Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

These Terms of Service govern access to www.valoismedia.com, VMH customer accounts, the Library, VMH Lumière, digital downloads, purchase reconciliation, forms, product pages, and related services. By using the Services, creating an account, or completing a direct purchase, you agree to these Terms and the incorporated Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, and Editorial Standards.

2. Definitions

“VMH,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Valois Media Holdings as operated by CSC. “Services” means the website, accounts, Library, VMH Lumière, downloads, purchase reconciliation, communications, and related functionality. “Content” includes books, source texts, annotations, editorial material, illustrations, covers, software, data, and site materials.

3. Eligibility

You must be legally capable of entering a binding agreement in your jurisdiction. A parent or legal guardian must supervise any permitted use by a minor. The Services are not intended for children under 13.

4. Customer Accounts

You must provide accurate account information, protect your password and session, and promptly report suspected unauthorized access. Accounts are personal to the registered customer and may not be sold, transferred, or used to provide unrelated third parties with access to purchased entitlements.

5. Email Verification and Account Security

VMH may require email verification before some account functions are enabled. Verification and password-reset links expire. VMH may use rate limits, temporary lockouts, signed sessions, and other security controls. You are responsible for maintaining control of the email account used to create the VMH account.

6. Product Listings and Edition Identity

VMH endeavors to identify the title, edition, format, cover, contributor credits, price, and availability accurately. Distinct editions of the same underlying work are separate products. In particular, The Sun Also Rises (Annotated) is not the same VMH edition as The Sun Also Rises: A 20th Century Classic.

7. Pricing, Currency, and Taxes

Prices are shown in the currency stated on the product page or checkout. Taxes, currency conversion, shipping, or retailer charges may be added or handled by the payment provider or external retailer. VMH may correct obvious pricing or listing errors consistent with applicable law.

8. PayPal Payments

Direct website purchases may use PayPal-hosted checkout. PayPal controls payment credentials and payment processing under its own terms. A transaction may be verified by VMH using a PayPal transaction identifier and information returned through PayPal’s payment-verification mechanisms.

9. Direct Digital Download After Payment

For eligible digital products, the PayPal purchase flow may provide a direct download immediately after payment. The direct download is fulfillment of the purchased file; a VMH account is not required merely to preserve a lawfully downloaded copy unless the product page or checkout states otherwise.

10. Purchase Reconciliation

The VMH purchase-complete and account interfaces may allow a signed-in customer to reconcile a PayPal transaction to the customer’s VMH account. Reconciliation verifies the transaction, product, payment status, and account relationship before creating or reusing an entitlement.

A transaction already attached to another customer account may be refused. VMH may request support information where ownership cannot be reliably established. Reconciliation is an account-access feature and does not create a second charge.

11. Account Library and Entitlements

An entitlement records a customer’s right to access an eligible digital product through the VMH account. Entitlements may arise from a verified purchase or another authorized grant. An entitlement does not transfer copyright and does not make the account itself transferable.

12. VMH Lumière Access

VMH Lumière provides browser-based reading for eligible entitled digital titles. Reader access requires a valid VMH account session and active entitlement. Reading features may include navigation, font and theme controls, saved progress, and related functionality. VMH may improve, replace, or discontinue reader features without changing the customer’s underlying lawful rights in a downloaded copy.

13. Repository-Hosted Digital Files

Some published digital product files used for downloads or VMH Lumière may be served from VMH’s public website repository. The technical location of a file does not expand the customer’s license, transfer copyright, or authorize redistribution. Account entitlements govern VMH account-library and reader access even where a published file is technically reachable through public web infrastructure.

14. Digital License

Unless a product or applicable law provides otherwise, a digital purchase grants a limited, personal, nonexclusive, nontransferable license to read the purchased edition for lawful private use. Ownership of copyright, trademarks, VMH editorial material, artwork, software, and other intellectual property is not transferred.

15. Permitted Personal Use

You may keep and read a lawfully acquired personal copy on devices you control, subject to the applicable product terms and law. Nothing in these Terms is intended to eliminate nonwaivable rights such as lawful fair use, fair dealing, backup, accessibility, or other rights where applicable law provides them.

16. Prohibited Redistribution

Except as permitted by law or written authorization, you may not redistribute purchased eBook files, publish them to file-sharing services, sell copies you are not authorized to sell, remove rights notices to facilitate infringement, or use account access to provide unrelated third parties with a shared digital library.

17. Refunds and Cancellations

Except where required by law or expressly stated at checkout, completed digital purchases may be nonrefundable after a direct download or digital access has been provided. A duplicate charge, materially defective file, unauthorized transaction, or other legally protected circumstance may be reviewed through support. Retailer purchases are governed by the retailer’s return and cancellation rules.

