Lulu is a place where people can buy or sell many kinds of content. We feature novels, technical manuals, poetry, articles, photographs, animations, and content that defies easy categorization. In other words, we help people distribute information and art that span a wide range of subject matter. As such, we also set out to provide a safe, friendly, and serious site for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Lulu users range from elementary school kids researching papers to grandparents writing memoirs, from companies publishing technical manuals to authors selling their first novels. Because of this wide market, we plan to steer clear of content that might make the majority of our users squirm.
Our community has another maxim: that we support copyrights, which means that you cannot post content that you don't own or have permission to publish. We take all allegations of copyright violation very seriously. To that end, if you believe that material on Lulu.com violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Lulu via the “Report This Item” button on each piece of content. In the case of a user who may infringe or repeatedly infringes the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Lulu or others, Lulu may, in its discretion, terminate or deny access to and use of the Website. In the case of such termination, Lulu will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to Lulu or owed to the user.
Below, you will find the terms and conditions for participation as a member in Lulu’s community, where you will have rights to be involved in forums and groups, to purchase goods and services, and to publish your works for sale or distribution to others. Please don't hesitate to contact support if you have any questions about the terms of this agreement.
Please read these terms carefully, since your registration and indication of acceptance of these terms creates a binding legal agreement. You accept these terms by checking the box on the registration page. If you choose to accept these terms upon registration, you must do so as they are presented to you; no changes (additions or deletions) will be accepted by Lulu. If you do not accept these terms, you will not be allowed the rights of a member.
The terms and conditions set forth in this document apply to all persons (“you”) who register as members of Lulu's website ("Site"), and constitute a binding, legal agreement ("Agreement") between the User and Lulu Press, Inc. ("Lulu").
Please read the information below carefully. By using the Site as a member, you accept the terms and conditions described below, and you warrant and represent that you have the legal capacity to enter into this Agreement. We encourage you to print and keep a copy of this Agreement for reference.
This Agreement incorporates Lulu’s website Terms of Use, with references to “Agreement” and “terms of use” interpreted as meaning this Agreement. The Terms of Use include provisions relating to rules on community use, privacy, disclaimers, limitations of liability, proprietary rights, applicable law, dispute resolution, and claims of copyright infringement, among other matters. The terms set out here govern in the event of any conflict with the provisions of the Terms of Use.
This Agreement, including the Terms of Use, together with any other terms provided and agreed during the publishing process (if you choose to publish Content) or provided by Lulu in connection with purchase of any particular Content, constitute the entire agreement between us concerning use of the Site and delivery of goods and services by Lulu.
Lulu is a tool to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge in the world. We provide a service to enable Users to publish, and other people to purchase, digital content in on-line, eBook, DVD, CD-ROM, or other electronic or printed formats. Digital content ("Content") may consist of information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages or other materials. We also provide services to our Users, and facilitate our Users’ receipt of other services from third parties.
Content includes messages and other materials that you post to forums, groups, or other locations on the Site that can be viewed by other users of the Site, as well as material that you might submit for publication or other distribution through the Site. When you post Content on Lulu's website through forums or groups, you keep your copyright, but you grant Lulu the nonexclusive right to post, display, copy, and modify that Content in connection with the operation of the Site and Lulu’s business and to sell or otherwise transfer that Content in connection with transfer of operation and/or ownership of the forum, group or other location to which the Content was posted. When you provide Content for publication or sale, you grant Lulu the nonexclusive right to post, display, copy, and sell that Content within the limitations you set during the online publishing process.
If you include any information that could be used to identify you, such as your personal phone number, e-mail address, Social Security number or a government-issued ID number, (collectively "Personal Data") in your Content, it will be included with your Content when you post it in forums or groups or when it is sold. By including Personal Data in the Content you provide, you authorize Lulu to disclose that Personal Data as part of the Content. You may not include Personal Data about other people in your Content.
By uploading or posting Content to the Site you represent and warrant, at all times during the term of this Agreement, that the Content:
As a Lulu community member, you will not transmit or post Content that violates the terms described above. In addition to complying with all restrictions on conduct and Content contained in this Agreement (and the Terms of Use), you are responsible for adhering to all local and national laws that pertain to your location, wherever you are.
Lulu reserves the right to refuse to permit posting of or to remove from the Site any Content or other materials that Lulu, in its sole discretion, deems in violation of this Agreement.
In addition, you represent and warrant that provision of the Content to Lulu for use as described above does not conflict with any arrangements or agreements between you and any other person or entity.
Lulu reserves the right to reserve a portion of the back cover of any published Content for placement of a unique identifying number and barcode (this number will be the Content’s ISBN number, if an ISBN number is purchased by you through the Additional Services Site (as described in Section 4 below)).
You are solely responsible for any Content you upload or post to the Site. Since computers and other equipment (both yours and ours) are subject to occasional malfunction, you agree that you will not hold Lulu responsible for any inadvertent damage to, corruption of or destruction of the Content. Lulu is not responsible for backing up the Content. You are responsible for backing up, on your own computer, all Content. Lulu will not be responsible for archiving or backing-up any Content. If any Content transmitted to Lulu is damaged, lost or corrupted in any way, Lulu will have no obligation or liability to you.
