PORTAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE

Welcome to the Northern Leadership Academy ("NLA") Web Portal ("Portal"). The Portal is operated by the NLA; a collaboration between Lancaster University, the University of Liverpool and the University of Leeds. The NLA is based at the Lancaster Leadership Centre, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster, LA1 4YX.

These terms and conditions ("Terms") govern your ("you" or "your") use of the Portal which we, NLA ("we" "us" or "our") operate from the URL "www.northernleadershipacademy.co.uk". By using the Portal you agree to be bound by these Terms irrespective of whether or not you register or take out a membership with us. If you do not agree with any part of these Terms, you should not access or use the Portal.

Membership Description and Usage

The Portal affords you the opportunity to access numerous management and leadership resources in a digital format. All of our visitors are welcome to browse the Portal free of charge. We can also offer premium content for individuals who become members of the portal and meet specified criteria.

We reserve the right to transfer premium content access rights.

Membership may also withdraw if the service does not continue.

Use of the Portal

You may access and use the Portal for your personal, non-commercial use only. Certain aspects of this Portal are open to you only if you register with us or take out a membership (please see above), these may include, as the Portal develops, chat areas, bulletin boards or forum facilities ("Forums") and certain academic texts. Personal, non-commercial use means that you may:

• retrieve and display the content of the Portal on a screen;
• print copies of the content for your own personal use; and
• store the content in electronic form (except that you may not store it on any server or other storage device connected to a network).

You may not use this Portal or its contents:

• in any way not in accordance with the above;
• for resale purposes including the systematic extraction and/or re-utilisation of any part or the contents of this Portal (e.g. graphics, articles);
• to download (other than page caching) or modify the Portal, or any portion of it;
• to interfere with or disrupt any network or web site connected to this Portal or gain unauthorised access to other computer systems;
• to interfere with the enjoyment or use of the Portal by any other person;
• for any purpose which is unlawful.

In addition you may not in relation to this Portal:

• use any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools;
• use any framing techniques to enclose the trade marks, logos and other proprietary images, text, layouts and formats which we use on the Portal;
• use any meta tags or any other "hidden text" which uses our name or trade marks;
• decompile, reverse-engineer or disassemble any part of the Portal or its contents or any software used in connection with the Portal;
• disrupt, modify or interfere in any way with the Portal or its associated software, hardware and servers. You agree not to alter or tamper with any information or materials contained within or associated with the Portal;
• when using the Forums, impersonate any other Portal user or Portal host.

Use of the Portal does not give you permission to link to it or to use any of the trade marks, designs, get-up and/or logos contained within it. Should you wish to link to the Portal please contact the portal admin team at  nlaadmin@liv.ac.uk . 

All rights not expressly granted in these Terms are reserved unless otherwise agreed.

NLA's Intellectual Property

This Portal and its content including all text, graphics, logos, images, data compilations and software used in connection with this Portal, is our property or that of our contributors, licensors and suppliers and is protected by copyright, trademarks, database rights and other intellectual property rights. Use of these intellectual property rights is forbidden unless the prior permission of the owner has been obtained.

Availability and Connectivity

Whilst we make every effort to ensure the Portal is available at all times, the nature of the Internet means we cannot guarantee this will always be the case or that the Portal will be fault or error free. If a fault occurs, please report to the portal admin team at nlaadmin@liv.ac.uk 

Occasionally we may suspend or restrict access to the Portal to allow us to carry out essential updating, maintenance and repairs. In these circumstances, we will endeavour to restore your access to the Portal as soon as possible.

The availability and connectivity of this portal is subject to  continued funding and we reserve the right to suspend the service indefinitely if the portal is no longer financially viable.

Liability

The content on this Portal is provided in the interests of furthering the knowledge and skills of our visitors and others and is provided in good faith. However, the content should not be taken as specific advice and you should ensure that you obtain appropriate professional advice wherever necessary. You are advised to verify the accuracy of the Portal content before relying upon it. Some of our content, including but not limited to information, products, services or graphics, is supplied to us by independent authors. Anybody who contributes to our Portal is asked to sign a statement verifying that their work is original, accurate and complete, and does not contain anything likely to cause offence, although we cannot verify this. The Portal is provided "as is" and is for general information purposes only. Whilst we have taken every care in the preparation of the content of the Portal we cannot guarantee that it is complete, accurate, reliable or error-free. We disclaim all warranties and representations (ie statements which provide assurance that information is true) as to the accuracy of the Portal, or the information, content, products or services included on the Portal. We will not be responsible for any errors or omissions or for any technical difficulties you may experience with the Portal.

We shall not be liable to any person for any amount or kind of loss or damage which may arise from:

(a) this Portal;

(b) the use or misuse, inability to use, or results of use of this Portal;

(c) any websites linked to this Portal or any material on such websites;

(d) your downloading of any material from this Portal or any websites linked to this Portal;

(e) viruses that may affect your computer equipment, software, data or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing this Portal.

We will only be liable to you for losses which are caused by our own negligence and which are foreseeable by both you and us as a consequence of us breaching these Terms.

Any reliance that you place on the information contained on this Portal is strictly at your own risk. We shall not be liable for any commercial or business losses (including, but not limited to, loss of revenue, profits, contracts, anticipated savings, wasted expenditure, data or goodwill and business interruption) nor any losses that were not caused by any breach of these Terms by us.

Our liability to you under these Terms will not exceed the total price paid by you to NLA in membership fees for the current year, or £100, whichever is the lesser.

Nothing in these Terms excludes our liability to you for:

(a) death or personal injury caused by negligence;

(b) fraud;

(c) misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter (eg price, length of contract or service description);

(d) any liability which it would be illegal for us to exclude, or attempt to.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we provide you with this Portal on the basis that we exclude all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill) which but for this notice might have effect in relation to this Portal.

