Terms & Conditions

1. Welcome to DownThunder

1.1 DownThunder is developed, owned, operated and maintained by Torsten Schmidt. DownThunder's purpose to share knowledge and experience about Offroad vehicle modifications & aftermarket parts, offroad parks, camp sites and workshop tips and tricks.

1.2 Please note that your access to and use of the Website is subject to your acceptance and compliance with this Agreement. By using and/or continuing to access the Website, you agree to be bound by this Agreement and any amendments to it. If you do not agree to any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement or any amendments, please stop using the Website immediately.

2. About the Agreement

2.1 To make this Agreement easier to read, we have defined certain words and phrases and capitalised them throughout this Agreement. Definitions of those words can be found in clause 19.

2.2 Use of some parts or features of the Website may be governed by other terms and conditions. Those terms and conditions will also apply to this Agreement, and will prevail over this Agreement if there is any inconsistency between them.

2.3 We may amend this Agreement at any time without notice. Any amendments to this Agreement will be effective as soon as they are posted to the Website. By using this Website you agree to be bound by any changes to this Agreement.

3. Membership of the DownThunder Website

3.1 Membership is basically open to everyone. This Website is not available to anyone whose previous membership of the Website has been permanently suspended or terminated the administration.

3.2 Individuals must register in their own right (ie. not on someone else’s behalf).

3.3 We may decide in our sole discretion whether to accept your registration.

3.4 If you register as a member you will receive a password.

3.5 You are entirely responsible for the confidentiality and use of your username and password.DownThunder does not take any responsibility for misuse of membership details. Please notify us immediately if you become aware of any unauthorised use of your username and/or password.

3.6 Your membership account (including any feedback between you and DownThunder, your username and password) is personal to you and may not be sold, assigned or transferred to anyone else. As it is in everyone’s interests to promote authenticity and reliability of membership, if you attempt to sell, assign or transfer any aspect of your account, we may suspend or terminate your membership.

3.7 We will communicate with you through the email address you provide on registration. You should notify us promptly if there is any change in the details you provided on registration.

3.8 By registering as a Member, you agree to be added as a subscriber to our newsletter (at no cost). Our newsletters may include special offers or incentives from our selected partners. Please view our Privacy Policy for what we do with your information. With each email newsletter you will be given the opportunity to opt-out of receiving any future promotional communications.

4. Protecting Your Privacy

4.1 The Website has a Privacy Policy that applies to all users and is incorporated into this Agreement by reference. You should read the Privacy Policy before using the Website.

5. Terminating Your Membership

5.1 Either you or DownThunder may terminate your membership at any time without cause by giving notice to the other in writing.

5.2 If:

  • (1) you breach this Agreement or the terms of any other policy or document incorporated into this Agreement by reference;
  • (2) you act in any manner which we believe is unlawful, or which we believe may give rise to legal liability for you, our Members or DownThunder;
  • (3) we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide us; or
  • (4) other Members frequently leave negative feedback about you, then we may, in our absolute discretion, immediately and without notice, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate this Agreement and your membership of the Website. If we do this, all of Your Information will be automatically removed from the Website.

5.3 If this Agreement terminates:

  • (1) you are no longer authorised to interact with the Website;
  • (2) all restrictions imposed on you, licences granted by you and all disclaimers, indemnities and limitations of liability set out in this Agreement will survive; and
  • (3) any rights or remedies which DownThunder may otherwise have under this Agreement or at law will be unaffected.

6. Use of the Website

6.1 You may not use the Website in any manner or for any purpose that is unlawful, that violates any right of DownThunder or any other person, or that is prohibited by this Agreement. In particular, but without limitation, it is a condition of your use of and/or access to the Website that you do NOT do any of the following:

  • (1) use the Website for commercial purposes unless you are have an agreement with DownThunder;
  • (2) use any mechanism, software or other scripts in relation to the Website which could disrupt or interfere with the Website or any servers, software, hardware or equipment connected to or via the Website, including any robot exclusion headers;
  • (3) restrict or inhibit any other User or Member from using or enjoying the Website;
  • (4) distribute or transmit any content of any kind which contains a virus or other harmful component;
  • (5) distribute, post or upload any pornographic, extremist or racist material or any material which might otherwise be harmful to other Members or Users;
  • (6) use the Website for the purpose of advertising or promoting political parties or extremist organisations;
  • (7) violate any Applicable Law relating to your use of the Website; or
  • (8) use the Website in any manner which we, in our sole opinion, consider inappropriate or inconsistent with the intended purpose of the Website.

