This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of this website and its subdomains (the 'Site'). Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the Site. You must be at least 18 years of age to use the Site. By using the Site, you indicate that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use or you are under 18 years of age, do not use the Site.
About the Site
The Site is operated by Black Pepper Books LLP, a registered company in India with limited liability and has its registered office at Panampilly Nagar, Cochin, Kerala State, India, 682036.
Services
Black Pepper Books provides publishing services and associated services through the Site that enables you to access and view content and to participate in online events hosted on the Site (the 'Services').
Black Pepper Books may create user profiles for use by its customer support representatives for the support, marketing, and improvement of the Services. It may, from time to time, send electronic communications to ask how its subscribers are using certain aspects of the Services.
Black Pepper Books may offer additional services or revise the scope of the Services at its discretion and with or without notice, and these terms of use will apply to all additional or revised Services. Black Pepper Books also reserves the right to stop offering the Services.
Your Access
You can access the Site in the following ways:
(i) By visiting the Site as a guest;
(ii) By registering through the Site as a member; or
(iii) By registering through the Site as a member and purchasing a subscription package as and when made available.
There is no fee payable to access the Site as a guest or as a registered member. Your account is for your personal use only. You may not authorize others to use your account or attempt to use another member’s account without obtaining their consent. You must not assign or otherwise transfer your account to any other person or entity.
Objectionable Content
If, as a legally affected party, you have any concern or objection as to the content hosted on this website or its intellectual property rights, please feel free to contact Black Pepper Books. Upon receiving your complaint, Black Pepper Books shall immediately take steps to evaluate and address your right and your complaint in order to promptly redress the same. If the content is found to be objectionable and violates your legal right or that of an affected party, then Black Pepper Books will take down the content. Without recourse to this procedure, you will have no cause of action against Black Pepper Books or its Directors. In any event, once content is taken down, you will have no claim whatsoever against Black Pepper Books or its Directors in any court of law or forum.
Information You Submit
If you ever have a requirement to register with the Site, you warrant that you will:
Provide all the information required to complete the registration forms on the Site;
Ensure the information you provide is accurate and up to date;
Update and maintain the accuracy of the information you provide;
Only post information and content that is relevant to the members of the Site (please see below under 'Restrictions on your use of the Site' for further details of the restrictions on the type of information and content you can post);
Be fully responsible for all use of your account and for any actions that take place using your account.
Restrictions on Your Use of the Site
You agree that you will not post any content on the Site, transmit any content to others, communicate any content, provide links to any content, or otherwise engage in any activity on the Site or through the Services that:
Impersonates or otherwise misrepresents affiliation, connection, or association with any person or entity;
Discloses any personal or confidential information of any person or organization without first obtaining their consent or solicits another person's personal information for commercial or unlawful purposes;
Solicits or requests personal information from anyone under the age of 18 or solicits passwords for unlawful purposes;
Contains any material which is technically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data, or other malicious software or harmful data);
Promotes racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm against any group or individual;
Promotes or enables illegal or unlawful activities;
Is intended to harass, annoy, threaten, or intimidate any other members or other people or organizations;
Is defamatory, inaccurate, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy, or which may cause annoyance or inconvenience;
Is deliberately misleading or fraudulent;
Contains others' copyrighted content (such as music, videos, photographs, images, etc.) without first obtaining their consent;
Uses the Site or Services for chain letters, junk mail, or spam emails;
Advertises or solicits any member to buy or sell any products or services;
Interferes or disrupts networks connected to the Site or attempts to interfere with the proper functioning of the Site (including imposing an unreasonable load on the technical infrastructure used to operate the Site); or
Contains any material which may infringe or violate any third party's rights.
You may not access or use, or attempt to access or use the Services to take any action that could harm us or any third party. You further agree that you will not attempt (or encourage or support anyone else's attempt) to circumvent, reverse engineer, decrypt, or otherwise alter or interfere with the Services, or any content of the Services, or make any unauthorized use of the Services. In particular, you shall not:
Use the Content for the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system or large language model (LLM) by whatsoever name called.
Use services, software, or any manual or automatic device, tool, or process designed to circumvent any restriction, condition, or technological measure that controls access to the Services in any way, including overriding any security feature or bypassing or circumventing any access controls or use limits of the Site and the Services.
Do or cause to be done any act that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our network or infrastructure.
Your Responsibility
You are solely responsible for, and assume all liability regarding, (i) the information and content you post on the Site; (ii) the information and content you post, transmit, publish, or otherwise make available through the Site; and (iii) your interactions, if any, with other members through the Site.
Removal of Content
Black Pepper Books reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor the information or content you submit to the Site or post in the public areas of the Site. Black Pepper Books has the right to remove any such information or content: (i) that in its sole opinion violates, or may violate, any applicable law, or these terms of use; or (ii) upon the request of any third party.
Security
You agree that you are responsible for keeping your screen name and password for your account secret. You acknowledge that Black Pepper Books is not responsible for third-party access to your account that results from sharing by you or the theft or misappropriation of your screen name and password. Black Pepper Books reserves the right to suspend your access to the Site or terminate your account if Black Pepper Books suspects an unauthorized person is attempting to access it.
