Terms and Conditions
These terms and conditions, together with Private Media’s Privacy Policy and any additional terms, conditions, notices and disclaimers displayed elsewhere on our websites and associated digital properties that we own and/or operate from time to time including the website smartcompany.com.au (“SmartCo Media”) govern your use of and access to all SmartCo Media.
“Private Media”, “us”, “we” or “our” means Private Media Pty Ltd (ACN 102 933 362) and/or its related bodies corporate. Private Media is the publisher of SmartCo Media.
Private Media’s terms and conditions for advertisers, subscribers and content partners can be found here.
SmartCompany‘s social media policy can be found here.
1 Introduction
By accessing any SmartCo Media, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions of Use (Terms of Use). Your access to and use of any SmartCo Media is subject to these Terms of Use.
We may change all or part of the Terms of Use at any time. If we do, the new Terms of Use will be posted on SmartCo Media. Your subsequent or continued use of SmartCo Media will constitute your acceptance of any changes. If you object to any changes to the Terms of Use, your only remedy is to immediately discontinue your use of the SmartCo Media.
2 Paid Subscription Terms
2.1 SmartCompany Subscription Service
Private Media offers a subscription service to individuals (Subscribers) who will receive access to certain sections, features and functions of SmartCompany that are not available to non-subscribers.
This clause 2 sets out the terms under which Private Media makes the subscription service available to you.
Subscribers may gain unlimited access to content via paid subscriptions: a subscription fee-based service which gives access to all subscriber services.
2.2 Subscription Types
Monthly
Our “Monthly” subscription is paid in monthly instalments. For each month that your monthly subscription is active, you acknowledge and agree that Private Media is authorised to charge the same credit card or other payment method (Payment Method) as was used for the initial subscription fee in the amount of the then current monthly subscription fee. The monthly renewal subscription fees will continue to be billed to the Payment Method you provided, automatically until cancelled. You must cancel your subscription by either notifying the support team via email at least 10 days before it renews each month, or by going into your account into the ‘manage subscription’ section and clicking the cancellation button at least 3 days before the renewal date in order to avoid billing next month’s subscription fee to the Payment Method you provided.
Refunds cannot be claimed for any partial-month subscription period.
Yearly
Our “Yearly” subscription is paid in annual instalments from the date of activation. For each year that your yearly subscription is active, you acknowledge and agree that Private Media is authorised to charge the same credit card or other payment method (Payment Method) as was used for the initial subscription fee in the amount of the then current yearly subscription fee. The annual renewal subscription fees will continue to be billed to the Payment Method you provided, automatically until cancelled. You must cancel your subscription by either notifying the support team via email at least 10 days before it renews each month, or by going into your account into the ‘manage subscription’ section and clicking the cancellation button at least 10 days before the renewal date in order to avoid billing next year’s subscription fee to the Payment Method you provided.
Refunds cannot be claimed for any partial-year subscription period.
2.3 Registration and security
As part of the subscription registration process, you will select a username and password. You must provide us with accurate, complete and updated registration information. Failure to do so will result in a breach of these Terms of Use.
You must ensure that your username and password remain secure and confidential. You are entirely responsible for all use, activities and charges associated with or arising from any use of your username and password, including unauthorised use of your credit card.
If any misuse of your login details is detected or suspected by Private Media (including the concurrent use of your login details) your subscription may be terminated and you will not be eligible for a refund.
An attempt to log in with a username and password that is already in use will disconnect the other user. You must notify Private Media immediately if you become aware of any unauthorised use of your username and password.
Private Media may monitor the usage of any SmartCo Media via your account and may take any action it seems necessary, including termination of your subscription.
2.4 Price
All prices are in Australian Dollars (AUD) unless otherwise advised.
Private Media reserves the right to change the prices at any time. Private Media will provide you with at least 14 days’ notice if the subscription fee changes from what was stated at the time of activation.
Price changes will take effect from your next billing date after the notice period. If you do not wish to continue your subscription at the revised subscription fee, you may cancel your subscription before the end of your current direct debit pay cycle.
