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The readbud Service and the readbud web site (referred to hereafter as 'the readbud Network' or 'the Network') are owned and operated by The Content Network Australia (referred to hereafter as 'readbud', 'we', 'us' or 'our').
Your membership of the Service is conditional upon your express agreement to, acceptance of and compliance with these Terms of Service, as well as agreement to and compliance with other terms, conditions, notices and disclaimers contained elsewhere on the readbud website.
The submission of your readbud membership application constitutes your acceptance of these Terms of Service.
We reserve the right to vary these Terms of Service by providing 30 days notice on this website. Because as a member of the Service you will continue to be bound by these Terms of Service, you should periodically refer to them here to review any changes.
We reserve the right to vary the specifications, rates, rewards, rules, conditions and content of any aspect of the Service and Network at any time without notice.
Whilst we make every effort to ensure information or content published on the Network by us is accurate and complete, we make no guarantee that it is, and cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions in any such information or content.
Any dated information or content published by us on the Network is current at the time of publication, and we are not obliged to update or amend any such information or content.
These conditions of membership are the primary, but not the only conditions of membership. We reserve the right to terminate your membership of the Service if you breach or fail to comply with any of the following conditions of membership:
2.1.1. To be eligible to join the Service, you must:
Individuals 13 years of age or below are not eligible to join readbud.
2.1.2. You may join the Service regardless of your location.
2.2.1. You may only apply for and use one membership.
2.2.2. You must not join nor use the Service on behalf of any other individual, including a family member.
2.2.3. You must not allow any other individual to use the Service on your behalf.
2.2.4. A maximum of 5 memberships per household applies.
2.2.5. A maximum of 5 memberships per postal address applies.
2.3.1. You must provide a valid email address (referred to as the 'registered email address') when you register to become a member. For your membership to be considered active and valid, you must validate your registered email address by clicking on a link within an email we send to you after registration.
2.3.2. The email address you provide when you register must be an active email address in regular use by you.
2.3.3. If you ever discontinue use of the registered email address, for your membership to remain active you must advise us of a new, active email address that you regularly use. You can advise us of a new email address in the Account Details section of this web site. You will be required to re-validate your new registered email address.
2.3.4. Your registered email address must not be the registered email address of any other member of the Service.
2.4.1. You must provide us with information about yourself, and you agree to us keeping a record of that information for as long as you remain a member of the Service. You may be required to provide personally identifiable information in the Account Settings section of this web site. You may be required to provide information about you that does not personally identify you in the Rewards Profile section of this web site.
2.4.2. The information you provide to us must be complete, current, correct, valid and truthful.
2.4.3. You must keep the information that you have provided to us current and up-to-date by periodically reviewing and updating the information provided. You can do this using the Account Details section of this web site.
2.5.1. At all times in your dealings with readbud and its partners and suppliers you must act with integrity and honesty.
2.5.2. Once you open up the invitation to an article, before you submit your rating, you must read the article thoroughly and understand it in order to form a valid and deserved rating.
2.6.1. In these Terms of Service, 'spam' means the use of email, online message boards, online chat rooms, usenet, or an electronic messaging service to send a message which:
2.6.2. You must not send unsolicited messages or spam to promote the Service.
2.6.3. You must not use the Network or Service to send spam.
2.7.1. You must not use the Network or Service in a way that is or for any purpose that is unlawful.
2.7.2. You must not use the Network to engage in any kind of hacking, tampering, spoofing or abuse of any system or computer network.
2.7.3. You must not engage in any kind of hacking, tampering, spoofing or abuse of the readbud Network and any aspects of the Service.
2.7.4. You must not use a script, robot, software program, or other system that operates the Network or Service on your behalf and outside of the intended use of the Network or Service, whether it be to earn reward points automatically, post or transmit bulk messages, or otherwise interfere with the normal operation and security of the Network or Service.
2.7.5. If you breach any of the conditions above, your membership will be cancelled and you may be prosecuted for damages or expenses arising directly or indirectly out of your actions.
2.7.6. We are under no obligation to monitor any person’s use of the Network or Service, however we reserve the right to monitor the Network and Service and retain and disclose information as allowed by law and requested by any law enforcement authority in any jurisdiction.
