Terms and Conditions

Firstlinks is owned and operated by Cuffelinks Pty Ltd, ACN 161 167 451, which was acquired by Morningstar Australasia Pty Limited, ACN 090 665 544 in October 2019. Your access to and use of all information on this website and related newsletters, and your provision of content to Firstlinks, are subject to these Terms and Conditions.

In these Terms and Conditions, “we”, “us” and “our” refers to Cuffelinks Pty Ltd or Firstlinks, including the url www.firstlinks.com.au, related newsletters, ebooks and the mobile app.

Firstlinks provides a community forum for publishing articles and comments of a general financial nature intended to educate and inform. Cuffelinks does not hold an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence pursuant to Regulatory Guide 36, issued by the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), ‘Licensing: Financial product advice and dealing‘, Section RG36.43, ‘Exemptions under 911A(2)‘. In (d) it advises that an AFS licence is not required where “you provide general advice by publishing a newspaper or periodical that is generally available to the public (otherwise than only on subscription) and where the sole or principal purpose of the newspaper or periodical is not the provision of financial product advice”. In (e), the exemption covers “general advice in transmissions made by means of an information service where the transmissions are generally available to the public”.

We reserve the right to amend these Terms and Conditions at any time. Your continued use as either a reader of or contributor to the website or newsletter following any amendments will represent your agreement to be bound by these Terms and Conditions as amended.  We therefore recommend that each time you access our website you read these Terms and Conditions. If you object to any changes to the Terms and Conditions, your only remedy is to discontinue your use of the website or unsubscribe from our newsletters.

General Advice Warning and Disclaimer

1. All information provided by us on this website is of a general nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. Neither Cuffelinks nor any person associated with it is licensed to give financial advice, and it is not our intention to do so. Cuffelinks Pty Ltd and its directors and officers make no recommendation about any investment or financial product information discussed on this website.
2. The information on this website does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any investor, or purport to be comprehensive and should not be relied upon as such. You should not invest on the basis of the information on this website, but you should consider the appropriateness of the information, having regard to your own risk profile, objectives, financial situation and needs. You should do your own research and obtain any relevant product disclosure statement or other disclosure document relating to a particular financial product before making any investment decision.
3. You should also consult a financial adviser and any other appropriate professional advisers on any legal, stamp duty, taxation and accounting implications to help you decide whether an investment is appropriate for your individual needs and objectives.
4. The information contained in the articles published on the website and circulated to our email subscribers represents the views and opinions of the authors, not Cuffelinks Pty Ltd. Articles are published in good faith from a wide variety of sources, which we consider to be reliable at the time of publication, however, we cannot guarantee this and we do not provide any representation or warranty as to quality, accuracy or reliability of any material on the website. Changes to taxation, estate planning, insurance, social security, superannuation and other laws and regulation as well as individual product design mean that the accuracy of information will change over time.
5. Where a security or product is mentioned, neither Cuffelinks nor its directors and associates are endorsing it or are responsible for its future performance. We are not liable for loss or damage caused by a reliance on any information on this website. Nothing in our material is provided for a particular person or purpose.

Registered Users

1. In order to comment or receive our weekly newsletter, you must register by providing certain information as set out on our registration or comments pages.  Please refer to our Privacy Policy for information relating to our collection, storage and use of the details you provide on registration.
2. We reserve the right to terminate your registration at any time if you breach these Terms and Conditions or the Community Rules Policy.
3. Your continued use of this website and receipt of our emails will constitute your acceptance of any changes.

Internet Security and Site Access

1. Cuffelinks is distributed via the internet, and it is your responsibility to ensure accessibility and security. We do not guarantee delivery of the service via email or the ongoing availability of the website.
2. When you visit our website, we give you a limited licence to access and use our information, subject to and in exchange for your agreement to these Terms and Conditions.
3. The licence to access and use the information on our website does not include the right to use any data mining robots or other extraction tools.  The licence also does not permit you to metatag or mirror our website without our prior written permission. We reserve the right to serve you with notice if we become aware of your metatag or mirroring of our website.

Hyperlinks

1. The website may from time to time contain hyperlinks to other websites.  Such links are provided for convenience only and we take no responsibility for the content and maintenance of or privacy compliance by any linked website. Any hyperlink on our website to another website does not imply our endorsement, support, or sponsorship of the operator of that website nor of the information and or products which they provide.
2. You may link to our website without our consent. Any such linking will be entirely your responsibility and at your expense. By linking, you must not alter any of our website’s contents including any intellectual property notices and you must not frame or reformat any of our pages, files, images, text or other materials.

