Terms of Use
Definitions
The Parties agree and accept that the following terms used with a capital letter in the singular and/or in the plural, shall under the Terms of Use, the meaning given to them as follows:
- « Contract » : means the present Terms of Use as well as the Privacy Policy ;
- « Member » : means interchangeably the Freemium Member and the Premium Member ;
- « Freemium Member » means the Member with an account on our Platform for gaining access to the free functions of our Platform ;
- « Premium Member » means the Member having an account on our Platform for gaining access to the Premium Solo or Premium Plus services ;
- « Platform » : means the digital Platform Website and/or Mobile Applications site allowing access to the service as well as its use ;
- « User » : means any person who uses the Platform, whether a Visitor or a Member ;
- « Visitor » : means any person navigating on the Platform without creating an associated account.
The present Terms of Use govern our relations with you, the person gaining access to the Platform, applicable during your use of the Platform and, if you are a Member, up until your account is deactivated. If you do not agree with the terms of the Terms of Use, it is recommended that you do not use our Platform and our services.
When navigating on the Platform, if you are a Visitor, you acknowledge having read and accepted all the present Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
In creating an account by clicking on the button « Register with Facebook » or « Registration with an email » or « Register with Google » to become a Member, you are asked to read and accept the present Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy, by ticking the box provided for this purpose.
We encourage you to read the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy before your first use of our Platform and to re-read them when they are updated. We may be required to amend the present Terms of Use. If amendments are made, we will inform you by email or via our Platform to allow you to look at the amendments before they become effective. If you continue to use our Platform after the publication of or after a notice is sent concerning the amendments made to the present conditions, this means that you accept the updates. You will be bound by the Terms of Use in force at the time of your use of the Platform.
Article 1: Registration to the service
1.1 Conditions for registration on the Platform
Certain functions of the Platform require to be registered and having an account. Before registering on the Platform, you must read and accept the present Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.
You must declare that you have the legal capacity to accept the present Terms of Use, meaning that you are over 16 years of age, are not under any legal protection measure for adults (limited judicial protection, temporary guardianship or permanent guardianship).
Before gaining access to our Platform, consent for minors under 16 years of age must be given by the holder of parental authority.
Our Platform does not register, collect or store any information relating to any person aged 15 years or under.
1.2 Creation of account
You can create an account in the following two ways:
- Either by filling in manually on our Platform the compulsory fields given in the registration form and supplying full and accurate information. To register your account, you must submit to OpenClassrooms certain personal information such as your family name, first name(s) and your email address. You will find a description of the processing of your data in our Privacy Policy;
- Or by using an existing account (in particular via Google Plus or Facebook), using the function provided for this purpose. By using these functions, we will have access to, will publish on our Platform and will keep certain information about your Facebook or Google account. You can at any time remove the link between your account on the OpenClassrooms Platform and your Google Plus or Facebook account through the intermediary of the settings of your Google Plus or Facebook profiles. To find out more about the use of your data relating to your Facebook or Google account, consult our Privacy Policy and the Facebook and Google data protection policies.
- You will then receive an email with a temporary password that you must subsequently change on your first connection to our Platform.
When creating your account, irrespective of the method used to do this, you agree to supply personal information that is true, accurate and complete and to update it through your profile or by notifying OpenClassrooms so as to guarantee its relevance and accuracy throughout out relationship with OpenClassrooms.
If you register by email, you agree to keep secret the password chosen at the time your account was created and not to disclose it to anyone. You must immediately inform OpenClassrooms if you lose or disclose your password. You are solely responsible for the use made of your account by a third party where you have not expressly notified OpenClassrooms of the loss, fraudulent use or disclosure of your password to a third party.
You agree not to create or use, either under your own identity or that of a third party, any accounts other than the account initially created. You may not authorise third parties to use your account. You may not assign or in any way transfer your account to any other individual person or entity.
The information that you supply during registration may be corrected during the registration process by going back to the previous screens and correcting the wrong information. You agree to comply with the laws applicable where you use the services and you may use the services only for legal purposes. The content present on the Platform must be for private use only.
When choosing your password, you must never use a simple password, such as for example 123456.
