Website Terms & Conditions
These Terms & Conditions explain how you can use our website and applications. If you want to know more about how we use your personal information, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
This service is operated by AstrophotographyExpert.com (“AstrophotographyExpert” “Us” “We”), which is registered in the United States. Please send all correspondence to AstrophotographyExpert.com, 21 Waterway Avenue, The Woodlands, TX 77380, United States, Email: contact@astrophotographyexpert.com.
1. Acceptance of Terms
Please read these terms and conditions (the “Terms”) carefully. By accessing and using our website and applications together with any content and features therein (including without limitation any games, widgets, embeddable media players, and RSS feeds) (together, our “Services”), you indicate your acceptance of these Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Code of Conduct, and any other notices, guidelines, and rules published by AstrophotographyExpert on our Services from time to time (each of which is incorporated into the Terms by this reference). The Privacy Policy and Code of Conduct can be accessed from links on our Services.
2. Non-Acceptance of Terms
If you do not accept these Terms, please do not access and/or use the Services.
3. Changes to Terms
AstrophotographyExpert may update these Terms at any time. We will make reasonable efforts to let you know if we make any major changes to these Terms. Please review the Terms regularly to ensure you are aware of any changes. Your continued access to and/or use of our Services after changes have been made to the Terms indicates your agreement to be legally bound by the updated and/or amended Terms.
USE OF OUR SERVICES
4. Lawful Use
You agree to use our Services for lawful purposes only and in a way that does not infringe the rights of or restrict or inhibit any person’s use and enjoyment of our Services and is in compliance at all times with these Terms and with all laws and regulations that apply.
5. Personal and Non-Commercial Use
In accessing our Services, you agree to use its contents only for your own personal and non-commercial use, not for any commercial or other purposes, including advertising or selling any goods or services. You also agree not to adapt, alter, or create a derivative work from any content on our Services except for your personal, non-commercial use. You will need our prior written permission to use any content on our Services for any other reason.
6. Registration and Security
From time to time, we may make available some parts of our Services (including, without limitation, forums or communities) or all of our Services only to those users who have registered with us. If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password, or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. Any personal information supplied to us as part of this registration process and/or other interaction with our Services will be collected, stored, and used by our Privacy Policy. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time if, in our opinion, you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms.
7. Parental Consent for Minors
If you are under 16, you must obtain your parent’s or guardian’s permission before using any interactive features of our Services, such as transmitting or uploading any content onto our Services. If you are under 16, you must not reveal personal information about yourself or anyone else, including your telephone number, home address, or email address, to us or any other user of our Services.
8. Local Compliance
We do not represent that any of our Service content is appropriate or available for use in your country. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of our Services is in compliance with all applicable local laws and regulations.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
9. Ownership of Materials
All information, data, text, documents, graphics, logos, designs, images, pictures, photographs, videos, podcasts, weblogs, RSS feeds, widgets, embeddable media players, software, interactive features, advertisements, or other content, services, or materials (or any part of them) accessible on our Services (“Materials”) are protected by copyright, trademarks, database rights, and other intellectual property rights and are owned by or licensed to us or are otherwise used by us as permitted by applicable law or regulation. Nothing contained herein shall be construed as conferring by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use the Materials other than as permitted in these Terms.
10. Restrictions on Use
Except as specifically permitted on our Services, you undertake not to copy, store in any medium (including on any other website), distribute, transmit, re-transmit, re-publish, broadcast, modify, or show in public any part of our Services without our prior written permission (and the prior written consent of the owner of the relevant intellectual property rights as and if applicable) by the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.
USER CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR SERVICES
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY BEFORE UPLOADING OR OTHERWISE TRANSMITTING ANY CONTENT TO THE SITE. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO GRANT US THE PERMISSIONS SET OUT IN THESE TERMS, PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE SITE.
11. Submission of User Contributions
We may now or in the future enable users to transmit and/or submit (“submit”) contributions (including without limitation any text, photographs, graphics, video, or audio material) to our Services (“User Contributions”).
12. Compliance with the Code of Conduct
Whenever you use a feature that allows you to submit user Contributions or to make contact with other users of our Services, you must comply with the content standards set out in the Code of Conduct. You promise that any user Contribution complies with the Code of Conduct, and you will fully reimburse us for any costs arising from the breach of your promise.
13. Ownership of User Contributions
You remain the copyright owner of any original user contribution that you submit. By submitting any user Contribution to any of our Services (including without limitation any forum, blog, social network, discussion page, photo album, or video uploading facility) and in consideration of us making available to you the opportunity to upload any user Contribution (which you acknowledge as a sufficient benefit to you), you irrevocably and unconditionally grant us free of charge a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licensable license of the entire right, title, and interest in and to such user Contribution so that we and any successor may use the user Contribution in any way, including without limitation the right to copy, reproduce, modify, edit, adapt, reformat, translate, create derivative works from, incorporate into other works, transmit, distribute, perform, play, broadcast, commercialize, and otherwise make available to the public such user Contribution (whether in whole or in part or copies of the same) in any format or medium currently known or developed in the future for the full period during which such rights subsist (including all renewals, revivals, reversions, and extensions of the same) and thereafter to the fullest extent possible in perpetuity.
