AAA - Terms and conditions

Terms & conditions

We aim to keep our Terms & Conditions as simple as possible. This website is owned and run by brightsolid online publishing (US) Limited ("brightsolid").

Accepting the Terms:

In order to use the services you must first agree to the terms and conditions. You may not use the services if you do not accept the terms and conditions. You accept the terms and conditions by actually using the services.

These Terms & Conditions explain our conditions for you using the aaacrane.com website. By using this website and/or buying something from us you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree with our Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy, you must not use the website.

Our Privacy Policy forms part of these Terms & Conditions, so please also read this. These Terms & Conditions, the Privacy Policy and any other document we refer to in these Terms make up the whole agreement between you and brightsolid online publishing (US) Limited. Some services referred to in this document are not yet available, but should be later this year: your reward for reading this page is to get a glimpse of what else is coming.

What you can use the service for:

You can use the website for your own personal or professional use, e.g., to research your own family history or as a professional genealogist to perform research for you or others. This is subject to our rights to cancel your account for misuse to be determined at our sole discretion. For the purposes of these terms and conditions, a professional genealogist is defined as a sole proprietorship conducting research for clients. We reserve the right to determine if you are a professional genealogist.

Getting access to the records:

You can search the historical records on the website for free, but to view most records or use other features of the website you will need to buy either PayAsYouGo credits or a subscription. You have to register with us and be signed in to buy credits or a subscription. A contract exists between us once we send you a confirmation email, after receiving your order and accepting your payment for a subscription and/or PayAsYouGo credits.

PayAsYouGo credits:

You can buy PayAsYouGo credits from us – these get used up when you view records and can be used to view any record on the website. Credits are only valid for a fixed time limit and will expire if you don’t use them in time – this is made clear on the payment page when you buy them. Some records cost more credits to view than others: you can see how many credits each type of record costs to view.

Registering:

You have to register with us and be signed in to use some features of the website. If you are under 18, don’t register unless you have permission from your legal guardian (usually a parent) to do so. We reserve the right to ask you to provide us with a copy of identification which will verify your age. Keep your sign in details private at all times. You must keep your personal information accurate and up to date, especially your email address.

Personal Data and Payment Security:

By using this website you have agreed that you have read our Privacy Policy with regard to your personal data and credit card information.

Subscriptions:

Different subscriptions give you access to the same set of records for varying durations this is explained on the payment page.

Continuous membership:

When you take out a subscription, it is on a continuous membership basis, meaning that your subscription will automatically renew unless you cancel it. This means that, if you have a 1–month subscription, your contract will be renewed automatically every 30 days, and (unless you cancel your membership for any reason) a payment will be taken prior to each renewal date for the next 30–day contract period. Where we use the term, 'month', this refers a 30–day subscription. You can easily turn off continuous membership at any time from the 'my account' area – we don't make you call us or do anything else horrible. If you do not cancel the continuous membership within five days of the expiry date, we will automatically renew your subscription and will take the next payment two to three days before your current subscription ends. We will send you an email before we take payment. You must opt out of the continuous membership before the expiry date if you do not want your subscription to automatically renew, and we cannot provide refunds for a continuous membership subscription which has been renewed in this way.

Fair usage:

We have a fair usage limit for subscribers but we deliberately set it very high (you can view 5000 records each calendar month if you’re a subscriber). If you get close to the limit, (which is very unlikely), we’ll send you an email to warn you. If you do manage to reach the limit, subscribers will need to wait for the next calendar month to start (when your monthly limit is automatically reset) and those on a Free Trial will need to buy a subscription to view more records.

Free Trial Membership:

You can sign up for a Free Trial which lets you view a selection of the records for a fixed period so you can try before you buy: this requires a credit card. We only allow one Free Trial per household and will stop you taking a Free Trial if we think you've already had one. No payment is taken from your card until your Free Trial comes to an end: you can cancel your Free Trial at any time from the 'my account' area on the website. When you get to the end of your Free Trial, if you have not cancelled by the day before the expiry date, you will automatically become a subscriber to the package your Free Trial was based on, and we will then take your first subscription payment.
Fair usage limits apply. Please see the fair usage section of our Terms and Conditions for more details.

Cancellation and your right to a refund:

If you buy a subscription or PayAsYouGo credits, you can contact us and cancel within seven days of receipt of our confirmation email and we will happily give you a full refund as long as you have not viewed any records. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Intellectual property rights (including copyright) in the records and services we provide:

A large amount of time, money and effort has been expended to make these records and features available online. Many of these records and features have been obtained from other organizations and people. These people or organizations often own the intellectual property rights in the records (the copyright/database rights owner is displayed on most records) and website features. Accordingly, you may not use the records or features to create your own work (for example a database of records), copy or reproduce the records (either in whole or in part), or make available, share or publish them unless you have our permission (and/or that of the owner of the copyright/database rights in the work) in writing. You may however use screenshots of our website for blog postings, articles and presentations for informational and educational purposes. If you are a professional genealogist (as defined above) you may also use the records or features in preparing unpublished reports for clients. The website and services provided belong to brightsolid, and again, you must not copy or use them without our written permission. Therefore, you only have a limited license to access the website and to use the content for personal or professional family history research (including unpublished reports for clients if you are a professional genealogist).

