(ArcherRat.com) Policies

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ArcherRat Publishing operates according to the follwing policies.

Warranties and Guarantees

Files sold by ArcherRat Publishing from this web site are guaranteed to comply with the prevailing standards of the formats in which they are issued and to be readable by the majority of programs or devices designed to read and display them. ArcherRat Publishing, at its discretion, may determine to its own satisfaction that a specific program or device is not suited to the display of ArcherRat Publishing e-books.

ArcherRat Publishing does not guarantee that the files it sells will meet with the approval of or meet the aesthetic needs of their purchasers. Files are sold "as is" from any artistic or aesthetic standard.

ArcherRat Publishing's web site does link to products related to ArcherRat Publishing's line but ordered from and fulfilled by other vendors. Those vendors, rather than ArchereRat Publishing, offer their own warranties for those products. Please familiarize yourself with the warranty policies of any vendor with whom you place an order.

Copyrights and Terms of Use

Every e-book sold by ArcherRat Publishing is copyrighted by one or more creators and carries copyright notices indicating who retains the rights to their contents.

Governing Principle

Obviously, e-books are not identical in the way they are handled to physical books. But the governing principle for ArcherRat Publishing's use of its e-books is for the buyer to treat its use in all ways that are feasible as if it were indeed a physical book.

For instance, a person who buys a physical book can take it wherever he/she goes and read it (pretty much) wherever he/she is. Other people can theoretically read it at the same time as the buyer, but only when standing next to the buyer and reading from the book in the buyer's hands.

The buyer of a physical book can lend it to a friend, but cannot read the book while it is in the friend's temporary possession.

Even though it is physically possible for the buyer to photocopy the book and send that photocopy to someone, it is not legal.

If the buyer chooses to give the purchased book permanently to someone else, the original buyer no longer has the book.

We'll elaborate below, but when the buyer of an ArcherRat Publishing e-book asks the question, "Can I do this with the book?" the answer will usually be clear from thinking about this governing principle.

E-Books and Rights

When ArcherRat Publishing sells an e-book to a customer, what the customer receives is the right to put the e-book on one or more devices that the buyer himself/herself both owns and controls. The buyer does not receive the right to put (or allow to be put) the e-book on devices owned or controlled by others.

Example

Customer Henri Durant buys the e-book titled Snodgrass In Love from ArcheerRat Publishing.

He can put the e-book on:

his own desktop computer
his own laptop computer
his own netbook
his own smartphone
his own dedicated e-book reader
his own internet tablet

And he can have them on all those divices simultaneously

But he can't also put the e-book permanently on the netbook of his son Jean or the smartphone of his wife Nicole. (He may actually legally own those devices, but for all practical concerns they are under the regular or even permanent control of others.)

He can put the book temporarily on the device of Jean or Nicole (but not both simultaneously) for them to read — in effect, loaning them the book. But he may not read the book himself while Jean or Nicole is reading it, and should delete it from their devices when they are finished reading it. If he'd like for Nicole to have her own permanent copy of Snodgrass In Love, he'll have to buy her a copy of the e-book for her own.

Distribution (Making Copies for Others)

The buyer of an ArcherRat Publishing e-book does not receive the right to distribute the e-book. He/she may not:

put it up on a web site for others to download
?e-mail copies to friends
include it on a compilation CD or DVD of e-book materials

... and so on.

Multiple E-Book Formats

ArcherRat Publishing e-books are sold by a number of online vendors and by Aaron Allston at personal appearances. An online vendor will normally sell the book in only one format (for instance, Amazon.com sells it only in .azw format for the Kindle readers), but in some cases copies sold directly by the ArcherRat Publishing site or by Aaron Allston will come in multiple e-book formats — for instance, a CD of An Occurrence at Bifrost Bridge may include the book in ePub, HTML, HTML Help, Mobipocket, and PDF formats.

A customer who receives an e-book in multiple formats may put it on his/her own devices in any or all of those formats.

Example

Henri Durant might have Snodgrasss In Love on his PC in HTML and HTML Help formats, on his Kindle in MobiPocket format, and on his iPhone in PDF format, and on his Android-based internet tablet in ePub format.

Final Thoughts on Copyright

These copyright and distribution guidelines are not unduly restrictive and will help ArcherRat Publishing's owner Aaron Allston and anyone else whose work he publishes to continue to make a living from their work.

Returns

ArcherRat Publishing offers refunds only for:

E-books, sold from the ArcherRat Publishing web site, that cannot correctly be read or displayed by a common reader or device intended for use with the file's format. (ArcherRat Publishing may, before issuing a refund, attempt to supply the buyer with a revised file that can be so read or displayed. If ArcherRat Publishing fails to correct the situation, it will return the purchaser's money. A purchaser accepting such a refund agrees to delete the file in question. If the file is part of an archive consisting of the title in several different formats sold as a single unit, the buyer accepting a refund agrees to delete the archive and all files originally contained within it.)
Physical products (printed books, etc.), sold from this site, that are demonstrably faulty in manufacture.

To request a refund, pleawe contact Aaron Allston.

Customer Information

ArcherRat Publishing does gather data from customers for the purpose of establishing accounts for and delivering merchndise to those customers. Data gathered by ArcherRat Publishing is not shared with any other vendor, site, or entity. Similarly, cookies placed on a customer's computer are for purposes of allowing a sales cart and other e-commerce tools to function; these cookies do not harvest data of any sort.