We take the security and privacy of your personal and profile information very seriously. readbud has a Privacy Policy which should be read in conjunction with these Terms of Service.
3.2.1. The information you provide in the Account Details section of the readbud web site includes personally identifiable information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your residential address, and your postal address.
3.2.2. Your personally identifiable information will never be sold to any third party.
3.2.3. Your personally identifiable information may be shared with a third party if it is required by law. For example, if we receive a lawful direction or request from a law enforcement authority in any jurisdiction we may disclose your identity and personally identifiable information to that authority.
3.2.4. Your personally identifiable information may be shared with a third party (for example a supplier or partner of ours) if it is necessary for us to process a transaction that you request us to process, or if you opt-in to a service or feature where we outsource some aspects of the provision of that service or feature. In all cases where personally identifiable information is shared with a third party, the sharing of such information is covered by strict legal agreements that prevent the third party from using that information more than once, or for any purpose beyond what is allowed for in the agreement.
Sometimes you may be directed to a web site where an advertiser or market research company asks you to provide your personal information. It is your choice whether to provide your personal information to that third party. We cannot be held responsible for the privacy practices or actions of any third party.
The information you provide in the Interest Topics section of the readbud web site is information about you that cannot be used to identify you personally (such as your age, gender, postcode, education, background, preferences, habits, etc.) This provided information is used by us to ensure that you only receive articles relevant to you, and to allow our clients to reach the particular type of people they are targeting with their advertisements or other offers.
The information in your Interest Topics is never shared with any third party in a way that can be used to personally identify you. It is only shared with third parties on an aggregate basis. 'Aggregate basis' means the information of many members is combined together to form one measurement or quantity that cannot be used to identify any particular person. For example, a client may be told that their advertising campaign is going to be received by 1,000 members who have an interest in Journalism.
We will take all reasonable precautions and measures to maintain the security and privacy of your personal information. This includes using the very best in hardware, software, and security practices available to us. However, due to the nature of the Internet and the nature of the systems and technology available at the current time, it is unfortunate that breaches of security are still possible. Therefore we cannot guarantee that your information will be completely secure, and we cannot be held liable for any loss or damage arising out of a breach of security.
You must keep your account password confidential at all times. You are responsible for all transactions made on the Network with your username and password. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising out of the unauthorised use of your username and password.
4.1.1. When you join the service you give us consent to send you emails, with or without any incentive or reward, that are necessary for us to continue to provide the Service to you. These emails (referred to as 'service emails') may include:
4.1.2. Because service emails are required and necessary for us to provide the Service to you, the only way to unsubscribe from receiving service emails from us is to terminate your use of the Service by cancelling your membership.
We will not send you emails containing advertisements or any other offers.
You will not receive any advertising postal mail from our Service.
5.1.1. As a member of the Service we will maintain against your membership account a balance of earnings in United States Currency (USD). As you use the Service you may accumulate money, and then once your balance reaches a threshold level as set by us, you may redeem the funds by redemption options we offer.
5.1.2. There is a minimum threshold balance required before you may request for any redemption of funds. We may change the minimum threshold balance at any time. At the present time the minimum threshold for redemption is $50.
5.1.3. Until such time as your balance reaches the minimum threshold, we are not liable to you for payment of any kind.
5.1.4. You expressly acknowledge that your eligibility to redeem your funds conditional upon your ongoing compliance with these Terms of Service. If at any time we have evidence or reason to believe that you are not in compliance with these Terms of Service, we may, at our discretion, cancel your membership of the Service, cancel any right or interest that you may have in the funds that you have accumulated, and cancel any outstanding redemption or payment of cash or other rewards.
5.1.5. If you choose to cancel your readbud membership account, all of your earnings are immediately and irreversibly forfeited. All outstanding and pending payments and rewards are immediately cancelled.
Where an amount of earnings has been credited to your account and we at any time have evidence or reason to believe that those earnings were credited to your account due to the fraudulent, deceptive or dishonest actions of you or any other member, we reserve the right to reverse the transaction by deducting from your account the same amount of funds.
If earnings are credited to your account due to a human or computer error, or if earnings are credited to your account due to the accidental or deliberate exploitation of a computer programming bug by you or by anyone else, we reserve the right to adjust or reverse the transaction without notice.
readbud earnings are not transferable between members or accounts under any circumstances.
