Terms of Service

Last updated: 12 June 2024

Your Acceptance of These Terms

When you open this site and start reading, you accept the terms set out below. That acceptance is automatic — no signature, no checkbox. It simply follows from your use of the pages.

These terms apply to everyone. Whether you arrived to read a record review, study an audio engineering piece, or browse our featured artists, the same conditions cover your visit.

If any part of what follows doesn't sit right with you, the answer is straightforward: stop using the site. Continued browsing signals that you're comfortable with the whole agreement.

License to Use Site Materials

We grant you a limited license to view and read everything here for your own personal, non-commercial enjoyment. Read the classical insights over coffee, bookmark a recording you want to revisit, share a link with a friend who loves the music. That's exactly what the site is for.

What the license does not allow is republishing. You may not copy articles wholesale, resell our material, scrape the catalogue, or mirror pages on another domain. The reviews, essays, photographs, and design elements are ours, and every right not expressly granted here stays reserved.

A short quotation with a credit and a link back is normal practice and welcome. Lifting an entire piece is not.

Warranty Disclaimer

We write carefully and check our facts, but we offer everything on this site without warranties of any kind. The pages come as they are.

We can't promise that every detail is error-free or that prices, release dates, and technical specifications stay current after publication. Recordings get reissued, equipment gets revised, and links occasionally break.

So treat the material as informed commentary rather than the last word. Before you act on something with real consequences — a significant purchase or a technical decision in your own listening room, check with a qualified professional or confirm the detail at the source.

User Obligations and Conduct

Using the site comes with a few reasonable expectations on your side.

When you fill in a form, whether to ask a question or sign up for an update, give us accurate information. Stale or false details make it hard for us to respond well, and on contact forms they simply waste everyone's time.

Don't misuse the service. That means no attempts to disrupt the site, probe it for weaknesses, overload it with automated traffic, or breach any security measure protecting it or its visitors. And whatever you do here, stay within the laws that apply to you.

These are common-sense boundaries. Most readers never bump against them.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for damages that arise from your use of this site or your reliance on anything published on it.

That exclusion covers indirect, incidental, and consequential losses — the knock-on effects rather than the direct ones. If a recommendation didn't suit your setup, or a link led somewhere unexpected, the responsibility for how you act on our content rests with you.

Where local law sets a floor on liability that cannot be waived, this clause applies only up to that limit and no further.

Governing Law and Severability

These terms are governed by the local law that applies to John Marks Records, and any dispute connected to them falls to the relevant courts in that jurisdiction.

Severability keeps the agreement intact even if one part fails. Should a court find any single clause invalid or unenforceable, that clause drops away and everything else stays in force, read as closely as possible to its original intent.

Changes to These Terms

We update these terms from time to time. A new disclaimer requirement, a change in how the site works, or a shift in the law can all prompt a revision.

When that happens, the revised version replaces this one on this page, and your continued use afterward counts as acceptance of the change. The date at the top always reflects the most recent update, so it's the quickest way to check whether anything has moved since your last visit.

We don't email every reader about minor edits, so a glance at that date is worth a moment.

Getting in Touch

If a clause here reads ambiguously or you're unsure how it applies to something you want to do, ask us before you assume. A short question now saves confusion later.