Terms & Conditions

Website and Forum

Terms of Use, Refund Policy and Privacy Policy

1. Terms of Use

1.1. This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you theTerms of Useon which you may make use of our website www.vdec.com.au (“our site“) as an unregistered or registered user.

1.2. Please read these Terms of Use carefully before you start to use our site. By using our 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, please refrain from using our site.

2. Information about us

2.1. www.vdec.com.au is a site operated by David E Clarke Pty Limited(“We”). We can be contacted at our main address: Veterinary Dental Education Centre, 81 Belgrave – Hallam Road, Hallam, Victoria, Australia, 3803; or see Contact Us for further details.

3. Accessing our website

3.1. Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis based on a complimentary membership, a student membership and anannual membership fee and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

3.2. From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our site, or our entire site, to users who have registered with us.

3.3. You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.

3.4. The site contains a number of documents and videofiles. To download a document stored in this way you mayneed to ensure that the Adobe Acrobat Reader software is installed on your computer. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free atwww.adobe.com.

3.5. The V.D.E.C site uses a cookie as part of its restricted access system. This cookie holds minimal information to uniquely identify you as a site user. Once active this cookie does not gather any personal information from your interaction with the V.D.E.C site or any other site, nor does it collect information from your operating system or hard drive. No information is sent from the cookie to any other party including V.D.E.C or stored in a database or by any other means. The cookie is only accessible by www.vdec.com.au. The cookie is destroyed when you exit your browser. For further information concerning how we treat your data see ourPrivacy Policy.

4. Acceptable use policy

4.1. You may use our site only for lawful purposes.

4.2. You may not use our site:

4.2.1. In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;

4.2.2. In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;

4.2.3. For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm animals minors or any legal entity in any way;

4.2.4. To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam);

4.2.5. To knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

4.3. You may not reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of any of our Terms of Use.

4.4. You may not access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:

4.4.1. Any part of our site;

4.4.2. Any equipment or network on which our site is stored;

4.4.3. Any software used in the provision of our site;

4.4.4. Any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.

4.5. Where we do provide any interactive service, we will provide clear information to you about the kind of service offered, if it is moderated and what form of moderation is used (including whether it is human or technical).

4.6. We will do our best to assess any possible risks for users from third parties when they use any interactive service provided on our site, and we will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to use moderation of the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in the light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on our site, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a user in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not.

4.7. Where we do moderate an interactive service, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator, should a concern or difficulty arise.

5. Registered Users

5.1. This section 5 applies only to Registered Users.

5.2. 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, and you must not disclose it to any third party. 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 opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms of Use.

5.3. Registered users may not use our site to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with the following content standards:

5.3.1. These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site (contributions), and to any interactive services associated with it;

5.3.2. You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole.

5.4. Contributions must:

5.4.1. Be accurate (where they state facts).

5.4.2. Be genuinely held (where they state opinions).

5.4.3. Comply with applicable law in any country from which they are posted.

5.5. Contributions must not:

5.5.1. Contain any material which is defamatory of any person;

5.5.2. Contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;

5.5.3. Promote sexually explicit material;

5.5.4. Promote violence;

5.5.5. Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;

5.5.6. Infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;

5.5.7. Be likely to deceive any person;

5.5.8. Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;

5.5.9. Promote any illegal activity;

5.5.10. Be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;

5.5.11. Be likely to harass, upset, embarass, alarm or annoy any other person;

5.5.12. Be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;

5.5.13. Give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case;

5.5.14. Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

6. Suspension and termination

6.1. We will determine, at our discretion, whether there has been a breach of sections 3, 4 or 5 through your use of our site. When a breach of this policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.

6.2. Failure to comply with sections 3, 4 or 5 constitutes a material breach of the Terms of Use upon which you are permitted to use our site, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

6.2.1. Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site;

6.2.2. Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our site;

6.2.3. Issue of a warning to you;

6.2.4. Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach;

6.2.5. Further legal action against you;

6.2.6. Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.

