Terms & Conditions
for Star-NiE website

Version 1.0 – 23.05.2013

Please read the following terms and conditions carefully. By accessing http://contests.thestar.com.my/nie/ ("NiE Website"), you unconditionally and irrevocably agree to abide by the terms that appear below, whether or not you register an account.

We reserve the absolute discretion to revise any of these terms of use and our Privacy Policy (collectively, "Terms & Conditions") from time to time. The Terms & Conditions govern your use of our NiE Website and all services (including online video broadcast and commenting) that we make available on or through our NiE Website. By using our NiE Website, you agree to be bound by the Terms & Conditions contained herein, whether you are just browsing or whether you are a registered user (i.e. you have completed and submitted the registration form to create a user account). Please stop using our NiE Website if you do not agree to any of the Terms & Conditions.

You may regularly visit our NiE Website for any updates. You can easily determine whether changes have been made by confirming the version date at the top of the Terms & Conditions. Your continued use of our NiE Website represents your unconditional acceptance to these revised terms.

1.0 Registration/Password

1.1 You do not need to give us any information to browse our NiE Website, but in certain circumstances, we do ask you to register with information about yourself so you will receive a better experience or before you can interact with specific functions. Registration on our NiE Website is free.

1.2 To register, you must be 18 year old and above. If you are below the age of 18, please see the directions provided in Section 2.0 below for registration.

1.3 You agree that any information you provide to us about yourself upon registration or at any other time will be true, accurate, up-to-date and complete. We reserve the right to terminate your account and access to our NiE Website if we learn that you have provided false or misleading information.

1.4 When you register to use our NiE Website, you will be asked to create a username and password. You agree not to divulge your password to any other person. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password, and will be fully responsible for all liabilities arising in connection with your password's use (or misuse), whether such use or misuse is with or without your knowledge or approval. If you suspect that someone else knows of or is using your password, you must notify us immediately by emailing us.

1.5 If you forget your password, please follow the instructions in the My Account area to reset your password.

1.6 We have the absolute discretion to cancel your username/password at any time if we suspect it is being used by an unauthorised person.

2.0 Registration for User Below the Age of 18

2.1 If you are under the age of 18, please get your parent or guardian to fill up the registration form to facilitate your account registration process.

2.2 For registered user who is below the age of 18, you will need to obtain your parent or guardian's permission before taking part in any online discussions. You should never reveal any personal information about yourself, such as your address, telephone number and school.

3.0 General use of NiE Website

3.1 You may retrieve and display site content on a computer screen, print individual pages on paper (but not photocopy them) and store such pages in electronic form (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for your personal, non-commercial use.

3.2 Except as expressly set out above, you may not reproduce, modify or in any way commercially exploit any of the content on this site. In particular, you may not do any of the following without our prior written permission:

1. redistribute any of the content (including by using it as part of any library, archive or similar service);
2. remove the copyright or trade mark notice from any copies of content made under these Terms;
3. create a database in electronic or structured manual form by systematically downloading and storing all or any of the site content.

3.3 You acknowledge that "Star-NiE" is our trade mark and that you may not use it without our written permission.

3.4 You agree that you will not use our NiE Website:

1. for commercial purposes or to obtain financial gain without our prior written consent;
2. to send chain letters, junk mail, 'spam', business or bulk communications of any kind;
3. to advertise a company, product or service of any educational establishment except under the terms of a written advertiser agreement that we have entered into with you;
4. in a way, that might reasonably be expected to cause another person's computer systems and/or their communications network to be interrupted, damaged or rendered less efficient;
5. to obtain personal information from other users under the age of 18 or from anyone if such information is gathered deceptively or in a non-transparent way;
6. to obtain passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users;
7. to attempt to impersonate another user; or
8. to harass, threaten or intimidate any user.

3.5 You will be responsible for logging out from your registered account at the end of each session on our NiE Website.

3.6 If you are a user, you agree not to obtain unauthorised access to areas of our NiE Website reserved for registered users.

3.7 If you are aware of anything on our NiE Website which appears to infringe these terms, you agree to contact us immediately.

