Terms of Service

Last Updated: November 11, 2024

The Past Limited welcomes you to The Past (the “Service”), our digital publishing system. These are our terms and conditions (the “Terms”) for use of the Service, which you may access in several ways, including but not limited to the World Wide Web, iOS and Android devices. These Terms apply whenever you access the Service, on whatever device, and regardless of how you access it.

By using the Service, you are deemed to have accepted these Terms.

Some areas of the Service require registration. By completing the initial registration form and by entering your email address and password, you will be deemed to have accepted these Terms.

If you have registered with us and subsequently change your details, you should immediately notify us of any changes.

Any changes we make to the Terms will be reflected on this page.

1. Registration

When you register, you are registering as a personal user of the Service. Access to registration areas is via your email address and password. Institutional Access is not yet available.

We allow you access to the registration areas of the site on the condition that:

1. your email address and password are personal to you and may not be used by anyone else to access the Service;
2. you will not assist anyone who is not a registered user to gain access to any registration area of the Service, and
3. you comply with these Terms.

If, for any reason, we believe that you have not complied with these requirements, we may, at our discretion and without advance notice, cancel your access to the registration areas of the Service.

2. Access

Access to the Sites is provided free of charge (although some content may only be available to paying subscribers). Readers may access a set number of articles (subject to change) free of charge; access to additional articles requires a subscription. Content made available through paid subscriptions may not be available to the user beyond the term of the subscription.

3. Termination of subscription

Subscribers enrolled in the automatic subscription renewal program can opt out or cancel their subscription at any time by updating their subscription in the Account page, emailing subs@the-past.com, or contacting our subscriptions team on +44 (0)20 8819 5580.

4. Use of material appearing on the Service

“Material” means text, video, graphics and sound material, as well as material in other formats, distributed through the Service, whether owned by The Past Limited or a third party.

You may download and print extracts from the Material and make copies of these for your own personal and non-commercial use only. You are not allowed to download or print the Material, or extracts from it, in a systematic or regular manner or otherwise so as to create a database in electronic or paper form comprising all or any substantial part of the Material.

You must not spider or systematically/mechanically interrogate the Service without our advance written permission.

The Past does not permit the use of our content for large language models.

You must not reproduce any part of the Service or the Material, transmit it to or store it in any other website or disseminate any part of the Material in any other form, nor may you make any derivative works therefrom, unless we have indicated in writing in advance that you may do so.

5. Disclaimer; Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted at law, neither we nor our licensors accept any responsibility for any statement or omission in the Material. The Material is not a substitute for specialist professional advice. Nothing in the Material is provided for any specific purpose or at the request of any particular person.

If The Past and/or its licensors believe that any Material included in the service may be unlawful or violates or infringes the rights of a third party, we may replace, revise or remove such material.

For the avoidance of confusion, neither we nor our licensors will be liable for any loss caused as a result of your doing, or not doing, anything as a result of viewing, reading or listening to the Material or any part of it (except for death or personal injury attributable to our negligence, to the extent we or our licensors are not permitted by law to disclaim such liability).

The Past and its directors, officers, employees, consultants, agents and other representatives shall not be liable under any circumstances for any indirect, special, consequential or incidental damages, including but not limited to lost data or lost profits, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Our liability and that of our licensors for damages under these Terms shall in no event exceed the amount paid by you, if any, for the services as to which the claim arose. The parties agree to the allocation of liability which is set forth herein.

The service and materials are provided “as is”. Neither we nor our licensors give any warranties of any kind concerning the service or the material, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Neither we nor our Licensors warrant that the Service or Materials are virus free. You must take your own precautions in this respect.

6. Class action waiver

By using these services, you are entering into this agreement and waiving your right to file, join, opt-into, consent to, intervene in, or otherwise become a party in any court case or arbitration that is brought or maintained on a class, collective, representative, or aggregate basis. You may bring legal claims against The Past only in your individual capacity (non-class, non-collective, non-representative, and non-aggregate basis), and you may not participate in any joined or consolidated claims.

7. Third party material on the Service

You will see advertising material submitted by third parties on the Service. Individual publications and their advertisers are solely responsible for the content of advertising material which they submit to us, including ensuring that it complies with relevant legislation. We accept no responsibility for the content of advertising material, including, without limitation, any error, omission or inaccuracy therein.

8. Links

You can access other sites via links from the Service. These sites are not under our control and we are not responsible in any way for their content.

9. Variations

These Terms may be varied from time to time. Please ensure that you review these Terms regularly as you will be deemed to have accepted a variation if you continue to use the site, the Services or the Materials after it has been posted.

10. Force majeure

Although we will use reasonable commercial efforts to provide constant, uninterrupted access to the Service, we do not guarantee this. We accept no responsibility or liability for any interruption or delay.

11. Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by English law (without reference to its conflicts of laws provisions) and the parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of courts in London. Nevertheless, we or our licensors may apply to any court of competent jurisdiction to protect its intellectual property.

These Terms of Service were updated in November 2024