As per the stated Terms & Conditions, there will be repeated use of certain terms, unless mentioned otherwise, which are intended to mean the following:
"Website" refers to dotWriter™ - the Premium Content Marketplace.
"User" and "Member" refer to any entity accessing, registering, submitting and/or purchasing original content on the website.
"Writer" refers to those authors of articles submitting original content to the Marketplace, Custom Jobs and/or Private Hires under their personal profile as registered on the website.
"Buyer" refers to those purchasing articles either through the Marketplace, Custom Jobs and/or Private Hires under their personal profile as registered on the website.
This page (together with our Privacy Policy and Acceptable Use Policy tells you information about us and the legal Terms of Service (Terms) on which we sell any of the products (Products) listed on our website (our site) to you.
These Terms will apply to any contract between us for the sale of Products to you (Contract). Please read these Terms carefully and make sure that you understand them, before ordering/purchasing any Products from our site. Please note by accessing dotWriter™ you acknowledge that you have read and understood, and that you agree to abide by these Terms, which may be amended at any time. If you do not agree with these Terms of Service, as amended, you may not use the website or any of the services offered by or through dotWriter™, as described in these Terms.
dotWriter™ reserves the right to amend these terms at any time, such amendments to take effect immediately following publication on the website. Your continued use of the website or the services constitutes your acknowledgment that you have read, understood and agreed to abide by the amended terms.
The dotWriter™ provides an online platform, allowing members to upload, offer, buy and sell text articles.
Only persons (individuals or legal entities) who are legally entitled under their own laws to validly enter into contract may become Members. Users can be Writers, Buyers or both.
When a User registers on the Website and creates his Member Account, User will choose a username and password. Only User is responsible for maintaining confidentiality and security of this username and password.
The username once set while directly signing up on dotWriter cannot be changed. For Users who sign up via Facebook, the username will be their Facebook account number; this too cannot be modified.
Any use done through such username and password will be the sole responsibility of the User.
User may cancel or terminate his/her account at any time by sending an email to support@dotwriter.com.Any pending balance in the User's account will be processed in 30 days of the date of termination. All approved marketplace articles will be removed from the marketplace once the account has been cancelled.
dotWriter™ may terminate any Member account, with or without prior notice, when, in the reasonable opinion of dotWriter™, Member is in breach of any of the Terms of Use, or Member is in breach of any applicable law, regulation or any third party right. dotWriter™ may withhold any payment until it has been assessed whether or not dotWriter™ has incurred any damages as a result of the event causing termination. dotWriter™ is allowed to set off any remaining monies in the account against such damages or potential damages.
By registering with dotWriter™, you must complete a User Profile, that you consent to be shown to other Users and the public. You agree to provide true, accurate and complete information on your Profile and all registration and other forms you access on the Website or provide to us and to update your information to maintain its truthfulness, accuracy and completeness. You agree not to provide and to correct any information about your location, your business, your skills or the services your business provides that is or becomes false or misleading. You agree not to register for more than one Buyer and/or Writer account without prior permission from dotWriter™. You agree not to ask or allow another person to create an Account on your behalf for your use, or for your benefit.
The User can modify his/her full name only once (1) after signing up and it is the responsibility of the User to provide correct details.
Profile images/pictures being uploaded by the User need to be professional and may be sourced from the User's personal social media websites, including but not limited to, Facebook. A clear image that depicts the User's identity is ideal. Images of an obscene or graphic nature, including those depicting pornography, violence, racism or otherwise considered offensive to a viewer, will result in possible action being taken on the User's account, including termination of the account and prevention of further use of the Website.
Profanity Clause -
Any User/Member registered at dotWriter™ found guilty of using foul and/or unprofessional language not limited to words, images, emojis, videos and/or exhibiting unethical or criminal behavior on the platform or while communicating with team members of dotWriter™ will be subject to the account being flagged and/or suspended indefinitely. A permanent ban will be imposed on users found guilty of such behavior and all approved marketplace articles will be permanently deleted from dotWriter™.
