(These Terms of Use (“Terms”) were last updated on October 1, 2018)
Plianced’s mission is to keep companies compliant using the Expert Cloud. We enable industry experts to create and share learning content (experts) and industry professionals to enroll in these resources to learn (members). We consider our curated marketplace model the best way to offer valuable learning content to our users. We need rules to keep our platform and services safe for you, us and our members and expert community. These Terms apply to all activities on Plianced website and other related services (“Services”).
If you publish content on the Plianced platform, you must also agree to the Expert Agreement. We also provide details regarding our processing of personal data of our members and experts in our Privacy Policy. If you are using Plianced as part of your employer’s Plianced For Business license, you can consult our PFB Subscription Agreement.
If you live in the United States or Canada, by agreeing to these Terms, you agree to resolve disputes with Plianced through binding arbitration (with very limited exceptions, not in court), and you waive certain rights to participate in class actions, as detailed in the Dispute Resolution section.
Table of Contents
- Accounts
- Course Enrollment and Lifetime Access
- Payments, Credits, and Refunds
- Content and Behavior Rules
- Plianced’s Rights to Content You Post
- Using Plianced at Your Own Risk
- Plianced’s Rights
- Miscellaneous Legal Terms
- Dispute Resolution
- Updating These Terms
- How to Contact Us
1. Accounts
You need an account for most activities on our platform. Keep your password somewhere safe, because you’re responsible for all activity associated with your account. If you suspect someone else is using your account, let us know by contacting our Support Team.
You need an account for most activities on our platform, including to purchase and enroll in learning content or to submit content for publication. When setting up and maintaining your account, you must provide and continue to provide accurate and complete information, including a valid email address. You have complete responsibility for your account and everything that happens on your account, including for any harm or damage (to us or anyone else) caused by someone using your account without your permission. This means you need to be careful with your password. You may not transfer your account to someone else or use someone else’s account without their permission. If you contact us to request access to an account, we will not grant you such access unless you can provide us the login credential information for that account. In the event of the death of a user, the account of that user will be closed.
If you share your account login credential with someone else, you are responsible for what happens with your account and Plianced will not intervene in disputes between our members or experts who have shared account login credentials. You must notify us immediately upon learning that someone else may be using your account without your permission (or if you suspect any other breach of security) by contacting our Support Team. We may request some information from you to confirm that you are indeed the owner of your account.
You must be at least 18 years of age to create an account on Plianced and use the Services. If you are younger than the required age, you may not set up an account. If we discover that you have created an account and you are younger than the required age for consent to use online services (for example, 13 in the US), we will terminate your account. Under our Expert Agreement, you may be requested to verify your identity before you are authorized to submit a content for publication on Plianced.
You can terminate your account at any time. Check our Privacy Policy to see what happens when you terminate your account.
2. Learning Content Enrollment and Lifetime Access
When you enroll to access learning content, you get a license from us to view it via the Plianced website and no other use. Do not try to transfer or resell the content in any way. We grant you a lifetime access license, except when we must disable the content because of legal or policy reasons. To access this content, your user account has to be active.
Under our Expert Agreement, when experts publish content on Plianced, they grant Plianced a license to offer a license to the content to our members. This means that we have the right to sub-license the content to the members who enroll to access this content. As a member, when you enroll in a training, whether it’s a free or paid, you are getting from Plianced a license to view the content via the Plianced website, and Plianced is the licensor of record. Contents are licensed, and not sold, to you. This license does not give you any right to resell the content in any manner (including by sharing account information with a purchaser or illegally downloading the content and sharing it on torrent sites).
In legal, more complete terms, Plianced grants you (as a member) a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and view the content and associated information for which you have paid all required fees, solely for your personal, non- commercial, learning purposes through the Services, in accordance with these Terms and any conditions or restrictions associated with a particular content or feature of our Services. All other uses are expressly prohibited. You may not reproduce, redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, create derivative works of, sublicense, or otherwise transfer or use any content unless we give you explicit permission to do so in a written agreement signed by a Plianced authorized representative. This also applies to content you can access via any of our APIs.
We generally give a lifetime access license to our members when they enroll to access a content. However, we reserve the right to revoke any license to access and use contents at any point in time in the event where we decide or are obligated to disable access to a content due to legal or policy reasons, for example, if the content you accessed is the object of a copyright complaint, or if we determine it violates our policies. The lifetime access is not applicable to add-on features and services associated with a content, for example translation captions of contents may be disabled by experts at any time, and an expert may decide at any time to no longer provide training assistance or Q&A services in association with a content. To be clear, the lifetime access is to the training content but not to the expert.
