Terms and conditions

General Terms and Conditions

Date of last revision: 24 May 2024

These Terms and Conditions (General Terms) set out the terms that apply to:  your participation in the MS Readathon; and your use of the MS Readathon website, resources (printed and digital) and other MS Readathon materials (together, Services).

Your registration in the MS Readathon indicates to MS that you agree with these General Terms, as updated from time to time.

1. Parental Consent – These General Terms apply to parents or guardians of registered MS Readathon participants under 18. It is a condition of use of the Services that any person under the age of 16, participating in MS Readathon, be appropriately supervised by an adult. Where a child is under the age of 12, he or she must only operate or use the Services under the direct supervision of a parent or carer. We may refuse access to the Services  to any child under the age of 16 until we receive permission from their parent or guardian.
2. Respect the MS Readathon Community– Stay respectful by adhering to the following:
   1. You must not collect a user’s content using automated or other means
   2. You must not interfere with our website, upload viruses or other malicious code
   3. You must not bully, intimidate or harass anyone
   4. You must not post any content that infringes or violates someone else’s rights, or otherwise violates the law, or that is discriminatory, hateful, pornographic, threatening or violent
   5. We reserve the right to immediately remove any content, post, comment or other material made by you without any reference to you and without any liability to you.
3. Your information – MS Readathon collects personal information as a part of its fundraising activities; to assist us in complying with our legal and regulatory obligations; and for other related purposes. For these purposes, your information may be shared with the MS  organisation in your state, trusted third parties and our service providers (including their directors, servants and agents), either in Australia or overseas.  By providing any personal information to us and/or being involved in our fundraising activities you consent to the collection of your personal information and the use and disclosure of that information in the manner set out in our Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Policy provides information about how we collect, use and disclose your personal information and your rights in relation to it. If you do not have access to the internet, we will gladly send you a copy of our privacy policy upon request.

Failure to provide personal information may result in us being unable to provide you with certain information and offers.

You may opt out of receiving communications at any time by contacting us via email, phone, mail or Facebook Messenger.

4. Your privacy – MS Readathon and MS staff and volunteers understand and respect your right to Privacy and the confidentiality and security of personal information provided by you. MS will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, interference and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

For further information on Privacy, how we protect your rights and manage personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 please read our Privacy Statement.

5. Teams- If you are signed up to a MS Readathon team or class (Team), and the page indicates as such, MS may share your personal information with the Team captain, in order to enable communication to flow to MS, or to you as an individual.
6. Schools – If you join a MS Readathon school (School), MS may share your personal information with the School contact, in order to enable communication to flow to MS or to you as an individual.
7. Your fundraising– funds raised will be allocated across State based MS organisations to make a direct impact to people living with MS and, in some States, people with other neurological conditions in those States.
8. Content created by MS Readathon– MS owns or licenses from third parties all of the trademarks, copyright, text, graphics, software and other intellectual property that exists in the Services and on this website. You must not copy or reproduce in any form any of the graphics, logos or other materials from our Services unless you have our specific written permission. For the avoidance of doubt, you have our permission to download material from the Resources page on our website, subject to the restrictions noted on that page.
9. Content posted by you - Any content that you post to our Services (e.g. photos, videos and comments) is your responsibility, and you warrant that you have the necessary rights to post that content (e.g. you have obtained permission of copyright owners if necessary or you have obtained permission to use personal information of third parties). By posting any content, you also give MS an irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free worldwide licence to use and reproduce that content.