Account Suspension / Blocked
If a User fails to follow the terms of service including, but not limited to the terms mentioned above, in addition to any of dotWriter™'s content guidelines, communication with support/other users, profanity clause, false details provided in profile information, non-compliance with dotWriter™'s payment process, among others, their dotWriter™ account will be flagged. If the account has been flagged thrice, the User's account will be suspended/blocked. In extreme circumstances, the User is blocked before the three warnings depending on the nature of the breach of dotWriter™'s terms.
dotWriter™ has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarized content and content that is unacceptable in nature, including but not limited to content that is sexually explicit, violent, graphic, promoting terrorism, hate speech, violation of rights among others. In the event that a User repeatedly submits plagiarized/unacceptable content and/or submits Copyscape-passed content that gets approved on dotWriter™ and then submits the same content to other income generating sites, content marketplaces, blogs/websites and the like, the User's account on dotWriter™ will be blocked/suspended permanently, without any warning. At dotWriter™, we maintain highest standards when it comes to content, ethical practices being conducted on the platform and submitting identical content online or offline after being approved on dotWriter™ is unacceptable and will result in a permanent ban.
For any blocked/suspended account, the User will no longer have access to their dotWriter™ account. An investigation will be conducted and any approved articles in the marketplace will be deleted immediately and will be unavailable for sale on dotWriter. The amounts of any plagiarized/unacceptable articles (said article) sold will not be available to the User, nor can it be withdrawn, but it will be returned to the User who purchased the said article. If the User has already withdrawn the amount received from the purchase of the said article, then the amount will need to be returned to User who paid the amount via PayPal within 7 days or it will be reported to the escrow provider PayPal.
Any pending balance/ funds in the blocked dotWriter™ account will be released to the registered PayPal address only after a thorough investigation of the account - which is scheduled to take place within 45 days of the account getting blocked - and on the condition that there are no further breaches in the terms. For investigations that are criminal in nature, the User/Member will be reported to the local and or/cyber police.
The Writer grants to dotWriter™ a non-exclusive right to package, sell and distribute the articles on behalf of the Writer and to use and to reproduce the Writer's marks and trademarks, as dotWriter™ considers reasonably necessary, in the sale or licence of articles on behalf of the Writer. You further authorize dotWriter™, its employees, agents and affiliates to store, resize, copy, distribute, transmit, display, reproduce, transfer, access the articles for any purpose that dotWriter™ considers necessary, in its sole discretion. Finally, you authorize dotWriter™ to use the articles as necessary, in the opinion of dotWriter™, for the promotion of the Website and the Services. Notwithstanding the foregoing, dotWriter™ acknowledges and agrees that it has no right, title or interest in or to the articles except as are expressly granted in these Terms.
All articles offered for Sale by Writers on the Website is and must be generated by the Writer, and is never considered generated by dotWriter™. dotWriter™ does not claim any ownership or other Intellectual Property Right in any article. Only the Writer is responsible for any article posted by him/her.
Writers may only upload original articles, created by or on behalf of a Writer, and to which the Writer has sufficient Intellectual Property Rights (including but not limited to copyright) to Sell such article(s) to a Buyer.
Each Member grants to dotWriter™ a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual license to use any article or any other material posted or used by such Member on the Website, for any purpose or function, including for the purpose of offering the Services through the Website. This license includes, but is not limited to, the right to post parts of any article on the Website in order to indicate to potential Buyers the material provided, in order to allow potential Buyers to assess the value of any article. The provisions of the Terms of Use do not limit, restrict or impact applicable law, such as but not limited to, the rules on fair use of copyrighted material.
dotWriter™ is entitled, at any time, in its absolute discretion, to remove from or disallow any article or other material on the Website. Members can never claim any compensation, damages or rights resulting from such removal or disallowance.
Articles once submitted and approved for sale in the dotWriter™ marketplace will not be returned to the Writer in any form, nor can any requests for returning of the articles be made, nor will it be entertained due to privacy and security reasons. Once an article has been approved for sale in the dotWriter™ marketplace, it will only be accessible to the Buyer once the article is purchased; the Writer cannot access the article once it has been approved by the Editors to the marketplace for security reasons and in order to protect any modifications to the article and prevent any duplicate submissions. It is the sole responsibility of the Writer to maintain a record of any/all content submitted to the dotWriter™ marketplace for their personal records/portfolio and dotWriter™ cannot be held responsible or liable to provide a copy of the approved articles in any court of law. No legal action, lawsuit or claims can be made for the return of the approved marketplace articles by the Writer.