Respecting your intellectual property rights (including copyright):

If you believe that you own the copyright in any of the content on the website, and we have not recognized you as the copyright owner, Please contact us and we will investigate. While we are investigating, we may temporarily remove the records in question. If we agree that you are the copyright owner, we will work with you to find a solution that you agree with, or we will take the record in question off the website permanently. Content created by users: On some parts of the website, you can publish things (including your family tree), make comments or participate on forums. If you do, you must not:

publish something that you do not own the copyright in (or do not have permission from the copyright owner to publish);
include anything we consider offensive, inappropriate or defamatory (at our discretion);
break the law, for example by saying something libelous, or by posting something which results in a criminal offence; or
share the personal information of living people without their permission. You’re responsible for managing content you create, including using privacy settings we make available.

How we use content created by users:

You keep the copyright in any content that you create or publish on the website; however, by publishing it you give us permission to use it for letting others view it on the website, marketing, product improvement and other commercial purposes. If we use any of your personal information (for example your name) in connection with it, we will ask your permission first.

Content you create is available on the internet:

We also make your content available to other users of aaacrane.com, to users of websites that are either part of our company group or with whom we have a partnership, and by internet search engines. If you don’t want this to happen, please do not publish the content. Our family tree has privacy controls that you can use to prevent other people seeing this specific content. Your registration and payment information and private conversations between members are always kept private: read our Privacy Policy for more information on this. We are not liable for any loss you suffer if content you create is abused by somebody else.

Monitoring content created by users:

We do not monitor content published by our users and take no responsibility for things that you publish, so think before you post!

Applicable Laws:

The user agrees to obey all applicable laws and to not infringe any third party privacy or intellectual property rights and only to submit accurate, truthful, non-defamatory and non-offensive content for the website.

Changes to the website or records:

We reserve the right to make changes to the website, including the records and services we offer, without notice; however, we always plan to replace any content you have paid for with a comparable substitute. As a subscriber, you will generally get a lot of new records added to your subscription at no extra cost during the period of your subscription (at our discretion). If we launch a major new collection, on rare occasions this may be charged for separately. We reserve the right to change pricing, make special offers to groups or individuals, or change the number of PayAsYouGo credits charged to view a record.

Service level:

We aim to offer a website which is fast, accurate and performs well. However, it may not always work as expected. If the website does experience issues, we are not responsible for any losses you might suffer.

Accuracy of records and other information provided:

We cannot confirm or give warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the records or other information on the website. We simply provide access to it. We are not responsible for content on other sites that we link to. We cannot promise anything in relation to the content and services on the aaacrane.com website, apart from what is set out in the Terms and Conditions.

Things beyond our control:

Sometimes things happen that disrupt your service which we have no reasonable control over. Examples are fires, floods, strikes, earthquakes, landslides and other unanticipated events or natural disasters. We are not liable for any losses caused to you by such unanticipated events.

Customer support and complaints:

We really believe in Customer Support and always aim to fix problems where we can: quickly and amicably. If you have a question, suggestion or complaint, please contact our Customer Support team first and we’ll do our best to sort it out. VAT: VAT at the current Irish rate is included in the price. We only offer VAT receipts to non-EU customers on personal purchases over $150, with a $25 administration fee. Library users: These Terms & Conditions also apply if you are using a library using credit on the website to access records on behalf of third parties.

When we cancel your account:

We rarely stop people using the website. If you do anything disallowed under these Terms & Conditions, regularly go over the fair usage limit, or we cannot take a payment for a subscription when it is due, we reserve the right to cancel your account. If you persistently offer look ups to other people and provide them with records in an excessive manner, , we, at our sole discretion, reserve the right to stop your access to the website. In all these cases, you will have no right to a refund.

Limitation of Liability:

Except where prohibited by law, in no event will we be liable to you for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental or punitive damages, including lost profits, even if brightsolid has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

If, notwithstanding the other provisions of these Terms and Conditions, we are found to be liable to you for any damage or loss which arises out of or is in any way connected with your use of the website or any content, our liability shall in no event exceed the total money you spent on the website in the twelve calendar months before you made a claim against us.

Indemnity:

You agree to indemnify brightsolid and its officers, directors, shareholders, predecessors, successors in interest, employees, agents, subsidiaries and affiliates, harmless from any demands, loss, liability, claims or expenses (including attorney’s fees) made against brightsolid by any third party due to or arising out of or in connection with your use of the website.

Assignment:

These Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy are personal to you, and you are not allowed to transfer your rights under this agreement to anyone else.

Severance:

The law is constantly changing, so if any part of these Terms & Conditions or Privacy Policy no longer applies or is no longer legally enforceable, then that part will be severed from the rest of the agreement: the rest will continue to apply.

The law:

These terms and conditions are made and governed under the laws of Ireland, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish Courts to resolve any disputes arising from these terms and conditions.

Accepting the Terms:

Changes to this agreement:

Any changes we make to our rights under this agreement must be made in writing and posted under these Terms and Conditions in order to have any effect.