For some aspects of the Service and Network, funds may not be credited to your account immediately and you are to comply with the waiting period.
Your earnings do not have an expiry date. Any funds you have accumulated in compliance with these Terms of Service will remain in credit against your membership account until they are redeemed by you, as long as your membership account remains active and you continue to comply with these Terms of Service.
You acknowledge that we do not make or imply any guarantee or representation as to the money you can earn as a member of the Service.
A registration bonus of $10 may be available from time to time. We deserve the right to cancel this offer at any time without any prior notice. If you register during a period this bonus is offered, your account will be credited with $10 only after you have chosen at least one Interest Topic relevant to you. Furthermore, you agree that this bonus amount is not owed to you under any circumstances until you reach the $50 redemption threshold as evaluated in clause 5.1.
Exp is a measure of your experience and loyalty as a member of the Service. Exp is only used as a measure of your entitlements to use Service and Network aspects and facilities. Any Exp you accumulate has no value in relation to earnings, redemptions, rewards or merchandise, unless stated otherwise.
6.1.1. In these Terms of Service, 'redemption' and 'payment of earnings' means any type of request for us to pay you or award to you any money in exchange for an amount of your accumulated earnings. This currently only applies to payment by PayPal.
6.1.2. As the Service is available globally, we will only make payments through the PayPal service by United States Currency (USD).
6.1.3. At the time you make a request for redemption of your earnings, we will review the details and transaction history of your membership account, and the details of any related membership accounts, to check for any evidence of fraud or deception by you. If we have evidence or reason to believe that you have acted fraudulently or deceptively in your dealings with us, we may choose to deny your request for redemption of earnings and take other action such as cancelling your membership account as permitted by these Terms of Service.
6.1.4. In clause 6.1.3., 'related membership accounts' means any membership account that referred your membership account, or any membership accounts that were referred by your membership account, or any membership account that has provided the same residential address or postal address as your account.
6.1.5. At the time you make a request for redemption of your earnings, we reserve the right to request from you a copy of a proof of identification document, for account verification and security purposes, before approving your request for redemption or payment of earnings. If you are unable or elect not to provide a copy of a proof of identification document, we may deny your request for payment of earnings.
6.1.6. The rate at which you may redeem your earnings is at our discretion, and may vary from time to time without notice.
6.1.7. readbud has no obligation in respect of any tax due on the Funds given to a member and the member shall be responsible for declaring any income received from readbud under this Agreement.
6.1.8. You acknowledge that readbud owes you no funds until you reach the redemption threshold which is currently $50.
6.1.9. readbud will attempt to honour the funds owed once a redemption is made, however if readbud is experiencing financial or technical trouble or has defaulted in bankrupcy, readbud and readbud stakeholders will not be liable for any post redemption threshold funds owed.
6.1.10. All funds are in United States Currency (United States Dollar, USD)
6.2.1. Payment of earnings by PayPal is only possible if you provide a valid PayPal account at time of redemption request.
6.2.2. You are solely responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the information provided for the purposes of a PayPal transfer.
6.2.3. We will only approve and process a PayPal payment of earnings where the nominated account is the same as or includes, the name under which your membership account was registered.
6.2.4. If a payment of earnings by PayPal that you request is processed to the wrong PayPal account, the funds are lost and we will not take any action to reverse the transaction, reprocess the transaction, or refund earnings to you.
6.2.5. We will store and maintain your PayPal account details securely and in accordance with the readbud Privacy Policy.
6.2.6. The United States Currency Funds may or may not be converted to your local currency during the PayPal transfer.
7.1.1. In order to receive articles and participate in our Service accordingly, it is your responsibility to choose Interest Topics congruent to your actual interests.
7.1.2. Our software based delivery engine determines which articles are to be sent out to you based on the interests you pick - this is an automated and software calculated process. We cannot guarantee a constant stream of articles as the delivery engine determines the amount of articles to deliver based on various factors such as your historical activity, other member's activity during the day, article availability and budget buffer.
7.1.3. You may view all the Articles prepared for your attention by going to the Articles section of the website.
7.1.4. The articles brought to your attention will be initially presented as invitations.
7.1.5. We cannot and do not speculate or guarantee the amount of Article invitations you may receive within any time-frame.