Experts may not grant licenses to their contents to members directly and any such direct license shall be null and void and a violation of these Terms.
3. Payments, Credits, and Refunds
When you make a payment, you agree to use a valid payment method. If you aren’t happy with your content, you can contact Plianced for a refund or request to access different learning content.
3.1 Pricing
The prices of contents on Plianced are determined based on the terms of the Expert Agreement and our Pricing Policy.
We regularly run promotions and sales for our new contents and certain contents will be available at discounted prices for a set period of time. Any discounted price or promotion offered for a particular content may vary depending on the membership level and if you are enrolled through your employer’s business access account.
If you are a member located in a country where use and sales tax, goods and services tax, or value added tax is applicable to consumer sales, we are responsible for collecting and remitting that tax to the proper tax authorities. In certain countries, the price you see may include such taxes.
3.2 Payments
You agree to pay the fees for content that you purchase through your member account, and you authorize us to charge your debit or credit card on file or process other means of payment (such as direct debit, or mobile wallet) for those fees. Plianced works with third party payment processing partners to offer you the most convenient payment methods in your country and to keep your payment information secure. Check out our Privacy Policy for more details.
If your payment method on file or given by you fails and you still get access to the content, you agree to pay us the corresponding fees within thirty (30) days of notification from us. We reserve the right to disable access to any content for which we have not received adequate payments.
In some cases, we may issue credits to your account. You have the option to apply these credits towards your next content purchase or other services on our website. Credits may expire if not used within the specified period and have no cash value.
3.3 Refunds and Credits
If the content you purchased is not what you were expecting, you can request, within 15 days of your purchase of the content, that Plianced credit/refund your account. We reserve the right to apply a credit or a refund, at our discretion, depending on capabilities of our payment processing partners or the platform from which you purchased your content. No credit or refund is due to you if you request it after the 15-day guarantee time limit has passed.
As detailed in the Expert Agreement, experts agree that members have the right to receive these credits or refunds.
At our discretion, if we believe you are abusing our credit/refund policy, we reserve the right to ban your account and to restrict all future use of the Services. If we ban your account or disable your access to a content due to your violation of these Terms, you will not be eligible to receive any credit or refund.
4. Content and Behavior Rules
You can only use Plianced for lawful purposes. You’re responsible for all the content that you post on our platform. You should keep the reviews, questions, posts and other content you upload in line with the law and respect the intellectual property rights of others. We can ban your account for repeated or major offenses. If you think someone is infringing your copyright on our platform, let us know.
You may not access or use the Services or create an account for unlawful purposes. Your use of the Services and behavior on our platform must comply with applicable local or national laws or regulations of your country. You are solely responsible for the knowledge of and compliance with such laws and regulations that are applicable to you. You may not access our Services if you are from a territory where U.S. businesses are prohibited from engaging in business (such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, or Syria) or if you have been designated a Specially Designated National, Denied Person, or Denied Entity by the U.S. government.
If you are a member, the Services enable you to ask questions to the experts and to post reviews of content. Do not post or submit anything that is not yours.
If you are an expert, you can submit content for publication on the platform and you can also communicate with the members who have accessed your content. In both cases, you must abide by the law and respect the rights of others: you cannot post any question, answer, review or other content that violates applicable local or national laws or regulations of your country. You are solely responsible for any content and actions you post or take via the platform and Services and their consequences. Make sure you understand all the copyright restrictions set forth in the Expert Agreement before you submit any content for publication on Plianced.
If we are put on notice that your content violates the law or the rights of others (for example, if it is established that it violates intellectual property or image rights of others, or is about an illegal activity), or if we believe your content or behavior is unlawful, inappropriate, or objectionable (for example if you impersonate someone else), we may remove your content from our platform. Plianced complies with copyright laws. Check out our Intellectual Property Policy for more details.
Plianced has discretion in enforcing these Terms. We may terminate or suspend your permission to use our platform and Services or ban your account at any time, with or without notice, for any violation of these Terms, if you fail to pay any fees when due, upon the request of law enforcement or government agencies, for extended periods of inactivity, for unexpected technical issues or problems, or if we suspect that you engage in fraudulent or illegal activities. Upon any such termination we may delete your account and content, and we may prevent you from further access to the platforms and use of our Services. Your content may still be available on the platforms even if your account is terminated or suspended. You agree that we will have no liability to you or any third party for termination of your account, removal of your content, or blocking of your access to our platforms and services.