The User Identity (user ID) and the password are strictly personal and confidential and you must keep them and use them in such a way as to preserve their strict confidentiality.
The Member will gain access to the service using his user ID and his password. Any use of the Platform using his user ID and password will be considered to have been done by the Member himself. Where a third party uses his user ID and password, the Member must immediately notify OpenClassrooms by sending it an email to the following address: hello@openclassrooms.com.
Where a Member loses or forgets his password, he must connect to the OpenClassrooms site and follow the procedure by clicking on the « Forgot your password » link.
The Member is responsible for the use of the Platform and for all the actions carried out on the Platform with his user ID and his password, unless his account is used after it has been closed, or after notification to OpenClassrooms of an abusive use of his account.
1.3. Conditions for access to the Platform
1.3.1 If you do not have a free Member account
If you have not created a Member account on our Platform, you can still get access to the Platform but you will not be able to make use of all the functions and you will not have a personal profile. In fact, you will not be authorised to obtain certain types of access, such as full access to the courses published by our education team and the end of exercise quizzes. You will not have a personal account. The present Terms of Use are binding on you as they govern the conditions of use of the service, and you must read and accept them before carrying on with your navigation on the Platform.
1.3.2 If you already have a free member account – Freemium Service
The OpenClassrooms service which does not require payment is currently designated by the expression « Freemium Service ».
If you have created a free Member account, you can gain access to the Platform and to certain functions of the Freemium Service. Further to the creation of your account, you can gain access to your profile page where you have to give information that is compulsory and other information that is optional.
You can gain access to all the available courses. You also have access to end of course quizzes. However, as you will not have followed the course with a subscription, we will not be able to issue you with a certificate for the course followed. Before using the Platform, you must carefully read the present Terms of Use.
Article 2. Information supplied by you
Each person gives a guarantee to OpenClassrooms that the information that it supplied as to its identity and its contact details relating to the service is true, accurate, complete and up to date. You are solely responsible for the truthfulness and accuracy of this information. You agree regularly to update all the information and to ensure its accuracy.
OpenClassrooms may not under any circumstances be held liable for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies that may be found in the information that you supply, or for any prejudice that may result therefrom for the other Users or for third parties.
You are responsible for any activity that takes place on your account and you agree at all times to preserve the security and secrecy of your user ID and your password. You can only have one account.
Article 3. Intellectual property
3.1. Intellectual property relating to the service, our Platform and the elements of which they consist
With the exception of courses followed by the Users and/or by the OpenClassrooms Partners, all the technical, graphic, textual or other elements constituting the service and/or our Platform (texts, graphs, software, multimedia files, photographs, images, videos, sounds, plans, graphic style charters, technologies, source codes, names, trade marks, logos, visuals, databases, etc.) as well as our Platform and the service themselves, are the exclusive property of OpenClassrooms.
The User acknowledges that no ownership is transferred to it and that no right or licence is granted to it, apart from a right to use the service in accordance with the present document throughout the term of the Contract, and the rights of use of the course granted to it under the Creative Commons licences referred to in article 4.1.1 below.
Consequently, except for express and prior authorisation given by OpenClassrooms and/or a Creative Commons licence authorising it, the User agrees:
- not to reproduce for commercial purposes or otherwise any course present in the service (with the exception of its own courses) and/or the technical, graphic, textual or other elements constituting the service and/or our Platform ;
- not to integrate all or part of the content of the service and/or our Platform into a third party site for commercial purposes or otherwise ;
- not to use a robot, in particular for exploration (spider), an application for a search or recovery of websites or any other means allowing the extraction, re-use or indexation of all or part of the content of the service and/or our Platform ;
- not to collect information on the Users or to send them unsolicited messages and/or integrate them into a reference or equivalent service, either paying or free ;
- not to copy the courses present in the service (with the exception of his own courses) and/or the technical, graphic, textual or other elements constituting the service and/or our Platform on media of any kind allowing the reconstitution of all or part of the original files.
The author of any use not expressly authorised of elements of the service and/or our Platform will be held civilly liable or criminally responsible and legal proceedings may be brought against it as a result.
