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21Publish - Cooperative Publishing

General Terms and Conditions of Service of the portal "Gribbit & Friends" (Gribbit's Friends)

  • § 1 Scope of General Terms
    The following Gribbit's Friends General Terms and Conditions of Service ("GTS") regulate the legal relationship between Gribbit's Friends and all users ("Users" and the term "User" shall be construed accordingly) of Gribbit's Friends’s internet platform at Gribbit.21publish.com ("the Gribbit's Friends Platform") and the other services provided by Gribbit's Friends on the Gribbit's Friends Platform ("the Gribbit's Friends Services").
  • § 2 Changes in the Service
    Gribbit's Friends may amend the GTS and the Special Terms of Use from time to time in the future. Users will be deemed to have accepted the amended terms of the GTS and the Special Terms of Use by making any use of the Gribbit's Friends Platform or the Gribbit's Friends Services after the GTS or Special Terms of Use have been amended. The most current version of the GTS can be reviewed at any time on http://Gribbit.21publish.com/ and we suggest that you regularly monitor the GTS and the Special Terms of Use for any changes.
  • § 3 Description of Service
    • (1) Gribbit's Friends offers Users an internet platform, based on Gribbit's Friends technology, on which Users can create and place their own special homepages within the Gribbit's Friends Platform ("Weblogs"). The creation and placement of digital content on Weblogs is achieved through use of a web, a mobile device or other technical input paths of the User.
    • (2) Users may request that Weblogs created by the User may be placed in different subject areas, interest categories or clubs on the Gribbit's Friends Platform in such a way that Weblogs may be searched or sorted for subjects or other information or that Weblogs may be linked to from within the Gribbit's Friends Platform though Gribbit's Friends shall not obliged to do so.
    • (3) Gribbit's Friends may put banner advertisements on Users’ Weblogs without reference to the User.
    • (4) On some pages of the Gribbit's Friends Platform Users may be informed of the opportunity to enter into agreements with third parties. Gribbit's Friends is not liable in relation to, and takes no responsibility for, any contract entered into by Users with any third party.
  • § 4 Prerequisites of Use
    • (1) The Gribbit's Friends Services may only be used by Users who:
      • a. have completed the Gribbit's Friends registration form ("the Registration Form") and been subsequently accepted by Gribbit's Friends;
      • b. have an email account acceptable to Gribbit's Friends; and
      • c. are 14 years old or over although Gribbit's Friends retains the right to set different age restrictions depending on the nature of the Gribbit's Friends Service requested.
    • (2) The User that completes the Registration Form and confirms that the information given on the Registration Form is complete and correct.
    • (3) Gribbit's Friends retains the right to refuse registration to any User without giving reasons.
    • (4) The User shall notify Gribbit's Friends without delay of any and all changes to the information on the Registration Form.
    • (5) If the User provides any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete or Gribbit's Friends has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, out of date or incomplete, Gribbit's Friends has the right to suspend or terminate the User's account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Gribbit's Friends Services or any part hereof by the User.
    • (6) The User understands and agrees that the provision of the Gribbit's Friends Services may involve Gribbit's Friends sending the User certain communications from Gribbit's Friends such as service announcements and administrative messages and that these communications are considered part of the Gribbit's Friends Services and that the User will not be able to opt out of receiving them.
  • § 5 Duties Arising from Contract
    • (1) Users may open one or more user accounts in their own name. However, Gribbit's Friends retains the right to limit the number of accounts and Weblogs per User at its discretion. The abusive use of several User accounts, especially in rating and commenting on entries within the range of the evaluation system, is prohibited and will lead to termination of all of the User’s Gribbit's Friends Services.
    • (2) Users undertake to protect access to Gribbit's Friends Services from unauthorised use by third parties. The User’s login name and password ("Access Data") must not be distributed to third parties. Users are liable for any damages arising from the unauthorised use of their Access Data and the subsequent use of Gribbit's Friends Services. When the User is notified that their Access Data has been divulged to third parties, they are obliged to change their password. If this is not possible the User must notify Gribbit's Friends immediately.
    • (3) The User shall provide Gribbit's Friends with a current email address via which the User is always contactable ("the User’s Authorised Email Address"). Gribbit's Friends will not accept any instructions from the User unless they are sent from the User’s Authorised Email Address. Users must immediately inform Gribbit's Friends of any change to the User’s Authorised Email Address.
