Terms of Service

These Terms govern the use of cotswoldscode.co.uk and any associated subdomain (collectively, the Site). The Site is operated from England. By creating an account or reading paid material on the Site, the reader accepts these Terms.

1. Adult content

Material on the Site, including After Hours pieces, depicts sexual activity between consenting adults in literary form. The Site is intended only for users who are eighteen years of age or older. By creating an account the user confirms, in a single attestation checkbox at sign-up, that they are at least eighteen. False attestation is grounds for immediate account closure without refund.

All characters appearing in the Site’s prose are fictional and over eighteen. Any resemblance to real persons is coincidental.

2. Membership

The first five chapters are available without an account. All other chapters, and every After Hours companion piece, require a signed-in member account. A single membership opens everything beyond the free chapters. The boundary between free and member chapters, and the terms on which membership is offered, may be revised on notice.

3. Licence to read

Subscribers receive a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive licence to read paid content for the duration of an active subscription. The licence does not include redistribution, public performance, modification, reproduction beyond reasonable personal use, or any commercial use of the material.

4. Intellectual property

All rights, title, and interest in and to the Site and its content, including without limitation all text, prose, chapter material, After Hours material, the wordmark, the device known as the Mark, layout, software, graphics, and the look and feel of the Site, are owned by The Cotswolds Code or licensed to it. Save for the personal licence granted in section 3, no rights are granted to the reader in respect of any of the foregoing.

Use of the name “The Cotswolds Code”, the wordmark, or the Mark, in any commercial context, in any advertising, in any merchandise, or in any other context, without the prior written consent of The Cotswolds Code, is not permitted.

5. Acceptable use

Reader accounts are personal. Account credentials may not be shared with any other person, and a single account may not be used by more than one reader. Automated access by scrapers, bots, or crawlers other than verified search engines is not permitted. Redistribution of paid content, in whole or in part, by any means, is not permitted.

6. Account closure

A member may close their own account at any time by writing to cotswoldscode@gmail.com. On closure, access ends and the account record is handled in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

The Code reserves the right to close any account that materially breaches these Terms, including piracy of paid material, payment fraud, impersonation, misuse of the property’s name or marks, and false age attestation. Closure cancels the subscription and revokes access. No refund is given for closure for breach.

7. Refund policy

Paid content is delivered on access. Outside the rights consumers hold under English law, refunds are not offered for completed subscription periods.

8. Warranty

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Site is provided “as is” and “as available”. The Code does not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, that it will be free from errors or defects, that any defects will be corrected, or that the Site or the servers that make it available are free of viruses or other harmful components.

Nothing in these Terms affects the statutory rights of consumers under English law, including those arising under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

9. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes the liability of The Cotswolds Code for death or personal injury caused by its negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded as a matter of English law.

Subject to the paragraph above, the total aggregate liability of The Cotswolds Code to any one reader, whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, arising under or in connection with these Terms or the use of the Site, is limited to the greater of (a) the total sums paid by that reader to The Cotswolds Code in the twelve months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the liability, and (b) one hundred pounds sterling.

The Code is not liable for any loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of business, loss of anticipated savings, loss of data, loss of goodwill, or any indirect, special, or consequential loss, however arising.

10. Changes to these Terms

These Terms may be revised. Material changes will be notified by email to the address on the member’s account at least fourteen days before they take effect. Continued use of the Site after that date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

11. Privacy

The Site processes personal data in accordance with the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

12. Notices

Notices to The Cotswolds Code under these Terms should be sent by email to cotswoldscode@gmail.com. Notices to a member will be sent by email to the address on the member’s account and will be deemed received twenty-four hours after sending, unless the sender receives an automated delivery failure notification within that period.

13. General

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held by a court or other competent authority to be invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, the validity of the remainder of these Terms is not affected.

No waiver. A failure or delay by The Cotswolds Code to enforce any provision of these Terms does not operate as a waiver of that provision or of any other right.

Assignment. The Cotswolds Code may assign or transfer its rights and obligations under these Terms to any third party at any time without notice to the reader. The reader may not assign or transfer any rights or obligations under these Terms without the prior written consent of The Cotswolds Code.

Third-party rights. A person who is not a party to these Terms has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of these Terms.

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between the reader and The Cotswolds Code in relation to the use of the Site, and supersede any prior agreements or understandings between them in relation to that subject matter.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and any dispute arising under them is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.