• Third party copyright infringement– MS follows the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and other relevant copyright legislation as applicable. If you believe that someone else is using your copyright or trademark without your permission, please contact us at msreadathon@ms.org.au to report the infringement.
• Resources MS Readathon provides you– MS takes great care with its Services and we endeavour to keep them accurate, error-free, and free of any offensive material. However, you use the Services at your own risk. MS does not accept responsibility for any expenses, costs or loss suffered by you as a result of your reliance on the accuracy or currency of information contained on this website; and/or your use of our Services. Where this website contains links to other websites, the links are provided for convenience only and MS is not responsible for the content or privacy practices associated with linked website.  You access such linked websites at your own risk.
• Fundraising events or activities– If you choose to host or organise a fundraising event or activity (Event) as part of your MS Readathon campaign, you accept that you are responsible for the organisation and running of the Event, which includes acquiring any necessary permits, permissions and/or insurance, and complying with all legal requirements, required to hold said Event. There may be risks and dangers inherent to an Event, and by choosing to host it you understand and accept that MS will not have any liability in relation to any injury, damage or loss incurred in connection with your Event.
• Participating in a hosted MS Readathon Event– You acknowledge that if you participate in a MS Readathon hosted Event of any sort, you do so at your own risk and that MS will not have any liability in relation to any injury, damage or loss you suffer as a result.
• Campaign period- The MS Readathon campaign opens in June and runs through to 31 December. Any funds received post 31 December will be attributed to the following year’s MS Readathon campaign.
• Cookies – MS Readathon uses first party cookies to collect information about how the website is used. For example: time of visit, duration of visit, methods used to access the website, and pages viewed. Third-party Google cookies are used to enable remarketing and reporting for impression assisted visits, website conversions, user demographics, and user interests. Users can opt out of interest based ads by Google through ads settings: com/settings/ads. Website visitors can opt out of the Google Analytics Advertising Features by downloading a browser add-on: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.
• Limitation of Liability – We are not liable for any loss or damage, however caused (including, but not limited to, our negligence) suffered by you in connection with your use of the Services. If the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or any other legislation states that there is a guarantee in respect of good or services supplied, and our liability for breach of that guarantee may not be excluded but may be limited, our liability for such breach is limited at our sole discretion to, in the case of a supply of goods, replacing the goods or supplying equivalent goods or repairing the goods, or in the case of the supply of services, supplying the services again or paying the cost of having the services supplied again.
• Indemnity – you agree to indemnify us for all damages, losses, penalties, fines, expenses and costs (including legal costs) which arise out of or relate to your use of the Services, any information that you provide to us via this website or any damage that you may cause to the Services. This indemnification includes, without limitation, liability relating to copyright infringement, defamation, invasion of privacy, trade mark infringement and breaches of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).
• Our rights– MS may remove any content posted by you or prevent access by you to our Services at its sole discretion. Any failure by MS to enforce our rights under these General Terms is not a waiver and we remain entitled to enforce our rights.

Governing Law – These General Terms form an agreement between you and MS, and are subject to the laws of the State or Territory in Australia in which you reside.

In these General Terms, ‘MS Readathon’, ‘MS’, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ is a reference to a collective of state based Multiple Sclerosis support organisations (MS) who deliver a national fundraising campaign known as the MS Readathon.  The four organisations are MS Plus LTD (ABN 66 004 942 287), Multiple Sclerosis Queensland Ltd (ABN 56 731 473 412), The Multiple Sclerosis Society of SA & NT (ABN 85 662 359 859) and MSWA (ABN 75 638 080 972).

Disclaimer:

While we have made every attempt to ensure that the information contained in this website has been obtained from reliable sources, MS are not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information.

MS and their respective officers, employees and agents shall have no liability for any costs, losses or damages of any kind, which you may incur, arising either directly or indirectly from your participation in MS Readathon or your use of the Services.

To the full extent permitted by law, the MS disclaims any and all warranties and guarantees, express or implied:

1. regarding the accuracy, reliability, timeliness or otherwise of any information contained or referred to in MS Readathon materials, the MS Readathon website and/or of any linked sites; and
2. regarding the merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose for any service or product contained or referred to in MS Readathon materials, MS Readathon website and/or on any linked sites.
3. that the MS Readathon website , or its server are free of software viruses, the operation of the MS Readathon website will be uninterrupted or error free, or that errors and defects will be corrected.

MS reserves the right to amend these General Terms from time to time, without notice to you and You will be subject to the Terms in force at the time you register for MS Readathon.