14. Non-Exclusive Rights
The permission you have granted to us is not exclusive, and therefore, you may continue to use the user Contribution in any way in any medium, including allowing others to use it, provided such use does not interfere with or impair the rights you have granted to us.
15. License to Users
You authorize us to grant, and we hereby grant, to each user of our Services a non-exclusive license to view, hear, read, stream, download, link to, and otherwise access your user Contributions to our Services through our Services and otherwise to use such user Contributions as permitted through the functionality of our Services and following these Terms.
16. Responsibility for Contributions
You shall be solely responsible for your user Contributions and the consequences of submitting them to our Services. You promise that:
(a) the user Contribution is your original work, and you own the entire right, title, and interest in and to the User Contribution, and/or you have all necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize us to use any and all intellectual property rights (including without limitation copyright) in such user Contribution to enable us to use the user Contribution in the manner contemplated by these Terms;
(b) nothing in the user Contribution is defamatory, obscene, indecent, pornographic, sexually explicit, harassing, threatening, or offensive, incites racial, cultural, or religious hatred, impersonates or appears to impersonate any other person, is in contempt of court, violates any law or regulation or encourages conduct that would amount to a criminal offense (including without limitation any conduct that would be considered an offense under the Terrorism Act 2006) or give rise to civil liability and/or is otherwise objectionable and/or an infringement of any UK or other applicable law or regulation;
(c) you will not collect, obtain, compile, gather, transmit, reproduce, delete, revise, view, or display any material, data, or information, whether personally identifiable or not, posted by or concerning any other person, firm, or enterprise, in connection with your user Contribution or connection with your use of our Services unless you have obtained the express, prior permission of such other person (or their parent or guardian if such other person is under 16), firm, or enterprise to do so;
(d) the user Contribution does not contain any virus, corrupt file, cancelbot, worm program, or other malicious code designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of
or disrupt any software, hardware, telecommunications, networks, servers, or other equipment, nor any adware, spyware, Trojan horse, or any other material designed to damage, interfere with, wrongly intercept, or expropriate any data or personal information;
(e) you shall not forge any TCP/IP packet header or part of the header information in any user Contribution for any reason;
(f) you shall not submit any material or perform any actions that result in the transmission of junk email, chain letters, surveys, contests, pyramid selling schemes, duplicative or unsolicited messages, or so-called “spamming” and “phishing”; and
(g) we shall not be required to pay or incur any sums to any person or entity due to our use or exploitation of any User Contribution.
17. Waiver of Moral Rights
You hereby waive all moral rights or similar rights now existing or created in the future in any part of the world in respect of any user Contribution and grant to us the non-exclusive, royalty-free worldwide right to use any name, username, screen name, likeness, photograph, signature, and/or biographical material submitted to us by you.
18. Further Acts
You shall, and will procure that any necessary third parties shall, do all such further acts and execute and deliver all other documents as we reasonably request to confirm the licenses and rights granted under these Terms.
19. Non-Confidential Contributions
All user contributions will be considered non-confidential, and we have the right to use, copy, distribute, and disclose any such material to third parties for any purpose. We also have the right to disclose relevant information to any third party who is claiming that any material posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, their right to privacy, or any UK or other applicable law or regulation.
REMOVAL OF MATERIALS
20. Right to Remove Contributions
We are entitled at our option but are not obliged to (a) actively review user Contributions to our Services and/or (b) remove any user Contributions submitted to our Services by you or any other user if, in our opinion, such user Contributions do not comply with these Terms.
21. Right to Revoke Access
We reserve the right in our sole discretion at any time without liability and with or without prior notice (a) not to post any user Contribution on our Services; (b) to remove or suspend or disable access to any user Contributions; (c) to revoke your registration (where applicable) and right to access and/or use our Services or submit any user Contributions; and (d) to use any technological, legal, operational, or other means available to enforce these Terms, including without limitation blocking specific IP addresses or deactivating your registration and/or username and password (where applicable).
22. Reporting Violations
If you believe that a Contribution on our website infringes your rights or contravenes our Code of Conduct and/or any of these Website Terms, please notify us so we can investigate. You can do this by emailing contact@astrophotographyexpert.com. Please include the following information in your email:
- Your name and email address.
- The name of the website that you have been using.
