1. Agreement
These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are a contract between you and the BookSwap Team (“Bookswap”, “we”, “us”), in relation to the website and service at https://www.bookswap.co.nz and https://bookswap.co.nz.
By creating an account, signing in, or using Bookswap, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the service.
If you are a parent or guardian and you create a child account, you also agree to these Terms on behalf of that child, and you are responsible for that child’s use of Bookswap.
2. What Bookswap is (and is not)
Bookswap is an online place for people in Aotearoa New Zealand to list physical books they have finished, either to give away (Free) or to swap (Swap), to request books from other members, to message each other about postage, and to rate how a swap went.
Bookswap is not:
- a library (there is no due date, and a book stays with its new reader until they decide to pass it on);
- a bookshop, auction site, or payment platform;
- a courier, postal service, or freight broker;
- a party to the arrangement between members to give or swap a particular book, or to pay postage.
Any agreement to send a book, to swap a book, or to pay postage or other costs is between the members involved, not with us. We provide the website, account tools, listings, requests, in-site chat, ratings, and safety tools (including parent approvals and the ability to report a conversation).
3. Eligibility and family accounts
3.1 Adults
To create an adult account you must be 16 or over, and you must be able to form a binding contract under New Zealand law. You must provide an email address, your real name, a display name, and a password, and you must activate the account from the link we send to your email. Date of birth is optional.
Your real name is private (visible to you and to Bookswap administrators). Your display name is shown to other members. You must not impersonate another person or choose a display name that is misleading, offensive, or unlawful.
3.2 Children aged 15 and under
If you are 15 or under, you may use Bookswap only through a child account created by your parent or guardian. You must not create an adult account.
A parent or guardian:
- creates the child’s account from the Family page and sets the username and password;
- must be entitled to do so for that child;
- is responsible for supervising the child’s use of Bookswap, including helping the child arrange postage;
- must approve or decline each request the child makes (we will email you for this);
- may read the child’s conversations; and
- may reset the child’s password, and may disable or otherwise manage the child’s account, from the Family page.
A child may message another member only after the parent or guardian has approved the relevant request.
If you send messages to a child member, you acknowledge that the child’s parent or guardian may read that conversation.
3.3 Accuracy
You must give information that is accurate and not misleading, and keep it reasonably up to date. You must not create an account for someone else except a parent or guardian creating a child account they are entitled to manage.
4. Your account
Keep your password confidential. You are responsible for activity on your account, unless you have told us it was used without your authority and we have had a reasonable opportunity to act. Parents are responsible for keeping child-account credentials under their control.
If you forget a password:
- adult members can use the forgot-password form (we will email a reset link if the address is registered);
- child members do not have an email address; the parent or guardian should reset the password from the Family page.
We may refuse, suspend, or close an account if we reasonably consider that these Terms have been breached, that the account is unsafe or unauthentic, or that we need to do so to protect Bookswap or other people. We may also refuse or delay activation if we cannot verify an email address.
5. Listing books
When you list a book you must:
- be entitled to list it (you own it, or you otherwise have the right to give it away or swap it);
- describe it honestly, including its condition;
- mark it correctly as Free or Swap;
- check that any cover we look up is the right book before you confirm it.
You keep ownership of a listed book until you actually give it or swap it with another member. Listing a book does not transfer ownership to Bookswap.
Do not list anything you are not allowed to send or supply (for example, material it would be unlawful to distribute). Bookswap is for ordinary books for reading. If you are unsure, do not list it and contact us.
We may remove a listing that we reasonably consider breaches these Terms, is inaccurate, or is unsafe.
At the moment, members arrange postage between themselves, and a town or region is not a required listing field. If we add fields (for example author display or a region), you must complete them honestly.
6. Requests, swaps, and giveaways
A member may request a book that is listed as available. The owner decides whether to accept or decline. If the requester is a child aged 15 or under, a parent or guardian must approve the request before it can proceed in the ordinary way, and the child may only message the owner after that approval.
If a request is accepted, the members (and, for a child, the child with their parent’s help) must use Bookswap’s in-site messages to agree how the book will be posted and who will pay any postage or other costs.
You must then follow through in good faith, or write promptly in the conversation if you can no longer proceed. After the swap or giveaway, you should tell us whether it went well and rate your swap partner fairly (thumbs up or thumbs down). Ratings must be honest and not used to pressure or punish someone unfairly.
A “Free” listing means you are offering that copy without requiring a book in return. You may still agree postage costs with the other member. A “Swap” listing means you are offering the book in exchange for an arrangement you agree with the other member. Bookswap does not broker, price, or guarantee that exchange.
7. Postage — important limitation
Postage is arranged entirely between members. We do not collect postage money, we do not post books, we do not provide packing, and we do not insure parcels.
You are responsible for:
- agreeing costs and the postal method with the other member;
- packing a book reasonably and posting it as agreed, if you are the sender;
- complying with New Zealand Post (or any other carrier’s) rules; and
- any loss, delay, damage, or customs issue that arises in transit, as between you and the other member and the carrier.