If one of our experts has published a content that infringes your copyright or trademark rights, please let us know. Under our Expert Agreement, we require our experts to follow the law and respect the intellectual property rights of others. For more details on how to file a copyright or trademark infringement claim with us, see our Intellectual Property Policy.
5. Plianced’s Rights to Content You Post
You retain ownership of content you post to our platform. We’re allowed to share your content to anyone through any media, including promoting it via advertising on other websites.
The content you post as a member or expert (including training content) remains yours. By posting content, you allow Plianced to reuse and share it, but you do not lose any ownership rights you may have over your content. If you are an expert, be sure to understand the content licensing terms that are detailed in the Expert Agreement.
When you post comments, questions, reviews, and when you submit to us ideas and suggestions for new features or improvements, you authorize Plianced to use and share this content with anyone, distribute it and promote it on any platform and in any media, and to make modifications or edits to it as we see fit. In legal language, by submitting or posting content on or through the platforms, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, and distribute your content in any and all media or distribution methods (existing now or later developed). This includes making your content available to other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with Plianced for the syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication of content on other media. You represent and warrant that you have all the rights, power, and authority necessary to authorize us to use any content that you submit. You also agree to all such uses of your content with no compensation paid to you.
6. Using Plianced at Your Own Risk
Any experienced professional can use Plianced to create and publish content and we enable experts and members to interact for training and consulting. Like other platforms where people can post content and interact, some things can go wrong, and you use Plianced at your own risk.
Plianced enables experienced industry experts to create and share training content. We host thousands of content units on our online curated marketplace. Our platform model means we do not review or edit every content unit for legal issues, and we are not in a position to determine the legality of this content. We do not exercise any editorial control over the contents that are available on the platform and, as such, do not guarantee in any manner the reliability, validity, accuracy or truthfulness. If you access learning content, you rely on any information provided by the expert at your own risk.
By using the Services, you may be exposed to content that you consider offensive, indecent, or objectionable. Plianced has no responsibility to keep such content from you and no liability for your access or enrollment in any content, to the extent permissible under applicable law. This also applies to any contents relating to health, wellness and physical exercise. You acknowledge the inherent risks and dangers in the strenuous nature of these types of contents, and by accessing these contents, you choose to assume those risks voluntarily, including risk of illness, bodily injury, disability, or death. You assume full responsibility for the choices you make before, during and after your access of any content.
When you interact directly with a member or an expert, you must be careful about the types of personal information that you share. We do not control what members and experts do with the information they obtain from other users on the platform. You should not share your email or other personal information about you for your safety.
We do not hire or employ experts nor are we responsible or liable for any interactions involved between experts and members. We are not liable for disputes, claims, losses, injuries, or damage of any kind that might arise out of or relate to the conduct of experts or members.
When you use our Services, you will find links to other websites that we don’t own or control. We are not responsible for the content or any other aspect of these third-party sites, including their collection of information about you. You should also read their terms and conditions and privacy policies.
7. Plianced’s Rights
We own the Plianced platform and Services, including the website, present or future apps and services, and things like our logos, API, code, and content created by our employees. You can’t tamper with those or use them without authorization.
All right, title, and interest in and to the Plianced platform and Services, including our website, our existing or future applications, our APIs, databases, and the content our employees or partners submit or provide through our Services (but excluding content provided by experts) are and will remain the exclusive property of Plianced and its licensors. Our platforms and services are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of both the United States and foreign countries. Nothing gives you a right to use the Plianced name or any of Plianced trademarks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features. Any feedback, comments, or suggestions you may provide regarding Plianced or the Services is entirely voluntary, and we will be free to use such feedback, comments, or suggestions as we see fit and without any obligation to you.
You may not do any of the following while accessing or using the Plianced platform and Services:
- access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the platform, Plianced’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of Plianced’s service providers.
- disable, interfere with, or try to circumvent any of the features of the platforms related to security or probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any of our systems.
- copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, reverse assemble, or otherwise attempt to discover any source code of or content on the Plianced platform or Services.
- access or search or attempt to access or search our platform by any means (automated or otherwise) other than through our currently available search functionalities that are provided via our website, mobile apps, or API (and only pursuant to those API terms and conditions). You may not scrape, spider, use a robot, or use other automated means of any kind to access the Services.