- Please identify the statement that concerns you and explain why you feel it should be removed. If you think the statement is factually incorrect, please tell us why.
- The location of the statement on our website.
- Do you know who posted the statement and/or have the poster’s contact details?
- Please indicate whether you are happy for us to share your name and contact details with the person who posted the statement. Please note that we will only share your details if you agree.
RELIANCE ON INFORMATION ON OUR SERVICES
23. General Information
Information published via our Services is intended solely to provide general information and is not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We do not warrant that any Materials are accurate or free from error, and we disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any content of our Services by you or by anyone who may be informed of any of the contents of our Services.
24. Third-Party Content
You acknowledge that when using our Services, you may be exposed to Materials from various sources and that we are not responsible for the content, truth, accuracy, usefulness, or safety of such Materials. We do not endorse any user Contributions or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed in any user Contribution, and we disclaim any and all liability in connection with such user Contributions or other material.
25. Updates and Changes
We aim to update our services regularly and may change the content anytime. We may suspend access to our Services or close them indefinitely at any time at our sole discretion. The Materials may be out of date at any given time, and we are not obligated to update them.
WARRANTIES AND DISCLAIMER
26. No Warranties
Our Services are provided “AS IS” and on an “AS AVAILABLE” basis without any representation or endorsement. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, conditions, and other Terms of any kind, express or implied, in connection with our Services and your use of our Services (including, without limitation, as to satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security, and accuracy).
27. No Guarantee of Service
We do not warrant that the functions contained in any Materials on our Services will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that our Services or the servers that make them available are free of viruses or bugs.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
28. User Contributions
We accept no liability for any user Contributions submitted by our users. Your use of our Services, the Materials, and/or any user Contributions is entirely at your own risk.
29. Exclusion of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we, our associates, and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude any liability for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, or exemplary loss or damage (whether such losses were foreseen, foreseeable, known, or otherwise) arising from, out of, or in connection with the use of our Services, including without limitation:
(a) injury and/or damage to persons or property as a result of any statement, including any actual or alleged defamatory statement;
(b) losses suffered by any third party, including infringement of any intellectual property or privacy rights;
(c) loss of data;
(d) loss of revenue or anticipated profits;
(e) loss of business or contracts;
(f) loss of opportunity;
(g) loss of anticipated savings;
(h) wasted management or office time, or
(i) loss of goodwill or injury to reputation.
30. Legal Obligations
This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation, or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable laws or regulations.
31. Force Majeure
We shall not be responsible for any breach of these Terms caused by circumstances beyond our control.
REIMBURSEMENT BY YOU
32. Indemnity
You agree to reimburse us in full and any of our officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, licensors, suppliers, and operational service providers on demand in respect of any and all claims, actions, proceedings, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses suffered or reasonably incurred by us as a result of, or in connection with, your access to and use of our Services other than under these Terms or any applicable law or regulation.
VIRUSES, HACKING AND OTHER OFFENCES
33. Misuse of Services
You must not misuse our Services by introducing, transmitting, or arranging the sending of any viruses, corrupt files, cancelbots, Trojan horses, worms, time or logic bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware, or other material designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment or interfere with, wrongly intercept, or expropriate any data or personal information. You must not attempt to gain unauthorized access to our Services, the servers on which they are stored, or any server, computer, or database connected to our Services. You must not attack our Services via a denial-of-service, distributed denial-of-service, or other type of attack.
34. Legal Consequences
Any breach of this provision constitutes a criminal offense under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and cooperate with them by disclosing your identity. In such a breach, your right to use our Services will cease immediately.
35. Liability for Damages
We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data, or other proprietary material due to your use of our Services, your downloading of any Materials on our Services, or on any materials on any other website linked to it.
LINKS TO AND FROM OUR SERVICES
Linking from our Services
36. Third-Party Links
We have no control over the content or availability of third-party sites you may access through our Services, and such links are provided for your information only. If you visit any linked site, you do so at your own risk, and it is your responsibility to take all protective measures to guard against viruses or other destructive elements.
37. Third-Party Content
We do not endorse and are not responsible or liable (directly or indirectly) for any content, advertising, products, services, views expressed, or information on or available from third-party websites (including without limitation payment for
and delivery of any products or services) or for any damage, loss, or offense caused by or in connection with your access to and use of such third-party sites and any available services. Any Terms, conditions, warranties, or representations associated with any dealings on any third-party sites are solely between you and the relevant provider of that site and/or any relevant service.
Linking to our Services
38. Home Page Links
You may link to the home page of any website within our Services without seeking our further written consent PROVIDED THAT you fully comply with these Terms.