6.3. Subject to section 11.2 below, we exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of sections 3, 4 or 5. The responses described in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

7. Uploading material to our site

7.1. Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload material to our site, or to make contact with other users of our site, you must comply with sections 3, 4 or 5. You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you indemnify us for any breach of that warranty.

7.2. Any material you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary, and we have the right to use, copy, distribute and disclose to third parties any such material for any purpose. We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any material posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.

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

7.4. We have the right to remove any material or posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, such material does not comply with the content standards set out in sections 3, 4 or 5.

7.5. Should you find any content on our site which you feel is in contravention of the standards set out in sections 3, 4 or 5, please inform us by emailing [email protected] and explain your concern.

8. Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright

8.1. We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it (including the design, arrangement and look). Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

8.2. The ‘Veterinary Dental Education Centre’, ‘V.D.E.C.’ and any related logos are some of our registered trademarks. Nothing contained in this site shall give by implication or otherwise any right or licence to anyone to use any of our trademarked work or related logos.

8.3. You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to material posted on our site.

8.4. You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text outside the education of staff directly employed by you.

8.5. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on our site must always be acknowledged.

8.6. You must not use any part of the materials on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

8.7. 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.

9. Reliance on information posted

9.1. Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

9.2. These pages contain general information only. Nothing in these pages constitutes clinicaladvice. You should consult or refer to a suitably qualified dentalspecialiston any specific clinical problem or matter.

9.3. V.D.E.C.makes no warranties, representations or undertakings about: any of the content of our site (including, without limitation, any as to the quality, accuracy, completeness or fitness for any particular purpose of such content); or any content of any other web site referred to or accessed by hypertext link through this web site.

10. Changes to our site

10.1. We aim to update our site regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

11. Our liability

11.1. The material displayed on our site is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the extent permitted by law, we, our officers, employees, consultants and members hereby expressly exclude:

11.1.1. All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.

11.1.2. Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our site, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for:

11.1.2.1. Loss of income or revenue;

11.1.2.2. Loss of business;

11.1.2.3. Loss of profits or contracts;

11.1.2.4. Loss of anticipated savings;

11.1.2.5. Loss of data;

11.1.2.6. Loss of goodwill;

11.1.2.7. Wasted management or office time;

11.1.2.8. For any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable, provided that this condition shall not prevent claims for loss of or damage to your tangible property or any other claims for direct financial loss that are not excluded by any of the categories set out above.

11.2. Nothing in these Terms of Use affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

12. Information about your visits to our site (cookies)

12.1. We process information about you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

12.2. V.D.E.C uses cookies on its website. Cookies are small files of letters and numbers which help identify an individual user while they are using a specific website. These cookies are used for analytical purposes as well as allowing user identification to be carried across pages and areas of the site.

12.3. V.D.E.C.uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics sets a cookie in order to evaluate your use of the website and compile reports for us on activity on the site. To reject or delete this cookie, please visit:http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.

12.4. By agreeing with these terms and conditions you are consenting to the use of these cookies by, and on behalf of, V.D.E.C and these cookies will be placed on your device. It is possible in all browsers to manually clear cookies at any time through tools or settings.

13. Privacy of Information

13.1. Use of V.D.E.C. members’ details for mass mailing, advertising, invitations or any other commercial use without the express permission of the V.D.E.C. is illegal. Those found mailing without authorisation will be liable for penalties.

13.2. If you would like to reach V.D.E.C. members directly though mailings please contact [email protected] to discuss list rental activities.

14. Transactions concluded through our site

14.1.Contracts for the supply of goods formed through our site or as a result of visits made by you are governed by V.D.E.C.Terms and Conditions of Supply.

15. Viruses, hacking and other offences

15.1. 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.

15.2. By breaching this provision, 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.

15.3. We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses 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 material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

16. Linking to our site

16.1. You may link to our home page, provided you give V.D.E.C.notice of such link by sending an e-mail to [email protected] provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but 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.

16.2.You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.

16.3. Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in sections 3, 4 or 5.