All articles sold on dotWriter™ are Copyscape checked and hence, not considered as plagiarized. If content is found to be similar from any other published source(s), this will be treated as pure coincidence and no issue raised, including refund of amount spent for the article by the buyer, nor objection by any other source, will be taken to mean that the article has been plagiarized.
All transactions made to dotWriter involve a convenience fee which is borne by the user at the time of making a payment via the PayPal payment gateway, this is a non-refundable fee.
When a buyer adds money (credits) to his/her dotWriter account, the buyer has to manually verify the payment by sending across the PayPal transaction reference number to dotWriter's support id thereby confirming that the payment has been authorized. Without this authorization, the credits will not be added to the buyer's account and with no response in 5 (five) days, the credits will be returned to the buyer's account.
dotWriter does Not accept any automated and/or monthly recurring payments nor stores any of the user's banking passwords or credit/debit card details, the user has to manually verify that he/she has authorised a PayPal payment to dotWriter for any Credits to be added to the dotWriter account by sharing the PayPal reference number ans amount credited. Once verified and added in the account, the user has to manually checkout to purchase articles and utilise the credits added to dotWriter. As dotWriter is a self-serve platform, dotWriter will at no time automatically checkout a user's cart in their account. Given this, any claims that a payment has been unauthorised will at no time be entertained as a reason for a refund or dispute of any nature. If the user disputes the payment, dotWriter will address the dispute via the escrow provider’s dispute resolution terms of PayPal.
If, at any given time, a transaction to dotWriter is flagged as a potentially high-risk transaction, the amount added to dotWriter via PayPal will be result in the user’s account being put on hold to review the transaction and the buyer will be contacted regarding the payment and accordingly the payment will either be cancelled and returned and/or if credits have been used, then only the unused credits will be returned on the basis of the communication/ no communication from the buyer. Should there be an issue with this transaction, it is the responsibility of the user to contact dotWriter support and communicate this for a resolution.
The transaction to dotWriter may incur a currency conversion fee, certain taxes or other fees levied by user’s credit or debit card company/ financial institution or bank due to the user’s usage of a credit & debit card/ bank account on PayPal and we are not liable for any of these fees charged to the user.
A Writer offering Content for Sale to a Buyer through the Website, in accordance with these Terms of Use, offers to Writer to assign all assignable copyright in the article.
The assignment described as "Sale" herein, is the widest assignment possible under applicable law, including but not limited to, for the avoidance of doubt, the irrevocable right to copy, distribute, use, create derivative works of, reproduce, in any technological format, existing today or to be developed in the future, including the right to sue for infringement, both for the past and the future, in the widest sense possible, as well as the right to prevent any third party to do any of the foregoing.
Each Writer irrevocably commits to a Buyer that any content from a sold article, to the extent it is not fully assigned, will not be re-used in any other material or article, or will not be assigned or licensed to any third party, in a manner that would constitute a breach of copyright of the article. Once an article has been submitted on dotWriter™, it may not be reproduced by the Writer, in part or whole, through any other published source, whether written or online, without prior permission from dotWriter™. If the article is reproduced (in any form and on any medium) without permission from dotWriter™, the User's account will be suspended, the User will be permanently banned and any/all articles in the account will be removed from the marketplace and deleted.
dotWriter™ makes no statement or provides no guarantee on the quality or fitness for purpose of any article, and disclaims any liability in this respect. All articles are provided on an "as is" basis, and only the Writer posting the article is responsible for such article(s).
To the fullest extent permissible under applicable law, dotWriter™ will have no liability, and any Member waives any claim, based on the Website, its performance and functions, the services provided thereon, any article or other material posted on the Website, or any transaction or Sale transacted through the Website. dotWriter™ is to be considered as offering "mere conduit", and its liabilities (if any) are restricted to offering the technical possibility of accessing the platform, subject to availability of the Internet, and the Member's ability to access and use the functionality of the Website.