3.2. Intellectual property over the content published by the User in the service
3.2.1. In consideration for the use of the service, and irrespective of the Creative Commons licence to which the course may also be subject, the Members grant OpenClassrooms a worldwide, non-exclusive and transferable licence that may give rise to the grant of a sub-licence, conferring upon OpenClassrooms the right to copy, store, adapt and use all the content (including the courses, the Projects and any other activity carried out by the Members in relation to the service) supplied by the Member relating to the Service. This licence is granted in line with the publication of the elements concerned, solely for the purposes of the effective operation of the service.
3.2.2. The Members referred to above guarantee that they possess the intellectual property rights and rights relating to the personality (in particular the right to one’s image) necessary for the publication of the content (including the courses) that it publishes on the service.
They also guarantee that the content that they publish on the service does not contain anything contrary to the rights of third parties and the laws in force and in particular the provisions relating to libel, slander, privacy, right to one’s image, outrage of modesty or piracy.
You therefore guarantee OpenClassrooms against any claim made by a third party concerning the publication of the content (including the courses) relating to the service.
Article 4. Functions of the service
4.1. Online courses
4.1.1. Any course published within the service remains the property of its author.
Unless otherwise stated, each course is subject to one of the following four (04) Creative Commons licences:
- Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence ;
- Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) licence ;
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC) licence ;
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) licence.
Details of the rights of use covered by each of these Creative Commons licences are given on the following page.
The User agrees to read the licence to which each course is subject to and to comply with the terms of use of the course referred to by the licence concerned. In particular, where a User wishes to reproduce all or part of a course, he must check that the licence to which it is subject to allows this.
4.2. Discussion spaces
Members and Subscribers have the right to gain access to discussion spaces where they may consult discussion threads between Members or between Subscribers, and discuss any given question with them.
You agree not to disseminate any private correspondence on the public discussion spaces and must for this purpose use the private messaging service.
Where you publish a message, you must in particular adhere to the provisions of article 7.2 below and those of « Charter of Good Conduct ».
Members and Subscribers may view the messages of other Members and Subscribers on the public discussion spaces and report them in accordance with article 5 below.
Article 5. Reporting – moderation a posteriori
Any Member or Subscriber has the possibility of reporting to OpenClassrooms any message or comment and generally any content published on the service that is contrary to the Contract or otherwise unlawful, and in particular offensive, insulting, libellous, abusive, violent, obscene or pornographic, or containing an incitement to discrimination or hate based on race, religion, sex or other aspect, incitement to crimes and offences, or a justification for crime, or of a kind to infringe intellectual property rights or the right relating to the personality or third parties, or of a kind to alter the operation of the service and/or of our Platform, in any way whatsoever.
To do this, you must contact OpenClassrooms either by email at the address: hello@openclassrooms.com, or use the form accessible within the service by clicking on the tab “Contact Us”, or by post to the address: OpenClassrooms, 10 Quai de la Charente, 75019 Paris, France, and proceed as follows:
- State your identity ;
- Describe the disputed content precisely and give details as well as of its location on our Platform ;
- Describe the reasons in fact and law for which the disputed content must be considered as manifestly unlawful and therefore be withdrawn from our Platform ;
- Send a copy of the correspondence that you have previously sent to the author of such content asking for it to be changed or withdrawn and/or give proof that you have not been able to contact the author.
We reserve the right to remove any content that is unlawful or not in compliance with the Contract that has been previously notified. Any manifestly abusive notification may be penalised by OpenClassrooms.
For further information on these obligations, you are asked to read « Charter of Good Conduct ».
Article 6. Protection of personal data
We pay particular attention to the protection of your personal data. You will find here a detailed description of the use that we make of your personal data and cookies and their purposes.
OpenClassrooms expressly asks the User to consult its Privacy Policy that is an integral part of the present Terms of Use.