16.4.If you wish to make any use of material on our site other than that set out above, please address your request to [email protected].

17. Links from our site

17.1. V.D.E.C.is not responsible for the content or reliability of any websites linked to from its site, and cannot accept liability for any damage or loss arising from reliance on such websites. Links to third party information are provided for your information only and should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

18. Jurisdiction and governing law

18.1. The Australian courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to our site although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country.

18.2.These Terms of Use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law ofAustralia.

19. Variations

19.1. We may revise these Terms of Use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we have made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these Terms of Use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.

20. Your concerns

20.1. If you have any concerns about material which appears on our site, please contact [email protected]

21. Refund policy

21.1. V.D.E.C., subscription service provides the following refund policy:

21.1.1. Within 7 daysof the purchase of your V.D.E.C. subscription, you may cancel your account via the clearly-marked contact form, under the “Contact” section above, and we will refund the full amount you paid upon request;

21.1.2. No refunds are provided after the first 7 days, and we do not provide pro-rata refunds for cancelled accounts;

21.1.3. After the initial refund period expires, V.D.E.C. will continue to charge you an annual subscription rate unless you cancel your account via the clearly-marked “Cancel” link within your VDEC account. This will happen on the same day of the subsequent year that you initially joined;

21.1.4. We will send notification on the day your credit card is charged to the email address you provide us.

21.2. Please Note: The above refund policy does not apply to our live events conferences or workshops.

22. Comment Guide

22.1. At V.D.E.C. we welcome thoughtful and civilised discussion. The V.D.E.C. editorial team reserves the right to edit or delete comments as we see fit, without explanation.

22.2. When commenting follow these simple guidelines:

22.2.1. Use your real name and email address on any forms and in the forums;

22.2.2. Add smart, relevant ideas that expand on our article’s premise, make sure you read the article in full before you comment;

22.2.3. Useful, constructive criticism will always be welcome;

22.2.4. Comments are monitored and may not be posted or may be deleted after they are posted;

22.2.5. Any comments that include the following will be deleted and your subscription or access to V.D.E.C. removed;

22.2.6. Keywords and/or your business name in the name field of the comment;

22.2.7. Comments that demonstrate you didn’t read, watch, or listen to the content;

22.2.8. Off-topic personal or professional rants;

22.2.9. Threats to us or other visitors;

22.2.10. Any form of defamation;

22.2.11. Racist or obscene nastiness;

22.2.12. Violation of anyone’s copyright, trademark, etc.;

22.2.13. Promotions about and/or links back to your product, service, or latest venture;

22.2.14. Spam.

22.3. All rights reserved: For any comment, we reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark it as spam. We also reserve the right to block any IP address that violates this comment policy from commenting, subscribing, or accessing V.D.E.C.

22.4. Links: If you must include a link in your comment, please be aware that your comment may not be approved for posting. Be patient. Relevant links that contribute to the conversation need to be approved. Obvious attempts to promote your business, gain backlinks, traffic, or other types of self-promotion are not allowed.

22.5. Liability: By posting a comment, you agree that your contribution is your own and that you take responsibility for it. You agree to hold V.D.E.C., all post authors, and other commenters harmless.

22.6. Copyright: If we receive authentic notice that a comment is in violation of anyone’s copyrighted information, the comment will be deleted and the commenter may be blocked from posting comments in the future.

23. Privacy

23.1. At V.D.E.C. we take our commitment to protecting your privacy and the security of our website very seriously.

23.2. Any information you provide is captured and processed by V.D.E.C.

23.3. We are based in Hallam, Victoria, Australia and operate under the Australian Privacy Act, which states that your personal information cannot be shared, nor forwarded to anyone, at any time, without your permission.Therefore, V.D.E.C., offers the same level of protection for your information, including the security of the database on which your information is stored and the privacy of your information that is best practice.

23.4. As an individual user, or clinic, please note that the Internet as a whole is not a secure forum. Exercise caution whenever disclosing information on any website.And, in the Forums, only write what you would be happy for the world to read