E-book Licensing Policy

1.1 This Policy applies to all e-books, digital editions of Paricharchā, and other downloadable or online-readable publications sold, licensed, or otherwise made available through the ParibhaAsha website, digital reader, or any associated platform or interface.

1.2 This Policy applies in addition to, and not in substitution of, the Terms and Conditions and the Refund, Cancellation & Return Policy.

1.3 For the avoidance of doubt, titles made available from ParibhaAsha’s public-domain classical literature collection may be accessed without charge and without a purchase. No licence under this Policy is required for such free-access titles, since no sale occurs.

1.4 This Policy applies equally to:

e-books and digital editions published by ParibhaAsha;

Assisted Titles, meaning marketplace titles produced with ParibhaAsha under the Assisted Publishing Services of the Author & Publisher Publishing and Distribution Agreement; and

marketplace titles supplied in finished form by third-party authors, publishers, or rights holders through ParibhaAsha.

2.1 Upon purchase of an e-book, digital edition, or downloadable publication, the customer is granted a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and read the work through ParibhaAsha’s website, reader, or other authorised digital interface.

2.2 Such purchase does not constitute a sale or transfer of ownership of:

the underlying intellectual property rights;

the digital file;

any copy of the work;

any publishing rights; or

any other proprietary interest in the work.

2.3 Except as expressly stated in writing at the time of purchase, the licence is granted only to the individual account holder or, in the case of institutional purchases, to the institution identified at the time of purchase.

2.4 The licence shall not be assigned, transferred, sublicensed, gifted, shared, or otherwise made available to any other person, account, entity, or organisation.

2.5 For a marketplace title, the customer’s licence is derived from, and limited by, the licence the seller grants ParibhaAsha under the Author & Publisher Publishing and Distribution Agreement. The customer’s licence cannot be wider than the seller’s licence to ParibhaAsha.

3.1 The licence granted under this Policy permits:

personal reading in the case of individual purchases; or

authorised internal reading access in the case of institutional purchases, limited to the number of users, seats, or authorised readers specified at the time of purchase.

3.2 Subject to Applicable Law and any express written permission granted by ParibhaAsha or the applicable rights holder, the customer shall not:

resell, redistribute, copy, publish, upload, or publicly post the licensed work;

reproduce the work in whole or in part for commercial use;

circumvent or attempt to circumvent any access controls or digital rights protections;

sublicense or permit third-party access beyond the authorised use; or

use the work in any manner not expressly permitted under this Policy or the applicable listing terms.

3.3 The restrictions in this Policy are in addition to, and do not limit, the intellectual property terms set out in the Terms and Conditions.

4.1 Unless otherwise disclosed on the relevant title page, e-books and digital editions shall ordinarily be delivered through ParibhaAsha’s protected in-app reader or web reader and shall not be supplied as unrestricted downloadable files such as plain EPUB or PDF copies.

4.2 The content may be transmitted, rendered, or displayed in a protected format designed to deter unauthorised copying, forwarding, printing, or redistribution.

4.3 Where a title is offered in a different delivery format, including any DRM-free or alternative format, such fact shall be expressly disclosed on the relevant product or listing page at the point of sale.

5.1 Access to a licensed title may be subject to reasonable device limits, session limits, account authentication requirements, login controls, or anti-abuse safeguards as notified by ParibhaAsha from time to time. By default, a licence may be used on one desktop and one mobile device, with up to two active sessions at a time, one on each.

5.2 ParibhaAsha reserves the right to regulate access where it reasonably believes that:

an account is being shared;

access credentials are being misused;

technical integrity or security is at risk; or

such action is required to comply with Applicable Law or rights-holder restrictions.

6.1 Subject to payment of the applicable consideration, compliance with this Policy, and continued maintenance of the applicable platform services, the customer shall retain access to the title in accordance with the licence terms granted at the time of purchase.

6.2 If a title is later withdrawn from active sale, discontinued, delisted, or removed from the catalogue, any customer who has already validly purchased access to that title shall continue to retain access on the same terms as previously applicable, unless:

access is lawfully suspended or terminated due to breach, misuse, fraud, or violation of this Policy or the Terms and Conditions; or

continuing access is prevented by a legal requirement, court order, rights-holder restriction, or force majeure event beyond ParibhaAsha’s reasonable control.