Your Payment Method must be verified before your subscription can be activated. This may result in a $1.00 pre-authorisation charge which appears on your transaction history. This charge is temporary and should be removed within 7 days. If your initial payment authorisation is revoked, your subscription will be terminated.
You agree to promptly notify Private Media of any changes to the Payment Method you provided. It is your responsibility to provide valid payment details, and ensure that your payment details are up to date. You can manage these online through: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/account
3 SmartCo Media Content
You understand and agree that all material, information and data accessed or used by, or provided to you through any SmartCo Media (the SmartCo Media Content) is the intellectual property of Private Media or any relevant third parties from whom Private Media may license that SmartCo Media Content.
You may not modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on any of the SmartCo Media Content (either in whole or in part) unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by Private Media or by the owners of that SmartCo Media Content, in a separate agreement.
You understand that by using the SmartCo Media you may be exposed to SmartCo Media Content that you may find offensive, indecent or objectionable and that, in this respect, you use the SmartCo Media at your own risk.
4 Intellectual Property
Unless otherwise indicated, all intellectual property in SmartCo Media is owned or licensed by Private Media. Subject to these Terms, Private Media grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited licence (Licence) to view and use information directly accessible through SmartCo Media.
You agree that, subject to your use of SmartCo Media in accordance with the limited Licence granted to you, you will not infringe Private Media’s intellectual property in the SmartCo Media and will not modify, copy, republish, frame, distribute or communicate any part of any SmartCo Media or any information contained in it or otherwise use the SmartCo Media in a way which will infringe Private Media’s intellectual property or other rights.
Any of the trademarks or logos displayed on any SmartCo Media may be registered or unregistered marks of Private Media. You may not use these trademarks or logos without the express permission of Private Media. Any unauthorised use of the trademarks or logos is strictly prohibited.
5 User Content
If you upload information or content (User Content) in the course of accessing or using the SmartCo Media, you agree that such User Content will be available to Private Media to use in any manner it thinks fit, subject to applicable provisions of the Private Media Privacy Policy and any legislation, including, without limitation, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). You agree that you will not upload or otherwise provide any User Content which:
- is defamatory, fraudulent, unlawful, threatening, intimidating, harassing, harmful, hateful, abusive, tortious, vulgar, obscene, invasive of another’s privacy, sexist, racist, homophobic, violent, degrading;
- infringes the intellectual or other proprietary interests of third parties;
- impersonates another person or entity, attempts to solicit personal information from another user, contains sexually explicit language or images, advertises or promotes the sale of products or services such as firearms, tobacco or alcohol, adult products and services and any other products or services Private Media considers to be inappropriate;
- contains spam, chain letters, pyramid and other such selling and marketing schemes, computer viruses, computer code, files or programs or other harmful components that are designed to interrupt, destroy, change or limit the functionality of the SmartCo Media or any other computer software, hardware or other electronic equipment, information which in any way impinges on another user’s use or enjoyment of the SmartCo Media or otherwise breaches or encourages other users to breach these Terms;
- violates any law, statute or regulation;
- forges information to disguise the origin of any User Content; and
- encourages or incites any other person to engage in any of the above behaviour.
You grant Private Media a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocably, royalty-free, sub-licensable right to exercise the copyright you have in any User. You also agree to waive any moral rights or similar rights you may have or may acquire in the future in that User Content in favour of Private Media.
7 Limitation of Liability
You agree that Private Media is not liable to you or anyone else for any loss or damage (including, without limitation, any direct, indirect, special or consequential loss) arising as a result of breach of these Terms, in tort (including negligence) or otherwise arising out of, or in connection with:
(a) the use of any SmartCo Media;
(b) the use by Private Media of information provided by you to Private Media through SmartCo Media;
(c) being unable to access SmartCo Media for whatever reason and however arising, including (without limitation) negligence; and
(d) the use of any SmartCo Media password by you or any third party to whom you have made the password available.
Subject to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), Private Media expressly limits its liability for breach of a condition or warranty implied by virtue of any legislation to the following remedies (the choice of which is to be at Private Media’s sole discretion):
(a) in the case of goods, any one or more of the following:
(i) the replacement of the goods or supply of equivalent goods;
(ii) the repair of the goods;
(iii) the payment of the costs of replacing the goods or acquiring equivalent goods; or
(iv) the payment of the costs of having the goods repaired.
