1. About us and these terms

1.1 Belenga ("Belenga", "we", "us", "our") is an online self-publishing platform operated by [Belenga Publishing Enterprise], registered in the Republic of Zambia.

1.2 These Terms govern your access to and use of the Belenga website at www.belenga.com and all services offered through it (the "Platform").

1.3 By creating an account, reading a Sample, or purchasing a Title, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Platform.

1.4 These Terms should be read together with our Privacy Policy, which forms part of them.

2. Definitions

2.1 In these Terms:

(a) "Author" means a person who has entered into a Belenga Author Agreement and offers one or more Titles for sale through the Platform.

(b) "BELN" means the catalogue identifier Belenga assigns to each Title. A BELN is not an ISBN and has no bibliographic standing.

(c) "Reader", "you", "your" means a person who holds a Belenga account.

(d) "Reading Access" has the meaning given in clause 7.

(e) "Sample" means the free extract of a Title made available before purchase.

(f) "Title" means a work made available for sale through the Platform.

3. The platform is a marketplace – who you are buying from

3.1 Belenga is a marketplace. When you purchase a Title, you enter into a contract of sale with the Author of that Title, and not with Belenga.

3.2 Belenga acts as the Author's agent for the purposes of listing the Title, concluding the sale, collecting payment from you, and providing you with Reading Access. Belenga is not the publisher of any Title and does not own any Title.

3.3 Belenga is responsible to you for the operation of the Platform. The Author is responsible for the content of their Title.

3.4 Nothing in this clause 3 affects any rights you have under the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2010 or any other applicable Zambian law.

4. Eligibility and accounts

4.1 You must be at least 18 years old to open an account. If you are under 18, you may use the Platform only with the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian who accepts these Terms on your behalf and is responsible for your use of it.

4.2 You must provide accurate and current registration information and keep it up to date.

4.3 You may hold one account only.

4.4 You are responsible for keeping your password secure and for all activity on your account. Tell us immediately at support@belenga.com if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.

4.5 We may refuse to open, suspend, or close an account in accordance with clause 18.

5. Samples

5.1 We make a free Sample of each Title available, normally the first chapter.

5.2 You must have an account to read a Sample. Samples are free of charge.

5.3 Samples are provided so you can evaluate a Title before buying. They are subject to the same restrictions as Titles under clause 8.

5.4 We may change, limit or withdraw any Sample at any time.

6. Purchases and payment

6.1 All prices are shown in Zambian Kwacha (ZMW) and are [exclusive] of VAT.

6.2 The price displayed at checkout is the price you pay. There are no additional charges.

6.3 Payment may be made by mobile money (MTN Mobile Money, Airtel Money or Zamtel Kwacha) or by Visa or Mastercard. Payments are processed by a payment gateway, a payment system business licensed by the Bank of Zambia. We do not collect or store your card details.

6.4 Your contract is formed when we confirm your purchase and grant Reading Access, not when you submit payment.

6.5 If a payment fails, is reversed, or is charged back, we may suspend or end your Reading Access to the affected Title.

6.6 If a Title is listed at an obviously incorrect price, we may cancel the purchase and refund you in full.

7. What you get – Reading Access only

7.1 When you buy a Title you are buying Reading Access: a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to read that Title online through the Platform.

7.2 You do not receive a file. Titles cannot be downloaded, printed, or saved to your device. You need a working internet connection to read. If you have no connection, you cannot read.

7.3 You do not acquire ownership of the Title or any intellectual property in it.

7.4 Reading Access is for your own personal, non-commercial use only.

7.5 We record your reading position so you can continue on any device where you are signed in. See our Privacy Policy.

7.6 Reading Access continues for as long as we operate the Platform and the Title remains available to you under clause 11. We cannot promise that Reading Access will last indefinitely.

8. What you must not do

8.1 You must not:

(a) copy, reproduce, republish, distribute, sell, rent, sub-licence or otherwise share any Title or Sample, in whole or in part;

(b) circumvent, or attempt to circumvent, any access control or technical measure on the Platform;

(c) use any automated system to access, scrape, index or extract any Title or Sample;

(d) photograph, screenshot, record or otherwise capture any Title or Sample for the purpose of sharing or distributing it;

(e) share your account or your login details with anyone else;

(f) remove or obscure any copyright or ownership notice;

(g) use any Title or Sample to train, fine-tune or develop any artificial intelligence or machine learning system, or for text and data mining;

(h) use the Platform for any unlawful purpose or in any way that damages it or interferes with another user.

8.2 If you breach this clause 8, we may suspend or end your access immediately and without refund, and we may pursue any other remedy available to us.

9. Refunds

9.1 We do not give refunds because you have changed your mind. Reading Access is granted immediately on purchase, and a free Sample of every Title is available before you buy.