Subject to any limitations expressed herein, the Member covenants and agrees to indemnify and save dotWriter™ and any officer, director, employee, parent company, subsidiary or affiliated company harmless from and against any and all claims, actions, proceedings, suits, losses, costs, expenses, or damages suffered or incurred by or arising from any breach by the indemnifying party of any of the its representations, warranties, covenants or obligations arising hereunder.
For any suspicious transactions on the website by accounts using fraudulent methods via third party sites, dotWriter™ will not be held responsible for such transactions nor will be liable to process any such payments to any account. If a user believes an account is acting suspiciously, the account needs to be reported to dotWriter™.
Credits and Funds forwarded to, and remitted from dotWriter™ will be done so through PayPal, a trusted international escrow service. In order to Add or Withdraw Funds through your dotWriter™ account, you will need to have a registered PayPal account. Due to the sensitivity of financial information being distributed on the Internet, dotWriter™ has taken necessary precautions to verify email addresses being registered on the Website. Should there be breach of security through the escrow website, dotWriter™ will not be held responsible for transactions taking place before a written alert by the User about possible breach/fraud on the escrow account.
Credits forwarded to dotWriter™ directly by Credit Card (CC) will also be done so through PayPal.
To prevent cyber fraud and in order to provide a safe and secure content marketing platform, all payments made to dotWriter™ need to be manually authorized by the User in order to confirm that the payment added to dotWriter™ as Credits has been authorized by the user. After a payment has been made to dotWriter™, please email support@dotwriter.com and share the following details in order to verify your transaction on dotWriter™.:
- PayPal transaction number
- Amount added
- Username or email address associated with the dotWriter™ account.
Once successfully verified, the Credits will be approved and will then reflect in your dotWriter™ account under the Credits section.
For any suspicious payments that have been made to dotWriter™ via PayPal and get flagged by our security system internally; dotWriter™ has the right to disapprove & refund the suspected payment and report the transaction and PayPal account to PayPal for further investigation. dotWriter™ will not be responsible for any charges or fees incurred due to the rejection of a transaction or any unsuccessful payment made by the User via PayPal on dotWriter™.
All Credits added to the account will be used for the sole purpose of purchasing articles, for tips or for purchasing gift cards. Any pending Credits need to be utilized and cannot be withdrawn. In exceptional circumstances if the User wants to withdraw Credits, the account will need to be terminated, access to any ongoing services will be shut and any credits will be returned within 30 days after reviewing the account.
A convenience fee will be charged on every transaction for adding Credits via the PayPal payment gateway. This fee is charged per successful transaction and is non-refundable.
Once a Buyer makes makes a purchase of article(s) through the Marketplace, Custom Jobs and/or Private Hire, Credits/Funds will not be returned under any circumstances. Claims to unauthorized purchases made through PayPal will not be taken up with the escrow service, but rather with those authorized by the Website. dotWriter™ will be the sole discretionary party for return of funds under our Policies and sufficient and satisfactory evidence is produced by the User about said unauthorized transactions including, but not limited to, purchase of article(s) on dotWriter™.
In order to view the first words of an article, a user must have a minimum of $20 Credits or Funds in their account. If the user does not have $20 in their account, Credits can be added from the Finance section of the account via PayPal. Once added, the user will be able to view the first words of every article in the marketplace.
Note: By adding Credits, the user accepts that all Credits added to dotWriter are non-refundable, nor can any claim be made for refunds or reimbursements of any sort via PayPal. Any issues must be reported to Support first.
For security purposes, it is mandatory to have a verified PayPal email address in All user accounts on dotWriter. Payments will not be processed if a user has not verified his/her account information and PayPal email address on dotWriter.
dotWriter will not be responsible for payments processed to users PayPal accounts that have been added in error by the user or not updated to the correct one by the user. Users who add credits must have a verified PayPal email address for Credits to reflect in their dotWriter account.
Effective: December 2014
Updated: November 2021