4.0 Content posted (User Generated Content)

4.1 For the purposes of these terms, "User Generated Content" or "UGC" refers to all data, text, logos, artwork, software, documents, images, photographs and other materials you may upload to our NiE Website including information about yourself, messages posted or comments about education trends, scholarships or other education related content from The Star.

4.2 The Don'ts
Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to voice their opinion regardless of identity, politics, ideology, religion or agreement with other community members, the author of the post or staff members as long as those opinions are respectful and constructively add to the conversation. However, this community does not tolerate direct or indirect attacks, name-calling or insults, nor does it tolerate intentional attempts to derail, hijack, troll or bait others into an emotional response. We reserved absolute discretion to remove these types of comments from the community where warranted. Individuals who consistently or intentionally post these types of comments may be warned online and, if necessary, excluded from the community and/or be reported to the relevant authorities. We've established the following House Rules so that everyone can get the most out of Star-NiE. Please note that these rules apply to rich media submissions such as images, video and audio clips, as well as content associated with you such as avatar images. Examples of comments that are not permitted under our House Rules include, but shall not be limited to:

1. Vulgar/offensive/obscene in nature;
2. Fraudulent, deceptive or misleading;
3. Off topic;
4. Spam (such as the same comment posted repeatedly) or include certain links to other sites;
5. Impliedly or expressly attacks and/or defames any third party;
6. Offensive towards any gender, ethnic, religion, race or culture;
7. Advocating any illegal activity;
8. Describe or encourage activities which could endanger the safety or well-being of others;
9. Promoting particular services, products, or political organizations;
10. Appear to impersonate someone else;
11. Contains disclosure of personal information including name, contact number, address, email and others;
12. Infringing the proprietary rights, copyrights or trademarks of any party;
13. Illegal and/or breaches any regulations or laws currently in force;
14. Are written in anything other than English, Bahasa Malaysia unless expressly stated;
15. Any other comments that the Team deems inappropriate;
16. Advertising or promoting products or websites is not allowed anywhere on Star-NiE. This may include links to:
1. Personal websites or forums;
2. Surveys and questionnaires;
3. Commercial websites or auction sites that mainly exist to sell products.
17. Details of charity or fundraising events
    

    For example, if it's relevant to the debate, it is fine to link to a website that sells an album or book if it helps another user or recommends something they would like. However, posting up links to your own band's album or trying to drive buyers to your e-bay auction or fundraising site may result in your post being removed.

18. Risk breaching copyright law
    

    Copyright law exists to stop someone from plagiarising another's work. It applies to the internet in the same way as it does to TV, books and the press. Breaking copyright law can result in being taken to court.

    Please do not post large chunks of text copied from other sources, as this may be an infringement of copyright. Short quotes to illustrate a point may be permissible, although this is at our discretion.

    If you wish to refer to external sources of information, it's better to include a link to an appropriate external website.

    In addition to this, postings with heavy text speak or unintelligible language such as codes, are also not allowed as this may disrupt the natural flow of conversation.

    Contributing material to Star-NiE community with the intention to commit a crime, break the law, or condone or encourage unlawful activity is strictly prohibited.

    In addition, we may remove posts which we consider could endanger other users - which shall include but not limited to, offering medical and health advice, or encouraging drug or alcohol abuse or self-harm.

19. Contain potentially defamatory statements
    

    Defamation laws exist to protect individuals and/or organisations from unwarranted, mistaken, or untruthful attacks on their reputation.

    Posting a defamatory statement on a blog is the same as publishing it in a newspaper or magazine and can result in legal proceedings being commenced.

    To avoid legal proceedings being commenced, please ensure that you verify the information in your posting as true and accurate, especially when presenting negative statements as facts. Also, avoid jumping to conclusions, exaggerating or making subtle implications. Remember that adding the word 'allegedly' to a statement does not stop it being defamatory.

    Both you and Star-NiE can be held liable if you make a defamatory statement on NiE Website. So we will remove comments where we have insufficient evidence to defend publication of your statement. This means Star-NiE moderators may err on the side of caution when considering some comments.