6.3 The continuity-of-access commitment in this Clause shall be read together with the Refund, Cancellation & Return Policy and the Author & Publisher Publishing and Distribution Agreement applicable to third-party seller titles.

6.4 If ParibhaAsha permanently discontinues the reader or the platform, or transfers it to another operator, it shall give customers reasonable prior written notice and shall either ensure continued access on the same terms through the successor operator, or, where the rights holder permits, provide an offline export of the licensed title, or, failing both, refund the price paid for the title.

7.1 The customer shall not:

share login credentials with any other person;

allow simultaneous use beyond the permitted limit;

extract, scrape, reverse engineer, modify, or interfere with the platform or reader;

use any licensed title for any commercial, institutional, publishing, archival, training, or AI-related purpose except where expressly permitted in writing; or

remove or alter any copyright notice, digital watermark, or rights-management notice.

7.2 Any unauthorised use shall constitute a material breach of this Policy and may result in immediate suspension or termination of access, without prejudice to ParibhaAsha’s other rights and remedies.

8.1 Assisted Titles, and e-books and digital editions supplied in finished form by third-party authors, publishers, or rights holders through the ParibhaAsha marketplace, shall be governed by this Policy in the same manner as ParibhaAsha’s own paid digital editions, unless the listing expressly states otherwise.

8.2 Errors introduced in the production of an Assisted Title, including proofreading, typesetting, page setup, design, fonts, and images supplied by ParibhaAsha, are the responsibility of ParibhaAsha. Disputes regarding the content, ownership, licensing chain, or representations made by a marketplace seller shall ordinarily be directed in the first instance to the seller concerned.

8.3 Where the grievance relates to ParibhaAsha’s own platform facilitation, access, payment processing, delivery mechanism, or consumer-facing service obligations, the matter may be escalated to ParibhaAsha in accordance with the applicable grievance process.

9.1 ParibhaAsha may suspend, restrict, or terminate access to any licensed title or account where it reasonably determines that the customer has:

breached this Policy or the Terms and Conditions;

engaged in fraud, misuse, or attempted circumvention of access controls;

infringed intellectual property rights; or

used the platform in a manner harmful to ParibhaAsha, rights holders, or other users.

9.2 Where practicable and not prohibited by law or operational necessity, ParibhaAsha may provide prior notice of suspension or termination. However, immediate action may be taken where required to protect the platform, users, rights holders, or legal compliance interests.

10.1 Once access to a licensed digital title has been successfully granted, the purchase shall generally be treated as final and non-refundable, except where the Refund, Cancellation & Return Policy expressly provides otherwise.

10.2 Any refund, replacement, or re-access request relating to digital content shall be dealt with strictly in accordance with the Refund, Cancellation & Return Policy.

11.1 All intellectual property rights in the platform, reader, layout, technology, interface, metadata structures, and associated branding shall remain the exclusive property of ParibhaAsha or its licensors, as applicable. This includes ParibhaAsha's proprietary reader and delivery technology, a protected reading experience built in-house for regional-language literature, with a private delivery system that keeps each title with its paying readers, and reading tools made for the way people read regional-language books, and the protections built into it, including device and session controls and, where applied, watermarking of the reading copy.

11.2 All intellectual property rights in each licensed title shall remain vested in the relevant author, publisher, rights holder, or licensor, as the case may be.

11.3 Nothing in this Policy shall be construed as granting any right, title, or interest in any intellectual property except the limited licence expressly set out herein.

12.1 Any issues relating to access, delivery, technical defects, or account-related difficulties should be reported to ParibhaAsha’s support channels in accordance with the contact details provided on the website.

12.2 Grievances not resolved through standard support may be escalated in accordance with the grievance mechanism notified by ParibhaAsha from time to time.

13.1 This Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India.

13.2 Subject to applicable consumer law, the courts at Bhubaneswar, Odisha shall have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising out of or in connection with this Policy.

13.3 In this Policy, “Applicable Law” means all statutes, rules, regulations, notifications, directions, and orders in force in India from time to time, including the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, and the Copyright Act, 1957.

For questions regarding this E-book Licensing Policy, contact ParibhaAsha HeritEdge Lab Private Limited.

Email: hello@paribhaasha.com

Phone: (+91) 933-754-2077

Website: www.paribhaasha.com

Registered Office: Plot No. 310, Bada Bazar, Main Road, Jagatsinghpur, Odisha - 754103