Prologue

I based these Terms and Conditions on those of the BBC web site, which explains the frightening degree of legalese. My apologies, but it was either that or hire a lawyer...

Terms and Conditions of Usage

Access to, and use of, this site is provided by Dr Richard A. Bartle ("the site owner") subject to the following Terms and Conditions:

• Use of this site constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions, which take effect immediately on your first use of the site. The site owner reserves the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time by posting changes on the News and Updates page.
• You are responsible for reviewing regularly information posted on the News and Updates page to obtain timely notice of such changes. Your continued use of this site after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of this agreement as modified by the posted changes.
• You agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any of the material contained in this site or use it for any other purpose other than for your personal non-commercial use. You agree to use this site only for lawful purposes, and in a manner that does not infringe the rights of, or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of this site by any third party. Such restriction or inhibition includes, without limitation, conduct which is unlawful, or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person and the transmission of obscene or offensive content or disruption of normal flow of dialogue within this site.
• This site and the information, names, images, pictures, logos and icons regarding or relating to its products and services (or to third party products and services), is provided "AS IS" and on an "IS AVAILABLE" basis without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy. In no event will the site owner be liable for any damages including, without limitation, indirect or consequential damages, or any damages whatsoever arising from use or loss of use, data, or profits, whether in action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use of the site. The site owner does not warrant that the functions contained in the material contained in this site will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or bugs or represents the full functionality, accuracy, and reliability of the materials.
• Where you are invited to submit any contribution to this site (including without limitation any text, graphics, video or audio) you are required by such submission to grant the site owner a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicenseable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to any such work worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content, consistent with privacy restrictions set forth in the site's privacy policy. If you do not wish to grant such rights to the site owner, it is suggested that you do not submit your contribution to this site. By submitting your contribution to this site, you also:
  • Warrant that such contribution is:
    1. your own original work and that you have the right to make it available to the site for all the purposes specified above;
    2. is not defamatory; and
    3. does not infringe any law.
  • Indemnify the site owner against all legal fees, damages and other expenses that may be incurred by the site owner as a result of your breach of the above warranty; and
  • Agree to waive any moral rights in your contribution for the purposes of its submission to and publication on the site and the other purposes specified above.
  If there is any conflict between these Terms and Conditions and/or specific terms appearing elsewhere on this site relating to specific material then the latter shall prevail.
• If any of these Terms and Conditions should be determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any state or country in which these Terms and Conditions are intended to be effective, then to the extent and within the jurisdiction which that Term or Condition is illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted from this clause and the remaining terms and conditions shall survive, remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.
• These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Disputes arising here from shall be exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
• If these Terms and Conditions are not accepted in full, you do not have permission to access the contents of this web site and therefore should cease using this web site immediately.

The following statement explains this site's policy regarding the personal information it collects about you.

• Why the need?
  You will be asked to submit personal information about yourself only if you wish to use a service that cannot function without it. For example, newsletters and email alerts are unavailable to anyone who has not furnished their email address.
  This site will keep all personal information private except when it is required to be revealed by the law. I won't be passing it on to mailing lists, for example.
• Cookies.
  This site uses cookies to store data on your computer. Many web sites (virtually all the commercial ones) do this. Cookies are used to identify your computer to the web site, so it can do things like tell whether you have visited before. If you don't want to use cookies, you can switch them off; however, if you do so then you'll appear to be a new user every time you access the site.
• Users aged 16 and under.
  If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent or guardian's prior permission whenever you provide personal information to this web site. Users without this consent are not allowed to provide it with personal information.

In general, your privacy is protected by the fact that under English law I can only really ask for your name and email address before I have to register under the Data Protection Act (which, as doing so costs an extortionate amount of money, I haven't).

Departments

• The Home page.
• News and updates.
• Errata of factual errors in the book.
• A bibliography of all the books, papers and articles I reference.
• Some links to potentially interesting material that I didn't or couldn't reference for whatever reason.

Copyright © Richard A. Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk)
17^th June, 2003.