- in any way use the Services to send altered, deceptive, or false source-identifying information (such as sending email communications falsely appearing as Plianced); or interfere with, or disrupt, (or attempt to do so), the access of any user, host, or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, or mail-bombing the platforms or services, or in any other manner interfering with or creating an undue burden on the Services.
8. Miscellaneous Legal Terms
These Terms are like any other contract, and they have boring but important legal terms that protect us from the countless things that could happen and that clarify the legal relationship between us and you.
8.1 Binding Agreement
You agree that by registering, accessing or using our Services, you are agreeing to enter into a legally binding contract with Plianced. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not register, access, or otherwise use any of our Services.
If you are an expert accepting these Terms and using our Services on behalf of a company, organization, government, or other legal entity, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so.
These Terms (including any agreements and policies linked from these Terms) constitute the entire agreement between you and us (which include, if you are an expert, the Expert Agreement and the Pricing Policy).
If any part of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable by applicable law, then that provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of these Terms will continue in effect.
Even if we are delayed in exercising our rights or fail to exercise a right in one case, it doesn’t mean we waive our rights under these Terms, and we may decide to enforce them in the future. If we decide to waive any of our rights in a particular instance, it doesn’t mean we waive our rights generally or in the future.
The following sections shall survive the expiration or termination of these Terms: Sections 2 (Course Enrollment and Lifetime Access), 5 (Plianced’s Rights to Content You Post), 6 (Using Plianced at Your Own Risk), 7 (Plianced’s Rights), 8 (Miscellaneous Legal Terms), and 9 (Dispute Resolution).
8.2 Disclaimers
It may happen that our platform is down, either for planned maintenance or because something goes down with the site. It may happen that one of our instructors is making misleading statements in their course. It may also happen that we encounter security issues. These are just examples. You accept that you will not have any recourse against us in any of these types of cases where things don’t work out right. In legal, more complete language, the Services and their content are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We (and our affiliates, suppliers, partners, and agents) make no representations or warranties about the suitability, reliability, availability, timeliness, security, lack of errors, or accuracy of the Services or their content, and expressly disclaim any warranties or conditions (express or implied), including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We (and our affiliates, suppliers, partners, and agents) make no warranty that you will obtain specific results from use of the Services. Your use of the Services (including any content) is entirely at your own risk. Some jurisdictions don’t allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so some of the above exclusions may not apply to you.
We may decide to cease making available certain features of the Services at any time and for any reason. Under no circumstances will Plianced or its affiliates, suppliers, partners or agents be held liable for any damages due to such interruptions or lack of availability of such features.
We are not responsible for delay or failure of our performance of any of the Services caused by events beyond our reasonable control, like an act of war, hostility, or sabotage; natural disaster; electrical, internet, or telecommunication outage; or government restrictions.
8.3 Limitation of Liability
There are risks inherent into using our Services, for example, if you access any health and wellness content, and you injure yourself. You fully accept these risks and you agree that you will have no recourse to seek damages against even if you suffer loss or damage from using our platform and Services. In legal, more complete language, to the extent permitted by law, we (and our group companies, suppliers, partners, and agents) will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, punitive, or consequential damages (including loss of data, revenue, profits, or business opportunities, or personal injury or death), whether arising in contract, warranty, tort, product liability, or otherwise, and even if we’ve been advised of the possibility of damages in advance. Our liability (and the liability of each of our group companies, suppliers, partners, and agents) to you or any third parties under any circumstance is limited to the greater of one hundred dollars ($100) or the amount you have paid us in the twelve (12) months before the event giving rise to your claims. Some jurisdictions don’t allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, so some of the above may not apply to you.
8.4 Indemnification
If you behave in a way that gets us in legal trouble, we may exercise legal recourse against you. You agree to indemnify, defend (if we so request), and hold harmless Plianced, our group companies, and their officers, directors, suppliers, partners, and agents from an against any third-party claims, demands, losses, damages, or expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from (a) the content you post or submit, (b) your use of the Services (c) your violation of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any rights of a third party. Your indemnification obligation will survive the termination of these Terms and your use of the Services.
8.5 Governing Law and Jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, USA without reference to its choice or conflicts of law principles. Where the “Dispute Resolution” section below does not apply, you and we consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of federal and state courts in New York City, New York, USA.
8.6 Legal Actions and Notices
No action, regardless of form, arising out of or relating to this Agreement may be brought by either party more than one (1) year after the cause of action has accrued.
Any notice or other communication to be given hereunder will be in writing and given by registered or certified mail return receipt requested, or email (by us to the email associated with your account or by you to legal@3.220.87.170).