Article 7. Obligations of Users and Charter of Good Conduct
7.1. Obligations of Users
With regard to the use of the Platform, we ask you to agree to the following:
- To guarantee the accuracy, integrity and lawfulness of the information that you supply on the Platform as to your identity and contact details ;
- To guarantee the proper use of the Platform ;
- To create only one account on the Platform ;
- To refrain from capturing information and/or messages, comments and other content that is malicious, denigrating, libellous, offensive, obscene, pornographic, violent, racist, xenophobic, discriminatory, intentionally misleading, unlawful and/or contrary to public order and good moral standards ;
- To respect the rights of third parties, in particular the right to respect for privacy, their image and other rights of legal personality, as well as intellectual property rights (copyright, similar rights, rights to databases, rights to trade marks, rights to patents, drawings or models, manufacturing secrets, etc.) ;
- Not to steal the status, attributes or user identity of another User or a third party so as to mislead or create confusion of any kind as to his identity, the provenance of the information or the content (courses, messages, comments, etc.) that he disseminates or transmits on the Platform ;
- Not to alter or disrupt the integrity of the Platform and/or the data contained therein ;
- Not to try to obtain unauthorised access to the Platform or to the systems or networks that are associated with it or to intercept data ;
- To use the Platform in compliance with the applicable national and/or international laws and regulations.
If any of these obligations are not complied with, we reserve the right temporarily or permanently to suspend the User’s account.
7.2. Charter of Good Conduct
OpenClassrooms is a community website based on mutual aid and sharing whose forums are open to all Members and Subscribers. Everyone is invited to participate by creating an account on OpenClassrooms and by complying with the elementary rules of courtesy and the law in force.
Exchanges on OpenClassrooms are moderated a posteriori, which means that no message will be read before its publication. Messages are therefore published immediately but may be inspected by the moderation team and the administrators of our Platform, after being published by the Member.
The role of the moderation team and administrators is to ensure the effective operation of the forums by removing any message that because it is undignified, prejudicial to persons, destructive or manifestly off-topic, disrupts the exchanges. The moderators and administrators also exclude any messages that are contrary to the laws in force.
The following are also likely to be moderated (list not exhaustive):
- Messages that are racist, promote hate, are homophobic, sexist or libellous
- Advertising messages
- Obscene or pornographic messages or messages that involve harassment
- Messages indicating exact contact details such as a telephone number or a postal address and whose origin and accuracy cannot be verified by the moderators or that could cause prejudice against persons
- Messages published in several copies
- Messages that are off-topic or that incite argument
- Messages in abbreviated language or whose spelling is too loose
- Messages worded entirely in capital letters
If these rules and directives are not adhered to, the OpenClassrooms team will impose penalties on the Users concerned. The worst penalty is banishment from the site and consists in completely blocking access to the Platform by a User.
Article 8. Responsibility of OpenClassrooms
8.1. Information and/or content published on the Platform by the User
With the exception of courses created by the Members – which must be previously approved by OpenClassrooms before being placed online, the information and content (messages, comments) published by the Users on the Platform are not inspected beforehand by OpenClassrooms before their publication on the Platform. Conversely, they are likely to be examined subsequently OpenClassrooms.
In our capacity as the company hosting this information and/or content (apart from courses) placed online by the User through the company of our Platform, we are subject to the regime of limited liability as provided for by articles 6.I.2 and following of Law no.2004-575 of 21 June 2004 on Confidence in the Digital Economy. In this respect, we may remove any information and/or content that is manifestly unlawful that is notified to us.
8.2. Non-performance of our obligations
OpenClassrooms will only be liable for direct damage suffered by Users which it can be established that they resulted from the non-performance of our obligations.
Conversely, under no circumstances can we be held liable for the following:
- Losses due to the User, from difficulties inherent to the operation of the Internet network and generally any telecommunications networks, irrespective of their nature, from a third party or an event of force majeure ;
- Indirect losses resulting from the use of the Platform, such losses being defined in a non-limitative way as operating loss (turnover, revenues or profits), loss of opportunity, harm to image or reputation, commercial or financial loss ;
- Any loss of data suffered by the User, even if this is due to OpenClassrooms.
Article 9. Interruption of the service for maintenance or improvements
We agree to do all that is required to ensure the effective operation of the Platform and accessibility, but we are only bound by an obligation to use specified means concerning continuity of access to the service. We cannot guarantee the permanence or the performance of the Platform.