  • § 6 Reservation of Alterations
    The Gribbit's Friends Platform and all Gribbit's Friends Services are provided without any assurance of reliability or quality. Gribbit's Friends retains the right to alter, remove or cease providing any or all of the Gribbit's Friends Platform and the Gribbit's Friends Services at any time without giving reasons. The User acknowledges and agrees that Gribbit's Friends shall not be liable to the User or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Gribbit's Friends Platform and/or any of the Gribbit's Friends Services.
  • § 7 Use of Weblogs and Communities
    • (1) Users understand and accept that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages or other materials whether publicly posted or privately transmitted is the sole responsibility of the person from which such content originated and that the User, and not Gribbit's Friends, are entirely responsible for all such content that the User uploads, posts or otherwise transmits via the Gribbit's Friends Service.
    • (2) Users undertake that all Weblogs and any bulletin board services, chat rooms, newsgroups, forums, communities and or news and communication services contained in or accessed through the Gribbit's Friends Platform (together "Communities") may only be used by the User to publish, send or receive material that is appropriate and related to the Community in question. Users warrant and undertake that, when using a Weblog, the Gribbit's Friends Platform, the Gribbit's Friends Services or any Communities, they will not:
      • upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
      • harm minors in any way; impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a 21Publish official, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent an affiliation with a person or entity;
      • forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the service;
      • upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
      • upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights ("Rights") of any party;
      • upload, post, email, transmit, promote, implement, or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes;" sites with inappropriate links, titles or descriptions (spam blogs); or any other form of solicitation,
      • spam or conduct unethical marketing activities such as, but not limited to, relaying email from a third party's mail servers without the permission of that third party, using "robots" or otherwise harvesting other's email addresses from the 21Publish’s site for purposes of sending unsolicited or unauthorized material (violations of the 21Publish spamming policy will result in legal action against you and the termination, without notice, of 21Publish’s services for you, and if your actions cause one of 21Publish mail relays to be placed on blackhole lists or other mail filtering software systems used by companies on the internet, you will be assessed a $500 standardized damage payment due with the next billing cycle.),
      • upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
      • interfere with or disrupt the service or servers or networks connected to the service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the service;
      • intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, or
      • "stalk" or otherwise harass another.
    • (3) Gribbit's Friends retains the right to suspend and terminate all current and future use of the Gribbit's Friends Services (or any portion hereof) without giving reasons.
    • (4) Users recognise and acknowledge that:
      • a. entries placed in Weblogs or Communities are accessible by the public and do not represent private diaries or conversations;
      • b. entries placed in Weblogs or Communities can be read without the User’s knowledge;
      • c. "Privately" placed entries in Weblogs or Communities may also be read publicly if a User makes an operating error, third parties enter the system illegally or there are errors in the computer software
      • d. Gribbit's Friends is not liable for the unintended publication of any communication of a private and/or personal nature;
      • e. Gribbit's Friends does not control or endorse the news and information that is found in Weblogs or Communities and is not liable in respect of any such material;
      • f. forum managers, guest bloggers or other members of the Community are not authorised spokespersons for Gribbit's Friends and their opinions do not reflect the opinions of Gribbit's Friends;
      • g. Gribbit's Friends does not and will not actively monitor, edit or supervise Weblogs, the Communities or the contents thereof and does not accept responsibility or liability for material posted by Users although, at a Users’ request, Gribbit's Friends will remove any material that a User finds offensive; and
      • h. Gribbit's Friends retains the right to delete or block Community and/or Weblog content and to remove it without giving reasons.
  • § 8 Copyright Material
    • (1) Users acknowledge and agree that the Gribbit's Friends Platform and the Gribbit's Friends Service involves the use of software ("Software") that contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws. Users further acknowledge that the content of Weblogs, the Gribbit's Friends Platform and the Communities contain advertisements or information which may also be protected by copyright, trade mark registrations, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. The download and use of copyright material that is provided by Gribbit's Friends or these third parties may only be used for private, non-commercial purposes. Users may not copy, imitate, transfer, distribute, publish or commercially use this material or use it in any other manner.
    • (2) If a user publishes text, images, graphics or multimedia-files in a publicly accessible Weblog or area of the Gribbit's Friends Platform, they give other Users the free, unlimited, perpetual and non-exclusive license to access that content and use it for the purpose of displaying the Weblog/material in question.
    • (3) If a User publishes other digital contents in a publicly accessible area of Gribbit's Friends (e.g., layouts, design templates, scripts, navigation elements or structures), they give other members of the community the free, unlimited, perpetual and non-exclusive right to use these contents wholly or partially in all manners. This paragraph only concerns content that is legal and the publication of which is not against applicable law.