7.1.6. Each article is assigned a monetary reward based on total word count of content. This reward amount will be stated on the article invitation. We deserve the right to modify global reward rates at any time.
7.1.7. As a member of our Service, you have the choice to either participate in the Article by clicking on the "Open Article" button or to ignore it and move on by clicking the "Skip Article" button. The choice is at your sole discretion, however by skipping the article, you will not have the opportunity to get rewarded.
7.1.8. If your choice is to participate, by clicking on the "Open Article" button you understand that a standard new window will be opened up to display the Article Details and will become the natural focus set by your browser client.
7.2.1. The Article Details page will load in a new window as explained in clause 6.2.5. and will display the Article and it's corresponding content, as well as relevant third-party advertisements/offers.
7.2.2. The advertisements displayed on the Article Details page are relevant offers from third-party venues. We take no responsibility for any losses as further evaluated in clauses 9. and 12.
7.2.3. By participating in evaluation of an article, it is your duty as a member of our Service to ensure to read the article content thoroughly and understand it to your best abilities.
7.2.4. After reading the article, it is your responsibility to form an opinion and submit it as a rating from 1 to 5 as conveyed by a star rating scale at the bottom of every article.
7.2.5. You understand that you will only ever get paid the offered amount if you thoroughly read the article and rate it accordingly only once.
7.2.6. You will open up articles one at a time as per normal flow and you will not attempt to force open multiple windows to open multiple articles at any given time.
7.2.7. By opening the article invitation, you solemnly agree not to attempt any means of fraud to increase your earning rate. The funds you accumulated will be forfeited if your activity is identified as fraudulent by manual investigation through our records of your activity.
7.3.1. We will credit your account with $5 if you (the 'referrer') refer a new member (the 'referred person' or 'referred member') to join the Service, however we will only credit you with the offered funds if:
7.3.2. We reserve the right to deduct any earnings credited in relation to a referral if we, at any time, discover that any condition in clause 7.3.1 has not been met.
7.3.3. You expressly acknowledge that you are not permitted to have more than one membership of the Service, and that you are not permitted to join the Service on behalf of another individual. You acknowledge that having more than one membership or joining on behalf of another for the purposes of obtaining referral earnings is considered by us to be deceptive and fraudulent behavior, and therefore if we have evidence or reason to believe that you have acted as such we may deduct referral earnings from your account, or we may cancel your membership account or the referred membership account.
7.3.4. We reserve the right to deduct from your account any earnings credited to you in relation to a referral if the referred account is cancelled by us or by the referred member within three months of the date of the referred member joining.
7.3.5. You must not make any misleading statements about the Service, or misrepresent to the person you refer, the amount of money and benefits they may earn from their membership of the Service.
7.3.6. You must not display or post your referral link or any banner or graphic promoting the Service on any website that contains any unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information or material.
7.4.1. We will credit your account with $5 if you (the 'referrer') refer a new member (the 'referred person' or 'referred member') to join the Service through the affiliate marketing options, however we will only credit you with the offered funds if:
7.4.2. We reserve the right to deduct any earnings credited in relation to a referral if we, at any time, discover that any condition in clause 7.3.1 has not been met.
7.4.3. You expressly acknowledge that you are not permitted to have more than one membership of the Service, and that you are not permitted to join the Service on behalf of another individual. You acknowledge that having more than one membership or joining on behalf of another for the purposes of obtaining referral earnings is considered by us to be deceptive and fraudulent behavior, and therefore if we have evidence or reason to believe that you have acted as such we may deduct referral earnings from your account, or we may cancel your membership account or the referred membership account.
7.4.4. We reserve the right to deduct from your account any earnings credited to you in relation to a referral if the referred account is cancelled by us or by the referred member within three months of the date of the referred member joining.
7.4.5. You must not make any misleading statements about the Service, or misrepresent to the person you refer, the amount of funds and benefits they may earn from their membership of the Service.
7.4.6. You must not display or post your referral link or any banner or graphic promoting the Service on any website that contains any unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information or material.
The readbud Network contains electronic message boards ('forums'), community profile pages, electronic messaging and feedback systems, and other communication facilities which allow you to communicate with us, with third parties, and with other members of readbud (referred to hereafter as 'Communication Facilities').