(b) in the case of services:
(i) the supply of the services again; or
(ii) the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again.
8 Indemnity
You indemnify Private Media against any action, liability, claim, loss, damage, proceeding, expense (including legal costs) suffered or incurred by Private Media, arising from, or which is directly or indirectly, related to:
(a) your breach or non-observance of any term of these Terms of Use; or
(b) any breach or inaccuracy in any representations or warranties made to Private Media.
9 Suspension or termination of access
Private Media reserves the right to deny you access to, or use of, all or part of the SmartCo Media, without prior notice, if you engage in any conduct that Private Media believes, in its sole discretion violates any provision of these Terms of Use, violates the rights of Private Media or third parties or is otherwise inappropriate.
10 Links
SmartCo Media, including eNewsletters, may contain links to third party websites. The inclusion of a link does not imply that Private Media has endorsed or verified the linked websites. Private Media makes no warranty or representation concerning these links or the linked websites and you enter any third party websites at your own risk. It is your responsibility to review any terms of use or privacy policies relevant to such websites.
SmartCo Media may feature or display third party advertising. The third party advertisers are responsible for the accuracy of all representations made in those advertisements. Neither us, nor our officers, employees, agents or related bodies corporate recommend or endorse the goods or services that may be advertised on any SmartCo Media, nor do they offer the goods or services for sale or make any other representation whatsoever about them. If you choose to order a product or service advertised by a third party on any SmartCo Media, you do so at your own risk.
11 Artificial Intelligence
All use of AI for content creation must be disclosed to the editor of the respective publication when the work is submitted. When published, all AI generated material will include an editorial note to flag it as such.
12 Competitions
Private Media may from time to time run competitions or other promotions on SmartCo Media. These will be subject to additional terms and conditions that will be made known to you at the relevant time.
13 Privacy Policy
We are committed to protecting your personal information and meeting the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act) as amended from time to time. The Private Media Privacy Policy can be viewed here.
14 General
Private Media reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use at any time without notice to you. Your continued use of any SmartCo Media after such change constitutes an agreement by you to abide by the Terms of Use, as amended.
If any of these Terms of Use are invalid or unenforceable, they may be struck out and the remaining Terms of Use will continue to be of full force and effect.
No waiver of any breach of these Terms will be construed as a waiver of any other breach of these Terms.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Victoria, Australia and any claim made by either party against the other which in any way arises out of the Terms will be heard in Victoria and you agree to submit the jurisdiction of those courts.
Privacy
Details on how Private Media complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and how it collects, discloses, holds or uses personal information or other data is available in Private Media’s Privacy Policy as set out on the Private Media’s SmartCo Media at https://www.smartcompany.com.au/privacy/ or as provided to you from time to time. Private Media reserves the right to amend its Privacy Policy as required from time to time.
Our privacy policy can be found here.
General disclaimers
Use of the SmartCo Media is at your risk. None of our affiliates or directors, officers, employees, agents, contributors, third-party content providers or licensors makes any express or implied representation or warranty about, or shall be liable, in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, for any direct, indirect, special or consequential loss, damages or reliance in connection with the SmartCo Media, its use, its content or any products or services (including our products or services). This includes (but is not restricted to) loss or damage you might suffer as a result of any of the following:
- Reliance on the completeness, accuracy, suitability or currency of SmartCo Media or its content (including third-party material and advertisements on SmartCo Media), irrespective of any verifying measures taken by us;
- Failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, failure to correct defects, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus or other harmful component, loss of data, communication line failure, unlawful third-party conduct, or theft, destruction, alteration or unauthorised access to records;
- Accessing any sites or servers maintained by other organisations through links on any SmartCo Media;
- Links are provided for the convenience of users of any SmartCo Media and without responsibility for the content or operation of those sites: unless otherwise stated, linked sites and their products and services are not endorsed by the publishers and your linking to any such site is at your own risk;
- The provision of credit card or other financial information, the failure to complete (or delay in completing) any transaction, or other loss or damage arising from any e-commerce transacted or attempted to be transacted on SmartCo Media;
- Defamatory, threatening, offensive or unlawful conduct of third parties or publication of any materials relating to or constituting such conduct; or
- A breach by the publishers of their privacy policy (other than a wilful breach).