6.2 In order to protect other Users, Members and DownThunder from inappropriate use of the Website, you warrant, without limitation, that Your Information:

  • (1) relates directly to 4WD and off-road vehicles, or activities associated with 4WD and off-road vehicles or is information to educate the members of this website about offroading and camping;
  • (2) is owned by you;
  • (3) does not infringe any third party’s copyright, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;
  • (4) is not false, inaccurate, misleading or fraudulent;
  • (5) is not obscene, violent, lewd, sexually explicit, defamatory, libellous, threatening or harassing;
  • (6) does not contain nudity or offensive subject matter or contain a link to an adult website;
  • (7) does not involve commercial activities or sales, including advertising or pyramid schemes;
  • (8) does not promote any criminal activity or enterprise, including but not limited to inciting an act of terrorism, buying or making weapons, or violating someone’s privacy;
  • (9) does not contain or describe pornography and is not otherwise harmful to other Members or Users;
  • (10) does not violate any Applicable Law; and
  • (11) will not create liability for DownThunder or cause us to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our internet service providers or other suppliers.

6.3 DownThunder reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action against any Member who breaches clause 6.2, including without limitation, removing the offending content without notice to the offending Member, terminating their membership, and/or referring a Member to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

6.4 If you believe that a Member has violated this Agreement including without limitation by posting inappropriate or offensive material on this Website, please alert the Website administrators by clicking on the link entitled "Report Abuse”. DownThunder will consider all reported incidents, however it does not guarantee that a request for removal of content will be accepted.

7. Your Information

7.1 DownThunder does not accept responsibility for your information and does not claim any ownership in the Intellectual Property of your information. By posting content on the Website, you grant to DownThunder a non-exclusive worldwide perpetual royalty-free licence (with a right of sub-licence) to use your information, in accordance with, and for the purposes set out in this Agreement and our Privacy Policy.

7.2 You must promptly inform us if you become aware that any of Your Information breaches this Agreement and take whatever steps may be necessary to correct the breach. This clause is not intended to limit our rights under any other provision of this Agreement if such a breach occurs.

7.3 In order to protect your security, we encourage you not to include any personal information that makes you readily identifiable to other Users or Members, for example photos of yourself outside your home, or photos of your car’s licence plate numbers. In addition, you should never share information such as your telephone number or home address with other Members or Users.

7.4 Please refer to our Safety Tips for additional information regarding safety.

8. Other Information

8.1 We do not check, and do not take responsibility for:

  • (1) the veracity, accuracy or completeness of information provided by Members on or in connection with the Website (including the identity, age or place of residence of Members); or
  • (2) the content of information posted on the Website by Members, which other Members may regard as harmful or offensive; or
  • (3) content on this Website which we source from Third Party Websites.

8.2 In using the Website, you acknowledge that Members may have registered under false pretences and that there are risks involved in communicating with and disclosing Your Information to other Members.

8.3 We reserve the right to remove content that we in our sole opinion consider offensive, illegal or may violate the rights of any person, or may harm or threaten the safety of any person.

9. Intellectual Property

9.1 You acknowledge that the content in this Website is the subject of Intellectual Property and legal rights (including third party rights). You may not, during or at any time after the expiry or termination of this Agreement, do or permit any act which infringes any of those rights. All Copyright material on this website is owned by either DownThunder or reproduced with the permission of the author.

9.2 Other than as expressly permitted by law or this Agreement, you may not, without the specific prior written consent of DownThunder, do any of the following things, either directly or indirectly:

  • (1) use, copy, reproduce, translate, reuse, transmit, retransmit, adapt, vary, remove, alter, modify, store, publish, republish, broadcast, link, distribute, frame, post, upload, rewrite, broadcast or store content;
  • (2) incorporate content into any other website or use content for any commercial purpose;
  • (3) store content in a retrieval system by any means, including graphic, electronic or mechanical means, photocopying, recording, taping or storage in an information retrieval system; or
  • (4) use content in any manner or for any purpose which is unlawful, which violates any right of DownThunder or which is prohibited by this Agreement.

Requests for copyright clearance can be made in writing through DownThunder, 170 Leichhardt St, Spring Hill, QLD 4000 Australia.