To the maximum extent permitted by law (and subject to section 13), Bookswap and the BookSwap Team accept no liability for lost, delayed, damaged, or undelivered books, for postage costs, or for a member who fails to post a book or to pay costs they agreed to pay. If something goes wrong, raise it with your swap partner, use the rating and reporting tools, and contact us at admin@bookswap.co.nz if you need us to review a conversation or an account.
8. Messaging, ratings, and reports
In-site messages are provided so that members can agree postage and complete a swap or giveaway. You must not use messages to harass, threaten, sexually solicit, scam, or otherwise harm anyone, or to collect another member’s information for an unrelated purpose.
You may report a conversation if something does not feel right. We will review reports. We may also keep audit records of important actions.
Ratings and optional comments must be genuine and related to the swap. Do not post another person’s private information in a rating comment.
We may remove messages, ratings, or comments, and we may suspend accounts, where we reasonably consider it necessary for safety or to enforce these Terms. We may also disclose information where the law requires or permits it, including under the Privacy Act 2020 or the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015.
9. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- use Bookswap if you are 15 or under, except through a parent-managed child account;
- create fake, duplicate, or automated accounts, or bypass the Cloudflare bot check, activation, or other security measures;
- attempt to access another person’s account, messages, or data, except a parent accessing their own child’s Family-page information;
- scrape, overload, or interfere with the site, or introduce malware;
- use Bookswap to sell goods or services we have not authorised, or to send spam;
- post or send unlawful, defamatory, hateful, or sexually explicit content, or content that exploits a child;
- infringe copyright or other intellectual property rights;
- misuse another member’s personal information.
We want Bookswap to stay a safe place for families and book lovers. We will take reports of concerning behaviour seriously.
10. Fees
It is currently free to join Bookswap and free to list, request, and message about books. We do not charge a platform fee. Postage and any other sending costs are agreed between members and are not paid to us.
We may introduce fees later. If we do, we will update these Terms and give reasonable notice before a fee applies to you. We will not charge you a fee for a period already in progress without telling you first. Any statement that Bookswap is “free” will be kept accurate, in line with the Fair Trading Act 1986.
11. Intellectual property
We and our licensors own the Bookswap name, logo, website design, and the software that runs the service. You may not copy or reuse those except as needed to use the service, or with our written permission.
You retain your rights in the listing text, messages, and other content you post. You give us a non-exclusive licence to host, display, and otherwise use that content for the purpose of operating and improving Bookswap (for example, showing your listing to other members, or keeping a record of a swap). This licence lasts for as long as we need the content for those purposes, including backups and audit records.
Cover images looked up from Open Library remain subject to Open Library’s and the relevant rights holders’ terms. You should only confirm a cover if it is the correct book.
12. Privacy
Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share personal information, including child accounts, parent access to children’s messages, ratings, reports, Cloudflare bot checks, Open Library cover lookups, and the fact that information is stored or processed outside New Zealand — including on GoDaddy servers in Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States.
Please read it. It forms part of your agreement with us.
13. Disclaimers and liability, including the Consumer Guarantees Act and the Fair Trading Act
We will take reasonable care in operating Bookswap. However, the service is provided as a community platform, and we do not guarantee that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that a particular book will be available, accurately described, or actually sent.
Fair Trading Act 1986. We must not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct. Nothing in these Terms is intended to limit or exclude that Act, or any other liability that cannot legally be limited or excluded.
Consumer Guarantees Act 1993. If we supply services to you “in trade” and you are a consumer, you may have guarantees under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, including that services are carried out with reasonable care and skill and are reasonably fit for their particular purpose. Those guarantees cannot be excluded where the Act applies. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act if that Act applies to our services to you.
Subject to the two paragraphs above, and to the maximum extent permitted by New Zealand law, Bookswap and the BookSwap Team accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from use of the site, from swaps or giveaways, from postage, from the condition or content of books, or from the conduct of members. We are not a party to, and we do not guarantee, any swap, gift, or postage arrangement between members. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of data, opportunity, or anticipated books.
If you use Bookswap for the purposes of a business, you agree that the guarantees in the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 do not apply, to the extent it is fair and reasonable to agree that under section 43 of that Act.
14. Closing or suspending accounts; changes to the service
You may close your account by contacting admin@bookswap.co.nz (and a parent may ask us to close a child account). We may also close or suspend an account under section 4.
We may change, pause, or discontinue parts of the service. We may update these Terms from time to time. The updated Terms will be posted on the website with a new effective date. If a change is material, we will take reasonable steps to let members know. If you continue to use Bookswap after the change takes effect, you agree to the updated Terms. If you do not agree, you should stop using the service and ask us to close your account.
15. General
These Terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand. The New Zealand courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction.
If a court finds that part of these Terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a right on one occasion, we may still enforce it later. You may not transfer your account without our consent. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another person who takes over running Bookswap, provided they agree to handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 2020.
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms we present to you for a specific feature, are the entire agreement between you and us about Bookswap.
16. Contact
Questions about these Terms, or about a swap that needs our review, can be sent to admin@bookswap.co.nz.
Questions? Email us at admin@bookswap.co.nz.