Pre-publishing, marketing, distribution, and other tools and services are available for purchase or for free at http://www.lulu.com/services/ (the “Additional Services Site”).
The tools and services listed under the “Free Marketing Tools” heading on the Additional Services Site and which include a link to a website outside of Lulu.com (“Free Third Party Tools and Services”) are subject to the terms and conditions of such outside website, and Lulu’s terms and policies do not govern. If you decide to leave this Site and access any such outside website or to use any tools or services from such outside websites, you do so at your own risk.
The tools and services listed under the “Community Services Marketplace” of the Additional Services Site are available from independent third party providers (“Community Services Marketplace Tools and Services”), but payment for such tools and services will be made to Lulu and subject to the payment terms and conditions referred to in the Payments section below. Your relationship with a third party supplier will be subject to that supplier’s terms and conditions (other than payment terms and conditions referred to in the Payments section), if any.
The tools and services listed on the Additional Services Site (other than the Free Third Party Tools and Services and the Community Services Marketplace Tools and Services) are available for purchase from Lulu. These tools and services are subject to the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement.
If you wish to publish Content, you should go to our Publishing Portal to initiate the publishing process. You will be able to identify your Content and provide us with various instructions about how the Content should be published and conditions for distribution and sale. You will retain the copyright for your Content, and Lulu will have the rights mentioned above in the section on Content.
During the publishing process in which you provide us with instructions, members are asked to choose the amount of “creator revenue” they will receive for each piece of Content sold. If Lulu sells your Content, and we receive payment, Lulu will pay you the creator revenue amount you have chosen. The customer price will be the price charges by Lulu to those who purchase the Content, exclusive of freight costs and any applicable sales taxes or other government charges. Lulu will set the customer price based on the manufacturing costs, Lulu’s service fee, and the creator revenue you have requested.
Lulu’s applicable service fee will be among the items you will be asked to approve during the publishing process. There is a minimum service fee, which may be waived if you provide your Content free to the public, and special offers or discounts may be available to members who purchase their own Content in bulk.
If you have published and sold Content on the Site, the amount of creator revenue you are owed will be visible in your account under the "My Sales & Creator Revenue" box that appears on the "MY LULU information tab of the Site. You may choose to receive the creator revenue you are due via PayPal or via paper check. Paypal payments may be made in Euros, GBP, or USD. All paper check payments are made in USD.
If you choose to receive your creator revenue via paper check, you will be paid on a quarterly basis. Specifically, no later than 45 days following the end of the calendar quarter, Lulu will make a good faith effort to pay you the creator revenue that accrued during that quarter, using the contact information in our records. If Lulu owes you less than $20 for Content sales within a given quarter, we reserve the right, at our discretion, to roll your revenue forward to the following quarter until $20 is reached.
If you choose to receive your creator revenue via PayPal, you will be paid on a monthly basis. Specifically, no later than 31 days after the end of a calendar month Lulu will make a good faith effort to pay you the creator revenue that accrued during that month, using the contact information in our records. If Lulu owes you less than $5 for Content sales within a given month, we reserve the right, at our discretion, to roll your revenue forward to the following month until $5 is reached. It is your responsibility to update your contact information if it changes. If your account is inactive or terminated and we are unable to contact you using the contact information provided, we may also, at our discretion, charge a termination fee equal to the amount of unpaid creator revenue to cover administrative costs.
In order to use the basic Lulu services you are not required to provide any taxpayer information. If you purchase advanced distribution services Lulu may require you to provide additional taxpayer information as required by the United States Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") for the purposes of information reporting and withholding.
In general, Lulu collects Personal Data when you register with Lulu, when you use Lulu services and when you visit Lulu pages or pages related to the Content posted on Lulu pages. That information is used to fulfill your requests for products and services, to conduct research, to contact you, to contact those who purchase your Content (if you have selected to use the Lulu Thank You Note program) and to improve Lulu services. Lulu endeavors to limit access to your Personal Data to only those Lulu employees, agents and service providers who reasonably need access to complete these purposes. You may view and edit your account information at any time.
Lulu will disclose Personal Data under the following circumstances:
Lulu will transfer your Personal Data to other countries where it does business, but will always treat your Personal Data according to the terms of Lulu's Privacy Pledge.
If you include your Personal Data in Content that you post on the Site, that information may be widely available to other users. Lulu does not exercise any control over those users and cannot guarantee that your Personal Data will be protected as described in Lulu's Privacy Pledge. If you do not want your Personal Data to be displayed as part of the Content you post, then you must delete it prior to posting. Remember, you may not include Personal Data about other people in your Content. You also may not use Personal Data about other Lulu Users in a way that is inconsistent with Lulu's Privacy Pledge. If you do, you will have violated the terms of this Agreement, and Lulu may terminate your membership.