39. Restrictions on Linking
You are not permitted to create a link to any part of our Services other than the home page unless you have our prior written consent (and for the avoidance of doubt, such consent shall be deemed given in respect of RSS feeds, widgets, and embeddable media players which we may make available PROVIDED THAT you use them by these Terms and any further instructions published through our Services). We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in the Code of Conduct. Our Services must not be framed on any other site.
40. Appropriate Links
Any links to our Services must be made in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it. You must not establish a link in any way that suggests any form of association, representation, approval, or endorsement on our part where none exists. Links to our Services do not imply that we endorse, are affiliated with, or are associated with any linked site or that any linked site is authorized to use any of our trademarks, trade names, brands, logos, or copyright symbols or those of any of our affiliates or licensors.
41. Excluded Websites
Links to our Services are not permitted from the following types of websites (“Excluded Websites”):
- websites that incite hatred, whether based on race, religion, gender, sexuality, or otherwise, or promote, encourage or facilitate anti-social behavior;
- websites that promote, encourage, or facilitate violence;
- websites that promote, encourage, or facilitate terrorism or other activities that risk national security;
- websites that discriminate against any specific social group or otherwise exploit vulnerable sections of society;
- websites that promote, facilitate, or encourage illegal activity;
- websites that are misleading, pornographic, defamatory, or that contain illegal or otherwise actionable content under applicable law; or
- websites that infringe on individual privacy.
ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP
42. Advertisements
Parts of or all of the Services may occasionally contain advertising and sponsorship. Advertisers and sponsors are responsible for ensuring that any materials submitted for inclusion in our Services comply with relevant laws, regulations, codes, and these Terms. We shall not be responsible for any error or inaccuracy in such advertising or sponsorship materials.
SOFTWARE
43. Software Use
Certain software, which is our protected work or the protected work of our suppliers, may be made available to download via our Services. You are licensed to use the software on a non-exclusive basis only for the purposes for which it is indicated. You may not use the software for any other purpose and may not redistribute, sell, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or otherwise deal with the software.
PRIVACY
44. Privacy Protection
We take your privacy very seriously and are committed to keeping any personal information you provide to us safe and secure, as required under data protection law (including the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”)). Any personal information you supply as part of any registration process and/or other interaction with our Services will be collected, stored, and used by our Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about how we may use your personal information, please see the Privacy Policy for full details or contact us at contact@astrophotographyexpert.com.
RSS FEEDS, WIDGETS, AND EMBEDDABLE MEDIA PLAYERS
45. Use of RSS Feeds and Widgets
By downloading an RSS feed from our Services or by adding our widgets or embeddable media players to a website, you agree to be bound by these Terms, including, for the avoidance of doubt, the terms set out in this “RSS Feeds, Widgets, and Embeddable Media Players” section and the terms set out in the section above headed “Linking to our Services”.
46. License Grant
Subject to these Terms, we grant you a non-transferable, non-sub-licensable, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to display on your website (“Your Website”) the active links or other source identifiers and other information or materials that you specifically select to receive either from us via an RSS feed or our widgets or embeddable media players (“our Content”).
47. Commercial Restrictions
YOU MAY NOT DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY CHARGE USERS SPECIFICALLY FOR ACCESSING OUR CONTENT OR OTHERWISE COMMERCIALIZE SUCH CONTENT, NOR ATTEMPT TO RE-SELL OUR CONTENT IN ANY WAY. RSS FEEDS AND/OR WIDGETS AND/OR EMBEDDABLE MEDIA PLAYERS MAY NOT BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES.
48. Content Modifications
You may not directly or indirectly change, edit, add to, or produce summaries of our Content or any content on our Services nor place any of our Content in an HTML frame-set.
49. Termination of Access
We may restrict, suspend, or terminate our RSS feeds, the content fed to our widgets or embeddable media players, the license granted herein, or your use or access to the RSS feeds, widgets, or embeddable media players or our Content at any time without liability. You agree to destroy all copies of the RSS feeds, widgets, or embeddable media players and all our Content upon receiving notice of termination from us.
50. Website Compliance
You promise that:
(a) Your website is not an Excluded Site and does not contain material that is libelous, defamatory, pornographic, obscene, or which may bring us into disrepute, or which is in breach of any third party intellectual property rights; and
(b) Users of Your website are required to comply with terms equivalent to these Terms in relation to their use of our Content.
SEVERABILITY
57. Legal Effect
If any of these Terms are determined to be illegal, invalid, or otherwise unenforceable because of the laws of any state or country in which these Terms are intended
to be effective, then to the extent and within the jurisdiction in which that term is illegal, invalid, or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted from these Terms, and the remaining Terms shall survive, remain in full force and effect, and continue to be binding and enforceable.
JURISDICTION
58. Governing Law
The Terms are governed by and construed by the laws of the United States.
DISPUTES
59. Legal Disputes
Any disputes arising from or related to our Services shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States.
Last updated: August 1, 2024