TERMS OF SERVICE – RIVERS OF ANCESTRY

Effective Date: 24^th September 2025

Welcome to Rivers of Ancestry. By accessing or using our website and services, you agree to the following terms. Please read them carefully.  If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our website or services.

Part A of these terms comprises our standard trading terms.  Part B sets out the terms of use of this website.

We amend these terms from time to time. Every time you wish to use our website or services, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time.

 PART A | OUR SERVICES

SERVICES

Michael Hart trading as Rivers of Ancestry provides personalized family history writing and related research services.

We set out below the terms on which we will provide these services in relation to projects that may be agreed between us and you.  The scope of work for any such project will be agreed upon between you and us prior to starting any project.

Once the scope of work is agreement, an agreement is formed between you and us which includes that scope of work, the terms of supply set out below in this Part A, and any other matters we may agree at the time.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

When using our services, you agree to:

-       Provide accurate and complete information needed for research and writing.

-       Ensure that you have the right (including any Intellectual Property Rights, defined below) to share any personal or family data you provide.

Use our work for personal and non-commercial purposes only, unless otherwise agreed in writing. If you fail to do these things, then we may be unable to provide the services to you in a timely manner or at all.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

All the Intellectual Property Rights in written family histories, research materials, and associated material created by us remain owned by us until final payment is received from you for our services.

Upon receiving this final payment, we assign those Intellectual Property Rights to you. However, we do not waive our moral rights in these materials, including our right of attribution.

For this purpose, Intellectual Property Rights means patents, rights to inventions, copyright and related rights, moral rights, trademarks and service marks, business names and domain names, rights in get­up goodwill and the right to sue for passing off or unfair competition, rights in designs, rights in computer software, database rights, rights to use, and protect the confidentiality of, confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets) and all other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications and rights to apply for and be granted, renewals or extensions of, and rights to claim priority from, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or in the future in any part of the world.

PAYMENTS AND GST

Payment terms will be communicated and agreed before work begins. Projects may require a deposit. All fees are non-refundable once work has commenced.

You must pay our invoices strictly within seven (7) days.

If GST is payable, or notionally payable, on a supply made under or in connection with the supply of our services to you, then the party providing the consideration for that supply must pay as additional consideration an amount equal to the amount of GST payable, or notionally payable, on that supply (GST Amount).

Subject to the prior receipt of a tax invoice, the GST Amount is payable while the other consideration for the supply is provided.

If a tax invoice is not received prior to the provision of that other consideration, the GST Amount is payable within ten (10) days of the receipt of a tax invoice. This principle does not apply to the extent that the consideration for the supply is expressly stated to be GST inclusive, or the supply is subject to reverse charge.

PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

We respect the sensitivity of family information.

We will comply with all applicable privacy legislation and our Privacy Policy in relation to any personal information that you share with us.

We will only use that personal information to the extent necessary to supply the services to you.

Upon conclusion of our services, we will generally collect all your personal information and store it on a USB stick or similar medium.  Upon receipt of final payment from you, we will provide this USB stick to you and destroy all copies of that personal information held by us. Thus, we are not responsible for retaining or holding any such personal information once our services have been provided.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

While we strive for accuracy, we do not guarantee the completeness or absolute accuracy of genealogical research. We are not liable for any errors, omissions, or interpretations made from our work.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable laws:

-       other than your obligation to pay our service charges, each party’s maximum aggregate liability to the other party for all loss, cost, damage or expense incurred by any person under or in relation to the supply of our services will in in no circumstances exceed the amount actually paid by you to us in respect of the relevant services.

-       neither party is liable in any circumstances for any consequential, special or indirect loss in relation to the supply of the services or their subject matter.

WHERE WE ARE EXCUSED FROM PERFORMANCE

We are not liable for any claim or loss, cost, damage or expense by you under or in relation to our failure to perform, defect or delay in performing the services to the extent that failure, defect or delay is caused or contributed to by one or more (or a combination) of the following:

-       your any act or omission.

-       your failure or delay to provide any material or information requested by us for the purpose of providing the services, or any error or defect in that material or information.

TERMINATION

Either you or we may suspend or terminate the agreement for the acquisition or supply of the services by giving the other person seven (7) days’ notice, if we or you (as relevant) breach these terms.

If that agreement is terminated any reason, then the parties are not otherwise required to perform their respective obligations under that agreement, but without limiting either party’s accrued rights and obligations under it.

PART B | WEBSITE TERMS OF USE

These are the terms of use of this website.  You may use the website only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these terms.

BASIS ON WHICH THIS WEBSITE IS PROVIDED

This website is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, and we make no representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the operation or availability of the website.

The content on our website is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely.

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

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our website, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You must not use any part of the content on our website for commercial purposes without our prior consent.

You must not conduct, facilitate, authorise or permit any text or data mining or web scraping in relation to our website or any services provided via, or in relation to, our website for any purpose, including the development, training, fine-tuning or validation of AI systems or models.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Where our website contains links to other sites (including banner advertisements and sponsored links) and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and you access third party websites entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for those websites.

USER CONTRIBUTIONS

This website may include information and materials uploaded by other users of the website, including to comment threads. This information and these materials have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by other users on our website do not necessarily represent our views or values.

This website may contain comment threads, personal web pages or profiles, forums, bulletin boards and other interactive features (collectively, Interactive Services) that allow users to post, submit, publish, display or transmit to other users or other persons (post) content or materials (collectively, User Contributions) on or through the website.

Any User Contributions you post on the website must in their entirety comply with all applicable federal, state, local and international laws and regulations.

Any User Contribution you post to the website will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. You retain all of your ownership rights in your content, however by providing any User Contribution on the website, you grant us the right to use, reproduce, modify, perform, display, distribute and otherwise disclose to third parties any such material.

We have the right to remove, refuse to post or take any action with respect to any User Contributions for any or no reason in our sole discretion. If you wish to complain about information and materials uploaded by other users, please contact us.

VIRUSES

We do not guarantee that our website will be secure or free from bugs or viruses or any other type of malicious code or software.

You are responsible for configuring your technology to access our website. You should use your own antivirus software.

LINK TO OUR WEBSITE

You may link to our home page, provided you do so 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 such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

Our website must not be framed or mirrored on any other website, nor may you create a link to any part of our website other than the home page.

We may withdraw linking permission without notice.

LIABILITY

In no event will we be liable for damages of any kind, under any legal theory, arising out of or in connection with your use, or inability to use, our website, any websites linked to it, any content on our website or such other websites or any services or items obtained through our website or such other websites, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages, including but not limited to, personal injury, pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of revenue, loss of profits, loss of business or anticipated savings, loss of use, loss of goodwill, loss of data, and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.

Nothing in this clause affects any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. Where our liability cannot be excluded, we limit our liability to the fullest extent permitted by the Australian Consumer Law.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold us, our affiliates, licensors and service providers, and each of their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors and assigns, harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses or fees (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to your violation of these terms or your use of the website, including, but not limited to your User Contributions, your use of any information obtained from the website and any use of the website’s content, services and products other than as expressly authorised in these terms.

GOVERNING LAW

Part A and Part B of these Terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia.  Each of you and us submit the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Queensland, and Courts with authority to hear appeals from them.

CONTACT US

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us at:

Michael Hart, trading as Rivers of Ancestry
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +61 434 950 400