Lulu is not liable for any damage that may be incurred due to use of Personal Data that was made available as part of Content posted on Lulu's site.
Lulu will set and access cookies as described in Lulu’s Privacy Pledge, for the purpose of managing your access to the Site and delivering services to you. Please reference your browser's "Help" menu to learn how to change cookie preferences.
Your Personal Data does not include your Lulu username, and any information you make available through your Public Contact settings. Your Lulu username and Public Contact information may be displayed on the Site to other users.
For a complete description of Lulu's use and disclosure of your Personal Data and for our contact information regarding privacy issues, please review Lulu's Privacy Pledge.
In order to purchase Content, services, or tools on or through the Site, Users must possess either a valid credit card or a PayPal account (https://www.paypal.com). Payment is required at the time that such Content, services or tools are ordered.
Lulu.com Promotional Code Rules & Restrictions
Items that you purchase may be either “print on demand” or “trade print” items. An item that is “print on demand” is manufactured when the order is received. An item that is “trade print” has been manufactured prior to receipt of the order and is sold from inventory.
An item that is “trade print” will include return information on the packing slip that accompanies the items when delivered to you. Generally, trade print items that have been purchased will be accepted for return and refund provided we receive notice of the return within thirty (30) days of purchase. The original shipping and handling charges and any costs associated with the return shipment are not refundable. Returned merchandise must be received by us in its original condition. No COD returns will be accepted. The terms on your packing order will govern if different from the terms of this paragraph.
Items that are “print on demand” will not include a return policy on the packing slip. Print-on-demand Content that has been purchased, whether in electronic or printed format, will be accepted for return only if it is damaged when received by the purchaser. If you receive a book, CD, DVD, or electronic file that is damaged in some way (missing, torn, or loose pages in books, inoperable CD's, etc.), we will be happy to provide a replacement copy. Please notify us by filling out the "report a problem" form from your Order History. Due to the nature of the print-on-demand manufacturing process, it is not economically feasible to accept returns on physical products, so as a practical matter we will not require that damaged physical products actually be returned to us.
Because Lulu provides a creator-controlled publishing tool, Lulu cannot and does not accept responsibility for the quality of the Content hosted and/or purchased (including misspelled words, grammatical errors, factual errors, poor quality pictures, etc.), its formatting, design or overall appearance. The creator approves the visual presentation and content of each item and bears responsibility for its quality and presentation. Lulu's staff does not monitor or check individual Content prior to publication or sale through the Site.
It is important that you correctly complete the information requested in the User Registration form on the Site ("User Information"). In the event that any of your User Information changes in the future, please be sure to promptly update your User Information on the Site. Remember, it is your responsibility to keep current all of your User Information on the Site.
You will have the opportunity to select a username and password during the User registration process. You are solely responsible in all respects for: (a) all use of the Site made using your username and password, and (b) maintaining the confidentiality of your username and password. Only one individual may access the Site at the same time using the same username and password. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your e-mail address, username or password or any other breach of security regarding the Site of which you are aware. Lulu may refuse to grant you a username or password that impersonates someone else, is protected by trademark or other proprietary right law, is vulgar or otherwise offensive, or for any other reason.
When you choose to 'retire' or 'delete' your published Content from Lulu, it will no longer be available or visible to other visitors. If your Content has never sold a copy or been used in a collaborative project, you can delete it from your Project List. The exceptions to your ability to remove Content are as follows:
Lulu does not retain any residual rights to deleted or retired Content other than those outlined above.
If you choose to terminate your membership, the terms above regarding the status of Content you have uploaded remain applicable.
You may terminate your membership by following the “Cancel Account” link on your My Lulu page, or by contacting support with a specific request to do so. The provision of the Terms of Use allowing you to terminate by not using the Site is not applicable to this Agreement. Your request to terminate will become effective within 30 days after receipt of your specific request has been acknowledged by Lulu. If you choose to terminate your membership, the terms of this Agreement regarding any Content you have uploaded remain applicable. All provisions of this Agreement relating to payments, service fees, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and proprietary rights shall survive termination.
Content that you have posted to the Site, other than Content that has been published, will not be deleted or retired as a result of your termination. Lulu will retain any of your Personal Data only for so long as is reasonably required to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, but data retained in backups will be removed only as the backups are purged in the normal course of Lulu’s backup procedures.
If you purchase Content off of the Site (including receipt of free Content), you agree to the following restrictions with respect to such acquired Content and the information contained therein:
With regard to the Disclaimers; No Warranties section of the Terms of Use, notwithstanding the disclaimers of warranties in that section, warranty law varies from state to state and country to country. Some jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of the implied warranty of merchantability on consumer products, and you may also have other rights that vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. To the extent that any implied warranty may apply, the term of such warranty is limited to two months after purchase. Some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts, so the above limitation may not apply to you.
With regard to the Limitation of Liability section of the Terms of Use, some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the limitation or exclusion stated in that section may not apply to you.
Welcome to our community!
Revision date: 14 April 2010
