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Terms of Use

Please read these terms and conditions carefully before using this website

1. Terms of website use

1.1  Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (“SBT” or “we”) welcome you to www.shakespeare.org.uk (“our site”).  Our site is owned and managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, VAT number: GB670323163. We are a registered charity number 209302. These terms of use (together with the documents referred to in it) tells you the terms on which you may make use of our site, whether as a guest or a registered user. Use of our site includes accessing, browsing, or registering to use our site.

1.2  Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use our site, as these will apply to your use of our site. We recommend that you print or save to your computer a copy of this for future reference.

1.3  By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

1.4  If you do not agree to these terms of use, you should not use our site.

2. Other applicable terms

2.1  Please note that some services offered on our site are subject to additional terms and conditions that supplement or vary these terms of use.  When additional terms apply, it will be stated on the appropriate webpage.  They will include in particular but without limitation:

  • Our Privacy Policy, which sets out the terms on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
  • Our Acceptable Use Policy, which sets out the permitted uses and prohibited uses of our site. When using our site, you must comply with this Acceptable Use Policy.
  • Our Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site.

2.2  If you:

3. Changes to these terms

3.1  We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page.

3.2  Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you.

4. Changes to our site

4.1  We may update our site from time to time, and may change the content at any time. However, please note that any of the content on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update it.

4.2  We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will be free from errors or omissions.

5. Accessing our site

5.1  Our site is made available free of charge.

5.2  We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our site or the services we provide without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

5.3  You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site.

5.4  You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

5.5  All use by you of our site is subject to our Acceptable Use Policy.  You may use our site for your own personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer or sell any content obtained from our website, except for copying, distribution or reproduction that is (i) strictly necessary for any personal or non-commercial educational use or (ii) where such content is identified as being available for use pursuant to the terms of a Creative Commons licence, carried out strictly pursuant to the terms of the applicable Creative Commons licence.

6. Your account and password

6.1  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. You must not disclose it to any third party.

6.2  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 reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

6.3  If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at [email protected].

7. Intellectual property rights

7.1  We are the owner or the licensee of our site and all its contents, and in the material published on it.  All those works are protected by intellectual property rights and other related rights around the world.  All such rights are reserved.

7.2  No part of our website may be reproduced in any form (electronically or otherwise) or used other than as set out in section 5.5 above.

7.3  If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

8. No reliance on information

8.1  The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

8.2  Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up-to-date.

9. Limitation of our liability

9.1  Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.

9.2  To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our site or any content or materials on it, whether express or implied.

9.3  We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

  • use of, or inability to use, our site; or
  • use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.

9.4  If you are a business user, please note that in particular, we will not be liable for:

  • loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
  • business interruption; 
  • loss of anticipated savings;
  • loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or
  • any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

9.5  If you are a consumer user, please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

9.6  We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.

9.7  We assume no responsibility for the content of websites linked on our site. Such links should not be interpreted as endorsement by us of those linked websites. We will not be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

9.8  Different limitations and exclusions of liability will apply to liability arising as a result of the supply of any goods by use to you, which will be set out in our Online Shop Terms and Conditions and in respect of the supply of any tickets to you, which will be set out in our Ticketing Terms and Conditions.

10. Uploading content to our site

10.1  Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload content to our site, or to make contact with other users of our site, you must comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

10.2  You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty.  This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

10.3 Any content you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. You retain all of your ownership rights in your content, but you are required to grant us [and other users of the site] a limited licence to use, store and copy that content and to distribute and make it available to third parties.

10.4 We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any content posted by you or any other user of our site.

10.5 We have the right to remove any posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

10.6 If you are under 16 please get your parent/guardian’s permission before posting any content on our site.

10.7 The views expressed by other users on our site do not represent our views or values.

11. Viruses

11.1 We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

11.2 You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform in order to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

11.3 You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.

11.4 By breaching clause 11.3 above, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

12. Linking to our site

12.1 You may link to any page of our website, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.

12.2 You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

12.3 You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you.

12.4 Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than in accordance with clause 12.1 above.

12.5 We reserve the right to withdraw permission to link to our site without notice.

12.6 The website in which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

12.7 If you wish to make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact [email protected].

13. Third party links and resources in our site

13.1 Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only.

13.2 We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources and you proceed at your own risk.  We do not endorse these websites and we are not liable for the products, services or content you access through any linked site.

14. Applicable law

These terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction, although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breaking these terms of use in your country or any other relevant country.

15. Contact us

To contact us, please email [email protected].

Thank you for visiting our site.

Last updated: December 2022

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