Continued site availability and access
We do not warrant that we will continue to make any SmartCo Media available generally, or at all, and we reserve the right at any time to impose or increase fees for future access to any material appearing on any SmartCo Media. We reserve the right to alter any SmartCo Media at any time, even if it changes the equipment needed to access or use the relevant SmartCo Media or any part of it.
Limitation of liability (if any)
Our total liability to you (if any) for loss, damage or reliance shall be limited to the re-supply of the information or services or payment of the amount paid by you (if any) for accessing the SmartCo Media.
Indemnity
You indemnify us, our affiliates, employees, agents, contributors, third-party content providers and licensors from and against all actions, suits, claims, demands, liabilities, costs, expenses, loss and damage (including legal fees on a full indemnity basis) incurred or suffered by you or by us as a direct or indirect consequence of your accessing, using or transacting on this site or your attempts to do so and any breach by you or your agents of these Terms of Use.
Copyright and intellectual property
The material on this SmartCo Media is protected by copyright under the Australian Copyright Act 1968, and through international treaties, in other countries. Copyright in articles and images appearing on smartcompany.com.au remains with each third-party contributor.
Otherwise all rights (including copyright) in the content and compilation of these web pages are owned or controlled for these purposes, and are reserved, by us:
Private Media Operations Pty Ltd (ABN 98 101 558 847)
PO Box 5239 380 Bourke st
Melbourne Vic 3000
Email: support@smartcompany.com.au
Individuals are authorised to download and view content for their own personal, non-commercial use, and, where enterprise access or a group subscription agreement is in place, shared within the corporate body covered by the enterprise subscription. You must not, without our prior written permission, exploit any of our site materials for commercial purposes. And except as permitted under the act (for example for the services of the Crown or in reliance on one of the fair dealing exceptions, ie. fair dealing for the purposes of research or study) no part of any SmartCo Media may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission.
Linking to SmartCompany
You are welcome to create links from your website to smartcompany.com.au. However, you must not use the SmartCompany logo for this purpose unless you have our permission.
Commenting guidelines
We are a publisher dedicated to helping the Australian business community run successful, flourishing businesses. We welcome respectful debate and conversation around our stories and in order to facilitate a community that keeps conversation professional, considered, tasteful and on topic we have some guidelines for our commenting system. We are committed to publishing comments quickly on our site in the interest of promoting a professional and respectful conversation. We ask in return that our readers behave respectfully to our commenting moderation.
We encourage readers to engage in thoughtful discussion but not to use that opportunity to abuse another person or groups. This includes deliberately antagonising other commenters, insulting authors or directing hatred toward public figures. We reserve the right to choose which comments we deem to be appropriate to be posted and discussed, and which are not. We reserve the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to any SmartCo Media, particularly those which are offensive, make personal attacks on another reader or could expose us to legal action. If you believe you have read an inappropriate or offensive comment please contact us.
We do not guarantee that any comment submitted by any reader will appear or remain on any of the SmartCo Media websites. We reserve the right at any time to restrict access to comments for users with a history of inappropriate behaviour, and the right to close conversations which descend into inappropriate discussion. Opinions expressed in comments published on any SmartCo Media websites should not in any way be interpreted as a reflection or endorsement of our editorial team. They are the opinion of the author of the comment and not the wider organisation.
Please help us to keep the SmartCo Media community respectful and appropriate. We prefer not to have to edit or delete comments on any SmartCo Media, so please help us uphold this code of conduct so we don’t have to.
General provisions
These terms of use are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia. If any part of these terms of use is found to be invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed without affecting the remainder.
These Terms were last updated on 20 November 2024
For further information on using this site, please contact:
Private Media
PO Box 5239 380 Bourke St
Melbourne VIC 3000