail. You are responsible for ensuring that your e-mail address is kept up-to-date on the website.

4. REGISTRATION, USERNAME AND PASSWORD:

You will be asked to provide specific information to register as a user of the Site. You agree to provide true, accurate, correct and complete information about yourself. You agree not to impersonate any other person or entity or to use a name that you are not authorised to use or a false name. Hodder Education reserves the right to decline any application from you to register as a user of the Site in its sole discretion.

Only those over the age of 16 may register with the Site You will be required to select a username and password during the registration process. Hodder Education reserves the right to modify the username you select or provide you with a username of Hodder Education's choice if, in its sole discretion, such username has already been chosen by another user, infringes or violates the rights of any person or third party, or is defamatory, offensive or is in any other way considered by Hodder Education improper or inappropriate or unusable.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the username and password and are fully responsible for all activities which occur under them, either within the institution in which you teach or otherwise, whether or not the use is made by you or by someone else using your username and password. You agree to notify Hodder Education immediately by e-mail to diplomabankwebmaster@hodder.co.uk if you believe there has been a breach of security of your username or password, such as theft or unauthorised use.

5. CHANGES TO THE USER AGREEMENT:

Hodder Education may add to or change the provisions of the User Conditions from time to time including, without limitation, provisions relating to payment. Hodder Education also reserves the right to include guidelines or rules applicable to particular services Hodder Education may provide from time to time (“Additional Rules”), which may be updated from time to time. All additions and changes will be notified to you by being posted on this page. It is your responsibility as a user to refer to these additions and changes. They will come into effect immediately on being posted and you will be deemed to have accepted them if you make access to the Site after that time. If you do not wish to accept them, you must terminate this agreement as described below.

6. COPYRIGHT AND LIMITED PERMISSION TO COPY:

You may not submit third party proprietary information to diplomabank without first obtaining permission from the owner. You are solely responsible for any information, messages, or other material (“Content”) that is submitted, uploaded or posted on the Site using your username or password, (including, but not limited to your participation in diplomatalk, comments on other user’s content, blogs etc). By submitting Content to the service and in good and valuable consideration of the access to the Site, you grant Hodder Education an unrestricted, payment-free, perpetual, worldwide right and license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, translate and distribute the Content and/or to incorporate it in other works. You irrevocably and unconditionally waive in perpetuity in respect of such Content the benefit of any provision of law known as moral rights of authors or any similar law in any country to the maximum extent possible.

Unless otherwise stated, the copyright, trademarks and all other intellectual property rights in all material supplied as part of the Site shall remain at all times vested in Hodder Education or its licensors. You are permitted to retrieve or display the Content on a computer screen, print individual pages on paper and store individual resources in electronic form for your own personal non-commercial use or use inside the institution in which you teach only. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. No part of the Site or any material appearing on the Site may be reproduced or stored in or transmitted to any other web site. No material appearing on the Site may be disseminated in any form, either electronic or non-electronic, nor included in any retrieval system or service without the prior written permission of Hodder Education and the payment of a specified fee. Any other use of the material and content of the Site is strictly prohibited. You agree not to (and agree not to assist or facilitate any third party to) copy, reproduce, transmit, publish, display, distribute, commercially exploit or create derivative works of such material and content. Any request for permission must be sent to Hodder Educational Permissions Department, e-mail, educational.permissions@hodder.co.uk and no requested use may be made without authorisation from that address or the designated rights owner

7. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND INDEMNITY:

The Site is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis without any representation or endorsement. Unless specified in separate terms and conditions related to a particular product or service, Hodder Education makes no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, in relation to the Site, or products or services offered on the Site whether by Hodder Education or on its behalf including but not limited to, implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security, accuracy, condition or completeness, or any implied warranty arising from course of dealing or usage or trade.

Unless specified in separate terms and conditions related to a particular product or service, Hodder Education makes no warranty that the Site or products or services offered on the Site whether by Hodder Education or on its behalf will meet your requirements or will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the Site or the server that makes it available or products or services offered on the Site whether by Hodder Education or on its behalf are free of viruses or bugs or are fully functional, accurate, or reliable. Hodder Education will not be responsible or liable to you for any loss of content or material as a result of uploading to or downloading from the Site.