Failure of either party to exercise a right or remedy under these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or remedy.

NLA database

NLA maintains a database of suppliers of management and leadership courses ("Database"). We do not recommend or endorse the courses listed in the Database; this is provided in good faith for information purposes only. We recommend that you verify the accuracy of any information contained in the Database before relying upon it. Should you notice any information which you believe to be inaccurate, false or misleading in the Database, please contact us and we will endeavour to investigate this. The information contained within the Database is provided to us by these suppliers and we can not accept any responsibility for its accuracy and completeness.

Third Party Sites

The Portal may include links to third party web sites ("Third Party Site(s)") from time to time whose practices may differ from those of NLA. You acknowledge and agree that we will not be responsible for the availability of such Third Party Sites and will not be responsible or liable for any content or services available from such Third Party Sites. You should check the privacy statements and terms and conditions of use of Third Party Sites accessible from this Portal. If you access those websites, you leave this Portal, and access the Third Party Sites at your own risk. The inclusion of links to Third Party Sites does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within those Third Party Sites.

Visitor contributions

Other than personally identifiable information, which is covered under our Privacy Policy, any material you transmit or post to this Portal shall be considered non‑confidential and non-proprietary. We shall have no obligations with respect to such material. NLA shall be free to pass this information to third parties.

In posting material, you are deemed to warrant that it is original and that you have full right and consent to provide it to us. Any material you post on the Portal is not private and by posting such material you grant NLA a perpetual royalty-free non-exclusive licence to use, reproduce, modify, translate, transmit, distribute and sub-licence it, in any medium now in existence or hereinafter developed, for any purpose, including commercial uses. We accept no responsibly for safe custody of such material.

You may not post or transmit to or from this Portal (including, but not limited to, the Forums, chatrooms and bulletin areas), any material which:

• is threatening, libellous, defamatory, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive or insulting (generally or to other Portal users), pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or which may cause annoyance, harassment or inconvenience; or
• for which you have not obtained all necessary licences and/or approvals or which violates the intellectual property or other rights of any third party; or
• which constitutes or encourages conduct that could be considered a criminal offence, could give rise to civil liability or is otherwise contrary to the law of, or infringes the rights of any third party in, the UK or any other country in the world; or
• which is technically harmful (e.g. a virus, Trojan horse or other harmful component or data); or
• which relates to any ongoing or pending trial.

You agree to indemnify NLA and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, advertisers, partners, agents and representatives and hold them harmless from any and all claims, demands and liabilities (including legal fees) that may arise from your submissions to this Portal, provision of content, unauthorised use of material obtained through this Portal, breach of these Terms or any other such acts arising from your use of this Portal which may violate the rights of another person or party.

Due to the large amount of comments and reviews on the Portal, it is not always possible for us to check each one, but we do reserve the right to amend or remove any material which breaches these Terms. We also reserve the right to review, edit, move or delete any material submitted by Portal visitors, in our sole discretion and without notice. If you do see any content which you believe violates the principles set out above, please inform us as soon as possible.

NLA does not endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with the comments, opinions or statements posted by Portal visitors. This material is the view and responsibility of those individual authors and does not necessarily represent the view of NLA. We accept no responsibility for any offence caused by such materials.

We shall fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity or locate anyone posting any material in breach of these Terms.

Registration

Registration as an NLA member is via the NLA Portal site. In response to your e-mail request, an e-mail is sent to the e-mail address given containing a secure NLA link requesting further details. Once these details are provided and the terms and conditions accepted, membership will be granted and access given to membership sections of the Portal.

Each registration is for a single user only. We do not permit you to share your user name and password with any other person nor with multiple users on a network.

Responsibility for the security of any passwords issued rests with you.

If you wish to unregister please email nlaadmin@liv.ac.uk

Right to cancel

You have the right to cancel your membership of the Portal at any time up to 24 hours following membership being granted. You can do so by e-mailing the admin team, within the cancellation period, at nlaadmin@liv.ac.uk 

Alterations to these Terms

We reserve the right at any time to make changes to these Terms and such other policies as we may notify you of. You will be subject to the policies and terms and conditions in force at the time you use the Portal or order items from the Portal therefore you should review this notice from time to time.

Other conditions

Additional services on this Portal may require you to read and accept other terms and conditions as and when prompted.

General

These Terms do not confer any benefit on a third party under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. We reserve the right at any time to suspend or terminate your access to the Portal. If any of these Terms are deemed invalid, void or unenforceable for any reason, they will be deemed severable and not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions. To fulfil our obligations to you under these Terms we communicate with you by e-mail and by posting notices on the Portal. You agree to receive communications from us electronically and that electronic communications will satisfy any legal requirement for communications to be in writing.

This Portal is directed at visitors who access it from the United Kingdom and as such nothing in these Terms affects their statutory rights, either as consumers or otherwise. We do not represent that this Portal and its contents are appropriate for use in jurisdictions outside the United Kingdom. If you choose to access this Portal from locations outside the United Kingdom you are confirming that you are responsible for complying with local laws if and to the extent they apply.

Waiver

If you breach these Terms and we take no action we will still be entitled to use our rights and remedies in other situations where you are in breach.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and we both agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in relation to these Terms or any issues arising out of your use of the Portal.

Our Details

Northern Leadership Academy
Lancaster Leadership Centre
Lancaster University Management School
Lancaster LA1 4YX 

Portal Development:
Portal Administration Manager
University of Liverpool
Management School
Chatham Street
Liverpool L69 7ZH

Last updated: 19 June 2008