20. Are abusive or disruptive.
    Abusive or disruptive behaviour is not allowed on NiE Website. This includes:

    1. Using swear words (including abbreviations or alternative spellings) or other language likely to offend.
    2. Harassing, threatening, or causing distress or inconvenience to any person or people.
    3. Flaming: This means posting something that's angry and mean-spirited.
    4. Trolling: This means saying deliberately provocative things just to stir up trouble.
    5. Infringing the rights of, restrict or inhibit anyone else's use and enjoyment of Star-NiE.
    6. Attempting to impersonate somebody.
    7. Using multiple accounts to disrupt boards, annoy users, or to avoid pre-moderation.
    8. Bumping or creating duplicate threads, posting in such a way as to cause technical errors, or any other attempts to disrupt the normal flow of conversation.

Users who seriously or repeatedly demonstrate such behaviour may have their accounts pre-moderated or permanently restricted and will not be allowed to return.

21. Are offensive
    

    Comments that contain offensive content are not allowed on Star-NiE sites. Racist, sexist, homophobic, disabling, sexually explicit, abusive, or otherwise objectionable material will be removed and if extreme will result in immediate and permanent restriction of your account.

22. Are off-topic
    

    Comments that are unrelated to the subject of the article entry to which you are contributing are considered 'off-topic'.

    Please do not contribute off-topic material in subject-specific article, except where an article has designated open post. If your comment has been removed for being off-topic, you may be able to resubmit your comment in a more relevant topic area.

23. Contain personal details
    

    Including contact or identification details in comments such as phone numbers, postal or email addresses is not allowed on most services. Please do not reveal any personal information about yourself or others as it might inadvertently put you or someone else at risk.

24. Risk contempt of court
    

    Once a suspect is arrested for an offence, or offences, legal restrictions apply. Please use caution when discussing reports of an arrest or court proceedings. Even linking to archived news stories, blog entries, and comments may be unlawful as Malaysian contempt law, would usually prohibit any reference to the previous conviction(s) of someone facing new court proceedings.

25. Contain spam
    

    Spamming or flooding is not allowed on Star-NiE sites. Spamming means submitting the same or very similar contribution many times across blogs or entries. Flooding comprises a resubmission of your contribution to the same site multiple times.

    Please do not use a signature beneath your comment to promote websites, services, products, or campaigns. This will cause your posts to be removed as spam.

26. Contain unsuitable URLs
    

    For example you should not link to

    1. Unlawful, unsuitable or sexually explicit content.
    2. Websites that require payment to access.
    3. Foreign language content.
    4. Websites that initiate a file download or require additional software in order to view them. This includes .pdf and .mp3 files.
27. Websites that advertise or promote products
    

    In some cases the moderator will edit out the link/s leaving the rest of the comment visible on the board. If so the link will be replaced by [Unsuitable/ broken URL removed by moderator]

    The Company welcomes feedback, both positive and negative, about our programmes and services but please make sure your comments are in line with the above House Rules.

    Repeatedly posting personal or offensive comments about individual members of the public or people who work for The Company and its group of companies may be considered harassment. We reserve the right to remove such messages and take action against those responsible.

4.3 The Do's

Be yourself, only yourself, and just one of yourself. Every person's opinion is valuable and unique. Pretending to be someone else removes that unique value from you or from others. Don't misrepresent yourself or others, spread misinformation, create multiple accounts or "astroturf" (Where a user pretends to be an objective commentator, but has a vested interest in the subject matter) If you do, you will make the community a less enjoyable and valuable place to be and will be removed when we see it.

This community is a safe space. We strongly believe that Star-NiE should be a safe space for individuals, groups and their ideas. As such, violent and hostile language or calls for violence and hostility are not welcome here. If you directly or indirectly threaten the physical or mental wellbeing of a member of this community, or an individual or group who is the subject of an article, you will be removed immediately. If a credible threat is made against an individual or group, not only will it be removed but it is likely that it will be reported to law enforcement agencies and we will cooperate with them to any extent requested. Personal identifiable information should never be posted to Star-NiE comments section. It never turns out well for anyone. If you see any threats, harassment or personal information trolling please report it quickly.