Notwithstanding any other provision in the User Conditions, nothing herein shall limit your rights as a consumer under English law. Hodder Education will not be liable, in contract, tort (including, without limitation, negligence), pre-contract or other representations (other than fraudulent misrepresentations) or otherwise out of or in connection with the Site, or products or services offered on the Site, whether by Hodder Education or on its behalf, for:

(a) any economic losses (including without limitation loss of revenues, profits, contracts, business or anticipated savings); or
(b) any loss of goodwill or reputation; or
(c) any special or indirect or consequential losses;

in any case whether or not such losses were within the contemplation of either party at the date on which the event giving rise to the loss occurred. Nothing in the User Conditions shall exclude or limit Hodder Education’s liability for death or personal injury resulting from the negligence of Hodder Education or that of its servants, agents or employees.

You agree to be fully responsible for (and fully indemnify Hodder Education against) all claims, liability, losses, costs and expenses including legal fees, suffered by Hodder Education and arising out of any breach or alleged breach of the User Conditions or any Additional Rules by you or any other liabilities arising out of your use of the Site, or the use by any other person accessing the Site using your username and password, PC or internet access account.

8. STANDARDS OF CONDUCT:

When using the Site you are expected to show courtesy to others and demonstrate respect, good taste, and decorum. Failure to do so it may result in the immediate termination of your right to use the Site.

You agree: (a) only to use the Site in a manner that is consistent with these User Conditions and any Additional Rules;
(b) to use the Site only in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations and not for any illegal purpose;
(c) that you will not upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit through the Site any material that contains software, viruses, macro viruses, trojan horses, cancelbots or worms or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
(d) that you will not upload or transmit through the Site any material (including but not limited to your participation in diplomatalk or chat services) which is defamatory, libellous, offensive, or of an obscene or menacing character, or that may cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
(e) not to upload or transmit through the Site any material (or otherwise use the Site in any manner) which violates or infringes the rights of any person, firm or company (including, but not limited to, rights of intellectual property, rights of confidentiality or rights of privacy);
(f) not to interfere with or disrupt the Site or servers or networks connected to the Site or contravene any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Site or otherwise use the Site in a way that may cause the Site to be interrupted, damaged, rendered less efficient or impaired;
(g) not to attempt any unauthorised access to any part or component of the Site;
(h) that in the event that you have any right, claim or action against another user arising out of another user's use of the Site, then you will pursue such right, claim or action only against that user and independently of and without recourse to Hodder Education;
(i) not to harm minors in any way;
(j) not to “stalk” or otherwise harass another;
(k) not to impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Hodder Education staff member or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.

You further agree not to carry out, participate in or promote, or facilitate the carrying out, participation or promotion of any of the following:
(a) sending unsolicited email for commercial or other purposes;
(b) sending chain letters or pyramid-selling schemes;
(c) sending bulk mail or mail bombs (that is sending many or very large emails to users with the intention of annoying the recipient or to cause the systems of Hodder Education or the systems of another internet service provider to fail on receipt of such emails);
(d) altering or damaging the Site or the systems of Hodder Education or those of related parties, or blocking their access to the Internet;
(e) forging or blocking headers and/or addresses or any other action the purpose of which is to hide your true identity or falsify the true origin or ownership of any material;
(f) subscribing third parties to subscription-based or other email lists unless you have express permission to do so;
(g) collecting user and/or third party emails for the purposes of third party supply, database collation or direct marketing; or
(h) collecting or storing personal data about other users except where such use of personal data is a necessary and permitted consequence of use of the Site in accordance with these User Conditions.

9. DATA PROTECTION, PUBLIC ROOMS AND PRIVATE EMAIL:

Hodder Education reserves the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any activity and content associated with the Site, including but not limited to, public conferences and discussions. Hodder Education may investigate any reported violation of these User Conditions or any Additional Rules or complaints and take any action that it in its sole discretion it deems appropriate (which may include, but is not limited to, issuing warnings, suspending, terminating or attaching conditions to your access and/or removing any materials on the Site (including Content).