9.2 We will give a refund in the following four cases, and only these:

(a) Duplicate charge — you were charged more than once for the same Title;

(b) Technical failure — we fail to provide Reading Access to a Title you paid for and cannot resolve the problem within [7] days of you telling us;

(c) Material misdescription — the Title is materially different from how it was described on the Platform;

(d) Removal for infringement — we remove a Title under clause 11.2. In this case we will refund you automatically. You do not need to ask.

9.3 To request a refund under clause 9.2(a) to (c), contact support@belenga.com within [14] days of purchase, quoting your order reference.

9.4 Approved refunds are made to your original payment method within [7] days.

9.5 This clause does not limit any right you have under the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2010 or other applicable law that cannot be excluded by agreement.

10. Reviews and ratings

10.1 Only Readers who have purchased a Title may review it.

10.2 Reviews must be your own honest opinion and must not be unlawful, defamatory, abusive, or misleading.

10.3 We may moderate, edit or remove any review, and may suspend review privileges for abuse.

10.4 You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to display, reproduce and adapt your review on the Platform and in our marketing. You remain responsible for what you write.

11. Titles removed from the platform

11.1 Withdrawal by the Author. An Author may withdraw a Title at any time. If they do, the Title stops being sold but if you bought it before it was withdrawn, you keep your Reading Access. You paid for it and it stays in your library.

11.2 Removal for infringement or unlawful content. If we remove a Title because we believe it infringes someone else's rights or is unlawful, your Reading Access to that Title will end and we will refund what you paid for it in full. We cannot lawfully continue to provide access to material that has been identified as infringing, even though you paid for it in good faith.

11.3 We will notify you by email if a Title in your library is removed under clause 11.2.

11.4 If we remove a Title because it breaches our content standards but no question of infringement or unlawfulness arises, clause 11.1 applies and you keep your Reading Access.

12. Your reading information

12.1 We record which Titles you open, your reading position, and related information, so that we can provide Reading Access and sync your progress across devices.

12.2 We provide Authors with aggregate sales and reading figures. We do not tell Authors who has read their books. Authors see numbers, not names.

12.3 Our Privacy Policy explains this in full.

13. Availability of the platform

13.1 We aim to keep the Platform available but we do not guarantee that it will be uninterrupted or error-free.

13.2 We may suspend the Platform for maintenance, and will give notice where we reasonably can.

13.3 We may change, add to, or discontinue features of the Platform.

14. Intellectual property

14.1 The Platform, the Belenga name and logo, and the BELN identifier system belong to the Operator or its licensors.

14.2 Each Title belongs to its Author or their licensors.

14.3 Nothing in these Terms gives you any right in the Platform or in any Title other than Reading Access.

15. Reporting infringement

15.1 If you believe a Title infringes your rights, contact support@belenga.com with details of the Title, your rights, and the basis of your claim.

15.2 We will investigate and may remove the Title under clause 11.2 pending resolution.

15.3 The Author may respond by counter-notice. Our Takedown Policy at www.belenga.com sets out the full process.

16. Our liability to you

16.1 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

16.2 We are not responsible for the content of any Title. The Author is responsible for their Title, and clause 3 explains why.

16.3 We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss or for loss of profit, revenue, data or opportunity.

16.4 Subject to clause 16.1, our total liability to you is limited to [the total amount you have paid to us in the 12 months before the claim arose].

17. Your liability to us

17.1 You indemnify us against any claim, loss or cost arising from your breach of these Terms, including any unauthorised copying or sharing of a Title.

18. Suspension and closure of your account

18.1 You may close your account at any time by contacting support@belenga.com. If you close your account, you will lose Reading Access to every Title you have bought, and we will not refund you. Please be sure before you ask.

18.2 We may suspend or close your account if you breach these Terms, if we are required to by law, or if we reasonably suspect fraud or unauthorised use.

18.3 If we close your account because you breached clause 8, you lose Reading Access and are not entitled to a refund.

18.4 If we close your account for any other reason and you have not breached these Terms, we will [refund the unused value of your library / restore access where possible].

19. Changes to these terms

19.1 We may change these Terms. We will give notice by email or by posting on the Platform at least [14] days before the change takes effect.

19.2 If you continue to use the Platform after the change takes effect, you accept the new Terms.

19.3 Changes do not affect Titles you have already bought. The Terms in force when you bought a Title continue to govern your Reading Access to it.

20. General

20.1 If any part of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

20.2 These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about the Platform.

20.3 If we do not enforce a right, that is not a waiver of it.

20.4 We may transfer our rights and obligations to another organisation. You may not transfer yours.

21. Governing law and disputes

21.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Zambia.

21.2 If you have a complaint, please contact us first at support@belenga.com. We will try to resolve it within [14] days.

21.3 Any dispute that cannot be resolved will be subject to the [exclusive] jurisdiction of the courts of Zambia.