If you have comments, we are here and we have real people who read and reply.
If you have complaints, questions, concerns, or just feedback - positive or critical - please direct them to starnie@thestar.com.my

4.4 Star-NiE reserves the right to moderate submitted UGC in order to maintain editorial standards and user experience. In this way, Star-NiE will not accept material that:

1. infringes any third party's Intellectual Property Rights ("Intellectual Property Rights" means registered and / or unregistered copyright, database rights, trade marks, design rights and other intellectual and proprietary rights of whatever nature, and all applications for such rights, anywhere in the world);
2. breaches any applicable law;
3. is unlawful, false, unreliable or misleading, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, profane, sexually or racially or ethnically offensive, encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or is otherwise inappropriate in our opinion.
4. disrupts the communications of the online community on our NiE Website.

4.5 By uploading any UGC on Star-NiE website you agree to

1. grant to Star-NiE a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute and communicate to the public such UGC; and
2. you authorise us to adapt such UGC and you agree to waive your moral rights to object to any derogatory treatment, or to be identified as the author, of the material in question.

4.6 In order that Star-NiE can use your UGC, you confirm that your contribution is your own original work and that you have the right to give Star-NiE permission to use it for the purposes specified above, and that you have the consent of anyone who is identifiable in your contribution or the consent of their parent / guardian if they are under 18.

4.7 Star-NiE may share your contribution with trusted third parties. You retain copyright of your UGC. Your permission granted to Star-NiE to use your contribution is not exclusive, so you can continue to use the material in any way including allowing others to use it.

4.8 Star-NiE may need to contact you for further information regarding your submitted UGC. By uploading your UGC on to you grant Star-NiE permission to contact you. For further details of the methods in which we may contact you, please refer to our Privacy policy.

4.9 None of the views expressed in any UGC are the views of Star Media Group Bhd - we are just providing a platform. You acknowledge that all content is the responsibility of the person who posted, emailed or otherwise provided the content to our NiE Website. You acknowledge that by using the NiE Website, you may be exposed to content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable. We are not responsible in any way for any content - and if you post, email, upload or otherwise provide content, you are entirely responsible for it. However, we operate a "take down and notice" procedure. If you believe that any content contravenes the spirit or letter of these terms, please notify us immediately by contacting our Customer Service Hotline at 1300 88 7-8-2-7(S-T-A-R). We will investigate each matter notified to us and will act in our sole discretion.

4.10 If you post content which is found to be in breach of these terms, we reserve the right to deactivate your username and password to prevent you from further access to our NiE Website as a registered user.

5.0 Intellectual Property Rights

5.1 You agree that our NiE Website and all content contained in it are protected by Intellectual Property Rights that either belong to or are licensed to us.

5.2 You acquire no proprietary interest in our NiE Website or content provided by us or others and may not use them in any way except as expressly permitted by these terms.

5.3 You may view, print, download or temporarily store such content for your personal, non-commercial reference without alteration, addition or deletion. You may not otherwise copy, reproduce, retransmit, distribute, publish, commercially exploit or otherwise transfer such Content. You acknowledge that you will not acquire any Intellectual Property Rights by downloading or otherwise using any such content.

6.0 Our Rights

6.1 We have the right in our absolute discretion to alter, edit, remove, suspend or refuse any content without notice, if we consider that the content is objectionable or violates these terms or for any other reason.

6.2 We may preserve or disclose the content and your personal details as well as any content to any third party if such disclosure is necessary:

1. for the purpose of maintaining our NiE Website;
2. by law; or
3. to respond to claims that our NiE Website infringes or restricts the right of any party.

6.3 We may suspend or terminate your access to our NiE Website at any time if you breach any of these terms.

7.0 Warranties

7.1 The contents and information contained in NIE Website are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We expressly disclaim all warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

7.2 You understand and agree that we do not guarantee the accuracy, relevancy or completeness of any information in or provided on or from our NiE Website. We are not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. Our NiE Website is provided for the general information of the general public.

7.3 Your use and participation in our NiE Website and services are solely at your own risk. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from our NiE Website shall create any warranty not expressly made in these terms or imposed by law.

7.4 We make no warranty that our NiE Website will meet your requirements, or that access to our NiE Website will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error free; nor do we make any warranty as to the results that may be obtained from the use of our NiE Website.

8.0 Consent

8.1 Star-NiE seeks to use your personal information only for the purposes of legitimate interests and, with your consent.