18. External Retailers

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other linked retailers are independent services. They control checkout, payment, shipping, tax collection, fulfillment, returns, customer support, and account requirements for transactions completed on their platforms.

19. User Conduct

You must use the Services lawfully and may not harass others, submit fraudulent transaction claims, impersonate another person, interfere with account security, misuse contact systems, or use VMH infrastructure to violate another person’s rights.

20. Security and Technical Abuse

You may not probe for vulnerabilities, introduce malicious code, overload the Services, bypass authentication or entitlement checks, defeat rate limits, manipulate transaction verification, automate abusive requests, or circumvent technical controls except where applicable law expressly protects the activity.

21. Scraping and Automated Extraction

Systematic scraping, bulk extraction, harvesting of protected books, automated copying of editorial content, and creation of substitutive archives or datasets from protected VMH materials are prohibited except where VMH authorizes the activity or applicable law provides otherwise.

22. Intellectual Property

VMH, CSC, authors, contributors, artists, and licensors retain their respective rights in original works, editorial additions, annotations, bibliographies, cover art, illustrations, branding, software, metadata, page design, and other protected material. See the Copyright Notice for additional detail.

23. Public-Domain and Third-Party Works

Some VMH editions may incorporate an underlying source text that is public domain in a relevant territory or material owned by another rights holder. VMH does not claim copyright in genuinely public-domain expression merely because VMH publishes it. VMH may separately own or control protectable additions to an edition.

24. Editorial Material and Standards

Forewords, annotations, bibliographies, introductions, product descriptions, illustrations, covers, and other editorial material remain subject to the rights of their respective owners. VMH’s Editorial Standards describe how edition identity, citations, corrections, AI-assisted workflows, and contributor credits are handled as publishing matters.

25. Artificial-Intelligence and Dataset Restrictions

Protected VMH content may not be copied into commercial training, evaluation, retrieval, or synthetic-data datasets or used to generate a substitutive commercial edition without authorization, except where applicable law provides otherwise. This provision does not assert ownership of public-domain source expression standing alone.

26. Third-Party Services and Software

The Services may depend on GitHub, Google, PayPal, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, email providers, browser technology, and software libraries. VMH does not control the independent availability, terms, security, or conduct of those third parties. An outage or policy change by a third party may temporarily affect VMH functionality.

27. Account Suspension and Termination

VMH may suspend or terminate account access where reasonably necessary to address fraud, chargeback abuse, security risk, rights infringement, unlawful conduct, repeated violations, or threats to the Services. VMH will not use account termination to extinguish customer rights that applicable law does not permit us to extinguish.

28. Changes to Products and Services

VMH may update product pages, software, reader features, support processes, and catalog availability. An interface change does not authorize VMH to substitute a materially different purchased edition without disclosure. If a product file is corrected or replaced, VMH may make the corrected version available to entitled customers.

29. Service Availability

The Services may experience maintenance, outages, third-party failures, browser incompatibilities, or other interruptions. VMH uses reasonable efforts to maintain the Services but does not promise uninterrupted availability, permanent operation of a particular feature, or compatibility with every device.

30. Disclaimer of Warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available.” VMH and CSC disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, noninfringement, and uninterrupted availability where those disclaimers are legally permitted. Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty or consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

31. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, VMH and CSC will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, lost profits, lost data, or loss of access arising from the Services. Any limitation applies only to the extent enforceable under the law governing the claim.

32. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend and indemnify VMH and CSC from third-party claims, losses, and reasonable costs arising from your unlawful use of the Services, infringement of rights, fraudulent transaction claims, submitted material, or material breach of these Terms.

33. Governing Law and Indiana Venue

These Terms are governed by Indiana law, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Subject to nonwaivable consumer rights and any law requiring another forum, disputes shall be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction located in Marion County, Indiana.

34. Severability

If a provision is held unenforceable, it will be limited or removed only to the extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will continue in effect to the fullest extent permitted by law.

35. No Waiver

A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. A waiver is effective only when made by a person authorized to act for VMH or CSC and applies only to the specific circumstance identified.

36. Assignment

You may not assign or transfer your VMH account or these Terms without authorization where consent is legally required. VMH or CSC may assign rights and obligations in connection with a business transfer, restructuring, or transfer of the publishing operation, subject to applicable law.

37. Changes to These Terms

VMH may update these Terms to reflect changes in services, publishing practices, technology, law, or risk. The Last Updated date identifies the current published version. Material changes may receive additional notice where required by law. Continued use after an update constitutes acceptance only to the extent permitted by applicable law.

38. Contact Information

Questions about these Terms may be directed to: