OTHERWISE — ARC Confidentiality & Limited-Use Agreement (Click-through NDA)
Last updated: 8 September 2026 · Version 2026.09.08-ARC-NDA-v2
These terms apply to any unpublished or pre-publication manuscript, advance reader copy, proof, excerpt, digital file, physical copy, artwork, supplementary material, or other pre-release material relating to OTHERWISE supplied to you (“ARC Materials”). These terms are between you and Ekarth Ventures Private Limited, operator of OTHERWISE, on behalf of the applicable rights holders. By ticking the checkbox above and requesting or accepting ARC Materials, you agree as follows.
1. Personal advance access
The ARC Materials are supplied solely for your personal reading, evaluation and voluntary feedback before public release. They are not supplied for redistribution, resale, publication, commercial exploitation or public archival use. Ownership of a physical ARC does not transfer any copyright, publication, adaptation or other intellectual-property rights in its contents.
2. Unpublished and confidential material
You understand that the ARC Materials may contain unpublished, confidential and commercially sensitive creative material. Until the relevant material has been officially made public by the rights holder, you agree to treat the unpublished contents as confidential under these terms. Information already lawfully public through an authorised release is not confidential merely because it also appears in the ARC Materials.
3. What you may do
You may read the ARC Materials for your own personal use; make private notes for yourself; provide private comments, criticism or feedback to the author, publisher or authorised OTHERWISE team; discuss material already officially released to the public; and keep a lawfully supplied physical ARC for your personal collection unless you have separately agreed to return it. Nothing in these terms requires a favourable review, endorsement, contribution, payment or feedback.
4. What you must not do before authorised publication
Unless you receive prior written permission, you must not:
- copy, scan, photograph or reproduce substantial portions of the ARC Materials;
- upload the manuscript or any substantial part of it to a website, cloud folder, file-sharing service, AI dataset, repository, archive, torrent, messaging group or other distribution system;
- email, message, transfer or forward the ARC file to another person;
- publicly distribute or publish unpublished text, illustrations, images, pages or screenshots;
- sell, rent, sublicense or commercially exploit the ARC Materials;
- create or distribute unauthorised editions, translations, audiobooks, adaptations, substitute summaries, derivative publications or merchandise;
- use unpublished material to train, fine-tune or populate a commercial AI model or dataset;
- remove or alter copyright, watermark, ownership, access-control or identification information attached to the ARC Materials; or
- help another person do any of the above.
5. Public reviews and commentary
Unless the invitation accompanying your ARC expressly says otherwise, you may publicly state that you have received or are reading an advance copy. Before the authorised review or publication date, however, you must not disclose substantial unpublished plot developments, manuscript text, images, endings, reveals, confidential production information or other material that would materially defeat the purpose of advance confidentiality. After authorised publication, you remain free to express your own genuine opinions, criticism and commentary, subject to ordinary copyright law and any continuing confidentiality applying to material that has not been publicly released. Nothing in these terms requires a positive review or restricts honest criticism.
6. No transfer of intellectual-property rights
All copyright, trademark, design, adaptation, publication and other intellectual-property rights in the ARC Materials remain with their respective owners. Your access is a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable permission to read and evaluate the ARC Materials. No rights are granted by implication.
7. Security of digital copies
If you receive a digital ARC, you agree to take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised access or distribution. If you become aware that the ARC file has been lost, publicly exposed, improperly shared or accessed without permission, please notify the OTHERWISE team promptly so reasonable steps can be taken to limit further disclosure.
8. Accidental disclosure
An accidental disclosure does not automatically mean deliberate misconduct. If unpublished material is accidentally shared or exposed, you agree to cooperate reasonably in removing or restricting the material once you become aware of the problem.
9. Remedies for serious unauthorised distribution
You acknowledge that deliberate public distribution of an unpublished manuscript may cause harm that cannot always be adequately repaired by monetary compensation alone. In the case of a serious or continuing unauthorised disclosure, the rights holder may seek appropriate legal remedies, including orders requiring unauthorised material to be removed or further distribution to stop. These terms do not create a penalty or predetermined damages obligation unless separately agreed in writing.
10. No obligation to publish or supply a final copy
An ARC may differ from the final published work. Providing an ARC does not constitute a promise that the work will be published in its present form, on a particular date, or at all.
11. Privacy
Personal information provided in connection with the ARC will be handled in accordance with the applicable OTHERWISE privacy notice. These confidentiality terms do not give OTHERWISE permission to publicly identify you as a reader or reviewer without your consent.
12. Entire agreement for ARC access
These terms govern confidentiality and permitted use of the ARC Materials unless you and the rights holder have separately entered into a written agreement covering the same material. If another written agreement expressly conflicts with these terms, that written agreement controls to the extent of the conflict.
13. Governing law and jurisdiction
These terms are governed by the laws of India. Subject to applicable law, courts having jurisdiction in Chennai, Tamil Nadu will have jurisdiction over disputes arising from these terms.
14. Feedback, suggestions and reader contributions
By submitting comments, corrections, suggestions, ideas, reactions or other feedback concerning OTHERWISE, you give the author permission to consider, adapt, develop, incorporate, use or decline that feedback in connection with the manuscript, its revisions and related works, without any obligation to compensate or credit you unless separately agreed in writing.
You retain ownership of any independently copyrightable material that you submit. Your submission of feedback, and the author’s consideration, adaptation or incorporation of it, does not give you any ownership, co-authorship, approval, accounting or other rights in OTHERWISE, the manuscript, or any related work.
Ideas, concepts, themes, suggestions, corrections and other elements that are not independently protected by copyright may be considered and used by the author without further permission. If the author wishes to reproduce substantial independently copyrightable expression supplied by you, rather than merely considering or adapting the underlying feedback or ideas, any necessary permission or rights arrangement will be agreed separately.