8.2 For subscribers, it is a condition of acceptance to the collection, collation, use and/or disclosure of all the personal information by Star-NiE for the purposes of subscribing to the package. By subscribing, you signify your agreement.

8.3 For other individuals, Star-NiE may gather your information during member registrations and business activities. It will be used only for legitimate interests

8.4 We only keep Personal Information for as long as is necessary to satisfy the specified Purposes, for which it was collected. We retain Personal Information in accordance with our own guidelines, procedures and principles and in line with applicable legislation

8.5 We may disclose your Personal Information to other subsidiaries within The Company or to a Vendor (often referred to as the data processor). "Vendor" means in relation to Personal Information any person or entity (other than an employee of The Company) who processes the Personal Information on behalf of The Company. "Processing", in relation to Personal Information means for example obtaining, recording, holding or using the Personal Information in carrying out any operation or set of operations on the Personal Information including organisation, compilation, retrieval disclosure of the Personal Information for verification Purposes. These subsidiaries will treat your Personal Information as confidential, in accordance with all applicable Data Protection legislation and will process such Personal Information only for the Purposes and within the terms set out herein.

8.6 We may disclose your Personal Information if we are required to do so by law or requirement of a competent authority.

8.7 In addition to the above, we may from time to time work on specific initiatives with carefully selected third party companies/organisations (outside of The Company) to share opportunities with you. If we do this, we will inform you at the time of such initiatives that, if you decide to submit any Personal Information, it will be shared with those selected companies/organisations and we will only do so with your prior consent.

8.8 You will always be given the opportunity to consent (opt in) to your information being shared pursuant to above, and the selected companies/organisations will be sufficiently identified to allow you to make an informed decision. If you do consent (opt in) and subsequently visit such companies'/organisations' websites, we cannot control how they use or otherwise process any Personal Information you provide directly to them. We always encourage you to check their sites' terms and conditions and privacy policy before you give out any Personal Information.

8.9 If you do consent (opt in) to receive these communications, you may unsubscribe at any point in the future by contacting Customer Service Hotline at 1300 88 7-8-2-7(S-T-A-R).

Opt In: We will not use your Personal Information for a purpose that has not previously been specified, unless we have previously obtained your consent or unless such purpose is required by law.

Consent to provide Personal Information is not a condition for our selling a product to you, unless the information requested is required to fulfill an explicitly specified and legitimate purpose.

In particular we will generally seek your explicit prior consent (opt in) before sending to you marketing communications.

Unsubscribe: At any time, you can withdraw your consent to our collection, use or disclosure (generally Processing) of your Personal Information or if you have any concerns whatsoever, with regard to the unsubscribe functionality that we make available to you, pursuant to this section, by contacting Customer Service Hotline at 1300 88 7-8-2-7(S-T-A-R).

8.10 If you have previously opted into receiving commercial communications from us, while also becoming a member of our loyalty scheme, should your membership to such scheme comes to an end for whatever reason, we will not take this to imply an automatic request to unsubscribe, and we will assume that we have your continued consent, unless you specifically unsubscribe.

9.0 Compliance with the Law

9.1 The Company has procedures in place in order to receive and respond to enquiries about our policies and practices relating to its handling of Personal Information. Any complaint or enquiry should be made in writing and addressed as shown in section 10.1 below.

9.2 The Company investigates all complaints. Requests will be forwarded to the appropriate personnel. If the complaint is found to be justified, the Company will take appropriate measures to resolve the matter, including, if necessary, amending its policies and practices.

9.3 This Terms & Conditions shall be construed in accordance with the laws of Malaysia and the courts of Malaysia shall have the exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine any matters relating to this Terms & Conditions.

10.0 Contact Us

10.1 If there are any questions or concerns regarding this Terms and Conditions or the consent practices outlined herein, please contact us as follows:

1. Email: starnie@thestar.com.my
2. Mail: Star Media Group Bhd
   Menara Star, 15 Jalan 16/11, 46350 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
3. Customer Service Hotline : 1300 88 7-8-2-7 (S-T-A-R) Monday – Friday (9am to 5.30pm), excluding public holidays
4. Fax : 03 – 7954 1301