Terms & Conditions and User Agreement

Here is the short version written by Matt:

1. We have some rules (the long version is below)
2. You can have access to the free content by trading basic details about yourself (this form)
3. We won't sell your details to 3rd parties (because that's just wrong)
4. The content provided is owned by UnderstandingE (videos's, text etc...)
5. Some of the free content is affliated (we earn money from it), this is how we keep it free

Here is the long version:

Hi, we’re Understanding Ecommerce Ltd, and welcome to UnderstandingE.com.

We run this website containing free educational content to help you run your multi-channel eCommerce business . This is our user agreement that we make with you when you use UnderstandingE.com.

1. When we talk about UnderstandingE, UE, 'us' or use the word ‘sites’, we’re referring to everything available for free as a basic membership on the UnderstandingE.com site (but not our UnderstandingE Premium subscription service which has its own terms here).
2. There are some rules for using UnderstandingE (we call these the ‘terms’). By using the sites you’re making a legal agreement to stick to our terms. We want you to learn, not to be lectured, so we have tried to keep these as short as possible.
3. Because these terms tell you how you can use UnderstandingE please take a moment to read and understand them.
4. If you can’t, or don’t want to, accept these terms, then you won’t be able to use UnderstandingE.  By using the sites, you are agreeing to these terms.
5. Occasionally we might update our terms and we’ll post information about that on the site. When we let you know that our terms have changed, please read them to see how they affect you, as they will apply from the time they are changed.

2. Our content

1. When we say ‘content’, we’re talking about all the content we've put on our sites that we own – this includes the free content consisting of Video Guides, blog posts, article guides and forum posts from UnderstandingE.  We also own all the rights in the sites content
2. Although the free content is available for free, it is not openly available, and is protected by a members log in section.  In order to access the content you will need to become a member of UnderstandingE and accept these terms and conditions
3. All content on UnderstandingE is intended for individual business use.  If you want to re-distribute this to your own clients/customers then please contact us including a proposal and we will get back to you to discuss this further.

What you can do

1. We want you to enjoy our sites and learn from them. We give you permission to use the sites in exchange for accepting our terms and complying with them and your email address. This is called a revocable, non-exclusive license.
2. You can use what you learn for your personal and business purposes.
3. You can freely use the knowledge that you learn  for your personal and business use, however they must be attributed back to us.

What you can't do

1. You agree that you won’t redistribute, frame, re purpose or copy any of our content and you won’t use the content for any purpose that we have not expressly stated.
2. Sometimes we've been allowed to use an asset owned by someone else (Such as an eBay listing), to illustrate an example or to use for demonstration purposes. Usually this is on the basis that we – and you – won’t use it in any other way apart from in the tutorial and for personal education. The only rights that you have to these assets is within the context of the tutorial. As a result, you’re not allowed to extract assets from articles and tutorials (like photos, or designs unless permission is expressly given).
3. The trademarks and logos displayed on the sites belong to UnderstandingE or to others, and you must not use these without the approval of the owner.

3. Your Content

1. We’d like you to participate in the UnderstandingE dialogue. We’re a community! Often you’ll have the opportunity to comment or post on our sites.
2. You retain ownership of any intellectual property in your own content but by posting it on our sites you’re giving us permission (a license) to use it on our sites. This permission includes allowing us to publish it (or not), to move it to a more appropriate forum, to store or delete it.

Be Reasonable When Posting

1. We find that our UnderstandingE community is made of great people who know what is and is not acceptable online. We do have a liberal comments policy and do allow harsh criticism of the sites and their content so that we can keep improving our offering to you.
2. But just to keep it clear, you agree that you won’t post anything that:

• affects other users’ use or enjoyment of the sites;
• is false, misleading, fraudulent, unlawful, abusive, harassing, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, or offensive;
• infringes others’ rights, including privacy or intellectual property rights;
• discloses personal information about others, particularly sensitive information;
• contains a virus, spyware, or other harmful component;
• contains commercial solicitation or ‘spam’.

1. We retain the right to take down any user content for any reason at all without notice and without providing a reason. We’re not liable for any content posted by others on our sites.

4. IP including copyright

1. Our business, and those of our authors, are based on intellectual property (IP) including copyright. We need to protect our IP so we can keep giving you access to our fantastic free tutorials. We also respect the IP rights of others, particularly those who have been nice enough to let us use any of their material or digital assets on our sites.
2. Your use of content is restricted to the permission that we give to you that are set out in these terms.
3. Please get in touch with us via the contact us page if you think your rights have been infringed by any content or other materials on our sites.

5. Helping to keep 90% of the guides Free

1. We don’t charge you to access our basic content on UnderstandingE, but we do use some common strategies to help us pay our founders to create such great educational resources – these might include affiliate programs, sponsored posts, advertising and so on.
2. While it will usually be easy to identify what is an advertisement or a sponsored post, sometimes other commercial relationships might not be so obvious. We want to be entirely upfront that some of these relationships, such as affiliate programs, might mean that we receive a commission if a purchase is made from a site we link to.
3. It is up to you to make sure that any products and services you find using our sites meet your needs. We don’t formally endorse any third party products or services when we link to them. We don’t have control over anyone else’s website, business, representations or the quality of their products or services, so we can’t be liable to you for anything provided by others. But of course, we only recommend something if we think it is worthy. If you disagree with a recommendation, or have a different point of view, let us know in the comment box where the link to the external site is.

6. Privacy

1. Our information collection and use of any personal information about you is set out in our privacy policy. We can only use personal information that you disclose in relation to your use of the sites for certain purposes explained in our privacy policy.
2. We won’t sell your details to marketing companies.   Where applicable we will pass on your details to the appropriate authorities to satisfy a law, regulation or government request.
3. Bear in mind that any information that you post on our sites will become public information and can be collected and used by other parties (we don’t have control over that).

7. Things you can’t do

In using the sites you agree that you will not:

1. use a false email address, impersonate others, or misrepresent your affiliation with others;
2. attempt to gain unauthorised access to computer systems or materials through UnderstandingE;
3. engage in automatic gathering of information from or through UnderstandingE (such as “spidering”, “screen scraping”, “database scraping” or harvesting of e-mail addresses);
4. attempt to interrupt or alter UnderstandingE's operation in any way (for example through sending mass unsolicited messages, “flooding” servers, or introducing a virus, time bomb, trojan horse, worm, cancelbot or other computer routine );
5. use UnderstandingE or any of its content in a way that violates applicable law, that violates the intellectual property or other rights of us or others, or that is fraudulent, obscene, offensive, misleading or defamatory.

8.Legal

1. We control and operate UnderstandingE from our offices in the UK. The laws of Great Britain govern these terms, and you and UnderstandingE submit to the jurisdiction of the courts there.
2. UnderstandingE is not liable to you for any loss, claim, injury or damage of any kind that is in any way related to your use of UnderstandingE. To the maximum extent permitted at law, we make no warranty of any kind about the information or other content provided on the sites.

And if you read that lot, you deserve a medal :)