Where the Platform is updated as a result of technical developments, our Platform will be temporarily inaccessible.
Access to the service may be interrupted for reasons of maintenance and updating and in the event of emergencies.
Generally, we cannot be held liable for any interruption of the service irrespective of the cause, duration or frequency, and shall not give the User any right to an indemnity.
Consequently, we cannot be held liable for any loss of money or reputation or for any special damage, either indirect or induced, resulting from an interruption in the service. Also, we cannot be held liable for any damage to hardware, software or data, for example, contamination by a virus, suffered by the User from its use of the service.
To avoid as much as possible any disagreements, you must carry out regular backups of your information, content and software.
You acknowledge that you use the service, but a “bug” on our Platform could cause you to lose some of your data, alter them or expose them. However, we agree to do all that is required to recover them as far as possible and to guarantee you access to the Platform as quickly as possible.
Article 10. Registration and rights over the User account
10.1. By a Member
All the Members of our Platform have a right to access, modify or cancel their account.
The conditions of termination for a subscription of less than fourteen (14) days for subscribers having taken out a Premium Subscription are governed by article 9 of the Terms of Service. We ask you to refer to it if you are in this situation.
If you have obtained a certificate or a diploma or validated previously acquired experience, we cannot allow your request for cancellation of your account. Because of our regulatory obligations relating to the nature of our activity, we have to keep your student file containing your identity card, and the entire of your path followed with OpenClassrooms. Your data are archived ensuring a maximum degree of security and only allowing access to a limited number of persons in our services. If you wish, we can send you your student file.
If you signed on with us under a Premium Plus Subscription but you have decided to end your path, we will process your request according to whether you have decided permanently to end your Subscription or operate a suspension. In the first case, we will remove all your data within a period of thirty (30) days; in the second case, we will not be able to accede to your request as we have to keep your file once you have graduated due to regulatory constraints relating to the nature of our activity.
Users as well as Premium Solo Subscribers may at any time modify and obtain a right of access to their personal account by contacting us by email at the address: hello@openclasrooms.com. If you wish to cancel your registration to our Platform, please click on the link “I wish to cancel my account” in the tab in the Member profile or contact us by email at the address given above. Your request for cancellation of your account will involve the deletion of your personal data from our databases. Cancellation of your registration will involve the termination of the Contract. The termination will become effective within a period of thirty (30) business days of the receipt by OpenClassrooms of the request for cancellation.
10.2. By OpenClassrooms
If an application for registration to our services is made by a minor without the prior consent of his legal guardian, we can block access to the Account until such consent has been obtained.
Where we note that a User or a Member of or a Visitor to the Platform does not adhere to the present Terms of Use and the Terms of Service, we will contact it to inform it that a penalty may be imposed upon it, in particular the suspension of his account. The Charter of Good Conduct Charter referred to in these Terms of Use must be respected by everyone for the effective operation of the Platform and a good understanding between people.
If no solution can be found and the rules of good conduct are not adhered to, we will be forced to desactivate your account temporarily or permanently and we will contact you first by email.
Article 11. Force majeure
Neither Party will be liable towards the other Party for any delay in performance or non-performance because of the occurrence of an event of force majeure, namely an event outside the control of the Parties that could not reasonably have been foreseen at the time of acceptance of the Terms of Use and whose effects cannot be avoided by appropriate measures.
The event of force majeure suspends the obligations of the Party concerned during the period over which the event of force majeure is in play, if the event is temporary. However, the Parties will try to minimise its effects as far as possible. Otherwise, if the obstacle is permanent, the Parties shall be released from their obligations subject to the conditions given in articles 1351 and 1351-1 of the French Civil Code.
Article 12. Resolution of disputes
The Terms of Use are governed by French law. Any difficulties relating to the validity, application or interpretation of the Terms of Use will, in the absence of an amicable agreement, be referred to the Tribunal de Grande Instance (High Court) of Paris, to which the Parties attribute territorial jurisdiction, irrespective of the place of execution or the domicile of the defendant. This attribution of jurisdiction also applies to urgent interim proceedings, proceedings with multiple defendants or third party guarantor proceedings.