It is a condition of your use of any Communication Facility and your access to the Network that you do not do any of the following:
If you breach any of the conditions relating to the use of Communication Facilities we may impose a reward points or exp penalty, we may suspend your access to use, and ability to post to, any Communication Facility, and we may cancel your membership of the Service.
We may from time to time monitor or review the contents of the Communication Facilities. While we reserve the right to edit, delete, or refuse to post any information, content or materials (in whole or in part) that in our sole discretion are in any way objectionable or in violation of any applicable law or these Terms of Service, we have no obligation whatsoever to monitor any Communication Facility or to edit, delete or refuse to post any information, content or materials, nor are we responsible for any information, content or materials posted by you or any other member of the Service or user of the Network.
You acknowledge and agree that the Communication Facilities provide a means of public and not private communications.
We reserve the right to cooperate fully with any law enforcement authority in any jurisdiction in respect of any lawful direction or request to disclose the identity or other information in respect of anyone posting any information, content or materials which violate any applicable or relevant law.
We reserve the right to cancel any membership account created with a username that in our opinion is offensive, obscene, profane or indecent.
The readbud Network may contain advertisements and links to web sites and online market research surveys operated by third parties or their licensees or contractors. Third party links, advertisements and market research surveys are paid for by the relevant third party and are not a recommendation or endorsement by us or our affiliates or our respective employees. We make no express or implied warranties in relation to the content of these advertisements or web sites, including the accuracy, completeness, reliability or suitability of the web sites or the products and services advertised for any purpose.
In some instances, the advertisement or web site linked will contain representations or offers by the third party which you can accept by executing the relevant transaction. You acknowledge that such offers are not made by us, and the third party is solely responsible to you for the delivery of any goods or services obtained from the third party.
If you have an enquiry or complaint about a particular advertisement, link, email, or survey, you may contact us. We will endeavour to answer your question or resolve the issue, however in some circumstances we may need to direct you to contact the owner of the web site, advertisement or survey directly.
All content and material on the readbud web site and Network and sent to you in an email by readbud is protected by Australian and international copyright law, and may also be protected as a trade mark, service mark, or under other rights and laws.
Except for the creation of a temporary copy on your computer which is inherent to the process of the normal use of the Network or Service, the content and material referred to above may not be copied, reproduced, published, stored in a retrieval system, altered or otherwise used in any form or by any means, in whole or in part, without our prior written approval, or the approval of the relevant copyright owner.
You acknowledge that you have not relied upon or been induced by any representation by us and that we make no warranty or representation as to:
You release readbud, its parents, subsidiaries, and its officers, employees, agents and affiliates from any claim for loss, damage or liability, including special indirect or consequential loss or damage such as loss of revenue, unavailability of systems or loss of data, in respect of:
You indemnify and keep indemnified readbud, its parents, subsidiaries, and its officers, employees, agents and affiliates against all claims (including third party claims), demands, damages, costs (including legal costs), penalties or suits caused by or arising out of or consequential upon your membership of the Service or your use of the Network.
These Terms of Service are effective and in force until terminated by us. We may terminate these Terms of Service at any time without notice.
We reserve the right to cancel your membership and terminate your use of the Service at any time, without cause or reason, and without notice. Specifically, we may cancel your membership and terminate your use of the Service, without notice, if you:
We reserve the right to cancel your membership and terminate your use of the Service, with 7 days notice, if your membership account becomes inactive through non-use over a period of 12 months. To prevent your membership account from becoming inactive, it is sufficient to simply sign in to the readbud web site on a regular basis.
You may choose to terminate your obligations under these Terms of Service at any time by cancelling your membership of the readbud Service. This can be done in the Account Settings section of this web site. You will be required to enter your password in order to cancel your membership.
If your membership is cancelled, the cancellation is final and your membership cannot be re-activated.
If your membership is cancelled, you will forfeit all of your reward points, and exp, and all outstanding redemption payments and rewards.
We reserve the right to refuse your application to join the Service again if we have ever cancelled your membership of the Service in the past.
If any part of these Terms of Service is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of any other part or provision of these Terms of Service.
These Terms of Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New South Wales and of the Commonwealth of Australia. You submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the Commonwealth of Australia.
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