9.3 Subject to clause 9.2, you must ensure that all copies of material from the Website retain any copyright or other intellectual property notices contained in the original material. 9.4 Some of the copyright in the content is included on the Website under a licence from third parties. Any permission to use, copy or reproduce that content (other than in the course of viewing this Website) must be obtained from the copyright owner. It is your responsibility to obtain such authorisation. Unauthorised use including copying, downloading, printing or linking is not permitted unless otherwise expressly stated. 9.5 All names, logos and trademarks (both registered and unregistered) are the property of Express Publications, or the third parties who have contributed to this Website. Nothing contained on this Website should be construed as granting any licence or right to use or distribute any name, logo or trademark displayed on the Website without the prior express written permission of DownThunder, or the third party contributor. 10. Indemnity and Limitation of liability 10.1 You indemnify DownThunder, its directors, officers, employees, suppliers and agents to the fullest extent permitted by law, from and against all Loss however occurring to you or anyone else arising out of, or in any way connected with, the use of this Website. The cause of the Loss includes but is not limited to: (1) access or use, or inability to access or use this Website; (2) reliance on any content; (3) the transmission of any computer virus; (4) DownThunder’s negligence; (5) a breach of your computer’s security; (6) any unauthorised access to, modification or alteration of content; (7) any material or data sent or received or not sent or received; (8) any infringement of another’s rights, including Intellectual Property; (9) any threatening, defamatory, obscene, offensive, harmful, inappropriate, illegal content or conduct of any party; (10) any content sent by any third party using and/or included in this Website; and (11) delays, interruptions, inaccuracies, errors, omissions or cessation of services. 10.2 In relation to Non Excludable Rights, any liability incurred by DownThunder in relation to the use of this Website or the content is limited as provided under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 Cth. Liability which cannot be excluded, is limited to the extent possible, at DownThunders’ option, to: (1) the supply of the goods or services again; (2) the repair of the goods; or (3) the payment of the cost of having the goods or services supplied again or repaired. 11. Disclaimers 11.1 The Website and the content are provided on an “as is” basis. DownThunder makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the content of the Website. 11.2 From time to time DownThunder may change the Website to add or remove features or services, without liability to Users or Members. 11.3 To the fullest extent permitted by law, DownThunder disclaims all warranties, express or implied or otherwise, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose relating to your use of the Website, or access to or non-access to the Website. In addition, DownThunder does not warrant that the Website or the server that makes it available, or email sent from DownThunder are free of viruses or other harmful components. 12. Links 12.1 The Website contains links to Third Party Websites that are not owned, operated or maintained by DownThunder. DownThunder has no control over the content or policies of such Third Party Websites and accepts no responsibility for any Loss arising from your use of a Third Party Website. 12.2 Links to Third Party Websites are for your convenience only and do not constitute endorsement or recommendation by DownThunder of any material found at those sites. 12.3 You visit Third Party Websites entirely at your own risk. We strongly recommend that you carefully read the terms of use and any related policies of each Third Party Website. 13. Cookies 13.1 During your use of the Website, we may issue to and request from your computer blocks of data known as “cookies”. By using this Website you authorise us to issue such cookies to your computer. You must not alter any cookies sent to your computer from the Website and you must ensure that your computer sends correct and accurate cookies in response to any relevant request from the Website. 14. Miscellaneous 14.1 If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of law, such invalidity or unenforceability will not affect the remainder of this Agreement which will continue in full force and effect. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. 14.2 If you breach any provision of this Agreement, and DownThunder has knowledge of that breach, a failure to pursue legal action or to enforce any remedy against you will not constitute a waiver of our legal rights. Any waiver or legal rights granted under this Agreement will only be effective if it is in writing and signed by DownThunder. 15. Governing law and jurisdiction 15.1 All matters relating to this Website are governed by and are to be construed according to the laws applicable in the State of Queensland, Australia. You irrevocably and unconditionally submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Queensland ,Australia. 15.2 DownThunder has the right to commence and prosecute any action or proceeding before any court of competent jurisdiction to obtain injunctive or other relief if DownThunder considers (in its discretion) that the action is necessary or desirable. 16. Using the Website from outside Australia 16.1 If you access the Website from a country other than Australia and the content and this Agreement do not satisfy the laws of your country, you are not entitled to use the Website or become a Member. 16.2 If you do use the Website despite infringing clause 16.1, you agree to indemnify DownThunder for any Loss which may be incurred as a consequence. 17. Publication of third party articles and photographs 17.1 Under this section you request DownThunder to Your Works on its website and you give your consent to DownThunder to do so. 17.2 DownThunder agrees to publish Your Works on its website subject to this Agreement. 