Reporting
You agree to tell Black Pepper Books immediately about (i) any violation of these terms of use by others (including but not limited to other members) of which you become aware; and (ii) any known or suspected unauthorized access to your account.
Risks of Using the Site & Services
You assume all risk when using the Site and the Services, including but not limited to, all of the risks associated with any online or offline interactions with others, including browsing. You understand that Black Pepper Books is unable to guarantee the accuracy or completeness of information provided to you by or about other members, and that Black Pepper Books is unable to confirm that any member is who he or she claims to be. Black Pepper Books does not warrant and is not responsible for ensuring that other members are in compliance with these terms of use. You agree to take all necessary precautions when communicating with or meeting individuals through the Site. You understand that Black Pepper Books makes no guarantees or warranties, either express or implied, regarding individuals you meet or confront through the Site or as to the conduct of such individuals.
Members Outside the Republic of India
By registering and creating a member profile, you consent to the wider dissemination of the information you provide in that profile to the other users of the Site, some of whom may be outside the Indian Subcontinent, to allow you to date in an online environment. Black Pepper Books processes and stores your personal information on secure servers, some of which may be situated outside the Indian Subcontinent. If you reside outside the Indian Subcontinent, you expressly consent to the Black Pepper Books processing and storing your personal information for this purpose.
Proprietary Rights
You acknowledge and agree that the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Site and the content provided as part of the Services belong to Black Pepper Books, its partners, and affiliates. No rights, whatsoever, in respect of the Site or the content provided as part of the Services, are granted to you. Any violation of our rights will be visited with severe penalty and claims for damages.
The Services are intended for the User’s personal, non-commercial consumption and use only. All materials published or available on the Services (including, but not limited to all text, photographs, images, illustrations, designs, audio clips, video clips, “look and feel,” metadata, data, or compilations, all referred to as the "Content") are protected by copyright, and owned or controlled by Black Pepper Books solely or in association with third parties or with such other party who are given credit as the provider of the Content. Non-commercial use of the Service shall also include the use of Content only upon obtaining prior written consent Black Pepper Books in connection with: (1) the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system or large language model (LLM); or (2) providing archived or cached data sets containing Content to another person or entity.
Licence to your posted content
By posting information or content to any area of the Site accessible to other members (including without limitation: message boards, forums, and chat rooms), you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to Black Pepper Books and its members an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.
Member Disputes
You are solely responsible for your interactions with other members. Black Pepper Books reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other members.
Disclaimer of warranties
Black Pepper Books is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate content posted on the Site or in connection with the Services, whether caused by users, members, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Site or the Services. Black Pepper Books is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any user or member of the Site or the Services. Black Pepper Books assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, user or member communications. Black Pepper Books is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of email or players on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any web site or combination thereof, including injury or damage to users and/or members or to any other person's computer related to or resulting from participating or downloading materials in connection with the web and/or in connection with the Services. Under no circumstances will Black Pepper Books be responsible for any loss or damage, including personal injury or death, resulting from anyone's use of the Site or the Services, any content posted on the Site or transmitted to members, or any interactions between users of the Site, whether online or offline. Black Pepper Books cannot guarantee and does not promise any specific results from use of the Site or the Services.
The Site and the Services are provided "AS-IS" and Black Pepper Books expressly disclaims any warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Black Pepper Books cannot guarantee and does not promise any specific results from use of the Site or the Services. The Site and the Services may be temporarily unavailable from time to time for maintenance or other reasons. Black Pepper Books assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft, destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, communications by the Site or the Services.
Limitation of Liability
Except in jurisdictions where such provisions are restricted, in no event will Black Pepper Books be liable to you or any third person for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, special or punitive damages, including also lost profits arising from your use of the Site or the Services, even if Black Pepper Books has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, Black Pepper Books’ liability to you for any cause whatsoever, and regardless of the form of the action, will at all times be limited to the amount paid, if any, by you to Black Pepper Books for the Services during the term of membership.
Governing Law and Dispute Resolution
These terms of use shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of India. The courts of Cochin, Kerala, shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes arising under or in connection with these terms of use.
Entire agreement
These terms of use contain the entire agreement between you and Black Pepper Books regarding the use of the Site and the Services. If any provision of these terms of use is held invalid, the remainder of these terms of use shall continue in full force and effect.
No waiver of any term of these terms of use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term. In addition, Black Pepper Books’ failure to enforce any term of these terms of use shall not be deemed as a waiver of such term or otherwise affect Black Pepper Books’ ability to enforce such term at any point in the future.
Black Pepper Books reserves the right to amend these terms of use at any time, with or without notice to you. Your continued use of the Site and the Services following the posting of any changes to these terms of use will signify your acceptance of those changes.
Browser Complaints Policy
If you have any queries about these terms of use, the Site, or the Services, or if you wish to make a complaint, then please contact Black Pepper Books at info@blackpepperbooks.com or address a letter to Black Pepper Books, Panampilly Nagar, Cochin, Kerala State, India, 682036.