Intellectual Property Rights

1. The copyright to all the content on this website and its related app including applets, graphics, images, layouts and text belongs to Cuffelinks or the respective author and all authors must give Cuffelinks the right to use those materials and authorise third parties to republish. Your use of any material will be subject to Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth), unless otherwise authorised by our prior written permission.
2. You may not claim, as an individual or a representative of a company, that you are the author of any content on this website.
3. We encourage financial education and the flow of information and you can republish or reproduce single articles online or in print within reason and not for commercial purposes. If you wish to systemically use our content regularly, please content us to make commercial arrangements.
4. You must note the article was originally published in Cuffelinks, and name the author, their company and link to www.cuffelinks.com.au. You cannot sell the content separately. Unless you have express permission from Cuffelinks or the author, you cannot edit our material and you cannot delete or change any content, copyright symbol, trade mark or other proprietary notice. If you wish to materially edit our content, please contact us. When you credit Cuffelinks, ?ideally at the top of the article and including our logo, you must link back to either our home page or the specific article. You are permitted to run a few introductory lines with a link back to the article page on our site.  
5. Third party articles contributed to or published with permission by Cuffelinks are copyright of their respective authors and Cuffelinks and may not be edited by any person for any purpose without prior written consent of Cuffelinks.
6. Cuffelinks believes authors provide articles with the intention of broad distribution. Cuffelinks may authorise third parties to republish articles and any person who writes for or is published in Cuffelinks is considered to have agreed to both publication in Cuffelinks (and related material) and republication by third parties unless we are informed otherwise. We request third parties include details of the author name and their company but we cannot guarantee this will happen in every circumstance. We also request attribution to Cuffelinks but we do not request links back to the author company’s website. Any author who sends an article to Cuffelinks, or any author who has agreed to be published in Cuffelinks, gives Cuffelinks the right to use the material in any way suitable for publishing in a financial journal.
7. All trade marks, brands and logos, whether registered or not, including the Cuffelinks name and logo, which are used on this website, are either owned by us or we have a right to use them. Your access to our website does not license you to use those marks in any commercial way without our prior written permission.
8. Any comment, feedback, idea or suggestion (called ‘Comments’) which you provide to us through this website become our property. We may use your Comments in promoting our website or in any other way.  You agree that we are entitled to use your Comments for any commercial or non-commercial purpose without compensation to you or to any other person who has transmitted your Comments.
9. If you provide us with Comments, you acknowledge that you are responsible for the content of such material including its legality, originality and copyright.
10. If you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe that any content on this site infringes your copyright, or if you believe we have made inaccurate statements, please contact us and we will address the issue.
11. If you provide Cuffelinks with an article, you confirm that you are licenced or otherwise authorised to republish images in the articles, which may be subject to their own copyright or republishing guidelines.

Disclaimers

1. Whilst we take all due care in providing our services, we do not provide any warranty, either express or implied, including without limitation warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
2. To the extent permitted by law, any condition or warranty which would otherwise be implied into these Terms and Conditions is excluded.
3. We take all due care in ensuring that our website is free of any virus, worm or Trojan horse malware, however we are not responsible for any damage to your computer system which arises in connection with your use of our website, any linked website or emails from us.

Limitation of Liability

1. Use of the website, app and related newsletters and ebooks is at your risk. None of Cuffelinks’ affiliates or directors, officers, contributors or third party content providers makes any express or implied representation or warranty about, or shall be liable, in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, for any direct, indirect, special or consequential loss, damages or reliance in connection with the website or related emails, its use, its content or any products or services referred to therein.
2. To the full extent permitted by law, our liability for breach of an implied warranty or condition is limited to the supply of the services again.
3. We do not accept liability for anything contained in the comments of a user or in any form of communication which originates with a user.
4. We do not participate in any way in the transactions between our users.

Indemnity

1. By accessing our website or app, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from all claims, actions, damages, costs and expenses including legal fees arising from or in connection with your use of our website.

Information Security

1. We undertake to take reasonable care to secure any personal information which you provide to us when accessing our website. However, we do not warrant and cannot ensure the complete security of any information  provided over the internet. You transmit to us entirely at your own risk.
2. Our compliance with privacy is set out in our separate Privacy Policy.

Jurisdiction

1. These Terms and Conditions are to be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of NSW and any claim made by either party against the other which in any way arises out of these Terms and Conditions will be heard in NSW and you agree to submit to the jurisdiction of those Courts.
2. If any provision in these Terms and Conditions is invalid under any law, the provision will be limited, narrowed, construed or altered as necessary to render it valid but only to the extent necessary to achieve such validity.  If necessary the invalid provision will be deleted from these Terms and Conditions and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

Complaints Policy

1. Cuffelinks is committed to the provision of quality financial journalism, including adherence to the Standards of Practice established by the Australian Press Council.
2. If anyone wishes to make a complaint about content we publish, please send your complaint to mail@cuffelinks.com.au.

© Cuffelinks Pty Ltd 2012/2019