8.7 Relationship Between Us
You and we agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, contractor, or agency relationship exists between us.
8.8 No Assignment
You may not assign or transfer these Terms (or the rights and licenses granted under them). For example, if you registered an account as an employee of a company, your account cannot be transferred to another employee. We may assign these Terms (or the rights and licenses granted under them) to another company or person without restriction. Nothing in these Terms confers any right, benefit, or remedy on any third-party person or entity. You agree that your account is non-transferable and that all rights to your account and other rights under these Terms terminate upon your death.
9. Dispute Resolution
If there’s a dispute, our Support Team is happy to help resolve the issue. If that doesn’t work and you live in the United States or Canada, your options are to go to small claims court or bring a claim in binding arbitration; you may not bring that claim in another court or participate in a non-individual class action claim against us.
This Dispute Resolution section applies only if you live in the United States or Canada. Most disputes can be resolved, so before bringing a formal legal case, please first try contacting our Support Team.
9.1 Small Claims
Either of us can bring a claim in small claims court in (a) New York City, New York (b) the county where you live, or (c) another place we both agree on, as long as it qualifies to be brought in that court.
9.2 Going to Arbitration
If we can’t resolve our dispute amicably, you and Plianced agree to resolve any claims related to these Terms (or our other legal terms) through final and binding arbitration, regardless of the type of claim or legal theory. If one of us brings a claim in court that should be arbitrated and the other party refuses to arbitrate it, the other party can ask a court to force us both to go to arbitration (compel arbitration). Either of us can also ask a court to halt a court proceeding while an arbitration proceeding is ongoing.
9.3 The Arbitration Process
Any disputes that involve a claim of less than $10,000 USD must be resolved exclusively through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. A party electing arbitration must initiate proceedings by filing an arbitration demand with the American Arbitration Association (AAA). The arbitration proceedings shall be governed by the AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules, Consumer Due Process Protocol, and Supplementary Procedures for Resolution of Consumer-Related Disputes. You and we agree that the following rules will apply to the proceedings: (a) the arbitration will be conducted by telephone, online, or based solely on written submissions (at the choice of the party seeking relief); (b) the arbitration must not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses (unless we and you agree otherwise); and (c) any judgment on the arbitrator’s rendered award may be entered in any court with competent jurisdiction. Disputes that involve a claim of more than $10,000 USD must be resolved per the AAA’s rules about whether the arbitration hearing has to be in-person.
9.4 No Class Actions
We both agree that we can each only bring claims against the other on an individual basis. This means: (a) neither of us can bring a claim as a plaintiff or class member in a class action, consolidated action, or representative action; (b) an arbitrator can’t combine multiple people’s claims into a single case (or preside over any consolidated, class, or representative action); and (c) an arbitrator’s decision or award in one person’s case can only impact that user, not other users, and can’t be used to decide other users’ disputes. If a court decides that this “No class actions” clause isn’t enforceable or valid, then this “Dispute Resolution” section will be null and void, but the rest of the Terms will still apply.
9.5 Changes
Notwithstanding the “Updating these Terms” section below, if Plianced changes this “Dispute Resolution” section after the date you last indicated acceptance to these Terms, you may reject any such change by providing Plianced written notice of such rejection by mail or hand delivery to: Plianced Inc. Attn: Legal, 54 W 40th St, New York, NY 10018, or by email from the email address associated with your Account to: legal@3.220.87.170, within 30 days of the date such change became effective, as indicated by the “last updated on” language above. To be effective, the notice must include your full name and clearly indicate your intent to reject changes to this “Dispute Resolution” section. By rejecting changes, you are agreeing that you will arbitrate any dispute between you and Plianced in accordance with the provisions of this “Dispute Resolution” section as of the date you last indicated acceptance to these Terms.
10. Updating These Terms
From time to time, we may update these Terms to clarify our practices or to reflect new or different practices (such as when we add new features), and Plianced reserves the right in its sole discretion to modify and/or make changes to these Terms at any time. If we make any material change, we will notify you using prominent means such as by email notice sent to the email address specified in your account or by posting a notice through our Services. Modifications will become effective on the day they are posted unless stated otherwise.
Your continued use of our Services after changes become effective shall mean that you accept those changes. Any revised Terms shall supersede all previous Terms.
11. How to Contact Us
The best way to get in touch with us is to contact our Support Team. We’d love to hear your questions, concerns, and feedback about our Services.