    • (4) Users warrant to Gribbit's Friends that they have the rights to display the content that is placed on Weblogs, Communities or otherwise on the Gribbit's Friends Platform.
  • § 9 Liability
    • (1) Gribbit's Friends does not guarantee the constant and uninterrupted use of the Gribbit's Friends Platform, the Gribbit's Friends Services or the Weblogs.
    • (2) Gribbit's Friends does not guarantee and is not liable for contracts or offers made or accepted through Gribbit's Friends except where such contracts and/or offers are made by Gribbit's Friends themselves.
    • (3) Gribbit's Friends is not responsible for the content of advertising banners and other external non-Gribbit's Friends-originating contents on the Gribbit's Friends Websites. Likewise, Gribbit's Friends will not be held liable for the contents of external Websites referred to at Gribbit's Friends and by Gribbit's Friends.
    • (4) The provision of the necessary technical prerequisites for use of the Gribbit's Friends Services, especially the necessary hardware and software (e.g., internet browser) as well as access and transfer services must be provided and paid for by Users. Gribbit's Friends does not guarantee the compatibility of the Gribbit's Friends Services with the individual hardware and software furnishing of a User.
    • (5) Gribbit's Friends does not accept any liability for any losses or damage suffered by Users as a result of any use by a User of Weblogs, the Gribbit's Friends Platform, Gribbit's Friends Services or the Communities PROVIDED THAT nothing in this agreement shall serve to limit or restrict Gribbit's Friends’ liability to Users (or anyone else) for death or personal injury resulting from the negligence of Gribbit's Friends or its officers.
    • (6) Each User hereby indemnifies and holds Gribbit's Friends, and it’s subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, harmless from any claim or demand, including legal fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of the User’s use of the Gribbit's Friends Services or the Gribbit's Friends Platform or arising out of any breach of the GTS or arising as a result of any other activity of the User.
  • § 10 Termination of Contract
    • (1) Users may cancel their account and their agreement with Gribbit's Friends for provision of the Gribbit's Friends Services at any time by giving Gribbit's Friends two weeks’ notice. Gribbit's Friends has the right to cancel a User’s account and cancel Gribbit's Friends’ agreement with a User with immediate effect without giving notice in the event that the User breaches any term of the GTS or any other terms. Furthermore, Gribbit's Friends has the right to cancel a User’s account and cancel Gribbit's Friends’ agreement for any reason by giving the User two weeks’ notice.
    • (2) The termination of contract for Gribbit's Friends Services which have been paid for by Users are subject to special regulations of which the User will be notified on completion of a contract.
    • (3) On termination, all personal content of the User will immediately be removed from Weblogs, and otherwise from the Gribbit's Friends Platform and the Communities. If requested by a User within a reasonable time of the termination date and provided that Gribbit's Friends does not in its reasonable opinion think that it would be inappropriate to do so, these contents may be made available to the User in digital form subject to the User’s payment of Gribbit's Friends standard administrative charge.
    • (4) Users agree that Gribbit's Friends shall not be liable for to Users or to any third party for any termination of access to service or removal of content.
  • § 11 Data Protection
    Gribbit's Friends is registered under, and will process your Registration Data and other personal data in accordance with, data protection legislation. Gribbit's Friends does not divulge personal data to third parties except for the processing of payment collection in the case of paid services (external provider). Through contractual obligations, Gribbit's Friends assures that its partner firms observe the data protection regulations.
  • § 12 Viruses
    Whilst effort has been taken to ensure that the Gribbit's Friends Platform, Weblogs and the Communities are free from viruses, Gribbit's Friends gives no warranties to Users that it will always be free from viruses and Users are responsible for ensuring that they have installed adequate and up-to-date virus-checking software. Gribbit's Friends excludes, in so far as it is legally possible, all liability and responsibility (subject to the provisions of Clause 9(6) above) for any viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, restrict, destroy, limit the functionality of or compromise the integrity of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment or other material transmitted with or as part of the Gribbit's Friends Platform, the Gribbit's Friends Services, Weblogs and the Communities.
  • § 13 Miscellaneous
    • (1) The names, images and logos identifying Gribbit's Friends or third parties and their products and services, are the proprietary marks of Gribbit's Friends, and/or may be the proprietary marks of third parties. Any use made of these marks may be an infringement of rights in those marks and Gribbit's Friends reserves all rights to enforce such rights that it might have.
    • (2) If any of the GTS should be determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable, the term or terms in question shall be severed and deleted from the GTS and the remaining terms shall survive, remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.