17.3 You acknowledge and agree that there will be no fee charged by you or DownThunder for Your Work being published on the DownThunder website. 17.4You give DownThunder permission to amend your grammar in Your Work including the right to alter, modify, add or delete part of your Work including not identifying you as the author of the Work. 17.5You give DownThunder permission to delete any part of Your Work which is obscene or otherwise deemed by DownThunder to be not politically correct. 17.6You warrant to DownThunder that your Works are original and do not : (a) infringe any existing copyright or other intellectual property rights of any other third party; (b) contain any defamatory material as defined by the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW); (c) include material which is misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive viewers; (d) contain obscene or illegal material; (e) contain content that breaches any law. 17.7 You will provide DownThunder with an indemnity in the event that you breach your warranty set out in this Agreement against all loss, injury or damage ( including legal costs or expenses properly incurred) occasioned to DownThunder in consequence of any breach by you of this warranty. 17.8 Subject to this Agreement you will retain all copyright in your works. 17.9 You warrant that you have obtained the necessary consents of third parties to display their trademarks and other intellectual property on our website. 17.10 You warrant that in Your Works you will not provide any links whether legal or illegal links to third party websites. 17.11 You may use our web address to link our website to another website provided that the other website is a legal website. Such link shall not be construed as DownThunder endorsing that other website. 17.12 You acknowledge that you will provide a statement on Your Works as to whether you permit it to be copied or downloaded. In the event that you do not provide such a statement then our website will have a general prohibition to copying, downloading, printing material or linking material to another website. 17.13 This Agreement is governed by the law of QLD and the Commonwealth of Australia and you unconditionally and irrevocably agree to submit to the courts of either jurisdiction. 17.14 By submitting Your Works to DownThunder to republish on its website you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to the conditions above. 19. Definitions 19.1 In this Agreement: (1) Agreement means the terms, conditions, notices, disclaimers and offers to purchase contained in this document and elsewhere on the Website; (2) Applicable Law in relation to any person, action or thing means the following in relation to that person, action or thing: (a) any law, rule or regulation of any country (or political sub-division of a country); (b) any obligation under any licence in any country (or political sub-division of a country); (c) any lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator in any country (or political sub-division of a country); (3) content means any information including files, text, material, images, data, sounds, graphics, software, photos, graphics, software downloads, goods, service documents, layouts, applets, CGI interfaces, product photographs, screen designs, descriptions, illustrations, catalogues, advertisements, third party advertisements, publicity material, audio and video material, references to products or services, or specifications contained in, referred to, on this Website, obtained or able to be viewed by accessing any part of this Website (which may be out of date or superseded), whether it be obtained directly or indirectly, in any machine or human readable format; (4) DownThunder means DownThunder its subsidiaries, officers, agents, directors, officers, employees and “related bodies corporate” as defined in the Corporations Act 2001; (5) Intellectual Property means all intellectual property rights as defined by Article 2 of the World Intellectual Property Organisation Convention 1967, in any inventions, designs, trademarks, trade names, circuit layouts, plant varieties, business and domain names, logos and get-up, confidential information, matter, materials or works accessible on or via the Website; (6) Loss means any direct, special, indirect, incidental or consequential liabilities, damages, claims, losses, costs, expenses, actions, claims, suits, demands, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), statute or otherwise, whether suffered by you, someone else, or claims made against you through the use of this Website. This includes, but is not limited to, loss of business profits, legal costs and defence or settlement costs; (7) Member means any person who has registered as a member on the Website; (8) Non Excludable Rights means the rights and remedies conferred by the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 Cth and similar State and Territory Legislation in Australia in relation to the provision of goods or services on web sites which cannot be excluded, restricted or modified. Where any Act of Parliament implies any term, condition, representation or warranty into the use of this Website or your use of or access to the Website, and that Act prohibits exclusion of that term, condition, representation or warranty, then it will be included in these Non Excludable Rights; (9) Services means the services provided by DownThunder on the Website; (10) Third Party Websites means sites and resources located on servers maintained by others over whom DownThunder has no control; (11) User means any person who visits and browses the Website but has not registered as a Member; (12) Website means those web pages contained within the domain http://www.downthunder.com.au and any sub-domains; and (13) Your Information means any information you provide to us or other Members in the process of registering as a Member, creating a gallery, posting content onto the Website, posting messages using noticeboards or other communication tools on the Website (including the feedback area) or otherwise in corresponding with us or other Members, and includes: (a) your personal details; (b) information provided under clause 3; and (c) content posted by you on the Website. (14) Your Work/s means your article/s and /or photograph/s.