Hodder Education is a limited liability company incorporated in England and is registered under English Data Protection legislation. All personal information you supply to Hodder Education will be treated in accordance with such legislation. You hereby acknowledge and agree that Hodder Education may convey all or part of your Personal Data to independent auditors for the sole purpose of verifying site usage statistics. As part of the verification process, you may be contacted by these independent auditors and asked to confirm that you have registered with the Site. Subject to what is said below: (i) It is against the policy of Hodder Education to monitor or review private electronic messages (“email”) sent or received by you, unless required to do so by law; (ii) Hodder Education will not intentionally inspect the contents of an email sent by one user to another, or disclose the contents of any email other than to the sender or an intended recipient, without the consent of the sender or recipient, except as required or permitted to do so by law.

However, you should be aware that if Hodder Education is requested by the police or any regulatory or governmental authority investing suspected illegal actives, or upon receipt of a court order, to provide your Personal Data or the contents of any email and/or information concerning your activities whilst using the Site, Hodder Education shall do so. Also, Hodder Education reserves the right to disclose your Personal Data or individually identifiable information to third parties where a complaint arises concerning your use of the Site, and that use is in its sole discretion deemed by Hodder Education inconsistent with these User Conditions or any Additional Rules. In addition, unless you untick any of the appropriate boxes on the User Registration/Subscription Forms, Hodder Education may pass your Personal Data or details of your use of the Site to other companies in the Hachette Livre UK group and assigns and successors to Hodder Education and selected third parties for analysis and/or to enable them to contact you about products or services which may be of interest to you.

Hodder Education reserves the right in its absolute discretion to disclose details of your use of the Site in relation to any, or any threatened, court proceedings in connection with your use, or the use of anyone under your control, of the Site whether in connection with the matters set out in these User Conditions, any Additional Rules or otherwise.

You agree that you do not object to Hodder Education or such third parties contacting you for any of the above purposes whether by telephone, e-mail or in writing and you confirm that you do not and will not consider any of the above as being a breach of any of your rights under the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999.

10. THIRD PARTIES AND LINKS:

The Site may provide links to other third party websites, giving you the opportunity to make contact with third parties who may wish to supply you with goods and services or give you the opportunity to take part in promotions or competitions. You acknowledge and agree that Hodder Education is not responsible for the availability, the quality or the material contained within such third party websites nor shall Hodder Education be responsible for services provided by third parties on the Site nor for any damage, loss or offence caused, or alleged to be caused, by or in connection with your usage of or reliance on any content, advertising, products or services available from such third parties on or from any such websites or other material.

Your dealings with any third parties contacted through the Site, including payment for and delivery of products, services and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such third parties. Hodder Education accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any loss or damage of any sort incurred or suffered by you resulting from such dealings or from the presence of any third parties on the Site.

11. HODDER EDUCATION'S RIGHTS:

Hodder Education reserves the right to modify or withdraw, temporarily or permanently, the Site (or any part thereof) with or without notice to you, and you confirm that Hodder Education shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modification or withdrawal of the Site. Hodder Education also reserves the right to remove any Content that it deems in its sole discretion to be unacceptable, undesirable or in violation of these User Conditions or any Additional Rules.

Hodder Education shall use its reasonable endeavours to maintain the Site. The Site is subject to change from time to time. You will not be eligible for any compensation because you cannot use any part of the Site or because of a failure, suspension or withdrawal of all or part of the Site due to circumstances beyond the control of Hodder Education.

12. TERMINATION:

Hodder Education may terminate your registration with the Site:
(a) if Hodder Education believes, in its sole opinion, that you have breached any of the User Conditions or any Additional Rules or acted in a manner inconsistent with the spirit of any of them; or
(b) upon for any reason Hodder Education discontinuing to provide the Site.

You acknowledge that Hodder Education does not have to give you prior notice of any such termination. Either party may terminate your account by giving notice to the other in accordance with paragraph 3. On termination, Hodder Education may delete your username, password and any emails and data stored on the Site by you or on your behalf, and you will cease to be an authorised user of the Site. You acknowledge and agree that termination is your sole right and exclusive remedy if you are not satisfied by the Site.

13. MISCELLANEOUS:

The User Conditions and any Additional Rules (as amended from time to time) constitute the entire agreement between you and Hodder Education concerning your use of the Site and supersede any previous arrangement, agreement, undertaking or proposal, written or oral between you and Hodder Education in relation to such matters. No oral explanation or oral information given by either party shall alter the interpretation of these User Conditions or any Additional Rules. You confirm that in agreeing to accept these User Conditions or any Additional Rules, you have not relied on any representation save insofar as the same has expressly been made a representation in these User Conditions or any Additional Rules and you agree that you shall have no remedy in respect of any misrepresentation which has not become a term of these User Conditions or any Additional Rules save that your agreement contained in this paragraph shall not apply in respect of any fraudulent misrepresentation whether or not such has become a term of these User Conditions or any Additional Rules.

The headings are inserted for convenience only and shall not affect the construction of these User Conditions or any Additional Rules. If any one or more provisions of these User Conditions is or becomes invalid, unenforceable or illegal the validity, enforceability of legality of the remaining provisions shall not be impaired. Nothing shall be construed as a waiver by Hodder Education of any preceding or succeeding breach of any provision.

Unless otherwise expressly stated, nothing in the User Conditions or any Additional Rules shall create any rights or any other benefits whether pursuant to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise in favour of any person other than you and Hodder Education, its successors and assigns.

14. GOVERNING LAW:

The User Conditions and any Additional Rules are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. The parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in relation to any dispute arising under these User Conditions, any Additional Rules or in relation to the Site, save that Hodder Education has the right at its sole discretion to commence and pursue proceedings in alternative jurisdictions.

PRIVACY POLICY

Hodder Education is committed to protecting your privacy. Except as set out in the User Conditions or any Additional Rules (which exceptions supersedes any undertaking in sections (1) to (5) below) we will not share your information with others without your prior consent. Our policy is based on the following principles:
1. We will respect your e-mail privacy, and will send you unsolicited mail from the Site only if you have agreed to this.
2. We will not pass on any individual user details (including your e-mail address) to any third parties unless we have your prior consent.

1. INFORMATION COLLECTED

(a) It is necessary for Hodder Education to collect your personal information for the purposes of registering you as a user of the Site.
(b) If your contact details change please amend those details in the "profile options" section.
(c) Hodder Education collects data listing which of the Site’s pages are most frequently visited and by which type of users.

2. DATA PROTECTION AND DISCLOSURE

(a) Hodder Education maintains registrations and takes all reasonable endeavours to comply with all requirements of the UK Data Protection Act 1998 and any regulation created under it.
(b) Hodder Education will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information except with your permission or under special circumstances such as when it believes in good faith that the law requires disclosure.

(3) FURTHER INFORMATION AND DISCLOSURE

(a) Hodder Education may occasionally send you communications about products and services that it feels may be of interest to you unless you indicate that you are not interested in receiving such offers or information from us.
(b) Hodder Education does not sell, trade or rent user information to others unless you have given us permission. With your permission Hodder Education will only share your information with carefully chosen, reputable and trustworthy third parties.
(c) Hodder Education will not pass on your personal information unless you have given your prior consent.

(4) COOKIES

In addition to the information which you supply when you register with us, information and data may be automatically collected through the use of cookies. Cookies are small text files a web site can use to recognise repeat users and allow Hodder Education to observe behaviour and compile aggregate data in order to improve the Site. Cookies make it possible for Hodder Education to identify registered users without needing to ask for registration details every time you access the Site. Using cookies also means that accessing the Site is more convenient for you as you do not need to remember your username and password each time you enter the Site.

(5) SECURITY POLICY

(a) No data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, Hodder Education cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to Hodder Education and you do so at your own risk.
(b) Following transmission, Hodder Education will make best efforts to ensure the security of the information on its systems.